Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is an English actor known for his dramatic, comedic, and musical roles on stage and screen. His accolades include a Laurence Olivier Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award and four Actor Awards. He was included by Time magazine in their Time 100 Next list of the world's most influential artists and was named as People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2025.

Bailey began his career as a child actor in Royal Shakespeare Company productions and by eight was performing as Gavroche in a West End production of Les Misérables. He starred in contemporary plays such as The York Realist in 2018 and Cock in 2022; in classical plays like Othello in 2013 and Richard II in 2025; as well as in musicals, namely the London revival of The Last Five Years in 2016 and the West End gender-swapped revival of Company for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical in 2019.

On screen, Bailey starred in the action-adventure series Leonardo (2011–2012) and the musical-comedy Groove High (2012–2013) before becoming known for the crime drama Broadchurch (2013–2015) and the comedy Crashing (2016). He gained wider recognition for his roles in the Regency romance series Bridgerton (2020–present) and the political miniseries Fellow Travelers (2023) which earned him a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his role as Fiyero Tigelaar / The Scarecrow in the musical fantasy film Wicked (2024), he was nominated for an Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role; he reprised his role in Wicked: For Good (2025). Bailey also starred in the science fiction thriller film Jurassic World Rebirth (2025).

Outside acting, Bailey is involved in philanthropic activities with particular focus on the queer community. In 2024, he founded the LGBTQ+ charity The Shameless Fund.

Early life

Jonathan Stuart Bailey was born on 25 April 1988, in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, the son of Carole, an audiologist, and Stuart Bailey, who was the managing director of Rowse Honey. He grew up in nearby Benson and Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, and has three older sisters. He described his upbringing as a "co-operative of four brilliant women and a dad who has an incredible work ethic". He decided that he wanted to be an actor at the age of five after his grandmother took him to see a production of Oliver! in London. His first ever appearance on stage was in a primary school production of Noah's Ark, playing a raindrop.

Bailey attended the local Church of England-affiliated Benson Primary School, then The Oratory School while taking ballet lessons. He later had a music scholarship to Magdalen College School, Oxford where he played the piano and clarinet. After securing a talent agent at fifteen years old and booking acting roles, he eventually declined his university acceptance offer and opted not to go to drama school, later saying that this kept him grounded in the performing arts: "I've never gone in as the overdog, and that's liberating and I don't want that to ever change. I just want to allow my own experiences to come through."

Career

Beginnings as a child actor (1995–2010)

Through his dance club in Henley-on-Thames, Bailey auditioned for and landed the alternating roles of Tiny Tim and Young Scrooge in the 1995 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of A Christmas Carol at the Barbican Theatre in London at seven years old. He sang "Where Is Love?" from Oliver! for his audition. The following year, he made his television debut in the Victorian period drama Bramwell. Bailey also played Little Baptiste in the RSC's 1996 production of Les Enfants du Paradis. By eight years old, he was performing as Gavroche in a West End production of Les Misérables. He has also done pantomime in a production of Peter Pan at The Hexagon playing Michael Darling.

In 2001, Bailey played Prince Arthur for the RSC's King John. He made his feature film debut in 2004 in Five Children and It, a film adaptation of E. Nesbit's fantasy novel of the same name. In 2006, on the last day of his A levels, he started rehearsing for a revival of the play Beautiful Thing in London, taking over the lead role from Andrew Garfield. The Telegraph wrote that Bailey "memorably lit up" the production. That role was followed by guest roles in long-running British television staples like Doctors and The Bill. His first leading role on television was in the 2009 BBC sitcom Off the Hook about a group of first-year university students.

Television breakthrough and success on stage (2011–2019)

In 2011, Bailey played the titular Leonardo da Vinci in the 2011 CBBC action-adventure series Leonardo, which follows a young Leonardo and his friends in 15th century Florence. The show ran for two series, spawned an online game, and received four KidScreen Awards. The same year, he starred in the comedy Campus, a semi-improvised sitcom in which he played Flatpack, a student athlete with Olympic potential.

Bailey was nominated for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his performance in David Hare's play South Downs at Minerva Theatre in 2011, and its later transfer to Harold Pinter Theatre the following year. The Telegraph described him as a future star and one of "the brightest up-and-coming actors currently starring on the West End stage." He also led the Disney Channel musical-comedy Groove High playing the popstar Tom that ran from 2012 to 2013 for 26 episodes and was a mixture of live action and animation where Bailey sang and also did the voiceover of his character's animated form.

In 2013, Bailey rose to popularity for playing the local journalist Olly Stevens in the first two series of the hit crime-drama Broadchurch on ITV. On stage, he was cast by then Royal National Theatre's artistic director Nicholas Hytner as Cassio in his production of William Shakespeare's Othello at the Olivier Theatre in 2013. Bailey considers this his "big break" with Hytner also becoming his mentor. The production was shown to cinemas via National Theatre Live. His "likable, open-faced", and "smoothly ambitious" Cassio was "splendid", per The Washington Post. Hytner also directed Bailey in one of the vignettes for National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage where he played Valentine Coverly from Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Bailey originated the role of Tim Price in Duncan Sheik's musical American Psycho directed by Rupert Goold at the Almeida Theatre. He then guest starred in the Doctor Who episode "Time Heist" in 2014. The episode was described by The Independent as "a fast-paced caper" with Bailey stealing the show with his compelling performance as augmented human Psi. He also had a supporting role in the period film Testament of Youth (2014). Bailey returned to comedy in BBC's satirical show W1A as Jack, a role he would play for three series.

In 2016, Bailey starred as Sam, a sex-obsessed estate agent in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's first television project Crashing that W magazine described as a "twisted version of Friends". The same year, he headlined the London production of the musical The Last Five Years as Jamie with music, lyrics, and direction by Jason Robert Brown at St. James Theatre. The Stage's Mark Shenton called the production "poignant" turning "each song into a masterclass of storytelling" with Bailey "a real vocal surprise with his haunting renditions of 'If I Didn't Believe in You' and 'Nobody Needs to Know'." Edward Seckerson of The Arts Desk wrote, in his five-star review, that Bailey was "sensationally good" and delivered tour-de-force musical performances of "Moving Too Fast" and "The Schmuel Song".

Bailey appeared alongside Ian McKellen in the acclaimed production of King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2017. He received rave reviews for his performance as Edgar which the Evening Standard described as "a touching study of transformation". Bailey also made a guest appearance in series two episode two of Michaela Coel's sitcom Chewing Gum in 2017 where he played Ash, a romantic interest to Coel's character Tracey. With 2017's release of the video game expansion Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, Bailey would begin voicing the character G'raha Tia, a role that he has continued since in further Final Fantasy XIV expansions Shadowbringers (2019), Endwalker (2021) and Dawntrail (2024). Bailey has cited enjoyment of the role and praised the writing as almost Shakespearian.