British Actors You Should Know: Jonathan Bailey

Emerging leading man Jonathan Bailey has become nearly inescapable in recent years, with roles in beloved series from Broadchurch to Bridgerton. He's so charming that he could create chemistry with a brick wall; instead, he has chosen to defy the limits and stereotypes that still remain in the TV industry for openly gay actors. He has used his platform to speak about issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community and has created a charity, The Shameless Fund, that raises money to support LGBTQ+ nonprofits and combat anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Bailey began his stage career when he was still in primary school, performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol and as lovable street urchin Gavroche in Les Miserables before the age of ten. As his stage career grew, so did his on-screen presence. Since transitioning from child actor to adult roles, he earned leading man status in several series for young audiences, including as a teenage Leonardo da Vinci in Leonardo and as a university freshman in the BBC’s Off the Hook. 

Though best known in the US for his television roles, Bailey has maintained his theater roots. On top of his acting chops, Bailey has a gorgeous voice and formal ballet training, making him a genuine triple threat. He’s had recent roles in stage musicals like American Psycho, The Last Five Years, and Company, to name just a few. Bailey is about to merge his stage and screen careers with his role as dashing prince Fiyero in the Wicked movie. With the first half of Wicked on the horizon, we’re revisiting some of the most memorable roles of his career so far.

One of Bailey's earliest leading roles was in the one-season wonder Baddiel's Syndrome, which aired on Sky One in 2001. Created by and starring British comedian David Baddiel, Bddiel plays a fictionalized version of himself, except he's an architect. However, he still needs lots of therapy and winds up seeing Stephen Fry, who plays "The Psychiatrist." Morwenna Banks (Funny Woman) also co-starred alongside Bailey, who plays young Josh Baddiel, David's son, who he's worried "might be gay," marking this not only as Bailey's first lead role but the first one where he was allowed to be openly himself.

Baddiel's Syndrome is streaming on YouTube.

The beloved crime drama Broadchurch is a veritable who’s who of Britain’s top acting talent from the past decade, and Bailey is no exception. The series, which somehow managed to run for three seasons despite being a close-ended mystery in the first one, stars David Tennant and Olivia Colman as police detectives Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller investigating the murder of a young boy in a tight-knit community. 

In the first two seasons, a young Bailey plays Olly, an intrepid (if sometimes overzealous) reporter at the local paper and the nephew of DS Miller. Ollie’s career ambitions and family connections clash, putting him in dubiously ethical situations as a journalist.

All seasons of Broadchurch are streaming on PBS Passport.

Before there was the legendary Fleabag, there was the original one-season wonder from Phoebe Waller-Bridge 2016's Crashing. The comedy series focuses on a chaotic group of twenty-somethings living in an abandoned hospital. Bailey plays Sam, one of the hospital-dwellers who is flirtatious, lewd, and has a flair for the dramatic. He begins the series as a shallow player but grows through grappling with the death of his father and an unlikely friendship with one of his housemates, Fred (Amit Shah).

Crashing is streaming on Netflix.

Just in case you need to know how long PBS viewers have been watching Jonathan Bailey, we present one of his guest star turns from 1997 (and aired in the States in 1999) in Season 3 of Bramwell. For those not old enough to remember the series, it was a Victorian-era period drama starring everyone's favorite UNIT head in Doctor Who, Jemma Redgrave, as Dr. Eleanor Bramwell, a pioneering female doctor. Ruth Sheen (Unforgotten) and Cliff Parisi (Call the Midwife) also co-starred. 

Bailey guest starred in the show's third season (it ran four) as William Kinshaw, son of the wealthy and powerful Charles Kilshaw, whose class is struck by measles, and whom Bramwell has to race to save along with several others.

All seasons of Bramwell are streaming on BritBox.

Though Bailey is best known for his British TV roles, it would be remiss to leave one of his most powerful performances off this list just because he does it with an American accent. The 2022 miniseries Fellow Travelers tells the story of gay government workers who fall in love during McCarthyism’s Lavender Scare. It’s a tragic love story for the ages and one that has won Bailey much acclaim for his tender yet fiery performance and the attention he brought to the vital history the show tells. 

Bailey plays Tim Laughlin, a young congressional staffer who falls in love with the older, more established Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer). Their romance plays out across the decades through anti-war protests, substance abuse, family upheavals, and, ultimately, the AIDS epidemic.

Fellow Travelers is streaming on Hulu. 

Bailey’s best-known role to date and the one credited with his breakout success, the historical romance Bridgerton follows the love stories of the wealthy Bridgerton family in their opulent Regency world. Bailey plays Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, the eldest Bridgerton child. He plays a supporting role in the first season as the protective older brother to protagonist Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) with a failed B-plot romance. 

Anthony becomes the central character of the second season, featuring his Austen-esque enemies-to-lovers romance with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Bailey briefly appears in Season 3 when Big Brother Anthony is again called to advise his younger brother Colin on his romantic woes. He has already confirmed he will return for Season 4 and is happy to turn up every season thereafter, should the show be commissioned for further installments.

Bridgerton Seasons 1 through 3 and the Queen Charlotte prequel are streaming on Netflix. Season 4 is expected to be released in 2026.

As noted up top, Bailey grew up a theater kid from a young age. However, most of his roles are only preserved for archival purposes. One is available to watch: his turn as Cassio in the Royal National Theaters' production of Othello from 2013. For those who don't have a character list handy, Cassio is the handsome young lieutenant who Iago manipulates by telling him Desdemona has a crush on him. At the same time, he tells Othello that Cassio is trying to steal his wife. As one can imagine, he plays a major part in the murder-suicide that ends the play.

Othello is streaming on NT Live.

Bailey is a genre chameleon, as evidenced by how he fits seamlessly into the sci-fi world of Doctor Who. He guest starred in the original reboot version of the series, in the Season 8 episode "Time Heist" as a good-hearted hacker named Psi who deleted his memories to avoid interrogation in prison. Psi teams up with the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), his companion Clara (Jenna Coleman), and a shapeshifter named Saibra to pull off the biggest bank heist in time and space. 

As goofy as the premise may sound, Bailey brings the same emotion to Psi as to his leading roles.

The original Doctor Who reboot, Seasons 1 through 13, are streaming on Max.

Bailey has been praising the teen drama Heartstopper since long before he was cast in the show’s third season. The series tells the love story of Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) through the ups and downs of teenage life. After watching the first season, Bailey recognized the series' impact on LGBTQ+ youth and asked to be a part of the show in any way he could. 

Bailey’s growing heartthrob status made him a natural choice to play Jack Maddox, a famous historian, and Charlie’s celebrity crush. It’s hardly more than a walk-on role, but Bailey dazzles as usual, and his role has propelled him to continue being one of Heartstopper’s greatest champions.

Heartstopper Seasons 1 through 3 are streaming on Netflix. Season 4 has been commissioned.

Bailey’s genre flexibility gets a major workout in W1A, one of his notable comedy roles. The mockumentary sitcom was a spinoff of the BBC’s comedy special series, Twenty Twelve, a spoof of the BBC's handling of the Olympic Games. Starring Hugh Bonneville as the hapless bumbling bureaucrat, originally in charge of airing the Olympic Games, and then once the series kicked off, working as "Head of Values" in a fictionalized version of the BBC’s office. 

Bailey plays Jack Petterson, an exceptionally driven PA to Head of Output Anna Rampton (Sarah Parish). W1A is returning in 2025 with a new season, where Bonneville has moved on to working for FIFA. There is no word yet on whether Bailey will reprise his role.

All seasons of W1A (and Twenty Twelve) are streaming on PBS Passport.

Divided into two parts, one of which arrives in November 2024 and the other in November 2025, Wicked is the movie version of the stage musical based on the book of the same name, which turns the Oz story on its head by making the Wicked Witch of the West the heroine. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Ervio star as Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Just So Happens To Be Green But Not Evil Witch, respectively. Bailey plays Fiyero Tigelaar, Elphaba's love interest and a former Arjiki prince-turned-chieftain who rules over part of the Vinkus (aka Winkie Country, where Elphaba takes up permanent residence).

Wicked Part 1 will arrive in theaters globally on Friday, November 22, 2024, and Part 2 will arrive on Friday, November 21, 2025. As a Universal Pictures film, both parts will eventually stream on Peacock.