Jonathan Bailey

At 36 years old, Jonathan Bailey has this physical status:

Jonathan Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is a British actor, best known for the ITV drama Broadchurch, the BBC's Doctor Who, W1A and Leonardo, and Channel 4 comedy Campus.

He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Jamie in the 2018 West End revival of Company.

Early life

Jonathan Stuart Bailey was born on 25 April 1988 in the Oxfordshire town of Wallingford, to an audiologist mother and Rowse Honey managing director father. He grew up in the neighbouring village of Benson, and is the youngest of four siblings and the only son. He described being brought up by "a co-operative of four brilliant women and a dad who has an incredible work ethic." Bailey decided that he wanted to be an actor at the age of five after his grandmother took him to see a production of Lionel Bart's 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 Oratory School while taking ballet lessons, and later studied at Magdalen College School, Oxford under a music scholarship, playing the piano and clarinet. After securing a talent agent at 15 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."

Personal life

An avid cyclist, Bailey has also competed in marathons and triathlons, in addition to being fond of paddleboarding and mountaineering. In 2018, he climbed the Everest base camp in Nepal, and the following year climbed Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon within 24 hours to raise money for MND Association Scotland. Resident on the Sussex coast in Hove, he regularly takes cold sea swims in the morning for "exhilaration... invigoration and resuscitation."

Bailey privately came out as gay to friends and family in his early 20s, publicly commenting on it in 2018. Although cautious of discussing his sexuality as it is a personal matter that he noted "becomes a commodity and a currency", he is committed to visibility and representation stating that, "if I can fill spaces that I didn't have growing up then I feel like that's a really brilliant thing" and "something I’ll always strive to do".

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Career

He sang "Where is Love?"

from Oliver!

Bailey played Prince Arthur for the RSC's King John in 2001. In 2004, he made his film debut in Five Children and It, a film version of E. Nesbit's fantasy book of the same name. He began training for a revival of the play Beautiful Thing in London in 2006, taking over Andrew Garfield's lead role. Bailey "memorably lit up" the operation, according to the Telegraph. This was followed by guest appearances in long-running British television staples such as Doctors and The Bill. Off the Hook, his first leading role on television, was a 2009 BBC sitcom Off the Hook, a group of university freshers.

In 2011, Bailey portrayed Leonardo da Vinci in the 2011 CBBC action-adventure series Leonardo, which follows a teenage Leonardo da Vinci and his associates in 15th-century Florence. The show spanned two seasons, introduced an online game, and received four KidScreen Awards. He appeared 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 in 2011, and subsequently transferred to Harold Pinter Theatre in 2011 as one of David Hare's well-received play South Downs, which was later transferred to Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End. Bailey appeared on the Disney Channel musical comedy Groove High as the pop star Tom, from 2012 to 2013, in which he performed and also did the voiceover of his character's animated form.

Bailey rose to fame in 2013 after appearing as Olly Stevens, the local journalist in the first two series of the hit crime drama Broadchurch on ITV. Cassio was first staged by then Royal National Theatre's artistic director Nicholas Hytner as Cassio in William Shakespeare's Othello, which was performed on stage at the Olivier Theatre in 2013. Through National Theatre Live, the performance was shown in theaters. Cassio's "likable, transparent" and "smoothly optimistic" style, according to The Washington Post, was "splendid." Bailey was also directed by Hytner in one of the vignettes for National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage, in which he appeared in Valentine Coverly from Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Timothy Price was the lead in Duncan Sheik's musical American Psycho directed by Rupert Goold at the Almeida Theatre. In 2014, he appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Time Heist" as a guest speaker. Bailey stole the show with his convincing appearance as augmented human Psi, according to The Independent. He appeared in the 2014 period film Testament of Youth, based on Vera Brittain's First World War memoirs. Bailey returned to comedy in the W1A's 2014 comedy series Jack, which he would reprise as BBC employee Jack in a role he will play in three series.

Sam, a sex-obsessed estate agent on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's first television project Crashing, which W magazine describes as a "twisted version of Friends" in 2016. He appeared in The Young Messiah, an American biblical drama film based on Anne Rice's book "The Young Messiah," as he portrayed Herod. He headlined the London revival of The Last Five Years as Jamie, with music, lyrics, and direction by Jason Robert Brown at St. James Theatre in the same year. "If I Didn't Believe in You" and "Nobody Wants to Know" by Stage's Mark Shenton, turning "each song into a masterclass of storytelling" with Bailey, "a true vocal surprise with his haunting renditions of "If I Didn't Believe in You" and "Nobody Wants to Know"." In his five-star review, Edward Seckerson of The Arts Desk said that Bailey was "sensationally good" and gave tour-de-force musical performances of 'Moving Too Fast' and 'The Schmuel Song'.

Bailey appeared in the celebrated performance of King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2017. "A touching study of change" has received acclaim for his role as Edgar, according to The Evening Standard. Bailey appeared in two episodes of Michaela Coel's comedy Chewing Gum in 2017, where he played Ash, a romantic interest in Coel's character Tracey. He followed this up with a role in James Marsh's 2017 biographical film The Mercy.

Bailey appeared in Donmar Warehouse-Sheffield Theatres co-production of Peter Gill's The York Realist from February to April 2018. In its own five-star review, The Evening Standard, The Arts Desk, and Sunday Express gave the production five stars, with The Independent calling it "a pitch-perfect, impeccably acted production."

Bailey joined Stephen Sondheim's Company's Company's West End production, which was directed by Marianne Elliott. He conceived Jamie, which was originally published as a female character named Amy. Bailey "earned an ovation every night after completing the infamous 'Getting Married Today,' a rat-tat, mile-a-minute scientific feat lyrically about marriage jitters," according to The Times. According to Variety, his "lightning-fast, show-stopping interpretation of the song" became a must-see West End performance, winning him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Since 2020, Bailey has appeared on Netflix's Bridgerton, a spin on Julia Quinn's Regency romance books, as Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton. His performance was critically praised, and he has gained international renown. With 656.16 million hours watched in its first 28 days of release, Netflix's second series, centered around his protagonist, debuted in the most watched English-language television series on Netflix at the time, with 656.16 million hours watched in the first 28 days of its introduction, and the second series debuted first in 92 countries on the network on March 25th 2022. Bailey's "exquisite lead role" was elucidated by Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast, who wrote that "he has an incredible ability to carry his angst, pain, and shame with him without dragging things to a somber drag."

Bailey recalled the celebrated 2022 West End revival of Mike Bartlett's play Cock at the Ambassadors Theatre, reuniting him with Company director Elliot. Kate Kellaway of The Observer called it a "immaculate job," while The Arts Desk wrote that it was "brutal, bruising, and brilliant." Bailey's "perpetuent role" was "fully captivating," according to Variety's David Benedict, "whiplash comic timing lifts his character from self-obsessed to scintillating, a skill he uses both artistically and artlessly."

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