Jonathan Bailey may be known as a romantic lead in streaming hits like Bridgerton and Fellow Travelers, but the British actor is poised to bring his talents to far bigger screens worldwide with upcoming roles in Jurassic World 4 and the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked. Whether it’s comedy or drama, live-action or voice-over, main character or memorable guest star, Bailey’s always worth watching.
Read on for Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 15 best Jonathan Bailey movie and TV show performances, ranked.
15. Bright Hair (1997)
By the time this BBC film aired, 9-year-old Bailey was already a veteran of the stage. He made his acting debut as Tiny Tim in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1995 production of A Christmas Carol, and he played Gavroche in the West End version of Les Misérables the same year he appeared in this TV movie as the kid brother of a troubled teenage girl.
Although Amazon Prime Video touts Bright Hair as brimming with “murder, madness, and forbidden love,” this long-forgotten flick is probably best for J Bay completionists curious about the actor’s earliest on-screen roles.
14. Leonardo (2011–2012)
Bailey enters his leading-man era as a teenage Leonardo da Vinci in this action-adventure show set in 15th-century Florence, where his apprenticeship with sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio introduces him to “Tom,” who turns out to be girl-in-disguise (and future Mona Lisa muse) Lisa Gherardini (Flora Spencer-Longhurst).
Leonardo ran for two seasons on CBBC, the British broadcaster’s kid-friendly channel, and gave audiences a taste of the Bridgerton vibes yet to come with its diverse casting and anachronistic costumes, music, and inventions. (Why yes, that is Leo da Vee tooling around on a bike in sneakers.) Still, it’s hard to knock the show’s plucky spirit when Bailey’s easy charm is front and center.
13. The Mercy (2018)
Bailey’s character in The Mercy — director James Marsh’s biopic of Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) — is one of his few bad-guy roles on this list. And even then, Ian Wheeler is more complicit than downright villainous. As a young writer working under David Thewlis’ Svengali publicist, Wheeler aids his boss in promoting Crowhurst’s attempt to circumnavigate the globe solo, which stresses the amateur sailor past the breaking point.
The Mercy also marks the rare role that finds Bailey sporting… wait for it… bad hair. Note to hairstylists: If flat and vaguely bowl-shaped doesn’t work on Jonathan Bailey, it won’t work on anyone.
12. The Traitors: The Movie (2024)
Red Nose Day has raised more than £1.5 billion to support Comic Relief’s charitable activities in the U.K. since 1985. It’s also yielded untold riches as celebrities get goofy on camera for a good cause.
In 2024, Bailey joined Catherine Tate, Asim Chaudhry, and Sally Phillips in a pitch-perfect parody of The Traitors as a nice soldier who’s also — gasp! — a traitorous bastard, and he makes the most of the silliness around him with plenty of tongue-waggling, lip-pursing, and earring-flipping. If you’re a fan of The Traitors, you’ll delight in the loving send-up. If you’re new to the franchise, this is your sign to check it out so you can appreciate Bailey’s cackling performance even more.
11. Groove High (2012)
Groove High, a hybrid live-action/animated series about two pop stars recounting their days at an elite performing arts school, must be experienced to be understood. In this bright, bouncy Disney Channel show, Bailey and Samantha Banks (Éponine in Les Misérables both onstage and opposite Hugh Jackman) play adult Tom and Zoe in the flesh, and they voice their teenage counterparts in the cartoon flashbacks.
Still not convinced? The first five minutes of the pilot finds Bailey getting spit on by a camel, busting out a French accent, and slapping a toilet plunger on his head. Go ahead, treat yourself.
10. Jack Ryan (2018)
The time Bailey logs in Jack Ryan is limited. But his role as CIA operative Lance Miller, who squires Ryan (John Krasinski) around Turkey while wearing lots of khaki, is notable for being Bailey’s first foray into splashy U.S. television.
If you can get past the “jingoistic excess” in the Amazon Prime adaption of Tom Clancy’s best-selling military-action novels, you’ll be rewarded with an early version of Bailey’s American accent. Catch him in the season 1 episodes “End of Honor” and “Sources and Methods.”
9. The Last Five Years audition (2017)
Looking for the most intense six minutes you’ll experience this week? Bailey’s audition video for the 2016 London revival of The Last Five Years will do the trick. Bailey’s singing is on point, of course, but it’s the intense emotions he cycles through that are riveting despite the indifferent camera work and the parade of noisy vehicles rumbling past.
After watching Bailey bring “gatekeep, gaslight, boy-boss” to life, it’s clear why he landed the role of Jamie in Jason Robert Brown’s musical about a crumbling marriage, which also starred Bailey’s Groove High costar Samantha Banks as Cathy. Incidentally, Bailey’s future Wicked costar Cynthia Erivo appeared in the show’s one-night-only concert performance at New York’s Town Hall in 2016. Yesterday’s Cathy and Jamie, meet tomorrow’s Elphaba and Fiyero.
8. Doctor Who (2014)
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a British actor in possession of good acting skills must be in want of a guest spot on Doctor Who.
Bailey’s chance came in “Time Heist” (season 8, episode 5), which EW’s recapper praised for retaining the beloved show’s “classic campy sci-fi aesthetic” as Bailey’s memory-wiped hacker joins the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) to rob the most secure bank in the universe. When Psi called out Twelve’s “professional detachment,” it was a moment of uncomfortable truth for fans who were still getting used to Capaldi’s grumpy-cat version of the time lord following Matt Smith’s exit. All it took was a black leather-jacketed cyberpunk with a computer-augmented brain.
7. W1A (2014–2017)
A BBC mockumentary spoofing the BBC? How very. Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes reprise their roles from the BAFTA-winning comedy Twenty Twelve in W1A, which is narrated by David Tennant and named after the Beeb headquarters’ postal code. While Twenty Twelve covered the BBC’s handling of the 2012 Summer Olympics, W1A is a straight-faced, fast-paced corporate satire of the organization itself.
As clean-cut PA Jack Patterson, Bailey is obediently efficient in front of his bosses and slyly amusemed around his peers, particularly when the doofy Will (Hugh Skinner, The Witcher) finds himself flailing (and failing) to impress their coworker Izzy (Ophelia Lovibond, Minx).
6. Hot White Heist (2021)
The 2021 Audible Original podcast Hot White Heist is a goofy, lovingly produced audio series about — what else? — a sperm bank heist. Bailey lends his vocal talents to the six-episode first season, written and produced by Adam Goldman and directed by Alan Cumming.
The scripted story follows a rag-tag crew as they attempt to infiltrate Seattle’s Space Needle to nab baby gravy samples from the likes of Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, and Stephen Hawking. In addition to Bailey, the “all-star, all-queer cast” includes Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Margaret Cho, Bianca Del Rio, Tony Kushner, Abbi Jacobson, Jane Lynch, and Peppermint. Find Hot White Heist on the podcast app of your choice and watch your commute whiz by.
5. Crashing (2016)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) is a genius, so it’s no surprise that she tapped Bailey to star in her first TV series, Crashing. Bailey vibrates off the screen as the narcissistic, hedonistic, secret sad-sack Sam (complete with frosted blond hair!) in this six-episode gem that, as EW wrote, benefits from Waller-Bridge’s “trademark cutting wit combined with an open, bleeding heart at the center of every joke.”
With each entry coming in under 25 minutes, you can catch the entirety of Bailey’s loose, live-wire performance in less time than it takes Lady Whistledown to collect all the gossip in a crowded ballroom.
4. Chewing Gum (2017)
Work with another brilliant female creator? Sign Bailey right up. In “Replacements,” season 2 episode 2 of Michaela Coel’s (I May Destroy You) crackling semi-autobiographical comedy, Bailey plays a potential hookup for Tracey, Coel’s religious virgin character.
At first, Bailey’s handsome, charming Ash seems too good to be true, and the more time Tracey spends with him, the more she realizes that he absolutely is too good to be true. It takes both masterful writing and skilled performances to find humor in racial fetishization. Thankfully, the mega-talented Coel keeps you chortling through the cringe.
3. Broadchurch (2013–2017)
Before Bailey set hearts racing in Bridgerton, he appeared in this British crime drama that had pulses pounding for a very different reason. Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, devoted its first season to the murder of an 11-year-old boy and became a national obsession in the U.K. thanks to its gripping plot, emotional stakes, and portrayal of small-town paranoia.
As EW’s critic wrote in her review, “The British tend to take their whodunits like they take their tea: dark, slow-boiled, and so bitter that you need a while to finish.” Bailey added important richness to Broadchurch’s brew as ambitious local reporter Olly, who uneasily balances his thirst for a big break with the challenges of covering a tragedy in the titular seaside town.
2. Bridgerton (2020–present)
In season 1 of the Netflix smash hit, Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton is the stern older brother with questionable sideburns. In season 2, Anthony is everything: flustered, frustrated, furious, funny, and, ultimately, fulfilled. His reluctant enemies-to-lovers dance with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) brings a “sexy screwball energy” that, as EW’s Kristin Baldwin wrote, “disguises the powerful passion of two opposites who very much do not want to attract.”
Bailey told EW that he appreciated the chance to explore the themes of grief and responsibility in his featured season. “Their romance exists because it’s rooted in high stakes and complicated overcomings,” he said. “There’s so much that they have to try and control, and that’s innately sexy.” Although Bailey’s character will take a backseat as each of his TV siblings finds love in future seasons, we’ll always have room on our dance cards for an Anthony appearance.
1. Fellow Travelers (2023)
While Bridgerton doles out happily-ever-afters like bonbons, Fellow Travelers leavens the ecstasy of falling in love with the anguish of existing in a time that makes happy endings impossible. No matter how strong the connection between Tim (Bailey) and Hawk (Matt Bomer), the two men can’t live openly in Showtime’s adaptation of the Thomas Mallon novel, which follows their relationship from the Lavender Scare/McCarthyism of the 1950s through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Bailey brings a naive vulnerability to the bright-eyed Tim, who meets the love of his life in Hawk, all slick, shiny surfaces and hidden despair. The actors’ dazzling on-screen chemistry produced viscerally erotic sex scenes, which Bailey told EW took some preparation. “You do have to summon the angels and listen to Enya and draw from the ground to muster up the courage,” he said. “But that feeling of having to build your confidence and to put your armor on to do that is exactly right, because that’s what the characters are feeling.”