Age: 38
male
Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born April 25, 1988) is an English actor known for his dramatic, comedic, and musical roles on stage and screen. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Bailey began his career as a child actor in Royal Shakespeare Company productions, and by eight, he was performing as Gavroche in a West End production of Les Misérables. He has since starred in contemporary plays such as South Downs in 2012, The York Realist in 2018, and Cock in 2022; in classical plays like the Royal National Theatre's Othello in 2013 and Chichester Festival Theatre's King Lear in 2017; 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 his roles in the crime drama Broadchurch (2013–2015), the satire W1A (2014–2017), and the comedy Crashing (2016). He gained international recognition for his starring role in the Regency romance series Bridgerton (2020–present). Bailey's role in the romantic drama miniseries Fellow Travelers (2023) won him a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. He has since played Fiyero in the two-part musical fantasy film Wicked (2024–25). Description above from the Wikipedia article Jonathan Bailey, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Set in the ruthless world of modern corporate power, King Lear follows Lear, an aging and fiercely controlling billionaire CEO who has spent decades building one of the world's most powerful business empires. Believing the time has come to secure his legacy, Lear announces that he will divide control of his company among his three daughters according to how convincingly each can demonstrate her love and loyalty to him. Goneril and Regan eagerly play the game, offering elaborate declarations that satisfy their father's vanity. Cordelia, Lear's youngest and most honest daughter, refuses to turn her love into a performance. Furious, Lear disowns Cordelia and gives her share of the empire to her sisters, setting in motion a brutal struggle for control. As Goneril and Regan consolidate their power, their alliances begin to fracture. Lear discovers that the daughters who promised him everything now consider him an obstacle. Cast out, Lear's anger and humiliation gradually give way to paranoia and madness. Unknown to him, Cordelia has returned in disguise as his Fool, allowing her to remain close to her father and care for him while challenging the delusions that increasingly consume him. Meanwhile, Lear's trusted associate Gloucester suffers a similar betrayal within his own family. His illegitimate son Edmund manipulates him into believing that his loyal legitimate son Edgar is plotting against him, forcing Edgar into exile and allowing Edmund to rise within the corporate hierarchy. As Edmund's ambitions intersect with those of Goneril and Regan, the struggle for Lear's empire becomes increasingly violent and destructive. Albany and Kent begin to recognize the devastating consequences of their family's pursuit of power. Lear's downfall becomes inseparable from the destruction of the empire he built, culminating in a final confrontation that leaves the surviving members of the family forced to reckon with the cost of ambition, betrayal, pride, and misplaced loyalty.
