Who Is ‘The Forsytes’ Hunk Danny Griffin? Get to Know the Breakout Star
What To Know
- Danny Griffin stars as Jolyon Forsyte Jr. in the upcoming period drama The Forsytes.
- Griffin previously starred in the Netflix series Fate: The Winx Saga.
- The series premieres in the U.S. on March 22.
Watch out, Benedict Bridgerton. There’s a new sheriff (translation: artsy period drama hunk) in town.
In The Forsytes, we meet Danny Griffin‘s Jolyon “Jo” Forsyte Jr. This isn’t a version of Jolyon that viewers have seen before. It is based on John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga novels, which have been adapted for the screen a few times, but Poldark‘s Debbie Horsfield has imagined the events that took place before the books. The show follows “the lives, loves, trials and triumphs of a wealthy Victorian era stockbroking family, whose generations find themselves torn between tradition and self-sacrifice versus personal happiness and the pursuit of love.”
The Forsytes also changes things up by giving Jo a first love: a seamstress named Louisa Byrne (Eleanor Tomlinson), an original character created for the show. Plenty of viewers across the pond have already started obsessing over Jo and his forbidden romance, since the adaptation was released there first. Fan edits flooded our social media feed well before the adaptation arrived in the U.S., and they got us wondering about the actor behind the character. So, who is Danny Griffin? What else has he been in? What’s his dating history? Keep reading for the full rundown.
Who does Danny Griffin play in The Forsytes?
Sean Gleason / Mammoth Screen & MASTERPIECE
As you already know by now, Griffin plays Jolyon, whose father inherited his family’s successful stockbroking business. “With the Forsyte name comes a lot of responsibility,” Griffin told TV Choice about his character.
He continued, “Jolyon wants to make sure that his clients are respected and looked after, which clashes with his cousin Soames’ way of doing business. In his past, Jolyon was a big painter and loved to paint, but it’s something he’s had to give up to do the job that he was born to do, which is working at the firm.” (How can we not compare him to Benedict Bridgerton?)
Jolyon marries someone his family matches him with: widow Frances (Tuppence Middleton). Though it isn’t a love match, Jo becomes a caring stepfather to Frances’ then-8-year-old daughter, June (played as a young adult by Justine Moore).
What has Danny Griffin been in before?
The Forsytes is likely the 28-year-old actor’s biggest role to date, but his turn as Sky in Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga comes relatively close. He played the love interest to Abigail Cowen‘s Bloom until the series was canceled after two seasons.
Other than that, Griffin made appearances in Free Reign, So Awkward, Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, and Get Even. He also starred in Hallmark’s Gilded Newport Mysteries: Murder at the Breakers, so The Forsytes isn’t Griffin’s first period drama.
Who is Danny Griffin dating?
The British actor has hinted that he has a new love in his life on social media, but he hasn’t revealed his special someone’s name. The only other person the actor is known to have dated is his Winx Saga costar, Cowen. They celebrated their one-year anniversary in 2022 via Instagram. They haven’t appeared on each other’s social media profiles in a few years, but they do still follow each other.
In fact, fans got quite a few details about Griffin’s personal life when Cowen interviewed him in 2022. He was about 15 when he realized that he wanted to be an actor, citing Matt Smith in Doctor Who as one of his then-inspirations. The Cornwall native also described growing up on a farm “in the middle of nowhere” with four younger sisters.
Beyond acting, he’s also interested in gaming — he noted that he got into Apex Legends over lockdown and ranked number 442 in the world at one point. Griffin is also experienced in horseback riding, which he began at 10 years old. (We wonder if it came in handy for the Victorian-set The Forsytes.) “For [the] time being, I thought I was going to go into being a stunt man on a horse and that was what I wanted to do,” he told Cowen for Square Mile.
Are you looking forward to Griffin’s performance in The Forsytes? Let us know in the comments below!
The Forsytes, Series Premiere, Sunday, March 22, 2026, 9/8c, PBS
