Hall of Fame of Hot
A Ranking of Jonathan Bailey’s 7 Sexiest Roles, From ‘Bridgerton’ to ‘Wicked’
Jonathan Bailey, the man that you are. Before he was cast in the bank-breaking, marketing-extravaganza John M. Chu movie musical, Bailey has been stealing the show (and our hearts) with his charisma, pipes, and devilish grin for years.
Bailey–well-admired for his sense of humor, light-hearted approach to stardom, and for appearing to be a genuinely fun person that you’d want to be friends with–first started acting at seven years old in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Christmas Carol. By eight, he was performing as Gavroche in a West End production of Les Misérables.
Well-established in the world of theater, Bailey then branched out to the small screen in 2012 as a young, fictitious Leonardo da Vinci in the 2011 young adult series Leonardo. As the actor has risen the ranks to leading man in more recent years, the internet has been ripe with Bailey content, as the actor has quite the digital footprint. If we weren’t already big enough fans of his unserious behavior, Bailey recently opened up about his special bond with a Hollywood horse named Jack and then admitted he mistakenly misremembered him while filming a scene from Bridgerton. Bailey has even developed the reputation of making hilariously-timed dirty jokes (check out the actor’s 2024 Critic’s Choice Awards acceptance speech) and making himself laugh the hardest in the process.
For those who are just catching up, look no further as we dive into Bailey’s career, from his most iconic cameos to the latest show’s he’s starred in. Here’s a ranking of Bailey’s sexiest roles to date.
7. Ash in Chewing Gum
Bailey turns on the charm in this brief (but tumultuous) role in Michaela Coel‘s Chewing Gum, the semi-autobiographical series that chronicles the life of a virginal young woman named Tracey, who was raised in a strictly religious household and is ready to break free and realize her potential. The show is fun and sexy, full of adolescent mishaps as Tracey attempts to discover what she likes and doesn’t like. In Season 2 Episode 2 ,”Replacements,” Bailey enters the series as Ash–perfect timing for Tracey, who’s on the hunt for a new boyfriend.
Charming and handsome as ever, Bailey is able to snag a date with Tracey in all of about 30 seconds, after an extremely efficient back-and-forth between the two characters after they first meet on the street. Unfortunately for Tracey, the red flags are flying on the first date, from Ash asking her where she “comes from” to him not liking Beyoncé. The already-rocky relationship comes to a blazing crash when Tracey goes back to Ash’s place only to be urged to don a makeshift tribal outfit and dance for him, revealing what Tracey and the audience were scared of all along: Ash is a racial fetishist. While perhaps not his sexiest role, Tracey fell quickly for those eyes and that grin–and who can blame her?
6. Psi in Doctor Who
Leave it to Bailey to make a cyborg sexy. In the 2014 Doctor Who episode, “Time Heist,” Bailey plays Psi, an augmented human with an ability to retain vast amounts of information. He’s recruited by the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) to help rob the Bank of Karabraxos given his history of being a criminal hacker and bank robber. With a shaved head and wired-in mainframe, Psi appears to be a bit of a bad boy, but like all sexy men, the robber reveals his soft side, risking his life later in the episode for one of his teammates.
He also reveals that he had wiped every detail of his family and friends from his memory in order to protect them. After the Doctor manages to help Psi restore his lost memories, he can’t help but make his lasting mischievous impression with his final goodbye: “If you ever need help with another bank heist…” The next time we’re planning a bank heist, Psi will be at the top of our list.
5. Jamie in The Last Five Years (The Off-West End Revival)
One of the many videos to resurface on Twitter of older Bailey content was his famous audition tape as Jamie for the 2016 Off-West End revival of The Last Five Years. (Not only did Bailey book the part in 2016, but his years-old audition tape went viral after he was cast as the romantic lead of Bridgerton Season 2 a few years later in 2021.) On the stage, Bailey played Jamie, an aspiring New York author who struggles to maintain his marriage with his wife Cathy, an aspiring actress. The two-person show follows their relationship from beginning to end, told solely through each other’s perspectives, with heart-wrenching ballads and light-hearted love songs interjected throughout. Granted, the role of Jamie isn’t particularly sexy. He’s a serial cheater, a glorified narcissist, and practically forgets the love of his life’s birthday. But Bailey belting tenor in a New York accent? Say less.
4. Fiyero in Wicked
Not many men could have filled the role of Fiyero, Elphaba’s love interest, as perfectly as Bailey. Charming, sassy, pretentious, and pretty, Fiyero’s character is chock-full of so many of the attributes of Bailey’s career that have stolen our hearts. Fans of Bailey or the musical are in for a treat. Like the stage production of the same name, Wicked tells the untold story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood witch ostracized for her green skin, and her friendship with Galinda, a popular blonde witch who attends the same school.
Fiyero, a new student who enjoys dancing and flirting far more than he does attending classes, gets caught in a love-triangle-esque romance between the two friends. While this is his second leading role as a straight man, costar Bowen Yang has talked about Bailey’s take on the dreamy-eyed party boy as giving “an unspoken bisexual energy” to his character in the film. With that, we think it’s safe to say all audiences will find his dancing, his singing, and his yearning incredibly sexy.
3. Sam in Crashing
An enigmatic character and bisexual icon, Sam is one of the many zany residents of Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s first television series Crashing, which follows the lives of six twenty-somethings living in an old hospital building as an option for affordable housing. Lulu, played by Waller-Bridge, shakes things up when she moves in, threatening the engagement of her good friend and childhood crush who also lives in the hospital with his fiancée.
Sam often stirs the pot with his fellow residents, walking the line of moral ambiguity and chaotically fun-loving. Beneath his hard, sarcastic demeanor, however, is a softer side. Throughout the singular season, Sam navigates a seemingly straightforward crush on his friend and fellow resident Fred. Bisexual, sex-obsessed, and still figuring it out–what’s not to love?
2. Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton
Arguably the sexiest season of the Netflix period series, Season 2 of Bridgerton stars Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton, the Viscount of his family name. Forbidden love, forced proximity, and fated mates tropes are all at play this season, resulting in a tension-filled rollercoaster of a love story–yearning monologues and all. He plays the role of the dutiful son, committed to the idea of finding his perfect wife to carry on the family’s legacy.
While his heart is not truly in it as he begins to court the Diamond of the Season Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), something else ignites from within him when he becomes closer to his love interest’s older sister, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Bickering, bee stings, and late-night library run-ins are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these characters’ chemistry. This is also the season that Anthony’s heated monologue directed at Kate went viral: “You are the bane of my existence. And the object of all my desires.” (Tonally, think Matthew Macfadyen in Pride and Prejudice but, well, hotter.) Oh Viscount, my Viscount, the Bridgerton fans have still not recovered.
1. Tim Laughlin in Fellow Travelers
While it might seem cliché that sex and politics take the win on this list, this sexy political drama is not like the others. While other political shows tend to tease the sex in the background of major plot points, Fellow Travelers nearly centers the sex in a way that almost feels like sex is a third character. The series was never hiding this fact either: it was largely marketed as a sexy show, and on that front, it delivered.
The Showtime series follows State Department official Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and aspiring congressional staffer Timothy Laughlin as they become physically and later emotionally involved. The two meet during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s–during the Lavender Scare and the country’s moral panic about homosexual folks. Hawkins, who vigilantly hides his homosexuality, takes a liking to the bright-eyed, idealistic Tim, though their relationship begins as a purely sexual one. Bailey takes a more meek role than fans may be used to seeing from the cheeky actor (like ordering milk at the gay bar kind of meek). However, the show does not shy away from the graphic nature of its sex scenes nor does it approach the presentation of two men having sex with television’s own historical ambiguity. Trust the fact that everything is on the table when it comes to this show. It’s emotional, it’s educational, and it’s a classic power struggle sex journey: we get to see milk-ordering Bailey get coached through sex, love, and politics by the more experienced (and iconically sexy in his own right) Bomer. And we thank them for their service.
