Meet the ‘My Brilliant Career’ Cast’s Real-Life Loves
Netflix has reimagined Miles Franklin’s Australian classic novel, My Brilliant Career, as a TV series. Philippa Northeast stars as Sybylla Melvyn, a writer in the early 1900s with modern sensibilities. Unlike her family, she isn’t all that concerned with marriage, but her ambitious career aspirations become complicated by Harry (Christopher Chung) and Frank (Jake Dunn). She has to decide between love and her life’s passion.
Since romance is at the center of the tale, Swooon did a deep dive into the cast’s real love lives. Quite a few of the actors have equally famous partners — one is in a long-term relationship with Interview with the Vampire star Sam Reid. Another has been dating the star of yet another romantic period drama on Netflix: Bridgerton. While you binge the new series, you can read up on which of the stars are married, in a relationship, or single.
My Brilliant Career, Streaming Now, Netflix
Philippa Northeast
Philippa Northeast is in a relationship with fellow Australian actor Sam Reid. The couple made their red carpet debut in December 2019. They led the rom-com Standing Up for Sunny, which was filmed in 2018, as well as the TV series The Newsreader. They keep their romance on the down low, so not much is known about their relationship. Northeast has provided a few glimpses of their relationship on her social media, starting all the way back in 2018.
Christopher Chung
Slow Horses star Christopher Chung has a wife who’s also in show business. He’s been married to Frances Mayli McCann, a Scottish actress, since 2021. She’s known for her theatre work, starring in Bonnie & Clyde and The Great Gatsby. Chung proposed to McCann in 2016.
Jake Dunn
Jake Dunn has been dating Bridgerton actress Nicola Coughlan since 2024, soft-launching their relationship on Instagram Stories in February 2025. They made their first red carpet appearance at the BAFTA Television and Television Craft Nominees’ Party in April 2025, and have kept a low profile since.
In March 2026, Coughlan shared rare comments about their long-distance romance to Elle UK. “We try our best. I send him annoying videos all the time and then, you know, a lot of FaceTime, but he’s super busy… Before we were together, I just thought he was a really talented actor. But I love when people have their own stuff going on,” she said.
Kate Mulvany
Kate Mulvany, who plays Augusta in the series, is married to actor Hamish Michael. Years after they wed, they starred in the 2022 drama The Twelve together. The couple discussed their show and their romantic history in an interview with TV Week. They eloped in New York in 2015, sending an email to friends on the day of to see if they could make it. One of them was Mulvany’s My Brilliant Career costar Alexander England.
Anna Chancellor
Anna Chancellor, who plays Sybylla’s wealthy grandmother, is married to Redha Debbah. Her Algerian-born husband stays out of the spotlight. He was her taxi driver during her West End stage run in the late ’90s, per a 2012 The Guardian interview. They married in 2010.
She shared a daughter, Poppy, with the late poet Jock Scot, with whom she had a relationship in drama school. They split when Poppy was four years old, and Scot died of cancer in 2016. Poppy died at 36 of leukemia. Chancellor told The Independent that her family is now made up of her husband, son-in-law Jonny, and Poppy’s half-sister, Tara.
“We’ve had to renew,” she said. “We’ve had to create a new family, all four of us. At Christmas now, none of us are actually related to each other, but you have to make it work. You have to make choices to make things work.”
Genevieve O’Reilly
Helen actress Genevieve O’Reilly is married to chiropractor Luke Mulvihill. Not many details are known about their private romance, but they’ve been together since at least 2005, per the Sydney Morning Herald. In a 2016 interview, she shared that they had a then-two-year-old son and a then-five-year-old daughter.
Alexander England
Alexander England, aka My Brilliant Career‘s Julius, isn’t currently linked to anyone. He was last known to be in a relationship with The Crown‘s Elizabeth Debicki, though the exact timeline of when they got together and broke up isn’t clear. He told Courier Mail in 2017, “In terms of the relationship — it is personalities complementing each other. There are definitely elements of people around me that I care about who are achieving these things and who aren’t scared to be ambitious.”
Ella Oliphant
Ella Oliphant, who plays Gertie, appears to be in a relationship per her Instagram. In June 2025, she shared a photo of herself with Nathan Turner, whom she tagged. She captioned the photo, “Love.” Though his profile is private, he has an “E” with a heart next to it in his bio, so it looks like they’re still together.
Sherry-Lee Watson
Sherry-Lee Watson, who starred in Heartbreak High before playing Nell in My Brilliant Career, isn’t known to be dating anyone currently. She’s either single or keeping her relationship status private.
Miah Madden
Betty actress Miah Madden also hasn’t discussed her relationship status publicly, though there’s no sign of a significant other on her Instagram lately.
