Why Jack From Bridgerton Season 2 Looks So Familiar

The ton is absolutely buzzing about the latest additions to the cast of Bridgerton season 2, including the mysterious Jack played by Rupert Young. Even though he's not a household name just yet, fans of British TV have likely seen Young before. The 42-year-old actor has been working steadily since 2004, and has managed to make small appearances in everything from Doc Martin to Doctor Who.

Now that he's been cast in Bridgerton, Young's star is sure to rise — especially since his character, Jack, sounds poised to stir up trouble for the Bridgertons, and maybe even the Featheringtons, too. According to the official character description, Jack is set to be connected to one of the ton's most famous families, and he might even be able to solve a mystery surrounding the Bridgerton family (via Deadline). Our best guess? He's the person who inherited the Featherington estate after Lord Featherington's passing.

Only time will tell if Jack is destined to go toe-to-toe with Lady Featherington over her loathsome husband's assets, but for now, let's dive into Young's career so far in order to get better acquainted with the newest member of the Bridgerton cast.

The actor's onscreen career officially began in 2004 with the role of "British Soldier" in ITV's Island at War, a drama set during Germany's occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. He followed up that small role with a season 1 appearance in the long-running dramedy Doc Martin, in which he played Adrian Pitts, a man who is quite rude about the titular character's haemophobia.

From there, he continued to make one-off appearances in some of Britain's most popular shows. His most notable guest appearances during this era of his career included a turn as a sexy hippie on the cop drama Heartbeat in 2006, a man caught in a time-trippy love triangle in a 2008 episode of Primeval, and an unnamed Roman soldier in "The Pandorica Opens," a classic 2010 episode of Doctor Who.

But in 2009, Young officially landed his big break on a fantasy show with a passionate fanbase: Merlin.

Originally, Young was only supposed to appear in a single episode of Merlin season 2: "The Once and Future Queen." However, fans went wild for the brave knight Sir Leon, which led to the role becoming a regular one for the actor. After appearing sporadically throughout the rest of season 2, the actor's role became more substantial in season 3, and continued to grow until the series finale in 2012.

Leon was first introduced as a devoted supporter of Uther and Arthur Pendragon. The no-nonsense knight was dedicated to protecting the king at any cost, but his deference to Arthur led the two to butt heads early in the character's run. But by the end of the series, Arthur recognized Leon was his most loyal defender, outside of Merlin himself, of course.

When Merlin aired on BBC One, it was a major hit both in England and abroad. As a result, the show allowed Young to be choosier about his roles going forward. In a 2013 interview with The Chicago Tribune, the actor said, "I'm at a point now where I'm just trying to be a tiny bit choosy while I can be on the back of Merlin. I just don't want to run to something for the sake of it; having been in a big show you want to keep up that momentum and be doing classy projects if you can."

After his successful run on Merlin, Young largely focused on short films and stage productions, but he also made time to launch his film career with two very different movies: 2015's Writer's Retreat and 2020's The Secret Garden.

In Writer's Retreat, he played Alisdair, one member of a group of writers who head to a remote island in hopes of getting some work done. In true And Then There Were None fashion, the writers soon start getting picked off one by one as the group realizes there's a killer among them.

Following Writer's Retreat, Young made another handful of TV appearances on shows like TNT's Will as Sir Walter Raleigh, Judge Rinder's Crown Court, and the premiere of Hulu and Channel 4's The Bisexual. But his next big film role came in the form of the 2020 remake of The Secret Garden, in which he played Marcus, the father of the movie's central character, Mary. And although his role is limited to appearances in flashbacks, it still allowed Young to show off his natural screen presence to a larger audience.

Despite acting for more than a decade, Young has managed to keep a relatively low profile so far, but now that he's entering the world of Bridgerton expect this actor's career to heat up in a major way.