Get to Know Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page

It Was Actually Music Not Drama That Got Regé-Jean Interested in a Career In the Arts

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The actor formed a punk band with his brother in his rebellious teenage years, singing and playing the drums. Fittingly for a punk singer, his hair has been dyed everything from blue and green to purple. Explaining how his start in music nudged him in the direction of the thespian life, Regé-Jean said, "When I got involved in the punk scene, my notion of what a career was changed. I realised that a career in the arts was actually about having the people and community to support you making your art."

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As a Child, He Moved From the UK to South Africa and Back Again

Regé-Jean was born in North London but moved to his mother's native Zimbabwe when he was young and spent his formative years there before moving back to the UK at 14. The actor has spoken about how growing up in different cultures shaped his perspective, most notably his idea of home. "Home is a relative concept," he told Interview. "Home is very much wherever it is that your people are and where you fit in."

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He Trained at One of the Best Drama Schools in the UK

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Regé-Jean trained at the National Youth Theatre, before earning a place at the Drama Centre, a London-based acting school that counts Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, and Game of Thrones's Gwendoline Christie among its illustrious alumni.

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Regé-Jean Got His Start on the BBC

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Regé-Jean's first on-screen role was in the BBC medical drama Casualty, where he played an ambulance-stealing teenage tearaway. He also appeared in the Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat, but his first big break came when he was cast as Guy Braxton, a young teacher on the BBC drama Waterloo Road.

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His First Role on American Television Was in the Critically Lauded Remake of Roots

Image Source: Everett Collection

Regé-Jean wowed audiences in the US in for his portrayal of Chicken George in the History Channel's 2016 remake of Roots before being cast in the 2018 adaptation Mortal Engines and the Shonda Rhimes produced legal drama For the People. Discussing his breakout role in Roots, the actor told Deadline that he found it "hugely intimidating" but "an honour" to be trusted with a story and a character that means so much to people.

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His Role in Roots Is What Helped Launch His Career

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It was Regé-Jean's role in Roots that brought him to the attention of Betsy Beers, the chief content officer at Shondaland and Shonda Rimes's long-time producing partner. He was cast in For the People, and his performance stuck with Betsy and the Shondaland team. When speaking to Esquire, Betsy recounted hearing Regé-Jean's name come up continuously in the casting room with comments like, "It would be so great to get somebody like Regé. I wish there was somebody like Regé." Luckily, Beers was ultimately able to cast Regé-Jean himself.

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He Believes Inclusivity Must Be the Future of Period Dramas

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Bridgerton challenges the typical period drama notions around who can be an aristocratic and instead envisions a 19th century British society that has appointed people of color to positions of nobility (Regé-Jean's character, Simon Basset, is a duke). In an interview with Esquire, Regé-Jean explained that "inclusivity ... must be the future of period dramas, which for too long have excluded millions of viewers through racist failures of imagination."

"It's perfectly possible to spotlight Black joy over Black suffering," Regé-Jean said in the same interview. "Setting the story in the past doesn't mean that Black folks do nothing but suffer. We've always lived and laughed and loved and married and danced and lived the truest expressions of our lives through societal restrictions, just the same as everyone else."

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He Switches Easily Between Accents, Even in Real Life

Regé-Jean speaks naturally with a North London accent and has convincingly mastered an American accent for his roles on Roots and For the People. Having lived in London, Zimbabwe, and LA, however, the actor admits that his voice sometimes changes depending where he is or who is he with.

"My father spoke with something very similar to a 1920s newscaster type of English, and I learnt that accent of power in post-colonial Zimbabwe. So I learnt that, and I learnt how to copy it, and I learnt how to shift in and out of it, but also talk like my mother's relatives in the village," he said in an interview with Square Mile. "Accents aren't accents, they're language ... It's almost like a code. Because that's the key to who you are: it's how you express who you are. And how you express who you are is how you speak."

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He Currently Lives in LA

The actor moved to LA in his twenties.

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He Starred in Another Period Romance

As well as Bridgerton, you can catch the actor in the 1960's romance, Sylvie's Love. In the film, which was released on Amazon Prime on Dec. 23, Regé-Jean plays Chico, a drummer in lead actor Nnamdi Asomugha's jazz band — a role we imagine he took to well given his teenage years as a punk drummer.

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