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If you’ve arrived at this article, we’re willing to bet you’ve recently watched Persuasion, Peaky Blinders, Lady Macbeth or frankly anything starring Cosmo Jarvis.
While he may not have the same public profile as some of his Hollywood co-stars (read: Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh and Dakota Johnson) he has been slowly but steadily building his career over the past decade or so. And his lead role in the new miniseries Shōgun has made a lot of people more interested in his background.
Here, everything we know about Cosmo Jarvis, including his relationship status.
Who is Cosmo Jarvis?
Cosmo Jarvis is a British-American actor and musician and filmmaker.
Yep, he’s a very talented triple threat having started out in the entertainment industry as a singer songwriter. His 2011 single Gay Pirates was even voted for in Triple J’s Hottest 100.
In 2012, he extended his repertoire into film, starring as Todd Kennedy in The Naughty Room. In 2013, a song from his next album, Love This made Triple J’s Hottest 100 once again, cementing his place in the industry. From there, he scored several other major acting gigs including Lady Macbeth, Peaky Blinders and in 2022, he was thrust front and centre of the Hollywood spotlight in the role of Captain Frederick Wentworth in Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austin’s final novel Persuasion, starring alongside Dakota Johnson.
In 2024, he stars in the miniseries Shōgun, an adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 best-selling novel by the same name (which you can watch on Disney+).
What is Cosmo Jarvis’ heritage?
Jarvis is British-American and also has Armenian heritage on his mother’s side. He was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, but he moved to England, his father’s birthplace, as a baby. He grew up in Totnes, Devon and has a younger brother.
Does he have a partner?
Multiple online forums claim Jarvis does not have a partner, though the actor has never commented publicly on his relationship status. There are contradictory rumours that he has a long-term partner named Emily, but these have not been confirmed.
He also doesn’t have a public-facing social media presence, so even if he does have a partner, he isn’t sharing those details with the world.
What has he starred in?
Jarvis has an impressive portfolio despite having managed to keep such a low-key public presence over the years. This includes 2016’s Lady Macbeth with Florence Pugh, 2022’s Persuasion with Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding and Peaky Blinders season five.
Jarvis also starred in science fiction series Raised By Wolves (2020), action thriller film Hunter Killer (2017), crime film The Marker (2017), British film Farming (2020) and Irish film It Is In Us All (2020).
But it may be the historic epic Shōgun that is his biggest role yet. Jarvis stars as John Blackthorne, the English pilot of a Dutch ship that lands in a fictionalised 17th century Japan and becomes tied up in epic power struggles. When the series premiered, The Walt Disney Company reports that it received a record-breaking nine million views in the first six days.
He’s also been cast in Robert Deniro’s gangster film Alto Knights, scheduled for release later in 2024 according to details on IMDb.
What has he said in interviews?
In an Esquire interview after the release of Shōgun, Jarvis said it was “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done at that point”. He also shared an insight into the way he approaches his acting work, stating “when I’m in the middle of a task, I find it quite difficult to do anything else until it’s done.”
But even the journalist interviewing him noted how private Jarvis is about his personal life, writing “I sense that Jarvis is determined to stay close to the ground, even as his career skyrockets”.
There’s no doubt Jarvis is a private person, but he has previously opened up about his career, telling The Guardian: “I didn’t really know how one got into acting properly, because I was never connected, and I quit school really early. I thought, I might as well just start knocking.”
“It was a slow burn from there. Years of nothing, and then eventually getting a few little jobs, TV jobs, and keep on chipping away.”
He also discussed how he approaches his roles. “With film, you come in, you blow everything you’ve got, and it’s a short amount of time. You’re getting a good wage to do a creative craft, so you might as well just go all the way out.”
In 2020, he spoke to i-D about being the film industry, revealing that he’s happy to continue taking what he can get in the current climate.
“Right now, I’m just taking what I can get as it comes and being grateful for it,” he said. “There’s been such an influx of cultural and technological happenings that if something comes along and it’s good, then I’ll do my best to do a good job. I know what that is when I see it.”
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