Getty
If you’ve arrived at this article, we’re willing to bet you’ve recently watched Shōgun, 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 Emmy-winning 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, which he also wrote and directed.
In 2013, a song from his album, Love This made Triple J’s Hottest 100 once again, cementing his place in the industry. Since then, he’s had 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 rarely comments publicly on his relationship status. There are contradictory rumours that he has a long-term partner named Emily, which have also not been confirmed.
But a 2024 interview with Square Mile revealed that Cosmo Jarvis is married, with him talking about how his wife had bought an old typewriter.
“We were looking at the mechanics of the ribbons and the mechanisms by which the keys make that imprint, and it was such a foreign concept,” he said.
At the end of the article, the interviewer also calls Jarvis “a man of many skins. Husband. Gardener. Dedicated actor…” So it does seem he’s married, but very private about that part of his life. And other news sources still claim he’s single.
He also doesn’t have a public-facing social media presence, so whether he’s been in a long relationship or a whirlwind romance, he isn’t sharing those details with the world – let alone who his partner is.
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’s 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.
Shōgun also won 18 Emmy awards and became the first (primarily) Japanese language series to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. While Cosmo Jarvis wasn’t nominated for his performance, some critics called it a snub. So it may be just a matter of time before Jarvis does accolades for his acting work.
In the meantime, it seems he has been busy, with an upcoming role in in Robert De Niro’s gangster film Alto Knights, scheduled for release in March 2025 and another film (Warfare) in post-production, 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.”
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
