The Bridgerton Cast Looks Completely Different in Real Life

LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX

One of your favorite Bridgerton cast members, Golda Rosheuvel, was in the middle of filming episode three of Netflix’s sweeping Shondaland series when she let Glamour in on a little secret about becoming Queen Charlotte: “I’m wearing two wigs,” she revealed back in January 2021. “It’s a wig on top of a wig! And the three feathers are real hair that Adam James Phillips [the show’s principal hairstylist] crafted by hand. It’s genius. Every look is different.”

Rosheuvel may have been talking about her character’s look specifically, but “genius” can be used to describe nearly every costume on the show. Thanks to a lot of wigs, sideburns, and even fake fringe, most of the Bridgerton cast looks completely different in everyday life than they do onscreen.

That’s no surprise, considering Bridgerton on Netflix is set in Regency London. But now that over 63 million households (and counting) have streamed the lavish series, it’s only normal that some might assume Polly Walker (Lady Featherington) has red hair IRL or that Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) walks around with a tiara. Not so!

If you happened to spot the Bridgerton cast in the wild, would you really know what they looked like? Okay, so you might be able to spot Regé-Jean Page now that he’s a household name, but what about the new cast members who joined London’s high society in season two or season three?

In the second book from Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton book series, The Viscount Who Loved Me, Kate Sheffield is the older sister of Edwina, the woman Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) is set to marry. But when Kate decides that the head of the Bridgerton family isn’t good enough for her little sister, it kicked off an enemies-to-lovers plot that readers couldn’t stop tweeting about. In February 2021, Netflix announced that Sex Education star Simone Ashley would be taking on the role of Kate Sheffield, who would now be known as Kate Sharma. Charithra Chandran also joined the cast as her sister, Edwina Sharma.

For season three, Hannah Dodd replaced Ruby Stokes as middle sister Francesca Bridgerton. To star opposite Dodd, Victor Alli was cast as John Stirling, Lord of Kilmartin, while Masali Baduza won the role of the top-secret Michaela Stirling (originally Michael Stirling in the book).

So, what does everyone look like onscreen and off? Well, consider this your cheat sheet to help you out as we settle in for a long wait until season four. Of course, if you can’t wait one more second, there’s also a this great Bridgerton book to tide you over. Lady Whistledown would definitely approve.