The beloved world of Bridgerton, with its lavish costuming and old-world English dialogue, may pose a challenge for the average actor. But for classically trained actor Daniel Francis, who was educated at UK’s LAMDA Drama School and cut his teeth working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the set of Bridgerton is very familiar territory.
“It’s a treat to be able to step into that world,” Francis tells ESSENCE. “You’ve got the best of the best designing these things with such thought and care and attention to detail, which just adds another layer to the work that you do as an actor and the characters that you create as well. It’s wonderful.”
Francis joined the Shondaland phenomenon in its third season as Lord Marcus Anderson, brother of Lady Danbury and potential love interest of Lady Violet Bridgerton.
“It’s a privilege, right?” Francis says of joining the romance drama series in a role created specifically for the show, rather than carried over from the source material. “I love doing Shakespeare for myself. I love that. However, the greatest joy is creating something for an audience.”
“When you come into a show of this scale and magnitude with such a devoted and loving fan base, that’s a privilege that not many actors get. And then having a character who isn’t in the books where you are able to just create something in collaboration with the writers and the showrunner, it just leaves so many possibilities. I’m excited for fans to see the second half of the season and then see where it goes and what happens with him, because I have no idea. So, it’s exciting.”
But the actor’s excitement comes from far more than his on-screen roles. When he isn’t in front of the camera, it turns out that Francis is the the boardroom of tech, forging new pathways in the fields of blockchain and quantum computing.
Though it’s a rarity for an actor with Francis’ level of success to hold down a second career in a completely different industry than entertainment, for the actor, his involvement in the business sector has always been second nature, born of necessity.
“I’ve always been in business. Even when I was in drama school, I had a marketing company,” he says. “That was my first foray into business, and I just fell in love with it. When you grow up poor, and you want to take care of your mom and take care of your family – for me, being in business was the only way. I didn’t have the kind of education where I could have gone and been a lawyer and found success in that route.”
While Francis’ talent and training has led him to roles on popular series such as The Wheel of Time, Stay Close, and Liason, his self-driven business acumen has led him to the next frontier of tech.
“Quantum computing is the next paradigm shift in data processing and the space that we have to go in to move the world and technology forward in that way. That is deeply exciting to me.”
Though acting and tech may seem like vastly different realms, Francis believes they are “parallel purposes that feed into each other” in his life and career.
“I love the combination of being in storytelling within the entertainment space, but also within technology,” he says.
“I see it as necessary for us storytellers to shine the light on the people who are doing incredible things that aren’t in the flashier industries. I think sometimes celebrities, actors, entertainers, and athletes are the ones that get pushed within the Black community and promoted the most, when actually there are a lot of extraordinarily successful, highly talented, and highly skilled, Black people in all types of professions at the highest level. It’s about telling those stories that show their highs or their trials, tribulations, and dramas as well. We are all over the place. We always have been.”