Joseph Morgan; From Mystic Falls to the Savage Lands

Joseph Morgan is an actor and director best known for his role as Klaus in The CW’s The Vampire Diaries as well as its spin-off The Originals. Born in London, England in 1981 he was the eldest of his siblings. He was raised in Swansea, Wales until later returning to London in his teenage years to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

After spending some time working on stage and starring in numerous British television series, Morgan landed his breakout role in 2009 on the BBC miniseries ‘The Line of Beauty.” In 2010, he costarred with Mickey Rourke in the film ‘Immortals’ then later being cast in The CW’s The Vampire Diaries as Niklaus Mikaelson. It is there while filming The Vampire Diaries, he met his co-star and wife, Persia White, while filming the third season. Persia portrayed the role of Abby Bennett Wilson, a witch and the mother of series character Bonnie Bennett.

After a few seasons on The Vampire Diaries, Joseph was offered the starring role in ‘The Originals’ spin-off, which was based around his character Klaus. The spin-off allowed Morgan to “humanize” his vampire role and give an explanation as to why his character was the family oriented person he was and allowed the audience to connect with his character.

In 2015, Joseph and Persia started a production company called Night Owl Productions. They produced 2 short films’ Revelation’ and ‘Carousel’, both films have been featured in numerous film festivals and awards.

Joseph has been a dedicated vegan for about five years and says the transition was simple due to his wife “being a great cook” and watching his wife’s documentary ‘Earthlings.” With 2020 bringing in the COVID-19 pandemic, Morgan explains adjusting to the world’s new limitations of social distancing and not being able to visit different shops and restaurants may have been the biggest adjustment for his family, but says staying vegan throughout the lockdown was easy. Due to the great alternative meatless options available like Tempah, jackfruit, and Beyond Burger.

Morgan’s newest project is the 2020 NBC Universal television series Brave New World which aired on the streaming service Peacock Network. Brave New World is a modern adaptation of a 1932 American science fiction novel by Author Aldous Huxley. Joseph Morgan, known as CJack60 or Elliot stars alongside Demi Moore and Jessica Brown Findlay.  The show’s plot is based in ‘New London,” a futuristic utopian society that has found the secret to achieving peace and stability by banishing monogamy, privacy, money and family values with the help of “Indra,” an artificial intelligence system that connects via network. This society is based off a new world order where people are ranked at birth by a letter grade determining their pecking order in the society.

The population is conceived in labs in test tubes resulting in live births. They are given their ranking at birth beginning with Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gama and so forth ending with Epsilon, the lowest of the society chain. Morgan’s character ‘CJack60’ is an Epsilon that witnesses the death of a fellow Epsilon friend and begins having emotions and feelings, a humanly function that his character has never experienced. After an encounter with an outsider to the society from the Savage Lands, CJack60 began questioning his existence and place in the society leading to a revolution.

Watch Joseph Morgan in Brave New World on the Peacock Network to delve into the Brave New World.