Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton season 3.
The world of Bridgerton has unlocked a new (and unexpected) character: The season 3 finale introduces actress Masali Baduza as Michaela Stirling, cousin to John Stirling (Viktor Alli), himself the newlywed husband of Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd). Although Baduza’s character doesn’t exist in quite the same form in Julia Quinn’s books—from which the Regency-era Netflix series draws its material—fans will nevertheless recognize the gender-bent inspiration: In When He Was Wicked, John’s cousin is a man named Michael.
In the book, the sixth in the official Bridgerton series (seventh if you include the prequel Queen Charlotte), John dies suddenly of an aneurysm. Eventually, his cousin, Michael, and his widow, Francesca, end up falling in love and getting married. As multiple fans have suggested after watching the Bridgerton season 3 finale, Michaela’s entrance seems all but guaranteed to put a queer spin on the storyline.
As Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell told Deadline, she’s envisioned “the Francesca queer story from the beginning,” adding, “When I read her book, I, as a queer woman, really related to her book. Maybe in a way Julia Quinn didn’t intend, but a lot of Francesca’s book is about feeling different from her family and from the world around her and not really knowing why. In the book, I think it’s mostly just about being introverted. But I think for a lot of queer people, not every queer person, but a lot of queer people, that sense of feeling different from the time you’re young, is part of our stories. So it felt like a natural one to gender bend.”
So, who’s the face and name behind Bridgerton’s Michaela Stirling? Ahead, a few things to know about Baduza.
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Baduza grew up in South Africa.
The actress was raised outside of Cape Town, in South Africa’s East London. According to an interview with The Independent, Baduza was born “shortly after Apartheid ended” in the ’90s, though Apartheid-influenced laws and attitudes remained commonplace as she attended school. Baduza told the outlet, “We had a rule book of things we could and couldn’t do to our hair—including one that said Black girls couldn’t wear their natural afros because it was unprofessional and it looked unkempt.” She continued, “Having that as your mindset as a young Black girl is just…traumatizing. It’s kind of like who you are naturally is not good enough.”
She went to acting school in the U.S. and has starred in projects including Noughts + Crosses and The Woman King.
Baduza graduated from the New York Film Academy Los Angeles in 2016. Her film debut arrived in 2019, when she was cast in the Bollywood-style project Bhai’s Cafe.
Her career sped up after she was cast in Noughts + Crosses from 2020 to 2022. Baduza played the leading lady, Sephy, in the BBC drama series, an adaptation of the 2001 book series of the same title by Malorie Blackman. The story imagines if Africa had colonized Europe, flipping the historical narrative. As Baduza described it to British Vogue, “The point of the story is to turn white supremacy on its head and use African culture to explain what it’s like to live in a world where the culture is predominantly white.”
Of her time working on Noughts + Crosses, she told British Vogue that “stepping into this world where everything was so proudly African and being able to celebrate the culture every day was a lot of fun.”
Among other roles, she clinched a job in the 2022 film The Woman King, in which she played Fumbe alongside star Viola Davis.
Her most recent role is Michaela Stirling in Bridgerton.
She’s passionate about representation and social justice.
At several points throughout her career, Baduza has spoken out about her interest in stories that “comment on society and on injustices,” as she told the Royal Television Society. In conversation with PopSugar in 2022, she added that, “Since I was in college in America, I was made aware of the Black Lives Matter movement. I’ve really been about it for a number of years now, which is why I’ve felt compelled to Noughts + Crosses. For me, it represents Black empowerment in a lot of ways.”
Earlier, in March 2020, Baduza had told British Vogue:
“Growing up in post-Apartheid South Africa, it was easy to relate to the power dynamics. My parents were oppressed on their land. However, I acknowledge I was born with middle-class privilege; you have to understand your position and do what you can to empower those less privileged than you…Going to America after high school was the beginning of my activism for equality because I became very conscious that I was Black and African. Coming from a country where Black people are the majority to the minority in L.A…It was so jarring to be othered to that extreme. I’d always thought, ‘After high school I’m going to go to the USA and I’m gonna love it!’ But I was so homesick. I had to go back to Cape Town. Being at home feeds my soul.”
She’ll return in future Bridgerton episodes.
Brownell made it clear in an interview with Glamour that she plans to bring Baduza back as Michaela Stirling, and to give Francesca and Michaela a “happily ever after, as we have with every other couple.”
Brownell told the outlet that Baduza made an immediate impression on both her and on Dodd, who plays Francesca, when the actress met Dodd during their first chemistry read. “After Masali left, [Dodd] said, ‘Well, that’s her,’” Brownell said, adding that Baduza “is an incredible actress, and she and I have had a lot of talks about the weight and importance of her role. She’s really stepped into it with wonderful energy. I can’t wait for people to get to know her more. I’m just sad that people are only getting to meet her for those 10 seconds at the end of season 3 because she’s incredible.”