Why Denny From Netflix's Virgin River Looks So Familiar
"Virgin River," the very successful romantic drama on Netflix, stars Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe, a nurse practitioner and midwife who decides to start fresh in a rustic (and oddly familiar) cabin in rural northern California town. Unfortunately, she gets more than she bargained for when the unexpected dramas of the townspeople begin to bleed over into her own life. Part of that drama involves her boss and mentor, Vernon "Doc" Mullins (Tim Matheson). Starting at the end of Season 3, as well, Doc has quite a bit to deal with after a long-lost grandson named Denny shows up at his door.
This is obviously very confusing, since Doc and his wife Hope never had children. However, it turns out that Doc's college girlfriend did get pregnant, chose to keep the pregnancy to herself, and the young man who shows up at Doc's door is that baby boy. Denny's storyline starts out dark and suspicious, but by the end of Season 4, he eventually has a happy resolution. Fans liked his arc so much, in fact that he will be back for "Virgin River" Season 5, although we still aren't sure in what capacity.
The young Canadian actor who plays him is Kai Bradbury. He might seem like a fresh new face in the entertainment world, but the truth is you've probably seen him somewhere before. Let's take a look at some of the career highlights which helped him get where he is today.
Kai Bradbury was an officer in The Man in the High Castle
"The Man in the High Castle" is a scary look at an alternate reality in which Germany and Japan won World War II. The events take place in the early sixties, less than 20 years after the war ended, and by 1962, Japan and Germany have carved up the United States into three territories. In the reality where the show takes place, a "Man in the High Castle" possesses film footage of multiple alternate realities where the Axis powers either lost the war, or where an American resistance movement is starting to turn the tide on their Japanese and German oppressors. The protagonists find the films, triggering a domino effect of discovery and (deadly) adventure.
One of Bradbury's earliest acting credits is that of a Kempeitai officer in Season 2, Episode 3, "Travelers." He is the leader of a small band of officers who get ambushed by Frank and other resistance members while guarding people they have arrested for betraying the Japanese Pacific States. All of the officers led by Bradbury's character are gunned down by Frank and his crew, with Frank picking up a gun that doesn't belong to him and mercilessly shooting him several times, long after the killing bullet strikes. It's a significant scene because the previously pacifist Frank had never killed before.
Kai Bradbury was a wealthy man in Altered Carbon
Netflix's totally pause-worthy "Altered Carbon" had a wildly successful first season. Unfortunately, the second season was far weaker in the eyes of many fans, and the show didn't get renewed for a third.
In the futuristic sci-fi universe of "Altered Carbon," advanced technology can now store human consciousness in sophisticated computer chips called "stacks" which can be swapped in and out of any body (now known as "sleeves"), basically granting eternal life (as long as an individual's stack is never destroyed without a backup, that is). In Season 1, Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) is an incredibly rich and powerful individual who resurrects mercenary Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman) and coerces him into investigating his attempted murder.
During the investigation, Kovacs eventually ends up at a brutal party for the rich and powerful where they pit gladiators against one another for entertainment. Bancroft has put the party together so that Kovacs can investigate his enemies. Bradbury's appearance happens in Season 1, Episode 3, "In a Lonely Place." He plays Tadao, one of the "Meths" — a socioeconomic class of rich and powerful people who basically are free to act without consequences — who are invited to Bancroft's party. He and Kovacs engage in a brief bit of dialogue, but it doesn't take Kovacs long to rule Tadao out as a potential suspect.
Kai Bradbury played Vincent in Warigami
In an interview with Star Shine Magazine, Bradbury described "Waragami" as "a modern-day Samurai tale mixing action, fantasy and comedy" where his character, his best friend, and long-lost twin sister set out on a harrowing adventure which changes their lives forever. It started out as a miniseries produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and was later briefly available via the CW Seed app.
This was one of the first major starring roles for Bradbury. In it, he played Vincent Ohata, the estranged twin of Wendy Ohata (Emily Piggford) who has been searching for him. Together, they discover that they have the ability to make deadly weapons out of paper when they fight side by side (hence the name of the show: a portmanteau of the words "war" and "origami"). The show earned recent fan ratings on IMDb, with the majority of user reviews skewing 7 or above, but sadly, it doesn't appear to be available in the U.S. anymore.
Kai Bradbury got involved in scary stuff in The Terror: Infamy
Remember that Star Shine Magazine interview we just mentioned? During the same discussion, Bradbury went on to answer a question about his favorite acting role to date, which just so happens to be his one-time appearance in the aptly-titled series "The Terror: Infamy" on AMC, where he got to share screentime with "Star Trek" legend George Takei. His appearance was in Season 2, which largely focusing on the Japanese American community being haunted (and sometimes murdered) by a shapeshifting bakemono (a creature from Japanese folklore).
Bradbury's character, Nick Okada, is one of many casualties. He appeared in Season 2, Episode 2, "All the Demons Are Still in Hell." In the episode, Nick is a mole for the DOJ who has been ordered to report any pro-Japanese dissenters to the US government if he suspects their loyalties and interests do not align with those of the United States. But his bosses demand names on a regular basis — regardless of guilt — so that they can prove they're being effective. This puts Nick in an impossible position where he feels compelled to turn in innocent people in order to stay safe. Some of the older men in his community confront him on an ice fishing trip, at first accusing him of being the bakemono. They chop at the ice around him in order to intimidate him into confessing. Once the truth comes out, the old men turn and abandon him on the ice, leaving him for dead.
Kai Bradbury mixed it up with witches in Motherland: Fort Salem
About a year before Kai Bradbury first appeared in "Virgin River," he made a handful of appearances on Freeform's "Motherland: Fort Salem. This show is yet another series set in an alternate version of America (this seems to be a recurring theme in Bradbury's career so far ...) where the witches who were persecuted during the Salem Witch Trials actually did have magic powers, and they have agreed to fight for the U.S. government in exchange for their freedom.
But women aren't the only ones with supernatural abilities in this magical universe. Bradbury portrays Gerit Buttonwood, a male magic user who falls in love with one of the three main witches in the series, Tally Craven (Jessica Sutton). They have a passionate affair which ends in heartbreak later when Tally discovers Gerit is actually engaged. He insists it's just an arranged marriage and that he still loves Tally, convincing her to carry on their affair in secret. One night, Gerit's fiancé Hilary (Rhianna Jagpal) walks in on him and Tally. Surprisingly, instead of being mad, she asks her husband if she can join him and his mistress. As it turns out, though, this was no happy little accident. The "accidental" discovery was staged and orchestrated by Gerit and Hilary in order to spice up their sex life. Once Tally finds this out, she storms out and permanently breaks ties with Gerit.