Jonathan Bennett

Jonathan David Bennett, born June 10, 1981, in Ohio, is an American actor, television host, and Broadway performer. He grew up in Rossford, Ohio, where he attended Eagle Point Elementary School before graduating from Rossford High School in 1999. His father, David Bennett, was a physician from Toledo, and his mother, Ruthanne Bennett, née Mason, died on November 30, 2012, at age 67. His father died on April 28, 2014, at age 73. Bennett has two half-brothers, Brian and Brent, and one half-sister, Lisa. He went on to attend Otterbein University before relocating to New York to pursue a career in entertainment.

Bennett's early television work included a role on the ABC soap opera All My Children, where he played JR Chandler from 2001 to 2002. He subsequently appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Smallville, and the mystery drama Veronica Mars, in which he held a recurring role as Casey Gant. His film career gained significant attention in 2004 when he co-starred as Aaron Samuels, the love interest of Lindsay Lohan's character, in the comedy Mean Girls. The following year he appeared in the family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and the romantic comedy Lovewrecked. In 2007, he took on the role of Bo Duke in the direct-to-video prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, and in 2009 he starred as the title character in Van Wilder: Freshman Year and appeared in the Hallmark original movie Elevator Girl. In 2016, he played gay sports agent Lucas in two episodes of Hit the Floor, and in 2021 he portrayed Jesus Christ as an imaginary best friend in Wes Hurley's Potato Dreams of America. In 2022, he starred in The Holiday Sitter, the first Hallmark Channel Christmas movie to feature a gay lead couple.

On the reality and competition front, Bennett was announced on September 4, 2014, as a contestant on the nineteenth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional dancer Allison Holker. The two were eliminated in Week 6 and finished in ninth place. In January 2019, it was announced that Bennett would appear as a houseguest on the second season of Celebrity Big Brother. That same year he was featured in Love Goes Never Alone, a filmed poem in support of the LGBT+ community published by First Night Magazine, alongside Stephen Fry, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Debra Messing, Neil Gaiman, and Sharon Osbourne.

Bennett's television hosting work has been centered primarily on the Food Network. He hosted Cake Wars from 2015 to 2017 and subsequently became the host of Halloween Wars. In 2024, he was announced as both host and main judge of Hallmark's reality series Finding Mr. Christmas, which premiered on October 31, 2024. In 2018, he and celebrity chef Nikki Martin co-authored The Burn CookBook, a pop culture cookbook. Bennett and his husband, Jaymes Vaughan, also appeared together on the July 8, 2022, wedding-themed episode of Trixie Motel, offering support and advice to the groom-to-be.

Bennett made his Broadway debut on January 23, 2024, in the revival of Spamalot, playing Sir Robin, Guard 1, and Brother Maynard. The production marked his first appearance on a Broadway stage.

In his personal life, Bennett became engaged to Jaymes Vaughan, a contestant on The Amazing Race and host of Celebrity Page, on November 30, 2020, after Vaughan proposed on the set of The Christmas House with an original song. In 2021, Bennett and Vaughan became the first gay couple to appear on the cover of The Knot magazine. The couple married in March 2022 at the Unico Riviera Maya Hotel in Mexico.