ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

Looking back on his year of milestones, Darren Barnet has plenty to be grateful for.

- Asaph Low

Part Swedish-Japanese with German and Cherokee ancestral roots, American actor Darren Barnet looks so good he was judged for it at one point in his life. “I definitely faced a kind of, you know, ‘a book judged by its cover’ syndrome in high school,” shares Barnet in an interview with Page Six earlier this August. With perfectly coiffed curls, a boyish demeanour and a smouldering gaze all packed into a chiselled physique (in case you are wondering, check out Never Have I Ever), one is bound to have some bullets of envy coming his way.

Barnet is set to reprise his role as Paxton Hall-Yoshida, the love interest of the show’s lead Devi Vishwakumar as the Netflix coming-of-age comedy-drama has been officially renewed for a third season. Here is an interesting trivia about HallYoshida – “Yoshida” was added to the character’s original “ Paxton Hall” name after the creators of the show Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher learned about Barnet’s Japanese descent. Since the drama’s pilot, in which Barnet has had less than a handful of lines (we counted), he has gone on to score roles in the animated Netflix Film The Summit of the Gods as a voice actor and the recently aired Christmas rom-com Love Hard.

We speak to the Men’s Folio December/January ‘22 cover star about the time ahead.