Shōgun Star Cosmo Jarvis’s Illness Can Be Considered a Disability

Cosmo Jarvis is a British actor, singer, and filmmaker. He appeared in three films best known for Lady Macbeth (2016), Calm with Horses (2019), and Persuasion (2022). 

He will feature in Hulu’s forthcoming period drama mini-series Shōgun and Alto Knights. While Jarvis looks all right and healthy from the outside, his health is not doing well.

In fact, he has an illness — Type 1 diabetes, which is considered a disability in the UK and USA.

Here is all we know about it.

Cosmo Jarvis’s illness and disability

Jarvis has type 1 diabetes, and he is very open about his health condition. He got vulnerable with The Guardian in March 2020 and talked about his illness.

He revealed that he spent his 30th birthday in New York shooting Funny Face and told somebody he did not want to celebrate his birthday since he might not be alive in the next ten years.

He said, “I think I was just [filming], and probably telling somebody about how I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday because I’ll be dead in 10 years.” He then talked about how his illness catches up with him and makes him think about his health and mortality.

He said, “It screws with my philosophy because I’m pretty much a hater of technology and everything that it involves, but then I rely on it to some extent to survive. I fully accept that if it wasn’t for technology, diabetics and anybody with any ailment would be the first people to be dead.”

He talked about his illness with Tone Deaf regarding what he eats to keep up his health. He said he ate “very simply and in a very repetitive manner” to keep track of what parts of food groups he was up to date on.

Cosmo Jarvis’s illness, type-1 diabetes, is considered a disability. (Source: Instagram)

Since he has diabetes, he tries his best to eat low-carb. Type 1 diabetes is considered a disability in both the UK and the USA.

In the UK, If a person has type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or another kind of diabetes and requires insulin or other diabetic medications, they are considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010 or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 if they live in Northern Ireland.

This legislation protects people against discrimination in the workplace and society as a whole, and it provides them with specific legal rights for any additional help or care they require, just like anybody else.

Similarly, in the USA, a disability is a physical or mental health condition that restricts a person’s movements, senses, or activities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are both recognized protected disabilities under federal law. The endocrine system produces insulin and regulates blood sugar levels. 

People with T1D are considered disabled since they do not make insulin and must rely on insulin injections. Diabetes is always considered a disability, even if the blood sugar and A1C readings are within normal ranges and adequately managed.

Diabetes is classified as an official disability under federal law, such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, since it severely affects the function of the endocrine system.

These laws prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities in any program or activity supported by government funds, including schools and workplaces. 

They also specify the requirement to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with impairments. The laws keep the terminology ambiguous since what is “reasonable” differs from person to person.

Cosmo Jarvis’s bio 

Jarvis was born on September 1, 1989, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S. His age, at the time of writing, is 34. 

However, in September 2024, his age will be 35. It is reported that Jarvis’s height is 5’10”, according to IMDb, whereas his weight is said to be 85 kg, according to Stark Times.

Jarvis was born in New Jersey to an Armenian-American mother and an English father. He moved to Totnes, Devon, England, with his parents as a baby.

Cosmo Jarvis. (Source: Instagram)

Before Jarvis was an actor, he was a musician. He began his musical career after graduating from acting school. 

In 2009, he released his debut album Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch on the Wall of Sound label. It garnered great feedback from the crowd, and a few songs, such as ‘She’s Got You’ and ‘Crazy Screwed Up Lady,’ were popular with the public.

He confirmed the title of his second album, Is the World Strange or Am I Strange? on his official Facebook page. The album’s lead track, ‘Gay Pirates,’ was released on January 23, 2011, along with a music video filmed by Jarvis himself. 

Shortly after the release of Jarvis’ third studio album, Think Bigger, his film The Naughty Room debuted on BBC Four on August 20, 2012. This film’s soundtrack used many tracks or versions from the album.

He toured the UK in late 2012, backing Mad Dog Mcrea, and wrote the song ‘Waiting on the Hill’ for them. His music was also included in the comedic film Hawk(e): The Movie in 2013.

Jarvis re-released his 2012 album Think Bigger as Think Bigger – (2020 Deluxe Edition) in November 2020, due to its first global release being incomplete. This deluxe edition includes all 11 original recordings, remastered for 2020, as well as nine extra tracks from the same creative era, including five previously unreleased songs and four acoustic live versions of essential Think Bigger compositions.

He achieved a professional breakthrough, highlighted by critical praise, beginning in 2012. He played Sebastian in William Oldroyd’s debut feature film, Lady Macbeth, in 2015.

His performance as Arm in the indie film Calm with Horses earned him nominations for Best Actor at the British Indie Film Awards 2020 and the London Film Critics Circle. He appeared as Barney in the fifth season of Peaky Blinders in 2020 and has since appeared in films and television shows such as Nocturnal, Funny Face, The Evening Hour, and Raised by Wolves.

In 2021, he was cast opposite Dakota Johnson in Netflix’s version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Hulu’s TV mini-series Shōgun, which will be released on February 27, 2024. 

Jarvis’ success continued in 2022, when he received nominations for Best Lead Performance at the British Independent Film Awards and Best International Actor at the Irish Film and Television Awards for his part in It Is In Us All. In addition, he joined the cast of Alto Knights, which stars Robert De Niro and will be released in November 2024.