Andrew Scott is the original Hot Priest, but there are even more swoon-worthy religious figures for Us to obsess over.
Yes, the Irish actor’s Fleabag character — named The Priest — is the blueprint, but there were some clergymen who came before (and after) him that can’t be forgotten. Us is sorry to these men if they want to be known as anything other than a hot priest or hot rabbi until the end of time.
“Go out and get some fresh air,” Scott told Entertainment Weekly in April 2024 as a message to fans still obsessed with the Hot Priest five years after Fleabag season 2 premiered. “Stop watching. Stop crying. Stop crying in your room with your curtains closed. Do something better with your life. It’s a great show, we all love it, but come on now, pull yourself together. Open the curtains and go outside.”
It wasn’t long until Ryan Murphy gave Us a new religious figure to cry about with Nicholas Chavez as Father Charlie Mayhew in the FX series Grotesquerie.
“I was told to watch Fleabag. I did not watch Fleabag,” Chavez told Us Weekly exclusively before the show’s September 2024 debut, hinting that he put his own spiritual spin on the character.
Keep scrolling for a look back at Us’ favorite hot religious figures over the years:
The Priest (Andrew Scott)
Again, he is the blueprint. Scott played The Priest on season 2 of Prime Video’s Fleabag, which premiered in 2019. The two most memorable lines he had in that role? “Kneel” or “It’ll pass,” perhaps.
“I was in L.A. recently and people just shout ‘Hot Priest’ from their cars,” he told Esquire in May 2024. “I don’t know what you really want me to do with that. ‘It hasn’t passed’ — that’s what somebody said to me the other day.”
Father Brah (Rene Gube)
Gube took on Father Joseph (or Father Brah) for a recurring role throughout four seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which aired on The CW from 2015 to 2019.
Pope Pius XIII, a.k.a. Lenny Belardo (Jude Law)
Law made his fictional Pope — the religious figure of all religious figures — hot for HBO’s 2016 miniseries The Young Pope. The show followed the story of the first U.S.-based (and chain-smoking) Pope.
Noah Roklov (Adam Brody)
Forget Seth Cohen because when Netflix’s Nobody Wants This premiered in September 2024, all fans could talk about was Brody playing a Hot Rabbi.
“Rabbis have not been sexually objectified enough and I’m trying to do my part,” Brody told Entertainment Tonight of the role.
Rabbi Shapiro (Josh Peck)
When 13: The Musical premiered via Netflix in 2022, the former Nickelodeon star was also dubbed a Hot Rabbi — and Us isn’t mad about it.
Father Charlie Mayhew (Nicholas Chavez)
Say hello to the Hot Priest of 2024, a new frontrunner thanks to prolific TV creator Murphy.
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“We talked about Charles Manson a lot. I love the music of Chris Isaak,” Chavez told Us. “I formed this really strange nexus of a lot of different primary and secondary research sources. Like, sometimes the weirdest paintings that I’ve ever seen or music that I had found. All of these things just culminated into the character that you see on the screen.”
‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Priest (Josh O’Connor)
The third movie in the Knives Out franchise is set to feature O’Connor in a priest role, according to June 2024 set photos. Holy crossover alert — he’s filming the movie alongside Scott.
Rabbi David Bloom (David Julian Hirsh)
For the throwback Rabbi, Us must discuss Nancy Botwin’s short-lived fourth husband in the final season of Weeds, which aired in 2012. Just like the rest of Nancy’s husbands, he (spoiler alert) died.
Minister Malcolm (Scott Foley)
In February 2025, Variety reported that Foley will star in Prime Vide’s It’s Not Like That.
“Lori is freshly divorced with two teens. Malcolm’s a minister and recently widowed dad of three,” read the logline for the upcoming show. “Their families once did everything together, but now Lori and Malcolm must navigate their newly minted singledom, parenthood and the complexities of Malcolm being a modern-day minister. Is this the beginning of a love story? It’s not like that. Or is it?”
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