After working as an emergency ward physician in Adelaide, Sydney, and London for three years Jonathan felt restricted, and that was when he chose to follow his brother into acting.
Jonathan moved to New York City in 1994 where he joined the Circle in the Square Theatre School. In 1996 he got his first break when he joined the cast of the TV show New York Undercover.
Jonathan played the role of Lt. Frank B. Parker on the science fiction series Seven Days from 1998 until 2001. Later he played Detective Kevin Debreno, on The District from 2001–2004.
Jonathan has also guest-starred in a number of series including The Sopranos, NCIS, Cold Case, and Castle. He appeared in the May 2008 issue of Car Craft magazine with his custom 6.1L Hemi ’73 Dodge Challenger.
Jonathan starred as the protagonist, Hector, in the TV adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ novel The Slap produced for ABC TV in 2011. Although he is Australian, this was LaPaglia’s first appearance in Australian production.
Having lived overseas for many years, Jonathan found it necessary to hire a dialect coach to recover his Australian accent. His second role in an Australian production was set to be the title character of real-life crime boss Anthony “Rooster” Perish in Channel Nine’s Underbelly: Badness, which is the fifth series of the successful true-crime drama franchise.
Jonathan starred in the 2014 movie The Reckoning alongside Luke Hemsworth. He has been the host of Australian Survivor since 2016 he is also a sports enthusiast and model.
