Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams

As a child, Jenna Ortega appeared in films like Iron Man 3 (2013) and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) before breaking out with a recurring role as young Jane on Jane the Virgin (2014–2019). She went on to appear in a number of animated and live-action Disney productions, including Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018), Elena of Avalor (2016–2020), and Bizaardvark (2018).

Ortega graduated to more adult roles with her turn as Tara Carpenter in Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023), as well as the Ti West slasher X (2022) and Netflix’s serial-killer soap You (2019). Ortega’s starring role as Wednesday helped catapult her to A-list status, with the actress hosting Saturday Night Live in 2023 and lining up a vast slate of upcoming film roles.

Ortega’s talent for deadpan malevolence makes her an ideal choice for Wednesday Addams, and it’s one she takes seriously, especially since becoming a producer on season 2.

“I sit in on meetings and listen and learn,” she said in a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “I’m still finding my footing in that area.” 

But she also spoke frankly about how the role can make it difficult for colleagues to take her seriously. “You know, it’s like how you’re dressed in the schoolgirl costume,” she told the outlet. “There’s just something about it that’s very patronizing. Also, when you’re short, people are already physically looking down on you.”

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams

For her intoxicating turn as Velma Kelly in Chicago (2002), Catherine Zeta-Jones won an Oscar and a BAFTA. She also won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for leading Broadway’s 2009 revival of A Little Night Music. Other notable credits include The Mask of Zorro (1998), Traffic (2001), and Ocean’s Twelve (2004), as well as the Disney+ series National Treasure: Edge of History (2022).

She’ll next appear alongside Ortega, Natalie Portman, and Charli XCX in Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist.

“To go back and do a second season was just wonderful,” the actress told Deadline last year. “The great Jenna Ortega, who really runs the show — I can’t say enough about her as a young woman, as an actor, and actually she’s producing this second season. It was pretty impressive to watch. And we have a whole array of new actors coming in… I think everyone’s waited long enough for season 2 and they will not be disappointed.”

Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams

Luis Guzmán has been one of Hollywood’s preeminent “that guy” actors for more than three decades. He’s appeared in films by some of the U.S.’s best filmmakers, from Brian De Palma (Carlito’s Way, Snake Eyes) and Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, Traffic, The Limey) to Paul Thomas Anderson  (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love).

Recently, he costarred in the Netflix films Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) and Havoc (2025), as well as the series Poker Face (2023) and Justified: City Primeval (2023).

“I say the first season came out and it blew the lid off everything, and the second season was like me telling these guys, ‘How you going to outdo season 1?’ And they went above and beyond,” the actor recently told Movieweb. “I will tell you, the world will be amazed by what they see in season 2.”

Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams

Newcomer Isaac Ordonez’s only screen credit before appearing on Wednesday was in Ava DuVernay’s 2018 A Wrinkle in Time adaptation.

Ordonez graduates to a series regular on season 2 of Wednesday as Pugsley Addams, the younger brother of Ortega’s Wednesday. As the season 2 trailer teases, the new episodes will find him harnessing the power of static electricity in the same manner as Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester.

Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester

Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen has 15 Emmy nominations (but no wins) under his belt for his work as a co-creator and star of Portlandia (2011–2018) and Documentary Now (2015–2022), among other projects. Portlandia did, however, win a Peabody Award in 2012, as did Los Espookys (2019–2022), another series Armisen co-created.

Armisen is also a Grammy-nominated musician — he previously served as the Late Night With Seth Meyers band leader — and has appeared in beloved comedies like Anchorman (2004), Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2008–2010), and Big Mouth (2017–2025).

“When they offered it to me, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m the right guy for that part,'” Armisen told Jimmy Fallon last year. “I don’t usually have that much bravado, but for this I was like, ‘I’m glad I’m doing it.'”

A good thing, too. Though he only appeared in one episode of the first season, Netflix is reportedly developing a spinoff, Fester, centered around the Addams Family’s chrome-domed uncle.

Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair

Emma Myers appeared in a handful of projects as a child, then took a break from Hollywood and returned with roles in two megahits: Wednesday and A Minecraft Movie (2025), in which she costarred alongside Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks.

Myers plays Enid Sinclair, Wednesday’s bubbly, blonde-haired roommate. “I was kind of scared to go back, because I remember watching scenes of myself from season 1 and being like, ‘I don’t know if I can re-create this now. It’s been so long,’” she told Variety in April. “But when we got to the table read, it immediately came back, like nothing had changed. I think I’ve lived with Enid for so long, it comes very naturally now.”

Ortega, meanwhile, told the outlet that Enid is a “bit more of a badass this time around,” with Myers adding that the character “has changed over the summer” and is “more comfortable with herself” than she was in season 1.

Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay

Joy Sunday has worked with some of the most exciting voices in independent film, having appeared in S—house (2020) and The Beta Test (2021) from auteur filmmakers Cooper Raiff and Jim Cummings, respectively. She’s also a frequent collaborator of writer and director Justin Simien, who directed her in the film Bad Hair (2020) and the series Dear White People (2021).

Sunday plays a siren named Bianca Barclay, one of Nevermore’s brightest lights and an early antagonist for Wednesday, though the pair’s relationship softened by the end of season 1.

“I think it’s so natural for her and Wednesday to have a little bit of competition. I’m really excited to see their friendship bloom alongside that,” Sunday told EW in 2024.

Of her character, she said, “I’d love to see Bianca really expand and allow herself to be more vulnerable with the people around her, I’m excited to fully realize Bianca as an individual and to continue to roll with her mistakes, to recognize her flaws, and still see her as a multi-dimensional, headstrong character. I love that I’ve gotten to portray someone like [her] and I look forward to playing with that more.”

Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin

Before breaking out on Wednesday, Hunter Doohan cut his teeth alongside a pair of Breaking Bad alums. He played a young Aaron Paul on the Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told (2019—2020) and appeared opposite Bryan Cranston on Showtime’s Your Honor (2020–2021). This year, he debuted as Bastian Cooper, a.k.a. Muse, on the Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again.

Doohan’s Tyler is one of Wednesday’s more complex characters. While the potential love interest for Wednesday was revealed to be the monstrous Hyde of season 1, it turned out he was being controlled by Christina Ricci’s Thornhill.

Doohan talked about some of his “conflicting sides” in a chat with EW, admitting that he still isn’t sure about Tyler’s real feelings for Wednesday.

“Maybe there’s an attraction there and, he probably wouldn’t admit it, but a respect for her, but he’s filled with so much anger and hatred toward her and her family and all of Nevermore because of what happened to his mom,” he said. “She was a Hyde and she died because Nevermore doesn’t accept them and won’t teach them how to control their powers, so I think Tyler’s filled with a lot of rage and that’s how he justifies his murdering spree.”

He continued, “But also, we played around with, like, the first time there’s a flashback to the transformation, I think Tyler’s terrified. But I read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde preparing for this, and it talks about how every time he transitions, it takes over a little bit more and it happens more often and the lines between the two get blurred, so I think that’s also happening. We’ve also never seen Tyler, now that Thornhill is dead, he doesn’t have a master anymore.”

Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort

Steve Buscemi won a Golden Globe for his leading turn as Nucky Thompson on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), as well as an Emmy for 2016’s Park Bench with Steve Buscemi, but that doesn’t do justice to the breadth and originality of the actor, writer, and director’s work on TV and film.

As an actor, he’s worked with many of the most innovative filmmakers in the U.S., including Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, The Dead Don’t Die), and Abel Ferrara (King of New York), among many others.

You may also know him as Tony Blundetto on The Sopranos (2004–2006). and as Lenny Wosniak on 30 Rock (2007–2013).

Buscemi recently voiced Starscream in Transformers One (2024) and will next appear in new films from Taika Waititi and Martin McDonagh.

Following the, um, departure of Gwendoline Christie’s Principal Weems, Buscemi’s Barry Dort steps in as the school’s new principal.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Buscemi revealed he has scenes with all the members of The Addams Family.

“I’ve been a big fan of The Addams Family since I was a kid so it was surreal and very exciting. It was a really, really fun experience,” he told the outlet.

Joanna Lumley as Grandmama

Joanna Lumley is as much a personality as she is an actress, a former model who’s also worked as an activist, TV presenter, and author of several books. As an actress, Lumley has won two BAFTAs for her performance as Patsy Stone on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous and a Tony for her turn in the 2010 Broadway revival of La Bête.

Lumley has worked with Burton twice previously, on James and the Giant Peach (1996) and Corpse Bride (2005).

A new addition to season 2, Lumley joins the Addams Family as Grandmama, the grandmother to Wednesday and Pugsley.

“She’s a whole different flavor of Addams that brings such delicious fun to the show and into the family,” Millar previously told EW while previewing the season. “We weren’t sure how many episodes that character should be in, but seeing how well it played, I think Grandmama will definitely be coming back if we get a season 3.”

Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Ritchie Santiago

Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo balances voice work in podcast series and video games with live-action roles in projects like Alex Garland’s Devs (2020) and the Netflix film Back in Action (2025).

Lewis-Nyawo played Ritchie Santiago, a deputy to Jamie McShane’s Sheriff Galpin in the Jericho Police Department, in season 1. Following the departure of McShane from the series, Lewis-Nyawo has been promoted to a series regular.

Billie Piper as Capri

English actress and singer Billie Piper is veteran of the screen, stage, and recording studio, having released two studio albums before limiting her focus to acting. She has numerous roles under her belt — including the series I Hate Suzie (2020–2022), which she co-created — but she’s best known for her work on Doctor Who.

For more than 30 episodes of the long-running sci-fi series, Piper played Rose Tyler, companion to Doctors played by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. In May, the Doctor Who fandom was shocked when Ncuti Gatwa announced his departure from the series with a video that appeared to tease Piper as the Sixteenth Doctor.

Piper is also a new addition to Nevermore Academy. Her Capri Isadora is a music teacher (and werewolf) who quickly develops an academic interest in Wednesday and Enid.

Thandiwe Newton as Dr. Fairburn

Thandiwe Newton counts a BAFTA and an Emmy on her mantle for her roles in the film Crash (2005) and the HBO series Westworld (2016–2022), respectively. The English actress initially found fame appearing opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview With a Vampire (1994), and went on to appear in films like Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), For Colored Girls (2010), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

Newton will next appear opposite Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Tom Gormican’s Anaconda sequel, which Black described to EW as “a lot funnier than the original.”

Newton joins Wednesday as Dr. Fairburn, the chief psychiatrist treating Tyler at the Willow Hill Psychiatric Facility.

Lady Gaga as Rosaline Rotwood

The versatile and endlessly captivating Lady Gaga is pop royalty, having won 14 Grammys, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award, the latter for “Shallow,” the song she co-wrote and performed in A Star is Born (2018). Gaga also scored Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her performance in the film.

EW broke the news that Gaga was joining Wednesday season 2 last year, though it wasn’t until May 2025 that Netflix revealed her character, Rosaline Rotwood, a “legendary Nevermore teacher who crosses paths with Wednesday.”

Sean Astin (Michael “Mikey” Walsh)

Sean Astin donned braces and carried an inhaler as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies. The actor later revealed to EW in July 2010 that he got to keep some memorabilia from the set.

“I had one of the original maps. I had one of the original asthma inhalers. We probably five-finger-discounted a good two dozen doubloons from the set,” he recalled. “Those are all gone.”

Astin went on to play some of Hollywood’s most memorable underdog roles. He starred as the titular character in the biographical football flick Rudy (1993) and then played the great hobbit Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003).

He also appeared in the second season of Stranger Things (in addition to one season 3 episode); provided narration and other voice work for Netflix’s animated Epic Tales of Captain Underpants franchise; popped up in episodes of Young Rock, Perry Mason, and The Conners, among other titles; and also reunited with his former Goonies costar Ke Huy Quan in Love Hurts (2025).

Off-screen, Astin is also the first known Middle-earth resident to complete an Ironman triathlon. He also shares three daughters with film producer Christine Astin, with whom he’s been married since 1992.

Josh Brolin (Brandon “Brand” Walsh)

Like Sean Astin, The Goonies also catapulted a young Josh Brolin into Hollywood stardom, though he struggled to replicate that success in the aftermath of the classic film’s release.

“I had a blast,” he told EW in December 2007, “but it was the worst f—ing movie I could’ve done for my first one. After that, everything was like, ‘Eh.'”

He found his second wind in the 21st century in films like No Country for Old Men (2007), Milk (2008) — for which he was nominated for an Oscar — W. (2008), Inherent Vice (2015), and Hail, Caesar! (2016).

Brolin made his foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the warlord Thanos in the Avengers film series. He also had a meaty role as the antihero Cable in Deadpool 2 (2018). Brolin starred as Gurney Halleck in the Academy Award-winning adaptation of Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024); as Royal Abbott on the Amazon Prime Video series Outer Range; and as Moke Munger in Brothers (2024). He’s also set to star in Zach Cregger’s Weapons (2025), Edgar Wright’s The Running Man (2025), and Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025).

In September 2016, Brolin married his former assistant, model Kathryn Boyd, and they welcomed a daughter in 2018 and another in 2020. He also has two children from his previous marriage to actress Alice Adair.

Corey Feldman (Clark “Mouth” Devereaux)

Corey Feldman was already a child star (and later, heartthrob) in Hollywood before his role as Mouth, and has appeared in countless films since the 1980s, most notably Stand by Me (1986) and The Lost Boys (1987).

Feldman remembers the Goonies experience fondly, discussing the many celebrities who came to visit during production. “It was like we had the coolest set on the lot,” he said at a May 2013 reunion. “Harrison Ford came and walked the caves with us. We felt like we were in Indiana Jones.”

He voiced Slash on the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series from 2013 to 2017, and is the lead singer of Truth Movement — though he releases solo music, including his 2024 single, “The Joke.” The actor released a documentary in 2020 chronicling the sexual abuse he and his longtime friend Corey Haim (and Lost Boys costar) survived as child actors in the ’80s.

Feldman shares one child, son Zen Scott, with his ex-wife Susie Sprague. He’s currently in a relationship with musician Adrien Skye.

Jeff Cohen (Lawrence “Chunk” Cohen)

Since doing the Truffle Shuffle as Chunk in The Goonies, Jeff Cohen had a couple of small guest appearances on TV hits like Family Ties and She’s the Sheriff, but his acting career mostly stalled out. He recalled in a June 2015 interview with the Daily Mail that once puberty hit, he couldn’t book gigs anymore.

“It was terrible,” he said. “My first love was acting, but puberty had other ideas. It was a forced retirement. I didn’t give up acting. Acting gave me up.”

Cohen has turned his attention to the courtroom, working in entertainment law — he is a founding partner of Cohen & Gardner, LLP.

Fun fact: Cohen arranged the casting contract for his former Goonies costar Ke Huy Quan for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

Ke Huy Quan (Richard “Data” Wang)

For a while, slick shoes didn’t quite get off the ground after his breakout roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies. Quan spent a few decades both in front of and behind the camera, appearing on the TV shows Nothing Is Easy and Head of the Class, as well as the films Breathing Fire (1991) and Encino Man (1992).

After being out of the spotlight for more than two decades, the actor landed a career-turning role as Waymond Wang in the seven-time Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. During his speech, Quan thanked Cohen, his “Goonies brother for life.” He then reflected on his journey in Hollywood, telling the audience that “dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To everyone out there, please keep your dreams alive!”

Since his Oscar win, Quan rejoined his EEAAO costars Michelle Yeoh — who made history as the first Asian woman to win Best Actress for her performance — and Stephanie Hsu on Disney+’s American Born Chinese; appeared in season 2 of Loki; voiced Han in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) and Gary De’Snake in the upcoming Zootopia 2 (2025); and landed his first lead film role in the action comedy Love Hurts, in which he reunited with Goonies costar Sean Astin.

In February 2025, Quan was honored with a hand-and-footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles — and it turned into a nostalgic Goonies reunion, with the film’s screenwriter Chris Columbus and former castmates Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, Kerri Green, and Josh Brolin joining him for the historic moment. “I could not be happier for you,” Brolin said during his speech. “I know we all are — all us Goonies — here for an honor that is not only totally deserved but celebrates all that is right in this industry.”

Quan is married to Echo Quan, who worked as a translator on EEAAO, and continues to be by his side as his assistant on projects like The Electric State and Love Hurts.

Martha Plimpton (Stephanie “Stef” Steinbrenner)

Like many of her costars, Martha Plimpton’s role as Stef with the cool earrings catapulted her into the Hollywood spotlight, and she’s had a steady career since, though The Goonies remains one of her most popular films.

“I’m certainly impressed by the fact that it’s really taken such a hold in popular culture,” she told Sky News in March 2023. “And I don’t think any of us expected that it necessarily would when it came out. I mean, we all had an extraordinary time filming it. And, you know, I guess ultimately it did change all of our lives, really. It’s just wonderful.”

On TV, Plimpton has been on shows like ER, How to Make It in America, The Good Wife (winning an Emmy for Guest Actress in a Drama Series), Raising Hope (earning an Emmy nomination for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series), The Real O’Neals, Generation, Sprung, A Town Called Malice, and Prime Target. She’s also one of the stars of the 2024 HBO miniseries The Regime, alongside Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. Plimpton has been nominated for three Tony Awards for her stage work.

Kerri Green (Andrea “Andy” Carmichael)

Though she made the point that yellow raincoats are imperative to treasure hunting, Kerri Green has only appeared in a handful of films since the release of The Goonies.

In the ’80s, she was seen in Summer Rental (1985), Lucas (1986), and Three for the Road (1987), and appeared on TV shows like In the Heat of the Night, ER, Mad About You, and Law & Order: SVU. The last film she was in was 2012’s Complacent.

Recalling her experience on The Goonies, Green spoke at a Comic-Con event in Ireland in September 2023 about how most of the effects in the film were real. “There was no CGI except the stones coming down at the end when we’re escaping, that’s CGI, and then the ship at the end, but everything else was real,” she revealed. “I think that’s one of the reasons why people still love watching it.”

John Matuszak (Lotney “Sloth” Fratelli)

Before donning Sloth’s Superman shirt and saving the day, John Matuszak played in the NFL for nearly a decade and was even the 1973 first draft pick and won two Super Bowls as part of the Oakland Raiders. His acting career after The Goonies included films like One Crazy Summer (1986) and Down the Drain (1990).

Unfortunately, Matuszak died a couple of years after The Goonies came out from an accidental overdose in 1989 at the age of 38.