Here's Why The Cast Of Netflix's Sirens Looks So Familiar

Netflix's limited series "Sirens" reimagines some key figures from Greek mythology as a grand drama playing out among the lives of the super rich. It's about a woman named Michaela (Julianne Moore) who runs a massive estate, ordering around her assistant Simone (Milly Alcock) and her various servants as they prepare for a gala. It's also about Simone's sister Devon (Meghann Fahy), a burnout problem child who's just desperate for her sis to help with their ailing dad (Bill Camp). As Devon learns more about what exactly is happening at Michaela's mansion, she starts to wonder whether her sister needs to be rescued.

Creator Molly Smith Metzler told Variety that the show's title refers to the creatures who lounge in the ocean and sing songs that lure sailors to their deaths. "We're often hearing about the sirens from the sailor's point of view, and this series is about what it means to be cast in the role of a siren," she said. "I don't think any of these women would voluntarily call themselves sirens, but they're all cast in this role."

The show is a soapy delight, featuring bravura performances from a number of talented actors. Some of them are big names — Oscar winners and leads of massive blockbusters — while others are bubbling-under comedians, reliable character actors, and rising stars in the streaming space. It's easy to watch "Sirens" and wonder where you've seen the cast before. If you're stuck scratching your head, don't fear; we've got your breakdown right here.

Julianne Moore plays Michaela on "Sirens," the ultra-rich woman who runs the massive mansion where Simone works. On the surface, she's a bird-obsessed wealthy lady who puts on a facade of pleasantry. Cross her, though — by buying the wrong flowers, for example, or gate-crashing her massive gala — and she'll give you one of the most withering looks you've ever experienced. She also expects a lot from her staff. In one memorable scene, she gives her gum to Simone to chew. "We did it. We really did it," Moore revealed to FOX 13 Seattle. "I took [the gum] out of my mouth and put it in hers. It was just awful."

If you're thinking that you've seen Moore play this kind of out-of-touch character before, you may have seen Todd Haynes' 2023 film "May December." In that movie, Moore played a former teacher who married the man she seduced when he was a child. She was up for the challenge, according to an interview with Deadline. "Something [about her] feels uncomfortable, like being gaslit. I was so interested in it, and so compelled by it, and even frightened by it," she said.

Moore worked with Haynes before, in films like "Far From Heaven" and "Safe." She is also an Oscar winner thanks to her role in "Still Alice," a movie about a woman who develops early-onset dementia; however, she surprisingly got her start on the soap opera "As the World Turns." You may know her from more mainstream fare that ranges from "The Big Lebowski" to "Boogie Nights" and "30 Rock."

As Simone, the stunning Milly Alcock pulls off an interesting balancing act. She's a character from humble beginnings, but she's managed to ingratiate herself into Michaela's world, moving among unimaginable levels of money. When her troublesome sister shows up on the island, however, Simone's two worlds collide, and she has to make a choice about which version of herself she'll be true to. Alcock told Town & Country that she recognized that juxtaposition when signing on to the series, musing, "We live in a world where money changes our perception of the way that we are afforded to live. There's a fascination with wealth; there's a morbid curiosity in wanting to see them fail."

Alcock knows all about playing a character who betrays her family. Though she's been acting for more than a decade, appearing in projects like "High Life," "Pine Gap," and "Reckoning," Alcock broke out as Rhaenyra Targaryen on HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel, "House of the Dragon." She told Nylon that the older cast on that show were instrumental in her growth as an actor, learning how to behave on a massive set like that. "They kind of all saw that we were young and that this was a completely new environment," she said. "They quickly made sure that we felt comfortable and kind of educated us on when to speak up and how to treat crew. They were phenomenal role models in just the way to behave on set and learning when to speak up."

If you're able to place why you recognize only one person from the "Sirens" cast, it's probably Kevin Bacon, who plays Michaela's husband Peter. Michaela runs the house, sure, but as Michaela says when questioned, "We all work for Peter." He holds sway behind the scenes, and as the show goes on, he's revealed to be much more of a power player than he initally appears. Nevertheless, Bacon was all too happy to cede the spotlight to the women he co-stars with. "I had to go on faith that he was going to have an interesting character arc," he told Netflix's Tudum. "There's a lot of great characters in that show, as you know, and a lot of fantastic parts. But it's clearly the story of the women."

Bacon has been a regular presence in Hollywood for decades. You may know him from films like "Tremors," "Mystic River," "Hollow Man," or "Apollo 13." He's been on shows like "I Love Dick," "The Bondsman," cult thriller "The Following," and "City On A Hill," and he even played himself on "Will & Grace." Plus, like Julianne Moore, Bacon got his showbiz start on a classic soap opera.

Perhaps most famously, Bacon starred as Ren in "Footloose," the classic '80s film about a kid who just wants to dance. Looking back at the enduring movie decades later, Bacon told Today, "I think that it was a great gift to be part of that movie."

Meghann Fahy plays Devon on "Sirens," Simone's sister who just wants help caring for their father. She tracks her sister down to the strange island where she now works, showing up unannounced and lugging a giant Edible Arrangement. Whereas Simone is now super polished and respectable, Devon is still kind of a mess. She's introduced after spending a night in jail and in many ways, it only gets worse from there. The character represents quite a departure for Fahy, whose characters are often more like Simone than Devon. "I have played so many glamorous characters that I was really nervous nobody would want to let me try anything else," she told Netflix's Tudum. "So it was really exciting to get to step into that space with Devon."

Fahy has been acting a while, going back to playing a character called Devyn (with a "y!") on "Gossip Girl." More recently, Fahy's breakout roles include "The White Lotus" and "The Perfect Couple." In 2025, she starred in "Drop," a thriller about a woman on a date who receives threatening AirDrops on her phone. Describing her "White Lotus" character, Daphne, she told W Magazine, "She's one of these women you see on Instagram who always has a baby on her hip and is wearing this effortlessly flowy, beautiful dress that probably cost her $4,000. Everything seems simple, and that was Daphne to me." As you can see: a far cry from Devon.

"Sirens" starts with Devon leaving her life in Buffalo, heading to Port Haven to track down her sister. Thanks to the power of FaceTime, though, she stays in touch with a few people from her old life, including her Falafel Balls coworker (and former hookup) Ray (Josh Segarra). She harangues him into checking on her dad, which means he appears intermittently on phone calls. It's a relatively smaller role, but that doesn't mean Segarra doesn't knock it out of the park. He told Awards Buzz, "We're always trying to make the characters as interesting as possible. So, when you read it on the page, and I'm intrigued by what I'm reading ... it is my job to try to figure out what other life I can infuse this with."

If Segarra looks familiar, you might have spotted his breakout role as the delightfully infuriatingly himbo Lance in "The Other Two." He also appeared in "Scream VI," showed up as a singing pastor in "Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square," and plays Giorgio on the Apple TV+ show "The Big Door Prize."

Perhaps most prominently, Segarra joined the cast of "Abbott Elementary" in its third season; he plays Manny, a charming school district employee who briefly romances Quinta Brunson's Janine. Segarra told Remezcla that he hoped his character wouldn't come between Janine and her teacher beau Gregory (Tyler James Williams). "I am team Gregory," he revealed. "As Josh, I am team Gregory."

Simone has a lot going on in her new life on Port Haven, and that includes the fact that she has a secret boyfriend that she's trying to keep hidden from Michaela. His name is Ethan Corbin (Glenn Howerton), and at first he seems to be madly in love with her. As the season goes on, it becomes clear that Ethan just doesn't quite understand all of the pressure that Simone is under, leading to some excruciatingly awkward sequences. "My character's very kind of naive and slightly oblivious, and I sort of pride myself on being the exact opposite of that in the real world," Howerton told People. "I try really to hard to ... not move through the world in an oblivious manner."

Howerton is, of course, no stranger to acting out cringe on TV. Though you may know him from starring in films like "BlackBerry," "The Hunt," and "The Strangers," Howerton is best known as Dennis from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." The long-running FX comedy has followed Dennis and his oblivious friends for years, putting them through all manner of horrid, out-of-touch scenarios that fans can't seem to quit. Howerton, however, needed a break, and he took time off from co-writing the show. "I had probably close to three years where I wasn't in the writers' room breaking stories, so I definitely felt a renewed energy," he told Vulture in 2022. "For how burned out as I can sometimes feel on this show, I also recognize that it's such an extraordinarily unique opportunity for us to be able to tell stories."

Part of the appeal of "Sirens" is its "Upstairs/Downstairs" scenario, where the lifestyles of the rich and richer are contrasted with the servants who make it all possible. As Devon tries to infiltrate the world that Simone has built for herself, she comes up against Jose (Felix Solis), who manages the staff that are bossed around by Simone and, in turn, Michaela. Sometimes an ally and sometimes a foe, Jose is a fun character. Devon seems to think so, anyway, even licking his neck at one point. "We had an intimacy coordinator," Solis revealed to Decider, describing a meticulous rehearsal process that determined where, exactly, Meghann Fahy would be putting tongue to skin. Still, he said, the scene felt justified because of the show's writing. "[Jose] sees the human," Solis said, "the true, grounded, individual that has found their way into this other-than-realistic world."

Solis is a prolific actor. If you're watching "Sirens" because of Julianne Moore, you may remember him from "The Forgotten," a thriller about missing kids that they both starred in back in 2005. He's been in episodes of several different "Law & Order" franchises and has appeared on "Fringe," "Criminal Minds," "Made in Jersey," "The Rookie," and "Nurse Jackie," among many others.

Most famously, Solis played the villainous Omar Navarro on the third and fourth seasons of "Ozark." He told People, "My responsibility as an actor seems to be that I try to make every character that I play somebody that is more human."

As Devon inserts herself into the world of Port Haven, she begins to meet a number of colorful characters who populate this insular island community. In the show's first episode, she can't help but fall for a handsome guy named Jordan (Trevor Salter), and they hook up on his boat. Well, it's actually his boss' boat. It turns out that Jordan works for Ethan, Simone's secret boyfriend, and he may be way more involved in the goings-on at Michaela's mansion than he initially lets on.

Salter told Brit that he loved working with Meghann Fahy and Julianne Moore, revealing that they actually got to improvise together. "We had so much fun improv-ing, and there's so much comedic gold amongst the cast," he said. "We had a lot of group scenes where we were just cracking each other up."

Compared to much of the cast, Salter is relatively early in his career, but you may recognize him from his arc on the Disney+ Marvel series "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law." He played Josh Miller, an intelligence agent who pretends to date Tatiana Maslany's titular superhero. He can also be spotted in episodes of "The Equalizer," "FBI," and "Blue Bloods."

One of the best things about "Sirens" is that the entire cast pulls their weight, even people who have relatively smaller recurring roles. That includes Lauren Weedman, the actor who plays a wise-cracking cook named Patrice. In real life, Weedman has Bell's palsy, which occasionally causes paralysis of her facial muscles. (This could be why your face is feeling numb!) She told HuffPost that she was initially nervous about telling the "Sirens" showrunners about the condition, but thankfully, they were more than receptive to simply making that part of the character. "The idea of sitting out and waiting for it to get better just was not an option," she said, revealing that she was unexpectedly touched by how nice everyone was. "It was really hard for me to think that I mattered," she added.

She's a total scene stealer on "Sirens," and if Weedman looks familiar, it may be because she's one of the most reliable scene-stealers on television, period. In addition to winning hearts as Doris on "Looking," Weedman — Bell's palsy and all — can also be seen on "Abbott Elementary" and "Hacks," in which she plays philandering Las Vegas mayor Jo Pezzimenti. Mayor Jo was the centerpiece of a pivotal Season 4 episode about the treatment of women in media, something that Weedman was excited to portray. "I'm so happy that I get to be a part of a show that addresses that," she told UPI.

One of Devon's grounding characteristics is that she's not just a wild-child party girl out to ruin her sister's life — though she is that. She's also a wild child who's desperately trying to do right by her father Bruce (Bill Camp), a man with dementia whose condition seems to be getting worse. He's back home in Buffalo while Devon visits Simone on Port Haven, but Camp manages to bring across a heartbreaking performance anyway, even if some of it takes place over FaceTime. He told Manny the Movie Guy that the family dynamic was intriguingly complicated, remarking, "They're all complicit. It's a three-way street, and they are three. And they're the triangle of codependence, basically."

Camp is a celebrated character actor with a seriously impressive resume, boasting roles in Best Picture winners like "12 Years a Slave" and "Birdman." He's also been in films like "Sound of Freedom," "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," "Molly's Game," "White Noise," and many, many more.

If you're a Netflix fan, you may know Camp from his role on "The Queen's Gambit." He played Mr. Shaibel on the streaming hit, the mentor who teaches the younger version of Anya Taylor-Joy's character how to play chess. Camp doesn't mind being a character actor, telling Backstage, "The bottom line is that I get hired to tell just a piece of a mosaic. I'm to serve the story. I'm there to serve."

If you're a fan of streaming comedies, chances are you recognized Catherine Cohen, the actor who plays Lily-Rose. She first shows up in the show's second episode, a drunk girl at the jail who seems to think that Devon's name is Kevin. Still, she's got some deliciously juicy tea to spill about life on the island, making a memorable impression with limited screen time. "This show is sooo juicy y'all are gonna luv," Cohen wrote on Instagram. "i play an amazing and drunk woman." That's all you need to know!

Cohen likely looks familiar thanks to her other memorable supporting roles on television, including appearances on "Search Party" and "Girls 5Eva." Perhaps most famously, she appeared on the fourth season of "Only Murders in the Building" as Trina Brothers, holding her own against heavyweights like Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. "I was obviously shaking to my core, nervous to meet everyone, but everyone was so nice and welcoming," she told IndieWire. "Everyone's like a mega star and they take the time to welcome you and make you feel like you're part of the fam."

Cohen is also a standup comedian with a thriving stage career in her own right. You may be familiar with her regular show, "Cabernet Cabaret," at Club Cumming in NYC, or you may have seen her fabulously raunchy Netflix special "Catherine Cohen: The Twist...? She's Gorgeous."