Why The Cast Of The Waterfront Looks So Familiar

If there's one thing Netflix loves to do, it's give us a summer show that generates a whole lot of buzz (and views). In 2025, the streaming service released "The Waterfront," a crime drama following a North Carolina family doing everything they can to save their fishing empire. The show was the brainchild of Kevin Williamson, the writer behind the "Scream" franchise, as well as the creator of "Dawson's Creek" and "The Vampire Diaries." And yes, like Williamson's other notable titles, "The Waterfront" is a compelling watch. 

As if all of that information wasn't enough to reel viewers in, "The Waterfront" happens to boast quite an impressive ensemble cast. Some of the actors on this show are established fixtures of the industry who have been in movies and on television for several decades, and others are relative newcomers who sure seem to have bright careers ahead of them. Here is where you've seen the stars of the Netflix original series before.

Holt McCallany,  who plays as Harlan Buckley on Netflix's original series "The Waterfront," is no stranger to the streaming service. He played Bill Tench on "Mindhunter" and Neil Bishop on "The Lincoln Lawyer," both of which were released on the platform. His long list of non-Netflix TV credits includes shows like "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order: SVU," and "Lights Out." McCallany's also a silver screen veteran, recently acting in acclaimed movies like "The Iron Claw" and "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning." Reflecting on his decades-long career, McCallany told Men's Health, "Part of being a successful working actor is being able to adapt to different kinds of situations and different directors, different kinds of projects. You're never quite sure what the experience is going to be like until you get there."

Long before any of those roles came about, however, McCallany was in another major movie: "Fight Club." The film, of course, has now become a cult favorite, and McCallany knew how special "Fight Club" was while they were shooting it. "Very rarely in an actor's career is it clear and apparent, while you're shooting something, that you're a part of something really memorable. You're making a classic, and you know it," McCallany told Vulture.

Melissa Benoist made a splash in 2025 thanks to her work as Bree Buckley on "The Waterfront," but fans of all things superhero know that the Netflix show is hardly her breakout role. The actor starred as the eponymous character in Netflix's "Supergirl" and saw the role out through its entire six-season run. Before that, the actor joined the cast of "Glee," playing Marley Rose after the bulk of the main characters graduated from high school in the series. "It was definitely a transition, and I felt a lot of pressure at first to fill this role in the choir room that was missing because of all of the people that graduated on the show. But it's this new, fresh energy, and it feels like a different show," Benoist told Teen Vogue of her work on "Glee."

Despite all of her experience on television series, Benoist found her character on "The Waterfront" to be fresh and challenging, and she was honored to play the role. "I've never played a role like this. I was really struck by the fact that [creator] Kevin Williamson was going to trust me with it, and felt that I was capable of doing it ... I texted him, like, 'Thank you for trusting me with this,'" Benoist told Tudum.

When Jake Weary took on the role of Cane Buckley on "The Waterfront," he was excited to dig into the part. "It was a character that I've never really explored before, someone who is really outwardly charismatic and charming and trying to use his charms to get certain things and manipulate people," Weary told UPI. "I usually play characters that just scowl all the time, so I thought it was kind of a nice game changer for me."

If there's one thing Weary's filmography proves, it's that he likes to push himself as an actor and take on totally different projects. Among his credits are "Chicago Fire," "Pretty Little Liars," "The Walking Dead: Dead City," "It Follows," "It Chapter Two," "As the World Turns," and "Animal Kingdom." 

On the hit TNT series, Weary played Deran, the youngest son in the Cody family. In 2022, after six seasons, "Animal Kingdom" ended, and Weary looked back on the entire experience with regard. "I think being able to share all these experiences with other people is the most beautiful thing. You can just look back, and you're not alone in your gratitude that we've accomplished the show. Being able to share that with people you love is incredibly important," Weary told CBR.

If you're a fan of the "9-1-1" franchise, then you certainly recognize the actor who plays Shawn Wilson on "The Waterfront." For five seasons, Rafael L. Silva starred as Carlos Reyes in the Emmy-nominated series "9-1-1: Lone Star" alongside Rob Lowe. This was Silva's breakout role, and after the show drew to a close in 2025, he said he'd be open to the idea of a spinoff for his character. "There were ideas floating around about spinning off this world into something else, and I think that was a legitimate and smart idea. I just don't think the time is right. He will live forever in a sense, but I think his story is not over," Silva told Collider.

For now, though, Silva seems satisfied with his work, particularly with playing Shawn on "The Waterfront." In an interview with Today, the actor shared that he resonated with much of his character's storyline. "The places where Shawn and I may share in our own existence is this blessed ignorance of not knowing what's ahead, but knowing that you have to let go of everything that you have in order to find out what you're capable of having or receiving in the future," Silva said.

Humberly González has been working in Hollywood for a decade, and she's already racked up a number of major credits. Before González took on the part of Jenna Tate on the 2025 series "The Waterfront," she was best known for playing Sophie Sanchez on another popular Netflix original, "Ginny & Georgia." Landing not one, but two gigs on the streaming service has been huge for her career. "The Netflix [Instagram] pages are posting the 'Ginny & Georgia' and 'The Waterfront' photos next to each other, and it's so surreal to see it. That's my literal dream. It doesn't feel real. I literally texted my team, 'You guys, what's going on? This is amazing!'" González said in an interview with The Nerds of Color.

González also happens to be part of a legendary cinematic universe: Star Wars. In 2024, González lent her voice to the main character of "Star Wars Outlaws," a video game, and she couldn't wait to take on the role. "I didn't put pressure on myself that it was Star Wars. It didn't make me feel scared. I felt like this is the kind of project that would bring potentially different conversations that could be polarizing, but at the end of the day, there's not a lot of opportunities for Latinas to lead a Star Wars project. I felt very proud," she told Polygon.

Danielle Campbell, aka Peyton Buckely on "The Waterfront," has accrued a handful of acting credits. Among her most notable projects are "The Rookie," "Drop Dead Diva," and "Prison Break." "The Vampire Diaries" fans almost certainly know her from "The Originals." On the supernatural series, which was a spinoff of "The Vampire Diaries," Campbell played Davina Clare, a witch who lives in New Orleans. "I had some of the best memories shooting on that show. I did about three seasons fully and then went back for episodes through the fifth season. I'm still really close with all the cast, the creators. And Atlanta was a blast to shoot in," Campbell said of "The Originals" in an interview with Miami Living.

Campbell also starred in "Tell Me a Story," a CBS All Access original thriller series. The show also starred Paul Wesley, who played one of the main characters on "The Vampire Diaries" until it was canceled and appeared on some episodes of "The Originals." "It's been actually wonderful because I've known Paul for so many years because of 'Vampire Dairies' and 'The Originals.' So now, actually getting to work with him, he's hysterical. Getting to work with him has been such a pleasure, and he's a phenomenal actor to work off of," Campbell said to TV Guide of working with Wesley. Oh, the vampiric connections don't end there: Now Campbell's working with "The Vampire Diaries" creator Kevin Williamson on "The Waterfront." 

Maria Bello, who was brought on to play Belle Buckley on Netflix's hit series "The Waterfront," has been acting since the '90s. Her vast filmography includes projects like "Beef," "NCIS," "Assault on Precinct 13," "A History of Violence," "ER," "Flicka," and "Coyote Ugly." The beloved 2000 film's cast also included John Goodman, Tyra Banks, Bridget Moynahan, Melanie Lynskey, and Piper Perabo. Needless to say, the "Coyote Ugly" cast is a crazy gorgeous group.

As if building a thriving acting career for herself wasn't impressive enough, Bello also was a co-writer and producer on the critically-acclaimed film "The Woman King." The movie, which stars Viola Davis and was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, was one Bello had been wanting to make since she was in college. "I realized there were really no history books about women. The only women I could find in America were like Betsy Ross. She sewed the flag, and then what?" Bello said of her idea in an interview with Vanity Fair. Determined to make what she called "a female 'Braveheart'" set in West Africa, Bello assembled the right group of people to make "The Woman King," and she was thrilled with the result. "It was better than I could have ever imagined. To see something that was in my head for so long, but to see it so elevated because of the work of those actors, and of Viola Davis and of Gina, I just live in gratitude to have been able to be a part of this whole process," Bello said.

Dave Annable has been busy at work in television for decades. Prior to playing Wes Larsen on "The Waterfront," the actor popped up on a number of big shows, including a part on the wildly popular Westerns series "Yellowstone." The actor was on "Yellowstone" for only a few episodes, but he did have a chance to film with star Kevin Costner. "My first scene was — I was dead on the horse — where Costner picks me off the horse and sort of lays me in his lap ... And in the scene he's saying this beautiful monologue and he's kissing my forehead, he's crying," Annable told Taste of Country of the scene. "All I can think about was how much my mom would want to trade places with me." While Kevin Costner might not be able to escape some messy rumors, it sounds like Annable's time working with him was a positive experience.

Before he was making Costner fans jealous, Annable had a starring role on the series "Brothers & Sisters." Annable was on the Emmy-winning show throughout its entire run, and he'd like to see it return to air. "That was such a special job and I just, in awe of everybody I worked with, and it was such a special time in my life. I would do a reunion in a heartbeat," Annable said an iHeartRadio event in 2024, as reported by Life & Style.

Topher Grace, who played Grady on "The Waterfront," shot to stardom in the early 2000s after he joined the cast of "That '70s Show." On the hit sitcom, he played Eric Forman, the "nice guy" protagonist who navigated romantic relationships, went through highs and lows with his friends, and tried to avoid getting in trouble with his parents. Since then, Grace has appeared in a variety of other television and movie projects, even reprising the career-making role for one episode of the short-lived spin-off "That '90s Show." He dabbled in the sitcom world again when he was tapped to play the lead on "Home Economics," an ABC series that ran for three seasons. 

Grace's characters on "That '70s Show" and "Home Economics" were "nice guys," but the actor has proven to have range, playing a villain in projects like "BlacKkKlansman," "Spider-Man 3," and "The Waterfront." Grace is evidently so good at playing a bad dude that Kevin Williamson, creator of "The Waterfront," wrote the character with him in mind. The actor was honored and didn't hesitate to jump on board. "It's weird. You're kind of like, 'I guess it's a compliment,'" Grace said on "Today" in 2025. "That's the most seductive thing you can say to an actor is, 'I wrote it with you in mind.' Then you kind of have to do it."

If you watch a lot of TV shows and movies, then you've definitely seen Michael Gaston in a thing or two. Gaston, who played Sheriff Clyde Porter on "The Waterfront," has been working in Hollywood for so long that it's almost impossible to nail down what he's most recognizable in. He's acted on huge shows like "Prison Break," "The Sopranos," "Yellowstone," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "How to Get Away With Murder," and "The West Wing" — and that's just barely scratching the surface of his resume.

In 2022, he was in "Five Days at Memorial," a miniseries depicting New Orleans hospital that was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Gaston played Arthur Schafer in the Emmy-winning series, and the actor was ecstatic to be a part of this project. "I made the audition tape from my sunroom at my house and I sent it in, and I was offered the job. I was thrilled. I was really, really lucky to get picked out of the group to play that part," he said in an interview with Awards Daily.

Brady Hepner is just getting started in his acting career, but he's already earned some big credits. The actor, who is Diller Hopkins on "The Waterfront," has had one-episode roles on series like "Chicago Fire," "See/Saw," and "FBI: International," but he might be best known for his work in the Oscar-winning Christmas film "The Holdovers," which starred Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Hepner knew immediately after reading the script that he wanted to be part of the Alexander Payne-helmed project. "There was no doubt in my mind that the movie was set for tons of awards or set for greatness," Hepner said on an episode of the podcast "Pictures and Patter."

A few years after he filmed "The Holdovers," Hepner joined the cast of "The Waterfront." Evidently, it was a natural fit as the actor is from North Carolina, which, of course, is where the series takes place. "There's something really special about filming in Wilmington [North Carolina]. You get to go to a place where you know where all the locals go, where all the great restaurants are. And then after you film, you and the cast can always just run off and go to the beach," Hepner said of filming in his home state on WECT.