Here's What The Cast Of Mad Men Looks Like Today
Widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time, "Mad Men" debuted on screens in 2007, and the lives of television lovers everywhere were forever changed. The series followed the employees of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency in New York City in the 1960s. The show has been noted for its commentary on social issues of the time, particularly the dynamics of traditional gender roles. The show ran for seven seasons, won 16 Emmy Awards, and stands as one of AMC's most successful shows to date.
"Mad Men" didn't just delight fans — it catapulted a slew of unknown actors into superstardom. Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, January Jones, and more became household names because of the show, earning award nominations, critical acclaim, and a whole lot of money for their performances. "Mad Men" concluded in 2015 and since then, the actors who played the main characters in the show have steadily continued their careers.
From starring in other big TV series to hit movies and everything in between, the "Mad Men" cast has been easy to spot in the years since the show ended. But in case you haven't seen them on screen, here's what the cast of "Mad Men" looks like today.
Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm's career took a major turn when he landed the lead role in "Mad Men." Hamm played Don Draper, an advertising maven with a checkered past and a habit of cheating on his wife. While Hamm is now essentially synonymous with the show and won an Emmy for his depiction of Draper, he first had to prove to executives that he was right for the part.
The actor was put through seven separate auditions before he landed the role. Although the executives were confident in Hamm's acting, they were looking for someone with name recognition for the male lead. "I started at the very, very, very bottom. I was not even on the list," Hamm said in an interview on "The Howard Stern Show." After nailing all seven auditions, Hamm went on to become one of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Although he hasn't starred in anything nearly as successful as "Mad Men" since the series ended, Hamm has been steadily booking roles. He's had parts in projects like 2015's "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (which earned him another Emmy nomination), 2022's blockbuster hit "Top Gun: Maverick," the third season of the Apple TV+ original "The Morning Show," which aired in 2023. He will also serve as the lead in Season 5 of FX's "Fargo," which will begin airing in November 2023.
Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss played Peggy Olson on "Mad Men," an employee at the ad agency who starts as Don Draper's secretary and works her way up the corporate ladder. Moss was lauded for her performance in "Mad Men," earning multiple Emmy nominations for her work and becoming a household name in the process. When the show ended, Moss found work in several movies and some television projects, but her most notable role was as June Osborne in Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," which premiered in 2015 and will end after its sixth season in 2024.
Moss' work on "The Handmaid's Tale" has earned critical acclaim. In 2017, she earned two Emmy awards — one for Outstanding Drama Series as a producer on the show and another for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Moss has also directed multiple episodes.
"You're supposed to direct something that you feel connected to and you feel like you know how to tell the story, and that's how I felt about [The Handmaid's Tale]," Moss said in an interview with "Good Morning America." "It was a very natural transition in a way. I just felt like there was a part of this story that I really wanted to tell in a different way," she added.
Vincent Kartheiser
Vincent Kartheiser starred as Pete Campbell in "Mad Men," an ad agent who was always trying to prove himself and eventually did when he was named junior partner. Kartheiser had been in the entertainment industry for well over a decade when he was cast in "Mad Men," with some of his notable works including 2002's "Angel" and 2004's "Dandelion." Since "Mad Men" ended, Kartheiser has had episodes-long arcs on multiple television series such as 2016's "Casual," 2019's "Proven Innocent," and 2021's "Titans."
"Mad Men" didn't just give Kartheiser a paycheck and name recognition — it also introduced him to his future wife, Alexis Bledel, best known for her work on "Gilmore Girls." Kartheiser and Bledel met in 2012 when Bledel had a three-episode part in the show. By 2014, the couple married and in 2015, they welcomed their first and only child together. In 2022, however, the couple announced that they were getting a divorce.
"They didn't have a huge circle of friends but they both made up for it with very thriving and busy careers — almost to a fault," a source told Us Weekly of Kartheiser and Bledel's relationship. "Vincent has always been a little bit of a lone wolf and he's going to benefit from time on his own," the source added.
January Jones
January Jones' acting career began in earnest in the late '90s, and while she had roles in popular films in the early aughts, like "Anger Management" and "Love Actually," her big break came in 2007 when she took the role of Betty Draper, later Betty Francis, the glamorous wife and later ex-wife of Don Draper, in "Mad Men."
When the show ended, Jones feared that she might always be associated with her role as Betty and struggle to land different types of parts, but after a conversation with her "Anger Management" co-star Jack Nicholson, she had a change of heart. "I can still work and do different things that might be different, but it's never going to be as big of a struggle as it was before I did [Mad Men]," Jones said of her career in an interview with BUILD. "If I'm always remembered as [Betty], that's not a bad thing," she added.
Jones was certainly able to find work after "Mad Men" ended. From 2015 to 2018, Jones starred in the Emmy-nominated hit series "The Last Man on Earth" alongside Will Forte. She also had a supporting role in the 2023 film "God Is a Bullet," among other projects.
Christina Hendricks
Christina Hendricks played Joan Harris in "Mad Men." Joan was employed at the ad agency and climbed the corporate ladder, beginning as an office manager and eventually becoming a junior partner. Hendricks received widespread praise for her role in the show, receiving Emmy nominations for six of the seven seasons of the show.
Despite the show being so successful and her work being critically praised, Hendricks had to field unwarranted questions. "There certainly was a time when we were very critically acclaimed, and getting a lot of attention for our very good work and our very hard work, and everyone just wanted to ask me about my bra again," Hendricks said in a 2021 interview with The Guardian. "There are only two sentences to say about a bra," she added.
Following "Mad Men," Hendricks has remained busy with projects like 2015's "Another Period," 2017's "Tin Star," and 2019's "Toy Story 4." Hendricks also had a starring role in the series "Good Girls," which lasted from 2018 to 2021.
Aaron Staton
Aaron Staton played Ken Cosgrove on "Mad Men," an account executive at the ad agency who eventually became known as the guy with the eye patch after losing his eye in a hunting accident. While his acting career continued steadily after "Mad Men" was canceled, Staton still mourned the loss of the show.
"It was emotional. And it was surreal. It was quite honestly, way more emotional, for the final shot of the whole series," Staton told Esquire. "That was more emotional than whatever my last shot was. Everybody had a last shot. That felt surreal. Both were surreal, but that one [the final shot] was more like a funeral," he added.
It wasn't long after the drama came to a close that Staton was seen again on TV screens. The actor has had multi-episode guest spots on a variety of series, like "Ray Donavan," which he appeared in from 2015 to 2016, "Castle Rock" from 2018 to 2019, and the 2023 Peacock original series "Based on a True Story," alongside Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina.
Rich Sommer
Rich Sommer was cast as Harry Crane in "Mad Men." Like many other employees at Sterling Cooper, Harry held multiple job positions at the agency, starting with account manager and ending with the head of the television department. However, you probably recognized him in "Mad Men" thanks to his earliest film — 2006's "The Devil Wears Prada." In a 2023 interview for New Mexico Entertainment, Sommer said of the role, "That was thrilling. It was my first job that wasn't a TV commercial." His career hasn't slowed down since then — including after "Man Men" ended.
Following the final season of "Mad Men" in 2015, Sommer has worked on sets like "Masters of Sex" in 2016, "Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later" in 2017, and "In the Dark" from 2019 to 2020. Sommer starred in Netflix's "GLOW" from 2017 to 2019 and nabbed roles in multiple HBO projects, including 2023's "White House Plumbers" and 2022's "Minx," which moved to Starz in 2023.
John Slattery
John Slattery was known to some prior to "Mad Men," but his role in the show has since defined his career. Slattery played Roger Sterling, a senior partner at Sterling Cooper whose nepo baby status afforded him a notably luxurious wardrobe. Slattery still looks back at his time on the show fondly. As he said in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly, "It's hard to top ['Mad Men'] as far as everything about it. The writing, the cast. It was the experience of a lifetime." But the actor is happy to have other acting jobs, too. "I'm not looking to recreate that experience or moaning that anything isn't that. I had that. I feel lucky for having had it and I'm totally fine doing other things," he added.
The name recognition Slattery earned from his time on "Mad Men" has allowed him to have roles in other popular shows. Slattery was cast in multiple episodes of "Veep" in 2016 and an episode of "Girls5eva" in 2021, among other projects. In 2023, Slattery even made a cameo as himself in an episode of the Emmy-winning FX series "What We Do in the Shadows."
Kiernan Shipka
Kiernan Shipka had been in a handful of films and TV shows when she was cast as Sally Draper, the daughter of Don and Betty Draper, in "Mad Men." Shipka's work on the show brought the child star plenty of work when the drama ended. The actor is now known for playing the titular role in 2018's "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" and 2019's "The Silence."
In 2022, Shipka had a starring role in the coming-of-age film "Wildflower." I really think this is just a gem of a movie. It's chock-full of beautiful performances and at large I think it's a story that's really heartfelt and really sweet," Shipka told CNN in an interview about the film. "I think you're gonna watch the movie and walk away and feel good, inspired and touched and moved," she added.
Shipka also starred in 2023's Prime Video original horror film "Totally Killer" and had a role in an episode of the 2023 series "White House Plumbers," as did her former "Mad Men" co-star Rich Sommer.
Robert Morse
Robert Morse played Bert Cooper on "Mad Men," one of the founders of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, the corporation at the heart of the show. The actor was known for his decades-long career on screen and on stage, the former earning him an Emmy Award and the latter two Tony Awards. Following "Mad Men," he went on to star in "American Crime Story" and lent his voice to various TV series like "Sofia the First" and "Animals." Sadly, in 2022, he died at the age of 90.
One of Morse's most memorable moments in "Mad Men" was the musical number he performed during his final episode. "It's just obvious that ['Mad Men' showrunner] Matt Weiner really paid homage to me with this episode. I get misty-eyed thinking about it," Morse said of the scene in an interview with Vanity Fair back in 2014.
Following Morse's death, his former "Mad Men" co-star Rich Sommers tweeted, "Just about every person working at MM came down to watch him do this. We were all a mess. It was beautiful and strange, and so was he. RIP Bobby" (via Fox 8).
Christopher Stanley
Christopher Stanley starred as Henry Francis in "Mad Men," an employee of Nelson Rockefeller and Betty Draper's husband after she and Don Draper got a divorce. Before joining the hit series, Stanley mostly had small arcs in TV series such as 1997's "NYPD Blue," 1998's "L.A. Doctors," and 2001's "The X-Files." After "Mad Men" ended, Stanley's career returned to form, and he found parts on shows like 2016's "Lethal Weapon" and 2018's "Waco." In 2021, Stanley joined the Ryan Murphey universe with a three-episode part in a Season 10 of "American Horror Story."
Stanley enjoyed acting as Henry Francis on "Mad Men," but as he shared in an interview with AV Club, he thought playing Roger Sterling would have been enjoyable, too. "He was fun. He was this character who is so unlike myself. He just throws caution to the wind with a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants attitude. He's really unconscious," Stanley said of the character. "A nod to John Slattery for doing an amazing job, because like I said, I could never bring to Roger what John did," he added.
Jessica Paré
Jessica Paré gained notoriety as an actor when she joined the cast of "Mad Men." Paré played Megan Calvet, an employee at the ad agency who became Don Draper's second wife after his divorce from Betty Draper. As Paré shared in an interview with Stylist, being cast in "Mad Men" was the best thing that could've happened to her career. "Everything changed. Like, I was able to pay rent. And I had this old car. The engine had rusted through and the wheels were going to fall off. It was really bad," Paré said.
After "Mad Men," Paré had parts in a few movies, like 2016's "Lovesick" and 2018's "Another Kind of Wedding." Soon after, she found her way back to television, having small roles on shows like "Six" in 2018 and "The Simpsons" in 2021. Her most notable part, even more notable than "Mad Men," however, is her role in the Emmy-nominated series "SEAL Team." Although she was no longer a series regular after Season 4, she continued to star in the show and is even slated to return for Season 7. "On a personal level, we love Jessica and she has and will always be an integral part of the SEAL Team family," showrunner Spencer Hudnut told Deadline in 2020. Paré also went on to direct a few episodes of the series.