Why The Cast Of White Lotus Season 3 Looks So Familiar

Writer/director Mike White's HBO show "The White Lotus" first premiered in 2021, one of the first television shows to have emerged from the pandemic, complete with an impressively catchy soundtrack. It's a satire set at a series of luxury resorts around the world, taking a scalpel to the depraved, depressed, dejected lives of the upper class. It's funny and sexy, outrageous and offensive, and — given the number of dead bodies that keep turning up at these hotels — occasionally pretty violent.

After a two-year break, the show finally returned in February 2025. In addition to introducing us to a new White Lotus hotel, this time in Thailand, there's a new crop of guests that fans are excited to watch lose their minds. White handles everything himself, penning each script and directing every episode, and he told Time that this time around, he's going big. "I do feel like the other seasons were a rehearsal for this one," he said. "There's stuff that I've never directed before."

Going big includes a larger cast, too, full of faces both familiar and new. As the season unfolds and all their various conflicts bubble up to the surface, fans may find themselves wondering just why the cast of Season 3 of "The White Lotus" looks so familiar. Fear not — we've got a guide for you below.

As big fans of "The White Lotus" know, the second season of the series brought Jennifer Coolidge's character Tanya back for another stay. The third season similarly dips into the first season's cast for a returning character, this time reintroducing us to Natasha Rothwell's Belinda. In Season 1, she is an employee of the White Lotus hotel in Hawaii, but in Season 3, Belinda takes a trip to Thailand to learn about her sister resort's wellness offerings.

This time around, Rothwell promised Time that we'd get to learn more about who Belinda is as a person. After all, she was working in the first season; in Season 3, she gets to relax a bit. "This kind of work trip treads that line of professional and personal," Rothwell explained. "We get to see Belinda outside of a uniform and exploring the world as a fully formed, three-dimensional character who has all those feelings: curiosity, interest, flirtation."

In addition to recognizing Rothwell from "The White Lotus," you may also know her as Kelli, one of the consistently funniest (and most GIFable) characters on "Insecure." She also created and starred in "How To Die Alone," a 2024 Hulu sitcom that was unfortunately canceled after one season. Additionally, you can spot Rothwell in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" films, "Love, Simon," and "A Black Lady Sketch Show."

One thing "The White Lotus" does well is its exploration of some pretty messed-up family dynamics. Who can forget all the squabbling among the Mossbacher family in the first season, or the way Leo Woodall's Season 2 character slept with someone we thought was his uncle? In the third season, the main family is the Ratliffs, and they're presided over by a patriarch named Timothy. In the season premiere, while his kids get into trouble all their own, Timothy is hounded by a reporter over some past business dealings.

Jason Isaacs confessed to People that he was unfamiliar with the first two seasons when he auditioned. He told Mike White he loved it anyway, and then before he could be called on his bluff, he binged everything. "I watched all of them in like a day and a half. I basically sat and stewed in my own filth, watched it and realized why people had made such a fuss," he confessed. "And then I was a fan, but by then I think I had the job."

If you couldn't quite place Isaacs while watching "The White Lotus," it may be because he's without long blond hair. That's how Isaacs looked in the "Harry Potter" franchise, in which he played the villainous Lucius Malfoy across multiple films. He's also been on plenty of television shows, including "The OA," "Good Sam," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "Awake." Film roles include "The Patriot," "Mass," and "Fury."

On the third season of "The White Lotus," Parker Posey plays Victoria Ratliff, the mischievous wife of Jason Isaacs' character Timothy. After the season premiere, it's unclear exactly what Victoria's arc will be on the season, but we know that she's looking forward to some steamy alone time with her husband ... even though he couldn't be less interested in sleeping with her. Uh oh!

Posey's syrupy Southern drawl surprised viewers; after all, she usually doesn't sound like that in her other roles. She explained the accent choice in an interview with Variety, noting that you can tell a lot about the character's personality through the way she speaks. "I wanted to bring like a snotty affect," she said. "It was so fun to play. It's the theatricality of Southerners. I'm from the South so I was so happy to bring that Tennessee Williams kind of drama, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.'"

She's been a darling of the indie film scene since the early 1990s, so you may recognize Posey from roles like "Dazed and Confused," "Party Girl," or "Waiting for Guffman." She played a scream queen named Jennifer Jolie in "Scream 3," and more recently, Posey starred on Netflix's "Lost in Space" and could be seen in films like "Beau is Afraid" and "Thelma." 

Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Saxon Ratliff in the third season of "The White Lotus," the eldest son of Timothy and Victoria. He works for his father's company, but while the family is on vacation in Thailand, Saxon looks forward to hooking up with as many women as he can get his hands on. In fact, he seems pretty obsessed with sex — even the sex lives of his two younger siblings. We'll say it again: uh oh!

"The White Lotus" is great at launching hunks into the pop culture stratosphere, and Schwarzenegger took full advantage of his looks in his audition. He told Vanity Fair, "The first couple seconds of the audition tape, I just was like, for lack of a better word, eye-f***ing, or kind of checking out the camera, and then approaching it as if the camera was a girl. And they thought that was really funny and weird and cool."

In real life, Schwarzenegger has had quite the star-studded relationship history. And as his last name suggests, he is the son of — who else? — Arnold. His mother is a journalist and close friend to Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver, which makes him a (distant) member of the Kennedy dynasty. He's been following in his father's footsteps for a while, including in roles like "Midnight Sun," "The Staircase," and "Gen V." In 2024, he played Tim Tebow on "Aaron Hernandez: American Sports Story."

In "The White Lotus": Season 3, Michelle Monaghan plays television star Jaclyn Lemon. She's staying at The White Lotus in Thailand with her two best friends, good gal pals who knew her before she got famous. This trip is a chance to reconnect, but her wealth and fame put her in a different class than her besties, and "The White Lotus" is nothing if not an exploration of class. Just how long can all that resentment simmer before it boils over? Knowing this show, we're guessing: not long!

Monaghan relished the chance to film in Thailand, telling Travel + Leisure that getting to explore the country was one of the best aspects of shooting. "This is a literal dream job. The show is bigger than it's ever been, and we're doing it in a very special part of the world, so I'm excited for people to get to see Thailand through the eyes of 'White Lotus.'"

If you're wondering why Monaghan looks so familiar, it might be because she's been a regular veteran of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise ever since its third installment, when she kissed Tom Cruise instead of going on her honeymoon. She also starred in the first season of "True Detective" and projects like "Source Code," "The Path," "Messiah," and "MaXXXine."

Carrie Coon's character Laurie is one of television star Jaclyn's old friends who is along for a girls trip to make some new memories. Unfortunately, Laurie's pretty miserable. While the other two women banter easily, she feels on the outs, leading Coon to deliver an epic howl of anguish at the end of the season premiere.

Like her character, Coon looked to "The White Lotus" as a break from her normal life. She had to live in Thailand for six months to film, and she told The Washington Post that she learned a lot about herself. "The recovery of my personal autonomy was really the most amazing and profound experience of doing 'The White Lotus' for me," she said. Now, watching it back, she sees the work that went into that time in her life. "Every scene is fraught with the ... duress under which it was filmed," she said. "It's a shockingly emotional experience."

Coon is perhaps best known as the breakout star of "The Leftovers," a career boost that led to "Fargo" and her joining the cast of "The Gilded Age." She can also be seen in "Gone Girl," the newer "Ghostbusters" movies, and the 2024 film "His Three Daughters."

Of all the characters that viewers meet in the premiere episode of "The White Lotus," Aimee Lou Wood's Chelsea might be the smiliest. She's visiting Thailand with her older boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins), and though he doesn't seem particularly happy to be there, Chelsea's looking forward to living a life of luxury for a week.

Wood, who is best known for playing Aimee on Netflix's "Sex Education," seems poised for a breakout from this new season of "The White Lotus." After all, as she explained to Elle, she went from playing a high schooler to playing young moms. Now, she gets a chance to expand her range. "I am not the same person as I was pre-'White Lotus.' I had a lot of reckonings out there," she said. "I realized how important my anchors are in life."

In addition to "Sex Education," you may know Wood from the TV series "Alice & Jack" and "Daddy Issues." She also appeared in a film called "Seize Them!"

His girlfriend Chelsea may be giddy about the beauty that surrounds The White Lotus hotel in Thailand, but Walton Goggins' character Rick seems like he couldn't care less. Rick may have some anger issues going on; there's a lot of barely contained rage simmering under the surface. That's probably going to explode to the surface as the season continues, letting viewers witness Goggins at his full power.

At least, that's what Goggins seems to suggest in an interview with Time. "I read all eight scripts in a day. It took about 10 hours between a plane ride and then a glass of wine when I got home to get that full experience," he said. "I didn't anticipate where it was going. And by the end of it, I was gutted in such a visceral way. I use that word specifically. It's an emotional wrench."

Goggins was nominated for an Emmy in 2024 thanks to his startling turn in "Fallout," where he plays a ghoul who's had his face melted off by nuclear radiation. You may also know him from shows like "The Shield," "Justified," "Vice Principals," "The Righteous Gemstones."

Sam Nivola plays Lochlan "Lochy" Ratliff on "The White Lotus," the youngest Ratliff sibling. Whereas his older brother Saxon is looking to get laid and his sister's trying to interview a monk, Lochy's just along for the ride, simply planning to probably spend some time thinking about where he'd like to go to college. Oh, and then there's the fact that his older brother won't stop talking to him about sex. Nivola told Decider that he thinks his character mostly just wants his family to love him in, uh, any way they can. "He just wants an ocean of love," he said. "Like he just wants as much love as he can get from as many people as he can get it from. ... If going along with these sort of weird sex conversations is going to get him closer to that, he'll do it, you know?"

Nivola — who is the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola — is relatively early in his career, but he's had a few high-profile roles. You may recognize him from his role as Greta Gerwig's son in "White Noise," Bradley Cooper's son in "Maestro," and Nicole Kidman's son on the Netflix show "The Perfect Couple."

Leslie Bibb has undergone a stunning transformation as Kate in "The White Lotus," the third member of Jaclyn Lemon's girls-trip trio. Whereas Carrie Coon's character can't quite hang the way she used to, Kate seems determined to stay on Jaclyn's level, which we're sure definitely won't lead to tension down the line, right?

Bibb auditioned for the part because she was a fan of creator Mike White, telling Backstage she was happy to give her performance over to the director's vision. "There's never a question of the voice of the character; it's so funneled through Mike's prism," she said. "We were all scared s***less, but you knew Mike would not allow us to be bad actors."

If seeing Bibb at a fancy resort feels familiar, that might be because she also starred on the Apple TV+ series "Palm Royale." She's also been in films like "Iron Man," "Confessions of a Shopaholic," "Juror No. 2," "The Midnight Meat Train," and "The Babysitter."

In a cast full of heavy hitters, the actor who plays The White Lotus staff member Mook might just be the most famous person on the show. She's Lalisa Manobal, better known by the mononym Lisa, a member of the KPOP sensation BLACKPINK. In addition to having adoring fans around the world, she has 105 million Instagram followers — take that, Walton Goggins!

Lisa hadn't acted before, and she told The Hollywood Reporter that she was initially intimidated. "I was really nervous on set, to be honest," she said. "I don't know what to do, I don't know what to expect. Everything is so new." Thankfully, it all worked out. "I really had fun," she insisted. "Everybody [was] so nice, so supportive, such a professional [environment] and they helped me a lot."

Thankfully, it helped that Mook's storyline is a sweet romance, which provides quite a counterbalance to the show's more twisted plots. "I think [viewers are] going to love our storyline because it's just so sweet," Lisa said. "It's like a break."

The Ratliff family landed on Thailand as a vacation destination because their daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) is studying Buddhism. While they're staying at The White Lotus, Piper hopes to interview a nearby monk, seemingly seeking an escape from all the many forms of tension coursing through her family's conversations.

And, yes, that includes the incestuous stuff, which may or may not be happening solely between the brothers. After all, Saxon tells Lochlan, "For one, which I'm sure you've noticed, she's pretty hot! But I don't think she's ever been laid before." Hook joked to ScreenRant, "I've still got the ick." That's where her character's budding interest in Buddhism comes in. "I think she's looking for peace," Hook said, "and she's like, I've been with this kooky family long enough."

If you recognize Hook, you're likely a horror fan. She's been in "NOS4A2" and Hulu's "Monsterland," and in 2021, she starred in "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It." She also led the cast of the Netflix vampire show "First Kill," and in 2024, she played Caroline — essentially the Sarah Michelle Gellar role — in Prime Video's "Cruel Intentions" TV show.

The Season 3 premiere of "The White Lotus" opens with a frightening sequence featuring Nicholas Duvernay's character Zion. During a meditation session that hints he's Belinda's son, Zion finds his inner peace disrupted by what sure seems like a mass shooting erupting at the resort. Desperate to get back to his mother, Zion goes wading through a nearby body of water, coming upon a body floating there. Who's dead, you ask? This is "The White Lotus!" We'll likely find out in the finale.

While speaking with Esquire, Duvernay remained tight-lipped about what fans can expect from his role in the show. "There's not much I can say, but what I will say: It's the biggest season, it's the baddest season, and it's the messiest season," he teased. "It's like all the seasons kind of culminated into one, in the best but worst way, if that makes sense."

Between "The White Lotus" and a Banana Republic campaign, Esquire theorized that the actor may be headed for quite the breakout. If he already looks familiar, that might be because of his role in "Purple Hearts" or his arc as Drew on Peacock's "Bel-Air." He's also popped in on shows as varied as "S.W.A.T.," "All American: Homecoming," "The Rookie," and "Tyler Perry's Assisted Living."