Here's Why The Cast Of The Residence Looks So Familiar

Any Shonda Rhimes show tends to be a big deal, and her Netflix series "The Residence" is no exception. The television creator behind mega-hits like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Bridgerton" seems to break through any time she puts her name on a project. "The Residence" was perhaps even more poised to be a hit, as it brings the woman behind "Scandal" back to the White House, treading those old familiar halls for an altogether new kind of story.

Created and written by Paul William Davies, "The Residence" is a whodunnit. After a body turns up in the White House — which hasn't happened in decades — a brilliant detective is brought in to figure out how the man ended up dead in the part of the building where the first family lives. Complicating matters, the incident occurs during a massive state dinner, which means there are many people in the building, and any one of them could be a killer.

That setup means a massive cast — many of whom are famous faces. There are comedians and sitcom stars, several "Saturday Night Live" alums, Emmy winners, and even a pop music phenomenon. Read on to learn why the cast of "The Residence" looks so familiar.

When a body turns up dead at the White House, there's only one person to solve the case: Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba). She is considered the best detective in the world, and before the news has had a chance to spread through the state dinner, she's on site trying to see what she can see. Cordelia loves to bird-watch at inopportune moments and she has a tendency to ignore pleasantries to get right to the heart of a matter, but there's no denying that she notices things other people don't.

Aduba told The Wrap that she appreciated the way the character was written, crediting creator Paul William Davies with crafting a compelling character even before Cordelia became influenced by her performance. "His scripts sing," she said. "You can feel it, you can hear it. You can hear the rhythm of the material. That helped to inspire and inform how I wanted to approach [Cordelia]. It's a little bit of chicken and the egg, where he's responding to what I'm doing, but I'm actually responding to what he's written."

If you're wondering where you might've seen Aduba before, it might've been on Netflix. She first found acclaim as part of the cast of "Orange is the New Black," playing Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren, picking up a couple of Emmys for the role of a quirky prisoner. She also earned an Emmy nomination for "In Treatment" and won for her role in "Mrs. America."

Though he dies in the opening moments of "The Residence," Giancarlo Esposito's Chief Usher A.B. Wynter looms large over the show. He appears in flashbacks throughout the show's first season, intersecting with a number of other characters (and therefore, suspects) in the hours leading up to his death.

Esposito almost didn't play the part but ultimately took over for the late Andre Braugher after the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star died during filming. They knew each other and had even worked together before, which meant Esposito had to carefully consider whether he wanted to step into his friend's shoes. "When you know someone who you admired and were friendly with, it's a large task to go in and figure out how to reshoot what he did. That's an emotional trigger," he told Shondaland. "I looked at it as a way of honoring Andre and what he gave to us. Coming in to this project and finishing it [was a way of showing how] I deeply respected him and honored him."

Esposito has been acting for a long time, going back to his time on "Homicide: Life on the Street" with Braugher. He was in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing," played various characters on "Once Upon a Time," and showed up as Sidewinder in 2025's "Captain America: Brave New World." However, Esposito is perhaps best known for playing Gus Fring on "Breaking Bad" and its spinoff, "Better Call Saul." Thanks to that impressive resume, how much Giancarlo Esposito is actually worth may not surprise you.

On "The Residence," Ken Marino plays Harry Hollinger, best friend and confidante of the president. He's so close to the president, in fact, that Harry lives on the floor where A.B. Wynter's body is discovered, skyrocketing him to the top of the suspect list. He's convinced they've found a suicide and doesn't want Cordelia Cupp snooping around.

In other words, this is an unusual role for Marino, whose character is more outwardly malicious than he tends to play. He told Punch Drunk Critics that it still fit with his filmography, though, saying, "Throughout my career, I have enjoyed playing jerks. ... The way you are serving the story is not to make people like you but to make people dislike you or be annoyed by you. You're the obstacle in front of the main character."

Some of those previous jerks include Ron Donald on "Party Down," the beloved Starz comedy about cater waiters. He also played Streeter, a downright incompetent manager, on Max's "The Other Two." He played rival detective Vinnie Van Lowe on "Veronica Mars," led the cast of "Childrens Hospital," and starred as the sex-obsessed virgin Victor in "Wet Hot American Summer" and its various spinoff television shows. He told Vulture that he didn't find success until he realized he could go big, telling himself, "Make a decision, find a real way to express that, believe it, and then don't think that just because the choices are bigger or weirder that they're false."

More than 150 people are on the premises when A.B. Wynter dies. In addition to the staff, most of the guests have been invited there for a state dinner welcoming officials from Australia, and that all means that Cordelia Cupp's suspect list is incredibly long. She has Lilly Schumacher (Molly Griggs) to thank for that. After all, Lilly is in charge of planning events at the White House, so if anyone knows everything about everyone who's there, it's her.

Griggs told USA Today that one of the biggest challenges of the role was memorizing all of her dialogue. After all, Shonda Rhimes requires all of her actors to deliver lines exactly how they are written in the screenplay, no improvisation allowed. Thankfully, Griggs was up for it. "I come from a theater background, and that's the rule of thumb in theater as well," she said.

If you're not a regular theatergoer, you might be wondering where you've seen Griggs before. She's been on several other television shows, so you might know her as Eve on "Prodigal Son," Isabelle Carrick on "Servant," or as Wendy Young in the first season of "Dr. Death." Griggs' highest-profile role, however, might be famous because it's been forgotten. She played Grace Roy, Roman's wife-turned-girlfriend on several episodes of "Succession," appearing in the first season before the character was written out and never mentioned again.

Susan Kelechi Watson plays Jasmine Haney on "The Residence," A.B. Wynter's second in command. He, of course, doesn't survive the show's opening minutes, so Jasmine is forced to step up into the job she's always wanted. Because of her involvement in the case, however, she finds herself hauled in front of a Congressional committee to explain what, exactly, went on that night, helping narrate the ensuing investigation in flashback.

Chances are, you know Watson from her 100-plus episode stint as Beth Pearson on "This Is Us." In fact, "The Residence" even references her time on the NBC family drama. In one scene, Jasmine is asked to look at photographs, and when she sees one of herself and the rest of the staff, she says, "This is us." The "Louie" star told Deadline that she liked the line, noting, "You never realize how much you say 'This is us' in life as a regular phrase until you've been on that show. But it was something that I feel like fans will hear and pick up on. And I tried to do my due diligence to, I guess, camouflage it as best as I could, but it was kind of cool to be able to say it as well."

"This Is Us" was her breakthrough role, but Watson has been working in television for a long time. You may also know her from episodes of "The Blacklist," "The Good Wife," "Veep," "Billions," "Divorce," and more.

"The Residence" is told along two timelines. First, there's the night of A.B. Wynter's death, which forms the main timeline of the show. However, it's narrated by testimony in front of a Congressional committee, convened to figure out what exactly went wrong that night and in the weeks that followed. Was this simply a suicide, or is the White House involved in covering up a murder? That's what outspoken Senator Margery Bay Bix (Eliza Coupe) wants to find out, and if she has to interrupt someone's questioning to make a grand statement from the bench, she's not afraid to do it.

Though Coupe had to stick to the script like everyone else, her portrayal of Bix as a loudmouth was her own idea. "I chose to put it all out there. I wanted to go way over the top and asked them to just reel me in if it was too over the top," she told Shondaland. "I also suggested that my appearance match the volume in which I spoke. Colorful clothes and a little more glam than the rest of the people in the room. I mean, glam for a senator."

Coupe has been stealing scenes on television for a long time. She was in the final two seasons of the retooled "Scrubs," led the cast of Hulu's sci-fi comedy "Future Man," and has been on shows like "Benched" and "Pivoting." She also played fan-favorite character Jane on the beloved sitcom "Happy Endings."

A dead body in the middle of a massive party means you have many, many people wandering in and out of the potential crime scene. That includes Tripp Morgan (Jason Lee), the president's brother, who hears the commotion out in the hallway and goes back to bed. He's an eccentric guy, taken to wandering around the White House halls in his bathrobe, completely unimpressed by the fact that the building is full of some of the most important people in the world.

Lee is known for his roles in movies like "Vanilla Sky," "Chasing Amy," and the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" franchise. He was part of the cast of "Almost Famous," and he's also a television star, having played the titular role on the hit NBC sitcom "My Name is Earl" for four seasons. The series ended a while ago, which is actually what drew Lee to this project. "Wanting to be on TV again [made me take the part]," he told Black Girl Nerds. "And this was like, the absolute perfect project, and perfect, really fun, layered character. [He's a] loose canon, super unpredictable, and kind of [has] free reign to kind of do whatever, because he's living this kind of lawless, rebellious lifestyle within the White House." He concluded, "The whole package was super, super appealing to me."

One of the first shots in "The Residence" is a real stunner, as a floating camera takes us through the entire White House. We peer into various rooms, zoom off down hallways, look through doors, and ultimately land on the discovery of A.B. Wynter's dead body. Along the way, we briefly fly through the main ballroom, and we catch a quick glimpse of someone singing onstage, who is later revealed to be Australian pop superstar Kylie Minogue. It's a state dinner to welcome officials from Australia, after all, so the pint-sized singer of "Padam Padam" is the perfect entertainment for the night.

Creator Paul William Davies told Variety that he enjoyed working with the "Hold On To Now" singer. "For being Kylie, she's a very down-to-earth, warm, accessible person who really thought it would be fun. I was like, 'Anything you're able to do or willing to do, I'll write for you,'" he said. "So I wrote more because she was game."

If you can't get Minogue out of your head, you're not alone. Her pop career has spanned decades, including hits like "The Loco-Motion" and "Spinning Around." This is hardly her first time acting, too. She played the green fairy in "Moulin Rouge," fell off a roof in The Rock's earthquake thriller "San Andreas," and reprised her soap character Charlene on more than 500 episodes of "Neighbours." Needless to say, Kylie Minogue has gone through transformation after transformation through the years.

As Aussies go, how do you top casting Kylie Minogue to play herself? If you're the team behind "The Residence," you also cast Julian McMahon as the Australian Prime Minister. After all, it's a role he has some real-life knowledge about: That's a title his father once held. "I've always said I was never a good enough actor to go into politics," he joked to MediaVillage. "My family was pretty conservative and when I decided to enter this business, they were like, 'You have to be kidding!'" McMahon has another real-world connection to "The Residence," too: He was briefly married to Kylie Minogue's sister, Dannii.

McMahon's career in entertainment has worked out pretty well. You may recognize him instantly, as he was part of the cast of "Charmed." He also had a stint on the CBS smash "FBI: Most Wanted" and Hulu's "Runaways." In the 2000s, he played Doctor Doom in the "Fantastic Four" movies. Perhaps most famously, McMahon played a playboy plastic surgeon named Christian on Ryan Murphy's scandalous FX show "Nip/Tuck." He told Collider that he wasn't sure that show would hit, reflecting, "I didn't know if it would go past the pilot ... you know, you just don't know. I thought it was pretty out there." He ultimately played the part for a hundred episodes.

A massive scream kicks off "The Residence," alerting many members of the staff to the discovery of A.B. Wynter's body. That scream is delivered by legendary comedian Jane Curtin, who plays the president's mother-in-law Nan Cox. She's been on television for decades, including shows like "Kate & Allie," "3rd Rock from the Sun," and "Unforgettable."

Though she's been around a while, Curtin is perhaps still best known as one of the original cast members on "Saturday Night Live." Looking back on those early days in a 2023 interview with People, she noted that she didn't tag along when her infamously hard-partying castmates went out on the town. "I had a life — a dog, a husband, an apartment with a little garden," she said. "It was a life I really enjoyed."

Uzo Aduba was particularly happy to get to work with Curtin, whose deadpan comedy is iconic. She told The Boston Globe that she asked Curtin many questions on set, revealing, "She was also so generous with her stories and sharing. She was just absolutely lovely. A true professional."

Though Cordelia Cupp has been brought in to investigate the death of A.B. Wynter, she's not technically part of the Metropolitan Police. She's actually a consultant. For that reason, she gets paired with FBI Special Agent Edwin Park, a fellow investigator who pales in comparison to Cupp's superior intellect. He mostly just stands around ineffectively, which didn't bother actor Randall Park. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he didn't mind playing second fiddle to Uzo Aduba. "It was not challenging, but a little bit surprising to be on set and laughing with Uzo and singing songs," he said, "and then to go in front of the camera and have her just berate me."

Park is a prolific actor, especially since he broke out on the hit ABC sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat" as the patriarch of a family trying to make it in America. He played Jimmy Woo in "WandaVision" and several other Marvel projects, romanced Ali Wong in the charming rom-com "Always Be My Maybe," and starred as Kim Jong Un in the 2014 comedy "The Interview." In fact, that latter role nearly sparked a war, infuriating the real-life North Korean dictator. "It was kind of heartbreaking for me," he told The Independent. Thankfully, his career recovered, reaching new heights on "The Residence."

The mystery surrounding the death of A.B. Wynter leads to a Congressional hearing about the investigation. As the characters reflect on what exactly happened that night, it's Senator Filkins who asks most of the questions. He frequently butts heads with Senator Bix (Eliza Coupe), trying to keep the investigation on track despite her frequent outbursts.

If you feel like you've seen that familiar face behind a Congressional desk before, that's because Filkins is played by real-life former senator Al Franken. The comedian, who also starred on "Saturday Night Live," resigned from Congress in 2018 due to sexual misconduct allegations, including a scandal over an old photograph of Franken appearing to grope a colleague while she was asleep. Franken opted to resign rather than face investigation into his behavior.

Because of his experience in government, playing Filkins felt like treading familiar ground. He told People that he actually gave notes to his castmates, telling the other actors, "You're thinking of a different kind of performance art when you're in the Senate than when you're actually acting." Perhaps Franken's role has rekindled his love of politics, causing us to wonder if Al Franken is going to run for Senate again.