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Where You May Have Seen the Main Cast of ‘Euphoria’ Before
What were Rue and the gang up to before the HBO Max smash-hit series?
The sophomore season of HBO’s Euphoria just ended, which means fans of the hit drama series are up against a two-year wait for season three. There’s no doubt, however, that until then, the show’s main cast will see continued support.
The fervor surrounding the show, an adaptation of an Israeli series with the same title, has put actors like Hunter Schafer on the map. Then, of course, there were the already familiar names and faces. Before meeting Eric Dane as Cal, viewers knew him as McSteamy on Grey’s Anatomy. Before meeting Alanna Ubach as Lexi and Cassie’s mom, she was—fun fact!—one of the choir kids in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Noreen in The Brady Bunch Movie, and Serena in Legally Blonde. A surprise favorite from Euphoria season two Austin Abrams (who plays Ethan) might be trickier to place but is a familiar face nonetheless. He was Pete in Gangster Squad, Ben in Paper Towns, Ron Anderson in The Walking Dead, and Marc McKeon in This Is Us.
More on life before Euphoria: where exactly did we see the main cast members before? Here, we pay their resumes a visit.
Zendaya Coleman
It’s the character that won Zendaya Coleman her first Emmy. As Rue Bennett, the actress went above and beyond showcasing her range, in effect providing even more distance between her and her Disney child star past. The world first fell in love with her as the tenacious Rocky Blue in Shake It Up. Further into her career, when she mixed things up, she appeared in Taylor Swift’s music video for Bad Blood in 2015, the drama series The OA in 2019 (where Euphoria co-star Alexa Demie also appeared), Spider-Man: Far from Home in 2019 and Dune in 2021.
Hunter Schafer
23-year-old Hunter Schafer’s foray into acting was obviously a successful one. Prior to joining the Euphoria cast as Jules Vaughn, Schafer worked as a model. In 2017, she made her runway debut at the Helmut Lang Spring 2018 presentation. In the year that followed, she walked for Marc Jacobs, Jonathan Simkhai, Miu Miu, Maison Margiela, Dior, J.W. Anderson and Gareth Pugh. Along with her rise on Euphoria, Schafer began bagging magazine covers, securing fashion and beauty editorials, fronting major fashion campaigns, and landing brand ambassadorships (the biggest being the one with Prada).
Maude Apatow
Weeks into Euphoria season two, Maude Apatow wound up in the center of a lively Twitter discussion on nepotism in Hollywood. It turned out to be new and shocking information (to the much younger viewers, perhaps) that Maude Apatow, who plays Lexi Howard on the show, is the daughter of actress Leslie Mann and director Judd Apatow. This is how she got her start, playing Sadie in Knocked Up and the film’s sequel, This Is 40, where she starred alongside her mother and her sister in real life, Iris. The films were also written and directed by her father. Moving away now from projects featuring family: Apatow later on appeared in a project also by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson: the female-led thriller Assassination Nation in 2018.
Sydney Sweeney
American actress Sydney Sweeney is on a roll, to say the least. Prior to playing the polarizing Cassie Howard on Euphoria, she was well on her way to already becoming a familiar face on television. She had a recurring role on Netflix’s Everything Sucks! as Emaline, along with her role as Eden Spencer in The Handmaid’s Tale and Alice in Sharp Objects—shows that all premiered in the year 2018. Rewinding further proves that Sweeney has prepped the groundwork for her acting career, with cameos in Criminal Minds, the 2010 reboot of 90210, Grey’s Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars
Alexa Demie
Social media users time and again have a field day trying to unravel the “mysteries” surrounding Alexa Demie’s real age. Along with this, fans quip just as regularly about the “many lives” she’s lived. Case in point: Demie’s fashion catalog modeling days, Demie’s hanging out with Grimes, Sky Ferreira, and the Kardashians. On the acting front, however, she built up her career beginning with cameos (you can find her in The OA and the Netflix original series Love) as well as short films.
Barbie Ferreira
Kat Hernandez’s story may not have not have gotten substantial focus in season two, but Barbie Ferreira’s character still gives us a lot to hang onto. The hope, though, is that Sam Levinson levels the playing field in the upcoming season…and lets original storylines shine instead of accommodating entirely new ones. (Let’s call that an issue for another time!) Before meeting her as Kat, chances are that viewers caught Ferreira in fashion ads. Another cast member that got her start by modeling, Ferreira got the ball rolling for herself when she participated in an open casting call for American Apparel. Soon after, she was tapped by brands like Adidas, Forever 21 and H&M. Looking ahead, what’s life after Euphoria? Catch Barbie Ferreira in Jordan Peele’s sci-fi/horror film, Nope, later this year.
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