Blessed be the cast of The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Hulu drama, which first premiered in 2017, is based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. The show, starring Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, takes place in the former U.S., now known as Gilead, where fertile women known as Handmaids are forced to bear children.
The Handmaid’s Tale made history at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, where it became the first streaming show to win for outstanding drama series. The Golden Globe-winning series was renewed for its sixth and final season in 2022, and the last episodes began streaming nearly two years later on April 8.
While the show is dark in tone, actor Max Minghella shared that the cast still have fun together. “There’s a lot of karaoke. There’s a lot of singing on set,” he told PEOPLE on the SAG Awards red carpet in 2018. Costar Bradley Whitford also shared that the “cast is very close and communicative” thanks to Moss.
To mark the series ending, here’s everything to know about the cast of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne
Before portraying June Osborne in The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth Moss was known for playing Peggy Olson in Mad Men. The actress has played June — a former Handmaid once known as Offred and Ofjoseph — in the Hulu drama since the series debuted in 2017. Moss won her first Emmy for the role in 2017 and her second Golden Globe in 2018.
Moss’ other film and television credits include Shining Girls, Get Him to the Greek (2010), Us (2019) and The French Dispatch (2021).
Moss has called the show “the most fulfilling, creative experience” of her life. The actress stepped into the director’s chair on The Handmaid’s Tale, making her debut in season 4.
Moss was previously married to Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen, whom she divorced in 2010. More recently, Moss welcomed a child in 2024.
Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford
Yvonne Strahovski plays Commander Fred Waterford’s wife, Serena Joy, for whom June was a Handmaid. The Australian-born actress told PEOPLE that “it can be pretty conflicting at times to play someone like Serena Joy.”
“I’ve kind of always toed that line of, ‘Oh, this is really fun.’ But it also feels very dirty, kind of justifying a lot of the things that she does — ‘cause my job is to humanize her and all her actions, which are horrible,” she explained.
Strahovski has also portrayed Sarah Walker on NBC’s Chuck and Hannah McKay on Dexter.
The actress and her husband, Tim Loden, share three kids, including their oldest son William.
On the PEOPLE Every Day podcast in 2022, Strahovski shared that Serena’s delivery in season 5 felt “personal” to her. “I had just given birth to my second son. I was literally postpartum, just a few months,” she said.
Max Minghella as Nick Blaine
Max Minghella plays Nick Blaine, who worked as a driver for Commander Waterford in Gilead. Nick becomes a commander and is the biological father of June’s daughter, Nichole.
“I don’t think Nick is as complicated as people perceive him to be,” Minghella said of his character in a 2021 interview with Awards Focus. “He’s always trying to protect June to the best of his abilities, but sometimes there’s two bad options, like in order to protect her, he has to choose between two evils.
The actor was nominated for an Emmy for his role on the Hulu series in 2021.
Prior to The Handmaid’s Tale, Minghella appeared in The Social Network (2010) and The Mindy Project. He made his directorial debut with 2018’s Teen Spirit, which starred Elle Fanning. The two began dating that year and made their red carpet debut at the 2019 Met Gala. Fanning confirmed that they had split in April 2023.
O-T Fagbenle as Luke
O-T Fagbenle plays June’s husband, Luke Bankole. June and Luke are parents to Hannah, who was separated from her parents. Fagbenle’s performance earned him an Emmy nomination in 2021.
In 2022, the English actor told PEOPLE that when he started his career, he did not “even think at all really” about pursuing a career on TV. “I was really focused on theater,” he shared. “My first year out of drama school and I’d got a part in a community theater play, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’m getting to act for a living. I’ve made it.’ “
Fagbenle portrayed Mason in Black Widow (2021), Cameron in WeCrashed and President Barack Obama in Showtime’s The First Lady. He’s described playing the former U.S. president as “one of the greatest challenges of my career so far.”
Samira Wiley as Moira Strand
Samira Wiley plays June’s best friend Moira, another Handmaid who escapes Gilead. The actress scored her first Emmy nomination in 2017. Following her nod, Wiley told PEOPLE, “I remember being so sad and downtrodden after hearing that I couldn’t even go to an arts school. And now this Emmy thing is happening. I feel like Cinderella.”
While she didn’t win in 2017, Wiley took home the Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a drama series in 2018.
The Handmaid’s Tale star is also known for portraying Poussey Washington in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Wiley’s wife Lauren Morelli was a writer on OITNB. The couple got engaged in 2016 and tied the knot in Palm Springs, California, in 2017.
Months after their wedding, Wiley opened up about newlywed life, telling PEOPLE, “I’ve learned that it’s not just about you anymore, but about you and your partner as a unit.”
Wiley and Morelli welcomed their first child, daughter George Elizabeth, in 2021.
Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia
Ann Dowd stars as Aunt Lydia, the highest-ranked of the Aunts, who trains and disciplines the Handmaids.
The actress won her first Emmy for her role as Aunt Lydia in 2017, a role that has impacted her in more ways than one.
“I think this is a dream. I know it’s an actor’s dream, and I’m deeply grateful to you,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I’ve been acting for a long time and that this should happen now, I don’t have the words, so I thank you.”
Among Dowd’s film credits are Green Card (1990), Philadelphia (1992), Garden State (2004), Marley & Me (2008) and St. Vincent (2014). Dowd also had roles in The Leftovers, Law & Order and Masters of Sex.
Dowd and her husband, Larry Arancio, have three children: Liam, Emily and Trust.
Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence
Bradley Whitford plays Commander Joseph Lawrence, a powerful bureaucrat in Gilead. The actor scored an Emmy for his performance as the commander in 2019. “It moves me,” Whitford said of the show in his acceptance speech.
Before taking home the award for outstanding guest actor in a drama series, Whitford won his first Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for The West Wing in 2001 and his second for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for Transparent in 2015. The actor has also starred in Get Out (2017), Billy Madison (1995) and the TV series Perfect Harmony.
Whitford got engaged to his Transparent costar Amy Landecker in 2018. The following summer, in July 2019, the groom announced that he and Landecker — who guest starred on The Handmaid’s Tale — had tied the knot.
From 1992 to 2010, Whitford was married to actress Jane Kaczmarek, with whom he shares three children: Frances Genevieve, George Edward and Mary Louisa.
Madeline Brewer as Janine
Janine, known as Handmaid Ofwarren at the start of the series, is played by Madeline Brewer. Janine lost her eye as punishment at the Red Center, the training facility for Handmaids.
It’s revealed on the show that Janine had an abortion pre-Gilead. Brewer told The Hollywood Reporter that Janine’s story gave her the “strength” to write about her own abortion in Self magazine.
Like Wiley, Brewer is an Orange Is the New Black alum, having portrayed Tricia on the Netflix series. While her film and TV credits include Shining Girls, Hustlers (2019) and Space Oddity (2022), the actress originally wanted to be a musical theater actor, which eventually came to fruition when she was cast as Sally Bowles on the West End.
Before Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas were an item, the singer was spotted out to dinner with Brewer following the 2018 Critics’ Choice Awards. Brewer later told Entertainment Tonight that they were just “friends” and “objectively, he’s a cute guy.”
Amanda Brugel as Rita
Amanda Brugel plays Rita, the Waterfords’ former Martha, a designation for Gilead’s domestic workers. The actress spoke about her Handmaid’s Tale character being free during a 2021 interview with Elle.
“I think Rita is grateful to be free and in Canada,” Brugel said. “But I truly believed, or at least I played it like that this season, that she missed Gilead.
She continued, “She misses the routine and the structure and the strange home dynamic that was in the Waterford house. Suddenly, she’s in Canada and has no family. She’s by herself and has no purpose every day.”
Brugel has appeared in Workin’ Moms, Kim’s Convenience and Apple TV+’s Dark Matter, among other projects.
Off-screen, Brugel is a mom of two. The Handmaid’s Tale actress once wrote that motherhood was “the most significant accomplishment” of her life.
Sam Jaeger as Mark Tuello
Mark Tuello, a representative of the American government, is played by Sam Jaeger. “I think he’s enmeshed in trying to rescue as many people from Gilead as possible,” the actor told E! News of his character in 2022.
Jaeger, who grew up in Ohio, is known for playing Joel Graham in NBC’s Parenthood and has had roles in Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, When We Rise and The Politician. He has also appeared in films like Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (2014) and Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).
He starred alongside his wife, Amber Jaeger, in the movie Take Me Home (2011), which he also wrote and directed.
According to ET, the Jaegers have four children: Redford, August, Aubrey and Calvin.
Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred Waterford
Commander Fred Waterford, husband of Serena Joy and a high-ranking politician, was played by Joseph Fiennes. The character met his demise at the end of season 4.
Discussing saying farewell to Fred, Fiennes told Elle: “I’m sad to leave behind such a great company … but also I’m elated to not have to grow that awful, itchy, grizzly beard and step into the slimy shoes of Fred.”
Show business seems to run in the Fiennes family. Fiennes is the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. His sisters Martha and Sophie are both filmmakers, and his brother Magnus is a composer. The Handmaid’s Tale actor also played William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love (1998) opposite Gwyneth Paltrow.
Fiennes is married to Swiss model and artist María Dolores Díeguez, also known as Lola Álvarez. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Eva, in 2010. Their second daughter, Isabel, was born in 2011. At the 2018 SAG Awards, the actor told PEOPLE, “The three most important people in my life are my wife and my two daughters.”
Alexis Bledel as Emily
Alexis Bledel played Emily, a former professor and a Gilead Handmaid named Ofglen, on the Hulu drama. The role scored the actress her first Emmy win in 2017.
Ahead of The Handmaid’s Tale season 5, the Gilmore Girls alum announced that she was leaving the show. “After much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid’s Tale at this time,” the actress said in a statement to Variety. “I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support.”
Moss told ET that Bledel’s departure “wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to handle … because she’s such a great, fantastic part of the show.”
Bledel is known for having played Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls and Lena Kaligaris in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies.
Bledel was previously married to Mad Men costar Vincent Kartheiser. They welcomed a son in 2015 before divorcing in 2022. Since then, Bledel has reportedly welcomed a second child.
Read the original article on People
