Black Mirror mastermind Charlie Brooker has promised that Season 6 will be the most unpredictable season yet. “I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that are entirely distinct from one another and keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point? It should be a series that can’t be easily defined and can keep reinventing itself,” the writer, creator and executive producer previously told Tudum.
But one thing you certainly can expect from the new season? An A-list roster of actors that, in the words of Brooker, are “so talented they frankly have no right to exist.”
So, without further ado, let’s meet the cast who’ll be swept up in the mysteries of Black Mirror Season 6, broken down by episode below:
An average woman is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life — in which she’s portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek Pinault.
In “Joan Is Awful,” Annie Murphy’s Joan is said average woman with blonde, face-framing highlights, who’s “faded into the background of her own life and is going through the motions,” Murphy told Netflix. “One day she gets home after a long, difficult day, turns on the TV and sees Salma Hayek playing her in the day that has just happened.”
Murphy said yes to playing Joan before she’d even read the script. “Black Mirror is one of my favorite shows on TV. When the chance to be in the show was offered to me, it was a no-brainer,” she said. Executive producer Jessica Rhoades praised how Murphy “has an everywoman quality that you can empathize with, whilst being this brilliant comedian.”
Murphy is best known to audiences for being “a little bit Alexis” in her Emmy Award–winning role as Alexis Rose on Schitt’s Creek. The Canadian native is also recognized for her work in Kevin Can F**k Himself, Russian Doll, Crank Yankers, Fairfax, American Dad!, Murderville, Beauty and the Beast, Rookie Blue, Story of Jen, Lethal Obsession and creating and starring in The Plateaus web series.
You can follow Murphy on Instagram.
Salma Hayek Pinault plays a fictionalized version of herself, who’s then playing Murphy’s Joan on the Streamberry TV show. “I play both an exaggerated version of myself and of Joan,” Hayek Pinault told Netflix. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play an interpretation of myself. I got to explore the concepts and clichés people have about me and be self-deprecating. It’s as if I created an alter ego where I could do the most disgusting, grotesque things that you would never do in real life, and have permission to do that.”
As he wrote the role for Hayek Pinault, Brooker told Netflix he was thankful that “Salma Hayek signed up to play Salma Hayek because who else will play Salma Hayek? We had a Zoom call with her, and I was nervous because I had just sent a script with her name in it, asking her to play herself. She loved it and started encouraging us to do all this stuff that I would never have dared write into the first draft of the script.”
For Hayek Pinault the “brilliance” of the “Joan is Awful” is that it “keeps making you laugh, making you anxious, blowing your mind, and making you think,” she tells Tudum.
Hayek Pinault received an Oscar nomination for her starring role as painter Frida Kahlo in Frida. Since she first made a name for herself in Mexican series and films like Un Nuevo Amanecer, Teresa and El Callejón de los Milagros, she’s also become known for her work in Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Fools Rush In, Wild Wild West, Dogma, Chain of Fools, In the Time of the Butterflies, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Ugly Betty, Grown Ups, 30 Rock, Beatriz at Dinner, How to Be a Latin Lover, The Eternals, House of Gucci, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
You can follow Hayek Pinault on Instagram.
Michael Cera plays Beppe, who, in the trailer, reveals that “Joan Is Awful” is “an adaptation of Joan’s life.” Casting director Jina Jay told Netflix that “Michael Cera and Charlie [Brooker] were fans of each other for years. It was just waiting for the right role and schedule to align, and it finally did. Michael is interested in storytelling, and he’s generous. His role needed to say and amplify many ideas in a short amount of time and share himself with the audience.”
Cera is known for his work in Superbad, Arrested Development, Juno, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Paper Heart, Year One, Youth in Revolt, This Is the End, Sausage Party, How to Be a Latin Lover, Molly’s Game, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Twin Peaks, Life & Beth and Braceface.
Avi Nash plays Joan’s fiancé, Krish.
Nash is known for his work in The Walking Dead, Silo, Barry, Learning to Drive, Silicon Valley, There There, It’s a Man’s World, Hosea, Amateur Night and Postal Jerks.
You can follow Nash on Instagram.
Himesh Patel plays the TV version of Krish. “Joan Is Awful” co-casting director Jeanie Bacharach told Netflix that one of her favorite parts of working on this episode was getting to cast Patel, whom she worked with on Station Eleven.
In addition to Station Eleven, Patel is known for his work in EastEnders, Yesterday, Tenet, Don’t Look Up, Enola Holmes 2, The Aeronauts, Damned, The Luminaries, Avenue 5 and Ten Percent.
You can follow Patel on Instagram.
Rob Delaney plays Joan’s ex-boyfriend, who is “trying to weasel his way back into her life,” the actor told Netflix. “Mac is the catalyst for what goes wrong in Joan’s life. Then we eventually discover what he is really like deep down, and it’s not great.”
Delaney is known for his work (co-writing and co-starring) in Catastrophe, Deadpool 2, Tom & Jerry, Fairfax, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Great North, Big Nate, Birdgirl, Meet the Meerkats, Bombshell, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Bitz and Bob, Life After Beth, Burning Love, Key and Peele and Coma, Period.
You can follow Delaney on Instagram.
Ben Barnes as TV Mac (left) in Black Mirror Season 6.
Ben Barnes plays Mac’s Streamberry counterpart.
Barnes may be new to the “Joan Is Awful” streaming universe, but he certainly isn’t new to Netflix fans — he plays the menacing (and entrancing) Darkling in Shadow and Bone. Barnes is also known for his work in The Chronicles of Narnia film series as Prince Caspian, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Gold Digger, The Punisher, Westworld, Sons of Liberty, Seventh Son, Dorian Gray and Stardust.
You can follow Barnes on Instagram.
A young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary, but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past.
“Davis is a film school student who wants to be the next Stanley Kubrick,” Samuel Blenkin told Netflix. “He has a good heart but is insecure about what he likes and wants.”
Blenkin is known for his work in The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Sandman, Atlanta, The French Dispatch, Misbehaviour, Dracula, Peaky Blinders, Pennyworth, Grantchester and Doctors. He also played Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End.
A fellow filmmaker, Davis’ girlfriend Pia travels with him to his Scottish hometown to make their documentary. “As well as being an actor, I also consider myself a filmmaker, so the character of Pia appealed to me because I could relate,” Myha’la Herrold told Netflix. Having always been a fan of Black Mirror, Herrold was eager to collaborate with Brooker. “We spoke at length about what I could bring to the role, and he was very open about the process.”
Herrold is known for her work in Industry, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Modern Love, Premature, Plan B and The Honeymoon.
Stuart is a Scottish lad who’s certainly game for a laugh. He grew up with Davis in their hometown.
Daniel Portman (who’s also a Scotsman in real life) is best known for his role as loyal squire Podrick Payne in Game of Thrones. Portman is also recognized for his work in Vigil, Karen Pirie, The Control Room, Robert the Bruce, In the Cloud, The Journey, Wasteland 26: Six Tales of Generation Y and Outcast.
You can follow Portman on Instagram.
Richard is Stuart’s father.
John Hannah (also a Scotsman) is known for his work in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors, The Mummy film series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Transplant, McCallum, Out of the Blue, Rebus, Before You Go, MDs, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, New Street Law, Spartacus, Damages, A Touch of Cloth, Marley’s Ghosts, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Overboard, Genesis, Trust Me and The Victim.
You can follow Hannah on Instagram.
Janet is Davis’ mother.
Monica Dolan won a BAFTA Award for her role as Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult as well as an Olivier Award for her portrayal of Karen Richards in the West End production of All About Eve. She’s also known for her work in W1A, The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, Empire of Light, My Name is Leon, Cyrano, The Dig, Call the Midwife, The Witness for the Prosecution, Catastrophe, A Very English Scandal, Vanity Fair, The Casual Vacancy, Wolf Hall, Pride and Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads.
In an alternative 1969, two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy.
Aaron Paul’s Cliff Stanfield is an astronaut, two-years into his six-year mission in deep space with a wife and son back on Earth. He is joined on the mission by one other person, David Ross [Josh Hartnett]. “I have wanted to be part of this universe for a long time,” Paul told Netflix. “I did a voiceover for the ‘USS Callister’ episode. I begged Charlie not to check me off the list and consider me for future episodes. When this landed on my desk, I instantly read it and it was a no-brainer to say yes.”
Paul said he and Hartnett had known each other for a long time, but “Beyond the Sea” is the first time they’ve been able to “go toe-to-toe with each other.” He added that “Josh plays David, who is charismatic and charming. He’s a man with the world at his fingertips. My character, Cliff, is the opposite. He’s stiff, not a talker and just goes by the book. It’s been a dream to explore the two characters and how they interact.”
Brooker noted that Paul “had to wrestle with some grim material.” Adding that they “were filming in a heat wave, and I have no idea how he stayed sane.”
Paul is best known for his Emmy Award-winning performance as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. He later reprised the role in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and in spin-off series Better Call Saul. Paul is also recognized for his work in Big Love, The Last House on the Left, BoJack Horseman, The Path, Westworld, Truth Be Told, American Woman, Eye in the Sky, Need for Speed, Point Pleasant, Joan of Arcadia and Veronica Mars.
You can follow Paul on Instagram.
David Ross is the other astronaut on the mission with Cliff, who also has family back on Earth. A fan of Black Mirror since Season 1, Hartnett told Netflix he “would have done anything to be in an episode.” Hartnett had previously worked with Rory Kinnear on Penny Dreadful — Kinnear stars in Black Mirror series premiere “The National Anthem.” “He told me about Black Mirror, and as soon as I saw it, I realized that it was marking itself out as a must-watch show because there was nothing like it on TV,” said Hartnett. “I have watched every episode, and there is always something thought-provoking that makes you think about the world differently.”
Brooker commends how Hartnett “captured the golden boy nature of his character mixed with vulnerability.” Rhoades also hinted that in “Beyond the Sea,” “we get to see a different side of how viewers have typically experienced his work. With this episode, he gets to explore a leading man charm, which audiences have seen before, but then things take a twist in a way that I don’t think will be expected.”
Hartnett is known for his work in Penny Dreadful, The Black Dahlia, Pearl Harbor, The Virgin Suicides, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Cracker: Mind Over Murder, Blow Dry, O, Black Hawk Down, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Lucky Number Slevin, Mozart and the Whale, Sin City, August, I Come with the Rain, Paradise Lost, The Lovers, Drunk History, Die Hart and The Fear Index.
Lana is Cliff’s wife, whose performance Brooker describes as “heartbreaking.”
Kate Mara is known for her work in House of Cards, American Horror Story, A Teacher, Pose, 24, Fantastic Four, We Are Marshall, Class of ’09, Transsiberian, Brokeback Mountain, Entourage, 127 Hours, 10 Years, Stone of Destiny, The Open Road, Transcendence, Moonbeam City, Chappaquidick, Random Hearts, Jack & Bobby, Nip/Tuck and Everwood.
You can follow Mara on Instagram.
Auden Thornton as Jessica Ross (left) in Black Mirror Season 6.
Jessica is David’s wife.
Auden Thornton is known for her work in This Is Us, Doubt, Palm Trees and Power Lines, Virtue, Royal Pains, Beauty Mark, Elementary, Forever, Blue Bloods, Pan Am, The Good Wife and Arlington Road.
You can follow Thornton on Instagram.
The uniquely named Kappa wields a knife in the trailer.
Culkin is known for his work in Scream 4, Signs, Columbus, Lords of Chaos, Under the Banner of Heaven, Swarm, Outliers, Halston, The Expecting, City on a Hill, Castle Rock, Waco, Sneaky Pete, Jack Goes Home, Down in the Valley, Gabriel, Electrick Children, Bullet Head, The Song of Sway Lake, Hick, Igby Goes Down and Richie Rich.
A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident.
Zazie Beetz plays one of the invasive paps, Bo. “Bo is a flintier character having to make some hard choices, but she’s got a conscience,” said Brooker. “We see that she’s slightly troubled by what she’s doing, but she’s also quite tough in that episode as well. Zazie is very charismatic, but she balances the complexity of the character. It’s a tricky role to pull off, but she’s more than capable of it.”
Beetz is best known for her role as Van in Atlanta. She’s also recognized for her work in Deadpool 2, Easy, The Harder They Fall, Bullet Train, History of the World: Part II, Nine Days, Seberg, High Flying Bird, Margot vs. Lily, Invincible, Robot Chicken, Wolves, Geostorm, Dead Pigs, Slice and Sollers Point.
You can follow Beetz on Instagram.
Clara Rugaard plays a troubled starlet who’s hounded by paps. As Black Mirror is one of Rugaard’s all-time favorite shows, it almost didn’t matter to her what was in the script when she received her Black Mirror offer — she was just so excited to work on an episode. “Charlie Brooker can create these dystopian visions and pull on your heartstrings,” she said. “I remember being so taken aback when I watched ‘San Junipero’ — it was beautiful.”
While Rugaard’s character is isolated from other characters on-screen, that wasn’t the case for the actor off-camera. She, Beetz and Danny Ramirez “lived in this little bubble. We were close to the beach, and we spent a lot of our time off together,” she told Netflix.
Rugaard is known for her work in Love Gets a Room, I Am Mother, The Rising, Press Play, Still Star-Crossed, The Lodge, Teen Spirit, Good Favour and My African Adventure.
You can follow Rugaard on Instagram.
Like Bo, Ramirez’s Hector is part of the paparazzi scene.
Ramirez is known for his work in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, On My Block, Top Gun: Maverick, The Gifted, Tales of the Walking Dead, No Exit, Assassination Nation, Silo, Valley Girl, Root Letter, Look Both Ways, This Is Not a War Story, The Giant, Lost Transmissions, Tone-Deaf, Orange Is the New Black, Blindspot and The Affair.
You can follow Ramirez on Instagram.
Northern England, 1979. A meek sales assistant is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster.
Anjana Vasan plays meek sales assistant Nida. “Anjana’s amazing, we had seen her work in We Are Lady Parts,” said executive producer Rhoades. “When she came in for Nida, there was no question that she embodied the role. Anjana’s eyes could have their own series. They are the most expressive, captivating eyes of any human I’ve ever met. She’s incredible.”
As Rhoades cited, Vasan is best known for her comedic work in We Are Lady Parts and won an Olivier Award this spring for her portrayal of Stella in the recent West End staging of A Streetcar Named Desire. Vasan is also recognized for her roles in Killing Eve, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Hang Ups, Sex Education, Cyrano, Mogul Mowgli, Temple, Pls Like, The Children Act and Fresh Meat. Her London stage performances also include productions of A Doll’s House, Rutherford and Son, Summer and Smoke, King Lear, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa).
You can follow Vasan on Instagram.
In self-described “enormous Black Mirror fan” Paapa Essiedu’s opinion, “Gaap is a unique individual with an incredible dress sense. He’s charming and persuasive and he and Nida have a fun dynamic together.” Rhoades believes Essiedu “did the impossible” to win the part of Gaap. “Paapa came in, let us dress him in disco-wear and pulled it off, and had more swagger than I think anyone saw coming.”
Bisha K. Ali, co-writer and executive producer of “Demon 79,” told Netflix that there were different iterations of Gaap, but she never wanted him to feel like “a trickster — not a devil at the crossroads type — he always had a sympathetic core to him. There was this thread of softness to him,” she said. “There is a point of connection between Nida and Gaap, in that when they first meet they both accept their lot in life and operate from a sense of oppressive inevitability.”
Essiedu is best known for his role as Kwame in I May Destroy You. He is also recognized for his work in The Capture, The Lazarus Project, Anne Boleyn, Gangs of London, Press, National Treasure: Kiri, The Miniaturist, Murder on the Orient Express and Men. He has appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Hamlet and King Lear.
You can follow Essiedu on Instagram.
Vicky is also a sales assistant.
Morley is known for her work in Last Tango in Halifax, The Mill, The Syndicate, Clink, Thirteen, Call the Midwife, Moving On, Cuffs, Vera, The Caravan, Love Matters and Little Crackers.
You can follow Morley on Instagram.
Michael Smart is a Conservative politician.
David Shields is known for his work in The Crown, The Liberator, Benediction, Treadstone, The Most Reluctant Convert, Judy, Doctor Who, Una, Doctors and The Bad Education Movie.
Stream Black Mirror Season 6 on Streamberry — er, Netflix — now.
