Three years after its first season premiered on Netflix, Raising Dion Season 2 is officially here, and naturally, there are a few new faces. The show chronicles the heroic journey of a single mother and her superpowered son as they attempt to harness his powers for good while coping with the typical travails offamily life. The show combines high-stakes drama with action and characters that are easy to care about. Here’s a look at the folks who play them.
Dion Warren, the show’s central character, is a 10-year-old burgeoning superhero who’s tasked with helping save the world and finishing his homework. It’s a tall task, but in Raising Dion Season 2, he gets some training to help gain complete control of his abilities just in time to confront the mysterious, evil force headed his way. Dion is played by Ja’Siah Young, who’s also appeared in TV series including Saturday Night Live and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as the 2017 short film Rough Night.
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Nicole Reese is the widowed mother of Dion, and together they navigated the typical difficulties that come with being a single-parent family. And they also deal with some not-so-typical challenges like combatting supernatural evil. In Season 2, Dion seeks to step into a role as a full-fledged superhero, but Nicole wants him to focus on being a “good kid” who doesn’t fight crime. That all changes when the bad guys approach. Nicole is played by Alisha Wainwright, who has starred in TV series Shadowhunters, Criminal Minds, Married, Rosewood and many more. She’s also appeared in films including Death of a Telemarketer and Palmer.
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Although Kat Neese, a surgeon, is initially skeptical of her nephew’s superpowers, she ultimately becomes dedicated to protecting him. Jazmyn Simon commands the role of Kat, just one of the many she’s handled over her long career. Besides Raising Dion, Simon’s known for appearing in Ballers, the movie Lockdown and more.
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Esperanza Jimenez is Dion’s first friend at McKoy Park Elementary, and proves to be his truest. Living with a brittle bone disease that confines her to a wheelchair, she’s occasionally overlooked in Season 1, but her own insight leads her to help Dion defeat his ultimate foe. Esperanza is played by Sammi Haney, who’s appeared as herself in the TV series 7 Little Johnstons and the All Inclusive podcast. Through her website and social media accounts, Haney is a disability advocate who sells some stylish disability-empowerment-themed shirts and hoodies.
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Pat Rollins is best friends with Nicole’s husband, Dion’s father, Mark Warren (Michael B. Jordan) before things get a little wild. By the end of Season 1, Rollins is revealed as a murderous, superpowered bad guy who can absorb the special abilities of other super beings for his own sustenance. The son of late actor John Ritter, Jason’s been acting for well over 30 years, with his resume including roles on TV shows like Joan of Arcadia, The Event and Gravity Falls, as well as film credits in Frozen 2, The Tale and more.
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Operating as the CEO of the BIONA Initiative, Suzanne Wu is the boss of Mark Warren and Pat Rollins, and she continues to oversee the company as she searches for answers to questions of the potentially catastrophic consequences of the Aurora Event, a 2010 meteor shower over Iceland that spawned superpowers in folks like Mark and Pat. She takes a special interest in Dion and his abilities and is determined to learn from them at almost any cost. Wu is played by Ali Ahn, who’s been acting since at least 2006. She appeared in shows including White Collar, Blue Bloods, Orange Is the New Black, and Billions.
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Like Dion, Brayden Mills possesses mysterious powers that he inherited from his father. Unlike Dion, Brayden doesn’t have anyone to help him use his powers. Even more tragically, the end of Season 1 sees him seemingly overtaken by a dark force that’s expected to make its presence known once again in Season 2. In a career that stretches about six years, Griffin Robert Faulkner, who plays Brayden, has acted in movies like It Comes at Night and TV shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and God Friended me.
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Every aspiring superhero needs a trainer, and Dion finds his in Tevin Wakefield, a former long-distance runner turned Olympic coach who’s enlisted as Dion’s instructor. Tevin’s got some powers of his own, but he blends them with elite agility and a precision Dion has yet to develop — but with Tevin’s help, maybe he will. Rome Flynn plays Tevin, and he’s best known for parts in How to Get Away With Murder, The Bold and the Beautiful and Tyler Perry’s 2019 film A Madea Family Funeral. His role as Zende Forrester Dominguez in The Bold and the Beautiful won him a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding younger actor in a drama series. When he’s not acting, he flaunts an expressive tenor as a talented singer.
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Janelle Carr befriends Dion after her mother, Simone, brings her to the same BIONA facility Dion’s getting his training at. Simone wants to deal with Janelle’s “behavioral issues,” but fans will have to see just what those are as Season 2 unfolds. Aubriana Davis, who plays the role of Janelle in the show, has previously acted in The Underground Railroad miniseries, as well as Genius and more.
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In a move to push her daughter Janelle toward a normal life, her mom, Simone, takes her to the BIONA facility. Bonner’s acting resume stretches over 15 years, and in that time, she’s appeared in shows like Black Lightning and Chicago P.D., as well as Jumanji: Welcome to Jungle.
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Season 2 sees BIONA get a brand new exec, and he goes by the name of David Marsh. While his job as VP of Operations is to help run the company, he’s also hoping to rekindle his personal relationship with CEO Suzanne Wu. We’ll see how that works out. Marsh is played by Josh Ventura, who previously acted in the TV series P-Valley.
