For Us, the highly anticipated follow-up to his smash hit directorial debut Get Out, filmmaker
Jordan Peele assembled an A-list ensemble filled with familiar faces, as well as one
or two surprises.
Here's why you feel like you've seen the cast of Us before and where you saw them first.
Lupita Nyong'o is among the most pedigreed members of the Us cast after modest beginnings
as a production assistant, she earned a master's degree in drama from Yale University, and
booked her first major film role shortly after graduation.
Nyong'o's work in Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave netted the young talent her first
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, making her a breakout star.
"500 pounds of cotton, day in, day out!"
After big moves like joining the Star Wars universe, Nyong'o joined the cast of Black
Panther, a Marvel juggernaut that crushed box office records and won multiple Oscars.
As Nakia, a Wakandan spy who was also a love interest for King T'challa, Nyong'o proved
she could headline a blockbuster as well as perform in a prestige drama, making her mark
as one of the most versatile stars around.
Born in Tobago and raised in upstate New York, Winston Duke pursued an acting M.F.A. at Yale
University, where he met his classmate and future co-star Lupita Nyong'o.
After earning his degree, Duke booked a seven-episode arc as the violent criminal Dominic on CBS'
Person of Interest.
Duke racked up several TV appearances in the years since, but most people recognize Duke
from his breakout role in Black Panther as M'Baku, who leads Wakanda's mountain tribe.
Tim Heidecker's name might not be immediately recognizable if you don't watch a lot of late
night cable TV, but once you pair him with his comedy partner Eric Wareheim, it might
jog your memory.
The duo's show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, ran on Adult Swim from 2007 to
2010.
"I go up and I look at the stars through my telescope and I see the Little Dipster, or
I see the Big Dipster."
Heidecker has appeared in a few films, including Bridesmaids and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp,
and is typically cast for the offbeat, irreverent sense of humor that informs nearly all of
his work with Wareheim and his other comedic collaborators.
But his disturbing turn as an emotionally stunted hipster in 2012's The Comedy showed
he's also right at home in horror …
"You can't f----- stab me.
You can't f----- stab me."
Known for her award-winning roles in some of television's best prestige dramas, Elisabeth
Moss is a veteran of TV and film who regularly delivers incredible performances, regardless
of the medium.
Moss got her start in television on Aaron Sorkin's popular drama The West Wing, before
going on to appear in major films like Girl, Interrupted.
Her breakthrough came in Mad Men, the AMC advertising firm drama now hailed as one of
the best series of all time, in which Moss played Peggy Olson, an initially meek secretary
who ends the series as an advertising executive with her own office.
Her first Emmy win came for her work in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, an adaptation of Margaret
Atwood's seminal dystopian novel.
The Wilson children in Us, Zora and Jason, are played by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan
Alex, respectively.
Joseph, who plays the older sister, has primarily worked on the stage, appearing in School of
Rock on Broadway and on television in 2016's Hairspray Live!.
Us marks her first feature film credit, for which she has already earned praise.
Alex, the younger sibling, has appeared on television shows like Jim Carrey's Kidding
as well as several episodes of the YouTube series Mani, and is also earning his first
film credit in Us.
Anna Diop got her television start in 2006 with a recurring role on Everybody Hates Chris,
setting the stage for a busy career to come.
Diop got her first major television role as a series regular on the CW's The Messengers,
a show about five strangers who suddenly find themselves with supernatural abilities.
After appearing on two episodes on Quantico, Diop booked a main role in 24: Legacy, a sequel
to the popular Fox drama.
She currently stars in the DC web series Titans as Starfire, one of the core members of the
super-team.
Despite her young age and relatively small resume, Kara Hayward has already made an impressive
entry into arthouse films at just 14, she landed a starring role in Wes Anderson's whimsical
Moonrise Kingdom.
Hayward received plenty of praise for her breakout performance, in which she held their
own against several Oscar-winning actors, many of whom were frequent Anderson collaborators.
If you're a big fan of YouTube personality Miranda Sings, you may have also seen Hayward
in Season 2 of Haters Back Off, the Netflix original comedy series based on the popular
YouTube channel.
Yet another Us cast member with a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama, Yahya
Abdul-Mateen burst onto the scene in 2016 with a huge role on The Get Down, a Netflix
series about disco and hip-hop in New York in the 1970s.
The show was canceled after its first season, freeing up Abdul-Mateen to appear in some
major feature films, including a role as a police officer in the film adaptation of Baywatch.
After appearing in DC Comics' Aquaman as Black Manta, one of the film's two villains, it
was announced that Abdul-Mateen would appear in Us.
It looks like Jordan Peele took a liking to Abdul-Mateen, as the actor is also set to
play the lead in the Peele-produced Candyman.
They're still teens, but identical twins Cali & Noelle Sheldon have a handful of acting
credits to their name, including in one of the most popular sitcoms of all time.
As infants, the twins appeared on Friends as Emma, Rachel and Ross' baby, for a total
of eight episodes.
At 16, the twins were cast in Us as Gwen and Maggie Tyler, carrying on a long tradition
of twins in horror, perhaps most notably in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
Sorry, twins.
You're kinda creepy.
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