‘Shadow and Bone’ Cast: What They Look Like Off Screen

Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX; Shutterstock

‘Shadow and Bone’ Cast: What They Look Like Off Screen

The Shadow and Bone wig budget doesn't seem to be quite as high as it is in other fantasy shows — Game of Thrones, for example — but the cast still looks quite different in costume than they do in real life. Based on the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, the Netflix series is set mostly in the fictional country of Ravka, inspired by imperial Russia. The story follows a young woman named Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a mapmaker who discovers that she is has the power to summon light. This makes her one of the Grisha, a class of humans who have varying magical powers, but she's the only one in history that can manipulate the sun's rays. Because Ravka is split down the middle by a dangerous shadowed area called The Fold, this extremely rare ability makes Alina a hot commodity — the army wants to use her to destroy the Fold, and thieves from the neighboring country of Kerch want to sell her to the highest bidder. Other characters in this universe include Mal (Archie Renaux), Alina's childhood best friend and an expert tracker, and General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), a Grisha army commander who's keeping secrets of his own. “He’s the most powerful in the universe, manipulates the darkness and is feared by other people because he’s employing this politics of fear to push his agenda," Barnes, 39, told Us Weekly exclusively in April 2021 while discussing his character. "He has a grace about him and a sort of quiet power, which was very interesting to play. I’ve played boy with sword, going to rescue damsel and defeat the dragon. I played that in the fantasy world, but not this. But then what really interests me is the idea that every person has the capacity to be everything.” [jwplayer bVRRrUZu-l3ahXupL] Like Game of Thrones, the world of Shadow and Bone is heavy on geography. In addition to Kerch (loosely inspired by the Netherlands), there's Shu Han (based on China and Mongolia), Novyi Zem (Australia and the American colonies), the Wandering Isle (Ireland) and Fjerda (Scandinavia). One of the major changes to the show is that Alina, who was Ravkan in the books, is half-Shu on screen. This means that she faces additional prejudice and harassment as a minority in a mostly white world. “Not only is Alina’s ethnicity really important to the world-building — we understand who’s at war with whom — [but] it’s important for her as a character,” Li, whose mother is British and father is Chinese, told Elle in April 2021. “Her journey is, essentially, where do I belong? And as a person of mixed heritage, you grow up thinking, 'Well, I’m not X enough, I’m not Y enough.' They wove that into the story.” Scroll down to find out what the stars of the Grishaverse look like on and off screen: [podcast_block]

Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX; Shutterstock

‘Shadow and Bone’ Cast: What They Look Like Off Screen

The Shadow and Bone wig budget doesn't seem to be quite as high as it is in other fantasy shows — Game of Thrones, for example — but the cast still looks quite different in costume than they do in real life. Based on the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, the Netflix series is set mostly in the fictional country of Ravka, inspired by imperial Russia. The story follows a young woman named Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a mapmaker who discovers that she is has the power to summon light. This makes her one of the Grisha, a class of humans who have varying magical powers, but she's the only one in history that can manipulate the sun's rays. Because Ravka is split down the middle by a dangerous shadowed area called The Fold, this extremely rare ability makes Alina a hot commodity — the army wants to use her to destroy the Fold, and thieves from the neighboring country of Kerch want to sell her to the highest bidder. Other characters in this universe include Mal (Archie Renaux), Alina's childhood best friend and an expert tracker, and General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), a Grisha army commander who's keeping secrets of his own. “He’s the most powerful in the universe, manipulates the darkness and is feared by other people because he’s employing this politics of fear to push his agenda," Barnes, 39, told Us Weekly exclusively in April 2021 while discussing his character. "He has a grace about him and a sort of quiet power, which was very interesting to play. I’ve played boy with sword, going to rescue damsel and defeat the dragon. I played that in the fantasy world, but not this. But then what really interests me is the idea that every person has the capacity to be everything.” [jwplayer bVRRrUZu-l3ahXupL] Like Game of Thrones, the world of Shadow and Bone is heavy on geography. In addition to Kerch (loosely inspired by the Netherlands), there's Shu Han (based on China and Mongolia), Novyi Zem (Australia and the American colonies), the Wandering Isle (Ireland) and Fjerda (Scandinavia). One of the major changes to the show is that Alina, who was Ravkan in the books, is half-Shu on screen. This means that she faces additional prejudice and harassment as a minority in a mostly white world. “Not only is Alina’s ethnicity really important to the world-building — we understand who’s at war with whom — [but] it’s important for her as a character,” Li, whose mother is British and father is Chinese, told Elle in April 2021. “Her journey is, essentially, where do I belong? And as a person of mixed heritage, you grow up thinking, 'Well, I’m not X enough, I’m not Y enough.' They wove that into the story.” Scroll down to find out what the stars of the Grishaverse look like on and off screen: [podcast_block]

Credit: Timea Saghy/Netflix; Marechal Aurore/ABACA/Shutterstock

Jack Wolfe

Wolfe joins Shadow and Bone season 2 as Six of Crows fan-favorite Wylan Van Eck.

“Fans of the book will know him really well, he appears in two of the books of the Grishaverse series called Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom,” the Magic Flute star told Screen Rant in March 2023 of his role. “But obviously, this show adaptation of the book sort of weaves storylines together a little bit, so he gets to interact with a bit more of the other world that he doesn't appear in, which is super exciting too. So, there’s lots of surprises for people who already know about Wylan, and for people who don't, he's hopefully pretty cool too, he's a bit of a nervous explosives expert.”

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Patrick Gibson

Gibson plays another season 2 newbie: Nikolai Lantsov (a.k.a. notorious privateer Sturmhond). “I think [Nikolai and Alina] are almost equally matched in their wits and their tenacity and their vision for creating a better world,” the Irish native explained to Gizmodo in March 2023. “I think they’re perfectly matched. And she’s somebody who, from the first time that they meet, he just immediately sees that she’s the perfect person for him to be an accessory to her cause.”

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Anna Leong Brophy

Brophy and Lewis Tan portray Nikolai’s twin guards, Tolya and Tamar, in Shadow and Bone season 2. The Ragdoll actress, for her part, takes on the mantle of Tamar.

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Lewis Tan

The Almost Fate actor plays Grisha guard Tolya in Shadow and Bone season 2.

“I’m playing a character who’s a twin, so my performance is also kind of reliant on my partner who’s playing my twin, Anna Leong Brophy,” Tan told Esquire Philippines in February 2023. “She’s a genius so that’s very helpful. But also, the way that we fight is in a fighting style that is like two people fighting as one, almost. It was really cool and unique for me to explore this kind of choreography where I’m using her to fight and she’s using me and we’re working off of each other.”

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Jessie Mei Li

Before landing a role in a 2019 stage revival of All About Eve that also starred Gillian Anderson and Lily James, Li hadn't thought of acting as a real career. “You can think, ‘Oh, I love drawing, but I’m never going to be a designer,'" the U.K. native told Elle in April 2021. After dropping out of college for mental health reasons, Li realized that the way she'd been hiding her feelings was itself a form of theater. “I remember thinking, 'Loads of my friends and family don't know how I’m feeling. I must be better at acting than I give myself credit for.'"

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Freddy Carter

Carter stars as Kaz Brekker, the leader of the Crows gang. Known also as Dirtyhands, Kaz shares information with his fellow gang members on a need-to-know basis, and most of the time they don't need to know. Before Shadow and Bone, Carter had a small part in 2017's Wonder Woman and a recurring role in Pennyworth.

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Archie Renaux

Renaux plays Mal Oretsev, who serves in the First Army (the non-magical army) alongside Alina. He appeared in the 2021 film Voyagers with Lily-Rose Depp and Colin Farrell and made his TV debut in 2019 in the Amazon Prime series Hanna.  

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Amita Suman

The Nepalese actress plays Inej Ghafa, a member of the Crows gang known for her expert knife handling and ability to sneak around undetected — her nickname is the Wraith. Suman hadn't read Bardugo's books before landing her part, but now she's a lifelong fan. "I opened the first page thinking, 'I'll just read a couple of chapters here and there,' but I finished it in one sitting," she told Harper's Bazaar of Six of Crows in April 2021. "It really is one of my favorite books ever. It was such an incredible experience reading it."

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Kit Young

Young stars as Jesper Fahey, the Crows' sharpshooter. The Oxford-born actor graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2017 and has appeared on stage in productions of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Young auditioned for the role of Mal before landing the part of Jesper. "He's very empathetic and he really, really does care about the people that he goes on this journey with," he told Seventeen of his character in April 2021. "Whether it's a joke to lighten the mood that doesn't go very well, or whether it's actually telling them what's what, I think they all come from the same central place which is, 'If I don't have you, then I don't really have anything, so we've got to stick together.'"

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Ben Barnes

Before taking on the role of General Kirigan, Barnes was known for his work on HBO's Westworld as well as for playing Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia film series. The actor told Us in April 2021 that he tried to humanize Kirigan, who is by far the most mysterious and intimidating character on the show. “If he’s powerful, where is he vulnerable? If he’s at the top of this hierarchy, is he isolated? Is he lonely? He definitely is lonely and isolated, but does that loneliness make him angry or does it make him desperate for a human connection of some kind?” Barnes explained. “Where can I find the warmth? Where can I bring parts of myself with this character?”

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Zoë Wanamaker

Veteran stage and screen actress Wanamaker plays Baghra, the stern Grisha who trains the Second Army for battle. Known mostly for her theater work, Harry Potter fans will no doubt recognize her as Madam Hooch, the Quidditch instructor who taught Harry to fly in the first film.

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Danielle Galligan

The Irish actress plays Nina Zenik, a Grisha who has been captured by Fjerdan soldiers called drüskelle, who are basically witch hunters. Also a poet, Galligan starred in one episode of Game of Thrones and has appeared in lots of plays and short films.

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Calahan Skogman

The former college basketball player stars as Matthias Helvar, a drüskelle who's left in charge of Nina after her kidnapping. Skogman earned an MFA from the University of Southern California.

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Daisy Head

The British actress plays Genya Safin, a Grisha who works for the Ravkan queen and is assigned to show Alina the ropes once she moves in to the Little Palace, where the rest of the Grisha live. Head has a ton of TV and film credits under her belt, including a main role in season 3 of Hulu's Harlots and a part in the 2021 reboot of Wrong Turn.

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Simon Sears

The Danish actor stars as Ivan, one of the Grisha assigned to General Kirigan's personal guard. Shadow and Bone is Sears' first American production.

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Julian Kostov

Kostov plays Fedyor Kaminsky, another one of General Kirigan's personal guard, though he has a slightly more robust sense of humor than Ivan. The Bulgarian actor has had recurring roles in A Discovery of Witches and Berlin Station and appeared in films including London Has Fallen and Leatherface.

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Howard Charles

As Arken, a.k.a. the Conductor, Charles leads the Crows on a dangerous mission to journey across the Fold in search of Alina. Known mostly for his stage work, the British actor played Porthos in The Musketeers, the BBC's 2014 adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

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Sujaya Dasgupta

Dasgupta plays Zoya Nazyalensky, a Grisha who can control wind (and is something of a nemesis to Alina). The British actress has previously appeared in I May Destroy You, Press and Guilt.  

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Luke Pasqualino

Pasqualino plays David Kostyk, a Grisha who can manipulate solid materials including steel and glass. He starred alongside Charles in The Musketeers (as d'Artagnan) but will be most recognizable to Skins fans as Freddie McClair from seasons 3 and 4 of the British series.

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Kevin Eldon

Eldon stars as the Apparat, the spiritual advisor to the king of Ravka. He's known mostly for his work in British comedies, such as Hot Fuzz and This Morning With Richard Not Judy, but has also had minor roles in Game of Thrones, The Crown and Doctor Who.

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Gabrielle Brooks

Brooks plays Nadia, a Grisha who becomes one of Alina's only friends in the Little Palace. The London-born actress has mostly worked in theater but had a small role in the 2006 movie Notes on a Scandal.

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Jasmine Blackborow

As Marie, Blackborow stars as another of Alina's Grisha friends. Prior to Shadow and Bone, she appeared in a handful of short films and is set to star in Daemon Mind, due out in 2021.