We all love the ~thrill~ of binging a new show. But if you’re looking for a new series, enter: The Wilds, which is about to come out with a second season (!!) on May 13. Basically, if the glimmer-meets-grit vibe of Pretty Little Liars and The Society combined, you’d get the gist of this Amazon Prime original.
The initial 10-part series is about the lives of high school students from myriad friend groups who are forced into survival mode after the private plane they’re aboard crashes. “The castaways both clash and bond as they learn more about each other, the secrets they keep, and the traumas they’ve all endured. There’s just one twist to this thrilling drama…these girls did not end up on this island by accident,” reads the show’s synopsis. In season 1, we end up learning the “twist” is that the eight protagonists are actually subjects of a social experiment engineered by Gretchen Klein (Rachel Griffiths), the head of women’s empowerment program “Dawn of Eve.”
Season 2 of the show essentially follows the same premise except this time around, the girls learn about another island where the same experiment is being staged—this time, with boys. *cue dramatic music*
Before you binge-watch the show (dw, we’re right there with you), here’s everything you need to know about all of The Wild’s cast members.
Original Cast:
Sophia Ali as Fatin Jadmani
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Age: 26
Instagram: @sophiatali
About her: Sophia Ali is an American actress best known for her work in the MTV romantic comedy series Faking It as well as for her recurring role in the long-running ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy. In The Wilds, her character is the blunt, rich ($) girl among all of the survivors.
Shannon Berry as Dot Campbell
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Age: 22
Instagram: @shangraceberry
About her: Shannon Berry is an Australian actress who, in 2016, made her television debut in Syfy’s Hunters, but she is best known for her role as Dot Campbell in The Wilds. Her character is a tough Texan girl who has had to endure adult responsibilities despite her young age. Her tenacity proves to be beyond useful when…well, when stranded on an island.
Jenna Clause as Martha Blackburn
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Age: 23
Instagram: @jennaclause
About her: Jenna Clause is a First Nations Canadian actress born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Southern Ontario. She first appeared in films You’re It and The Furies Inside Me before being cast as Ojibwe character Martha Blackburn on The Wilds, where her character values her connection to her Native American heritage and maintains an optimistic disposition amidst all of the drama.
Reign Edwards as Rachel Reid
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Age: 25
Instagram: @reignedwards
About her: Reign Edwards is an American actress best known for her role as Nicole Avant on CBS’s iconic The Bold and the Beautiful. Oh, and NBD, she was legit nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In 2017, Reign booked the recurring role of a secret agent in the series MacGyver and subsequently appeared in the horror film Hell Fest. In The Wilds, Reign’s character is an elite diver who has kinda gone off on the deep end (pun intended) to succeed in her sport. She’s de-ter-mined to get off the island and continue her Olympic pursuits.
Mia Healey as Shelby Goodkind
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Age: 23
Instagram: @mia.healey
About her: Mia Healey is an Australian actress born in Sydney, Australia. The Wilds is her first acting credit, which is pretty amazing, TBH! In the show, she plays Shelby Goodkind, a devout pageant princess from Texas who, similar to Martha, remains kind and optimistic throughout the show.
Helena Howard as Nora Reid
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Age: 23
Instagram: @helenahoward_officially
About her: Helena Howard is an American actress from New York City primarily known for her breakout role in Josephine Decker’s 2018 film Madeline’s Madeline, which earned her the title of one of the 50 best performances of the 2010s decade by IndieWire and second in the New Yorker’s list of the 50 best film performances of the 21st century. Girl’s got some *serious* talent. Helena’s next role was in the short film Twist, which debuted at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. In The Wilds, she plays the role of Rachel’s fraternal twin, Nora Reid: a quiet, artistic gal who is a bit more of a recluse compared to the others but who def has strong moments of her own.
Erana James as Toni Shalifoe
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Age: 23
Instagram: @erana_james
About her: Erana James is an actress who hails from New Zealand. Prior to The Wilds, she played Kahu in Golden Boy and Laura in The Changeover. But she is best known for her role as Toni Shalifoe in The Wilds, where her character tends to shut those around her out because she has a difficult time with trust. But she is still best friends with Martha, whom she refers to as Marty 🥺.
Sarah Pidgeon as Leah Rilke
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Age: 25
Instagram: @sarah__pidgeon
About her: Sarah Pidgeon is an American actress from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who made her debut in the television series Gotham as Jane Cartwright. The following year, she was cast as Leah Rilke in The Wilds and rose to fame. Her character is mature and an intellectual, and she enjoys venturing on her own to observe her surroundings…which kind of allows her to know that something’s definitely not right off the bat.
David Sullivan as Daniel Farber
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Age: 44
Instagram: @davidsullivan
About him: David Wade Sullivan was born in Tyler, Texas, and began his acting career as Abe in the 2004 independent film Primer, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, he’s been in a bunch of projects, namely Argo, Boston Legal, CSI, and the Netflix original series Flaked opposite Will Arnett. In The Wilds, he plays Dr. Daniel Farber—one of the characters who monitors and questions the girls once they return from the island.
Troy Winbush as Dean Young
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Age: 52
Instagram: @winbushtroy
About her: Troy Winbush is an American actor born in New York City and best known for his recurring role as Denny on The Cosby Show from 1987 to 1991. Oh, and he’s made appearances in legit everything from Law & Order and NYPD Blue to Boston Public and CSI: Miami. His role on The Wilds, however, is that of Dean Young, who mainly works with Daniel to look into exactly what went down with the girls after they return from the island.
Rachel Griffiths as Gretchen Klein
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Age: 53
Instagram: @rachelgriffithsofficial
About her: Rachel Griffiths is an Australian actor and director who was primarily raised in Melbourne. She began her creative career on the Australian series Secrets before being cast in the 1994 film Muriel’s Wedding, which earned her an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She has also had roles in the films Blow, the Julian Assange television biopic Underground: The Julian Assange Story, on Broadway in the production of Other Desert Cities, in the HBO series Six Feet Under, and so! many! more! Her character in The Wilds, Gretchen Klein, is v important given that she’s the mastermind behind the girls’ entire island experience. Her whole reasoning behind the experiment, though, is at the center of the show’s plot.
Addition Season 2 Cast:
Let’s bring in the boys!!
Zack Calderon as Rafael Garcia
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Instagram: @zacktcalderon
About him: Zack is an actor from Folsom, California, who studied musical theatre. Interestingly, he’s only appeared onscreen in a series once before in an episode of the crime drama FBI. The actor sweetly took to IG to share the moment he learned he booked the role of Rafael Garcia in The Wilds and shouted to his fans, “I get to quit my job!” In the show, his character is quiet and sensitive. He hails from Tijuana but attends high school in San Diego, so he’s constantly straddling the pressures and expectations of both worlds.
Aidan Laprete as Henry Tanaka
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Age: 20
Instagram: @aidanlaprete
About him: Aiden Laprete is seriously cool. He first shot to fame at 8 years old after his cover of Train’s Hey Soul Sister went viral and caught theeeee Jack Johnson’s eye. Adrien was then invited to play at the singer’s 2010 Kokua Festival (ukulele in tow, obvi). Three years later, he appeared in Train’s music video for Mermaid, which just so happened to be filmed in his birth state of Hawaii. Since then, the singer turned actor released his debut album, Echoes, in 2015 and was recently casted as Henry Tanaka in The Wilds. In the series, his characters plays the opposite of his more outgoing stepbrother Seth and is more of a reclusive type who prefers to don noise-canceling headphones and simply ~chill~.
Nicholas Coombe as Josh Herbert
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Age: 27
Instagram: @nicholascoombe
About him: Nicholas Coombe was raised in Perth, Australia, and lived there for a while before moving to Vancouver, Canada, to pursue acting. He is known for the role of Randy in Dora and the Lost City of Gold and for his singing and guitar abilities in his indie band, The Beanie Kids. In The Wilds, Nicholas plays Josh Herbert, a talkative and hypochondriacal guy who comes from a wealthy family in San Diego. He’s kind of the black sheep (even in his own home), and he’s nervous to the point of taking homeopathic supplements to handle his chronic stress.
Charles Alexander as Kirin O’Conner
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Instagram: @minicarlos
About him: Charles Alexander hails from Western Australia and graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before moving to Los Angeles. He made his acting debut in a handful of short films, including Mother Dearest, which he also wrote and produced. His latest character in The Wilds is Kirin O’Conner, a short-tempered lacrosse player who has the tendency to…put people off. Interesting!
Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Ivan Taylor
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Instagram: @milesgutierrezriley
About him: Although Miles will be making his television debut in The Wilds, he’s definitely a familiar face to the show’s fans, having appeared on season 1 stars Sarah Pidgeon and Mia Healey’s Instas. In the show, Miles is slated to play Ivan Taylor, an activist and aspiring playwright with amaze fashion sense and a lighthearted nature. But sometimes he’s a bit tooooo honest, and his words can cut deep 😶.
Reed Shannon as Scotty Simms
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Age: 21
Instagram: @reed.shannon
About him: Reed Shannon, who also goes by the stage name Reed Lorenzo, had his start as a solo artist and in musicals such as In the Heights. Throughout 2021 (aka while we transitioned to the sweatpants-and-work-top look), Reed continued to release singles that garnered enough attention to have him cast as the voice of Ekko in the series Arcane with actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld. In The Wilds, the actor/singer plays Bo’s BFF Scotty Simms, a Floridian entrepreneur who dreams of making the Forbes 400 list.
Tanner Ray Rook as Bo Leonard
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Instagram: @tannerrayrook13
About him: Tanner is an American actor whose acting creds can be traced back to an episode of Side Quest in 2019. His TikTok though…that’s another story, LOL. Tanner gained two million Likes on the app after his comedic videos and impressions of Jack Black went viral, so he’ll definitely be a familiar face to many on The Wilds as Bo Leonard. His character is a soft-spoken teen from the Florida panhandle, similar to his BFF Scotty Simm. He can kind of come off as naive even with his difficult past, but he is fiercely loyal to those around him 🥺.
Alex Fitzalan as Seth Novak
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Age: 25
Instagram: @alexfitzalan
About him: The Society fans, rejoice! Alex will def be a familiar face given his role as Harry Bingham in the since-canceled Netflix show. The Australian-born actor has starred in Audible exclusive Sunshadow and Quibi’s Grey Cloud Island. Plus, he’s set to appear alongside Lucy Boynton and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the biographical film Chevalier. In The Wilds, however, the actor plays Seth Novack, aka Henry’s stepbrother. Witty, funny, and whip-smart, his character swiftly earns the respect of the other characters…minus Henry. The drama!!
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