Why The Cast Of Landman Looks So Familiar

In the years since "Yellowstone" conquered television, creator Taylor Sheridan's TV shows have spread across the airwaves ... or at least, Paramount+. He's since developed shows like "Special Ops: Lioness," "Lawman: Bass Reeves," "Tulsa King," "Mayor of Kingstown," and a number of "Yellowstone" prequels. And then there's "Landman," a show about the oil fields of Texas. While that industry may have once been relegated to classic films like James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor's "Giant" or delightfully cheesy soaps like "Dallas," "Landman" takes the industry seriously as a place full of backstabbing criminals and a whole lot of money. It's still basically a soap opera, if we're being honest, but it's the dark and gritty kind, like Sheridan's fans have come to expect. 

Like many Sheridan shows, "Landman" boasts an impressive cast. The sprawling family trees present in his other shows are at play here too, and it's a show as much about those interpersonal relationships as it is about the oil that bubbles beneath their feet. As always, Sheridan has managed to attract a cast that features a mix of A-list movie stars who you might not expect to see on streaming television, talented newcomers who have proven themselves on other Sheridan-verse shows, and familiar character actors who have made their careers as reliable players in large ensemble casts. If you're wondering why the cast of "Landman" looks so familiar, read on to learn where you've seen all these dreamers and losers before.

What's a Taylor Sheridan show without some broken relationships that refuse to die? On "Landman," Ali Larter plays Angela Norris, ex-wife of Billy Bob Thornton's character Tommy. Even though they're not together, Angela is very much still involved in the family business, helping raise their kids and meddling with the men who jockey for power across these sun-baked lands. Larter likes that about her character, telling ELLE that she's happy to play women who are nakedly ambitious. "She thinks of her job as going to the gym and looking great," she explained. "But you're also watching the reverse engineering of a trophy wife, someone who's had all this and is coming back to where she belongs."

If you feel like you've seen Larter play these kinds of characters before, you're not wrong. In the 2009 thriller "Obsessed," when Beyoncé told Idris Elba, "You'd better do something about this woman, or I will," she was talking about Larter. Their campy brawl regularly goes viral online, and Larter told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Jay-Z didn't have to protect Bey on set. "That girl can take care of herself," she said.

Larter wore the whipped-cream bikini in "Varsity Blues" that was later spoofed by Chris Evans in "Not Another Teen Movie." You may also know her because she played Clear Rivers in the original "Final Destination," or because she was the butt-kicking Claire in several "Resident Evil" movies. Larter also played Niki, a super-powered stripper, on "Heroes."

Kevin Costner eventually quit "Yellowstone," but when the show premiered, he was the main focus of its sprawling intergenerational drama. What Costner was to that show, Billy Bob Thornton is to "Landman." He plays Tommy Norris, the titular landman who tries to keep a stranglehold on his company's Texas oil fields even as the pressures of the modern world threaten to strip it all away. Thornton told Rolling Stone that he understands a bit of what his character is going through, because he too has had to face intense pressure. "I've spent periods in my life where I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, so I think that's probably a thing I relate to the most," he said. "Our work ethic is pretty close."

It's not an understatement — Thornton probably looks familiar no matter what corner of the entertainment industry you're interested in. He was the lead in "Bad Santa" and appeared in "Armageddon," nominated for best actor and best screenplay at the Oscars for writing and starring in "Sling Blade," and even appeared on an episode of "The Big Bang Theory." If celeb gossip is your thing, then you know that Thornton was also once a tabloid fixture, especially during his tumultuous marriage to Angelina Jolie.

Jacob Lofland plays Cooper Norris,Tommy's son, on "Landman." He's hoping to follow in his father's footsteps, especially interested in making money in the oil business, but Cooper often finds himself in over his head. This job isn't all about the financial reward; it takes a lot of scheming and stealing, too. "The thing that he doesn't know is the dangers and the work that comes along with it, and what he is going to have to sacrifice and do to make it to that point," Lofland told UPI.

Lofland got his big break in the 2012 film "Mud," acting opposite Matthew McConaughey. Back then, the young actor liked making people laugh. "The comedic part of it — that was my favorite part," he told One Guy's Opinion.

After "Mud," fame came calling for the talented youngster, but he hasn't had much of a chance to continue cracking people up. Most notably, Lofland played Aris in two sequels to the hit YA franchise "The Maze Runner," bringing the character through "The Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure." You also may have seen him play Ricky in "Joker: Folie à Deux," reunite with McConaughey in "Free State of Jones," or as yet another oil scion on the AMC series "The Son" opposite Pierce Brosnan.

On "Landman," Michelle Randolph takes on the role of Ainsley, Tommy and Angela's daughter. Whereas Cooper wants to be part of the family business, Ainsley is a bit of a wild child, enjoying her family's money and acting out the more her parents try to keep her in line. Randolph is older than her teenage character, and she told Backstage that it takes a bit of work to put herself in the mindset of a misbehaving teenager. "I was never that way, even when I was 17. So I just really focus on trying to humanize her and figure out: OK, what kind of person says or does these things, whether they're 17 or not?" Randolph said.

If Randolph looks familiar, that likely means you're a fan of Taylor Sheridan's other shows. You might have seen her before as part of the cast of "1923," the "Yellowstone" prequel that follows earlier generations of the Dutton family. That was Randolph's breakout role, and she told Backstage that filming the two shows back to back has led to some problems. "For a minute there, I felt like every time I tried to read a '1923' script, I had an accent, because I was just so used to reading 'Landman' scripts and speaking in Ainsley's accent," she said.

The first season of "Landman" began with a terrible drilling accident, leading Paulina Chávez's character Ariana to start the series as a widow. As time goes on, she falls for Cooper, complicating her feelings about the company that took her husband's life. She told ELLE that she was particularly interested in portraying her character's journey in the show's second season, which merges her own family with Cooper's. "One thing about Ariana is that her family is everything to her. And family is something that will get you through anything," she mused. "There's just something about Latino culture that gets you through anything."

"Landman" is one of her first big leading roles, but you may have spotted the talented youngster as a teenage genius on the Netflix show "The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia." She also starred on the streamer's ill-fated fairy show "Fate: The Winx Saga." In 2025, Chávez led the cast of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip," a standalone Netflix sequel to the similarly-named 2014 film.

"Landman" is about the rough-and-tumble world of oil drilling, but it's also about how that classic American culture can't stand up to modern scrutiny. That's where Kayla Wallace's character Rebecca Falcone comes in, playing a lawyer who gives the oil men grief when they, you know, disregard safety standards and get people killed. Still, Rebecca turns out to be just as corruptible as anyone, easily swayed by the pursuit of money. "She'll adapt to her surroundings and ebb and flow with the information that she's getting," Wallace explained to CBR. "I think she definitely had her ideas of the way the people were in this industry. And she's learning as she goes, as everybody is in the world."

Rebecca is Wallace's first major role leading a television series, but you may have spotted her on episodes of things like "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" and "The Good Doctor," a show that charted the best and worst moments of an unconventional doctor. She's also a Hallmark regular, appearing across many episodes of "When Calls The Heart" in addition to holiday films like "Snowed In For Christmas" and "My Grown-Up Christmas List."

Once upon a time, Demi Moore set Hollywood ablaze with the back-to-back release of "G.I. Jane" and "Striptease." She'd steadily built up a career through films like "St. Elmo's Fire," "Ghost," "A Few Good Men," and "Indecent Proposal." Then, everything changed. "If anything in this industry has ever been stacked against me, it was having those two films come out at the same time and becoming the highest-paid actress on top of that," she told Variety. "That moment was so powerful for me because it wasn't just about me; it was about changing the playing field for all women. But because I was portraying a stripper, I betrayed women. And because I played a soldier, I betrayed men."

Her career went through a tabloid phase — Ashton Kutcher's "cougar" wife, for example. She finally came back out on top in 2024, when she starred in "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans," was Oscar-nominated for "The Substance," and began playing Cami on "Landman." She told S Magazine that she was particularly excited for the show's second season. "Really, in the first season, I didn't have as much of a chance to really dive in, to really find her," she reflected. "In truth, I had been really waiting to get back in there."

In addition to convincing movie stars to take a chance on his streaming television shows, Taylor Sheridan also has a great eye for a reliable character actor. On "Landman," Mark Collie plays Sheriff Walt Joeberg, a lawman who's a friend of Tommy's but who also has to uphold the laws he's sworn to uphold. "It's an interestingly beautiful dynamic, I think, between those two guys. Two guys who are in a really tough situation," Collie explained to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Tommy's the big head of the new company and all that. When the stakes go up for Tommy, they go up for everybody, including Sheriff Joeberg."

If Collie looks familiar, you may have been a fan of television in the 1990s. He appeared on episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger" and was in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Movie," in addition to shows like "Early Edition" and "The Strip." Collie is perhaps best known for playing Frankie Gray on the fourth season of "Nashville," a show that featured Ali Larter's former "Heroes" co-star Hayden Panettiere with a Southern accent.

Mustafa Speaks is another character actor who's been killing it on "Landman." As the enigmatically-named Boss, Speaks plays one of the most reliable members of Tommy's crew, willing to help him with work-related emergencies and also with some dealings that aren't quite above board. Speaks told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he's been very touched by the response of the show's fans, including online and in person. "If I'm walking down the street, or I get some responses on Instagram, saying how much my character meant to them, or how authentic it was to people they know, or how it's helped shape who they are now, or who they want to become. How it shifted their lives in any way, I mean, that's the most rewarding feeling ever," he said.

If Speaks looks familiar, it might be because of his role as "Messiah" on the Netflix show "Seven Seconds." He also recurred as Nate on "Joe Pickett" and Kenny on "All American," and he's put in appearances on everything from "Criminal Minds," "Chicago Med," and "S.W.A.T" to "Lethal Weapon," "N.C.I.S.," and "A Black Lady Sketch Show."

Though he's been acting since the mid-2000s, James Jordan is best known as a Taylor Sheridan regular, going all the way back to his appearance in the 2017 film "Wind River." He's since played Agent Steve Hendon on "Yellowstone," Cookie on "1883," Ed on "Mayor of Kingstown," and Two Cups on "Special Ops: Lioness." He also appeared in the 2021 film "Those Who Wish Me Dead," a firefighting drama starring Billy Bob Thornton's ex-wife Angelina Jolie, which Sheridan wrote and directed.

On "Landman," he plays Dale, an oil company employee who's one of Tommy's best friends. Jordan told Tase of Country that he likes working with Sheridan because each of his many roles has been challenging in a new way, explaining, "I think he enjoys seeing us swing for the fences, trying to hit those home runs with his material. And when you have someone that poetic and that brilliant, who thoughtfully designs his stories so well, that's what attracts you as an actor. It's constantly challenging to play these people that he writes and bring them to life in such an interesting way."

Ever since "Mad Men" ended, Jon Hamm has been quite the funnyman; he's had well-received supporting turns on shows like "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Childrens Hospital," "The Morning Show," and "Barry." Hamm also starred in movies like "Tag," "Bad Times at the El Royale," "Wild Mountain Thyme," and "Top Gun: Maverick." Still, speaking with W Magazine, Hamm noted that a lot of his biggest characters — including on the 2025 Apple TV+ show "Your Friends and Neighbors" — are antiheroes, and that's putting it lightly. "My history of characters isn't exactly the saints; it's more on the sinner side of the equation," he said. "But Superman can be kind of boring."

On the first season of "Landman," Hamm played Monty Miller, the doomed husband of Demi Moore's character Cami. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he was happy to sign on for only one season, because it allowed him access to two people he'd been eager to work with. "It was the ability to work with Taylor [Sheridan] and Billy Bob [Thornton]," he said. "Those are guys whose careers I've been really paying attention to. They're just working at the top of their game. I knew the show was going to be good; I didn't know it was really going to spark in the culture the way it has, and that part of it is even better."

Taylor Sheridan — as discussed above — loves to bring in a movie star to give his shows some serious weight. In the first season finale, that meant signing Andy Garcia to play cartel boss Gallino. In the show's second season, Gallino becomes a serious presence, mucking things up for Tommy, his business, and his family. Garcia told The Hollywood Reporter that he couldn't say no to someone like Sheridan, who offered to write the part specifically for him. He joked, "It's like having Shakespeare call you up and say, 'I'd like to write a play for you about a prince who has an issue with his father' — and then he sends you 'Hamlet.'"

Garcia knows a thing or two about working with great writer and directors. He might look familiar from Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables," Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather Part III," the Ramón Menéndez film "Stand and Deliver," Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven" franchise, and plenty more. He played Fernando opposite Cher in "Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again," starred opposite Gerard Butler in "Geostorm," and acted with Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo in "Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar," one of the best movies of 2021. In other words, you've probably seen Garcia before; he has perhaps the most prolific, wide-ranging filmography of the entire cast.

James Jordan isn't the only member of the cast of "1883" who also appears on "Landman." That show starred the iconically mustachioed Sam Elliott, who joined the cast of "Landman" in the show's second season as Tommy's father. (Taylor Sheridan and those intergenerational daddy issues again!) He's enjoyed his experience working with Billy Bob Thornton, telling Gold Derby that he can hardly believe his luck in getting such a meaty role. "[It's] a gift," he said. "There's a lot of different ways you could describe it in one word, but that's what I keep coming back to. It's a gift for me. It's a gift for the audience. It's a gift for all of us."

Elliott is no stranger to playing hardscrabble, Western cowboy types, going all the way back to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." You may also recognize him from "Road House," "Gettysburg," "Tombstone," "The Big Lebowski," "Up in the Air," or "Draft Day," opposite "Yellowstone" star Kevin Costner. In 2018, he played Bobby in "A Star Is Born," a role that netted him — unbelievably — his first and only Oscar nomination. When he first heard about the nod, he joked to Deadline, "I think the thing off the top of my head might be, 'It's about f***ing time."