What The Cast Of Fallout Looks Like In Real Life

Even before the Prime Video adaptation, "Fallout" always seemed like one of those video game franchises that deserved a movie or TV adaptation. Seeing how lovingly Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet's show brings the irreverent post-apocalyptic world alive is nothing short of a delight. "Fallout" season 2 expands the world of the Prime Video show dramatically, with faces both old and new roaming the New Vegas corner of the Wasteland. 

Though "Fallout" features a large ensemble cast of (mostly) human characters, the show's elaborate sets and costumes can make it easy for the viewer to lose themselves in the show's colorful world. Due to this, it can potentially be difficult to picture what some of the show's actors look like when they're not rocking their Vault overalls and wastelander outfits. Let's take a peek behind the scenes and see what the central cast of "Fallout" looks like in real life. 

Lucy MacLean is the closest thing "Fallout," as a show, has to a "player character." The live-action counterpart to the various Vault-dwelling protagonists of the games, she's the viewpoint character for much of the insanity that unfolds in the Wasteland ... especially because her immediate family seems to be responsible for much of it. Thanks to her unique combination of Vault upbringing and Wasteland naivete, Lucy is never quite attuned to the situation at hand. Instead, she always seems to be either far more knowledgeable or experienced than the other people involved in any given scene, or completely and utterly out of her depth.

The character is brought to life by Ella Purnell, whose first screen credits date to 2010. "Fallout" is only the most recent hit out of her string of impressive work. From her role as Lady Maria Grey in the historical miniseries "Belgravia" (2020) to her role as Jackie Taylor in the weird, wild Showtime survival drama "Yellowjackets," Purnell's star has been on a steady rise — and "Fallout" has only caused it to soar higher.   

Cooper Howard takes over the viewpoint character duties in the show's pre-apocalyptic timeline. He's a pre-war Hollywood celebrity who slowly becomes involved with Vault-Tec and the various forces that conspire to bring forth the end of days ... as well as other forces that strive to oppose them. In the post-apocalyptic future, Cooper roams the land as the feared Ghoul; a jaded, Western-themed gunslinger who is still looking for his long-lost family.

Walton Goggins has spent over two decades climbing steadily toward his current status as one of them most recognizable faces in movies — and especially television. He broke through as Shane Vendrell in Shawn Ryan's FX crime drama "The Shield," and further established himself as the guy to watch on the network's acclaimed neo-Western "Justified" as Boyd Crowder. 

His other winning TV roles include (but are by no means limited to) Rip Taggart on the History military drama "Six" and Baby Billy Freeman on Danny McBride's HBO comedy-drama "The Righteous Gemstones." Goggins has also appeared in several movies, including the Quentin Tarantino films "Django Unchained" and "The Hateful Eight." All in all, the actor's career and backstory make for a captivating tale, and Looper has documented its juiciest parts in our article about interesting little-known facts about Walton Goggins. 

Maximus completes the protagonist trifecta of "Fallout" with his own approach to survival in the Wastelands. The Brotherhood of Steel is one of the most prominent factions in the "Fallout" franchise, and the young knight is our window into the live-action version of this militant group. Maximus and Lucy's storylines reflect each other in many ways, as they experience different aspects of the Wastelands through their own lenses. 

However, Maximus' tragic backstory makes him far more reactionary and prone to violence, and his strict military upbringing and personal code of honor offer an interesting counterpoint to Lucy's comparative pacifism and the Ghoul's individualistic ruthlessness.

Aaron Moten is no stranger to big projects. In 2016, he played the recurring role of Petey on HBO's crime drama "The Night Of." From 2017 to 2018, he co-starred with the great Kathy Bates on the Netflix comedy "Disjointed," and in 2020 he played Ben in the Fox drama "Next." He's also appeared in movies like Rosalind Ross' boxer biopic "Father Stu" and Antoine Fuqua's Will Smith survival period drama "Emancipation."

Vault overseer, mass murderer, relic of a bygone era ... and a devoted dad. Lucy's father Hank MacLean is all of these things and more. One of the surprisingly many old-timey Vault-Tec employees who survived the apocalypse via cryogenics and thawed out centuries later, Hank holds knowledge of both the past and the present. He's the kind of guy who will nuke an entire town and subject countless people to mind control while still believing in his heart of hearts that he's only doing what needs to be done. And really, is there anyone more dangerous than someone who thinks that he's in the right even when he's committing atrocities? 

The friendly face behind the character makes Hank even creepier. After all, Kyle MacLachlan is most famously known as Dale Cooper, the coffee-loving protagonist of David Lynch and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks." A common Lynch collaborator, MacLachlan is also known for playing Paul Atreides in the original 1984 adaptation of "Dune" and Jeffrey Beaumont in "Blue Velvet." 

He also got to flex his villain muscles under the director in one of his multiple Cooper-adjacent roles on the auteur's 2017 Season 3-slash-revival series, "Twin Peaks: The Return." MacLachlan is also known for many other roles, such as Orson Hodge on "Desperate Housewives" and the mayor on "Portlandia." 

Lucy's brother Norm MacLean is so smart that even other clever characters can find him unnerving. He uses his brains to meticulously solve the secrets behind his home vault and the ones connected to it, and gets into all sorts of trouble while he's at it. 

The intense Norm is deftly played by Moisés Arias, whose acting accolades give him the sort of wide-spanning experience you'd hope an actor to have in a role like this. Before "Fallout," Arias was arguably best known as the inimitable Rico Suave on the Disney Channel sitcom "Hannah Montana." 

Still, that's only the tip of his acting CV iceberg. Since 2005, Arias has appeared in all sorts of projects, from family-friendly films and shows of his early career to a mid-2010s transition toward more serious and intense roles in projects like the 2015 psychological thriller "The Stanford Prison Experiment." More recently, he has appeared in movies like the 2022 true crime drama "American Murderer" and the 2023 sci-fi thriller "Divinity." 

When the viewer discovers that Cooper Howard's seemingly affable wife, Barb, is a higher-up at Vault-Tec, warning bells ring whenever she appears. However, even with the suspicion that Barb might not be all that she seems to be, it's difficult to prepare for the "Fallout" Season 1 endgame revelation that she's fully complicit in planning the nuclear apocalypse — and even actively pitches it to Vault-Tec partners. 

Like many other "Fallout" characters, Barb is far from a one-note person. The role requires both loving warmth and steely toughness, but Frances Turner pulls it all off without issue. A veteran of quirky Prime Video adaptations, Turner is known for playing Monique Milk on "The Boys." She's also played recurring roles in projects like the Fox superhero show "The Gifted," Prime Video's dystopian sci-fi series "The Man in the High Castle," and the NBC medical drama "New Amsterdam." 

Thaddeus wears a great many hats on "Fallout," and not all of them make him look good. While an integral part of Maximus' storyline, he starts out as a remorseless bully. As Maximus' star rises, Thaddeus finds himself serving as his former target's underling until events conspire to turn him into a ghoul. In "Fallout" Season 2, the ghoulified Thaddeus is as flawed and avaricious than he's ever been ... but his new outcast status and life away from the Brotherhood of Steel have given him plenty of nuance and perspective.

An interesting character requires an interesting actor, and "Fallout" answered to the call by casting Johnny Pemberton. He got his first screen credits in 2007 and has worked diligently ever since, landing multiple projects every year. A specialist in offbeat comedy, Pemberton is known for projects like the animation-live action comedy series "Son of Zorn," the Jonah Hill-Channing Tatum buddy cop comedy "21 Jump Street," and the NBC sitcom "Superstore."

Betty Pearson becomes the overseer of Vault 33 after Hank MacLean, and is eventually revealed to be one of the many pre-war Vault-Tec stooges from Vault 31. Betty's position of power makes her a major presence in the Vault-themed storylines, and she also turns up in Cooper Howard's pre-war narrative. 

The younger, pre-war version of Betty is played by director and actor Princess Bey, but the main actor in the role is Leslie Uggams. A true veteran, Uggams has acted since the 1950s. She has appeared in numerous TV shows and Broadway plays over the decades, and her work has been recognized many times over. 

Among her other accolades, she won a Tony award for her role in the musical "Hallelujah, Baby!" in 1968, and a Daytime Emmy in 1983 for hosting the NBC game show "Fantasy." She was also nominated for both a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing Kizzy Reynolds in the seminal 1977 miniseries "Roots." More recently, Uggams has been part of the "Deadpool" movie series as Deadpool's (Ryan Reynolds) long-suffering roommate, Blind Al. 

Out of all the characters in "Fallout" Season 1, Lee Moldaver might just be the most mysterious. She starts as a pretty ruthless antagonist who jump-starts Lucy MacLean's Wasteland adventure with the bloody abduction of her father, Overseer Hank. However, Moldaver turns out to be a far more complex individual than some mere villain, and as Cooper Howard's pre-war storyline eventually reveals, her real identity isn't Moldaver at all — she's a nuclear scientist called Mrs. Williams.

This intense role is played by Sarita Choudhury, whose earliest screen acting roles date back to early 1990s. Choudhury has worked steadily throughout the decades, but she exploded into prominence in the 2010s with roles like Mira Berenson on "Homeland," Egeria in the "Hunger Games" films, Lilith on "The Path," and Kith Lyonne on "Jessica Jones." In the 2020s, Choudhury has played roles like Seema Patel in the "Sex and the City" revival series "And Just Like That ..." and as Dev Patel's witchy mother in David Lowery's 2022 fantasy drama "The Green Knight."

Woody Thomas holds a position of influence in Vault 33 when the series begins. However, he eventually falls by the wayside when it comes to the weird power struggle inside the trio of vaults, and starts discovering some seriously strange things about the way the system he's spent all his life in operates. But how to address such concerns within the system, when all you know is the system itself?

As it happens, this isn't the only time Woody's actor has found himself in the incredibly specific niche of a sci-fi show where his character is stuck within a mysterious complex owned by people with nefarious intentions. Zach Cherry is famous for his (kind of) dual roles as Lumon innie worker Dylan G. and his outie Dylan George on the Apple TV sci-fi hit "Severance." 

Cherry has also appeared in numerous other projects, notably playing Ethan Russell in Netflix's stalker drama "You." He has also made appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." 

As the only person who recognizes both Maximus' determination and positive qualities in the Brotherhood of Steel, Dane is the aspiring knight's closest friend and confidant. Initially, Dane seems to be the more capable of the pair and a shoo-in for a squire promotion, but a foot injury caused by a mysterious, hidden razor blade changes the course of events. Maximus ends up landing the squire gig, and Dane plays a pivotal role in his ascension into a full knight.  

Dane is played by Xelia Mendes-Jones, who is a relative newcomer in the industry. Originally a promising soccer player and a model, his first screen role was an episode of the online sketch comedy show "Sans Comic" in 2018. In 2023, he appeared on Prime Video's "The Wheel of Time" as the recurring character Renna, and in 2025 he played Johnny in the Tom Hardy Netflix action film "Havoc." 

Event planning expert and Vault 33 council member Reg McPhee goes through quite a journey. As the power balance of the vault changes, Reg is largely cut loose from his previous, meaningful existence. He finds a new purpose when he sets up a support group for inbred denizens of the vault ... though whether said group is good for the vault itself is another matter entirely.

Reg's actor, Rodrigo "Rod" Luzzi, has been in the game since the mid-2000, but "Fallout" is his biggest project yet by quite a significant margin. Luzzi's acting credits until 2017 were almost entirely relatively obscure short films. After that (and before entering Vault 33), his résumé has been of the journeyman variety, with guest roles on shows like the medical drama "New Amsterdam" and the CBS agent procedural "FBI: Most Wanted." Luzzi has also appeared in Nick Frangione's award-winning indie drama "Buck Run." 

Stephanie "Steph" Harper starts "Fallout" Season 1 as Lucy's almost ethereally happy best friend who has it all figured out. However, a bandit attack leaves her widowed, sans one eye, and with a new outlook that's increasingly unnerving. She becomes the new overseer of the reclaimed Vault 32, and before long, it becomes clear that Steph is actually a pre-war Vault-Tec employee with hidden depths to spare — and a surprisingly malicious streak. 

Annabel O'Hagan is another one of the show's comparative newcomers, which makes it doubly more impressive to see her hold her own against the likes of Leslie Uggams. Before "Fallout," O'Hagan only had half a dozen comparatively small roles to her name. Out of them, the most prominent one is arguably her screen acting debut in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" Season 21, Episode 17 ("Dance, Lies and Videotape"), where she guest starred as Dehlia. O'Hagan has also appeared in Fernando Andrés' 2024 comedy-drama "Rent Free." 

Robert House is easily the most prominent new character introduced in "Fallout" Season 2. The man presiding over both RobCo Industries and the show's version of Las Vegas is as enigmatic as they come, but as his brain control technology and vast knowledge readily prove, he can be incredibly dangerous when he chooses to be. 

Technically, House makes an appearance in "Fallout" Season 1, but that version of the character is actually a body double played by Rafi Silver. The real Mr. House enters the fray in the opening moments of the sophomore season, played by two-time Emmy winner Justin Theroux. 

Theroux is a bona fide movie star, with films like "Mulholland Drive," "The Girl on the Train," "American Psycho," and "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" in his résumé. However, he's never been averse to make small screen appearances. When he does, he usually makes an impact; Just consider his main role as Kevin Garvey in HBO's heartbreakingly tragic fantasy drama "The Leftovers," a show that's still better than everyone thinks. "Fallout" is a worthy inclusion in his small screen credentials, which already include shows like "Parks and Recreation," "Maniac," and "The Mosquito Coast." 

The Lacerta Legate is effectively the mouthpiece of Caesar's Legion, as far as the show is concerned. When Lucy is captured and brought in the Legion's camp, she primarily interacts with this high-ranking officer, who's precisely as bemused about the vault dweller's quirky behavior as you'd expect.  

"Fallout" Season 2 made a very fun casting decision when it was time to find the man behind the Lacerta Legate's imposing mask. Not only is the role played by Macaulay Culkin — most famous for playing the almost Jigsaw-like Kevin MacAllister in "Home Alone" – but the jarring visual of seeing his familiar face under the mask soon gives way to the fact that Culkin is genuinely great as the confident, sneering villain. 

Culkin's string of 1990s roles in films like the first two "Home Alone" movies, "My Girl," "The Good Son," and "Richie Rich" is one of the more memorable child star runs in memory. His acting never quite stopped, but his high-profile releases became far more sporadic as he matured. In recent years, he's started tackling more visible roles once again, from appearing in the 2021 "Double Feature" season of "American Horror Story" and voicing Cattrick Lynxley in "Zootopia 2."