What The Cast Of Six Feet Under Looks Like Today
HBO's Six Feet Under was as much a TV show about mortality as there's ever been. The series focuses on the Fisher family, who own a funeral home, and every episode begins with a death. By the end of the final episode, through the use of flash-forwards and age makeup, the audience has seen the deaths of every major character. However, life didn't actually end after Six Feet Under, and many of its cast members have gone on to even greater acclaim since the show ended in 2005. Here's a look at the main cast of the series: who they are today and what they've been up to over the past 12 years.
Peter Krause (Nate Fisher)
Nate Fisher, prodigal son turned funeral director, wasn't the first starring role on TV for Peter Krause, and it wouldn't be the last. He arrived at Six Feet Under having spent two seasons on Sports Night, the ABC sitcom that launched not only his career, but those of Josh Charles, Felicity Huffman, and series creator Aaron Sorkin.
After Six Feet Under ended, he starred as a lawyer on the memorably titled Dirty Sexy Money, which lasted two seasons, before landing a role that would define his career even more than Nate Fisher. On NBC's wildly popular drama Parenthood, Peter Krause played Adam Braverman, the oldest of three siblings who also has three children of his own. The series lasted for six seasons, showing that Krause could play a straight-laced dad just as easily as he played an occasionally troubled pot-smoking undertaker. He also entered a serious romantic relationship with one of his costars, Lauren Graham, who played his younger sister on the show.
When Parenthood ended, Krause moved back to ABC to play a con artist on The Catch, which ran for two seasons. If you're counting, that's starring roles in five TV series, all of which ran at least two seasons. An impressive television career for a man in his early 50s.
Michael C. Hall (David Fisher)
Michael C. Hall was a Broadway actor before he was cast as David, the dutiful son of the Fisher family who finally comes out as gay in his 30s. After Six Feet Under ended, he moved on to another premium cable series where he was still surrounded by dead bodies, except that as the title character on Showtime's Dexter, he was often the one who killed them—but only if they'd killed people first. (That's what made him a serial killer you could root for.)
After Dexter ran for eight seasons (Showtime likes to keep them going), he returned to Broadway in 2014 to star as John Jones in the play The Realistic Joneses. In 2015, he took over the lead role in the Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a very demanding part involving singing, dancing, and drag. He's since starred in Lazarus, a musical with with music and lyrics by David Bowie, one of the last projects Bowie completed before his death in 2016.
Hall's most recent TV work has been quite a departure from his deadly serious past in the medium. Since 2015, he's provided the voice of Toffee, the primary villain on the Disney animated series Star vs. The Force of Evil.
Lauren Ambrose (Claire Fisher)
Lauren Ambrose was only 23 when she started playing Claire, the artistically inclined youngest of the Fisher clan, but she'd already had a number of roles, memorably in the films In & Out, Can't Hardly Wait, and Psycho Beach Party. After the show ended, Ambrose was the only one of three Fisher siblings who didn't move on to another-long running series. She did star with Parker Posey in The Return of Jezebel James, a Fox sitcom from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, but it was widely panned and only ran for seven episodes. In the film version of Where The Wild Things Are, she provided the voice of KW, the Wild Thing with—appropriately enough—long red hair.
Ambrose appeared in a villainous role in Torchwood: Miracle Day, a British/American co-production that revived the BBC Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood. She was also in the 2016 revival of The X-Files, playing an FBI agent who's presented as something of a younger version of Dana Scully. Perhaps most interestingly, since 2009 she's been the lead singer of a ragtime jazz band which performs under the name Lauren Ambrose and the Leisure Class.
Frances Conroy (Ruth Fisher)
Like Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy worked primarily in theatre before joining the cast of Six Feet Under as widowed matriarch Ruth Fisher. She guest starred on a number of television shows after the series ended, most notably a recurring role as Neil Patrick Harris's mom on How I Met Your Mother. She has since appeared on every season of the anthology series American Horror Story except for the fifth, Hotel, and has been announced to return for the seventh season, Cult. The ever-changing nature of American Horror Story has given her the unique opportunity to play a wide array of characters, from a flirtatious ghost to an angel of death to a hillbilly cannibal. She also has a regular role on another horror series, Spike's The Mist, which is loosely based on a Stephen King story.
Freddy Rodríguez as Rico Diaz
Freddy Rodríguez was an unknown prior to playing gifted restoration artist Rico Diaz on Six Feet Under. After it ended, he starred in the over-the-top sci-fi horror film Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez (no relation), which was half of the Grindhouse double feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. He also played a recurring role as Gio Rossi on Ugly Betty before landing the lead on the short-lived CBS series Chaos, about rogue CIA agents. In 2014, Rodríguez took the role of Dr. Michael Ragosa on the hospital drama The Night Shift, but left the series after its second season. Since 2016, he's played lawyer Benny Colón, the secondary lead on the CBS series Bull, which is based on the early career of TV's Dr. Phil.
He's found work as a voice actor, appearing in animated shows including Generator Rex, Young Justice, and Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. He also played Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the year 2099, on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.
Rachel Griffiths (Brenda Chenowith)
Australian actress Rachel Griffiths was mainly known for the films Muriel's Wedding and Hilary and Jackie before taking on the role of the mercurial Brenda Chenowith in Six Feet Under. After it ended, she starred as Sarah Walker Laurent on the ABC drama Brothers and Sisters, which also ran for five seasons. Since that show went off the air in 2011, she's had no shortage of work: she appeared in the TV miniseries When We Rise as well as the films Saving Mr. Banks, Mammal, and Hacksaw Ridge. She continues to work in her native Australia as well as the United States.
Mathew St. Patrick (Keith Charles)
Prior to playing Keith Charles, David Fisher's primary love interest and eventual husband, Mathew St. Patrick was best known for his work as the delightfully named Adrian Sword on the soap opera All My Children. After Six Feet Under ended, his next role was as a detective in the Fox mystery series Reunion, which only lasted nine episodes. He's also made guest appearances in such shows as Law and Order SVU, NCIS, and Hawaii Five-0. He had a recurring role in the final season of FX's popular biker drama Sons of Anarchy, which is where the more recent photo of him comes from (hence the gun).
James Cromwell (George Sibley)
When James Cromwell joined the cast of Six Feet Under in Season 3 as Ruth's love interest George Sibley, he was already a well-regarded star. He's still probably best known for playing the farmer in Babe, a role for which he received an Oscar nomination. By the time Six Feet Under ended, Cromwell was 65, but that hasn't slowed him down. In the biopic The Queen, he was Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip. In Spider-Man 3, he played Police Captain George Stacy, the father of Spider-Man's love interest Gwen Stacy. In Oliver Stone's W., he played the title character's father, President George H. W. Bush.
He's also continued to spend plenty of time on television. He had recurring roles on 24, Boardwalk Empire, and Halt and Catch Fire. He was a regular on American Horror Story: Asylum, as well as the first season of Murder in the First. In the unusual 2016 HBO series The Young Pope, Cromwell played the title character's mentor, Cardinal Michael Spencer.
The other thing Cromwell is known for is his political activism. He's been arrested several times over the years for his role in protesting for animal rights, environmental issues, and civil rights. After experiencing time behind bars, he has also become an activist for prison reform.
Justina Machado (Vanessa Diaz)
Justina Machado was an unknown when she played Vanessa Diaz, wife of Rico, and now she's a TV star, but it was a long journey after Six Feet Under ended to get there. She had a recurring role in the final season of the long-running NBC hospital drama ER, and was a regular on the short-lived CBS hospital drama Three Rivers. In 2013 she starred in a Fox sitcom called Welcome to the Family, about the culture clash between a white family and a Latino family whose 18-year-old kids have an unplanned pregnancy together. The show got a 13-episode order, but was canceled after only three.
In 2016, played a recurring role as Darci Factor on the popular CW comedy Jane the Virgin and was a regular on the first season of the USA crime drama Queen of the South as Brenda Parra, the lead character's best friend. In 2017, she starred in One Day at a Time, a Netflix-hosted remake of the classic sitcom, as Penelope Alvarez, a single mother and army veteran who's raising two teenagers with the help of her mother (played by the legendary Rita Moreno). The show proved very popular in its first season, with Machado singled out for praise, and a second season is in the works.
Jeremy Sisto (Billy Chenowith)
Prior to Six Feet Under, Jeremy Sisto was best known for a supporting role in Clueless, but his performance as mentally ill loose cannon Billy Chenowith helped change that. After Six Feet Under ended, he won a starring role in the NBC crime drama Kidnapped, in which he played a former FBI agent who specialized to retrieving kidnapped people. The show only ran for one season and he only got to solve one case, but it did lead to Sisto joining the cast of NBC's crime drama juggernaut Law and Order in 2008. He played Detective Cyrus Lupo until the series ended its 20-year run in 2010, then starred in the sitcom Suburgatory, which ran from for three years on ABC, ending in 2014. In 2015, he starred in two drama series, A&E's The Returned (based on the French series about the dead returning to life) and ABC's procedural Wicked City.
He's also done some voice acting over the years, notably appearing as Batman in the animated film Justice League: New Frontier and as the villainous Talon in Batman vs. Robin.