The Shards Cast: Where You’ve Seen The Stars Before

Ryan Murphy’s new series The Shards brings Bret Easton Ellis’ semi-autobiographical thriller to life in a new, seductive drama.

The show is set at a 1980s elite Los Angeles prep school and follows a fictionalised version of the author in his younger years.

His cliquey, privileged high school social group is thrown into turmoil when a mysterious new student arrives at the same time that a serial killer known as The Trawler starts to stalk his beloved city.

True to form for a Ryan Murphy production, the cast is made up of regular collaborators, rising stars and nepo babies.

For those who are already hooked on The Shards, here’s where you’ve seen the cast before…

Igby takes the lead as author Bret Easton Ellis, in this adaptation of his 2023 semi-fictional novel.

Before being cast in The Shards, the actor was best known for appearing in Mike Flanagan’s spooky Netflix shows, having starred as altar boy Warren Flynn in Midnight Mass, leukaemia patient Kevin in The Midnight Club and Camile’s assistant Toby in The Fall Of The House Of Usher.

His other credits include playing Kevin in the comedy The Sex Lives Of College Girls, Dr. Scott Marcus in Grey’s Anatomy and a friend of one of the survivors in Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy.

Kaia Gerber is one of the aforementioned nepo babies involved in The Shards. While once known as simply the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, Kaia is now a star in her own right.

As an actor, Kaia has appeared in the films Bottoms with Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott and Outcome with Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz, as well as Mother Mary alongside Anne Hathaway earlier this year.

On TV, she has a recurring role in the Apple TV+ comedy Palm Royale as optimistic manicurist Mitzi, appeared in the comedy Overcompensating as campus queen bee and played herself in Hacks.

The Shards is not her first Ryan Murphy project, either.

Kaia previously played the bloodthirsty ghost Ruby in 2021’s American Horror Stories and pre-med student Kendall in American Horror Story: Double Feature.

Since Kaia shares more than a resemblance to her gorgeous supermodel mother, she has also modelled in print and on the runway for the likes of Versace, Calvin Klein and Jimmy Choo.

As the surname indicates, Homer is the son of Pretty Woman star Richard Gere and his second wife, Licence To Kill actor Carey Lowell.

Richard was previously married to Cindy Crawford in the early 1990s, so audiences are loving watching the two A-listers’ kids sharing the screen together over 30 on.

The Shards marks Homer’s first leading role, although he did have a small part in the third series of Euphoria.

He appeared in the Zendaya-led show as Dylan Reid, the fictional heartthrob who stars in L.A. Nights, and later becomes romantically linked to Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie.

Evan Rachel Wood is a Golden Globe nominee who has consistently been working in Hollywood since the age of nine.

As a kid, she starred in Practical Magic with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, before her breakout in 2003’s teen drama Thirteen.

Best known for her work in indie cinema, Evan’s film credits include the Ryan Murphy-directed Running With Scissors, The Beatles musical Across The Universe and the Oscar-nominated The Wrestler.

Her most high-profile TV gigs include playing vampiric Sophie-Anne Leclerq in True Blood and android host Delores across all four seasons of Westworld.

Evan has also appeared in numerous music videos, most famously Green Day’s Wake Me Up When September Ends alongside her ex-husband Jamie Bell.

Wes Bentley is best known for his Bafta-nominated role as the plastic bag-watching Ricky in American Beauty, as well as playing Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games and, more recently, lawyer Jamie Dutton in Yellowstone.

He has also had roles as Legion in Ghost Rider, geographer Doyle in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi Interstellar and Julia’s now-husband Erik in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Wes frequently works with Ryan Murphy and has guest-starred in three seasons of American Horror Story. He appeared in Freakshow as the man with two faces, Edward Mordrake, in Hotel as Detective John Lowe and in Roanoke as actor Dylan Conrad.

You may recognise Owen Painter for playing Pugsey’s pet zombie Slurp, who is secretly the brilliant former Nevermore student, Isaac Night, in the Netflix series Wednesday. You may also know him for his work in the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale as Jaden, a young Guardian serving in a Gileadean border region to Canada.

Owen also had a recurring role in the comedy-drama Tiny Beautiful Things, as a younger version of Nick Stahl’s character, Lucas.

The Shards marks a rare acting role for Jordan Roth, who is primarily known as a seven-time Tony Award-winning theatre producer who has worked on shows like Hadestown, Moulin Rouge!, Kinky Boots, and Angels in America.

However, his previous acting work has included playing himself in the TV musical series Smash, as well as appearing as a Broadway correspondent for various TV news and print outlets.

An avid art and fashion collector, Jordan has also walked the runway for the likes of Thom Browne and has appeared in Vogue and L’Officiel.

The Shards marks the first acting role for pop star Hayes Warner.

Hayes’ career gained momentum in 2024 when her brutally-honest revenge song Breadcrumbs went viral on TikTok.

Since then, her other pop-rock hits have included Predator, Oh! and Ziz, and she has racked up 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over a million views on YouTube.

Although The Shards is Daniel Dale’s most high-profile role to date, he may well be a recognisable face to fans of several Apple TV+ dramas.

He starred in the first series of Your Friends & Neighbours as Tori’s boyfriend Dale, and in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed as camboy Sky.

Before landing those Apple TV+ dramas, Daniel had minor roles in The Good Wife spin-off Elsbeth and the forgotten Kyle Mooney horror-comedy Y2K, which also starred Rachel Zegler and Jaeden Martell.

The Shards marks the second time Gus has worked on a Ryan Murphy project this year after a guest appearance in The Beauty.

Gus found fame when he portrayed convicted murderer Erik Menendez in the miniseries Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (a separate project to Ryan Murphy’s own controversial Netflix miniseries Monster, which focused on the Menendez brothers).

On the big screen, he has had minor roles in the action thriller Cold Pursuit starring Liam Neeson, the Paul Feig-produced Holler and the biopic Rustin, for which Colman Domingo earned an Oscar nomination for his work as the civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.

Comedian and actor Ivy Wolk became known during the pandemic for her provocative online content, which frequently ruffled feathers.

After making a name for herself online, her first notable on-screen role came in 2022, when she was cast in the Judd Apatow comedy The Bubble. She followed this with roles in Tim Robinson’s comedy Friendship, the motherhood drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Anora, which won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Mikey Madison.

As for her TV work she appeared in the Disney+ comedy English Teacher as a sardonic student, and in crime comedy Deli Boys as the kidnapped daughter of a casino boss.

The Shards is currently streaming on Disney+ with new episodes dropping weekly