Where Is the Cast of SYFY's The Magicians Now?
It's been almost four years since SYFY aired The Magicians series finale (pick up all five seasons right here), but the magic continues to endure. Based on the trilogy of bestselling novels written by author Lev Grossman — The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician's Land — the show centers around the students of Brakebills, a college for promising young sorcerers in Upstate New York.
Sera Gamble and John McNamara developed the IP into five seasons of television, comprising more than 60 episodes. The show received critical acclaim, numerous Saturn Award nominations, and currently holds a 91% average score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now that some time has passed, let's conjure up a look at what the Brakebills graduates have been up to since the final episode...
What happened to the cast of SYFY's The Magicians?
Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater)
Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) appears in The Magicians; Jason Ralph attends Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3 Premiere + Rap Cypher on November 30, 2023 in New York City. Photo: The Magicians Trailer (HD) Jason Ralph/JoBlo Streaming & TV YouTube; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for STARZ
Following a number of guest appearances in Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods, and Madam Secretary, Jason Ralph found a more steady presence on the small screen via the role of Brakebills University pupil, Quentin Coldwater. He played the character across 52 episodes of The Magicians before leaving the show in its penultimate season. "We felt like this character's journey was coming to an end. I could feel it in my bones and Jason felt the same way," McNamara explained in 2019. Since then, Ralph has appeared in Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, as well as Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — the latter of which allowed him to act opposite his real-world spouse, Rachel Brosnahan. The two have been married since 2016.
Stella Maeve (Julia Wicker)
Julia Wicker (Stella Maeve) appears in The Magicians; Stella Maeve arrives at the Season 4 Premiere of FX's "Mayans M.C." at Goya Studios on April 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Photo: THE MAGICIANS | Season 4, Episode 13: Take On Me (Full Extended Version) | SYFY YouTube; Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
Maeve portrayed Quentin's childhood friend, Julia Wicker, in a total of 65 episodes. Fun fact: The actress was pregnant with her first child during production of the final season. Rather than try to hide Maeve's baby bump, the writers incorporated the pregnancy into Wicker's Season 5 arc. When The Magicians came to an end in 2020, the actress moved on to the role of Katie McNeill in the Sons of Anarchy spinoff, Mayans M.C. Looking ahead, Maeve will portray Manson cult member Linda Kasabian in Susanna Lo's Manson Girls.
Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice Quinn)
Alice Quinn (Olivia Taylor Dudley) appears in The Magicians; Olivia Taylor Dudley attends the premiere of "Onyx The Fortuitous And The Talisman Of Souls" at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on October 17, 2023 in Hollywood, California. Photo: THE MAGICIANS | Season 5 Episode 5: Marina Returns With Battle Magic | SYFY YouTube; Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Prior to her memorable spell-casting, Dudley appeared in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and Aquarius (the latter also starred fellow Magicians alums Jason Ralph and Jade Tailor). Her tenure as gifted Brakebills student Alice Quinn — aka "Queen Alice the Wise" — lasted 64 episodes across all five seasons. The actress described Alice as one of the strongest, most intelligent women I've ever come across" (via Entertainment Weekly). Her time in a post-Magicians world has been spent on projects like The CW's Nancy Drew and Andrew Bowser's Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls.
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Hale Appleman (Eliot Waugh)
Eliot Waugh (Hale Appleman) appears in The Magicians Season 5; Hale Appleman attends "The Magicians" press line during 2019 Comic-Con International on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. Photo: Eric Milner/SYFY/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Joe Scarnici/FilmMagic
All hail the King of Fillory! Appleman's onscreen career began with a starring role in the infamous sexual horror movie, Teeth (look it up). From there, he landed one-off appearances in Smash and The Walker. His time in the shoes of The Magicians' Eliot Waugh lasted 65 episodes. Interestingly, he originally auditioned for Penny (ultimately played by Arjun Gupta). When not possessed by the Monster, Appleman can be found in shows like Truth Be Told and American Horror Story.
Arjun Gupta (William "Penny" Adiyodi)
William "Penny" Adiyodi (Arjun Gupta) appears in The Magicians; Arjun Gupta at the Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con Celebration at Float at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. Photo: Under Pressure (Full Extended Version) | THE MAGICIANS | SYFY YouTube; Araya Doheny/WireImage
Funnily enough, Gupta originally tried out for the part of Eliot. "I was actually going down the path to test for Eliot, which would have been really bad for me because Hale is Eliot," he told Lena Lamoray in 2016. "There is no way that anyone should or would play Eliot as well as Hale Appleman has and does." Thankfully, he still got to be a part of The Magicians mythos as multiversal Traveler William "Penny" Adiyodi. Gupta followed up his dimension-hopping exploits in Noga Pnueli's TV movie Deborah, appearing opposite Sophia Bush and Deborah Ann Woll. Fans will be able to catch him in the upcoming revenge thriller, Paradise.
Summer Bishil (Margo Hanson)
Margo Hanson (Summer Bishil) appears in The Magicians Season 5; Summer Bishil arrives at the Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con Celebration at Float at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. Photo: Eric Milner/SYFY/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Joe Scarnici/FilmMagic
"Margo’s maturation has been stimulating to play," Bishil told Federica Bocco in 2018. "Obviously, your hope as an actor is to find consistent work that challenges you and Margo has challenged me." While television schedules are often taxing on actors, Bishil found the time for David Robert Mitchell's neo-noir, Under the Silver Lake. She'll reunite with fellow Magicians co-stars Trevor Einhorn (Josh Hoberman) and Rizwan Manji (Tick Pickwick) for The Deli, a sitcom centered around the employees of a delicatessen owned by the mafia.
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Rick Worthy (Henry Fogg)
Henry Fogg (Rick Worthy) appears in The Magicians Season 5; Rick Worthy at 2019 Comic-Con International - "The Magicians" Photo Call at Hilton Bayfront on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. Photo: James Dittiger/SYFY/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Araya Doheny/WireImage
Being the dean of a regular university is hard, but just imagine how hard it is to lead a school for magic. Speaking with NBC News in 2017, Worthy confessed that he avoided reading the books when he accepted the role of Dean Fogg. "I probably would have tried to incorporate some of the way that Lev wrote Dean Fogg into the way I interpret Dean Fogg," the actor explained. "But I talked to Lev and I said, 'Do you like what I’m doing?' and he said, 'Yeah.' I love the character a lot and I think I’m really serving the way that I see he should be served." Around the same time as Magicians, Worthy took on the identity of resistance fighter Lem Washington in Amazon's The Man in the High Castle. Since Magicians came to an end, he's enjoyed multi-episode arcs on Station 19 and HBO Max's Gossip Girl revival.
Jade Tailor (Kady Orloff-Diaz)
Kady Orloff Diaz (Jade Tailor) appears in The Magicians Season 5; Jade Tailor attends the premiere of "The Mad King" at Wilshire Screening Room on January 13, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: THE MAGICIANS | Season 5 Episode 5: Marina Returns With Battle Magic | SYFY YouTube; Paul Archuleta/Getty Images
Tailor originally auditioned for Margo before landing the part of Kady, who was apparently supposed to die in the pilot. "I was like, 'Oh, I guess I'll be a one-off.' Then I went to meet with the director and they had rewritten the script so Kady no longer died, and so it was then a recurring role," the actress recalled during an interview with Collider in March 2020. "So I went and I shot the pilot and I was just absolutely thrilled, over the moon, had the best time, loved everyone involved and then [showrunners] John [McNamara] and Sera [Gamble] had actually sat me down and asked me if I wanted to be a series regular while we were shooting the pilot." Tailor most recently scored the lead role of aspiring musician Kiva in director Sherrie Richman's '80s drama, Juke Box Hero.
Brittany Curran (Fen)
Fen (Brittany Curran) in The Magicians Season 5; Brittany Curran walks the picket line in support of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike on August 17, 2023 at Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Photo: James Dittiger/SYFY; Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images
Curran began her Magicians career as Eliot's neglected wife Fen in the Season 1 finale ("Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?") before she was upped to a series regular for Season 3. In a 2018 interview with Hollywood Life, Curran explained that Fen is dedicated to protecting her native realm of Fillory, regardless of what life throws at the character. Since the show concluded, she's starred in a number of short films including Aztec Warrior God, Emergence, The Shift, and Stuck. She and her boyfriend, James Ingram, announced their engagement in early 2020.
Trevor Einhorn (Josh Hoberman)
Josh Hoberman (Trevor Einhorn) appears in The Magicians Season 5; Trevor Einhorn attends Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con Bash held at FLOAT, Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. Photo: Eric Milner/SYFY/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly
Several decades after he played Frasier Crane's son Frederick, Einhorn took on the duties of missing third-year student, Josh Hoberman. "Josh is a fun comedy outlet," the actor says in a behind-the-scenes featurette released in 2016. "He's this happy character that is full of sarcasm, but also really smart and sees the big picture." Beyond the aforementioned The Deli sitcom (see Summer Bishil), Einhorn will also appear in writer-director Jonathan L. Brown's small business drama, The Comic Shop. In 2021, he and Jason Ralph teamed up for the off-Broadway play, The Great Filter, about a pair of astronauts facing an existential crisis as they attempt to land back on Earth.
All five seasons of The Magicians are currently available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
