Netflix’s Bird Box stars Sandra Bullock as Malorie, a woman fighting for survival after mysterious entities appear all over the world, inducing suicide in anyone who catches sight of them. While Bullock’s character is the focus of the film, however, Bird Box also has a rich supporting cast filled with familiar faces, including John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson, and Tom Hollander.
Given that the trailer for Bird Box primarily focused on Malorie and her two children, and avoided giving away too much about the movie’s plot, some of the actors who appear are a total surprise. To help you figure out where you recognize them from, we’ve put together this handy Bird Box cast and character guide.
Malorie’s Family
Sandra Bullock has long been a household name and needs no introduction, but her recent starring roles include Debbie Ocean in Ocean’s Eight and Dr. Ryan Stone in Gravity. When we first meet Bullock’s character, Malorie, she is living with her sister, Jessica, who is played by Sarah Paulson. Paulson is best known for her recurring (and various) roles in the anthology series American Horror Story, and also co-starred with Bullock in Ocean’s Eight.
Malorie’s two children, whom she simply calls “Girl” and “Boy,” are played by Vivien Lyra Blair and Julian Edwards, respectively. Both are obviously newcomers, given their young age, but Blair appeared in the TV mini-series Waco and Edwards had a minor uncredited role in Ready Player One.
The Original Group of Survivors
In the initial chaos of the outbreak, Malorie ends up taking shelter with a group of survivors in a house owned by Greg, played by BD Wong. Wong has a recurring role in the Jurassic Park franchise as scientist Dr. Henry Wu, and also played the hacker Whiterose in Mr. Robot and Dr. Hugo Strange in Gotham. Greg is in a legal dispute with his neighbor, Douglas, who is played by John Malkovich. You may recognize Malkovich from the film Being John Malkovich, and his other famous movie roles include Dangerous Liaisons and Burn After Reading.
Also taking shelter in the house is construction foreman Tom, who is played by Trevante Rhodes. In addition to his starring role in the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight, Rhodes also appeared in this year’s The Predator as Nebraska, part of the main group of “Loonies.” Another familiar face in the house is supermarket worker Charlie, played by Lil Rel Howery. You’ll probably recognize Howery from his role in last year’s Get Out, where he went above and beyond the call of duty as TSA employee Rod Williams. Olympia, the pregnant girl who joins the survivors slightly later, is played by Danielle MacDonald - who you’ll definite recognize if you watched Netflix’s other recent movie release Dumplin’ (she played the lead).
The final three survivors in the initial group are cop-in-training Lucy, drug dealer Felix, and a woman called Cheryl. Lucy is played by Rosa Salazar, who will soon be seen paying the title role in Robert Rodriguez’s sci-fi action film Alita: Battle Angel. Felix is played by Colson Baker, who is better known by his rapper name Machine Gun Kelly or MGK. Baker previously appeared in the 2016 movie Nerve, alongside Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. Cheryl is played by Jacki Weaver, who recently appeared in heist movie Widows as the mother of Elizabeth Debicki’s character, Alice.
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Warning: Beyond this point there will be SPOILERS for Bird Box
The Infected
At first it seems as though everyone who lays eyes on the mysterious entities immediately commits suicide, but a trip to Charlie’s store for supplies reveals that this isn’t the case, as his colleague Fish Finger has seen the entities and become infected or corrupted by them. Infected people worship the entities like gods and are obsessed with trying to get other people to look at them as well, making them extremely dangerous.
Gary, the stranger who is let into the house by Olympia, at first seems to be just another survivor… until it’s revealed that he’s been corrupted by the entities and is really there to sabotage the group. Gary is played by British actor Tom Hollander, who has appeared in films like In The Loop and About Time, and this year played Queen manager Jim Beach in Bohemian Rhapsody.
In the “Five Years Later” portion of the movie, Happy Anderson plays a character credited only as River Man, who ambushes Malorie and the children in the river and tries to persuade them to remove their blindfolds. Anderson recently played serial killer Jerry Brudos in the Netflix thriller series Mindhunter. When Bird Box finally reveals the events leading up to Malorie’s trip down the river, a group of marauders emerge from the woods and corner the family when they’re on a supply run. Probably the most recognizable of the four marauders is David Dastmalchian, who plays Scott Lang’s pal Kurt in the Ant-Man movies. The three other marauders are played by Keith Jardine, Ashley Alvarado, and Kyle Beatty.
The Sanctuary
After a long and difficult journey, Malorie and the children finally make it to the sanctuary, which is actually a former school for the blind. There they finally meet, Rick, the man on the radio, who is played by Pruitt Taylor Vince. Vince has appeared in many TV shows, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Heroes Reborn, Deadwood, and Stranger Things. He also played Father Hennessy in the 2005 Constantine movie, and a serial killer in the 2003 thriller Identity. Though Vince is not really blind, he does have a condition called nystagmus that causes his eyes to move involuntarily.
In the sanctuary Malorie is also reunited with her OB-GYN, Dr. Lapham, who is played by British actress Parminder Nagra. Nagra’s first big break was the lead role in sports movie Bend It Like Beckham, though U.S. audiences probably know her best from her long-running role as Neela Rasgotra in ER.
