Why The Cast Of Barbie Looks So Familiar

Contains spoilers for "Barbie"

Few films have taken the world by storm like 2023's "Barbie." The Margot Robbie-led live-action movie based on Mattel's toy doll went through a long period of development before the involvement of Academy Award-nominated director Greta Gerwig, who teamed up with Noah Baumbach to pen the script. As the cast got fleshed out with other big names it became clear that "Barbie" was going to be an all-star affair.

The film exceeded expectations when it hit cineplexes in July 2023, with Gerwig's script and direction shining. While A-listers like Robbie and co-star Ryan Gosling get lots of screen time as Barbie and Ken, many of the other characters in the film get moments to shine, too, including recognizable stars like Will Ferrell as the Mattel CEO and Michael Cera as the oft-forgotten Allan. As for the rest of the cast, many of these actors have had successful projects before "Barbie," though few of those can hold a candle to the success that "Barbie" is seeing.

From the various Barbies and Kens in the film to the supporting characters who appear in the "real world," here's where you've seen the cast of "Barbie" before.

In "Barbie," Simu Liu is one of the more significant Kens in the film, rivaling Ryan Gosling's Ken for Barbie's attention and even engaging in an extravagant, '80s-themed dance battle during the film's climax. For audiences who aren't aware of Liu's prior work, they might have been surprised to see this Ken perform numerous backflips throughout the film, which no other Ken can replicate. However, this is all in a day's work for Simu Liu.

Prior to the mainstream success of "Barbie," Liu was mostly known for appearing in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," playing the titular martial artist who is forced to confront his father (Tony Leung), the leader of a vast criminal organization. Liu notably performed as many of his own stunts as possible as Shang-Chi, which was no easy feat to master for the role, as Liu told Entertainment Weekly: "I want to sit here and tell you that I was pretty good at martial arts before. ... But really, my martial arts experience was like backflipping in my backyard when I was a teenager and doing parkour with my friends."

Aside from his work in the world of Marvel, Liu also gained notoriety for starring in the Canadian sitcom "Kim's Convenience" and also appeared in the 2023 romantic drama "One True Loves" opposite Phillipa Soo. However, Liu will likely look back on "Barbie" as a formative experience in his so-far short but promising career in Hollywood.

America Ferrera has a unique role in "Barbie" compared to most other cast members. Rather than play a resident of Barbieland, Ferrera plays Gloria, a hard-working mother employed as a secretary at Mattel whose existential crisis results in her playing with her daughter's Barbie, creating a dimensional rift that brings Margot Robbie's Barbie into the real world. Ferrera also gets the privilege of delivering perhaps the best monologue in the film, ranting to the Barbies about the contradictory expectations placed on women in the real world. 

Though some audiences may be delightfully surprised by just how much Ferrera steals the show, true fans of the actress have known her strengths for years. Her film debut was in 2002's "Real Women Have Curves," which has been regarded by many to be one of the most influential films of the 2000s for its depiction of Latina women. Since then, Ferrera has starred in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and "The Dry Land" and voices Astrid in the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise.

Ferrera's breakthrough, however, came by starring in the titular role in ABC's "Ugly Betty," centering on a girl who lacks style but gets employed at a fashion magazine. After running for four seasons before getting canceled in 2010, Ferrera then starred and executive-produced in NBC's sitcom "Superstore" for six seasons as the floor manager of a fictional department store called Cloud 9.

Emma Mackey's presence in "Barbie" alongside Margot Robbie was a long time coming, considering how much the two actors were told they looked like each other. In fact, there was meant to be a joke referencing their similarity in the film, but according to Robbie, "Once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were kind of like, 'We don't look that similar,'" (via Marie Claire). However, Mackey still stands out as Physicist Barbie, though the role in Greta Gerwig's film is another in her steadily increasing resume in Hollywood.

Most audiences came to know Mackey through her role in the Netflix series "Sex Education" portraying Maeve, who runs a sex therapy clinic with the awkward Otis, played by Asa Butterfield. Mackey's performance in the show's second season was notably critically acclaimed, eventually leading to a rich career in film, starting with the 2021 French romance "Eiffel." Mackey also appeared in the 2022 mystery "Death on the Nile," directed by Kenneth Branagh and based on Agatha Christie's novel of the same name.

Also in 2022, Mackey appeared in "Emily," a biopic from Frances O'Connor starring Mackey as writer Emily Brontë, in a performance The New York Times called "mercurial" and "mesmerizing." The further acclaim Mackey received from the film eventually led to her winning the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the British Academy's 2023 award ceremony. So for those who enjoyed Mackey's role in "Barbie," get used to seeing her in the future. 

If Scott Evans looks recognizable, that may be because you're mistaking him for his brother, actor Chris Evans, known for his performances as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as films like "Knives Out" and "The Gray Man." His brother Scott, however, stars in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" as a Ken who fights for the side of Simu Liu's Ken, while also having some obnoxious thoughts about finance that one of the Barbies tricks him into telling her.

Evans' career began on daytime television, starring in the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live" as Oliver Fish, a police officer whose LGBTQ+ storyline caused some on-set controversy, leading to the replacement of actress Patricia Mauceri due to her religious objections to being involved in the character's storyline. Evans ended up playing the role of Oliver for another two years before he was eventually written out of the show in 2010. 

Since then, Evans has had many successful acting roles, plus a cameo in 2014's "Playing It Cool" starring his brother Chris. In 2020, Evans starred in the dramedy "Almost Love" opposite Augustus Prew and Zoë Chao. However, nothing in the actor's career so far has stacked up to working with Gerwig, which Evans described to Out as being "in a state of panic the entire time, just a huge sense of impostor syndrome, knowing who else was a part of the movie."

Hari Nef is a standout of the "Barbie" cast, playing the role of Dr. Barbie, who also moonlights as a DJ for Barbie's Dreamhouse dance party at the beginning of the movie. However, the role is far from her first breakthrough, as Nef has had a groundbreaking career thus far as both an actress and model. After appearing on the cover of a 2016 issue of Elle, Nef made history as the first openly transgender woman to appear on a mainstream British magazine. 

As an actress, Nef first rose to prominence playing the recurring role of Tante Gittel in the Amazon Prime Video drama "Transparent," centered on a family dealing with the revelation that their patriarch, played by Jeffrey Tambor, is a trans woman. Nef went on to star in other popular shows like "You," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and most recently in 2023, the controversial HBO drama series "The Idol," starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel Tesfaye. 

In the film world, Nef has had many notable appearances since her breakthrough role in "Transparent." In 2018, she appeared in "Assassination Nation" in an ensemble including Suki Waterhouse, Odessa Young, and Abra. She also appeared in the gaming comedy "1Up" as well as Peacock's "Meet Cute." 

Though she's still a teenager, Ariana Greenblatt has built up an impressive resume. In "Barbie," she impressed audiences as Sasha, the daughter of America Ferrera's Gloria who is disenchanted by the idea of Barbie and remains critical of Margot Robbie's character until later having a change of heart after she sees Barbie slowly become human. Before that, Greenblatt rose to prominence on the Disney Channel sitcom "Stuck in the Middle" co-starring alongside Jenna Ortega.

Greenblatt transitioned to film quickly after debuting in "Stuck in the Middle," including appearances in "A Bad Moms Christmas," "Love and Monsters," and "In the Heights." She even made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," playing a younger version of Zoe Saldana's Gamora during a flashback sequence in which she's adopted by the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin).

More recently, Greenblatt also appeared in two sci-fi thrillers: "Awake," starring Gina Rodriguez, and 2023's "65" starring Adam Driver, the latter of which finds the two sharing most of the screen time as the only humans on a strange, remote planet that is actually prehistoric Earth.