“The Bear” offers viewers a raw, authentic look inside the restaurant industry in working-class Chicago—and all the chaos it entails. Created by Christopher Storer, the FX comedy-drama became an unlikely hit when it debuted in June 2022, earning raves from fans and critics alike. The show won 10 Emmys in its first season. And now, after four successful seasons, the series’ fifth and final installment will premiere June 25 on FX and Hulu, with all eight episodes available to stream.
Think you can handle the heat on a show like “The Bear”? If you said, “Yes, chef,” then you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, you will learn all you need to know—from insight into the casting process to acting advice—to help you whip up a delicious audition.
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“The Bear” follows Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (White), a Michelin-starred chef who abandons the world of fine dining after his brother, Mikey (Jon Bernthal), dies by suicide and leaves him his sandwich shop, the Original Beef of Chicagoland. With help from his second-in-command, Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri), Carmy works to keep the neighborhood institution afloat even as he struggles with his grief—and with keeping his volatile cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in check.
When we left Carmy and his crew at the end of Season 4, he decided leaving the restaurant business would be the best move for his mental health. While he initially took on his brother’s restaurant to dodge family drama, he recognized that Sydney was living her passion, so he chose to hand her the reins so he could figure out who he is outside of the kitchen. Sydney agrees to take on the challenge with Richie and Carmy’s sister, Natalie (Abby Elliott), as her partners. Season 5 will follow the team as they work to earn their first Michelin star, all while facing the possibility of having to sell the restaurant.
Throughout the first four seasons of “The Bear,” these actors served as the core cast:
- Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto
- Ayo Edebiri as Sydney “Syd” Adamu
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich
- Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks
- Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero
- Abby Elliott as Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto
- Matty Matheson as Neil Fak
- Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim
- Corey Hendrix as Gary “Sweeps” Woods
- Richard Esteras as Manny
- Molly Gordon as Claire Dunlap
- Ricky Staffieri as Theodore Fak
The series has also welcomed an array of A-list guest stars, including:
- Oliver Platt as Uncle Jimmy
- Will Poulter as Chef Luca
- Jon Bernthal as Michael “Mikey” Berzatto
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto
- Joel McHale as Chef David
- Olivia Colman as Chef Terry
- Rob Reiner as Albert Schnurr
- John Mulaney as Stevie
- Josh Hartnett as Frank
- Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee
- Sarah Paulson as Cousin Michelle
- Brie Larson as Francie Fak
Jeanie and Maggie Bacharach (“Station Eleven,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) were the main CDs during the show’s five-season run. Thanks to decades of experience in the business, Jeanie has plenty of advice to offer.
“Make the most of every audition. Be prepared, do the homework going into the room, and think about going into that audition to win the room and not the role,” she said. “Only one person can get the job, but a CD isn’t only ever casting just that role; they’re casting parts they don’t even know exist yet. The CD is going to remember people who come in and do good work even if they didn’t get the job, so make the most of it. Think about longevity and not just landing that part that you’re going in to read. Trust that if you’ve done great work, the CD is going to remember you for other things.”
Edebiri’s background is as a comedian and writer (for shows including “Dickinson” and “What We Do in the Shadows”), with roles in comedies like “Dickinson” and “Big Mouth.” So when she went out for “The Bear,” she didn’t have more dramatic roles to highlight on her résumé. But as she told the Los Angeles Times, that didn’t stop her from submitting a self-tape. “One of the scenes was just me firing off a lot of orders in the kitchen,” she explained. “I couldn’t predict tonally what the show was going to be; and that not knowing, that curiosity, really drew me to ‘The Bear.’ ” After callbacks with Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo via Zoom, Edebiri landed the part of Sydney.
Moss-Bachrach, on the other hand, almost missed his chance to join the show. He received the spec scripts for the first two episodes while in the midst of filming Disney+’s “Andor,” and hadn’t had the chance to read the material. “And my agent, to his credit, called me two weeks later. He’s like, ‘Listen, I really think you’re making a mistake by not reading this,’ ” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I mean, this character of Richie was written so well. It just was so beautifully formed, and there was so much life on the page. And I remember I had to do a Skype audition with Jeremy. We were staying in this cool loft in London, and my daughter was in the other corner doing fifth-grade Zoom school. I was on the other side of the loft in like a little undershirt, going, ‘Fuck this! Fuck that! Are you fucking out of your fuckin’ mind?’ You know, just screaming. And I made eye contact with her two or three times, and she just kind of looked at me with these huge eyes, like, ‘Are you kidding me right now?’ ”
While “The Bear” will not be returning after Season 5, there are plenty of other projects just waiting for the right actor to audition. We recommend bookmarking our main casting page, which updates as new casting calls become available. If you’re interested in working with the streamer, here’s our guide on auditioning for Hulu, and don’t forget to check out our roundup of streaming gigs that are casting right now.
Bernthal advises fostering patience, because sooner or later, your time will come. “You will get your shot, but don’t waste years of your life banging down doors trying to get in that room. Worry about what you’re going to do when you get in there,” he said. “Have five monologues in your pocket ready to throw down, and be able to walk the walk; don’t just talk about it.”
Elliott told us that the most important thing is to be true to who you are. “I would tell my younger self to be the most myself,” she said. “I think I tried so hard to fit into a mold of: Other people do this. And if I do impressions, that’ll get my foot in the door—which I did do, and that was great. But I really wanted to do characters, and I got pigeonholed pretty quickly as an impressionist. I would tell my younger self to relax and let what I find funny come out way more, and to stop judging and second-guessing what I find funny.”