How to Get Cast on ‘Only Murders in the Building’

Brought together by the murder of their neighbor Tim Kono (Julian Cihi)—and their love of true crime podcasts—Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) launch a podcast of their own as they search for the murderer within the walls of the Arconia apartment building. In Season 2, their sleuthing leads them to the culprit behind Arconia board president Bunny Folger’s (Jayne Houdyshell) death. Season 2’s finale sets up Season 3’s time jump, which opens with actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) seemingly dying onstage at the premiere of Oliver’s play, “Death Rattle,” which shutters that very night. The trio uncovers Ben’s killer amid rehearsals for Oliver’s now-musical, “Death Rattle Dazzle!” But while celebrating Oliver’s critical success, Charles’ stunt double, Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), becomes the Arconia’s next victim. 

Charles and the crew spend Season 4 investigating Sazz’s murder just as Hollywood decides to adapt their hit podcast into a feature film. Yet just as the team celebrates another mystery solved—and Oliver’s marriage to leading lady Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep)—the Arconia’s beloved doorman Lester shows up dead in the building’s outdoor fountain. While his death led them to explore the Arconia’s seedy underbelly in Season 5, nothing could’ve prepared them for the next death: Fellow podcaster Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), who was found dead at the end of Season 5. The upcoming season will lead Charles, Oliver, and Mabel on a transatlantic search for her killer.

“Only Murders in the Building” was co-created by Martin and showrunner John Hoffman. The duo also executive-produce the show, along with Short, Gomez, and others.

Credit: Disney/Patrick Harbron

The “Only Murders in the Building” cast of regular and recurring characters features:

• Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
• Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
• Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
• Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris
• Jayne Houdyshell as Bunny Folger
• Jackie Hoffman as Uma Heller
• Teddy Coluca as Lester the Doorman
• Ryan Broussard as Will Putnam
• Jason Veasey as Jonathan Bridgecroft
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Detective Donna Williams
• James Caverly as Theo Dimas
• Amy Ryan as Jan Bellows
• Richard Kind as Vince Fish
• Kumail Nanjiani as Rudy Thurber
• Andrea Martin as Joy Payne

And the series has also boasted an array of guest stars over the years, including:

• Tina Fey as Cinda Canning
• Paul Rudd as Ben Glenroy
• Meryl Streep as Loretta Durkin
• Jane Lynch as Sazz Pataki
• Nathan Lane as Teddy Dimas
• Amy Schumer as Herself
• Sting as Himself
• Shirley MacLaine as Leonora Folger/Rose Cooper
• Cara Delevingne as Alice Banks
• Jesse Williams as Tobert
• Ashley Park as Kimber Min
• Matthew Broderick as Himself
• Ron Howard as Himself 
• Griffin Dunne as Milton Dudenoff
• Molly Shannon as Bev Melon
• Melissa McCarthy as Doreen
• Eugene Levy as Himself
• Eva Longoria as Herself
• Zach Galifianakis as Himself
• Renée Zellweger as Camila White
• Christoph Waltz as Bash Steed
• Keegan-Michael Key as Mayor Tillman
• Logan Lerman as Jay Pflug
• Dianne Wiest as Lorraine
• Beanie Feldstein as Althea
• Téa Leoni as Sofia Caccimelio
• Bobby Cannavale as Nicky Caccimelio 

As the original trio ventures to London for their next mystery, Season 6 will welcome a host of British and Irish stars in guest and recurring roles, including David Tennant, Nicola Coughlan, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent, Simone Ashley, Martin Freeman, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Jennifer Saunders, Sean Teale, Amar Chadha-Patel, Rhea Norwood, Matthew Beard, Anjana Vasan, Derek Jacobi, Jane Horrocks, Jamie Demetriou, Sharon Horgan, and Lesley Nicol.

Credit: Disney/Patrick Harbron

Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey, and Destiny Lilly of the Telsey Office make up the “Only Murders in the Building” central casting team. With so many big names attached to this project, Canfield told Vanity Fair that logistics were a major concern. 

“The tricky part of casting [‘Only Murders in the Building’] is so much of our cast that is crucially important is our guest cast—which definitely [makes] a financial difference in a big way,” she explained. “It also has a scheduling difference, because when someone’s a guest cast [member], you are working with them [based on] their professional availability. Their full-time job is not your show, and you’re not paying them enough for it to be their full-time job. But in our show, the challenge was, with a murder mystery, you can’t lose anybody!” And with guests like Tina Fey, Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, and Nathan Lane all playing small but crucial roles throughout the series, losing any of these players would’ve been a crime.

In an interview with us, Hoffman discussed the decision to cast Gomez alongside Martin and Short. He revealed that the team wanted to bring on someone who would help the comedy stars strike a particular tone—and Gomez delivered. “We knew we wanted someone unexpected, someone sort of alien to their world. She fits perfectly, because she’s this dry, assertive, cut-through-it-always [presence],” Hoffman said. “I find it so beautiful that these three unexpected people, you’ll very quickly begin to root for. They feel like they’re a little mini family that makes no sense, but that is very watchable. It’s been extraordinary to watch her blossom and develop as a young comedic actress who we all knew when she was growing up, and to watch her mature into this deep role. And the three of them together really are just so funny.”

In the conversation with Vanity Fair, Hoffman said that the team had one critical question when creating the series: “How do we take these two legendary, classic comedians and then put them up against the clash of something New York, being modern now and finding that classic-meets-modern all around New York?” Gomez, he said, provided their “light bulb moment.”

Hoffman and Canfield told the outlet they felt like “kids in a candy store” when it came to selecting New York’s top actors; but they also wanted to strike a balance by bringing in some unknowns. “I didn’t want it to feel like some variety show…. It was that balance of: You don’t want [the cast] to be all well-known people, so it starts to feel a little gimmicky,” Hoffman explained.

For instance, as Canfield described, Aaron Dominguez (Oscar) had some stiff competition in the audition room, but “there was just something about him that was so charming and appealing, and then also kind of broken.” Dominguez also represented “a whole different feel of New York,” which allowed the team to pursue big names like Sting, as well as lesser-known stage actors like Julian Cihi (Tim Kono).

Beyond Season 1, Lilly and the casting team brainstormed which A-listers they could bring on board. As she told Spotlight, "One of the great things about our show is that, because we have such quality people involved…they’re able to attract other people who want to work with them.” They ultimately landed Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. 

“With Paul Rudd, we were in Season 2 [and] the question was [which] famous actor can we get to play a famous actor in a Broadway show?” Lilly said. “We made lists. We went through all these people. When we landed on Paul Rudd, and he said yes, we were like, ‘That’s amazing that he wants to do this.’” Lilly continued, “Then, with Meryl Streep, John Hoffman, our showrunner, was creating the story of Season 3 and was like, ‘I have a role that I think would be right for Meryl Streep.’ I feel like Meryl Streep chooses you, you don’t choose her. But she’d worked with Steve Martin before. They were able to get her the script. She signed up and came on board.”

When it comes to finding each season’s guilty party, the casting team has to be more strategic than ever. Canfield told the Hollywood Reporter that Season 4’s screenwriter Marshall P. Pope, who was played by Jin Ha, was one of the hardest roles to pin down because “we need to have that character fly under the radar in a certain kind of way.” 

Canfield added, “Jin’s audition was so fantastic, but he’s also competing against famous actors that are household names that also would love to be part of it. And so when we just talked about it, it really made sense to us that it should be Jin. We also are very familiar with Jin’s body of work, which is phenomenal and incredibly diverse. He can do anything.” She continued, “It felt like he was the perfect choice here, because if we needed him to fly under the radar, we knew that would happen. If we needed to pull heartstrings and the dramatic beats, we knew he’d have that. And he’s also very, very silly, so he’s perfect. It was a tricky one, for sure.”

Credit: Disney/Patrick Harbron

Guest-starring roles have become highly coveted as “Only Murders” has grown in popularity. So, when Canfield and crew are deciding which roles make sense for well-known actors, it takes some forethought. “[W]e identify the sort of roles that make the most sense to have stars,” Canfield told GoldDerby. “We do get a lot of wonderful incoming calls on that show, but we also do a lot of outreach. We really brainstorm with the creators and just try to think of ideas that absolutely tickle us. And then once we start to identify a few people, we're looking at people who seem really dynamic.”

She added, “[T]o have Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, and Logan Lerman, these are people from such different worlds that it just tickled us all, really, the idea that we could potentially do that. So I would say that it’s one person at a time, and you’re trying to build that comedic dynamic. And then we have the other roles, obviously, and we do auditions and brainstorming, and it’s really fun.”

There are no open casting calls for Season 6 at this time. And it looks like the series’ potential renewal will remain a mystery for the time being. (We know a new season would mean another fictional death, but selfishly, we can’t bear the thought of this team ever disbanding!) As we await news of the show’s future, we recommend checking out our guide on how to audition for Hulu so you’re familiar with the streamer’s audition process. We also suggest bookmarking our main Hulu casting calls page for the latest listings.

“Only Murders in the Building” features an exciting blend of seasoned veterans and industry newcomers—and with that comes a variety of perspectives on how to handle the audition process.

Don’t let disappointment cause your work to suffer. For Aaron Dominguez, who played Oscar during Season 1, auditioning became a bit more than he could handle. He told us, “It got to the point where I was so discouraged that my work began to suffer. Because of all the pain and the letdowns, I didn’t care as much anymore.” However, he found inspiration from one of his closest allies. “My agent gave me a valuable piece of advice: Focus on the work, and the rest will fall into place.… Eventually, CDs and studios began to take note of me, even if I wasn’t getting the job. I was doing good work in the room when the time came to perform, and that’s all you can ask of yourself. The rest is not up to you. And in due time, people won’t have any choice but to notice all the time, focus, dedication, and love you’ve put into your craft.”

A failed audition could lead to tomorrow’s opportunities. Because CDs often work to cast many different projects at any given time, there’s a good chance that, even if you’re not right for a specific role, good, consistent effort remains the key to future success. “So many of our projects feed other projects,” Canfield told us. “One person gets a job when you’re casting people, but that doesn’t mean [only] one person was good. On every project we work on, we’re constantly learning new actors and seeing actors we love try something new. This happened with a pilot I just cast. A young actor we cast in a play years ago got close to a show I did three years ago, didn’t get the part, and now that producer and I are working on a new project. She came in and slayed and got the lead of a series. I don’t know if that would have happened if I hadn’t seen her for so many different kinds of projects and got to see how much range she actually has.”

Don’t take rejection personally. It’s easy to internalize rejection as actors are often left wondering what they could’ve done differently that would’ve landed them the part. But Martin Short wants others to learn from his experience so they don’t get discouraged. “The thing I would say to [my] younger self—and therefore any younger actor—is not to take it personally. It wasn’t until I sat on the other side of the auditioning table that I realized how much it was tied to: ‘He’s too tall’ or ‘He’s too short’ or ‘I don’t buy him as a cop,’ ” Short told us. “Meanwhile, the actor goes, I went too big; it didn’t work. But you’ve probably done way better than you thought; there are just so many other elements of why you didn’t get that job.” He also said, “[A]n actor’s job is to give a tray of paints to the painter—as many colors and nuances and shades as you can.” Everyone has something to offer—it just might not be right for the given project.

Don’t waste the casting director’s time—or yours. During the early days of her career, Amy Ryan, who played Jan in Season 1, volunteered as a reader for auditions held by her casting director friend. Along the way, she learned how actors should and shouldn’t approach an audition. “It’s so illuminating how many people have this great opportunity to stand in front of a playwright or director or casting director, and they’re not prepared—they rolled out of bed and just printed the sides out,” Ryan told us. “It’s staggering how many people aren’t prepared. When you witness that, you become very aware—and you would be embarrassed to behave that way yourself, to waste their time and your time.”

Accept that what’s meant to be will find you. Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who has played Detective Donna Williams throughout the show’s run, has endured her fair share of rejection; it simply comes with the territory, as she told Vanity Fair. “It’s unnatural, but you have to get cozy next to rejection and loss. I don’t know if that’s a good skill to develop or not, but you really must love what you do because there are so many noes. You gotta love it despite the noes, and that’s hard,” she said. But Randolph also said she knows “what’s for me is for me,” so even if you can’t see beyond the rejection in the moment, know that your hard work and consistent effort will ultimately win out in the end. “So I let go of the wheel in that respect a long time ago. I don’t fear anything’s gotten away from me. If anything, I’m excited to see what I can continue to attract,” Randolph added. “Being authentic, the right people will always see it.”

Filming on Season 6 began in May 2026, with the cast straddling the Atlantic, filming in both New York City and London—the show’s first international foray. Filming is expected to wrap in late summer 2026.