How to Get Cast on Prime Video’s ‘We Were Liars’

“We Were Liars” follows the Sinclair family as they spend their annual summer vacation on Beechwood Island, the private island near Martha’s Vineyard owned by patriarch Harris (David Morse). In the family, Cadence (Lind), her cousins Johnny (Zada) and Mirren (Esther McGregor), and the nephew of her aunt’s partner, Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), are known as “the Liars” because of the mischief they got into as children and the lies they told to cover it up.

When Cadence is 15, she suffers a severe head injury and can’t remember the details of her time on the island that summer. The following year, Cadence’s mother, Penny (FitzGerald), prevents her from returning to Beechwood. But she does return the year after, when she’s 17. Plagued by the amnesia that’s haunted her since her injury, Cadence must discover the truth of that tragic summer before she can make peace with the guilt she’s hiding deep down.

Season 2 continues Cadence’s story as she returns to Beechwood and uncovers more family secrets. The season will also flash back to the summer of 1999, when the Sinclair sisters, Carrie (Gummer), Penny, and Bess  (King), were teenagers, navigating first love, rivalry, family crisis, and even murder.

The Season 1 cliffhanger (spoiler alert!), which revealed that Carrie can see the ghost of her son Johnny, sets the stage for the second season’s deeper dive into “Family of Liars.”

Season 1’s cast features:

• Emily Alyn Lind as Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman
• Joseph Zada as Johnny Sinclair Dennis
• Brady Droulis as Will Sinclair Dennis
• Esther McGregor as Mirren Sinclair Sheffield
• Manaia Wall as Liberty Sinclair Sheffield
• Emerson MacNeil as Bonnie Sinclair Sheffield
• David Morse as Harris Sinclair
• Wendy Crewson as Tipper Sinclair
• Caitlin FitzGerald as Penny Sinclair Eastman
• Candice King as Bess Sinclair Sheffield
• Dylan Bruce as Brody Sheffield
• Mamie Gummer as Carrie Sinclair 
• Rahul Kohli as Ed Patil
• Shubham Maheshwari as Gat Patil
• Nikita Goold as Young Mirren
• Quinn LeBlanc as Young Johnny
• Leandro Vigueras as Young Gat
• Raewynn Martel as Young Cadence

Season 2’s new cast members include:

• Josh Dallas as Young Harris
• Peyton List as Young Tipper
• Elysia Roorbach as Young Penny
• Madison Wolfe as Young Bess
• Parker Lapaine as Young Carrie
• Costa D’Angelo as Pfeff

Dempsey Bryk, who played Ebon on Season 1, has been upped to series regular for Season 2.

Deanna Brigidi (“Shotgun Wedding”) and Andrea Bunker (“Big Little Lies”) served as casting directors on “We Were Liars” Season 1. The series is written and executive produced by co-showrunners Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie, who have also been closely involved in shaping the show’s ensemble and expanding Lockhart’s world onscreen.

Plec, who adapted “The Vampire Diaries” for the CW, understands what it takes to bring an author’s vision to life onscreen. As she told Deadline, “Anytime you’re adapting something, you have to give yourself certain freedoms in order to tell the best version of the story that you want to tell.” 

So, even if you don’t match a book’s character description exactly, there’s no harm in auditioning. You just might have that special something that inspires creators and CDs to go against the grain and fight for your casting.

For Plec, casting means staying open to what each actor brings into the room. She told Deadline that the process often involves “molding and shifting” the sound and shape of a character based on exciting qualities the auditioning actor reveals. 

That openness shaped the “We Were Liars” ensemble from the start. Having worked with King on “The Vampire Diaries”—the actor played Caroline Forbes—Plec was set on casting the former CW star again, even when she and MacKenzie worried she might be considered too young for the role. 

“From almost day one, [we] were writing Bess in Candice’s voice…but we thought she was too young, and we didn’t think we’d be able to get her hired. Then we realized that we didn’t care,” Plec said. “Candice has a very grownup, mom soul, in addition to being this young, vibrant woman. We knew she could do it, and we just decided to put her forward and hope for the best and keep our fingers crossed and prepared to go into battle for her. And then nobody said no. Everyone just thought it was a great idea. All of our anxieties were for [naught].

“And honestly, I mean, if Caroline Forbes is the part she was born to play, Bess Sinclair is the part that she’s meant to play next,” Plec added. “They’re the same person, just separated by two generations and some children.”

In Prime Video’s official announcement, Lockhart said MacKenzie and Plec have “big, big plans for Season 2, including everything readers of my books are dying to see onscreen—and a lot of surprises as well.”

Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television, called the renewal “yet another testament to Julie and this cast and crew’s extraordinary talent,” adding that the series “absolutely deserves a deeper dive.”

Plec and MacKenzie also said that the Season 1 cliffhanger was always designed with a story in mind. “We just wanted the audience to know that the story didn’t have to be over,” Plec said. “[They] know that there’s a party that can keep going if they’re enjoying themselves.”

Season 2 is scheduled to film from June to October 2026. The season will draw largely from “Family of Liars,” Lockhart’s prequel novel focusing on Carrie, Penny, and Bess as teenagers. Plec told Deadline that Season 1 was designed to “set the stage for Season 2,” adding that a second season would take viewers “deeper into the moms’ lives” and “add another generation to the story.”

Season 2 does not yet have a premiere date, but with filming running through fall 2026, the series isn’t expected to return until 2027.

Earlier this year, Brigidi and Bunker’s 5th House Casting cast with us for series regular roles for “We Were Liars” Season 2. Production was looking for talent to portray the younger versions of the Sinclair sisters. A key casting requirement was a striking resemblance to the adult cast. These principal roles offered compensation up to $70,000.

Per Prime Video, Parker Lapaine (“House of the Dragon”) has been cast as Young Carrie, Elysia Roorbach (“The Pitt”) will play Young Penny, and Madison Wolfe (“The Hunting Wives”) will play Young Bess. Josh Dallas (“Manifest”) has also been cast as Young Harris, and Peyton List (“The Rookie”) as Young Tipper. Other news includes the addition of Costa D’Angelo (“Tell Me Lies”), who joins as Pfeff, a key character from “Family of Liars.”

Even though these roles have now been filled, we’re hopeful that as filming continues through October 2026, more casting opportunities will arise. To stay ahead of the latest listings, we suggest bookmarking our main casting page, which is frequently updated with the hottest gigs available now. For those looking for more audition advice, our guide on how to audition for Prime Video can help you prepare for your moment in the spotlight.

These casting roundups are also great for keeping an actor’s résumé fresh:

• The Best Gigs to Kick-Start Your Acting Career
• New York casting calls
• Background casting calls
• Nationwide casting calls
• Voiceover casting calls

Keep putting in the work. FitzGerald knew she wanted to be an actor at age 6—but that doesn’t mean the journey to success wasn’t littered with obstacles. “I did a play for school, and I knew my lines and everyone else’s lines. I was sort of doing a one-woman show with 17 other kindergarteners,” she told us. “It was that immediate.” 

But she added, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And that’s such an important thing, because a lot of young actors think if we’re not immediately brilliant, we’re not supposed to be doing it…. The notion of overnight stardom is really dangerous. For almost every person who has success in this business, there are years and years of hard work to get there. To have longevity, you really have to train and you really have to work.”

After all, she explained, “You never stop thinking about technique, but really, the reason we’re actors is because of the sheer joy of those few moments you get every now and again where you’re totally present. The rest is just struggle and misery.”

Learn about the world around you. At the start of his career, Morse joined the Boston Repertory Theatre, which afforded him the opportunity to try his hand at every role within the theater business. “The way we were able to survive was we all had different jobs in the theater. I did all the graphics and advertising, the newspaper advertising, the posters, all that stuff,” Morse told Dutch Godshalk. “By the time I got to doing movies, where everything is unionized, it was strange not to be picking up the light and putting it away, doing my own makeup or whatever.” 

But this approach helped him appreciate everything that goes into creating a given work, no matter the medium. “For anybody working, whether they’re a writer, producer, whatever you do—the more you know about that world, the better off you are and the more respect you have for the people you work with,” he said.

Do what makes you comfortable. For Lind, self-tapes are ideal. She embraces what makes her comfortable whenever possible. “I like taping for stuff. I don’t really like going into audition rooms if I don’t have to,” she told Glamour. “I was always someone that, when people met me, I always seemed older than my years, so they would assume I wouldn’t be able to play a character my age. So I like taping my auditions [to prevent those assumptions].”

Lind also noted she has traditions that help build confidence and get her mind in the right space. “I have a couple specific shirts I always like to wear, because I felt like I would wear them and I always got the role if I wore them,” she said. “My go-to food before auditions is avocado rolls and kombucha or coconut water. I always eat and drink that before auditions.”

Fall on your face—then get back up. Although it was hard at first, Gummer finally took this advice to heart. “I started really doing that thing that everybody tells you to do,” she told us. “Just treat an audition like an opportunity. This is your chance to just try stuff, try something. Have fun.” And while she wasn’t immune to rejection and dry spells, Gummer ultimately learned you must persevere. “You could fall flat on your face; but, so, you fall flat on your face? The next time you try and do something new and you think, What if I fall on my face? [Then] you think, Well, I’ve already done that.” 

She added, “Actors are not like dancers at the barre every day or singers practicing their scales. They’re serious sometimes and sometimes not. They drink a little and try and live the most they can—which I think is right! You’ve got to get hurt. You’ve got to experience joy and just be really fucking open to the elements.”