Former Walking Dead Cast Members: Where Are They Now?

In many of the latest primetime TV dramas, the main characters don’t always make it beyond a single season. Characters are killed off all the time, and it happens more often than not on AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Throughout the show’s 10 seasons, only two of the original cast members remain. Former members of the group of survivors fending off the undead in the zombie apocalypse have died brutal deaths while new ones have joined along the way.

Looking back, where are some of those former cast members now? While some like Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie, will actually return to the series, and others, like Lennie James (Morgan), have moved over to spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead. Still others have left, never to be seen on the show again. Here’s a look at some of the actors who played some of the most notable characters on the show and what they are doing now.

11 Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)

One of the most controversial deaths on the series was that of Carl, who was killed off in the eighth season by a walker bite after trying to save Siddiq. Though many protested the death, Carl had the chance to say his goodbyes since he knew he would perish from the bite.

What is Chandler Riggs, the actor who played Carl, up to these days? He has continued to act, including in the 2019 movie Inherit the Viper and in a recurring role on ABC drama A Million Little Things. He is also focused on creating electronic music, which he releases under the stage name Eclipse.

10 Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee)

Fans were devasted when Glenn, one of the original cast members, was killed off in such a brutal fashion by Negan and his bat Lucille. And while that role remains his most notable to date, Yeun has been keeping busy since leaving the show in 2016.

His biggest projects since have been roles in the 2017 Netflix film Okja, the 2018 South Korean mystery film Burning, and Sorry to Bother You (2018). This year, he is working behind-the-scenes as well as a producer for the movie Minari, in which he also stars. He’ll next be seen in the one-act play adaptation of The Humans alongside Amy Schumer.

9 Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams)

Martin-Green hasn’t slowed down career-wise since she emerged from that coffin as a walker, almost taking out Negan in an effort to save her crew. Once her death on the show was made official, it was revealed that she would be taking on the lead role of Michael Burnham, lieutenant commander of the USS Discovery, on the series Star Trek: Discovery.

That show’s third season will debut this year. Martin-Green also appeared in the 2019 film Holiday Rush and is set to appear in the 2021 film Space Jam 2. In addition to acting on screen, she does voice work for video games, including the voice of Burnham for the Star Trek Online game and an unconfirmed voice for Fast & Furious Crossroads.

8 Emily Kinney (Beth Greene)

It was a deeply emotional scene when Beth was shot in the head and Daryl carried her lifeless body outside, intense anger in his eyes. She left the series in 2015 and since then, has made appearances on many other shows, including Masters of Sex, The Flash, Arrow, and Conviction.

Today, she appeared in the first season of Netflix original series Messiah. She also has a music career, having released several EPs, the latest being her solo album Oh Jonathan, which she released in 2018.

7 Tom Payne (Paul “Jesus” Rovia)

“Jesus” was a recurring character in season 6, then a regular for seasons 7 and 8 before being killed off in season 9. He was known for his amazing martial arts skills and for being a number-two in Hilltop, leading alongside Maggie.

Today, Payne has a leading role in the Fox police procedural Prodigal Son, alongside Martin Sheen. He plays a very different character, a skilled psychological profiler who studies serial killers while dealing with the trauma of being a notorious serial murderer’s son.

6 Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford)

While Abraham was one of two people who intimately met Negan’s barbed wire baseball bat Lucille, Cudlitz actually continues to work as part of The Walking Dead family behind-the-scenes.

After getting killed off the series in 2016, He returned to direct three episodes to date between 2018 and 2019. He has also returned to the after-show talk show Talking Dead as a panelist. Additionally, Cudlitz continues to act in films and TV series, including the 2018 movie Driven and the 2018/19 sitcom The Kids Are Alright, which was canceled after a single season.

5 Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes)

Appearing only in the first three seasons of the series as Rick’s wife, love interest for Shane, and biological mother of Judith. Lori wasn’t exactly a fan-favorite character. Dying in childbirth from an emergency C-section, Callies was reportedly on board with the decision and encouraged the show’s writers to do it in order to follow the storyline from the comics.

Since then, she has been busy acting, with the main role on the series Colony from 2016-2018, and in a supporting role in the Canadian series Letterkenny. In 2019, Callies snagged a leading role in the Canadian drama series Unspeakable about when HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C was found in the Canadian Red Cross’s blood bank in the early ’80s.

4 Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh)

Bernthal has had such an accomplished career that it’s easy to forget that he was once the main antagonist on The Walking Dead. Shane was Rick’s best friend and police partner who started a romance with Rick’s wife Lori when the two thought Rick was long gone.

Killed off after two seasons, he went on to appear in major projects on film and TV, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Sicario, The Accountant, Baby Driver, and Ford v Ferrari. But his most notable role has been as Frank Castle/Punisher in the Netflix MCU projects, including The Punisher and Daredevil.

3 David Morrissey (Philip “The Governor” Blake)

One of the best villains on the series, Philip “The Governor” Blake first appeared like the logical, level-headed leader of Woodbury. Until his true colors and sociopathic nature shone through. He appeared in seasons 3-5 before finally being taken out by Michonne.

Since 2015, Morrissey has appeared in TV series like Extant, Good Omens, and, most recently, Inside No. 9. He is set to appear in a 2021 film called Dampyr, which will is currently in its post-production phase.

2 Laurie Holden (Andrea Harrison)

Despite being a main character in the comics, Andrea was killed off in season 3 of the series. After that, Holden has been steadily acting. She appeared in the series Major Crimes and the main antagonist in the comedy movie Dumb and Dumber To.

She then had a role in the series Chicago Fire and was supposed to reprise it for the spin-off Chicago Med but dropped out due to family reasons. She joined the cast of The Americans in 2017 and the crime thriller Dragged Across Concrete in 2018. She also appeared in the short-lived 2019 legal drama Proven Innocent. In addition to acting, Holden also works as a human rights activist, campaigning against human trafficking and helping children living with HIV.

1 Michael Rooker (Merle Dixon)

Rooker is best known today as Yondu Udonta in Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), he played Daryl’s domineering brother Merle. Merle’s reanimation and Daryl’s emotional response to it was one of the biggest tearjerkers of the series.

Rooker also voices characters for video games, including several in the popular Call of Duty franchise as well as reprising the role of Merle in The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

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