The new Hogwarts staff — the actors joining the Harry Potter TV series
Here are the actors who will play the school staff when production begins at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in summer 2025: John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paul Whitehouse, Paapa Essiedu, and Nick Frost
The upcoming TV show will see US star John Lithgow alongside British actors Nick Frost and Paapa Essiedu in the HBO original series.
The majority of the new cast announced on Monday come from theatre backgrounds, following in the footsteps of the franchise’s star actors who also began their careers on stage including Imelda Staunton, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes and the late Dame Maggie Smith.
The new series, which has not yet cast its younger characters — including wizard Harry Potter, will stay authentic to the original books while bringing the Hogwarts world and the adventures of the wizards to new audiences.
Here are the actors who will play the school staff when production begins at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in summer 2025:
Lithgow, 79, is set to play Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore, a role previously played by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon in the film franchise.
The US actor recently won an Olivier for playing children’s author Roald Dahl in in the West End and has six Emmy awards to his name, including the 2017 best supporting actor award for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the hit Netflix series .
The star was born into a theatrical family — his mother was an actress and his father a producer — and, while he majored in history and literature at Harvard, theatre was his priority.
Lithgow pursued theatre, spending two academic years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright scholarship.
He made his Broadway debut in in 1973 and won his first Tony award for a featured role in a play.
Lithgow later became known for his versatile stage and on-screen acting from playing Roberta Muldoon, a transgender ex-football player in 1982’s to Cardinal Joseph Tremblay in the drama .
The 34-year old theatre star will portray the Professor of Potions, Severus Snape – who was played by Rickman in the original films.
Known for and , Essiedu trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He received an Olivier nomination for best actor for his role as Delroy in but lost out to Lithgow.
The Londoner recently acted alongside Saoirse Ronan in , playing Daynin, the boyfriend of Ronan’s character who suffers from addiction.
Essiedu has received two Bafta nominations for leading actor, one in 2021 for his role in the BBC drama and the second in 2024 for the in which his character, George, finds himself reliving the same events until he is introduced to a top-secret organisation that can rewind time.
The actor and comedian, 53, is best known for playing the blundering sidekick Pc Danny Butterman in the comedy .
Frost will now take on the role of Rubeus Hagrid, the friendly groundskeeper in the series who was played by the late Scottish actor, Robbie Coltrane, in the films.
He is also known for playing Ed in , a 2004 dark comedy which follows a London electronics salesman and his roommate whose lives are disrupted by a zombie apocalypse.
The 63-year-old actress studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before beginning her career with the Royal Exchange Theatre.
She received a Tony and Olivier award in 1997 for best actress in a play for playing Nora Helmer in and has since appeared in , , and .
The actress is set to play head of Gryffindor House, Professor Minerva McGonagall, who was portrayed by Dame Maggie in the film series.
Whitehouse, known for , will take on the role of Argus Filch — the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s caretaker.
He is best known for his work on the BBC sketch comedy , where he won the Light Entertainment Performance Bafta in 1998.
The British stage actor will appear in the series as the first book’s main antagonist, Quirinus Quirrell.
The Londoner trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and played Roland Maule in the National Theatre’s production of .
