If you're looking up the cast of Them TV series, the main thing to know is that Prime Video's Them changes its story and cast by season. Season 1 follows the Emory family in the 1950s, while Season 2, Them: The Scare, moves to a new 1990s story with mostly different characters. Deborah Ayorinde is the key returning performer, but she plays a different role in each season.
Who Is in the Them Season 1 Cast?
Season 1, also known as Them: Covenant, is built around the Emory family and the neighbors, coworkers, and threatening figures around them. If you watched the first season and are trying to place a face, start with the family members first; most of the emotional weight comes from Lucky, Henry, Ruby, and Gracie.
The supporting characters in this season matter because the horror is not only supernatural. Much of the tension comes from racism, neighborhood hostility, and the pressure of trying to survive in a place that does not want the Emorys there.
Deborah Ayorinde as Lucky Emory
Deborah Ayorinde plays Lucky Emory, the mother of the Emory family and the emotional center of Season 1. Her performance carries much of the season's grief, anger, fear, and determination, so if one face defines the first chapter of Them, it is hers.
Lucky is not written as a simple "horror victim." Ayorinde makes her feel like a woman trying to protect her family while also carrying trauma that the season slowly brings to the surface.
Ashley Thomas as Henry Emory
Ashley Thomas plays Henry Emory, Lucky's husband and the father of Ruby and Gracie. Henry begins the season wanting stability and a better life, but the move to Compton exposes him to pressure at home, at work, and inside his own mind.
Thomas gives Henry a controlled, tightly held quality. That restraint is important because Henry often looks calm before the strain underneath becomes impossible to ignore.
Shahadi Wright Joseph as Ruby Emory
Shahadi Wright Joseph plays Ruby Emory, the older Emory daughter. Ruby's story is especially painful because she is old enough to understand rejection but still young enough to be shaped by it.
- For family-drama viewers: Ruby shows how the move affects the children, not just the parents.
- For horror viewers: her scenes make the season's psychological tension feel quieter and more personal.
Melody Hurd as Gracie Emory
Melody Hurd plays Gracie Emory, the younger daughter. Her role gives the season some of its most vulnerable moments, because Gracie's fear reminds viewers what Lucky and Henry are trying to protect.
Alison Pill as Betty Wendell
Alison Pill plays Betty Wendell, one of the most memorable human threats in Season 1. Betty is a neighbor whose polished appearance hides cruelty, entitlement, and racism.
Pill's performance works because she does not make Betty cartoonish. The calmness is what makes the character so uncomfortable; she often feels dangerous before she raises her voice.
Ryan Kwanten as George Bell
Ryan Kwanten appears as George Bell, a character tied to some of the season's darkest and most disturbing turns. He brings a mix of charm and menace that makes George difficult to read at first.
If you remember a male character whose presence makes a scene feel unsafe even before anything happens, George Bell is probably the name you are trying to place.
Who Is in Them Season 2 The Scare Cast?
Them: The Scare uses a mostly new cast because it tells a separate story. This is the point where the anthology format becomes very clear: Season 2 is not a direct continuation of the Emory family's story.
Deborah Ayorinde as Dawn Reeve
Deborah Ayorinde returns in Season 2 as Dawn Reeve, a completely different character from Lucky Emory. Dawn gives the season its main point of focus, and Ayorinde's return helps connect the two seasons without making them the same story.
Luke James as Edmund Gaines
Luke James plays Edmund Gaines, one of the central figures in The Scare. His role is tied closely to the season's mystery and emotional instability, so he is not just a side character who appears around the main plot.
James brings a mix of vulnerability and intensity to Edmund. That balance matters because the character needs to feel human, not just like a horror symbol.
Pam Grier as Athena
Pam Grier plays Athena, and her presence gives Season 2 an immediate sense of weight. Viewers who know her from earlier film and television work will probably recognize her quickly.
Athena feels observant, guarded, and experienced. Grier does not need big dramatic gestures to make the character stand out; her authority comes through in smaller choices.
Joshua J. Williams as Kel Reeve
Joshua J. Williams plays Kel Reeve, a younger character who brings the family side of Season 2 into sharper focus. Kel is useful for understanding what Dawn's choices and fears mean at home, not just in the larger mystery.
Jeremy Bobb as Ronald McKinney
Jeremy Bobb plays Ronald McKinney, a major figure connected to the investigative and institutional side of The Scare. His character helps pull the season beyond private fear and into the systems around Dawn's case.
Bobb gives McKinney enough pressure and uncertainty to keep him from feeling like a generic authority figure. That makes his scenes more useful than simple plot movement.
Who Are the Supporting Cast Members?
The supporting cast in Them is worth checking by character type, not just by name. Some supporting roles are supernatural or symbolic, while others are tied to police work, neighborhood pressure, or the wider social world around the main characters.
Christopher Heyerdahl as the Black Hat Man
Christopher Heyerdahl plays the Black Hat Man, one of the most haunting figures in Season 1. The character is memorable because of presence and atmosphere more than dialogue, which makes him easy to remember even if you forgot the actor's name.
The Black Hat Man works best as a symbol of dread that keeps returning. Heyerdahl's stillness and physicality make that threat feel persistent rather than sudden.
Jeremiah Birkett as Da Tap Dance Man
Jeremiah Birkett plays Da Tap Dance Man, a disturbing figure whose scenes lean into performance, movement, and nightmare logic. He is one of the clearest examples of how Them turns trauma into horror imagery.
Wayne Knight as Lieutenant Schiff
Wayne Knight plays Lieutenant Schiff. Many viewers may recognize Knight from other well-known film and TV roles, which can make his appearance stand out even if the character is not one of the season's central leads.
Schiff is useful to the story because he represents the official response around the horror and violence. In a show where institutions matter almost as much as individual threats, that kind of role helps widen the pressure around the main characters.
Carlito Olivero as Detective Diaz
Carlito Olivero plays Detective Diaz, a supporting character connected to the investigative side of the story. Diaz helps ground parts of the mystery in procedure and observation, especially when the show's stranger elements start to build.
If you are trying to separate the police and detective characters in your head, Diaz is one to place with the investigation rather than with the symbolic horror figures.
Conclusion
The easiest way to keep the Them cast straight is to separate the show by season first, then by character role. Season 1 belongs mainly to the Emory family and the people threatening their new life, while The Scare follows Dawn Reeve and a new group of characters. If a familiar actor seems out of place, remember the anthology rule: returning performers can come back as entirely new people.