Is Prime Video’s The Runarounds based on a real band? Details explored

On September 1, 2025, Prime Video released The Runarounds, an eight-episode musical teen drama created by Jonas Pate, co-creator of Outer Banks. The show follows five recent high school graduates in Wilmington, North Carolina, who form a rock band during their first summer after graduation.

What sets The Runarounds apart is that the cast members are not just actors; they are actual musicians. Jonas Pate launched the project with a social media casting call that drew over 5,000 submissions from high school bands, helped by Outer Banks cast members Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline.

From that pool, five musicians, William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock, and Jesse Golliher, were chosen to form the on-screen band. The group had already performed together during a guest spot in Outer Banks season three in 2022, and now they star in a scripted series that also showcases their real music.

Filmed entirely in Wilmington, the series mixes original songs written and performed by the band with drama centered on friendship, growing up, romance, and life choices. Concert and performance scenes actually capture the musicians playing live, giving the show an authentic feel rooted in both story and sound.

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The Runarounds formed after an open casting call

Creator Jonas Pate ran a public search for high school bands, asking for real musicians rather than actors who could fake playing. That call drew thousands of submissions, and Pate selected five performers to form the on-screen band.

Media reports say the casting process received more than 5,000 entries. Those five performers in The Runarounds, William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock, and Jesse Golliher, had musical experience before the show.

Some had played together in local settings; others had acted previously. The creators then shaped characters around parts of those musicians’ lives so that the fictional story would feel grounded in real experience.

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The music was released and marketed like a real band’s work

Music from the series reached streaming services before or alongside the show. Arista Records released the first singles, including “Funny How the Universe Works” and “Senior Year,” and the full soundtrack arrived with the premiere. The band is credited with those tracks as they were played in the series.

The cast wrote and performed the songs in the soundtrack, and producers filmed some of the scenes, recording live performances on set. That choice keeps that sound as close to the way the band sounds in real life as possible, as opposed to studio actors lip-synching.

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The series mixes true details with scripted drama

The Runarounds is not a documentary. Characters and storylines are scripted, but writers used the musicians’ real stories, relationships, and musical habits as raw material. This gives the series a mix of authentic moments and invented plot events, for example, scenes about choosing between college and a music career echo the real choices many young musicians face.

That blend explains why interviews and press pieces describe the series as “inspired by” the cast rather than “based on” a single true story. The cast members play fictionalized versions of themselves, and the show constructs dramatic beats to move the plot across eight episodes.

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The band performs outside the show

The Runarounds have made it outside the screen. So, to answer the question, is The Runarounds a real band?

While it is not based on a real band, it is in itself a real band. There have been live performances by the members, and a brief tour was announced to begin in mid-September 2025, allowing audiences to see the performers on stage instead of in recorded footage only. The music credits and live dates make the group a working band, as opposed to a television prop.