Orange is the New Black cast and character guide: Revisiting who plays whom in the Netflix drama

It’s hard to believe now, but when Orange Is the New Black first premiered, there weren’t many shows daring enough to center the messy, painful, and often hilarious lives of women in prison. And definitely not a cast this diverse, in background, body type, sexuality, and story.

Ten years later, what stands out just as much as the writing of Orange Is the New Black is the cast. They didn’t just play characters. They embodied them, lived in them, and in doing so, turned a gritty prison dramedy into something unforgettable.

The cast of Orange Is the New Black changed TV

Take Taylor Schilling, for instance. Piper Chapman was the audience’s way into Litchfield Penitentiary, a privileged woman thrown into a world she didn’t understand. But what started as a fish-out-of-water story quickly became something more. Piper wasn’t a hero or a villain. She was complicated. She was us.

And then there was Laura Prepon, who played Alex Vause, the ex-girlfriend with dark sunglasses and an even darker past. Watching Prepon and Schilling’s chemistry unfold on screen was like watching two magnets pull toward and push away from each other. Their relationship wasn’t easy, but it felt real.

Uzo Aduba’s portrayal of Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren might be one of the most striking performances of the past decade. What could have been reduced to comic relief was instead turned into something raw and honest. Suzanne wasn’t a punchline, she was a full person, trying her best to be loved.

Danielle Brooks as Taystee? Just devastating. Her journey from light-hearted best friend to a symbol of how deeply the system can fail someone was something few could have predicted in the early episodes. Brooks gave Orange Is the New Black's Taystee layers that most characters on TV never get to have.

Why do the cast still matter?

There were so many others who gave the show its depth: Natasha Lyonne’s Nicky, wisecracking and wounded; Kate Mulgrew’s Red, proud and maternal, but breaking inside; Yael Stone’s Lorna, living in her own invented world. Each one reminded viewers that no one ends up in prison for one reason, and no one is just one thing. And that made them matter.

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Some characters came and went. Some met tragic ends. (If you’re still not over Poussey, played with such warmth by Samira Wiley, you’re not alone.) But every story of Orange Is the New Black left a mark.

Orange Is the New Black gave us a cast that didn’t just represent different voices; they made us listen to them. And even now, years after the final episode aired, those voices still echo.

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