“Nine Perfect Strangers” cast: Meet the new batch of wellness-seekers Nicole Kidman treats (and tricks) in season 2

Key Points

• Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 finds Nicole Kidman reprising her role as the psychedelic-dispensing wellness guru Masha.

• Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), Christine Baranski (The Good Fight), and pop singer King Princess round out the new supporting cast.

• The first two episodes of season 2 premiered on Hulu on May 21.

Nicole Kidman crafts an unsettling yet chic lead in Nine Perfect Strangers, the 2021 Hulu series about a wellness guru with questionable means of achieving healthfulness and fulfillment.

Now, Kidman’s enigmatic Masha returns for a second season that takes the story beyond the Liane Moriarty novel that inspired season 1. Swapping sunny California for the Austrian Alps (and Masha’s lanky blonde locks for an icy bob), the season finds Masha overseeing a new batch of strangers eager to overcome their anxieties, traumas, and struggles back home. And if that takes a hallucinogen or three, so be it.

The new ensemble is mightily impressive, with Murray Bartlett, Christine Baranski, Annie Murphy, Henry Golding, and pop singer King Princess joining Kidman, among others. Below, we unpack each of their characters, and where you may recognize the actors from. Read on for Entertainment Weekly‘s Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 cast and character guide.

Nicole Kidman as Masha Dmitrichenko

As iconic as she is prolific, Nicole Kidman has been one of Hollywood’s leading lights since the late ’80s, when she turned heads in films like Dead Calm (1989), Days of Thunder (1990), and To Die For (1995), the latter of which garnered the first of her six Golden Globe Awards.

In the years since, she’s been nominated for five Academy Awards (winning in 2003 for The Hours) and three Emmy Awards (winning two in 2017 for Big Little Lies), not to mention dozens of other accolades.

She remains one of the industry’s busiest A-listers. In the last year and change, she appeared in four films (A Family Affair, Babygirl, Spellbound, and Holland) and three series (Lioness, Expats, and The Perfect Couple). On deck is the Amazon Prime series Scarpetta and the Apple TV+ series Margo’s Got Money Troubles, as well as a sequel to 1998’s Practical Magic.

If you’re curious how Kidman’s Masha is still running wellness retreats after dosing her last guests with hallucinogens without their consent or knowledge, the actress offered an answer during an interview with Australian show The Project.

“Because I’m on the run,” she declared in Masha’s voice. “I’m very clever, very smart, and I am able to shape-shift.”

She went on to speak about how hallucinogenic drugs like Psilocybin are discussed much differently now than they were when the series premiered in 2021. “When we did the first season, this show was considered so outrageous because the idea of micro-dosing… the terminology, Psilocybin was still not a word that had been used very often in the conversation,” Kidman explained. “It’s now used a lot. So it’s really fascinating how Liane Moriarty actually is so ahead of her time.”

In her review for EW, Baldwin praised Kidman’s turn as “the steely Russian enigma,” calling Masha “a character with a capital C.”

She added, “Season 1 leaned into the camp elements of its scheming heroine, but this season is darker — tonally and literally, as all the action plays out against a backdrop of a slate-gray Bavarian winter.”

Murray Bartlett as Brian

Aussie actor Murray Bartlett worked steadily in his home country for years before breaking out in the U.S. on HBO’s Looking (2014–2015) and its accompanying 2016 movie. For his turn as prickly hotel manager Armond on season 1 of The White Lotus (2021), he won a Primetime Emmy Award.

Bartlett received two additional Emmy nominations for his work on Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales (2022–2023) and HBO’s The Last of Us (2023).

In the series, Bartlett plays the role of Brian, a former children’s show host whose career has been derailed by a public scandal.

He’s a highlight of the season, per EW’s review. “Bartlett gives the most compelling performance as Brian; the actor evokes the pain of his character’s crushing regret, resentment, and grievance as a man redefined publicly as the worst thing he’s ever done,” writes our critic.

Christine Baranski as Victoria

Stage and screen legend Christine Baranski has been nominated for 14 Emmys (and won one) for her work on series such as Cybil (1995–1998), Frasier (1999), The Big Bang Theory (2009–2019), The Good Wife (2009–2016), and The Gilded Age (2022–present). She’s also a two-time Tony winner, and a star of the fiercely beloved Mamma Mia! (2008) and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Related: A very Good run: Christine Baranski bids farewell to Diane Lockhart

Speaking with Deadline last year, she described her grand dame Victoria as “a woman with a very big secret.”

Baranski continued, “She arrives in her Wagner ski outfit, but she’s using a cane. And she meets her daughter, her estranged daughter, and they’re meant to come to this famous European sanitarium up in the Austrian Alps to work out their issues.”

Annie Murphy as Imogen

Annie Murphy nabbed a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination for her role as bratty socialite Alexis Rose on Schitt’s Creek (2015–2020). She’s since appeared in several killer comedies, including Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021–2022) and Russian Doll (2022). The actress also anchored the buzzy 2023 Black Mirror episode “Joan Is Awful,” a standout of the anthology’s sixth season.

Murphy’s Imogen is the estranged daughter of Baranski’s Victoria, and the tense relationship between the pair permeates the season.

When asked by Parade how much of Alexis found her way into Imogen, Murphy replied, “I think they’re very separate characters. I think they’re both kind of spoiled children and women, but I think that they would’ve butted heads pretty significantly, and Imogen would’ve probably written Alexis off as a bit of an airhead.”

Dolly de Leon as Agnes

Filipino actress Dolly de Leon has been acting on stage and screen for decades, but found international fame as a star of Ruben Östlund’s acclaimed Triangle of Sadness (2022), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award. Recent credits include the films Between the Temples (2024) and Ghostlight (2024).

Related: Dolly de Leon’s performance in Triangle of Sadness is groundbreaking — here’s why

De Leon stars in Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 as Agnes, an ex-nun seeking absolution.

“How did I prepare for that?” she said during an interview with Vogue. “First of all, I’ve been exposed to nuns since I was a kid because I went to a Catholic school. Since I was in preschool, I’ve known nuns. But of course, it’s different if you’re actually portraying a nun. So I had to really find out about what makes them tick and why they choose to serve God and to join the convent.”

She continued, “I had to approach a good friend of mine, Sister Mary John, who’s a retired scholastican in the Benedictine fold… And basically, she has similarities with Agnes because they both left the Philippines and pursued serving the Lord outside of the country in Europe. And she has adventures about that.”

King Princess as Tina

King Princess, a.k.a. Mikaela Mullaney Straus, is the critically acclaimed singer and songwriter behind the albums Cheap Queen (2019) and Hold On Baby (2022). She’s collaborated with heavy hitters like Mark Ronson, Fiona Apple, and Perfume Genius, and contributed music to projects like Netflix’s Arcane and Adventure Time: Distant Lands.

Related: King Princess, descendant of couple who died on the Titanic, addresses lost submersible

For her first onscreen acting role, King Princess plays Tina, a concert pianist who, as the artist explained to KTLA 5, is “not happy” about attending the retreat.

“She’s in a six-year relationship with a girl named Wolfie. I don’t know if you know anything about lesbianism, but they’ve acquired a lot of resentment and codependency, and Tina is basically tricked by Wolfie into coming on this therapy retreat,” she explained.

Chuckling, she added, “It is a toxic dynamic, but it was so much fun to create the most toxic lesbian relationship possible.”

Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Wolfie

English actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers rose to prominence on The CW’s The Originals (2014–2017) before pivoting to the network’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2020). She acted opposite Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa as Korr Sella in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and played Chloe Winthrop in The Kissing Booth sequels (2020–2021) on Netflix.

Richardson-Sellers plays Wolfie, the overbearing girlfriend of King Princess’ Tina. “Retreat of dreams, retreat of nightmares,” the actress wrote on Instagram while promoting the series.

Mark Strong as David

Tough-guy actor Mark Strong has intimidated (and charmed) on stage and screen since breaking through in the early ’90s. Throughout his career, he’s appeared in dozens of films (Sherlock Holmes, Zero Dark Thirty, the Kingsman franchise) and series (Anna Karenina, Low Winter Sun, Dune: Prophecy).

Strong plays a billionaire named David, with whom his son, Peter (Golding), is desperate to connect. “This is great. Lovely actors and excellent story,” Strong wrote while promoting the series on Instagram. “Crazy dark but fun.”

Henry Golding as Peter

After catapulting to fame in Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Henry Golding, a one-time TV presenter, starred in films such as A Simple Favor (2018), Last Christmas (2019), and Snake Eyes (2021). He recently reprised his Simple Favor role for the film’s Italy-set sequel, Another Simple Favor. He’ll next appear opposite Charlize Theron in Netflix’s The Old Guard 2.

Golding plays Peter, a nepo baby desperate to connect with his distant billionaire father, played by Strong.

Speaking with Variety last year, Golding teased his “massive hair” in the role, which apparently became something of a burden after six months of shooting. “I was so tired of it.”

Lena Olin as Helena

Swedish actress Lena Olin made her film debut in Face to Face (1976) from legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, whom she counted as a mentor. After appearing in the director’s Fanny and Alexander (1982) and After the Rehearsal (1984), she received acclaim (and a Golden Globe nomination) for her turn in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).

Olin received an Oscar nod for her performance in Enemies, A Love Story (1989), and a Primetime Emmy nomination for her starring role on Alias (2002–2006). In recent years, she starred opposite Adam Sandler in Netflix’s Spaceman (2024) and played Eva Braun, wife of Adolf Hitler, on the Nazi-hunting Amazon series Hunters (2020–2023).

As Helena, Olin plays the key role of Masha’s mentor. It’s Helena who invites Masha to run her retreat at a mountaintop resort in the Alps.

“The strangers… avoid their problems and search for wellness, but they don’t want to face their problems with themselves,” Olin told MEGA. “[It] can be sort of deceiving, because it helps us go around it, and you think, ‘Oh, I’m taking care of the problems,’ when you’re not. That’s an interesting aspect of the show.”

Where can I watch Nine Perfect Strangers?

Season 1 of Nine Perfect Strangers is streaming in its entirety on Hulu. The first two episodes of season 2 hit the streamer on May 21, with new episodes dropping on Wednesdays.

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