Love it or hate it, the latest season of Netflix’s Monsters is the show everyone’s talking about right now.
The latest true centre offering from TV super-producer Ryan Murphy centres around Lyle and Erik Menéndez, the two brothers who are currently serving life sentences for murdering their parents in the late 1980s.
Given that Monsters is a Ryan Murphy production, there are a few things you can count on – a whole lot of controversy, mixed opinions about the show itself and a stellar all-star cast, including a handful of familiar faces he’s worked with in the past.
Here’s our quick guide to where you’ve seen the cast of The Lyle And Erik Menéndez Story before…
Cooper Koch as Erik Menéndez
Cooper plays Erik Menéndez in Monsters, which is definitely his most prolific on-screen credit to date.
Horror fans may have seen him in the queer slasher They/Them or the grisly body horror Swallowed before he joined the main cast of the hit Netflix drama about the Menéndez brothers.
Prior to that, he also starred in the festive TV movie A New York Christmas Wedding.
Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menéndez
Like his on-screen brother, Nicholas didn’t have too many performances under his belt when he signed up for Monsters, but his three-year stint in the US soap General Hospital did earn him a Daytime Emmy win in 2022.
He’s also now apparently a Murphy-verse go-to, as he’ll next be seen in another of the Emmy-winning producer’s projects, the horror show Grotesquerie.
Javier Bardem as José Menéndez
With an on-screen career spanning 30 years, the chances are you’ve seen Javier Bardem in something by now. His past credits are as varied as the James Bond offering Skyfall, the romantic drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the nightmarish horror Mother! and Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
He also won an Oscar for his supporting role in No Country For Old Men, as well as three more nominations for the movies Before Night Falls, Biutiful and the Lucille Ball biopic Being The Ricardos.
Chloë Sevigny as Kitty Menéndez
Chloë Sevingy’s long career has also featured an impressively eclectic mix of roles.
Monsters is her latest collaboration with Ryan Murphy, having previously appeared in the American Horror Story seasons Asylum and Hotel, as well as the latest incarnation of Feud. Her other TV work includes Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are, the award-winning Big Love, the crime drama Poker Face and the Netflix original Russian Doll.
As for her big-screen work, Chloë was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Boys Don’t Cry, but you may also remember her from American Psycho, Dogville, Zodiac, Queen And Slim and Bones And All.
And as if there was any question about just how cool as fuck Chloë Sevigny is, she was just featured prominently in Charli XCX’s 360 music video, which helped popularise her Brat album.
Dallas Roberts as Dr Jerome Oziel
Dallas Roberts plays Erik Menéndez’s therapist in Monsters, to whom he would eventually confess to murdering his parents.
The US actor’s most notable TV work includes The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the Netflix original Insatiable.
He also played disc jockey Sam Phillips in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, Jeffrey Dahmer’s father in the true crime drama My Friend Dahmer and Kathryn Hahn’s on-screen husband in Netflix’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion.
Leslie Grossman as Judalon Smyth
Another of Ryan Murphy’s go-tos, Leslie Grossman first began working with the producer way back in the 90s on his teen comedy Popular. Since then, they’ve worked together on every season of American Horror Story since 2017’s Cult, the plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck and the family comedy The New Normal.
You may also remember Leslie from the 2000s sitcom What I Like About You, the award-winning political thriller Scandal, the teen drama Love, Victor or the oft-forgotten Miss Congeniality sequel.
Ari Graynor as Leslie Abramson
As the Menéndez brothers’ defence attorney, Ari Graynor plays a pivotal role in Monsters.
Her past work includes playing Caitlin Rucker in The Sopranos (her first ever TV role), as well as lending her voice to the adult animated comedies American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.
She has also appeared in the films Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, The Guilt Trip and The Disaster Artist.
Jess Weixler as Jill Lansing
Another member of the defence team, Jess Weixler plays Jill Lansing in Monsters.
Jess previously played Robyn Burdine in a string of episodes of The Good Wife, and led the comedy horror Teeth, about a young woman who discovers she has vagina dentata.
Nathan Lane as Dominick Dunne
A three-time Tony winner, Nathan Lane is a legend of both stage and screen, including memorable guest appearances in TV shows like Frasier, The Good Wife, Sex And The City and Only Murders In The Building.
As for the big screen, he starred opposite Robin Williams in The Birdcage, played the lead in the musical The Producers and more recently joined the star-studded cast of Ari Aster’s disaster horror Beau Is Afraid.
Oh… and if you thought his voice sounded familiar, that’s probably because he played the loveable meerkat Timon in The Lion King and its many spin-offs.
Jason Butler Harner as Les Zoeller
On the big screen, Jason Butler Harner played the serial kiiller Gordon Stewart Northcott in the Angelina Jolie movie Changeling, as well as appearing in the TV shows The Handmaid’s Tale and The Walking Dead.
Jason also played FBI Special Agent Roy Petty in the first two seasons of Netflix’s Ozark.
Charlie Hall as Craig Cignarelli
The younger son of Emmy winner Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Saturday Night Live comedian Brad Hall, Charlie appears in Monsters’ courtroom scenes as Craig Cignarelli a close friend of the Menéndez brothers.
Charlie has already appeared in the Fresh Prince reimagining Bel-Air, the teen comedy The Sex Lives Of College Girls and the hit series Love, Victor (as well as, less surprisingly, an episode of the political comedy Veep and the movie Moxie, directed by comedy legend Amy Poehler).
Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menéndez Story is available to stream now on Netflix.