Animal Kingdom Cast: The 15 Actors Behind the Cody Crime Family

The Animal Kingdom cast is led by Ellen Barkin as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of a Southern California crime family, with Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary and Scott Speedman as the sons who pull her jobs and Finn Cole as the grandson who moves into her house. The TNT drama ran for six seasons and 75 episodes, from June 14, 2016 to August 28, 2022, and it was the last scripted original series TNT aired before it stopped making them.

Developed by Jonathan Lisco from David Michód's 2010 Australian film, and produced by John Wells, the series is set in Oceanside, California. Below are the 15 actors credited as series regulars or who carried a major recurring role, in the order they joined the show, with the character each played, the seasons they appear in and the work they are known for. The entries describe how each character's story ends, so expect spoilers for the whole series.

Animal Kingdom Cast List: All 15 Actors, Characters and Seasons

#	Actor	Character	Seasons	Credit
1	Ellen Barkin	Janine "Smurf" Cody	1 to 4	Series regular
2	Scott Speedman	Barry "Baz" Blackwell	1 to 3, guest in 6	Series regular
3	Shawn Hatosy	Andrew "Pope" Cody	1 to 6	Series regular
4	Ben Robson	Craig Cody	1 to 6	Series regular
5	Jake Weary	Deran Cody	1 to 6	Series regular
6	Finn Cole	Joshua "J" Cody	1 to 6	Series regular
7	Daniella Alonso	Catherine Belen	1	Series regular
8	Molly Gordon	Nicky Belmont	1 to 3	Series regular
9	Carolina Guerra	Lucy	1 to 3	Recurring, then regular
10	Sohvi Rodriguez	Mia Trujillo	3 and 4	Recurring, then regular
11	Leila George	Young Janine "Smurf" Cody	4 to 6	Recurring, then regular
12	Jon Beavers	Young Jake Dunmore	4 and 5	Recurring, then regular
13	Rigo Sanchez	Manny	4 and 5	Recurring, then regular
14	Christina Ochoa	Renn Randall	1 to 6	Recurring
15	Spencer Treat Clark	Adrian Dolan	1 to 4	Recurring

Every Main Animal Kingdom Actor and the Character They Played

1. Ellen Barkin as Janine "Smurf" Cody

Character: Janine "Smurf" Cody, the family matriarch | Seasons: 1 to 4, 49 episodes | Known for: Sea of Love, The Big Easy, Ocean's Thirteen

Smurf runs the family business from her Oceanside house. She chooses the jobs, holds the money and keeps her sons close with a love the show plays as possessive and unsettling. Barkin gives her a soft voice and a hard center, so she can comfort J in one scene and arrange a killing in the next. Across four seasons Smurf loses Baz, spends time in jail, is diagnosed with cancer and plans one last job so she can die on her own terms. In the season 4 episode "Ghosts", J shoots her after she tries to make Pope do it.

Barkin arrived with a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in The Normal Heart (2011) and a Primetime Emmy for the TV film Before Women Had Wings (1998). Her film career runs from her breakthrough in Diner (1982) through Tender Mercies, The Big Easy, Sea of Love, Switch, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, This Boy's Life and Ocean's Thirteen, and Hands of Stone was her third film with Robert De Niro. Smurf put her back at the center of a weekly drama, and the character is still the main reason viewers start the show.

2. Scott Speedman as Barry "Baz" Blackwell

Character: Barry "Baz" Blackwell, Smurf's adopted son | Seasons: 1 to 3, guest in 6 | Known for: Felicity, Underworld, Grey's Anatomy

Baz is the planner of the crew and the closest thing Smurf has to a second in command, though he is not her biological son. He has a daughter, Lena, with his partner Catherine and a long affair with Lucy in Mexico. By season 2 he is quietly working against Smurf and plotting to take her money. He is shot at the end of that season and dies in the season 3 premiere. Season 4 reveals that Mia carried out the killing on Smurf's orders. Speedman comes back as a guest in season 6.

Speedman was born in London to Scottish parents and raised in Toronto, where he swam for Canada's junior national team before a neck injury moved him toward acting. His breakout was Ben Covington on Felicity, and he went on to play Michael Corvin in the Underworld films and to appear in The Strangers, The Vow and Crimes of the Future. In 2021 he joined the main cast of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Nick Marsh.

3. Shawn Hatosy as Andrew "Pope" Cody

Character: Andrew "Pope" Cody, the eldest son | Seasons: 1 to 6, all 75 episodes | Known for: Southland, The Pitt, Alpha Dog

Pope comes home from three years in Folsom State Prison in the pilot and spends the series as the family's most dangerous and most damaged member. He lives with mental illness, carries an obsession with Catherine and, on Smurf's orders, smothers her at the end of season 1. He also ends up raising Lena. In the final season Pope confesses to Catherine's murder and goes back to prison. His brothers break him out, and he dies of a gunshot wound after burning down the Cody house in the series finale.

Hatosy, who grew up in Frederick County, Maryland, built his early career in films such as In & Out, The Faculty, Outside Providence, Anywhere but Here and Alpha Dog, and he played the partner of Nicolas Cage's detective in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Animal Kingdom was his second long run with producer John Wells after the TNT police drama Southland, and he directed four episodes of the series. His third Wells project, the HBO Max drama The Pitt, won him the 2025 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series as Dr. Jack Abbot.

4. Ben Robson as Craig Cody

Character: Craig Cody, the middle son | Seasons: 1 to 6, all 75 episodes | Known for: Vikings, The Continental, The Boy

Craig is the thrill seeker of the brothers: fearless on a job, reckless with drugs and always the first to throw a party. His on-again, off-again relationship with dealer Renn Randall produces a son, Nick, and later an engagement. His father is Jake Dunmore from Smurf's old crew, a man Craig meets after Smurf's death without learning who he is. In the finale Craig is shot while robbing a convenience store on the run to the border, and he dies beside Deran after asking him to look after Renn and Nick.

Robson grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and studied business at the University of the West of England in Bristol before turning to acting. He played Kalf in the History series Vikings opposite Travis Fimmel and was cast as Craig in the Animal Kingdom pilot in August 2015. Since the show ended he has played Frankie Scott in The Continental: From the World of John Wick, and his films include The Boy, A Violent Separation and Emperor.

5. Jake Weary as Deran Cody

Character: Deran Cody, the youngest son | Seasons: 1 to 6, all 75 episodes | Known for: It Follows, Chicago Fire, The Waterfront

Deran is a former competitive surfer who wants a legitimate life and buys a bar to get one, although the bar ends up laundering family money. He hides that he is gay in the early seasons, then comes out to a family that accepts him, and his relationship with surfer Adrian Dolan runs through the first four seasons. His father is Billy, an old associate of Smurf. Deran is the only one of Smurf's sons still alive when the series ends.

Weary is the son of Daytime Emmy winner Kim Zimmer and actor and director A.C. Weary, and he started young with roles on Guiding Light and As the World Turns. On film he has appeared in It Follows, Zombeavers and It Chapter Two. His television work includes arcs on Chicago Fire and Pretty Little Liars and, since 2025, a starring role in the Netflix drama The Waterfront.

6. Finn Cole as Joshua "J" Cody

Character: Joshua "J" Cody, Smurf's grandson | Seasons: 1 to 6, all 75 episodes | Known for: Peaky Blinders, F9, Last Breath

J is the center of the series. He arrives at 17 after his mother, Julia, dies of an overdose, and the show follows him as he learns the business, stands up to his uncles and eventually outplays Smurf herself. He is the one who shoots Smurf in season 4, and over the last two seasons he grows colder and more independent. In the finale he betrays his uncles during Pope's escape, takes the family's money and ends the series alone in the Virgin Islands.

Cole is the fourth of five brothers from London, and his eldest brother, Joe Cole, helped him get his first audition, for Michael Gray in the BBC series Peaky Blinders. He played Eric Birling in the BBC's An Inspector Calls and young Jakob Toretto in F9, and his films include Slaughterhouse Rulez, Dreamland and Last Breath. He made his stage debut in 2024 in Red Speedo at the Orange Tree Theatre.

7. Daniella Alonso as Catherine Belen

Character: Catherine Belen, Baz's partner and Lena's mother | Seasons: 1 | Known for: Revolution, The Night Shift, Dynasty

Catherine shares a home and a daughter with Baz and knows more about the family business than Smurf likes. She starts working as an informant with police officer Patrick Fischer, though she never gives up the Codys, and Smurf decides she is a threat. Pope kills her in the ninth episode of season 1. Her disappearance drives the rest of the series: Baz's suspicion of Smurf, Pope's guilt and the season 6 investigation that sends Pope back to prison.

Alonso grew up in New York City and was signed by the Ford modeling agency before she turned to acting. She starred as Nora Clayton in NBC's Revolution and as Dr. Landry de la Cruz in The Night Shift, and her horror credits include The Hills Have Eyes 2 and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End. After Animal Kingdom she took over the role of Cristal in the third season of The CW's Dynasty.

8. Molly Gordon as Nicky Belmont

Character: Nicky Belmont, J's high school girlfriend | Seasons: 1 to 3 | Known for: The Bear, Booksmart, Theater Camp

Nicky is J's girlfriend when the series opens, the daughter of a Navy officer at Camp Pendleton. She moves into the Cody house against her father's wishes and gets pulled further into the family's world than she expects, down to taking part in the yacht heist. Her story darkens when she turns to heroin, and after she is badly hurt J leaves her outside a hospital. She leaves Oceanside in season 3 to live with her parents in Guam.

Gordon was cast in the TNT pilot in August 2015. Her film career grew quickly after that: she played Annabelle in Booksmart, appeared in Good Boys and Shiva Baby, and co-directed, co-wrote and starred in the musical comedy Theater Camp (2023). Today she is best known as Claire Dunlap in the FX series The Bear.

9. Carolina Guerra as Lucy

Character: Lucy, Baz's lover in Mexico | Seasons: 1 to 3, series regular in 2 and 3 | Known for: The Firefly, Da Vinci's Demons, Colombia's Next Top Model

Lucy runs a Mexican gang with her brother Marco and carries on a long affair with Baz across the border. When Baz moves against Smurf, Lucy helps him, and after he is shot she takes the stolen money and runs. Smurf comes after her for revenge. Once Marco is killed the two women reach a truce, but Mia kills Lucy on Smurf's orders before season 3 is over.

Guerra is a Colombian actress, model and presenter who was chosen as Miss Bogota in 2005. She hosted MTV's Rock Dinner and Colombia's Next Top Model, appeared in the telenovelas Montecristo and La Diosa Coronada, and played the Inca priestess Ima in the second season of Da Vinci's Demons. She also starred in the 2015 romantic drama The Firefly.

10. Sohvi Rodriguez as Mia Trujillo

Character: Mia Trujillo, a gang member who gets close to J | Seasons: 3 and 4, series regular in 4 | Known for: Animal Kingdom, Last Night on Earth

Mia comes from a gang run by her cousin, Pete Trujillo, and enters the series in season 3 as one of its most volatile characters. She becomes involved with J and also kills for Smurf twice, taking out Baz and Lucy. After she and her boyfriend Tupi rob the Codys following the performance venue heist, J shoots her in season 4 once she admits to killing Baz.

Rodriguez was born in Nicaragua and moved to the United States with her family when she was four, settling in Southern California for high school. She moved to Los Angeles at 18, and one of her very first auditions was for Mia, a part she won over a long list of other actors. Away from acting she designs clothing and paints.

11. Leila George as young Janine "Smurf" Cody

Character: Smurf in the 1977, 1984, 1992 and 1999 flashbacks | Seasons: 4 to 6, series regular in 5 and 6 | Known for: Mortal Engines, The Kid

Once Barkin's Smurf is gone, George carries the character's past. The flashbacks follow Smurf as a member of a crew of career criminals in the late 1970s, raising Pope and Julia on the move in 1984, running jobs with her teenage children in Oceanside in 1992 and cutting Julia out of the family in 1999. George plays her from her twenties into her forties, through the years that turned her into the woman Barkin played.

George was born in Sydney in 1992 to actors Vincent D'Onofrio and Greta Scacchi and was raised mainly in England. She studied acting in Brighton and London, at Sydney Film School and at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. She starred in the TV film Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? (2016) and appeared in Mortal Engines and The Kid before joining Animal Kingdom in 2019.

12. Jon Beavers as young Jake Dunmore

Character: Jake Dunmore, Smurf's boyfriend and Craig's father | Seasons: 4 and 5, series regular in 5 | Known for: Paradise, Horizon: An American Saga, The Long Road Home

Jake runs with Smurf's crew from 1977 to 1984 as her on-and-off boyfriend, and he takes a fatherly role with the young Pope and Julia. He fathers Craig but is kept out of his son's life, and he leaves Oceanside when the crew breaks up. The older Jake is played by Jack Conley in the present day, appearing in seasons 1, 2 and 4, including at Smurf's funeral.

Beavers is an actor and playwright who first became known through The Fresh Beat Band. His television work includes the war drama The Long Road Home and the Hulu thriller Paradise, and he appears in Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga films and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. He also co-created the musical The Unfortunates, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2013.

13. Rigo Sanchez as Manny

Character: Manny, leader of Smurf's early crew | Seasons: 4 and 5, series regular in 5 | Known for: Outer Banks, Goliath, McFarland, USA

Manny leads the crew Smurf works with in the flashbacks from 1977 to 1984. In 1984 he is beaten over gambling debts and misses a job, and Smurf pays off his loan shark, Pete Trujillo Sr., to keep the crew working. After the crew breaks up he forms a new one. An older Manny turns up briefly in season 2, dying of cancer, and confession tapes he recorded later tie Smurf to the death of a former crew member, Lou.

Sanchez has worked steadily in television for two decades, with credits on Grey's Anatomy, The Closer, Weeds, Goliath, S.W.A.T., Lucifer and Station 19. He appeared in the Disney sports drama McFarland, USA (2015), and since Animal Kingdom his work has included Outer Banks, Duster and The Rookie.

14. Christina Ochoa as Renn Randall

Character: Renn Randall, Craig's partner and Nick's mother | Seasons: 1 to 6, recurring in all six | Known for: Blood Drive, Matador, A Million Little Things

Renn is a cocaine dealer when we meet her, with Craig as one of her customers, and their relationship survives overdoses, breakups and the night Craig leaves her for dead. She gives birth to their son, Nick, in season 4 and later helps the Codys with the skate park heist. Feeling unsafe in Oceanside, she moves to Singapore with Nick, and she accepts Craig's proposal before his death in the finale. She appears in all six seasons.

Ochoa is a Spanish actress and science communicator, the grand-niece of Nobel laureate Severo Ochoa and the daughter of sculptor Victor Ochoa. She studied oceanographic engineering and then marine biology at James Cook University in Australia before committing to acting. She played Karen Morales in Matador, led the Syfy series Blood Drive and joined the first season of ABC's A Million Little Things.

15. Spencer Treat Clark as Adrian Dolan

Character: Adrian Dolan, Deran's boyfriend | Seasons: 1 to 4, recurring | Known for: Gladiator, Unbreakable, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Adrian is a competitive surfer with his own board shop, and for four seasons he is the person Deran keeps coming back to. He starts out unaware of how the Codys make their money, then gets caught smuggling drugs inside his surfboards and comes under investigation by DEA agent Dennis Livengood. With Deran's help he leaves for Indonesia, and the relationship ends with him gone for good.

Clark became known as a child actor in two 2000 films, Gladiator and Unbreakable, and returned to his Unbreakable role in Glass (2019). His other films include Mystic River and The Last House on the Left, and he played Werner von Strucker in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He is the brother of screenwriter Eliza Clark, one of the executive producers of Animal Kingdom.

The Flashback Cast Behind the Young Codys

Seasons 4 to 6 cut between the present day and Smurf's past, so most of the family has a younger double. The flashbacks visit 1977, 1984, 1992 and 1999, and the recasting follows the children as they grow:

• Leila George plays Smurf in all four flashback years, and Rimea Kasprzak plays a 13-year-old Smurf in a 1966 flashback in season 1.
• Darren Mann plays teenage Baz in 1992 and 1999 in season 6, with Reeve Baker as 10-year-old Baz in 1984.
• Kevin Csolak plays teenage Pope in 1992 and 1999, and Houston Towe plays 7-year-old Pope in the season 5 flashbacks.
• Jasper Polish plays teenage Julia, J's mother, in season 6, and Scarlett Abinante plays her as a child in 1984.
• Oz Kalvan and Jack Michael Doke play the young Craig, and Cyrus Blomberg and Dexter Hobert play the young Deran.

Mann, who later played Jack Dutton in 1923, and Csolak, who appeared in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, carry most of the season 6 flashback scenes alongside George and Polish.

Recurring Animal Kingdom Actors You Will Recognize

The series also gave shorter arcs to several familiar actors:

• Denis Leary as Billy, Deran's drifter father, who returns in season 3 to pitch the airplane heist.
• Dichen Lachman as Frankie, a professional thief who works with Craig in seasons 3 to 5.
• Emily Deschanel as Angela Kane, Julia's former best friend, in season 4.
• Gil Birmingham as Detective Pearce, who pressures Smurf and Adrian in seasons 2 to 4.
• Jennifer Landon as Amy Wheeler, the megachurch employee Pope dates.
• Aamya Deva Keroles as Lena Blackwell, Baz and Catherine's daughter.
• C. Thomas Howell as Lieutenant Commander Paul Belmont, Nicky's father.
• Jack Conley as the present-day Jake Dunmore.
• Stevie Lynn Jones as Penny Dean, J's girlfriend in season 6.
• Moran Atias as Detective Louise Thompson, who reopens Catherine's case in season 6.
• Joseph Morgan as the young Jed, the man behind Smurf's season 4 vendetta.

How the Series Cast Differs From the 2010 Film

The show borrows its family from David Michód's Animal Kingdom, a Melbourne crime film that won the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In the film, Jacki Weaver plays Smurf and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Ben Mendelsohn plays Pope, Joel Edgerton plays Baz, James Frecheville plays J and Sullivan Stapleton plays Craig, with Guy Pearce as a detective trying to pull J away from the family.

The series moved the Codys to the beaches of Oceanside and gave each brother far more room. The film's youngest brother, Darren, played by Luke Ford, becomes Deran in the show, and Baz is no longer simply a family friend but Smurf's adopted son. None of the film's actors appear in the series.

How the Animal Kingdom Cast Changed Across Six Seasons

The cast turned over more than the four constant brothers suggest. Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary and Finn Cole are credited in all 75 episodes, and the rest of the lineup shifted around them:

• Season 1 opens with Barkin, Speedman, Alonso and Gordon in the main cast, and Catherine is killed before it ends.
• Seasons 2 and 3 promote Carolina Guerra to the main cast, and Baz dies in the season 3 premiere while Nicky leaves midway through that season.
• Season 4 adds Sohvi Rodriguez as a regular and introduces the flashbacks, ending with Smurf's death.
• Seasons 5 and 6 lean on the past, with Leila George, Jon Beavers and Rigo Sanchez in the main cast for season 5 and George, Mann, Csolak and Polish carrying the 1990s in season 6.

That structure is why the show can lose its lead after four seasons and keep going: Smurf stays at the center of the story, just played by a younger actor in a different decade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who plays Smurf in Animal Kingdom?

Ellen Barkin plays Janine "Smurf" Cody in seasons 1 to 4. Leila George plays the younger Smurf in the flashbacks from season 4 to the end of the series, and Rimea Kasprzak plays her at 13 in a season 1 flashback. In the 2010 film the role belongs to Jacki Weaver.

Which Animal Kingdom cast members appear in every episode?

Four actors are credited in all 75 episodes: Shawn Hatosy as Pope, Ben Robson as Craig, Jake Weary as Deran and Finn Cole as J. Ellen Barkin appears in 49 episodes before Smurf dies at the end of season 4.

How many seasons of Animal Kingdom are there?

Animal Kingdom has six seasons and 75 episodes. The first season has 10 episodes and each later season has 13. It aired on TNT from June 14, 2016 to August 28, 2022, and the sixth season was the last.

Is Animal Kingdom based on a true story?

The series is based on the 2010 Australian film of the same name, and that film was inspired by crimes linked to the Pettingill family of Melbourne. The TV characters and plots are fictional, and the setting moves to Oceanside, California. For more gritty crime viewing, see our list of the best thriller movies.

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