EXCLUSIVE: Hulu has cast its five young leads for D.C. drama pilot Young Americans: Billie Boullet (Man on Fire), Sam Rechner (Scream 7), Mia Isaac (Black Cake), newcomer Oscar Winter Iannone, and Lauren Mei (Avatar: The Last Airbender).
The actors join Scott Foley, whose casting as U.S. President Judd Burchfield was first announced.
Boullet will play Julia Burchfield, the independent, sharp-witted daughter of the President, who, after a year of isolation following her older sister’s mysterious death, is desperate to reclaim a normal teenage life by enrolling at the elite Capitol Crest, her sister’s alma mater.
Rechner plays Rome Washburn, the brooding and charismatic son of a controversial senator, who finds himself increasingly disillusioned with the political world he was born into and desperate to forge an identity of his own.
Isaac plays Saskia Carmichael, the beautiful, calculating adopted daughter of a powerful Washington media dynasty and the queen bee of Capitol Crest, who wields her considerable social influence with ruthless precision.
Iannone plays Hogan Young, the charming, cocky and ambitious son of the Vice President, who has every intention of following his father into politics — and ultimately surpassing him.
Mei plays Harper Sinclair, a precocious, fiercely intelligent scholarship student at Capitol Crest who becomes Julia’s unlikely guide to the school’s treacherous social hierarchy, concealing a mischievous and mysterious streak beneath her buttoned-up exterior.
In Young Americans, from writer-EPs Chris Hutton & Eddie O’Keefe, as the children of the nation’s elite battle it out at Capitol Crest Academy in Washington D.C., their teenage dramas begin to mirror the larger political games of their parents. Amidst the secrets, scandals, and deadly ambitions, a forbidden romance between two students from opposing political families threatens to escalate tensions to a breaking point.
Bruce Miller, creator of Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, is also exec producing alongside Priscilla Porianda via White Oak. 20th Television is the studio.
Most recently seen as the female lead opposite Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Netflix’s Man on Fire, Boullet previously played Anne Frank in Disney/Nat Geo’s A Small Light. Other credits for the French actress include Brad Anderson’s sci-fi action thriller World-Breaker, BBC’s The Worst Witch alongside Bella Ramsey and Prime Video’s The Power. She is repped by UTA and Curtis Brown.
Rechner broke out with roles in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and Netflix’s Heartbreak High, which debuted in the streamer’s Global Top 10. Most recently seen in Paramount’s Scream 7, he has Amazon’s untitled Navy SEAL drama starring Alan Ritchson and Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z’s next feature, The Exiles, coming up. He is repped by CAA, Marquee Management, and Jackoway Austen.
Previously seen in Black Cake, The Perfect Couple and Life Is Strange, Isaac is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, UTA, and Morris Yorn Barnes.
For Iannone, Young Americans marks a major career milestone — his first booking out of drama school. Originally from Litchfield, Connecticut, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is repped by Canopy Media Partners and Skrzyniarz & Mallean.
Mei recently wrapped Will Ropp’s film Dedicated to Morris Burke and can be seen in the current season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Currently studying psychology, cognitive science, and film at Harvard University, she is repped by Juniper Rose Management, CESD, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.