Yahoo Lifestyle 'Lost' Cast: Where Are They Now?
This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Lost on ABC. While the show itself had its ups and downs, its cinematic first episode is unquestionably one of the best pilots ever made, introducing a sprawling cast of survivors who find themselves trapped on a mysterious island after a plane crash. Part of what made Lost exciting was just how unfamiliar its cast was. The ensemble was a mix of unknowns and character actors, many of whom broke out thanks to the series.
Here's what the cast have been up to since Lost's divisive finale aired back in 2010.
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Matthew Fox
Fox’s lead role of Jack Shepherd came close to being a guest spot – the original plan was for Jack to be set up as the show’s hero, only to be killed halfway through the pilot. But that twist ended up being scrapped, and Fox remained the protagonist throughout all six seasons. Since Lost ended, he's been on a lengthy break from acting, but in 2021 he made a comeback in the Peacock miniseries Last Light.
Evangeline Lily
The Canadian-born Lily was brand new to acting when she was cast as Kate, and has spoken candidly about being critical of her performance in the early seasons. "I still to this day will stand by the fact that I can watch the first couple seasons and I cringe because I’m not very good.” she admitted during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023, adding that she began “learning her craft” in Season 3 onwards. Her dedication paid off, because since Lost she’s gone on to star in two other huge franchises – as the elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, and as Hope van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, in Marvel’s Ant-Man series. She announced in 20224 that she’s “stepping away from acting” for the forseeable future.
Josh Holloway
Holloway had appeared only in minor roles prior to being cast as Sawyer, a roguish antihero who quickly became a fan favorite. He’s continued to work extensively on TV since Lost ended in 2010, starring in the CBS thriller Intelligence, the USA sci-fi drama Colony, and the Paramount Network’s hit western Yellowstone.
Naveen Andrews
Andrews had been acting for roughly a decade before being cast as Sayid, most significantly in the Oscar-winning 1996 romantic drama The English Patient. Since Lost, he’s remained a TV mainstay, appearing in shows including the ABC fantasy spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and the Wachowskis’s Netflix drama Sense8. Most recently, he starred opposite Amanda Seyfried in the Hulu miniseries The Dropout, which charted the story of Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent biotech startup Theranos.
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Yunjin Kim
Although Lost was her breakout role in the U.S., Kim was already a star in Korea when she was cast, having appeared in the 1999 Korean blockbuster Shiri. She originally auditioned to play Kate, and impressed the producers so much that they wrote the role of Sun specifically for her.
“She had this incredible career in Korea,” Damon Lindelof told The LA Times. “One of her movies [Shiri] outgrossed Titanic, and she was so talented, we really wanted her. So we thought, What if she’s Korean and we have a couple and they’re alienated from the rest of the group because they can’t communicate?”
Since wrapping Lost, Kim has continued to act in both the U.S. and South Korea, appearing in the ABC drama Mistresses and Netflix’s series XO, Kitty, a spinoff from the successful To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before movie series.
Daniel Dae Kim
Once the role of Sun had been created for Kim, the producers also began looking for an actor to play her husband, Jin. Kim had been a recurring cast member on several major shows by the time he was cast in the role, including ER, Star Trek: Enterprise and 24. After Lost ended, Kim immediately booked a leading role in another hugely successful series, the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0, which he starred in for seven seasons. Since then, he’s continued to work extensively, and was both a recurring cast member and executive producer on the ABC medical drama The Good Doctor.
Terry O’Quinn
O’Quinn had been working steadily as a journeyman character actor for years when he was cast as John Locke, and the role was a breakout for him, eventually earning him an Emmy award for Best Actor. He played a recurring role in CBS’s Hawaii Five-0, reuniting with his Lost co-star Daniel Dae Kim, and in the Amazon Prime series Patriot. More recently, he appeared in three episodes of the AMC Walking Dead spinoff series, The Ones Who Live.
Dominic Monaghan
When Monaghan was cast as Charlie, he was fresh off the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was part of the main cast for five out of the six seasons, and since the show ended he’s kept a relatively low profile. He hosted a British wildlife documentary series, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, which ran for three seasons, and more recently has started a podcast with his Lord of the Rings co-star, Billy Boyd.
Emilie de Ravin
De Ravin was already known to TV fans before she was cast as Claire, having starred in the cult classic WB series Roswell. After Lost ended in 2010, she was immediately snapped up by another soon-to-be hit series, ABC’s Once Upon A Time, where she played the role of Belle for six seasons. She’s also appeared in movies, including Rian Johnson’s 2005 directorial debut Brick.
Maggie Grace
Grace’s Shannon was one of the show’s earliest casualties, dying in a shock twist just six episodes into Season 2. She admitted in an interview earlier this year that being killed off remains “the worst heartbreak of my career. I was devastated!” But she bounced back, landing a starring role in the Taken film series opposite Liam Neeson. She’s also appeared in the last two instalments of the Twilight movie series, and AMC’s zombie spinoff Fear the Walking Dead.
Harold Perrineau
Perrineau was one of the more established actors in the show’s original ensemble, having played supporting roles in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and in the Matrix film series, and a starring role in the HBO prison drama Oz. He played Michael for the first two seasons of Lost, but according to the actor, he was fired after clashing with its creators over how characters of color were written on the show. “I was just asking for equal depth,” Perrineau told journalist Maureen Ryan, per Vanity Fair. “It was all very much, ‘How dare you?’” Perrineau ultimately returned to the show’s main cast for Season 4, and made a guest appearance in its final season. Since Lost, he’s starred in a number of other shows, including the TNT dramedy Claws and the ABC police procedural The Rookie.
Jorge Garcia
Garcia had mainly worked as a comedic actor when he was cast as Hurley in Lost – it was his performance in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm that caught the attention of the show’s creators. Since Lost, he’s appeared in shows including Hawaii Five-0, Once Upon A Time, and most recently the 2023 Chuck Lorre comedy Bookie.
Michael Emerson
Emerson joined the cast of Lost during its second season, and made the villainous Benjamin Linus so fascinating to watch that he became one of just two actors to win an Emmy for his performance. Since Lost, he’s become a mainstay on CBS genre shows, starring in all five seasons of the sci-fi drama Person of Interest, and in the supernatural drama Evil.
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Henry Ian Cusick
Cusick had arguably the most memorable entrance on the entire show in the opening moments of Season 2, and his character Desmond lived up to that unforgettable intro. A year after Lost ended, he was cast in Shonda Rhimes’s soon-to-be-huge political drama Scandal, but was only on the show for its first season. He starred in the CW drama The 100, and has made guest appearances in shows including CSI, Hawaii Five-0 and The Mentalist.
Elizabeth Mitchell
Although Mitchell was a relatively late addition to the cast, she soon became so integral that it was easy to forget she hadn’t been there since day one. She joined the show in Season 3, playing the mysterious character of Juliet Burke, one of the group of islanders known as “the Others”. Aside from Juliet, Mitchell’s most iconic role may be as Mrs Clause in the Santa Clause movie trilogy. Since Lost, she’s appeared in a number of other shows including Once Upon A Time, and she’s a series regular on Netflix’s Outer Banks.
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