Teen dramas. You know ‘em, you love ‘em – or you hate ‘em. Depends on the day, am I right?
I’m certainly in the love/hate category, because there are plenty of this genre that are the epitome of bad, and then there are some of the best teen dramas that are full of intriguing stories, such as The Vampire Diaries, Looking for Alaska, One Tree Hill and many more. But, there’s this one thing that I can’t get off my mind – the ages of the Euphoria cast.
The show, which has been running since 2019 and has two seasons, takes place in a high school with Gen Z students, but the Euphoria cast’s ages are not even close that of high schoolers, except for one (at least when the show started). Today, we’re going to take a look at the actual ages of the cast, and compare them to who they play on the show.
Zendaya (Rue Bennett): Actor Age – 26, Character Age – 17
First up on this list is obviously Zendaya, who plays Rue Bennett in Euphoria. The actress has especially been making a name for herself over the last few years, with plenty of appearances in movies such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Dune, and is also set to be in Dune 2 in 2023.
Zendaya was 22 when she started filming the series. Now, she’s 26 – and turning 27 later in 2023. The character is 17, which means that by the time Euphoria Season 3 comes out (if we’re lucky enough to get it in 2024), Zendaya is going to be a whole ten years older than her high school counterpart.
Granted, there have been rumors that the third season of the show is going to skip forward five years, but nothing has been confirmed.
Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn): Actor Age – 24, Character Age – 17
Next up is Hunter Schafer, who played Jules Vaughn, a transgender teenager who was the new girl in town in Season 1. Schafer was originally a model before becoming an actress, and she started Euphoria when she was still a young adult, just barely twenty – but now, she’s 24.
Like Rue – and many of the other characters on this list – she is 17 in both seasons, as they take place over the course of the same year. That five-year time jump is looking even more likely now.
Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs): Actor Age – 26, Character Age –18
Next up is Jacob Elordi, who plays Nate Jacobs, an abusive and toxic teenage boy who is the on again/off again boyfriend of Maddy, who we’ll get into in a bit. Elordi has certainly established himself as a “teen heartthrob” with the movies he has starred in before, such as The Kissing Booth series, but he is nowhere close to being his character’s age – he’s actually 26.
Nate is 18 in the show, but, it seems that Elordi has stepped into more mature roles, with his leading part in the upcoming Priscilla. I’m sure we’re going to be seeing him as Nate again when Season 3 rolls around, however.
Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard): Actor Age – 25, Character Age – 18
Sydney Sweeney is arguably one of the most successful actresses from the cast. She plays Cassie Howard, Lexi's sister, McKay’s ex-girlfriend, and later, girlfriend of Nate's girlfriend in Season 2.
While she did appear in Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, it was her time on Euphoria that truly shot her to fame, leading to the massive popularity she has now. She’s been in The White Lotus cast for Season 1, and is going to be in Madame Web.
Sweeney, like her co-stars, is nowhere close to her character’s age in the show, as in real life she is 25 (turning 26 later this year), while Cassie is 18.
Maude Apatow (Lexi Howard): Actor Age – 25, Character Age – 17
Moving on, Maude Apatow plays Lexi Howard, Cassie’s sister and a long-time friend of Rue's who reconnects with her down the line. The daughter of famous director, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, she appeared in several films prior to her role in Euphoria, including Knocked Up, This is 40, and more.
Apatow is actually 25 in real-life, turning 26 later in 2023, while her character is the same age as Rue and Jules, 17.
Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez): Actor Age – Around 27, Character Age – 18
Moving on, we take a look at Alexa Demie, who plays Maddy Perez. While Maddy is confirmed to be 18, Demie’s age hasn't been fully revealed. An article from The New York Times in August 2019 listed her as 24, so that would make her 27 this year, but in an interview with InStyle in November 2019, she’s referred to as “almost 25” during a question that is asked of her.
Granted, that could mean that her birthday was later on in the year, but since we're not entirely sure when it is, we can only guesstimate that she's about 27 now. Whatever the case, it means that Demie is certainly older than her Euphoria counterpart.
Barbie Ferreira (Kat Hernandez): Actor Age – 26, Character Age – 17
While Barbie Ferreira isn’t going to be in Euphoria Season 3, her character, Kat Hernandez, is most certainly going to live on in the history of the story. Ferreira, who also began her time in Hollywood as a model before moving over into acting, has appeared in a variety of projects, including the Max original movie, Unpregnant and the Nope cast.
Before all that, Ferreira was on Season 1 of the HBO hit, and her character was 17. However, she is actually 26 in real life, and going to be turning 27 later in 2023.
Angus Cloud (Fez): Actor Age – 25, Character Age – 19
Fez is one of the most chill characters on Euphoria despite him being a drug dealer – which speaks volumes for the types of characters we interact with in this show. Either way, Fez is played by Angus Cloud, who is actually 25 in real life, while Fez is only 19.
Storm Reid (Gia Bennett): Actor Age – 20, Character Age – 14
Last but not least is Storm Reid. The young actress has been in Hollywood for some time, appearing in projects such as When They See Us, The Invisible Man, Don’t Let Go and more, and in 2023, she had a guest role as Riley on The Last of Us.
She plays Gia Bennett, Rue’s little sister. When the show originally filmed before its 2019 premiere, Reid was much closer to her character in age, who is only 14, as she was sixteen when the show came out.
However, Reid is now twenty – and slowly inching her way up the line with the rest of her co-stars of not being an actual teen on a teen drama.
While this isn’t necessarily new for anyone out there – we all know that teen dramas often use adult actors – it’s still interesting to see the comparison of ages. Now it sort of makes me want to watch teen shows that have actual teenagers in them, just to see the comparison between acting skills and style. Maybe I’ll go put on Heartstopper again.
