The French Broad Revival
Charaters & Casting Vision
The following actors represent the tonal and emotional archetypes envisioned for each role. These selections are intended as creative reference points—rather than indicating confirmed attachments.
Colt McCrae
Mid 30s
Colt was born and raised just outside Asheville, in a proud, rough-hewn Appalachian family. With a banjo-playing grandfather and a gospel-singing mother, he grew up steeped in the musical traditions of the mountains. But early loss and a household shaped by silence left Colt carrying grief he never quite learned to name, creating a quiet longing for a life that feels larger than the one he inherited.
As an adult, Colt has built a modest life in Asheville—fixing vintage cars by day and playing country and Southern rock by night with a band rooted in the River Arts District. Emotionally intuitive and quietly intense, he keeps his wounds close to the surface, channeling what he cannot say into music.
When Hurricane Helene tears through western North Carolina, Colt is badly injured in the storm. His long recovery forces him to confront the past he comes from and the future he wants to build—especially his complicated, magnetic relationship with Tallulah Guffey and the fragile family they are trying to create together.
By Episode Eight, Colt finally steps into the role he has spent much of his life avoiding. Taking the stage with his band at the post-storm benefit concert, he emerges not just as a local mechanic who plays music on the side, but as a songwriter and performer capable of carrying the voice of the community. His music—rooted in Appalachian tradition but charged with Southern rock grit—channels the grief, stubborn pride, and quiet resilience of the mountains, marking the moment Colt begins to claim the life he was meant to lead.
While Callum Kerr represents the kind of actor-musician who could embody Colt on screen, Austin Hanks’ “Risin’ Water Blues”—the show’s suggested title song—captures the blend of country and Southern rock that define Colt’s band.
CALLUM KERR
Age: 30
Origin: Scotland/Raised in Texas
Notable Work
Virgin River
Monarch
Hollyoaks
Musical Ability
Performs country music professionally
Guitarist and singer-songwriter
Regular live performances in Nashville and the U.S.
Why He Fits Colt McCrae
Rugged presence and quiet intensity consistent with a working-class Appalachian musician.
Authentic guitar and vocal ability would allow Colt’s band performances to feel natural and grounded.
Callum Kerr and the McCrae family share Scottish heritage, reflecting the Scots-Irish cultural roots that shaped much of Appalachian music and identity
Callum Kerr music video
Music is central to Colt McCrae’s character and to the emotional world of the series. It functions not only as artistic expression but as a living inheritance passed down through his family and the broader Appalachian tradition.
The McCrae family sits at the center of a complex rural network shaped by generations of mountain history, land ownership, firearms culture, and fiercely guarded loyalties.
For deeper backstory—additional background and historical context can be found here:
Tallulah Guffey
Mid 30s
Tallulah Guffey grew up in rural South Georgia in a hard-edged working-class family with deep Appalachian roots—farmers and mechanics whose stubborn survival masked a home life that was rarely stable. The adults in her life were emotionally absent, unreliable, and at times destructive, leaving Tallulah to learn early how to rely on no one but herself.
Determined to escape that world, she left home as a teenager and headed for Atlanta, chasing the possibility of reinventing herself through art. But the city proved harsher than she expected. After years of instability, hard living, and emotional burnout, Tallulah eventually drifted north to Asheville, where the slower rhythm of the mountains offered her space to start again. There she began welding scrap metal and discarded machinery into raw, industrial sculptures—turning broken things into something unexpectedly powerful, a reflection of the life she has built through survival and self-reliance.
When the story begins, Tallulah is cautiously learning how to build a real relationship with Colt—something that does not come easily to her. Strong-willed and fiercely independent, she is wary of dependence and slow to trust. But when Hurricane Helene tears through western North Carolina, everything changes. With Colt injured and his five-year-old niece Sadie suddenly in their care, Tallulah finds herself stepping into a role she never planned for. Determined not to repeat the generational cycles of trauma that shaped her own past, she must confront what it means to stay, to trust, and to build a life that is stronger than the one she inherited.
RILEY KEOUGH
Age: 36
Origin: California
Notable Work
Daisy Jones & The Six
Mad Max: Fury Road
American Honey
The Girlfriend Experience
Why She Fits Tallulah Guffey
Possesses a natural toughness and emotional gravity that aligns with Tallulah’s guarded, self-reliant personality.
Extensive experience portraying working-class and outsider characters brings credibility to a woman who has rebuilt her life through grit and survival.
Able to project both hard-edged independence and underlying vulnerability—key to Tallulah’s evolving relationship with Colt and the fragile family they are trying to build after the storm.
GUNNY MCCRAE
Late 60s
Calvin “Gunny” McCrae is a Gulf War veteran who returned to the mountains carrying wounds that never fully healed. Once a quiet, dependable man devoted to his family, Gunny was forever changed by war—and by the loss of his wife Ruth, who died from cancer soon after he came home. In the years since, he has retreated deeper into the Appalachian holler where he was born, building bunkers, stockpiling supplies, and preparing for disasters no one else believes are coming. A gifted banjo player in his younger years, Gunny has not touched the instrument since Ruth’s death. He is also a longtime member of the Sons of Liberty militia, part of the rural network that shaped his worldview about self-reliance, land, and defense. To many locals, Gunny is a rumor as much as a man: a reclusive survivalist living off the land above Asheville.
When Hurricane Helene devastates the region, the world Gunny spent decades preparing for suddenly arrives. Returning home after the storm’s destruction, he finds his son Colt and young Sadie living in the family house alongside Tallulah—an unexpected new presence in the fragile McCrae orbit. As the community struggles to rebuild, Gunny must confront the ghosts of war, faith, and fatherhood, and decide whether survival alone is enough—or if there is still a path back to the living.
JEFF KOBER
Age: 71
Origin: Billings, Montana
Notable Work
Sons of Anarchy
The Walking Dead
Big Sky
China Beach
General Hospital
Why He Fits Calvin “Gunny” McCrae
A deeply experienced character actor who specializes in volatile, wounded men living at the edge of society.
His weathered physicality and piercing intensity align well with a reclusive survivalist shaped by war and isolation.
Has repeatedly portrayed men with a spiritual or haunted quality, which suits Gunny’s mix of PTSD, grief, and faith struggle.
Comfortable in rural or outlaw milieus (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead), lending credibility to a hardened Appalachian landowner.
The McCrae family sits at the center of a complex rural network shaped by generations of mountain history, land ownership, firearms culture, and fiercely guarded loyalties.
For deeper backstory—additional background and historical context can be found here:
ROMY
Mid 30s
Romy grew up in Miami’s neon-soaked nightlife, where drag, music, and survival often shared the same stage. A gifted visual artist with a taste for spectacle, he built a reputation creating neon installations and light sculptures that blur the line between activism and performance. Beneath the glitter and bravado, however, Miami’s scene took its toll. After losing a partner to overdose and burning out on the city’s relentless pace, Romy followed an unlikely instinct—sparked by a psychic’s prediction—to relocate to Asheville.
In Asheville, he found a slower rhythm and a community that welcomed both his art and his alter ego. In times of crisis, Romy naturally steps into leadership, organizing MUTUAL AID efforts and mobilizing volunteers to make sure LGBTQ neighbors have food, supplies, and somewhere safe to turn.
When Hurricane Helene devastates Asheville, Romy refuses to let the neighborhood go dark. His salvaged neon piece, STAY HUMAN, glowing defiantly on generator power, becomes a small but powerful beacon in the blackout—capturing the spirit of a community determined to take care of its own and rebuild together.
By Episode Eight, Romy’s role in the community culminates on stage. Performing in drag as an opening local act at the post-storm benefit concert, he represents Asheville’s LGBTQ community before the crowd—transforming grief, resilience, and defiance into a performance that celebrates survival and reminds the city that every voice belongs in the revival.
More about Asheville’s thriving LGBQ community can be found here:
VALENTINA (JAMES ANDREW LEYVA)
Age: Mid-30s
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Heritage: Mexican-American
Notable Work
RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 9; All Stars 4)
Rent: Live (FOX)
Various television and film appearances
Why He Fits Romy
Actor and drag performer with substantial on-camera experience.
Combines theatrical charisma with emotional vulnerability—useful for portraying a flamboyant artist who also carries grief and depth.
Strong visual presence that aligns with Romy’s neon-lit aesthetic and River Arts District creative culture.Ability to move fluidly between drag performance and grounded dramatic scenes.
Valentina - RuPaul’s Drag Race
REV. LENNY SAMUELS
Early 60s
Reverend Lenny Samuels has spent his entire life in Asheville’s historically Black Southside neighborhood. The son of a deacon and a school cafeteria worker, he grew up in a community that learned long ago how to survive being pushed aside — first by urban renewal and now by the slow pressure of gentrification. As pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, he has become one of the neighborhood’s most trusted voices, a man people turn to not only for prayer, but for leadership when the community needs to organize and stand its ground.
Beyond the pulpit, Lenny is deeply involved in civic life. He serves on Asheville’s Community Reparations Commission, working to address the generational harm done to the city’s Black neighborhoods. His wife, Patrice Samuels, is a respected Asheville City Council member — a partnership that once made them one of the city’s most visible couples working toward justice from both the church and the public square.
But beneath the public leadership lies a private fracture. The death of their son Isaiah has left a wound neither of them knows how to heal. Patrice now lives across town with their daughters, Naomi and Maya, while Lenny remains in Southside, unable to abandon the church and neighborhood that define his calling.
When Hurricane Helene devastates Asheville, New Hope Baptist Church quickly becomes a lifeline for Southside residents — distributing food, organizing volunteers, and offering a place of refuge. Lenny leads with quiet determination, even as the weight of grief, responsibility, and the possibility of losing his family presses in on him.
STERLING K. BROWN
Age: Early–Mid 50s
Origin: St. Louis, Missouri
Notable Work
This Is Us (NBC)
American Fiction
Black Panther
Paradise
Why He Fits Rev. Lenny Samuels
Exceptional ability to portray men carrying both public responsibility and private grief.
Brings natural authority and moral gravitas suited to a long-standing pastor and community leader.
Widely recognized for emotionally layered performances grounded in family, faith, and community dynamics.
His work on This Is Us demonstrates the same thematic terrain present in Lenny’s arc—fatherhood, loss, marriage under strain, and the burden of being the steady center for others.
Rev. Lenny Samuels is loosely inspired by real-life Asheville pastor Rev. Wesley Grant Sr., who led Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church for decades and became one of Asheville’s most respected spiritual and civic leaders. Known for his steady moral voice and commitment to community advocacy, Grant helped guide Asheville through difficult conversations about race, justice, and reconciliation.
More about Asheville’s African American community can be found here:
ROSHANDA COVINGTON
Late 30s
Roshanda Covington works on the post-op floor of Mission Hospital, quietly tending to the rooms where life changes every day. With her bright headwraps, quick laugh, and steady compassion, she has become a familiar and comforting presence to patients and staff alike. In the sterile corridors of the hospital, Roshanda brings warmth—treating every room she cleans as if someone she loves might walk through the door.
But the work is also a form of survival. A year after losing her husband, Roshanda is raising her eight-year-old son, Malik, on her own while carrying grief that rarely has space to speak its name. She moves through her days with resilience and faith, supported by her extended Southside family and her uncle, Reverend Lenny Samuels, who serves as both spiritual guide and steady presence in her son’s life.
When Hurricane Helene tears through Asheville, Roshanda becomes one of the many quiet pillars holding the community together—helping neighbors, caring for strangers, and showing up wherever she’s needed. An unexpected friendship with Tallulah begins to challenge the emotional walls she has built around herself, opening the possibility that healing might mean allowing others to care for her, too.
DANIELLE BROOKS
Age: Early 30s
Origin: South Carolina
Notable Work
Orange Is the New Black
The Color Purple (Academy Award–nominated performance)
Peacemaker
Why She Fits Roshanda
Brings a rare blend of humor, warmth, and emotional gravity.
Deep Southern authenticity and grounded presence.
Able to portray working-class resilience without sentimentality.
Strong dramatic instincts for grief-driven character arcs.
HANK REDDING
Early 60s
After four decades as a respected contractor in Portland, Hank Redding retired and moved to Asheville with his wife, Camille, drawn by the chance to be closer to their son, who had recently graduated from UNC Asheville and started a new life there with his wife. What was meant to be a quieter chapter became something unexpected when Hank opened The Overlook Tavern, a modest neighborhood bar overlooking the River Arts District—a place where artists, tradesmen, musicians, and locals gather at the same worn wooden counter.
When Hurricane Helene rips through Asheville, the Overlook is left battered and half-gutted. Hank responds the only way he knows how: by getting to work. Accustomed to solving problems with lumber, tools, and long days of labor, he throws himself into rebuilding the bar and helping neighbors repair what they can. But as the city struggles to recover, Hank begins to confront a truth that construction has never prepared him for—some damage can’t simply be fixed.
Working alongside Tallulah and the artists of the River Arts District, Hank slowly finds himself drawn into a different kind of rebuilding, one that asks for patience rather than control. In a community learning to start over, Hank must discover whether strength means restoring things to the way they were—or learning how to live with what has changed.
MICHAEL CUDLITZ
Age: Early 60s
Origin: New York
Notable Work
The Walking Dead
Band of Brothers
Southland
Why He Fits Hank
Thick-built, working-man physicality.
Reads instantly as someone who worked with his hands.
Warm paternal energy beneath the toughness.
CAMILLE REDDING
Early 60s
After decades working as a rehabilitation nurse, Camille Redding spent most of her life helping other people rebuild their bodies and their lives. When she and her husband Hank retired from Portland and moved to Asheville, she believed she was finally stepping into a long-delayed chapter of her own. While Hank opened The Overlook Tavern, Camille quietly began painting in the River Arts District—Appalachian landscapes shaped by river fog, mountain light, and the quiet resilience of the land itself.
Just as Camille finishes her first full collection and prepares for her first public show, Hurricane Helene tears through the valley, destroying her studio and the work she spent years building toward. In the aftermath, Camille must confront the painful question of whether it is foolish—or necessary—to begin again. Where Hank copes by rebuilding structures, Camille must rediscover the courage to rebuild something more fragile: the belief that her art, and her voice, still belong in the world.
ANDIE MACDOWELL
Age: Late 60s
Origin: Gaffney, South Carolina
Notable Work
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Groundhog Day
Maid (Netflix)
Why She Fits Camille Redding
• Brings warmth, intelligence, and emotional grounding that aligns naturally with Camille’s history as a rehabilitation nurse and late-in-life artist.
• Known for portraying thoughtful, resilient women navigating personal reinvention.
• Authentic Southern presence and voice that feel organically rooted in Appalachian culture.
• Long personal history with Asheville and Western North Carolina — she owned a home in the Asheville area for many years and has deep familiarity with the region’s landscape and artistic community.
Loretta McCrae
Early 60s
Gunny’s younger sister, landowner, matriarch, and quiet power broker within the extended McCrae family. Calm, disciplined, and always several steps ahead, Loretta runs her property, her family, and her arms operation like a tightly managed enterprise, maintaining influence through logistics, favors, and the simple understanding that she is not someone to cross. She’s served time after a federal conviction for coordinating a network of straw firearm purchases that moved weapons through rural channels.
Now under court-ordered house arrest, Loretta runs the operation from her mountain property, relying on her nephews Luke and Skeeter as her foot soldiers, carrying out deliveries, hauling supplies, and managing the constant logistical work required to keep the compound functioning.
She has quietly fortified the McCrae land with buried shipping containers, hidden storage spaces, and off-grid infrastructure. Within the McCrae orbit she is both stabilizing force and looming presence—a strategist whose quiet authority reaches into every corner of the family.
DALE DICKEY
Age: 62
Origin: Knoxville, Tennessee
Notable Work
Winter’s Bone
Justified
Hell or High Water
My Name Is Earl
Why She Fits Loretta McCrae
One of the most authentic portrayals of Appalachian and rural Southern women working today.
Her weathered physicality and quiet intensity align perfectly with a hardened mountain matriarch.
Dickey specializes in characters shaped by poverty, resilience, and survival.
She could give Loretta a grounded realism that feels completely native to the landscape of Western North Carolina.
The McCrae family sits at the center of a complex rural network shaped by generations of mountain history, land ownership, firearms culture, and fiercely guarded loyalties.
For deeper backstory—additional background and historical context can be found here:
Luke McCrae
Early 30s
Colt’s slightly younger cousin, the two of them grew together, along with Luke’s younger brother, Skeeter. A natural mechanic with a restless streak, Luke spends most of his days rebuilding trucks, hauling scrap, and running side jobs across the county. Loud and stubbornly loyal, he carries the swagger of someone who learned early how to survive hard places.
Luke is an active member of the local Sons of Liberty militia group and an outspoken MAGA supporter, convinced the country is slipping away from people like him. His worldview is shaped by distrust of government, reverence for personal freedom, and a belief that rural Americans are being ignored or pushed aside.
When Hurricane Helene tears through the holler, it’s Luke who barrels in first behind the wheel of his lifted monster truck, pushing through floodwater and fallen timber to reach the family property—because in a McCrae family where men rarely say what they feel, showing up is the only language that matters.
GARRETT HEDLUND
Age: 39
Origin: Minnesota, USA
Notable Work
Friday Night Lights
Mudbound
Triple Frontier
Tulsa King
Why He Fits Luke McCrae
Hedlund carries a rugged Americana quality that suits a mountain mechanic.
His performances often combine charm, recklessness, and underlying vulnerability.
Physically believable as a man who works with his hands and lives outdoors.
Can project the confident bravado Luke carries while still revealing emotional cracks.
The McCrae family sits at the center of a complex rural network shaped by generations of mountain history, land ownership, firearms culture, and fiercely guarded loyalties.
For deeper backstory—additional background and historical context can be found here:
James “Skeeter” McCrae
Late 20s
Luke’s younger brother and Colt’s cousin. Skeeter grew up in the same mountain holler, part of the tight-knit, rough-edged McCrae clan where survival skills are learned early. Lean and watchful, Skeeter earned his nickname as a kid for always buzzing around wherever something was happening. While Luke thrives on bravado, Skeeter tends to hang back and read the room, the kind of man who notices trouble before anyone else does. He works a patchwork of hard mountain jobs—logging crews, roofing, hauling equipment.
Skeeter isn’t political the way Luke is, but he moves comfortably within the same circles, showing up at militia barbecues, hunting weekends, and community gatherings where loyalty matters more than ideology.
Beneath his reserved demeanor, he carries a deep attachment to family, especially to Colt, whose music he quietly respects even if he’d never say it outright. When the storm finally breaks and the cousins drive into the ruined holler, Skeeter is the one who first sees the truth of what the flood has taken—and understands, in a way the others don’t yet want to admit, that the world they grew up in has shifted for good.
DREW STARKEY
Age: 39
Origin: Minnesota, USA
Notable Work
Friday Night Lights
Mudbound
Triple Frontier
Tulsa King
Why He Fits Luke McCrae
Hedlund carries a rugged Americana quality that suits a mountain mechanic.
His performances often combine charm, recklessness, and underlying vulnerability.
Physically believable as a man who works with his hands and lives outdoors.
Can project the confident bravado Luke carries while still revealing emotional cracks.
The McCrae family sits at the center of a complex rural network shaped by generations of mountain history, land ownership, firearms culture, and fiercely guarded loyalties.
For deeper backstory—additional background and historical context can be found here:
Ama-li Catawanee
Late 60s
Ama-li Catawnee was born in Cherokee, North Carolina, into a long line of Indigenous people whose roots run deep in the Great Smoky Mountains. Widowed young after her husband died in a mill accident, she devoted her life to raising her daughter and later helping raise her grandson, Elias. Within her community she is known for her knowledge of traditional plants, sacred songs, and water rituals. Ama-li never sought authority, yet people learned to listen when she spoke.
Years later, when Elias struggled with addiction in Cherokee, he chose to leave home and begin again in Asheville, drawn to the River Arts District where he could pursue wood carving, mural work, and music. Ama-li supported him in the most practical way she knew: she moved with him. The family owned a modest house and several rental trailers along the Swannanoa River, and together they built a steady life there—Elias rebuilding himself through art and routine, Ama-li keeping quiet watch over the land and the young man she had helped raise. When Hurricane Helene strikes, the river takes everything. The house is swept away, the trailers destroyed, and with them the rental income that supported the wider Catawnee family. Displaced, they move between shelters and roadside motels like thousands of others across the region. But Ama-li does not surrender to despair. When the waters finally recede, she makes a simple decision: they will rebuild. For Ama-li, rebuilding is not simply survival—it is a promise kept to the land, to the ancestors, and to the generations to come.
TANTOO CARDINAL
Age: 73
Origin: Canada
Notable Work
Dances with Wolves
Killers of the Flower Moon
Legends of the Fall
Westworld
Why She Fits Ama-li Catawnee
One of the most respected Indigenous actresses working today, Cardinal carries a profound spiritual gravity onscreen.
She specializes in roles that require quiet authority and ancestral presence—qualities central to Ama-li’s role as cultural keeper and ceremonial guide.
Her ability to communicate emotion through silence would suit Ama-li’s restrained dialogue style.
The presence of Cherokee characters and culture is essential to the world of the series, reflecting the deep Indigenous history of the mountains and rivers of Western North Carolina.
The land on which Asheville now stands has long been part of the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee people, whose cultural, spiritual, and historical connection to this region remains vital today. More information about the Cherokee history and presence represented in the series can be found here:
Elias Catawnee
Late 20s
Elias Catawnee was raised in Cherokee, North Carolina, surrounded by the traditions of his people and the quiet authority of his grandmother, Ama-li. As a boy he learned wood carving from elders in the community and spent summers performing in the outdoor drama Unto These Hills. But adolescence brought a growing tension between worlds. Drawn to modern art, street culture, and music, Elias began expressing himself through graffiti and electric guitar, pushing against the expectations of tradition.
By his early twenties that conflict—combined with depression and addiction—nearly derailed his life. Determined to begin again, Elias left Cherokee for Asheville, drawn to the River Arts District where he could rebuild through art. Over time his work evolved from illicit graffiti into large-scale commissioned murals and carved pieces that blend Indigenous symbolism with contemporary street aesthetics. He also plays electric bass and sings alongside Colt McCrae, finding in music another outlet for the restless creativity that has always driven him.
When Hurricane Helene destroys the Swannanoa property where he lives with Ama-li, Elias loses not only his home but the fragile stability he has fought hard to build. Forced into shelters and temporary housing, he returns to the two things that have always steadied him—art and music. With his grandmother beside him, Elias begins the difficult work of rebuilding, shaping a new life from what the storm left behind.
FORREST GOODLUCK
Age: 26
Origin: Navajo
Notable Work
The Revenant
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The English
Why He Fits Elias Catawnee
Goodluck brings a modern edge that suits the character’s street-art background.
His performances often balance quiet intelligence with emotional volatility, which could effectively capture Elias’s internal struggle between tradition, identity, and artistic rebellion.
The presence of Cherokee characters and culture is essential to the world of the series, reflecting the deep Indigenous history of the mountains and rivers of Western North Carolina.
The land on which Asheville now stands has long been part of the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee people, whose cultural, spiritual, and historical connection to this region remains vital today. More information about the Cherokee history and presence represented in the series can be found here: