Confession: we are all about that Pogue life this summer.
Wait, you don’t know what that means? Gosh, you are a total Kook. In case you are the proverbial nerd that fell asleep first at the sleepover, we’re talking about Outer Banks, our latest Netflix obsession. Imagine if Dawson’s Creek had a one night stand with The Goonies and then raised the child with The O.C. That’s basically what this teen drama is.
Outer Banks follows John B. (Chase Stokes) and his three Pogue friends as they hunt for answers about his missing father and buried treasure, all while dealing with elitist Kooks, law enforcement, other dangerous treasure hunters, and romantic entanglements. Stakes of all kind abound, just with a sun-kissed glow.
But the best comparison we can make is that OBX is our TV version of potato chips. Like, is eating a whole bag of them the best thing for you? No, but we dare you to stop with just one. Just like we dare you to stop watching after just one episode. You just can’t and the bonus is you get to watch a hot new cast be hot and dramatic!
Here’s everything you need to know about TV’s rising stars, who are blowing up on social media faster than Jennifer Aniston posting a Friends cast selfie. (OK, not really.)
The most important thing to note immediately is they are all over 18, meaning you can watch without feeling like you need to Google each cast member before tweeting. This is not an Archie on Riverdale sitch.
Chase Stokes
Character: John B, who is always called John B despite being the only living John seemingly living in the OBX. He’s desperate searching for answers about his missing father. Also: 99 problems and a Kook girl is one.
Age: 27
Where You’ve Seen Him: Stokes had a small role on Stranger Things.
Fun Fact: He originally turned down the show, thinking it was a Goonies rip-off. “The first time I got the audition it was the most bland email I’ve ever got,” Stokes told Chicks in the Office of initially passing. He’s also best friends with Jeremy Pope, whose Netflix show Hollywood debuted around the same time. They became friends in middle school and graduated high school together, with Pope writing, “I am so grateful to be on this journey alongside my childhood friend. will proudly run any and all of his fan accounts.” Awww.
Instagram Followers: 1.8 million
Madelyn Cline
Character: Sarah, the poor little rich girl whose father and brother are both murderers (Hate it when that happens!) and has a star-crossed romance with John B. But she’s not like a regular rich girl, she’s a deep rich girl.
Age: 22
Where You’ve Seen Her: Cline also had a small role on Stranger Things and appeared on The CW’s The Originals.
Fun Fact: She’s from Charleston, where Outer Banks was actually filmed. “I think personally, I fell back in love with where I’m from, Charleston,” Cline told V Magazine.
Instagram Followers: 2 million
Rumor Patrol: Before we get to the rest of the cast, let’s address a rumor running rampant on the Internet about Stokes and Cline taking their romance off-screen.
The pair sparked speculation when they appeared to be in the same apartment during a joint interview, though Cline explained in an interview with E! News that “some of the cast—Drew Starkey (Rafe), Rudy Pankow (JJ), Chase and myself—and our friend Elaine are all kind of quarantined together right now.”
Stokes then explained of the decision to social distance as a group, “Through a weird chain of events we were kind of like, ‘Let’s do this together.'”
So not a confirmation and not a denial. Feel free to continue to ship!
Rudy Pankow
Character: Troublemaking surfer JJ, the most erratic of the Pogues who is dealing with an abusive father and a tendency to draw first, ask questions l8r.
Age: 21
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: He briefly popped up on Ryan Murphy‘s Netflix series The Politician.
Fun Fact: He originally auditioned for Rafe, JJ and John B., and was actually going to be John B. after Stokes initially passed. “The first chemistry read I was John B., and everything was pretty much lined up until the last chemistry read,” Pankow told Us Weekly, who went on to say he arrived to the set not sure who he was playing yet. The range!
Instagram Followers: 1.3 million
Madison Bailey
Character: Boho tomboy Kiara, the sole female Pogue (basically the Wendy to these surfin’ Lost Boys) who has ties to the Kooks.
Age: 21
Where You’ve Seen Her Before: Bailey recurred on the CW’s superhero drama Black Lightning.
Fun Fact: She’s actually from North Carolina and was able to relate to the class warfare depicted on the show. They’re not called Pogues and Kooks, but you know exactly who they’re talking about,” she said in an interview. “I liked it because you don’t see [the North Carolina version of] that often…I connected to it 100 percent, like I know every single one of these people.”
Instagram Followers: 1 million
Jonathan Daviss
Character: Pope, the brains of the Pogues who slowly unravels throughout the season because hi guns, violence, boating accidents, etc.
Age: 22
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: Daviss appeared on NBC’s Revolution and the teen indie Age of Summer.
Fun Fact: He’s been teaching himself how to play guitar over the last year and is hoping to have his new musical skills integrated into season two. Which sign us up for shirtless guitar-playing emo Pope! OK, we added the shirtless part, but doesn’t it just feel right?
Instagram Followers: 629,000
Austin North
Character: Topper, which is the most ridiculously perfect Kook name for Sarah’s Kook boyfriend who is a jerk who is maybe secretly a decent dude? Keyword there is maybe.
Age: 23
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: He starred opposite Olivia Holt on Disney Channel’s I Didn’t Do It, which ran for two seasons.
Fun Fact: He dated Duck Dynasty‘s Sadie Robertson before she met her now-husband. There were also briefly rumors about North possibly dating Selena Gomez.
Instagram Followers: 1.4 million
Drew Starkey
Character: Rafe, Sara’s preppy unhinged dropout brother who deals drugs and has daddy issues. What a fun combo!
Age: ???
Where You’ve Seen Him Before: Starkey had roles in two of our favorite movie adaptations of YA novels, Love, Simon and The Hate U Give. He also starred on MTV’s Scream.
Fun Fact: A North Carolina native, Starkey has been receiving “a lot of love” from people in his home state though people in his life usually tell him, “I hate your character but I still love you.” And now, he actually lives in the same building as his on-screen sister, with Cline living in an apartment in the floor below him.
Instagram Followers: 239,000
Outer Banks is now streaming on Netflix.