The Better Sister: Full list of cast and characters explored

The Better Sister is Amazon Prime Video's latest drama that pairs the thrill of a murder mystery with the chaos of a complicated family history. Based on Alafair Burke's thriller novel of the same name, the eight-part series, which premiered on May 29, 2025, follows the aftermath of Adam's murder that rocks the lives of his family.

In The Better Sister, lawyer Adam (Corey Stoll) is murdered, leaving behind his partner Chloe (Jessica Biel) and their son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). Before his death, they appeared to have a happy marriage and family life.

However, after the murder, tabloids have a field day with the revelation that Adam was previously married to Chloe's sister, Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), who is also Ethan's biological mother. Even worse, Ethan becomes the prime suspect in his father's murder.

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Main cast and characters in The Better Sister

Jessica Biel as Chloe Taylor

Jessica Biel plays Chloe (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

The Better Sister stars Jessica Biel as Chloe Taylor. She's The Real Thing magazine's award-winning editor-in-chief, who finds her husband, Adam, in a pool of his own blood in their Hampton house one night. The event turns her life upside down.

The series is not Biel's first stint in mystery thriller dramas, having previously starred in the movie A Kind of Murder and the TV shows Limetown and Candy. She has also starred in The Sinner, which earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination.

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Elizabeth Banks as Nicky MacIntosh

Elizabeth Banks plays Nicky (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Primetime Emmy-nominated actress and director Elizabeth Banks stars in The Better Sister as Chloe's estranged sister, Nicky. Unlike Chloe, she doesn't have her life put together. Following the murder, it is revealed that she is Adam's ex-wife and Ethan's biological mother, but has since been exiled from the family because of substance abuse.

Banks is best remembered for playing the fashionable Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games movies. She has also directed several films including Pitch Perfect 2, 2019's Charlie's Angels, and Cocaine Bear.

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Corey Stoll as Adam McIntosh

Corey Stoll plays Adam (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Corey Stoll plays Adam McIntosh in The Better Sister. His screen time in the present-day timeline of the series is limited as he is murdered early in episode 1, but his character looms large throughout the show. He also appears in flashbacks throughout the show as the investigation into his death continues.

Stoll has starred in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. On TV, some of his credits include Billions, Transatlantic, The Strain, House of Cards, and Law & Order: LA.

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Kim Dickens as Detective Nancy "Nan" Guidry

Kim Dickens plays Detective Nan (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Kim Dickens joins the main cast of Amazon Prime Video's The Better Sister as Detective Nancy Guidry. She's the detective helming the investigation into Adam's murder. She's a no-nonsense detective who doesn't mince words and suspects Chloe and Ethan since early in the series.

Like her character in the series, Dickens has previously played a detective in 2014's Gone Girl. She has also starred in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, 2011's Footloose, The Blind Side, and The Good Nurse. On TV, she worked on Fear the Walking Dead, House of Cards, Lost, and Deadwood.

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Maxwell Acee Donovan as Ethan McIntosh

Maxwell Acee Donovan plays Ethan (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Maxwell Acee Donovan stars in The Better Sister as Ethan McIntosh, Nicky and Adam's biological son. However, after Nicky is out of the picture, he lives with his father and aunt, Chloe, his adoptive mother. He's a high-schooler and becomes the primary suspect in his father's murder trial.

Donovan is known for his roles in TV shows The Thundermans, That '90s Show, and Gabby Duran & The Unsittables. He has also starred in movies including Good Kids.

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Bobby Naderi as Detective Matt Bowen

Bobby Naderi plays Detective Matt (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Iranian actor Bobby Naderi joins The Better Sister as Detective Matt Bowen, the other detective working on Adam's murder case. He is Detective Nan's partner, but unlike Nan, he’s the quiet and more reserved one in the duo.

Naderi has also starred in Fear the Walking Dead, How I Got There, and The Beekeeper. He has several other credits on TV, such as Black Summer, Scandal, and Prison Break.

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Gloria Reuben as Michelle Sanders

Gloria Reuben plays Michelle (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Primetime Emmy-nominated singer and actress Gloria Reuben rounds up the main cast of The Better Sister as Michelle Sanders. She's a well-respected lawyer whom Chloe calls to represent Ethan after he becomes the prime suspect in Adam's murder.

Reuben was nominated for a Primetime Emmy two years in a row for playing Jeanie Boulet in ER. She has several other TV credits, including Blindspot, Mr. Robot, City on a Hill, and The Equalizer.

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The Better Sister's supporting cast and characters

Besides the main cast members mentioned above, here are the rest of the supporting and recurring cast members in The Better Sister, along with the characters they play in the series.

• Gabriel Sloyer as Jake Rodriguez, one of the lawyers at Adam's firm
• Matthew Modine as Bill Braddock, one of Chloe's high-society friends
• Lorraine Toussaint as Catherine Lancaster, Chloe's boss and mentor in the publishing world
• Michael Harney as Doorman Arty, the doorman at Chloe's luxury apartment building in New York
• Janel Moloney as Sheila
• Frederick Weller as Hank
• John Finn as Clark
• Paul Sparks as Ken
• Frank Pando as Edward Olivero
• Katie Kreisler as Andrea Dunham
• Revon Yousif as Bryce
• Gigi Grace as young Nicky
• Aislin Echo Wood as a young Chloe
• Austin Smith as Dom Willis
• Keone Young as Jerry McCabe
• Hale Lytle as Kevin Dunham
• Charles Hsu as Office Han
• Giullian Yao Gioiello as James
• Sheilagh Weymouth as Judge Miriam Edelman
• Johnnie Mae as Bailiff

More cast members appear in minor, episodic roles to help round up the show's story arc.

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Catch The Better Sister streaming on Amazon Prime Video.