Escaping onto Netflix on September 2, 2022, Devil In Ohio wastes no time setting an ominous scene. Bloody and clinging to a butcher knife, a teenage girl frantically flees through the corn stalks of Amon County, OH, throwing herself in front of a truck to be rescued. Who she is, what she’s running away from, and why she has an inverted pentagram carved into her back all come into play over eight episodes.
Centering on the family that takes her in and the domino effect of her peculiar presence, the cult thriller features some familiar faces in the supernatural and procedural worlds, and other lesser known, burgeoning talents. While the story may end at the Amontown compound, the actors within can be followed into other less satanic settings.
Emily Deschanel – Bones
Streaming On Freevee
Playing hospital psychiatrist Dr. Suzanne Mathis, much of Devil in Ohio focuses on the Mathis matriarch and how the scars of her past created an opening in her heart/home for the mysterious Jane Doe (Dodd). As much of a protector as she is a psychiatrist, Suzanne’s desire to help Mae come with unexpected consequences for her own family.
Acting is in Emily’s bloodline as she’s the elder sister to New Girl’s Zooey Deschanel, and daughter to cinematographer Caleb and actress Mary Jo Deschanel. While Emily’s animal rights roots manifested in the form of her first acting role as “Paint Throwing Fur-Activist” in the 1994 Nicolas Cage lottery romance It Could Happen to You, she’s generally known for her work on Fox’s longstanding crime procedural Bones. Airing for 12 seasons, Deschanel played forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan, who, alongside David Boreanaz’s Special Agent Seeley Booth, solved weekly murders by analyzing human remains.
Madeleine Arthur – The Magicians
Streaming On Netflix
The catalyst behind the ominous events in Remmingham, OH, Madeleine Arthur is Mae Dodd, the odd and aforementioned Amontown escapee. The longer she ingratiates herself into the Mathis household, the more her history and intentions come into question.
Arthur is no stranger to series work, having had recurring roles on TNT’s Snowpiercer, Paramount+’s The Guilty Party, and ABC’s The Family. Her most whimsical role is that of Fray on SYFY’s The Magicians. Appearing in season 3 of the fantasy series, Arthur’s Fray is used by the Fairy Queen for a favor from the High King while, much like Devil in Ohio, not quite being who she’s positioned to be.
Xaria Dotson – The Birch
Streaming On Facebook Watch
Played by Xaria Dotson, Jules Mathis is a bit of an outcast. Stylish and often submerged in a darkroom developing her photography, Jules finds herself overshadowed as the middle child in her own house and by her insecurities. That is until Mae arrives, who methodically builds her up and starts to replace her in her own life.
While Xaria (and Madeleine Arthur) can be seen in the polarizing TBS comedy, Chad, a more enthralling entry point for the Oregon-bred actress is Facebook Watch’s The Birch. Playing high school outcast Evie Grayson, the horror series focuses on her summoning of a vengeful forest entity and the fatal repercussions of her alliance with the unsightly beast.
Sam Jaeger – Parenthood
Streaming On Hulu
Peter Mathis is a prideful man watching his realty dreams secretly fall apart. After a buyer pulls out of the property he put two years of his life into and accruing a crippling amount of debt developing, Peter must figure out how to repay the loans with no buyer while hiding the news from his wife and overcoming the bad omens seemingly attached to the girl they’ve taken in.
Jaeger has a robust acting career dating back to 1999. While he may be a familiar face to fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, Jaeger’s most prominent role is that of Joel Graham on the NBC drama Parenthood. Centered on the lives of the Braverman family, Jaeger plays Sam, a stay-at-home dad (and husband to Julia Braverman) struggling with his standing as a caretaker and the requisite drama associated with having a second child through non-traditional means.
Gerardo Celasco – Swimming With Sharks
Streaming On Roku
Playing Detective Alex Lopez, the striking investigator shows up at Remmingham Memorial Hospital looking to interview the young victim moments after the brooding sheriff of Amon County arrives (and gets rejected) to do the same. Winning over Dr. Mathis, Det. Lopez doesn’t get an interview but gets the victim’s name and begins an investigation of his own.
Getting his start in the acting world as a recast for the role of Miguel-Lopez Fitzgerald on the daytime soap Passions in 2006, Lopez has maintained a televised presence since. His latest series, Swimming With Sharks, involves the cutthroat inner workings of fictitious movie studio Fountain Pictures, with Lopez playing Miles, the husband of the power-hungry CEO.
Alisha Newton – Heartland
Streaming On Freevee
Alisha Newton plays Helen, the eldest and most popular Mathis sister. Instead of ushering her sister Jules into her place of prominence at Remmingham High School, she shuns her for her friends/boyfriend, pushing Jules further into her insecurities and isolating hobby.
Newton may be unfamiliar to U.S. viewers, but she’s long been established on the CBC. Playing Georgie on the longstanding Canadian ranch dramedy Heartland, Georgie went from a runaway foster child hiding in a barn to an indelible part of the Fleming-Bartlett family over the course of 10 seasons on the ranch.
Naomi Tan – Chip And Potato
Streaming On Netflix
The youngest Mathis daughter, Dani can be found in her finest Adidas tracksuit anxiously awaiting to hear if she’s been cast in her school play. Vibrant and outgoing, she’s quite different from her non-biological sisters and increasingly suspicious of Mae’s arrival.
Despite only being 11, Naomi Tan is far from a fledgling actress. Acting since 2006, Tan has specially made a name for herself with her voiceover work, the most recent of which being her role as Glenda the dalmatian on Netflix’s Chip and Potato.
Bradley Stryker – Let Him Go
Streaming On HBO MAX
The sheriff of Amon County, Wilkins arrives with an ominousness that’s intrinsic to the land he lords over. Ostensibly a protector of secrets and potentially a member of the real-life-inspired cult behind the cornfields, Sheriff Wilkins isn’t quite the man of the law he’s uniformed to be.
Bradley Stryker is a writer/director/actor with nearly 100 roles under his belt. Gravelly and imposing, Stryker was seemingly built for small-town police enforcement, also playing a sheriff in 2020’s emotional ’60s set neo-western Let Him Go.
Tahmoh Penikett – Battlestar Galactica
Streaming On Peacock
While Penikett’s Malachi doesn’t show up until episode five, his presence is ubiquitous. Mae’s father and leader of The Devil’s Own cult, the darkness that billows over the Mathis family is inherently tethered to his Luciferian faith.
Though he did play embattled villain Gadreel on Supernatural, Penikett’s biggest role is that of Lt./Captain Karl “Helo” Agathon on SYFY’s Battlestar Galactica. Viewers can watch him climb the ranks in a more celestial setting than rural Ohio over the series’ four seasons on Peacock.
Marci T. House – Day of the Dead
Available On SYFY With Cable Subscription
Marci T. House plays Adele Thornton, a nurse at Remmingham Memorial Hospital. One of Suzanne’s closest work relationships, Adele is sympathetic but also critical over Suzanne’s blending of work and home life after taking in Mae.
With her first acting role also being a nurse, House’s 24-year acting career has come full circle. For viewers looking to see her in a bolder, more prominent role, her run as Captain Gloria Pike on SYFY’s Day of the Dead shows the Chicago, IL actress in a more heroic and complex light.