Ripley Cast (2024)
Netflix | Psychological Thriller Limited Series | 1 Season / 8 Episodes | Created by Steven Zaillian | Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley
Ripley is a 2024 Netflix limited series written and directed entirely by Steven Zaillian, adapting Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Set in 1960s Italy, the series follows Tom Ripley — a small-time con artist from New York — who travels to Europe on a commission to bring back a wealthy young man named Dickie Greenleaf. Filmed entirely in black and white by Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, the series is a deliberate, contemplative work of art that prioritizes atmosphere, moral ambiguity, and visual precision over conventional thriller pacing. It is a significant departure from the 1999 Anthony Minghella film adaptation, choosing to honour Highsmith's prose style rather than compete with it.
The Ripley cast is built around Andrew Scott's hypnotic central performance, one of the most distinctive interpretations of Tom Ripley ever committed to screen. Scott's Ripley is watchful, patient, and utterly still — a man whose emotional life is so deeply suppressed that his violence reads almost as administrative necessity. The supporting cast is deliberately sparse, reflecting the series' interest in isolating Ripley in a landscape of growing suspicion and consequence. Dakota Fanning brings a perceptive intelligence to Marge Sherwood, Dickie's American girlfriend who senses something is wrong before she can articulate what. Johnny Flynn's Dickie is magnetic and careless in the way that privileged people can afford to be, making him both an appealing target and a genuine loss. Maurizio Lombardi's Inspector Ravini provides the institutional pressure that tightens around Ripley across the second half of the series, a methodical figure whose persistence is more frightening than any dramatic confrontation.
Main Cast
Andrew Scott
Tom Ripley
A New York con artist who travels to Italy and gradually assumes another man's identity, committing violence with a terrifying calm to protect his new life.
Dakota Fanning
Marge Sherwood
Dickie's sharp, perceptive American girlfriend, who grows increasingly suspicious of Tom Ripley but struggles to be taken seriously by the men around her.
Johnny Flynn
Dickie Greenleaf
The wealthy, charming American artist living la dolce vita in Italy, whose careless charisma makes him both enviable and vulnerable to Ripley's scheming.
Eliot Sumner
Freddie Miles
Dickie's sharp-eyed friend, who takes an immediate dislike to Ripley and whose scrutiny represents a credible threat to Tom's mounting deceptions.
Maurizio Lombardi
Inspector Ravini
The Italian detective assigned to investigate the disappearances connected to Ripley, whose quiet persistence gradually closes the net around his quarry.
Kenneth Lonergan
Herbert Greenleaf
Dickie's father, the American businessman who initially hires Ripley to retrieve his son and whose subsequent searching drives the American side of the investigation.
Supporting & Recurring Cast
| Actor | Character | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Scott | Tom Ripley | Lead — con artist and murderer | All 8 episodes |
| Dakota Fanning | Marge Sherwood | Lead — Dickie's girlfriend | All 8 episodes |
| Johnny Flynn | Dickie Greenleaf | Lead — wealthy American expatriate | Multiple episodes |
| Eliot Sumner | Freddie Miles | Supporting — Dickie's suspicious friend | Multiple episodes |
| Maurizio Lombardi | Inspector Ravini | Supporting — Italian detective | Multiple episodes |
| Kenneth Lonergan | Herbert Greenleaf | Supporting — Dickie's father | Multiple episodes |
Creators & Production
Steven Zaillian
Creator, Writer & Director. Zaillian wrote and directed all eight episodes, an unusually complete authorial control. His screenwriting credits include Schindler's List (Oscar winner), Gangs of New York, American Gangster, and the HBO limited series The Night Of, which shares Ripley's deliberate pacing and moral complexity.
Robert Elswit
Cinematographer. The Oscar-winning director of photography (There Will Be Blood) shot the entire series in high-contrast black and white, drawing visual reference from postwar European cinema and Italian neo-realism.
Patricia Highsmith
Source Author. Highsmith's 1955 novel introduced Tom Ripley to the world. Her morally inverted fiction — in which the audience is invited to sympathise with a murderous sociopath — remains bracingly original nearly seven decades after publication.
Netflix
Streaming Platform. Netflix co-produced and distributed the series globally, premiering all eight episodes on 4 April 2024.
Entertainment One / Showtime
Production Partners. The series was developed and co-produced in partnership with various production entities, with Showtime originally attached before the series moved to Netflix.
About the Ripley Cast
Andrew Scott's performance as Tom Ripley is the defining creative choice of the entire series. Previous film portrayals — Alain Delon in René Clément's Purple Noon (1960) and Matt Damon in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) — brought charisma and a degree of emotional legibility to the character. Scott strips those qualities away. His Ripley barely blinks. He speaks sparingly and with carefully rationed expression, and the effect is unsettling precisely because there is no reassuring interiority on offer. The audience is denied the comfort of understanding his motivations in conventional terms, which keeps the series' moral world genuinely alien. Scott, who won a BAFTA for his Moriarty in Sherlock and received enormous acclaim for his performance in All of Us Strangers (2023), has become one of the most compelling screen presences of his generation, and Ripley represents a career-defining work.
Dakota Fanning's Marge Sherwood is a more sympathetically complex figure than in some previous adaptations. Fanning — who has been working in film since childhood and has developed into a quietly assured actor — gives Marge an intellectual alertness and a contained frustration at not being believed. Johnny Flynn, primarily known as a musician and theatre actor in Britain, brings a physical ease and class confidence to Dickie Greenleaf that makes the character's carelessness feel entirely authentic. Kenneth Lonergan's casting as Herbert Greenleaf is an intriguing meta-textual choice: Lonergan is himself an Oscar-winning filmmaker (Manchester by the Sea, You Can Count on Me), and his presence as a performer carries the weight of someone who understands the machinery of storytelling from the other side of the camera. Eliot Sumner's Freddie Miles is rendered with a patrician hostility that makes the character's suspicion of Ripley feel like class instinct as much as rational observation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in Ripley on Netflix?
Ripley stars Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley, with Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, Eliot Sumner as Freddie Miles, and Maurizio Lombardi as Inspector Ravini.
Who plays Tom Ripley in the 2024 Netflix series?
Tom Ripley is played by Andrew Scott, the Irish actor widely known for his BAFTA-winning role as Moriarty in Sherlock and his critically acclaimed performance in the Fleabag stage show. Scott's portrayal is quieter and more internal than Matt Damon's in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Who created the Ripley TV series?
Ripley was created and written by Steven Zaillian, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind Schindler's List, Gangs of New York, and The Night Of. Zaillian also served as director on all eight episodes.
Is Ripley filmed in black and white?
Yes. All eight episodes of Ripley were shot in black and white by cinematographer Robert Elswit, lending the series a stark, mid-century European art-film quality that echoes the source material's period setting.
What book is the Ripley series based on?
Ripley is based on Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, published in 1955. The same novel was previously adapted as the 1960 French film Purple Noon and the 1999 Anthony Minghella film starring Matt Damon.
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