Meet the Cast of DOWNSTATE, Now Playing on Broadway

Cassie Beck - Em

Cassie is reuniting with director Joe Mantello after collaborating with him on The Humans, for which the cast received the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble. Also on Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Picnic and The Norman Conquests. Beck performed the role of “Heidi” in the 13-city Broadway tour of What the Constitution Means to Me. She’s originated numerous roles off-Broadway and regionally. Selected TV/film credits include “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “High Maintenance,” “Pose,” and “Chicago Med.” Beck adapted, executive produced and starred in the short film Admonitions, which premiered at the Greenpoint Film Festival.

K. Todd Freeman - Dee

Broadway: Death of a Salesman, The Minutes, Airline Highway (Tony Nomination, Drama Desk Award), Wicked, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Song of Jacob Zulu (Tony Nomination). Off-Broadway: Prince Faggot (Playwrights Horizons – Obie Award), Downstate (Playwrights Horizons – Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Obie Awards), Fetch Clay Make Man (NYTW – Obie Award); The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Spunk (The Public Theater). Television: “Will Trent,” “The Horror of Dolores Roach,” “The Rehearsal,” “High Maintenance,” “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Blindspot,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “NYPD Blue.” Film: No One Cares, The Same Storm, Anesthesia, The Dark Knight, The Cider House Rules, Grosse Pointe Blank. Member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Francis Guinan - Fred

Francis has been a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble since 1979. He has appeared in numerous Steppenwolf productions including American Buffalo, The Night Alive, The Seafarer, Noises Off and Love Song. Other regional credits include The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard at The Goodman Theatre, The White Guy on the Bus and Stella and Lou at Northlight Theatre in Chicago. Stella and Lou also traveled to the Galway Arts Festival. Off-Broadway credits include Balm in Gilead, And a Nightingale Sang and As Is. On Broadway he has appeared in August: Osage County and The Grapes of Wrath. Film credits: The Last Airbender, Relative, Abundant Acreage Available, Constantine. TV credits: “Law & Order,” “Eerie Indiana,” “Chicago Med,” “Mike & Molly.” Thanks always to the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Adrian Martinez - Felix

Film: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Focus, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, American Hustle, Renfield, iGilbert, The Interpreter, Casa de los Babys, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Television: “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Blacklist,” “Stumptown,” “No Activity,” “Gotham,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Louie,” “30 Rock,” “Law & Order,” and “Sex and the City.” He starred opposite Will Smith and Margot Robbie In Focus and opposite Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Martinez wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the feature film iGilbert, which earned multiple festival awards.

Al'Jaleel McGhee - Gio

Chicago actor. Selected theatre credits include: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Revolution(s) (Goodman Theatre); A Soldier’s Play (National Broadway Tour); Toni Stone (Huntington Theatre); Henry Johnson (Victory Gardens); Paradise Blue (Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe); Noises Off (Steppenwolf/Geffen Playhouse); Intimate Apparel, Fireflies (Northlight); Paradise Blue, To Catch a Fish (TimeLine); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Court). Selected Film/TV credits include: “Duster” (HBO); Lady in the Lake, “Shining Girls” (Apple); 61st Street (AMC). Northwestern University MFA Acting Inaugural Cohort.

Thomas Sadoski - Andy

Broadway credits include: reasons to be pretty (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League nominations); Other Desert Cities; The House of Blue Leaves; Reckless. Off-Broadway and international credits include: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been; Wedding Band; White Noise; The Way We Get By; As You Like It; The Tempest; Other Desert Cities (Obie Award); Becky Shaw (Lucille Lortel Award); This Is Our Youth; Stay; Where We’re Born; Jump/Cut. Film credits include: Adult Children; Group: The Schopenhauer Effect; Devotion; Lilly; Wild; The Mimic; The Last Word; I Smile Back; John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2; Take Care; The New Twenty; Loser. Television credits include: “The Newsroom;” “American Sports Story: Gladiator;” “The Crowded Room;” “Tommy;” “Life in Pieces;” “The Slap;” “Law & Order: SVU;” “Ugly Betty;” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent;” “Law & Order.” A graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City, Sadoski has an honorary doctorate from Niagara University for his decades of humanitarian work with War Child USA, INARA, Fortify Rights and others.

Liza Colon-Zayas - Ivy

Emmy Award winner Liza Colón-Zayas currently stars as Detective Jean DeWolff opposite Tom Holland in Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. She recently wrapped production on the indie drama Fleur alongside Halle Berry, directed by Ellie Foumbi, and is currently in production on the Hulu legal drama Conviction, with Elisabeth Moss. Colón-Zayas is most widely known for her portrayal of Tina Marrero in the critically acclaimed series “The Bear.” For her role, she received the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, making history as the first Latina to be awarded an Emmy in this category. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award, and received a SAG Award and two Imagen Awards. In 2024, Colón-Zayas starred in and produced Allswell in New York, a dramedy released by Freestyle Digital Media. The film premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival, where it won the award for Best Screenplay in an American Narrative Feature. She also starred in John Krasinski’s live-action animated comedy If. Her additional television credits include “In Treatment” and “Law & Order: SVU.” Colón-Zayas is a proud member of the acclaimed LAByrinth Theater Company, and is a Drama Desk, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, Audelco, Outer Critics Circle, HOLA and Kingsley Award winner for her stage work.

Ivy Wolk - Effie

Ivy can currently be seen onscreen in Ryan Murphy’s new FX series “The Shards,” based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel, as well as in a recurring role in “Deli Boys” for Hulu. She played supporting roles in Jonah Hill’s “Outcome” for Apple and in “Roommates” for Netflix. Ivy can also be seen in Sean Baker’s multiple Academy Award-winning film Anora, in Eugene Kotlyarenko’s film The Code and in Andrew De Young’s film Friendship, for A24. Wolk appeared in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Nick Corirossi’s Napa Boys, as well as Brian Jordan Alvarez’s “English Teacher” for FX and “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” for Freeform.

Yadira Correa - Cop

Yadira is thrilled to be making her Broadway debut. Proud member of Actors Center in NYC.

Nat DeWolf - u/s Fred

Take Me Out (Broadway), Antlia Pneumatica, Betty’s Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons). National Tour: What the Constitution Means to Me. Select film and television: Lisa Picard Is Famous, Liminal, A Place In Hell, and “The Other Two.”

Richard Henry - u/s Felix

Broadway debut. NY: Encores, Shakespeare in the Park (The Public Theater). A life in regional theater. Television: “Adults,” “Chair Company,” “Search Party,” “The Other Two.”

Aubie Merrylees - Cop

Broadway: Little Bear Ridge Road, To Kill a Mockingbird, KPOP, BOOP! Selected credits: Wolf Play (Soho Rep), Winter’s Tale (The Public Theater), Hamlet in Hamlet (Bedlam). Film: Jules, Souvenir.

Stephen Conrad Moore - Cop

LCT debut. Off Broadway: Dot, by Colman Domingo, dir. Susan Stroman (Vineyard), Emancipation (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Selected Theatre credits: McCarter Theatre Center, The Guthrie, American Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Yale Rep, Virginia Stage Company, KC Rep, and Arizona Theatre Company. Selected TV: “The Bold Type” (5 seasons), “Better Call Saul,” “Empire,” “Chicago PD,” “The Path,” " The Good Fight”, “The Blacklist,” “Elementary,” and “Empire.” Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Ruby Westhoff - u/s Em