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Where to watch: The complete first season is available to watch The Residence on Netflix as of the research snapshot. Netflix canceled the series after one season on July 2, 2025, so the eight episodes currently make up its complete run.
Spoiler note: The main cast guide below avoids revealing the killer. A clearly marked section near the end contains full finale spoilers.
The central trio: Cordelia, Edwin and A.B.
The show’s mystery works because it pairs an unconventional detective with a skeptical federal investigator and places both of them in the orbit of a highly organized White House institution. The setup is simple but unusually crowded: one dead body, 132 rooms and 157 suspects.
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Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp
Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant and intensely confident consulting detective for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Cordelia reads human behavior with unusual precision, but her investigative style is far from conventional. She is also an obsessive birder, and her tweed clothing and binoculars make her conspicuously different from the protocol-heavy environment she enters.
Cordelia’s ability to notice small behavioral details is the engine of the investigation. She is comfortable following an apparently irrelevant clue, challenging powerful people and treating the White House as a working residence rather than an untouchable monument.
Randall Park as Edwin Park
Randall Park plays Edwin Park, the FBI special agent assigned to work with Cordelia. Park begins as the more skeptical and institutionally minded half of the investigative partnership. His awkwardness around Cordelia’s methods supplies much of the show’s friction, but he is not merely a foil: as the case develops, Edwin demonstrates that he can recognize the significance of clues that Cordelia approaches from a less conventional angle.
Giancarlo Esposito as A.B. Wynter
Giancarlo Esposito plays A.B. Wynter, the White House chief usher whose death starts the mystery. A.B. has spent more than 20 years working at the White House and represents continuity, protocol and the invisible labor required to keep the residence operating. He also keeps detailed notes about activity in the building, making his records potentially important to the investigation.
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A.B. is the victim, but his role is larger than the opening crime: nearly every major group in the residence has some relationship to him, and his knowledge of the building gives the case its institutional depth.
White House staff: the early suspects
The staff members understand the residence’s routines better than anyone else. They know the service corridors, the kitchens, the schedules and the personal tensions that visitors may never see. That familiarity also makes them plausible suspects.
Susan Kelechi Watson as Jasmine Haney
Jasmine Haney, played by Susan Kelechi Watson, is a rising assistant usher who expected to succeed A.B. eventually. Her ambition and frustration put her among the most obvious early suspects. The question is whether her professional aspirations amount to a motive—or simply make her look guilty in a building full of competing agendas.
Edwina Findley as Sheila Cannon
Edwina Findley plays Sheila Cannon, an exuberant White House butler whose personality and working methods frequently clash with A.B.’s more formal approach. Sheila knows the residence intimately and becomes one of the investigation’s major persons of interest.
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Bronson Pinchot plays Didier Gotthard, a formal, perfectionist pastry chef trained in Switzerland. His professional knife skills and rivalry with fellow chef Marvella make him deliberately suspicious from the outset—a classic mystery character whose occupation seems to have supplied its own incriminating prop.
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Mary Wiseman as Marvella
Mary Wiseman plays Marvella, the temperamental and inventive executive chef. She has a food-truck background, experiments with fermentation and wild quail eggs, and is associated with sharp knives. Her rivalry with Didier adds another layer of tension to the White House kitchen.
Julieth Restrepo as Elsyie Chayle
Elsyie Chayle, played by Julieth Restrepo, is a well-liked housekeeper and single mother. Her private troubles conceal a connection to A.B., placing her closer to the case than her warm reputation initially suggests.
Al Mitchell as Rollie Bridgewater
Al Mitchell plays Rollie Bridgewater, the head butler and maître d’. Rollie is responsible for the practical mechanics of the state dinner: timing, service and the movement of people through the event. His competence makes him indispensable—and gives him an unusually detailed view of what happened that night.
Mel Rodriguez as Bruce Geller
Mel Rodriguez plays Bruce Geller, a White House engineer who becomes guarded when the Morgans arrive and whenever A.B. is nearby. His relationship with Elsyie puts him close to the mystery and raises questions about what he knows about the residence, its staff and A.B.’s private life.
Matt Oberg as Nick Simms
Matt Oberg plays Nick Simms, the deputy White House calligrapher. Nick’s visible stress during the state dinner suggests that he is concealing something, although the nature of that secret is part of the mystery.
The Morgan household and its advisers
The White House is not only a workplace. It is also home to President Perry Morgan, his family and the political advisers who shape his administration. Their personal conflicts give the murder investigation a second set of motives.
Paul Fitzgerald as President Perry Morgan
Paul Fitzgerald plays Perry Morgan, the fictional president of the United States. Perry is intelligent, energetic, decent and intense, and he is determined to discover what happened to A.B. The case threatens both the functioning of his household and the public credibility of his administration.
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Barrett Foa plays Elliot Morgan, Perry’s husband and the first gentleman. Elliot is unfamiliar with Washington’s social codes, which creates friction with A.B., a chief usher who takes protocol and institutional continuity seriously.
Jason Lee as Tripp Morgan
Jason Lee plays Tripp Morgan, Perry’s younger brother. Tripp is rebellious, aimless and openly antagonistic toward A.B. His jealousy and resentment make him one of the most prominent suspects.
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Jane Curtin as Nan Cox
Jane Curtin plays Nan Cox, Elliot’s mother and the first mother-in-law. She lives in the White House because of health issues and openly dislikes Perry, adding a volatile family dynamic to an already crowded residence.
Ken Marino as Harry Hollinger
Ken Marino plays Harry Hollinger, Perry’s oldest friend and closest political adviser. Harry has broad, sometimes opaque influence over the Morgan administration and a history of conflict with A.B., giving him both access and potential motive.
Molly Griggs as Lilly Schumacher
Molly Griggs plays Lilly Schumacher, the White House social secretary. Lilly is a wealthy and ambitious event planner responsible for the troubled state dinner. Her entitlement, financial misconduct and hostility toward the institution make her a colorful presence—and an important suspect.
Taran Killam as St. Pierre
Taran Killam plays St. Pierre, Lilly’s energy healer and event-planning consultant. His involvement in the dinner’s seating arrangements contributes to the evening’s confusion.
State-dinner guests and international figures
Julian McMahon as Prime Minister Stephen Roos
Julian McMahon plays Stephen Roos, the young, newly elected Australian prime minister. He has a playful political relationship with President Morgan and is among the international figures whose presence complicates the night.
Kylie Minogue as herself
Kylie Minogue appears as herself, performing at the state dinner. Her request to stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom creates an additional logistical and security complication for the White House staff.
Brett Tucker as David Rylance
Brett Tucker plays David Rylance, the Australian foreign minister. He is a charming political operator with an unexpected connection to A.B. and another White House resident.
Timothy Hornor as Patrick Doumbe, the Third Man
Timothy Hornor plays Patrick Doumbe, also known as the Third Man. His elusive identity and movements become important as Cordelia reconstructs the events surrounding the dinner.
Law enforcement, security and congressional investigators
Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Larry Dokes
Isiah Whitlock Jr. plays Larry Dokes, Cordelia’s boss and the loyal chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Dokes is one of the institutional figures willing to trust Cordelia’s abilities even when other officials question her approach.
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Dan Perrault as Colin Trask
Dan Perrault plays Colin Trask, head of the Secret Service presidential detail. Trask is also an enthusiastic Kylie Minogue fan, an interest that distracts him during a night when security demands his full attention.
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Spencer Garrett as Wally Glick
Spencer Garrett plays Wally Glick, the hard-edged director of the FBI. Glick is one of Cordelia’s institutional skeptics and represents the pressure for a conventional, controlled investigation.
Andrew Friedman as Irv Samuelson
Andrew Friedman plays Irv Samuelson, director of the National Park Police. His official position matters, but his authority is repeatedly overshadowed by the larger personalities involved in the case.
Eliza Coupe as Senator Margery Bay Bix
Eliza Coupe plays Margery Bay Bix, a charismatic and self-righteous junior senator from Colorado. She dislikes President Morgan and presses aggressively for answers about the White House security failure.
Al Franken as Senator Aaron Filkins
Al Franken plays Aaron Filkins, a senior senator from Washington state who is officially investigating the security breakdown. The role deliberately overlaps with Franken’s real former career as a U.S. senator, while the character pursues objectives that are not always transparent.
Additional ensemble members
The broader ensemble includes James Babson as operations supervisor Daryl Armogeda, Izzy Diaz as carpenter Eddie Gomez, Ros Gentle as media tycoon Rachel Middlekauff, Chris Grace as electrician Duane Ladage, Juliette Jeffers as painter Angie Huggins, Sumalee Montano as chief of staff Dana Hammond, Nathan Lovejoy as Australian ambassador Alden Tamridge and Rebecca Field as gardener Emily Mackil.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is The Residence based on a true story?
The Residence is inspired by Kate Andersen Brower’s nonfiction bestseller The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, but it is not a literal adaptation of the book’s events. Brower’s book provides a behind-the-scenes look at the people who work in the White House residence. The Netflix series uses that real-world staff perspective as a springboard for an invented murder mystery.
The Morgan administration, Cordelia Cupp, the murder, the suspects and the central investigation are fictional creations for the show. If you want the real institutional context behind the series, Kate Andersen Brower’s The Residence is the natural read next. It is nonfiction about White House residence staff; it does not contain the fictional A.B. Wynter murder plot.
How the show was made
The series was created and written by Paul William Davies, with Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers among its executive producers. Although the story takes place inside the White House, filming took place entirely in California, including 143 days at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Netflix reported more than 80 cast members, 1,200 crew members and 5,300 extras.
The production’s version of the White House emphasizes the domestic infrastructure that visitors rarely see: kitchens, maintenance areas, service staff, event planners, private rooms, security operations and the upstairs residence. That is why the cast is organized by function rather than simply by billing order.
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Important casting changes
Andre Braugher was initially cast as A.B. Wynter and had filmed part of the role before his death on December 11, 2023. Shondaland later announced that Giancarlo Esposito would take over the role, and Esposito is the A.B. Wynter credited in the released series and Netflix’s cast materials.
There was also an early change involving St. Pierre. An earlier Shondaland production announcement listed Euriamis Losada, while the final released-series cast guide credits Taran Killam. Killam is therefore the appropriate cast credit for the finished show.
Full finale spoiler: who killed A.B. Wynter?
Spoiler warning: this section reveals the killer and the finale’s explanation.
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Lilly Schumacher, played by Molly Griggs, killed A.B. Wynter. Lilly poisoned A.B.’s drink with paraquat. After the poison took effect, she killed him with a clock. She used a page from A.B.’s journal and the hidden passage between the Yellow Oval Room and the Treaty Room to stage and conceal the crime.
Elsyie and Bruce appear to be especially important suspects because both become involved with A.B.’s body after the killing. Tripp also moves the body and tries to create the appearance of a suicide, but he is not the original killer.
The finale’s fair-play clues include Lilly’s attention-grabbing pink clothing, her financial misconduct, her resentment of the White House and the hidden passageway that ultimately conceals the murder weapon.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of The Residence are there?
There are eight episodes in the first season, which is currently the show’s complete run after Netflix canceled the series after one season.
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Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp, the unconventional consulting detective investigating the White House murder.
Who plays the victim, A.B. Wynter?
Giancarlo Esposito plays A.B. Wynter, the White House chief usher. Andre Braugher had initially been cast in the role before Esposito took over.
Is The Residence a true story?
No. The series is inspired by Kate Andersen Brower’s nonfiction book about White House residence staff, but its murder, characters and fictional Morgan administration were created for the show.
The Bottom Line
The Residence combines a large ensemble with a tightly defined White House mystery. Uzo Aduba’s Cordelia Cupp leads the investigation, Randall Park’s Edwin Park provides the skeptical counterpoint, and Giancarlo Esposito’s A.B. Wynter becomes the center of a case involving staff, family, politicians, celebrities and security officials. The series ends after eight episodes, with Lilly Schumacher revealed as A.B.’s killer.
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