The Netflix survival drama Keep Breathing mostly centers around one actor’s performance, but she is joined by a recognizable supporting cast filling the roles of a handful of other characters. Released on July 28, 2022, Keep Breathing is a tense new original series from the streaming service and focuses almost entirely on the ordeal that a lone heroine suffers through while attempting to escape the wilderness.
Played by new Scream cast member Melissa Barrera, Keep Breathing‘s protagonist, Liv, is a high-powered lawyer with no time for a personal life. When she makes a last-second trip to Inuvik, things go badly as her tiny passenger plane crashes in the northern wilderness. Liv faces her past and confronts her demons while dealing with starvation, dehydration, hallucinations, injuries, and even animal encounters on her trek back to civilization.
A grim survival drama, Keep Breathing centers a lot of screen time on its heroine but the show’s cast of characters also includes another passenger on Liv’s plane and their pilot. There are also flashbacks in the show that flesh out Liv’s life pre-plane crash, allowing viewers to meet her parents and co-worker/love interest, played by Jeff Wilbusch from the Netflix drama Unorthodox. Here is a guide to all of the characters in Keep Breathing, which actors play them, and where you’ve seen them before.
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Melissa Barrera As Liv
Keep Breathing’s central heroine, Liv, is played by Melissa Barrera. Despite her youth, Barrera has been active as an actor for years, having risen to prominence in the long-running telenovelas Siempre Tuya Acapulco and Tanto Amor. The 2018 Starz comedy-drama Vida took Barrera’s career as a leading lady to new heights, garnering her critical acclaim. This in turn led to movie roles, with Barrera starring in the 2021 musical drama In The Heights. However, viewers are most likely to know her from her blockbuster success in Scream 2022, the hit slasher whose upcoming sequel Barrera will also soon star in.
Austin Stowell As Sam
Austin Stowell plays Sam, the passenger riding alongside Liv when their plane crashes. Viewers will know Stowell from his roles in the Dolphin Tale movies, his supporting role in Whiplash, parts in Bridge of Spies and The Battle of the Sexes, and a role in Fantasy Island. On the small screen, his biggest role is that of Nately in Hulu’s acclaimed Catch-22 adaptation.
Jeff Wilbusch As Danny
Jeff Wilbusch’s Danny plays a major role in Liv’s flashbacks as her colleague and potential love interest. However, the actor is not one of the cast’s bigger names. Wilbusch has been seen mostly in TV shows, such as 2018’s German drama Bad Banks and the same year’s John le Carre adaptation The Little Drummer Girl. Since then, Wilbusch also appeared in 2020’s Unorthodox, playing a primary role.
Florencia Lozano As Lucia
Florencia Lozano plays Liv’s mother Lucia. The actor has appeared in everything from Kevin Can Wait to The Blacklist, and had long-lasting roles on General Hospital and Narcos. She was also the original Eleanor Waldorf, Blair’s mother, in Gossip Girl’s pilot.
Juan Pablo Espinosa as Tomás
At 41, Juan Pablo Espinosa is a mere nine years older than Melissa Barrera, yet that hasn’t stopped him from taking on the role of her father, Tomás, in Keep Breathing. To be fair to the creators of the show, Espinosa’s role is mostly relegated to flashbacks that detail incidents in Liv’s childhood involving her erratic, unstable mother.
Espinosa also appears as an older version of the unnamed character later in Keep Breathing season 1. Outside of the Netflix series, viewers may recognize the actor from the 2010 Colombian telenovela A Corazón Abierto (based on the much longer-lasting Grey’s Anatomy), and 2021’s Apple TV+ hit Acapulco.
Keep Breathing Supporting Cast & Characters
Mike Dopud as George — The role of George the pilot is not a huge one, but that is not unusual for Mike Dopud. A veteran characters actor, he has played minor roles in such blockbusters as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, A Good Day To Die Hard, Deadpool 2, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. As usual, Dopud plays a gruff man of few words here.
Getenesh Berhe as Ruth — In flashbacks, Getenesh Berhe plays Liv and Danny’s co-worker Ruth. Berhe’s last recurring role was in the sitcom Kim’s Convenience, and she previously appeared in episodes of Man Seeking Woman.
Joselyn Picard as Young Liv — Child actor Joselyn Picard plays the younger version of Melissa Barrera’s Liv in Keep Breathing‘s flashback scenes. She also currently plays Lana Lang’s younger daughter, Sarah, on the DC show Superman & Lois.