Gus (Christian Convery) is just a boy/deer finding his way in the world. While Sweet Tooth is a, well, sweet coming-of-age story, the series also has quite a bit of lore. There’s a global pandemic (the Sick), a societal collapse (the Great Crumble), a mysterious safe haven (the Preserve) and a cast of heroes, villainous Last Men and many more human-animal hybrids to keep track of. 

It’s complicated — but then, boyhood/deerhood often is. There are no shortcuts to self-discovery, but we can at least clear up any confusion about the characters who’ll appear in Sweet Tooth Season 2, which premieres on April 27. Here’s a complete guide to everyone you’ll see in the Preserve and beyond, along with a handy reminder of where we left them in Season 1.  

Christian Convery 

Gus, called Sweet Tooth by his friend Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), is the show’s titular wide-eyed innocent protagonist — and the very first hybrid in this strange new world. When we meet Gus, he’s living a fairy-tale existence in the forest with his dad (Will Forte), whom he calls Pubba. Gus and Pubba have been in the woods for 10 years, since the Great Crumble began. But this idyllic life is shattered when Pubba is killed in a confrontation with the hybrid-hating First Men militia. This sets Gus on a journey to learn his true origins and the history of the Sick. 

In the Season 1 finale, Gus is kidnapped by the First Men and locked in a cage with other hybrid children.

 “I actually really loved the challenge of playing Gus, who has to completely change,” Convery tells Tudum about the role. “He has to grow, he has to step up to the plate and be a leader while also dealing with a lot of other stuff, like his origins. Gus struggling with all of those things was a great acting challenge for me.”

Although Convery is a young actor, he’s been appearing in beloved TV shows and movies for years. He recently starred in the blockbuster Cocaine Bear and had guest roles in Lucifer, Supernatural and Van Helsing. He also popped up in multiple holiday films, including Santa’s Boots, A Twist of Christmas and My Christmas Dream. 

You can follow Convery on Instagram and Twitter. 

Nonso Anozie

Jepperd would consider himself a loner. He left the ranks of the First Men to survive the end of the world on his own. But his lonely heart starts to grow a few sizes once he comes across Sweet Tooth. Suddenly, Jepperd is open to caring for another person. Toward the close of Season 1, the First Men shoot Jeppard and leave him for dead. But he’s saved by Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez), whom we’ll get to soon. 

Anozie believes Gus and Jepperd’s unlikely friendship is what makes the show special. “I think one of the things fans loved about the show was that this tiny, unassuming little hybrid kid could turn this rough and tough American football player into a big softie,” Anozie tells Tudum. “Jepperd is no stranger to violence or knowing how to survive, but Gus’ pure, innocent nature just pierces through to Jepp’s heart. For me as an actor, it’s beautiful. It gives you such an array of different emotions to play, and you get to explore the arc with so many different colors coming through your character. Being an actor of my size, it’s easy just to get cast as the action guy or the guy that just knocks people out –– which Jepp does –– but he also has a beautiful emotional side brought out by Gus.”

Fantasy fans may best recognize Anozie from his memorable turn in Game of Thrones Season 2 as Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a shady merchant. He’s also appeared in such magical fare as The Sandman, Pan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the fairy king himself, Oberon. 

You can follow Anozie on Instagram and Twitter. 

Will Forte

At the start of Sweet Tooth, Pubba appears to be a simple man who fiercely loves his son. Then we learn Sweet Tooth isn’t actually his biological child. 

Before the Great Crumble, Pubba was a man named Richard Fox, who worked as a security guard at Fort Smith Labs. One day, Richard goes on a date with Birdie (Amy Seimetz), a high-level scientist at the lab. As their date ends, the Great Crumble begins. Desperate to save her research, Birdie entrusts Richard with the baby her lab created — making Pubba and Gus a postapocalyptic found family.   

Although Forte shows off his dramatic chops in Sweet Tooth, he’s used to making viewers cry from laughter. Forte stole the show on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2010, introducing classic characters like the unstoppable MacGruber and unsettling Hamilton. You can also find him in Chicago Party Aunt and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.

You can follow Forte on Twitter. 

Christian Convery as Gus and Adeel Akhtar as Dr. Singh in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth.

Matt Grace/Netflix

Adeel Akhtar 

Dr. Singh became a doctor to heal people. The Sick twists that calling — particularly because Singh’s wife, Rani, is afflicted. Following the Great Crumble, Singh finds another doctor who can give Rani antiviral medication. Once that colleague retires, Singh’s morals are put to the test as he weighs his principles and the safety of his spouse. Eventually, Singh agrees to work for the violent General Abbot (Neil Sandilands), if only to keep himself and Rani alive. 

Akhtar has been working in the US and his native Britain for two decades. He appeared in Pan alongside Anozie, as well as Netflix movies Murder Mystery, Robin Robin, Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2.  

You can follow Akhtar on Instagram and Twitter. 

George Ferrier as Jordan and Stefania LaVie Owen as Becky in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth.

Stefania LaVie Owen 

Becky isn’t a hybrid like Gus — just a teen with a severe distaste for adults. She blames them for the burning trash heap that is the world she and the hybrids have to grow up in. Becky is initially the leader of the all-teenage Animal Army, but is forced out for helping the adult Jepperd. 

Alone once again, Becky dedicates her time to helping Gus and, begrudingly, Jep. She’s on the lookout for her little sister… who may just be another one of Sweet Tooth’s lovable hybrids. In the last moments of the Season 1 finale, Becky dials an old phone that unexpectedly connects her with Birdie, who’s somewhere very cold. 

Before Sweet Tooth, Owen nabbed big roles in multiple TV shows. She was featured in Netflix drama Messiah, along with I’m Dying Up Here and Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries. 

You can follow Owen on Instagram. 

Dania Ramirez 

Society before the Great Crumble wasn’t really for Aimee — she’d be the first to tell you that she doesn’t exactly love people. But Aimee found her own personal Eden in a post-apocalyptic version of the Essex City Zoo. Aimee only got to enjoy her solitude for a year before Wendy (Naledi Murray), a human/pig hybrid baby, was dropped off at her doorstep. In the coming years, Aimee’s lonely zoo turned into the Preserve, a safe haven for hybrid kids of all kinds. 

In the Season 1 finale, General Abbot storms the Preserve, abducting the hybrids and forcing Aimee to flee her home. She ends the episode teaming up with Jepperd to rescue their respective kids. This pairing allowed Ramirez to explore a new dynamic as Aimee in Season 2.

“I spent most of the season working with the puppeteer as Bobby and Naledi, who plays Wendy. Season 2 is a change,” Ramirez tells Tudum. “It’s been years since she’s been around another human, she’s only been around animals and her children, so it’s different. I get to work with Nonso who’s just an incredible actor and I get to tackle [Aimee] as a woman and figure out what comes up for her with another adult.”

While Ramirez is braving the grimmest of circumstances as Aimee, viewers have previously seen her in the most glamorous of roles: as Cinderella in Once Upon a Time’s final season. She also starred in Devious Maids. 

You can follow Ramirez on Instagram and Twitter. 

Naledi Murray as Wendy, Ravi Narayan as Earl, Christian Convery as Gus and Amie Donald as Maya in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth.

Naledi Murray 

Wendy, Aimee’s oldest hybrid child, has always felt like a bit of an outcast. She’s a bit more human than animal and yearns for someone who understands her. Luckily, that person is out there — in the Season 1 finale, we learn that Becky is Wendy’s older sister, and desperate to reunite their family. 

As one of General Abbot’s hybrid prisoners, Wendy will be forced to evolve in Season 2. “Wendy is really going to grow and step up for her family, taking on that leadership role like her mom,” Murray tells Tudum. “I got to show a different dynamic, and it’s just really awesome to have a different point of view and a different side of your character come to play.”

Murray, like co-star Convery, has already started building out her résumé despite her young age. She guest starred in the drama The Undoing, the reboot of First Wives Club and the Netflix series Seven Seconds. 

Marlon Williams as Johnny Abbot and Neil Sandilands as General Abbot in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth.

Neil Sandilands 

Meet Sweet Tooth’s big bad. General Abbot is the brutal and bloodthirsty leader of the First Men. He hates hybrids and anyone who defects from his militant group. Going into Season 2, Abbot has captured the Preserve, Gus and the rest of the hybrid children. He’s also determined to use Dr. Singh to obtain a possible cure for the Sick — and is willing to do anything to get it. 

Sweet Tooth isn’t Sandilands’ first time playing a baddie. He portrayed The Flash supervillain Clifford DeVoe and The Americans antagonist Eugene Venter.

You can follow Sandilands on Instagram. 

Marlon Williams 

Johnny isn’t cut out for the murderous First Men — he’d much rather eat some toaster pastries or free a caged animal than round up hybrid children. But Johnny is General Abbot’s brother, and that makes his life fairly complicated. 

Although Sweet Tooth isn’t Williams’ first on-screen role — he appeared in 2019’s True History of the Kelly Gang — acting isn’t his only passion. Williams is a popular New Zealander singer-songwriter, who even played himself in the Oscar-winning Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga A Star Is Born.  

You can follow Williams on Instagram and Twitter. 

Aliza Vellani 

Poor Rani. A decade earlier, Rani contracted the Sick. By the end of Season 1, Rani has been imprisoned by General Abbot as incentive for her husband to create the cure.  

Vellani is well acquainted with young adult TV shows. She has appeared on Charmed, Kim Possible, Riverdale, The Flash (yes, in the same episode as co-star Sandilands), Supernatural and iZombie. 

You can follow Vellani on Instagram and Twitter. 

Bobby, Yonas Kibreab as Finn, Harvey Gui as Max, Amie Donald as Maya, Aeon Scott as Anna, Cyan Scott as Hanna, Ruby Hall as Haley, Erin Minchin as Jo Jo, Ravi Narayan as Earl, Naledi Murray as Wendy, Christopher Cooper Jr. as Teddy, Christian Convery as Gus in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth. 

Christopher Sean Cooper Jr. 

Prepare to get to know all of Gus’ new Season 2 hybrid friends. Teddy is part of the crew and one of the youngest hybrids. He’s afraid of the dark and very shy.  

Sweet Tooth is the first time Cooper has stuck his neck out for a major on-screen role. 

Yonas Kibreab 

Finn is another of the new hybrids. He has a painful past and is a more recent member of the hybrid family. Like a fox, Finn can be sly — and he isn’t afraid to speak up. 

Kibreab’s previous credits include Raven’s Home and Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

James Brolin 

The narrator is the silky smooth voice weaving us through Sweet Tooth’s shocking surprises and vast character map. Veteran actor Brolin, of the original Westworld and many other films and shows, supplies his comforting baritone. 

You can follow Brolin on Instagram. 

Additional reporting by Christopher Hudspeth.