It’s 2025, which means only one thing: a new Harlan Coben adaptation is coming to Netflix. This time around, it’s Missing You. Adapted from the book of the same name, the TV show relocates the action from America to Manchester (why not), but some things have stayed the same: mysteries, murder and many, many missing people.
We’re excited to see it. Here’s who’s in the cast.
Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, played by Rosalind Eleazar
Vishal Sharma/Netflix
Our hero. Kat Donovan celebrated her engagement to Josh Buchanan 11 years ago, before he mysteriously vanished from her life. Now it looks like he’s back – the only question is, why?
“When we first meet Kat, people might think of her as quite a strong person, but we see that getting chipped away,” Eleazar has told What to Watch. “She has a lot of anger and unanswered questions.”
Eleazar herself is a British actor. She trained at LAMDA, and graduated in 2015. Since then, she’s gone onto appear in Slow Horses (as troubled spy Louisa Guy), as Christine in the BBC series Rellik and as Agnes in The Personal History of David Copperfield, the 2019 film by Armando Iannucci.
Stacey Embalo, played by Jessica Plummer
Netflix
Stacey is Kat’s friend and a private detective, who finds herself being drawn into the mystery of Josh and his sudden reappearance.
Plummer, who plays her, has had a varied career. Born in 1992, she was a member of the British pop group Neon Jungle until 2015, before turning her hand to acting. She appeared as Chantelle Atkins in EastEnders between 2019-2020 and as Emma in the BBC series The Girl Before, for which she gained a BAFTA nomination. She also appeared in the 2020 series of I’m A Celebrity – though didn’t win.
Sergeant Ellis Stagger, played by Richard Armitage
Vishal Sharma/Netflix
Richard Armitage, in a Harlan Coben show? Revolutionary. Stagger is a detective and Kat’s boss: Armitage told What to Watch that “I’ve never played a detective before, and it’s nice to take on a role which is the authority figure.” However, Stagger is also hiding a secret of his own.
Armitage has been on our screens for years. After training at LAMDA, he broke through in the UK when he played mill owner John Thornton in the BBC’s 2004 show North & South. Since then, he’s appeared in Spooks (as Lucas North), in Robin Hood as Guy of Gisborne and in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy as Thorin Oakenshield. And of course, he’s appeared in two previous Harlan Coben shows: The Stranger and Stay Close, both of which aired on Netflix.
Clint Donovan, played by Lenny Henry
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Vishal Sharma/Netflix
Clint is Kat’s father, who died (surprise!) tragically several years ago. Josh’s reappearance forces Kat not only to reckon with his betrayal, but try and establish the circumstances around his death – which she’s always been suspicious about.
Lenny Henry probably needs no introduction, but here’s one anyway: he’s been on our screens for decades. He first broke through as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s and 80s, and had his own show – The Lenny Henry Show – by 1984.
In 1985, he founded the Comic Relief charity with Richard Curtis, and in recent years, he’s pivoted harder into acting, including in the Prime Video series The Rings of Power and Netflix show The Sandman. Last year, he wrote and produced the ITV show Three Little Birds, a fictionalised account of three immigrants from the Windrush generation.
Josh Buchanan, played by Ashley Walters
Thomas Wood/Netflix
Josh is Kat’s old fiancé. Their life seemed perfect, and he even proposed… before vanishing without a trace. 11 years later, he pops up on a dating app: what’s going on?
Ashley Walters is best known for playing Dushane in the Channel 4/ Netflix series Top Boy. But Walters has been acting for years. Originally a rapper, he rose to fame as a member of the So Solid Crew garage group, but paired it with roles in films like Storm Damage, Bullet Boy and Life and Lyrics. He’s also appeared in Silent Witness, Doctor Who and Sky series Bulletproof, which he created with Noel Clarke and Nick Love.
Thomas Wood/Netflix
Calligan is a mob boss who might be the key to solving the mystery of Josh’s disappearance and Clint’s death. One thing is for certain: he’s keeping some dangerous secrets.
Nesbitt himself is a Northern Irish actor. He got his start in plays, before breaking through as Adam Williams in the romantic comedy Cold Feet, which won him several awards. Since then, he’s appeared in shows like 2002’s Bloody Sunday (for which he won a British Independent Film Award), in Steven Moffat’s Jekyll in 2008 and in BBC One drama series The Missing in 2014, as Tony Hughes.
Monte Leburne, played by Marc Warren
Monte is the person who was convicted of Clint’s death – and we find out at the start of the show that he only has days to live. Is he really guilty? Maybe not.
Warren has been appearing on TV screens for years. He started out as Albert Blithe in 2001’s Band of Brothers, and is best known for playing Danny Blue in Hustle and 2020 series Van Der Valk as the titular character, police commissioner Piet Van Der Valk.
Aqua, played by Mary Malone
Missing You is streaming on Netflix from New Year’s Day