Where Is Resident Alien Filmed? The Real-Life Locations Behind The Series

"Resident Alien" is a peculiar series, as it's unusually uplifting for a sci-fi show about an alien initially intent on killing all humans. One thing that remains a constant is the gorgeous scenery in and around the fictional town of Patience, Colorado, where the show is set. From the start, the viewer is introduced to picturesque mountain cabins, and the beautiful backdrop of the Colorado Rocky Mountains snow-capped peaks. The town itself is also idyllic and inviting, making anyone watching wish they could visit.

Like many television series, "Resident Alien" isn't filmed in the place in which it is set. While there are several on-location scenes throughout the show, the majority of locales are shot in areas entirely different from their on-screen depiction. Additionally, most interior shots are done on specially constructed sets on soundstages, as it's often less expensive to film that way, thanks to a reduction in the need for travel and related costs.

While "Resident Alien" is set in Colorado, it isn't shot in the state. In reality, the show is filmed in various places in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As it happens, a lot of television shows are shot there, and over 65,000 people work in the local film industry. "Resident Alien" is one of many produced in Vancouver, but it's hard to argue the specific locations chosen for the series don't separate it from its peers. Here are all the places where "Resident Alien" is filmed.

Patience, Colorado, is undeniably lovely, and it's a perfect depiction of an ideal middle-American small town. While Patience itself doesn't exist, the exterior views of the buildings are real; only they weren't filmed in the U.S., despite what the sign says. Patience is actually the small town of Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada, which sits just across the Strait of Georgia, southwest of Vancouver.

For most of the year, Ladysmith can only be accessed by a two-hour ferry ride, and the production team dresses three blocks to transform them into Patience. The crew arrives, sets up shots for an entire season, and films for a few days, often two to three times each year. Ladysmith has a population of around 9,000 residents, and the blocks used in the show make up much of the historic district. Main Street is really 1st Avenue, as well as High and Roberts Street.

Ladysmith was chosen because, as production designer Michael Joy and showrunner Chris Sheridan explained to SyFy, they wanted "A contemporary [version of] Norman Rockwell's America." As to the internal locations and businesses seen throughout "Resident Alien," the diner, mayor's office, D'Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) and Asta's (Sara Tomko) apartment, and police station are all in one soundstage. A second houses Harry's cabin, The 59 bar, and the Hawthornes' home. Other locations used for exterior and interior shots include Squamish, B.C., Surrey, B.C., Burnaby, B.C., and Coquitlam, B.C.

The town of Patience only makes up part of the area in which "Resident Alien" is set, and there are numerous establishing shots of the iconic scenery. While the viewer believes they're seeing the Rocky Mountains, what they acually see is a combination of locations and digital trickery. For scenes of Harry (Alan Tudyk) walking on the snow-capped peaks, filming took place on two glaciers: the Sea-to-Sky Corridor's Rainbow Mountain and the Pemberton Icefield.

The only means of accessing these locations is by helicopter, so the crew loads up the gear and ferries it — and everyone needed for shooting — to these remote spots when necessary. In December 2023, Tudyk shared a snap of them filming on a glacier during production of Season 3, and he added, "I suggest a Season 4 where Harry suddenly prefers beaches. Just for variation." From his picture, it's clear the glacier is remote, as only a few people can be seen working with camera and audio equipment in the background.

When you see Patience and its nearby mountain range, that's a combination of filming at the Canadian Motion Picture Park backlot in Burnaby, B.C., and several layers of digital effects. Unfortunately, the mountains are nowhere near Ladysmith, as they appear to be beside Patience in the show. If the vistas look familiar, you may have spent some time in Telluride, Colorado, as it's believed the composited images for the show use that specific scenery.

One of the most important locations in "Resident Alien" is the main character, Harry's, cabin on the lake. There are numerous exterior shots of the home, which boasts a porch overlooking the water. In the pilot, Harry, in his alien form, storms the building and kills his human counterpart by chucking him into the icy depths just beyond the porch. The location where his house is filmed isn't where you might think, as it's not really on a lake.

The cabin is situated on the coast of Britannia Beach, so the water you're seeing is the Salish Sea. The beach is situated about 34 miles north of Vancouver and around a ten-minute drive south of Squamish. The cabin is located just off Howe Sound, so it's technically in an inlet. As a result, the water isn't particularly tidal, which makes it possible to cheat a bit and pretend Harry's home on Earth is beside a beautiful, mostly still lake. The house itself is little more than a facade, as the necessary locale didn't exist.

As production designer Michael Joy explained to SyFy, "We searched everywhere looking for Harry's cabin, but the big scene in the pilot was a fight with an 8-foot-high alien. Everybody realized pretty quickly that we were gonna have to build this as a set." They constructed the outside of the cabin, and all the internal shots you see in the show are done on a soundstage in Vancouver.

Before relocating to Patience, Harry lived in New York City, and the Big Apple also appears in the show. In the flashback of him and his wife Isabelle (Elvy Yost) meeting, they are in an N.Y.C. art gallery, which is actually the Polygon Art Gallery in Vancouver. In Season 3, Harry and Asta travel to the city in search of another alien, and there are several shots showing him in Times Square. While they could have flown Alan Tudyk down to film the scenes, it wasn't necessary.

Executive producer and director Robert Duncan McNeill flew to New York with an alien mask and gloves in his bag and shot the scenes with another actor doubling as Harry. When you see him from behind as he marvels at the sights and sounds of the city in his human form, that's not Tudyk. He remained in Canada to film what he could there, but that doesn't explain the times that clearly show Tudyk's face in what appears to be New York.

Those scenes were all shot in downtown Vancouver. The show's creator and executive producer, Chris Sheridan, explained to SyFy that they dressed up the city to look like N.Y.C. Tudyk was particularly impressed with how otherwise mundane locations were transformed with small amounts of set dressing. They added additional extras to fill people into each scene, making the comparatively less populated Vancouver appear to be far more packed than it usually is.

In "Resident Alien" Season 3, Harry tags along with the mayor and his family on a trip to Yellowstone National Park, as he believes he will uncover the Grey's plot during the mini-cation. There are several iconic spots in the historic park, including the geyser Old Faithful, which makes an appearance in the show. The scene depicts the main cast watching the geyser erupt, but that's done through some digital and camera manipulation, as they didn't travel there for the scene. That said, filming in Yellowstone was accomplished outside of Vancouver.

The hotel the group stays at is shown in an establishing shot, and this is actually The Lodge at Riverside, located in Grants Pass, Oregon. The cast didn't make the trip, as the interior shots were done elsewhere in Canada. The lobby inside the hotel is in the GreenTee Country Club Westwood Plateau in Coquitlam, which is about 20 miles east of Vancouver.

Other locations in the show include the former Royal Canadian Mounted Police campus near Queen Elizabeth Park, where the hangar shots were accomplished at the Unit Five Facility in Season 3. A pedestrian bridge in "Alien Dinner Party" is found in Capilano River Regional Park, Vancouver, and the Vancouver Art Gallery was used as a stand-in for the New York Public Library. Other filming locations include Vancouver's Teahouse in Stanley Park, Pizza 2001, the Rogers Building, and the Sandcastle Bowl Bar and Grill in Surrey.

The first three seasons of "Resident Alien" are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 4 does not currently have a release date set, but it will air on USA Network after three seasons spent on the Syfy Channel.