Why Ms. Casey From Severance Looks So Familiar
Apple TV+ has impressed subscribers in the last few years with a stunning variety of shows like "Defending Jacob," "Ted Lasso," "For All Mankind," and "Foundation." But its latest original offering, "Severance" has wowed audiences and critics alike with its mind-bending commentary on corporate life and the work-life balance. It revolves around Lumon, a biotech company that separates the memories of its employees to maintain a level of secrecy around the work they do. Naturally, one of the employees, Mark (Adam Scott), figures out that there's something more nefarious to the company than meets the eye.
Scott is joined by a number of talented stars as various "severed" co-workers at Lumon, including John Turturro as Irving Bailiff, Christopher Walken as Burt Goodman, and Zach Cherry as Dylan George. They all work alongside a welfare counselor, Ms. Casey, who looks after the department to make sure the severed employees are fine, while secretly keeping an eye on them for the company.
The actress who plays Ms. Casey quietly amassed a number of impressive roles under her belt over the years. Here's why she looks so familiar.
Dichen Lachman got started on Neighbours
Ms. Casey obviously has an intriguing role to play in "Severance" — and she's played by the brilliant Dichen Lachman. The Australian star got her first big break on the soap opera "Neighbours" in 2005 as Katya Kinski. She's a sharp-tongued nurse who comes to Erinsborough to visit her dying father Alex (Andrew Clarke) and winds up getting involved with various criminal antics during the two years she was on the show. A big part of Katya's story sees her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder after Robert Robinson (Adam Hunter) starts stalking her while pretending to be his comatose twin brother, Cameron Robinson.
Robert eventually kidnaps her, holding her hostage as she plays along with the hopes of escaping. Eventually, Katya frees herself from his clutches, but this leaves her feeling incredibly vulnerable, and she has several dramatic relationships as a result of the ordeal. The role gave Lachman plenty to do, which showed off just how versatile she is when it comes to exploring a character. The end of her tenure on "Neighbours" explored Kinski's criminal past, as she ends up having to revisit her life of crime to pay off her former associate, Guy Sykes (Fletcher Humphrys).
Katya Kinski might not be Lachman's most well-known role, but it proved that the star could hold her own on a long-running series in a truly entertaining role.
Dichen Lachman was part of the Dollhouse
In 2009, Dichen Lachman joined Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" on Fox, which follows an organization that makes money from a handful of men and women whose minds are wiped before they're imprinted with a new personality to suit a specific client. They can become anything from a lover, a bodyguard, an assassin, or even a bank robber. The series was led by Eliza Dushku as Echo/Caroline Farrell, one of the active dolls, with Lachman starring as another doll — Sierra/Priya Tsetsang.
Like many of the people whose minds are regularly wiped, Sierra has an incredibly tragic backstory, as she was sent to the Dollhouse for rejecting Dr. Nolan Kinnard (Vincent Ventresca). It's also revealed that Sierra's handler, Joe Hearn (Kevin Kilner), abuses her when she's in an inactive state. All in all, Sierra has a pretty tragic storyline through "Dollhouse" Season 1 and Season 2 — but she eventually finds peace when she has a son with Anthony/Victor (Enver Gjokaj).
Unfortunately, "Dollhouse" was canceled after two seasons in 2007, so Lachman wasn't able to explore Sierra/Priya's character even further.
Dichen Lachman joined the Marvel universe in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Although the divide between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios meant "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." was kept at arm's length from Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the series stayed on the air from 2013 to 2020 — with seven seasons under its belt. The show followed agents of the titular peacekeeping agency as they deal with super-powered threats across the world, led by Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). As the show introduces Daisy Johnson's (Chloe Bennet) Inhuman superpowers, it reveals that her mother, Jiaying, played by Dichen Lachman, is the leader of an Inhuman community called Afterlife.
Jiaying is the big bad of Season 2 — and she's desperate to wipe out the entire planet because of how humans have treated Inhumans over the years. She's seen firsthand what villainous groups like Hydra are capable of, as former high-ranking Nazi Werner Reinhardt (Reed Diamond) conducts horrific experiments on Jiaying — completely vivisecting her. Thankfully, the Inhuman's regenerative powers stitch her body back together when her husband Calvin Johnson (Kyle MacLachlan) finds her.
Lachman does a fantastic job of playing an iconic "S.H.I.E.L.D." villain, who's made all the more tragic when she goes head-to-head with her own daughter.
Dichen Lachman went galactic in Altered Carbon
Dichen Lachman also played a vital role in Netflix's cyberpunk science-fiction series "Altered Carbon" opposite the likes of Joel Kinnaman and Will Yun Lee — who both play an elite soldier-turned-detective, Takeshi Kovacs. "Altered Carbon" is set in a futuristic world where people store their consciousness in devices called "stacks" — and they can be put into other bodies, called "sleeves." Kovacs is a former soldier with the Colonial Tactical Assault Corps, and he spent years fighting numerous threats across various planets.
But when his squad is tasked with taking out some of the Yakuza, Kovacs comes face-to-face with his own sister, Reileen Kawahara — played by Lachman. The two were separated at a young age, and while Kovacs forged a military career, Reileen became a vicious enforcer for the Yakuza. In fact, when they reunite for the first time, they both turn on their respective allies and go on the run, although they'd later get separated again and Reileen would become an all-powerful crime lord.
Lachman clearly knows how to flex her villainous muscles, and "Altered Carbon" is the perfect example of that since she's the puppet master pulling strings from behind a criminal enterprise. It's just a shame Netflix canceled the series after Season 2, because it would've been interesting to see more of her history with Kovacs and Quellcrist Falconer (Renee Elise Goldsberry).