What The Walking Dead's Main Cast Have Done Since Season 11 Ended

The Walking Dead Season 8 finale is perhaps the best place to stop watching the great TV show because of the decline in quality. However, season 9 is arguably the best season since season 6, and if you stuck it out till the end, the finale of the show pays tribute to Rick after years, and teases many more projects. It's been over two years since The Walking Dead ended, and some of those spin-off projects have already started winning fans over.

A season of The Walking Dead: Dead City is out, with more seasons on the way. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is two seasons long already, and a new season is currently in post-production, expected to come out later in 2025. Another exciting project fans loved was The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, the Rick and Michonne spinoff of The Walking Dead, starring Andrew Lincoln reprising his iconic role of Rick Grimes. Most of the cast of The Walking Dead season 11 have been busy with more projects since The Walking Dead ended.

10 Jeffrey Dean Morgan

He played Negan Smith

Ever since his recurring role on Grey's Anatomy, which served as his breakout performance, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has played many memorable secondary characters across various genres. However, no role of his is as famous as Negan Smith, a character he portrayed for almost all episodes of The Walking Dead until the season 11 finale, ever since his guest appearances in Season 6 of the show. Alongside other projects, Morgan already reprised his role of Negan for The Walking Dead: Dead City, which has been renewed for a second season that comes out in May 2025.

So, that naturally makes one curious as to what Morgan has been doing since the show ended, and he's been just as active as he always was. He has a minor role in the forgettable action movie Mafia Wars and a supporting role in the horror comedy Bloody Axe Wound. Recently, he starred alongside Jack Quaid in Neighbourhood Watch, coming out in April 2025. While he was in it for 6 episodes, his role in The Boys is significant, and he'll reprise it for season 6. He also made a memorable voiceover appearance in Invincible as Conquest.

9 Callan McAuliffe

He played Alden

He's been an actor ever since he was eight years old, but he didn't get his acting break in Hollywood until he was sixteen. Rob Reiner, known for directing The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally..., and Stand By Me, some of the best feel-good movies of the 1980s, discovered McAuliffe and cast him as one of the leads in his 2010 romantic drama Fliiped.

McAuliffe played Alden on The Walking Dead as a recurring character ever since his introduction in Season 8, until midway through Season 11, when he died right before the mid-season finale. Since then, he's not appeared in any of the spinoffs, but played a memorable secondary character in another horror series, The Mayfair Witches, in a role he might reprise if the show gets a third season. McAuliffe recently played the lead in two movies – the romantic drama About Him & Her, based on real events, and the dark comedy movie The Duel, which had a one-night-only theater release.

8 Cooper Andrews

He played Jerry

Cooper Andrews became popular as an actor for portraying Jerry in The Walking Dead. One of the most likable characters in the show, Jerry quickly won fans over and was part of speculation for a long time. Since his introduction in Season 7, Jerry has played a significant role in the show, and in true The Walking Dead fashion, he was the most popular guess for who'd die a gruesome death in the final season of the show.

So, viewers cannot believe that Jerry survived The Walking Dead. Cooper Andrews had also been cast as Victor Vasquez in Shazam! and reprised the role for the sequel soon after the Season 11 finale of The Walking Dead. He also reprised his voice-acting role as Aquaman from the animated miniseries Aquaman: King of Atlantis for the 2023 video game Justice League: Cosmic Chaos. Another notable role since the ending of The Walking Dead is the recurring character of the protagonist's father in the animated Disney show Hailey's On It!

7 Khary Payton

He played King Ezekiel

Ever since he voiced Cyborg in the Cartoon Network animated show Teen Titans, Khary Payton has become a prominent voice-actor in the industry. He has also voiced many characters, including Aqualad and Black Lightning in Young Justice in multiple episodes. While he has been acting for a long time, he only had minor appearances in live-action TV shows, mostly for one episode, apart from a 24-episode run in General Hospital.

So, Payton most prominent live-action role is as the recurring character King Ezekiel in The Walking Dead. Khary Payton wants a prequel for Ezekiel like Better Call Saul for Breaking Bad, and it remains to see if this ever happens. Meanwhile, he has reprised his voice-acting role of Black Samson in Invincible, which he will most likely return for in the next season. Payton also voices a significant character in the animated kids show Hot Wheels Let's Race. He was also the voice behind Penguin King in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

6 Ross Marquand

He played Aaron

Ross Marquand has recently risen to fame as a voice actor, but his most famous role is as Aaron, The Walking Dead's first male gay character. Ever since his few recurring appearances in season 5, Aaron has been a fan-favorite character in the show. He played a major role in escorting Rick and his group of survivors to Alexandria, which set up the new direction for the show back then.

Aaron's survival in the show means he might return in one of the two spinoff shows currently airing or in the shows that are likely to come in the future. He had already started voicing two significant characters in Invincible – Immortal and Robot – and he has continued playing those roles since The Walking Dead ended. He also voiced Infinity Ultron among other characters in the MCU show What If...? and voiced three prominent characters – Professor X, Doctor Doom, and Apocalypse – in X-Men '97. Among his live-action roles is the upcoming sci-fi thriller film Descendents.

5 Seth Gilliam

He played Gabriel Stokes

Seth Gilliam rose to fame after he was cast as Aaron Dexter in the seventh season of The Cosby Show in 1990. He has been in many notable TV roles ever since, including as a recurring character who'd later become a main character in The Wire. In The Walking Dead, he plays Father Gabriel Stokes, a priest who survived the outbreak and later joined Rick Grimes' group of survivors.

Gabriel had one of the most satisfying arcs on the show as he grew into a brave warrior on Rick's side, and even played perhaps the most important role in defeating the Survivors. Gilliam even appeared for a surprise cameo in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live as Gabriel. He also appeared in one episode of Blacklist in 2023. Moreover, he recently reprised another fan-favorite role of his. Gilliam used to play Dr. Alan Deaton in Teen Wolf, and he appeared in the 2023 spinoff movie in the role again.

4Josh McDermitt

He played Eugene Porter

Josh McDermitt was a semi-finalist in Last Comic Standing Season 4, and played a minor role in Mad Men back in 2014, before being cast as major character Eugene Porter in The Walking Dead Season 4. Eugene switched sides during the course of the show, joining Negan and the Saviors for a while until he met Rosita during the fateful encounter between the Saviors and Rick's group. Eugene survived until the end of The Walking Dead.

He used to be the head engineer at Alexandria before he joined the Commonwealth and became a teacher at the school there. He played a major role in the revolution against the Commonwealth's corrupt government. He was married to Max and had started a family with her when the show ended. Apart from a minor role in Lilly, a biographical drama about Fair Pay activist Lilly Ledbetter, McDermitt hasn't taken on any film roles since The Walking Dead ended. He, however, plays a main character, Stuart Lane, in the Suits spinoff Suits LA.

3 Lauren Cohan

She plays Maggie

Lauren Cohan got her break as the recurring character Bela Talbot in the third season of Supernatural in 2007. Three years later, in 2010, she played Rose in The Vampire Diaries, and soon after, she was cast as Maggie in The Walking Dead. She and Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, are a married couple who survived the outbreak, and came into contact with Rick Grimes when he was looking for help to save his son, who had been accidentally shot by Otis.

Maggie has been in more episodes of the show than most of the other characters in the show, and despite multiple brushes with death, she has managed to survive until the end of the show. Despite hating him, she is now working alongside her husband's killer Negan in the spinoff show The Walking Dead: Dead City. While the film's forgettable, Lauren Cohan does appear in the sci-fi romance drama When I'm Ready. She has also voiced Inge in Zack Snyder's latest production, the animated show Twilight of the Gods.

2 Melissa McBride

She plays Carol Peletier

Melissa McBride has been in the TV industry since she first appeared in an episode of Matlock back in 1993. She then played minor roles in other prominent shows like American Gothic, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Dawson's Creek. In 2010, she was cast as Carol Peletier, and her life changed forever. It was the breakout performance she needed to become a household name. McBride has been in the most episodes of The Walking Dead among her costars, a record she shares with Norman Reedus.

Carol has been in the show since she first appeared in the third episode of the pilot season. From Daryl's best friend and Grimes' advisor to Ezekiel's wife for a while and later the Commonwealth's Deputy governor, she has played an important role in most of the memorable arcs on the show. Unsurprisingly, she's been a co-protagonist in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon since season 2, after making a guest appearance in season 1. McBride, who's also an executive producer of the second season, has been focused on the spinoff since The Walking Dead ended.

1 Norman Reedus

He played Daryl Dixon

One of, if not the best characters of The Walking Dead, Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon is an instantly recognizable fan-favorite who has, alongside Carol Peletier, been in every season. Daryl went through a transformative arc over the eleven seasons, and has become one of the most reliable and capable characters. A show-original character who wasn't even there in the comics, he's proof that when writers know their source material, experimentation can yield surprisingly enjoyable results.

Few people can boast of having shows named after their characters, and Norman Reedus is rightfully one of them. It's impossible to get enough of Daryl, and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon was a much-needed spinoff show. Reedus also recently played a minor character in Jeff Nichols' crime drama The Bikeriders. He's set to appear in an important role later this year in the John Wick spinoff movie starring Ana de Armas. The other exciting Reedus project to look forward to is the new The Boondock Saints, where the actor will reprise his role as co-protagonist Murphy MacManus.