The hit Prime series Fallout is the latest to prove video-game adaptations can make for great television. Based on the popular game by Bethesda, the show is set in 2296, 200 years after the Great War led to a nuclear bomb being dropped on Los Angeles. When the overseer of Vault 33 is kidnapped, his daughter, Lucy (Ella Purnell), leaves the relative safety and comfort of the vault to find him, introducing her to the dangerous world of the wasteland above. The show has become the second-most-watched in Prime history, earning it a second season. This was a tremendous feat for the streaming service, which has long been in the shadow of other services such as Netflix and Hulu.
What makes the Fallout universe so different from other shows within its same wave-length is the sheer number of interesting characters that have their own set of unique personalities. This well-balanced template of quirky and remarkable characters presents perfect opportunities for celebrity cameos to showcase their comedic chops within the series. In addition to the major characters played by some familiar faces, other notable actors can be spotted in smaller roles, many of them known for their comedic work. The inclusion of comedic actors is perfect for the show's sense of humor, which has received considerable praise for using comedy to balance out what, on normal terms, would be a pretty bleak story about human survival after the apocalypse. Using humor and humorous characters brought a lighthearted feel to Fallout, and the cameos were simply magnificent in their roles. From strange snake oil salesmen to charming yet bizarre Vault overseers, Fallout has no shortage of notable cameos. So, we took on the task of ranking every actor who made their presence felt in the Wasteland.
10 Matty Cardarople
Character: Huey
Matty Cardarople, known for appearing in later seasons of Netflix series Stranger Things and A Series of Unfortunate Events, plays Huey, one of the men working under Sorrel Booker, in episode 4, “The Ghouls.” Alongside another man named Squirrel and a Mr. Handy unit called Snip Snip, Huey harvests organs for Booker in an abandoned Super Duper Mart, where they also have feral Ghouls held captive, and apparently spends a lot of time high.
Cardarople's time in Fallout was short-lived, as he was attacked and killed by feral Ghouls. But he and Squirrel are the perfect examples of the sorts of minor characters which help flesh out Fallout’s universe. They show just what people in the Wasteland have become and what it takes for them to survive, although Huey and Squirrel don’t seem to mind much. They’re also an example of the dangers. Lucy may have made it out unscathed, but others whose organs they harvested didn’t.
9 Glenn Fleshler
Character: President Sorrel Booker
Glenn Fleshler appears as Sorrel Booker, the self-proclaimed president of “the Govermint,” a gang which protects the organ-harvesting business and whose other activities are unknown, although he claims their goal is to restore order. Booker is essentially the leader of The Wasteland, and he has connections to the Ghoul likely predating the nuclear explosion. Fleshler is also known for his roles in Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, Barry and more, often as villains.
Sorrel is a menacing villain in his own right, and Fleshler is fantastic in the role, and hopefully, he’ll be back again. But he’s no match for the Ghoul. Given the connections between the two and their possible long history with each other, Sorrel seems to have some respect for the Ghoul, as well as trust in him. And while both characters are great on their own, they’re even more entertaining when they share screentime.
8 Mykelti Williamson
Character: Honcho
Bounty hunter Honcho appears in the final moments of the first episode of Fallout and is played Mykelti Williamson. He leads a group of fellow county hunters seeking to awaken and unearth the Ghoul. Williamson had a recurring role in Justified as Ellstin Limehouse, but his most famous role was in Forrest Gump as Forrest’s best friend and companion in the Vietnam War, Bubba, who also inspired Forrest to start the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
Williamson wasn’t the only Fallout cast member who appeared on Justified, meaning the series serves as a mini-reunion of sorts; and it's appropriate that it happens on a show that, while a post-apocalyptic series, also feels very much like a Western. While the role of Honcho was small, the character played an important part in raising the Ghoul. It's a crucial scene for a crucial character in Fallout, plus Williamson played Honcho wonderfully.
7 Erik Estrada
Characters: Adam
Actor Erik Estrada appears briefly in episode 7, “The Radio,” in the very beginning as a man named Adam, when he and his children have an encounter with the Ghoul. Adam’s oldest son was involved with Lee Moldaver and is now dead, and the Ghoul is seeking information about where Moldaver is; and he goads Adam’s other son into trying to shoot him to avenge his brother. Estrada is best known for playing a motorcycle officer with the California Highway Patrol on CHiPS.
Estrada’s appearance is among the more surprising ones in Fallout, and it’s a great scene which demonstrates the kind of character the Ghoul is. While Walton Goggins stands out as the always unsettling yet still somehow likable Ghoul, Estrada also shines as a father desperate to keep his family safe and get the Ghoul to leave, whatever it takes. Unfortunately, the Ghoul being who he is, that doesn’t happen without some violence and tragedy.
6 Michael Rapaport
Character: Knight Titus
Actor Michael Rapaport, largely known for his work in comedy, plays Knight Titus, a member of Fallout’s villainous Brotherhood of Steel, in the first two episodes of the series. Titus works alongside Maximus to track down Siggi Wilzig, an Enclave scientist who escaped, played by the familiar Michael Emerson, and is ultimately fatally injured. Rapaport is known for his work in True Romance and Justified, which also featured Fallout stars Walton Goggins and Mykelti Williamson.
Titus is a menacing figure when he’s first introduced, and more importantly, arrogant and trigger-happy, disregarding orders out of boredom and a desire to shoot something. But above all, he’s a coward when it matters most. He is injured after being attacked by a Yao Guai, a mutated black bear which first appeared in Fallout 3—just one of many Easter eggs in the show—and spends his finale moments true to character, delivering an expletive-filled rant insulting Maximus and the Brotherhood.
5 Jon Daly
Character: Snake Oil Salesman
The Snake Oil Salesman, played by Jon Daly, appears in two episodes—episode 2, “The Target,” and episode 7, “The Radio.” He’s a traveling merchant peddling a variety of chemicals and medicines. Daly has often been seen working with comedian Nick Kroll and is also known for his improv work as part of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He also has ties to Fallout already, as he provided the voice of a news anchor in a promotional video.
Daly’s role as a snake-oil salesman is one of the most entertaining minor roles in Fallout—on top of being an eccentric character with some odd habits, he’s hilarious to watch and is the perfect example of the type of humor common throughout Fallout. Like so many others in the Wasteland, he’s trying to survive, and although he does this through not entirely honest means, not all of his serums are fake.
4 Matt Berry
Character: Mr. Handy, Snip-Snip and Sebastian Leslie
Audiences first hear Matt Berry’s voice in episode 1, as Mr. Handy assists at a child’s birthday party, then again in episode 4, “The Ghouls,” when Lucy is attacked by a Mr. Handy unit named Snip-Snip, who is determined to harvest her organs. The story behind Snip-Snip’s voice is revealed two episodes later, in episode 6, “The Trap,” in which Berry appears again, this time as the actor Sebastian Leslie. Berry is best known for his role as fashionable vampire Laszlo Cravensworth in What We Do in the Shadows.
Berry also provides the voice for all Mr. Handy units in the series, but Snip-Snip is the most notable one. At first, Snip Snip is charming and likable and seems to be a help to Lucy, but it doesn’t take long for him to reveal what he’s really interested in: her organs. Similarly, Sebastian has a strong personality and was friends with Cooper Howard before he became the Ghoul. Both Snip-Snip and Sebastian Leslie are important to Fallout lore.
3 Fred Armisen
Character: DJ Carl
DJ Carl runs a radio tower in the Hollywood Hills—which is most likely also his home—where he broadcasts the station KPSS. He crosses paths with Thaddeus, who waits at KPSS for the Brotherhood to pick him up. Carl is played by comedian Fred Armisen, and his voice is heard before he’s shown onscreen. Armisen is a comedian and musician best known for his time on Saturday Night Live, as well as shows like Portlandia.
Carl is right in line with the sorts of eccentric characters Armisen is known to play, albeit somewhat less so, and Armisen makes the most of his limited screen time. Carl is an audiophile and is more concerned with playing music he likes than what others might like, which is understandable in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where Carl’s listeners are few, and he’s holding on to what makes him happy. He’s also surrounded his home with booby traps, which shows he understands the surrounding dangers.
2 Chris Parnell
Character: Vault 4 Overseer Benjamin
Lucy and Maximus end up in Vault 4, just one of many vaults created to save humanity—and they were sometimes experimented on. As a result of some of this experimentation, the Overseer of Vault 4, Benjamin, has one eye. He is played by Chris Parnell, known more recently for his voiceover work as Cyril in Archer and Morty’s dad, Jerry, in Rick and Morty. Parnell is also a former cast member of Saturday Night Live.
Parnell’s appearance may be different thanks to the Overseer only having one eye, but his voice is instantly recognizable to fans of Archer and Rick and Morty. His appearance also hints at how different the vaults are from each other, as well as the ways their citizens were being experimented on—Lucy and Maximus are shocked when they see Ben, but Ben never seems to realize this, on top of being cheerful and welcoming.
1 Michael Emerson
Character: Siggi Wilzig
Played by Michael Emerson, Siggi Wilzig is a scientist for the Enclave working on a project involving cold fusion in Fallout. After the nature of his work is discovered, he takes his research and goes on the run and ends up with a bounty on his head, and just about all factions want him for various reasons. He crosses paths with the Ghoul, and although Lucy saves him, he takes a cyanide pill and instructs her to sever his head and take it to Lee Moldaver.
Emerson is best known for his role as Ben Linus on Lost, and while Wilzig is mysterious in his own right, he’s not as menacing; though Emerson still plays him wonderfully, with the perfect amount of sympathy, especially during his time on the run. Although he only appears in one episode, his character is crucial to the plot, and he looms large throughout the entire series, as his severed head is seen in almost every episode.
Fallout can be streamed on Prime Video in the U.S.