Dear Child cast: Who stars in the German thriller? (Did you recognize the DARK star?)

Dear Child is a German thriller series that premiered in early September 2023. The series centers on a woman named Lena who lives with her two children, Hannah and Jonathan, inside a high-security bunker of sorts with a mysterious man they refer to as Papa.

Papa appears to be keeping them in captivity. Inside the bunker, they must follow strict rules and do everything he tells them to, including lining up and showing him their hands every time he enters the room and eating meals at the same time every day.

They’ve been living like this for the children’s entire lives, as far as we know, until one day, Lena escapes and almost dies in a car accident. She’s escorted to the hospital alongside her daughter Hannah where the mystery starts unraveling. Dear Child is a six-part limited series based on the best-selling Romy Hausman novel of the same name.

Get to know the cast of the hit series!

Dear Child on Netflix cast

Kim Riedle as Lena Beck

Kim Riedle plays the character Lena Beck. When we first meet Lena, she and her two children are living in captivity with a man they all refer to as Papa. She soon escapes with her daughter into the surrounding forest where she gets hit by a car and is escorted to a hospital, which is the inciting incident for the show’s plot.

Riedle is an award-winning German actress who started her acting career in 2008. Her most notable credits include the movies Cocoon and Back for Good. She also starred in the Netflix series Skylines.

Nalia Schuberth as Hannah

Nalia Schuberth plays the young girl, Hannah. Hannah is Lena’s daughter and has been living in captivity with her mother and brother. Hannah escapes with Lena and provides the hospital with information while Lena is in surgery. Something about Hannah immediately creates suspicion among the investigators and healthcare professionals, she has a big role to play in the show’s mystery.

Schuberth is a young and up-and-coming German actress who Netflix viewers might recognize from the recently released movie Bird Box: Barcelona.

Sammy Schrein as Jonathan

Sammy Schrein plays Hannah’s brother Jonathan. As far as we know, Jonathan is also Lena’s son. He had been living under “Papa’s” rule with Lena and Hannah when they escaped and left him behind. The young actor has been active since 2021, but Dear Child is one of his most significant roles to date.

Hans Löw as Gerd Bühling

Hans Löw plays Gerd Bühling in Dear Child. Bühling is the CID agent who was previously in charge of investigating the disappearance of Lena more than 13 years ago. Bühling is an award-winning German actor known for In My Room and Alles ist gut.

Julika Jenkins as Karin Beck

Julika Jenkins plays Lena’s mother Karin Beck. Karin and her husband Matthias Beck have been desperately searching for their lost daughter for more than a decade. Jenkins is likely immediately recognizable to fans of Netflix’s other popular German series, DARK, where she played Claudia Tiedemann. Her other credits include Vitus, Tatort, and LOMO: The Language of Many Others.

Justus von Dohnányi as Matthias Beck

Justus von Dohnányi plays Lena’s father Matthias, husband of Karin Beck. Matthias and Karin are immediately on alert when they get a contact from CID agent Gerd Bühling informing them that they have found someone who matches Lena’s description. Dohnányi has been in the acting industry for a long time and is best known for The World is Not Enough, Downfall, and The Experiment, for which he won a Deutsche Filmspiel Award in Gold.

Haley Louise Jones as Aida Kurt

Haley Louise Jones plays the police officer Aida Kurt who is assigned to Lena and Hannah’s case after they are discovered post-car accident. Aida meets Hannah at the hospital and starts getting to know her to find out more about where she and her mother came from before the hit-and-run. Jones recently starred in the Netflix sci-fi film Paradise. Her other credits include Ivie wie Ivie, Bones and Names, and Artificial Twins.

Seraphina Maria Schweiger as Ines Reisig

The End of Innocence actress Seraphina Maria Schweiger plays the newbie police officer Ines Reisig. She hasn’t been on the job long and is still naïve about certain things. She works with Aida Kurt. Ines is the officer instructed to return to the scene of the hit-and-run and investigate the surrounding forest where Hannah and Lena emerged onto the road.

Birge Schade plays Ruth

Early on in Dear Child, a kindly nurse named Ruth forges a special connection to Hannah and is one of the few people Hannah feels comfortable around. Ruth is portrayed by Birge Schade, known for The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter and Home for the Weekend.

Dear Child is streaming now on Netflix.