- The movie adaptation of the Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen" was released on Friday.
- Ben Platt, 28, is reprising the lead role of 17-year-old high school student Evan Hansen.
- At 22 years old, Amandla Stenberg is the youngest member of the principal cast.
Ben Platt plays Evan Hansen, the 17-year-old protagonist with social anxiety whose lies eventually catch up with him.
In "Dear Evan Hansen," Evan writes letters to himself as an assignment from his therapist. When one of the letters is found in the pocket of another student, Connor, who died by suicide, Evan fabricates a backstory in which the two were best friends in order to get close to Connor's sister Zoe.
At 28 years old, Platt is more than a decade older than his character.
Platt, who was 26 when filming started in August 2020, turned 28 on September 24 — the day of the movie's release.
He originated the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway in 2016. He won a Tony for best lead actor in a musical, the soundtrack won a Grammy for best musical theater album, and the cast won an Emmy for their performance of "You Will Be Found" on Today — putting him an Oscar shy of the coveted "EGOT."
Though adults playing teenagers isn't anything new in Hollywood, criticisms of his older appearance among high-school students seem to have rankled the actor.
"Thank u from the bottom of my [heart] for the outpouring of trailer love yesterday," Platt wrote in a since-deleted tweet, which you can see in Variety's report here. "The film required me to revisit areas of personal pain, so seeing ppl excited & moved makes it so deeply worth it. PS to the randos being jerks about age, read this great article and/or watch grease."
Colton Ryan plays Connor Murphy, a troubled 17-year-old who steals Evan's letter to himself before dying by suicide.
Though Connor dies early in the Broadway show, his character returns as a figment of Evan's imagination in the song "Sincerely, Me" and as a ghost in "Disappear."
Ryan, who was an understudy during the original Broadway production, is 26 years old.
Ryan understudied the parts of Evan, Jared, and Connor in the original production. He was starring in "Girl From the North Country" on Broadway before the pandemic hit, and he also appeared in "Little Voice" on Apple TV+. He was 25 when filming on "Dear Evan Hansen" started in 2020.
Kaitlyn Dever plays Zoe, Connor's 16-year-old sister and Evan's love interest.
Evan befriends Zoe by inventing things that Connor supposedly wished he could tell her despite their difficult relationship, helping her see her late brother in a new light.
Dever is 24 years old.
Dever is best known for her role in the 2019 comedy "Booksmart," and she starred in the Netflix miniseries "Unbelievable." She has also appeared on the Fox series "Last Man Standing" since 2011.
She and her sister Mady Dever released their first single as the band Beulahbelle in 2020.
Nik Dodani plays Jared Kalwani, Evan's acquaintance who helps him fabricate emails to prove that he and Connor were friends.
Jared isn't particularly nice to Evan at the beginning of the story, but through working together to concoct Connor's emails and identity, they eventually become friends.
Dodani, who is 27 years old, is a stand-up comedian as well as an actor.
Dodani starred in the TV shows "Murphy Brown," "Atypical," and "Trinkets." He also appeared in the 2019 horror film "Escape Room."
Amandla Stenberg's character, 17-year-old Alana Beck, is Evan's high-achieving classmate.
Alana, who has struggled with mental health herself, helps Evan found The Connor Project to help keep Connor's memory alive, which becomes a viral social media movement.
She eventually confronts Evan about the truthfulness of the emails between him and Connor, prompting him to confess that they weren't actually friends.
At 22 years old, Stenberg is the youngest member of the principal cast.
Stenberg, who was 21 when filming started on "Dear Evan Hansen," starred in "The Hate U Give," "Everything, Everything," and as the character of Rue in the first "Hunger Games" film. The role of Alana has been expanded for the movie with an additional song, according to Variety.
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