Fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and its sequels will not need to look at Netflix to find their latest obsession. From Jenny Han, the author of the novels that inspired that film franchise, comes The Summer I Turned Pretty - an Amazon Prime original series about a teenage girl who becomes wrapped up in a love triangle with her two childhood friends during one life-changing summer. Before the premiere season of the romantic, coming-of-age drama drops Friday, June 17, 2022, let’s take a look at who plays whom in the Summer I Turned Pretty cast. We shall start by introducing the young series lead.
Lola Tung (Belly)
Speaking of “introducing,” audiences will be officially introduced to Lola Tung when she makes her acting debut leading Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty cast. According to a recent interview with Who What Wear, the 19-year-old was a freshman at Carnegie Mellon when her talent manager landed her an audition to play 16-year-old Isabel “Belly” Conklin, who finds love for the first time with a pair of brothers she has known her whole life.
Tung first fell in love with acting playing the Tin Man in a middle school production of The Wizard of Oz and continued to pursue it at New York’s LaGuardia High School, leading to the bright career she has ahead of her.
Jackie Chung (Laurel)
Playing Belly’s mother, Laurel Dunne, is Jackie Chung - who, like her onscreen daughter from The Summer I Turned Pretty, has a background in theatre, but did not make her screen acting debut until much later when she starred in 2005’s Take It or Leave It? - the first of many short films on her resume.
She played a police officer in her first feature film (2006’s Holding Divya), the love interest of a lawyer with major identity issues in the surreal thriller, Someone Else, from 2015, and an ailing mother in director Wayne Wang’s drama, Coming Home Again, in 2019. Chung has also made notable guest spots on Grey’s Anatomy and HBO Max’s Station 19, and co-wrote and starred in the 2006 miniseries, Finding My America.
Rachel Blanchard (Susannah)
Playing Laurel’s best friend, Susannah Fisher, is Rachel Blanchard, who has been involved in a few onscreen love triangles herself as Sally on two episodes of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords and the lead of the Audience original series, You Me Her, more recently.
The Canadian actor has also starred in many coming-of-age TV shows, such as The Kids of Degrassi Street (her debut), Nickelodeon’s Are Your Afraid of the Dark?, a series adaptation of Clueless as Cher Horowitz, and a couple of seasons of 7th Heaven. Blanchard is also known for movies like 1996’s The Rage: Carrie 2, 2006’s Snakes on a Plane, and Where the Truth Lies from 2005, and was also on the first season of FX’s Fargo.
Christopher Briney (Conrad)
As Susannah’s son, Conrad, who suddenly develops a crush on Belly, we have Christopher Briney - who, like his onscreen love interest from The Summer I Turned Pretty, is making his TV series debut on the Amazon Prime original.
However, the young actor has previously starred in a couple of short films - namely 2018’s 8-minute thriller, Under the Covers, as the shadowy antagonist, and in the more grounded drama, Want This, from 2020 - and also wrote, directed, edited, and shot his own short called Paix in 2019. Briney will make his feature film debut alongside Sir Ben Kingsley in director Mary Harron’s Salvador Dali biopic, Dali Land, which is now in post-production.
Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah)
As Conrad’s brother, Jeremiah, who also falls for Belly, we have Gavin Casalegno, who last appeared on a show about love triangles when he guest starred with The Vampire Diaries cast as a young Damon Salvatore.
The now 22-year-old also played a younger version of Douglas Booth’s character, Shem, in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah in 2014 - the same year he appeared in the football drama, The Game Stands Tall, before before playing a track prodigy in 2017’s Nine Seconds. He has also starred in a number of horror films (such as 2014’s Dead Still, The Unhealer in 2020, and a VR short based on the Sage Alexander book seres in 2018) and recently had a recurring role with the Walker cast in Season 1.
Sean Kaufman (Steven)
Belly’s older brother, Steven, is Sean Kaufman’s first starring role on a TV show, following a decent run of guest spots in recent years on series like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2018, Manifest in a two-episode appearance that same year, and FBI: Most Wanted in 2021. He made his acting debut in 2015 as a “Spy Jogger” in 11-minute romantic comedy, Mature Young Adults, and first starred in a feature film the next year with the more dramatic, Happy Baby. However, Kaufman’s earliest gig was narrating the 2012 documentary, City World.
Alfredo Narciso (Cleveland)
In the role of Cleveland (which Deadline describes as a novelist working on a book during The Summer I Turned Pretty’s titular season), we have Alfredo Narciso, who might have crossed paths with Sean Kaufman when appearing with the Manifest cast as Captain Riojas - one of many law enforcement officials he has played on TV.
However, he is also known for playing a TV station employee on a couple of episodes of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, a political official on Homeland, and a secret service agent on House of Cards in its fourth season on Netflix. Narciso’s most notable big screen credits include Demoltion with Jake Gyllenhaal and the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, and he also played one of the main antagonists of the hit video game, Red Dead Redemption.
Colin Ferguson (John Conklin)
The role of John Conklin, whom we are presuming is Belly’s father, is played by Colin Ferguson, who has a few credits in common with his The Summer I Turned Pretty co-stars, including his debut on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and recurring role on The Vampire Diaries.
However, the Canadian actor is best known as Sheriff Jack Carter on Eureka, which he followed up by joining the cast of another SyFy original series called Haven. Some may also recognize Ferguson as Patrick Maitland on NBC’s short-lived American remake of the hit British sitcom, Coupling, or as the most recent “Maytag Man” for the appliance company’s iconic ad campaign.
Tom Everett Scott (Adam Fisher)
The role of Adam Fisher, whom Deadline confirms is Susannah’s husband, is played by Colin Ferugson’s Because I Said So co-star, Tom Everett Scott, who is best known from the That Thing You Do! cast as The Wonders’ drummer, Guy Patterson, which was also his debut film role.
He would go on to play an impressive variety of characters, such as the lead of 1997’s An American Werewolf in Paris, a successful stock broker in Boiler Room from 2000, and Emma Stone’s husband at the end of La La Land in 2016. Some of his most notable small screen credits include MTV’s series adaptation of Scream, voicing Booster Gold on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and as a part of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why cast as Tyler Down’s father.
Who will win the heart of Belly by the end of The Summer I Turned Pretty (which has already been renewed for a second season)? See for yourself by streaming all seven episodes of Season 1 on Amazon Prime.
