The world of pubic transportation has never been the same since the invention of ridesharing companies and one of the more - if not the most - recognizable of the bunch is Uber. However, even the most frequent users of the reliable service may not be aware of the ups and downs that it faced after becoming one of the most the valuable startups in the world, but the new miniseries Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber can fill you in.
Based on the book of the same name by Mike Isaac and co-developed by Brian Koppelman and David Levine, the Showtime original miniseries has employed an impressive rotation of A-list actors and A-plus talent to portray the people who were involved with the true story that inspired it. We have accepted your request to learn who plays who on the Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber cast, starting with the lead.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Travis Kalanick)
Playing Uber’s co-founder and ex-CEO, Travis Kalanick, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who previously played real people in Oliver Stone’s Snowden, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, and the fact-based dramedy 50/50. The 40-year-old also has been acting for decades, having started at a very young age before breaking out in movies like Disney’s Angels in the Outfield and TV shows like the sci-fi sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun as a teen.
The Emmy winner’s rebirth as a leading man (and longtime working relationship with Looper director Rian Johnson) began with the 2005 Neo-noir thriller Brick, leading to an impressively diverse filmography including romantic comedies like (500) Days of Summer, sci-fi blockbusters like Inception, and comic book movies like The Dark Knight Rises. Gordon-Levitt has also tried his hand at writing, directing, and producing - most recently the Apple TV+ series Mr. Corman, which he also stars on.
Kyle Chandler (Bill Gurley)
As Uber investor Bill Gurley, we have Kyle Chandler - who is always a delight on screen whether in a lead role (such as his Emmy-winning performance as Eric Taylor on the Friday Night Lights cast) or a supporting role (such as FBI agent Patrick Denham in The Wolf of Wall Street). After leading the supernatural mystery series Early Edition in the late 1990s, he eventually landed parts in blockbusters like Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake and acclaimed dramas like Ben Affleck’s Argo in 2012.
This streak of box office gold and Oscar gold only continued with appearances in Best Picture nominees like Carol and Manchester By the Sea or crowd-pleasers like the hilarious Game Night and action-packed Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020. Chandler’s last notable small screen ventures before Super Pumped were Netflix’s dark family drama Bloodline and Hulu’s lighter war satire Catch-22.
Uma Thurman (Arianna Huffington)
Better known as co-founder of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington also once served as a board member for Uber and is portrayed in Super Pumped by Uma Thurman. The former model’s transition into acting was met with modest success early on with acclaimed films like Dangerous Liaisons and 1991’s Robin Hood, but she really exploded in Hollywood for her Oscar-nominated performance on the Pulp Fiction cast in 1994.
After playing Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin and starring alongside one-time husband, Ethan Hawke, in Gattaca, Thurman reunited with Quentin Tarantino to lead the two-part revenge thriller Kill Bill. She has since made decidedly smaller, but nonetheless impressive, appearances in films and TV shows like 2010’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief as Medusa and the Apple TV+ series Suspicion, most recently.
Kerry Bishé (Austin Geidt)
Uber intern-turned-executive Austin Geidt is played by Kerry Bishé, who made her acting debut as “College Girl” in the drama The Lucky Ones in 2007 before appearing in the first Sex and the City movie as “Twenty-Something Girl Dreaming” the following year. In 2009, she joined the Scrubs cast and took over as narrator for the medical comedy’s final season.
The New Zealander has since risen to prominence on the big screen in movies like Kevin Smith’s 2011 horror satire Red State, Argo (alongside Super Pumped co-star Kyle Chandler), and the funny romantic crime thriller Happily with Joel McHale in 2021. Some of Bishé’s most notable small screen work includes a recurring role on Netflix’s Narcos, a starring role on Halt and Catch Fire (another fact-based series about the tech industry), and Showtime’s Penny Dreadful spin-off subtitled City of Angels in 2020.
Babak Tafti (Emil Michael)
As Uber’s former Senior Vice President of Business and Chief Business Officer Emil Michael, we have Babak Tafti, whose first role in a major motion picture was as an Iraqi prisoner in the political drama In the Valley of Elah in 2007 before scoring a larger role in a different kind of war movie: Terminator Salvation in 2009. He more recently appeared in the bizarre drama Swallow with Haley Bennett and the inventive LGBTQ+ drama Tu me Marques in 2019.
Super Pumped marks the actor’s first starring role on a TV series after making smaller appearances on countless acclaimed hits like Blue Bloods, Orange is the New Black, Ramy, and even CBS’ Murphy Brown revival in 2018. Taft has also had recurring spots alongside HBO’s Succession cast, and on The CW’s Vampire Diaries spin-off Legacies.
Elisabeth Shue (Bonnie Kalanick)
Travis Kalanick’s mother, Bonnie, is played by Elisabeth Shue, who previously worked with JGL in the 2004 drama Mysterious Skin. However, audiences will more likely recognize her as an ‘80s icon for playing the lead of 1987’s Adventures in Babysitting, Tom Cruise’s girlfriend in Cocktail, or from the second and third Back to the Future movies as Marty McFly’s sweetheart, Jennifer.
The Academy Award-nominated actress (for 1994’s Leaving Las Vegas) has also made several notable big screen appearances in the 21st Century - such as in House at the End of the Street as Jennifer Lawrence’s mother, Greyhound as Tom Hanks’ love interest, Battle of the Sexes as Priscilla Riggs, and the 2008 comedy Hamlet 2 as herself. In 2012, she joined the CSI cast, later starred on Amazon Prime’s The Boys as Madelyn Stillwell, and reprised her character from The Karate Kid, Ali Mills, on Netflix’s Cobra Kai in 2021.
Jon Bass (Garrett Camp)
As Uber co-founder Garret Camp, we have Jon Bass, who, like JGL, also played a real-life lawyer once in 2016’s Loving and also played a fictionalized version of an unspecified real person in Molly’s Game that same year. His big break, however, was replacing Josh Gad as Elder Cunningham on The Book of Mormon cast on Broadway.
Bass would later land small roles on shows like HBO’s Girls and The Newsroom in 2014 and a starring role on Comedy Central’s limited series Big Time in Hollywood, FL the next year before making a memorable splash on 2017’s Baywatch cast opposite The Rock and Zac Efron. He has also been a starring cast member of TBS’ seasonal anthology comedy Miracle Workers, along with Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe, since the beginning.
Bridget Gao Hollitt (Gabi)
Playing a violinist named Gabi, who captures the heart of JGL’s Travis Kalanick, is Bridget Gao Hollitt. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is actually the second acting credit ever for the model and musician. She previously appeared in a 2016 episode of Home and Away - a popular soap opera on which dozens of Aussie actors, such as Samara Weaving, also landed their big break.
Mousa Hussein Kraish (Fawzi Kamel)
Fawzi Kamel, an Uber driver who made headlines after his recorded confrontation with Travis Kalanick went viral, is played by Mousa Hussein Kraish, who previously worked with Kyle Chandler in 2008’s The Day the Earth Stood Still and, like Babak Tafti, had a guest spot on Blue Bloods. He made his feature-film debut in Man Push Cart in 2005 - the same year he appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Munich before starring in hit comedies Superbad and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
After landing a small part in Fast & Furious, the Brooklyn-raised actor appeared on shows like Chuck and Homeland, played a soldier in Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator, and later starred as a cook on AMC’s short-lived culinary drama Feed the Beast. After doing a few episodes of Amazon Prime’s Transparent, Kraish played the Jinn on Starz’s series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
Quentin Tarantino (Narrator)
Uma Thurman is not the only the only Quentin Tarantino movie alum joining the Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber cast as the legendary, groundbreaking, Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind classics like Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is serving as the series’ narrator. This is actually not the first time he has done such a role, having provided a voice over that would prepare audiences for a very gross plot twist in 2015’s The Hateful Eight.
He also made a physical cameo in his previous western, Django Unchained, in 2012 after previously casting himself in major roles in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Grindhouse. Tarantino also starred in a few movies by his buddy, Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Til Dawn and Desperado), played a blind demon in Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky, had a recurring role on Alias, and has portrayed himself a few times, such as in The Muppets’s Wizard of Oz.
Also be sure to look out for Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber cast member Hank Azaria - known for a multitude of great work from his recurring role on Friends to multiple characters on The Simpsons (Apu no longer one of them) - as current Apple CEO Tim Cook. With a cast this talented, the story behind the ridesharing company sounds more interesting than ever.
