Despite filming in the Atlanta area at the same time for years and sharing a location or two, there's not a lot of crossover among the casts of The Walking Dead and Stranger Things. There are a few actors who did happen to appear in each of the shows.
The Walking Dead came to an end in 2020 after 11 seasons. Stranger Things got started in the middle of The Walking Dead's run, but it, too, is coming to an end. Stranger Things 5, the final season, just premiered on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
To celebrate the final season of the Netflix series, we shared a list of three Walking Dead actors who fans probably forgot also appeared in Stranger Things during its five-year run on Netflix. There were a few more actors who also appeared in the series, but these are definitely the most memorable of the two shows.
Tinsley and Anniston Price
- The Walking Dead character: Judith Grimes
- Stranger Things character: Holly Wheeler
Anniston and Tinsley Price are the most important actors who crossed over between The Walking Dead and Stranger Things. The twins teamed up to play Judith Grimes, the daughter of Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) in way back in season 4.
The Prices also played Holly Wheeler, the younger sister of Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and daughter of Karen (Cara Buono) and Ted (Joe Chrest) in the first four seasons of Stranger Things. Although Holly doesn't have a huge role in the series, they did appear in eight episodes across the first four seasons of the series.
For Stranger Things 5, Holly's role was recast. Nell Fisher starred as Holly in the new season, and she's been a major part of every episode of season 5 so far.
Karen Ceesay
- The Walking Dead character: Bertie
- Stranger Things character: Sue Sinclair
Karen Ceesay is probably the most important Walking Dead actor who has also appeared in Stranger Things. In The Walking Dead, Ceesay appears as Bertie in 14 episodes over five seasons between season 6 and season 10. Those seasons aired between 2016 and 2020. As far as I know, Bertie is technically still alive in the Walking Dead, so she could, in theory, return for a spinoff.
In Stranger Things, Ceesay plays a more important character to that story, though. Ceesay plays Sue Sinclair, the mother of Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Erica (Priah Ferguson). Ceesay has not appeared in Stranger Things 5, but I can't imagine the series ending without the full Sinclair family checking back in.
Caroline Arapoglou
- The Walking Dead character: Rose
- Stranger Things character: Winnie Kline
Caroline Arapoglou appeared in one episode of The Walking Dead as Rose way back in season 9. She was killed early in the outbreak, so most of her scenes take place in a flashback. Unfortunately, she was killed by a Matias (Javier Carrasquillo), who was not actually bitten by a walker.
In Stranger Things, Arapoglou has a slightly bigger role. She plays Winnie Kline in four episodes of season 3, which was released in 2019. Winnie is the wife of Mayor Kline (Cary Elwes), who sells out Hawkins to the Russians and builds the Starcourt Mall.
Fun fact! Arapoglou also stars in the Netflix series Outer Banks as Rose Cameron. While she hasn't been officially announced, it appears Arapoglou will appear in the final season of Outer Banks, which lands on Netflix sometime in 2026.
You can watch The Walking Dead and Stranger Things on Netflix right now!