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Where is the cast of SYFY's ‘Farscape’ now? Ben Browder, Claudia Black & more
Keeping tabs on the eclectic cast of the classic SYFY series.
Twenty years gone from its SYFY farewell, Farscape (streaming at Peacock) still remains one of our favorite science fiction TV shows. Thanks to the wizardry of The Jim Henson Company and creator Rockne S. O’Bannon, it continues to stand out in the wider galaxy of small-screen genre fare for its imaginative sets and creature effects, a story that only gets better as it goes along, and — perhaps most importantly — its incredible cast.
Stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black each could’ve anchored the series on their own, but together they evolved an irresistible onscreen chemistry that grounded Farscape amid all those alien special effects and table-flipping plot beats. Each actor went on to catch more SYFY camera time on Stargate SG-1 before continuing their still-expanding acting careers…but they’re not the only treasures from the Farscape cast you’ve likely seen somewhere or other in the two decades that’ve since passed.
RELATED: 'Farscape' star Claudia Black on playing Aeryn Sun, ‘the heart of the show’
Interested to know more? Welp, you've come to the right corner of the universe.Tag along as we check in on what the key players in SYFY’s space epic have been up to since Farscape’s 2003 series sign-off.
Ben Browder
The lone American actor in the core Farscape cast among a group of Australian and New Zealanders, Ben Browder played brash but level-headed NASA astronaut John Crichton through all four seasons of the series (as well as in the 2004 event series Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars). Both Browder and fellow Farscape star Claudia Black ended up sticking around in space once the series was done, joining the cast of SYFY”s Stargate SG-1, where Browder took on the role of new commander Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell.
Though his roles have been infrequent since his Farscape and SG-1 days, Browder’s never been too far from the screen (or from sci-fi): He had a part in the 2012 seventh season of Doctor Who, showed up in a couple of Arrow episodes, and was even one of Peter Quill’s gold-skinned Sovereign antagonists in 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2. Browder provided the (male) player character’s voice for 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops video game, and most recently he’s been spotted in single-episode appearances in Walker (2022) and Station 19 (2023).
Claudia Black
Black told SYFY WIRE in 2022 that her Aeryn Sun character was “the heart” of Farscape, and through all four seasons (plus the Peacekeeper Wars), Black evolved the human-like alien role from that of a cold soldier to a mother and empath who provides the anchor for other characters’ varying emotions. Like Browder, Black stayed on at SYFY to close out Stargate SG-1 (as well as followup films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum) as fan favorite character Vala Mal Doran.
Black’s many fans know sci-fi and fantasy have been at the center of her long and storied acting career: Along with Farscape, she starred opposite Vin Diesel in founding Riddick film Pitch Black (2000), and later went on to appear in a ton of well-received science fiction and fantasy projects in both theaters and on the small screen: She voiced the character of Angelique opposite Johnny Depp in Rango, turned up in a pair of Haven episodes at SYFY, starred in The CW’s 2016 outbreak event series Containment, and held a recurring role (as Ann Evans) in the network’s 2019-2022 alien series Roswell, New Mexico. Black’s voice has been absolutely everywhere in video games, too — most notably as Chloe Frazer in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series. Lately, Black has starred in first-contact sci-fi movie DEUS (2022), and voiced a key antagonist (Tanta Olas) in the 2023 Square Enix sci-fi action game Forspoken.
Anthony Simcoe
Underneath all those burly prosthetics, actor Anthony Simcoe gave Luxan warrior Ka D’Argo a characteristically take-charge and often stormy personality. The ‘tude matched the looks, too: Thanks to Farscape executive producer and creature creator Brian Henson, D’Argo made an impact as an imposing humanoid ally; serving up the kind of brawn the rest of the gang was glad to count on in any fight. Simcoe appeared in both the main series as well as Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, and would go on to star in a handful of mainly Down-Under projects after the show ended, including opposite Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, and Gerard Butler in fantasy kids’ film Nim’s Island (2008). His last major appearances came in the Australian TV crime series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities (2009) and The Inbetweeners 2 (2014), a movie sequel spinoff of the popular Aussie small-screen series The Inbetweeners.
Virgina Hey
Striking as the blue-skinned Delvian priestess Zhaan, Virginia Hey played a proto-Avatar role of sorts on Farscape, with her spiritually-attuned humanoid character capable of communing closely with nature’s ethereal side. Longtime fans may know Hey for something a bit less touchy-feely, though: Alongside a string of roles in other 1980s movies, she’d previously played Warrior Woman in George Miller’s Mad Max 2 (1981). Departing Farscape midway through its four-season run, Hey has since only infrequently remerged on-screen, with her 2014 guest turn voicing an alien robot for the "Raising Gazorpazorp" episode of Rick and Morty perhaps her highest-profile post-series role.
Gigi Edgley
Debuting midway through Farscape’s first season and spinning by Season 2 into a series regular, Australian entertainer Gigi Edgley played grey-skinned space ragamuffin Chiana as a darty, sometimes sexy wild card character bent on bucking the stuffy authority of her native planet of Nebari Prime. Since Farscape ended, Edgley has mostly been seen on Australian TV, starring in the Aussie Blackjack series of small-screen films and, more recently, in sci-short film Hashtag (2015) and drama feature Diminuendo (2018). In 2014, Edgley also served as the host of the short-lived SYFY practical effects game show Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge.
Paul Goddard
Weaving in and out of the series from Season 1 onward but playing a bigger role in Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, Paul Goddard appeared as Stark, the humanoid alien with a glowing face that’s typically concealed beneath a metal mask. Much of Goddard’s screen career predates Farscape, which marked one of the actor’s most recent roles. You’ve probably seen him elsewhere, though: He played Agent Brown in The Matrix (1999) and had character part in mid-1990s movie hits Babe and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, as well as a part in TNT’s 1999 sci-fi series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
Jonathan Hardy
Farscape came late in the long and prolific screen career of New Zealand actor Jonathan Hardy, who passed away in 2012. Classically trained with a stage background in Shakespeare, Hardy brought an innocent air of royal smarminess to his creature-effects role as the voice of Rygel, the hefty and once-proud ruler of the Hynerian alien race. Prior to Farscape, Hardy already had starred in a slew of big-screen hits including the original Mad Max (1979), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and Ned Kelly (2003), as well as long string of Australian TV series throughout the 1980s and ‘90s.
Lani Tupu/Wayne Pygram
Lani Tupu provided a pair of creature voices on Farscape: one for Season 1 antagonist Bialar Crais, and the other (reprised in The Peacekeeper Wars) for the enigmatic and aptly-named Pilot, an animatronic character who dispensed wisdom from his permanently-bonded perch within the ship. Much of Tupu’s screen career predates Farscape, including roles in a lengthy string of Australian and American series highlighted by Aussie soap opera Home and Away. His most recent high-profile appearance came in a Season 4 episode of AMC’s Preacher, where he played New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
As black-clad Farscape baddie Scorpius, Wayne Pygram brought a simmering sense of white-hot evil to a role that launched his vengeful villain on an obsessive hunt for the ultimate wormhole weapon. Both before and after Farscape, Pygram’s screen appearances through the years have been sporadic, but they’ve definitely been high-impact: He played a cruel sailor in 1991’s Return to the Blue Lagoon, and replaced the late Peter Cushing — rather convincingly, it turned out — as Grand Moff Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the 2005 finale film in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy.
All four seasons of Farscape as well as Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, are available to stream anytime at Peacock.
