Then and now: where are the cast members of 90s sitcom Seinfeld today? (2024)

First aired in 1989, NBC’s Seinfeld followed the misadventures of friends living in New York – five years before a similarly successful sitcom Friends went on air. Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander have continued acting while recurring cast members like Bryan Cranston and Patrick Warburton also found success on hit shows.

Here’s a then-and-now comparison of how far these celebs have come 35 years later.

1. Jerry Seinfeld

Seinfeld played the titular character and portrayed a semi-fictionalised version of his life as a stand-up comedian on the sitcom. Before that, he had a short-lived, recurring role as mail-delivery boy Frankie on the ABC sitcom Benson.

And he’s largely remained a comedy legend, returning to New York and his stand-up comedy roots when the show ended in 1998. He chronicled his post-Seinfeld tour in the Emmy-nominated 1998 HBO comedy special I’m Telling You for the Last Time.

In 2012, he created the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which featured himself and high-profile guests like Dave Chappelle, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman and then-president Barack Obama riding around in vintage cars before stopping to chat over coffee. The series became so popular that it was picked up by streaming giant Netflix.

The streamer also struck a deal with Seinfeld for two stand-up specials and the development of scripted and unscripted comedy programming. Jerry Before Seinfeld was released on September 19, 2017, and 23 Hours to Kill – his first original stand-up special in 22 years – premiered on May 5, 2020.

The comedian still tours and most recently directed the Netflix film Unfrosted, a comedy about the history of Pop-Tarts.

2. Michael Richards

Richards played Jerry’s neighbour Cosmo Kramer on the show and, like his co-star Seinfeld, he’s also a stand-up comedian in real life. He got his big break on Billy Crystal’s cable television special, was a series regular on ABC’s Fridays, and had roles on NBC’s Cheers. He also appeared in films like So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Problem Child (1990) and Coneheads (1993).

But Richards ran into some trouble after Seinfeld. In 2000, he went on to play the lead in the eponymous The Michael Richards Show on NBC, which was cancelled shortly after its debut.

He returned to stand-up and famously found himself in hot water during a performance at the Laugh Factory comedy club in late 2006 for hurling racist epithets at a group of audience members. The incident was caught on video and led to a hiatus from stand-up.

Richards appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm from Seinfeld co-creator Larry David in 2009. The season-seven episode featured a reunion of the core Seinfeld cast for the first time since the finale. Other television stints included the role of Frank on the TV Land sitcom Kirstie and a gig on the 2019 romantic comedy Faith, Hope & Love.

3. Jason Alexander

Alexander played Jerry’s perpetually scheming best friend George Costanza, but before this, Alexander nabbed notable roles as Phillip Stuckey in the film Pretty Woman (1990) and Hugo in the Disney-animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

He also voiced the lead character in Duckman (1994), won an Emmy for his guest appearance on Dream On, and a Tony and a Grammy for his work on Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989).

Alexander didn’t immediately find the same level of success after Seinfeld. His first project after the show ended was the ABC sitcom Bob Patterson, which only aired five episodes. He was also on the short-lived CBS sitcom Listen Up!

Over the years, he continued to make appearances on television with roles on episodes of NBC’s Friends, UPN’s Star Trek: Voyager, Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle, USA Network’s Monk, and CBS’s Criminal Minds.

He returned to Broadway as the artistic director of Los Angeles’ Reprise Theatre Company from 2007 to 2013, appeared on live-stage shows including The Producers (2003) opposite Martin Short, A Christmas Carol (2004) with Kelsey Grammer, Broadway’s Fish in the Dark (2015), and The Portuguese Kid (2017). Until 2020, Alexander also voiced Sy Borgman on Warner Bro’s animated television series Harley Quinn.

Some of his recent work includes cameos on Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel as Asher Friedman and as Gene Lundy on CBS’s Young Sheldon. He also still performs onstage, most recently starring in the comedy Judgement Day at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Louis-Dreyfus played Jerry’s ex-turned-buddy Elaine Benes. Before winning audiences over for her portrayal of Elaine, Louis-Dreyfus spent three seasons as a cast member on NBC’s iconic sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live.

The A-list comedian has convincingly broken what came to be known as the “Seinfeld curse” since the sitcom ended. She took her talents to her own show, CBS’s The New Adventures of Old Christine, where she won an Emmy. She then followed that up with HBO’s Veep, where she played American vice-president Selina Meyer until the show ended in 2019. That role earned her a record-setting six consecutive Emmys.

She received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour – one of America’s highest achievements in comedy – in 2018. She also voiced characters in the animated films A Bug’s Life (1998), Planes (2013) and Onward (2020).

In 2021, Louis-Dreyfus made her first appearance as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s now set to produce and star in Tangles, an animated film based on a graphic novel about Alzheimer’s disease.

5. Wayne Knight

Knight played Jerry’s arch nemesis, Newman. But before this role, he had several memorable performances in films like Dirty Dancing (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991) and Basic Instinct (1992).

He also worked as a private investigator in New York for five years. When Seinfeld ended its run, Knight continued his role as Officer Don Orville on NBC’s 3rd Rock from the Sun which he took up when the show premiered in 1996. He also appeared on Broadway in Art (1999).

Knight had several more television stints including guest spots on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, FX’s Nip/Tuck, Fox’s Bones, ABC’s The Whole Truth and Netflix’s Narcos. He starred as a recurring character on TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland and as part of the main cast on TV Land’s The Exes.

But his most extensive work after Seinfeld has been voicing characters on animated shows like Fox Kids cartoon Toonsylvania, Disney’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the Kids’ WB! series Xiaolin Showdown, the Nickelodeon cartoon Catscratch and in iconic Disney films Hercules (1997), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Tarzan (1999).

Most recently, he appeared on the Prime series Them.

6. John O’Hurley

Before playing the founder of the J. Peterman Company and Elaine’s boss on Seinfeld, O’Hurley had roles on multiple soap operas. These roles included CBS then ABC’s The Edge of Night, Loving and General Hospital, CBS’s As the World Turns and The Young and the Restless, and NBC’s Santa Barbara.

Like a few of his other former co-stars, O’Hurley did voice-over work after the show ended. He also had a recurring role as Dr Christopher Neff on Lifetime’s Devious Maids and preceded Steve Harvey as the host of Family Feud from 2006 to 2010.

O’Hurley is also a musician who released a multi-album compilation of his original instrumental compositions called Peace of Our Minds in 2004.

Viewers might also be familiar with his appearance as a contestant on the first season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. He lost to his General Hospital co-star Kelly Monaco, but was voted the winner by fans in a charity rematch months later.

7. Bryan Cranston

Cranston appeared multiple times on the sitcom as Dr Tim Whatley. But here’s a fun fact: before finding regular acting work in the 1980s, Cranston earned US$150 per wedding as an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church. He eventually found roles on the soap opera Loving and the Fox series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Cranston’s career took off after Seinfeld. He landed the leading role of Hal Wilkerson on Fox’s comedy Malcolm in the Middle, earning three Emmy nominations.

Two years after Malcolm in the Middle ended, Cranston found even more success as the terminally ill high-school chemistry teacher Walter White on AMC’s Breaking Bad. He won multiple Emmys for it.

Cranston won critical acclaim on Broadway as well, winning Tony Awards for playing American president Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way (2013) and Howard Beale in Network (2017).

In recent years, he starred on Showtime’s Your Honor from 2020 to 2023 and appeared in films like Asteroid City (2023) and Argylle (2024).