Cast (in their own words)
MARY O'REILLY is the creator of Academicasaurus, and she plays Anne Dye. She writes, directs, and edits the episodes, draws the artwork, and routinely forgets to update social media. She is a writer, short film director, artist, puppeteer, not actually an actress, and an overly simplistic musician. She usually does all of this under the (new) name Haunted by Birds because that somehow feels less weird.
Mary is also an adjunct instructor for real, just in case you were wondering about the podcast's institutional accuracy and/or that undercurrent of bitterness and resignation. You can find her @maryisabird on Instagram and @birdinasweater on Twitter.
AMANDA FUNK-HILTON plays librarian Bee West. She tries to help Mary with the podcast by saying her weird thoughts out loud, which is often counterproductive, but luckily Mary then polishes some of these disjointed ramblings into a special holiday episode or something (yeah, the season two Halloween fiasco was kind of her fault). Unlike Bee, Amanda is not a librarian, she's an adjunct instructor, but similar to Bee, she enjoys falling into internet research black holes, breaking into not-quite-abandoned buildings, and hiding things under her friends' mattresses.
MARYNA MATLOCK plays Ida Winters and likes cats. (You have no idea just *how* much and you should probably be afraid to ask.) Maryna is a PhD candidate who, like Ida, teaches and specializes in Victorian literature and children's culture. Also like Ida, Maryna is an aficionado of all things sparkly and would definitely choose to wear the pretty lanyard, no matter how suspicious its provenance. When she is not petting cats or researching women writers' covert (proto-)feminist subversions cloaked under the innocent facade of nineteenth-century "children's" literature, she enjoys figure skating, playing Disney medleys on the piano, and making dresses with an irrational number of crystals and (inevitably) cat hair.
RAMONA MOURIR plays the psychic student, Kettle Badger. Unlike many of her other Academicasaurus cast-mates, Ramona normally talks in a voice very unlike her character and diligently rehearses speaking in the perky "Kettle voice." Ramona is a breast cancer thriver and recorded Season 1 while undergoing chemotherapy because, like Kettle, she's slightly insane and nothing will stop her from performing in a Bird in a Sweater production! Really, she just enjoys saying "yes" and being involved in everything Mary asks of her.
Ramona is also a dancer, burlesque performer, model, and tree-climbing enthusiast in Chicago. You can find her on Instagram @ramona.mourir
DAVE OPILKA plays Horatio Hendersett. Thankfully, he does not talk like his character. However, he is rather offbeat and does savor a good Almond Joy! Dave works a boring office job, so he's always happy to join Mary in her crazy projects. When he's not recording, you can find Dave at the movies, listening to other podcasts, or playing Pokemon Go.
TINA <surname redacted> is not an actor, but she is best friends with Mary. This means she finds herself doing all sorts of strange things, such as playing Emily Kant. She doesn't particularly regret it, though that answer definitely changes depending on the day of the week (or what Mary's throwing at her this time).
PETRA VANNUCCI-HENKEL (say that five times fast) plays the bane of Librarian West, Remember Brattle. Not even she knows who or what Remember truly is, and hopes to find out soon! It's killing her! Like Ramona, she pretty much always says "yes" to being a part of Mary's projects (except for that one time she was out of town). How else do you keep a long distance friendship going?
In real life she's mostly obsessed with her dog (the main subject of her Instagram) and traveling (the other subject of her Instagram). You can follow her @pvannucc.
SAMANTHA BARR plays Experience Caldwell, a scientist who is usually furious about a general lack of funding. Samantha gets stuck doing things like this because she has had the misfortune of knowing Mary since they were very, very small.
MAGGIE MCKAY plays Millicent Bicker. She enjoys acting in any and all of Mary's productions, simply because Mary makes it fun and Maggie likes to be goofy. Also, Maggie has had the pleasure of fake-murdering Dave in several of Mary's productions, which has been great!
In the real world, Maggie is a pediatric registered diatician and a dancer with a 1920s/1940s dance group, The Galaxie Girls. You can see her kicking her dance legs (and trying not to fall in her high heels) all throughout Chicago.
CARA DOSSETT plays Dot Mudgridge, the school's security guard. She is fueled by sarcasm and caffeine and may or may not be a space alien. She met Mary through a writer's group and typically likes to shout "YES!" when asked to collaborate on projects, usually to the terror of anyone else nearby at the time.
She is a fan of science fiction and horror and loves reading, writing, and painting. She aspires to return to her people in the stars one day (but promises not to destroy Earth)
NATASSA KARAMOUZIS plays Exie Enright and is always having a life crisis of some sort. She will often message Mary out of the blue and talk about whatever is on her mind before realizing she probably should say "hi" as well. She's from a Greek family living in Sweden and has a degree in literature studies and is stereotypically always seen reading or writing. She is always happy to join in on Mary's projects when she can as long as she's able to record whatever the project requires while home alone.
In her free time she runs a bookstagram account, writes bad poetry and spends way too much time writing fanfiction rather than her original fiction (but when she does work on her books she will most definitely message Mary about them and scream).
BRAD KEEFAUVER plays Langdon Dread, the curator of the Grand Accident gallery. Unlike Dread, Brad spends his days being useful to society as an analyst for a hospital group, and reserves his nights for more eccentric pursuits, mostly involving the hidden world of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his friend John H. Watson. Those pursuits include podcasts called “The Watsonian Weekly” and “Sherlock Holmes is Real,” and a blog entitled “Sherlock Peoria.”