How the Cast of The Queen's Gambit Compares to Their Real-Life Counterparts, in Photos

The star of the series might be a familiar face—she got her big break in 2015's The VVitch and has appeared in Peaky Blinders and Emma—but you've never seen her like this before. Beth Harmon is an American chess prodigy who learned the game growing up in an orphanage. She goes on to find fame and fortune on the international chess circuit, but can never quite outrun the demons that plague her and teeters dangerously between phenomenal success and complete ruin.

Harry Potter alum Melling plays Harry Beltik, a Kentucky chess champion who stars out as Beth Harmon's competition and becomes a teacher, friend, and romantic entanglement. Their relationship never quite runs smoothly, but Beltik sees greatness in Beth and has to learn to overcome his own ambition to help her reach it.

Beth's adoptive mother, Alma Wheatley, was never expecting to raise a prodigy—so it's no great surprise when the two end up shirking a traditional parent-child relationship and finding their own way of working together. The role is the first on-screen for Heller in almost a decade, but moviegoers will recognize her work: she was the director of hits like Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Borgov, a Russian chess master, is Beth's most feared competitor—and a stand in for the chilly relationship at the time between the U.S. and Russia—but that's not to say he's not unnerved by the young American phenom himself. The standoff between the two drives a good deal of the series's drama, and makes a strong case that chess could be considered an extreme sport. He's played with cool control by the Polish actor Marcin Dorocinski.

What begins as a rivalry between Benny, a sort of bad boy of the international chess champ set, and Beth turns into a friendship and more over the course of the series. He's at points competitive with and concerned for her, and serves as her guide into some of the game's more glamorous corners. Of course, you'll also recognize all-grown-up actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster from his role as Sam in Love Actually.

Jolene and Beth first meet as children in an orphanage, but the bond they develop—and the trust between them—seem like they could last a lifetime. It's a breakout role for Ingram, who'll be seen next in a Joel Coen-directed adaptation of Macbeth opposite her Gambit co-star Harry Melling.

The British actress (whom you know from Roadkill and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) could have fooled us in her role as the slick Parisian Cleo, one of the only other women Beth meets in the boys-club chess world. The two have their first encounter in New York, but later cross paths in Europe, where Beth is tempted to enjoy some of the spoils of her stunning success.