About Explained
This documentary series, made in partnership with Vox, explain some of the world's current trends, from politics, to science to pop culture.
Main Cast of Explained
Maria Bello
plays Narrator (voice) (2 episodes)
Estelle Caswell
plays Narrator (voice) (3 episodes)
Bill Clinton
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Catherine, Princess of Wales
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
William, Prince of Wales
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Samira Wiley
plays Narrator (voice) (2 episodes)
George H.W. Bush
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Donald Trump
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Nelson Mandela
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Barack Obama
plays Self (archive footage) (4 episodes)
Richard Nixon
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Lyndon B. Johnson
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Vladimir Putin
plays Self (archive footage) (2 episodes)
Joe Biden
plays Self (archive footage) (3 episodes)
Secondary Cast of Explained
Joss Fong
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Christian Slater
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
LeVar Burton
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Nick Kroll
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Aasif Mandvi
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Kevin Smith
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Coleman Lowndes
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Yara Shahidi
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Kristen Bell
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Rachel Bloom
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Jerry Springer
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Rachel McAdams
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Kyle MacLachlan
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Carly Rae Jepsen
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Tablo
plays Self (1 episode)
Park Ji-min
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Min Yoon-gi
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kim Tae-hyung
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kim Seok-jin
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kim Nam-joon
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jeon Jung-kook
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jung Ho-seok
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Park Chung-hee
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Yang Hyun-suk
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
DJ Tukutz
plays Self (1 episode)
Mithra Jin
plays Self (1 episode)
Lee Soo-man
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kim Dae-jung
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Psy
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Grace Kelly
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Virginia Woolf
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Eleanor Roosevelt
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Hillary Clinton
plays Self (1 episode)
Valentine Rugwabiza
plays Self (1 episode)
Elizabeth Warren
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kirsten Gillibrand
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Sandra Day O'Connor
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Anderson Cooper
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Hilary Swank
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Maggie Siff
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Abigail Disney
plays Self (1 episode)
Michael Jordan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Mark Cuban
plays Self (1 episode)
Lakeith Stanfield
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
J.K. Simmons
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Bill Gates
plays Self (1 episode)
Vincent Kartheiser
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Natasha Lyonne
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Cleo Abram
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Andrew Carnegie
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Warren Buffett
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
John D. Rockefeller
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Cornelius Vanderbilt
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
John Maynard Keynes
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Mehrsa Baradaran
plays Self - Author (1 episode)
Cory Booker
plays Self - U.S. Senator (1 episode)
Thomas Shapiro
plays Self - Sociologist (1 episode)
Beth Jacobson
plays Self - Foreclosure Specialist (1 episode)
James Baldwin
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Edward A. Bouchet
plays Self - First Black Ph.D Recipient (archive footage) (1 episode)
Shirley Chisholm
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ta-Nehisi Coates
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Stephen Colbert
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Bessie Coleman
plays Self - First Black Licensed Pilot (archive footage) (1 episode)
Alan Greenspan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jesse Jackson
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Robert L. Johnson
plays Self - First Black Billionaire (archive footage) (1 episode)
Martin Luther King Jr.
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Dennis Kucinich
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Abraham Lincoln
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Alain Leroy Locke
plays Self - First Black Rhodes Scholar (archive footage) (1 episode)
Malcolm X
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Thurgood Marshall
plays Self - First Black Supreme Court Justice (archive footage) (1 episode)
Hattie McDaniel
plays Self - First Black Oscar Winner (archive footage) (1 episode)
Michelle Obama
plays Self - First Black First Lady (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jesse Owens
plays Self - Four-Time Olympic Gold Medalist (archive footage) (1 episode)
Colin Powell
plays Self - First Black Secretary of State (archive footage) (1 episode)
Joseph Rainey
plays Self - First Black Congressperson (archive footage) (1 episode)
Hiram Revels
plays Self - First Black Senator (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jackie Robinson
plays Self - First Black MLB Player (archive footage) (1 episode)
Rick Santelli
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
William Tecumseh Sherman
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ruth Simmons
plays Self - First Black Ivy League President (archive footage) (1 episode)
Edwin M. Stanton
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
George Stephanopoulos
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Brian Williams
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Neville Sanjana
plays Self - Biologist (1 episode)
Jennifer Doudna
plays Self - CRISPR Pioneer (1 episode)
John Evans
plays Self - Sociologist (1 episode)
Hank Greely
plays Self - Law Professor (1 episode)
Rebecca Cokley
plays Self - Disability Rights Activist (1 episode)
Emmanuelle Charpentier
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Francis Collins
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Dick Costolo
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Don Lemon
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Keith Morrison
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Reena Ninan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Bernie Sanders
plays Self (1 episode)
John Franklin Stephens
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Keri Russell
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
John Waters
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Karlie Kloss
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Aya Cash
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Adolf Eichmann
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Big Boi
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jane Fonda
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Noam Chomsky
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Mike Wallace
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Rosario Dawson
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Meghan Markle
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Naruhito
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Park Geun-hye
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Akihito
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jay-Z
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode) , Self (voice) (1 episode)
Emperor Hirohito of Japan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Princess Margaret
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
King Charles III of the United Kingdom
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Kim Kardashian
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Princess Diana of Wales
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Oprah Winfrey
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Fidel Castro
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
George W. Bush
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Adolf Hitler
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ronald Reagan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ann Coulter
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Peter Jennings
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Dan Rather
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Tom Brokaw
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ethan Hawke
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Boris Johnson
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Jake Gyllenhaal
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Rainn Wilson
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Sophie Okonedo
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Keke Palmer
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Hector Elizondo
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Kim Cattrall
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Kelly Rowland
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Connie Britton
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Ruth Negga
plays Narrator (voice) (1 episode)
Doja Cat
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Moon Jae-in
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Xi Jinping
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Justin Trudeau
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Ted Cruz
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Michael Bloomberg
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Seo Tai-ji
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Primary
plays Self (1 episode)
Jim Jones
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Catherine Oxenberg
plays Self - Mother of NXIVM Cult Member (1 episode)
Mark Zuckerberg
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Muhammad Ali
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Doug E. Fresh
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Gigi Hadid
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Leo J. Ryan
plays Self (archive footage) (1 episode)
Crew of Explained