The Studio cameos: here are all the famous stars in the Apple TV Plus comedy

If you've been watching the new hit comedy series The Studio, then you might have noticed that the new Apple TV Plus comedy series is chock-full of celebrity cameos.

The Studio is about the bedraggled head of a Hollywood movie studios, who finds his love of the storytelling medium conflicting with the realities of the movie business... and his own incompetence in the role. Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, the head, with Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn and Chase Sui Wonders playing his executives.

Given that the story is all about Hollywood movies, it makes sense that plenty of Hollywood faces would appear across the episodes. Unless you're a major cinephile, though, there might be a few of the cameos that you don't recognize. But that's why we're here: to help you understand who's who in the series.

So we're going to run through each episode of The Studio, listing all the celebrity cameos in each of them; this is only for people playing themselves, so we're not including the likes of Bryan Cranston as the former studio head or the main cast of the series. We'll update this list when each new episode airs too, so it's up-to-date.

I'd recommend watching the show yourself first, though, so the cameos are a surprise; here's how to watch The Studio and if you need some convincing, here's our The Studio review.

Episode 1

Episode 1 is called 'The Promotion' and it's twice as long as the other episodes of The Studio. It sets up the larger cast of the series as Remick is promoted to being head of the studio, but its longer run-length gives us double the amount of time for cameos. And there are plenty.

Paul Dano

We open on Paul Dano, who's acting in an unnamed movie during an action sequence. After the take, he refuses to give Remick the time of day.

Dano is a respected actor who's been in loads of big projects including There Will Be Blood, The Fabelmans, The Batman, Prisoners and recently Dumb Money, so you probably recognized him straight away. The latter movie had Rogen in it.

Peter Berg

Dano's director for his scene is another big name: Peter Berg, who has a fair few action movies under his name that you may well have seen. Unlike most other names on this list, Berg doesn't share any credits than Rogen (other than The Studio).

He's directed movies including Deepwater Horizon, Hancock, The Kingdom, Mile 22 and Lone Survivor. He's also given himself small roles in many of these titles, usually as cameos, so he's used to hidden parts!

Nicholas Stoller

Remick meets up with a potential director for his Kool-Aid movie: this is real-life director and writer Nicholas Stoller, in a role that definitely counts as self-deprecating humor.

In the real world Stoller directed movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek and Neighbors (which starred Seth Rogen), as well as the recent You're Cordially Invited. He also write the scripts to Yes Man, The Muppets, Fun with Dick and Jane and Zoolander 2.

Martin Scorsese

A cameo you probably don't need explained to you, Remick meets legendary film-maker Martin Scorsese when he pitches a movie based on the Jonestown Massacre, and Scorsese shows up again through the episode, with the director being named-dropped throughout.

A list of Scorsese's known films would fill up this entire article's word count, and he's won countless Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes.

What you might be wondering, is whether this Jonestown movie is real, as it'd certainly fit with his last picture Flowers of the Killer Moon which is about another real-life killing. However while Scorsese is attached to plenty of upcoming movies including a retelling of the 1741 the shipwreck of the HMS Wager, a biopic about Theodore Roosevelt and a crime drama about serial killer H. H. Holmes, IMDb doesn't list a Jonestown movie amongst his upcoming works.

Charlize Theron

The quickest cameo in the first episode of The Studio is of South African actress Charlize Theron. She's briefly seen as she kicks Remick out of a party she's hosting, after the man makes Scorsese cry.

Theron is a blockbuster actress who won an Oscar for Monster and has also been in The Cider House Rules, Mad Max: Fury Road and several Fast and Furious movies. She was recently cast in Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the Odyssey, and also acted alongside Rogen in romantic comedy Long Shot.

Steve Buscemi

Lastly, we have Steve Buscemi, who's set to play the lead in Scorsese's Jonestown movie. We see him once in a mock-up poster for the movie, and again at Theron's party, where he expresses excitement for the movie when maligning that it's set to be Scorsese's last.

Buscemi is a beloved character actor who's been in some big hits including Fargo, Armageddon, Billy Madison, Reservoir Dogs and The Death of Stalin. He's a prolific actor, appearing in many shows or movies each year, and he's directed a few movies too. The only cross-over he has with Rogen is in a 2011 music video made by The Beastie Boys, which was a revisited version of their video for 'Fight For Your Right'. A 30-minute mini-film, it has cameos from plenty of Hollywood A-listers including, of course, Rogen and Buscemi.

Episode 2

Episode 2 is called 'The Oner', and it follows as Remick visits the set of a movie that's trying to pull off a one-shot take. Despite wanting to help, he ends up ruining the shoot and getting in the way. There are two major 'cameos' in the episode, with that word doing heavy pulling as both are major presences in the story.

Sarah Polley

The director of the fictional movie, and the woman trying to pull off the one-shot take, is real-life Canadian film director Sarah Polley, who has also acted in lots of things including Snyder's Dawn of the Dead and Splice.

As a director, Polley has had huge success, perhaps being best known for writing and directing Women Talking in 2022 which netted her an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. She also directed the movies Away from Her and Take This Waltz (the latter of which actually stars Seth Rogen) and wrote the TV series Alias Grace.

Greta Lee

Polley's star in The Studio is actress Greta Lee, star of stage, movie and film.

Lee's biggest role is starring in Past Lives which netted her many awards nominations, and she mentions her experience during Past Lives' press tour in this episode of The Studio as she begs Remick to let her use a jet for her promotional tour for this fictional movie. Lee's been in some major TV shows too including The Morning Show and Russian Doll.

Episode 3

The third episode of The Studio is called 'The Note', and it's about Remick's attempts to provide a studio note to a volatile director about an issue with his otherwise-perfect movie called Alphabet City. There are three real-life movie icons in the episode, all playing themselves.

Ron Howard

The director of Alphabet City is the acclaimed real-life director and actor Ron Howard. He has a reputation of being a friendly guy so his depiction as a two-faced renegade is part of the joke.

Howard was originally an actor in projects like Happy Days and The Shootist, but is most known for directing movies like A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Solo, The Da Vinci Code, Cindarella Man and plenty more, with his films having won nine Oscars and plenty more accolades.

Howard has also appeared as himself in cameos for Arrested Development, which he also narrated.

Anthony Mackie

The main star of Alphabet City, who also has a major hand in the plot of the episode for The Studio as he accompanies Howard to the studio offices and acts as an intermediary for their disputes, is actor Anthony Mackie.

Macie is perhaps best known for his role in Marvel films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Brave New World as Sam Wilson or The Falcon (later Captain America) but he's been in plenty more noteworthy roles too. These include Triple 9, The Banker, The Fifth Estate, Synchronic and recently Elevation. In The Night Before he played as one of the three leads alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen.

Dave Franco

The co-star of Alphabet City, who only shows up in The Studio's third episode when we see clips of the Howard movie, is actor Dave Franco (who has a huge shared filmography with Rogen, too long to list!).

Franco has starred in plenty of comedy roles like The Disaster Artist, Neighbors, Superbad and 21 Jump Street, but also has a more dramatic edge too in movies like Now You See Me, If Beale Street Could Talk and The Rental which he also directed.

Episode 4

The fourth episode of The Studio is entitled 'The Missing Reel', and it shows Remick turning into something of a private detective in order to find a missing film reel. There are two main movie star cameos in the episode.

Olivia Wilde

Actress turned movie director Olivia Wilde stars in the fourth episode of The Studio. She's directing the movie which loses the reel, and throughout the episode we learn what kind of director she is!

Wilde is an actress that you might recognize most from House, Her or Richard Jewell, but in recent years she's become better known for her directing: Booksmart and Don't Worry Darling were both helmed by her.

Zac Efron

Heartthrob Zac Efron is the star of Wilde's movie, and he also becomes a suspect in Remick's quest to find the missing reel.

It's very likely that you know Efron best for his mid-noughties projects like Hairspray, 17 Again and of course the High School Musical movies, but he's been branching out in recent years with roles in horror Firestarter, comedy Ricky Stanicky and drama The Iron Claw.

Episode 5

The fifth episode of The Studio is called 'The War'. It centers on the escalating conflict between two Continental execs as they try to convince Remick to create their movie instead of the others' and sabotage each other in the process.

There are two main cameos, both of real-life up-and-coming directors who are set to potentially helm the new project in the show:

Parker Finn

Parker Finn has directed two feature movies, and both were huge hits. They were Smile and it sequel Smile 2, and in The Studio he's being positioned to make a very similar movie for Continental.

Owen Kline

Owen Kline came onto the directing scene in a big way in 2022 with Funny Pages, which was a massive indie hit. In The Studio he's looking to make a slasher movie, which is a big jump from Funny Pages which was a coming-of-age comedy.