[This story contains spoilers from The Bear season three.]
The Bear is known for many things. But one aspect of the critically acclaimed FX series that stands out is its ability to recruit major stars to play minor roles, just so they can say they’ve been a part of the show (and maybe score a guest star Emmy in the process).
Perhaps some of the show’s biggest cameos came in season two’s now-iconic episode “Fishes,” which introduced Jamie Lee Curtis’ Donna Berzatto, John Mulaney’s Steve, Sarah Paulson’s Michelle and Bob Odenkirk’s Uncle Lee, among others. And much to fans’ joy, a couple of those actors reprised their roles in season three.
But the cameos go far beyond that episode.
Will Poulter had entered The Bear by way of Copenhagen as pastry chef Luca, who helped Marcus (Lionel Boyce) take his dessert dishes to the next level before The Bear’s opening in Chicago. Olivia Colman’s Chef Andrea Terry, who was one of the many chefs who helped Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) become the cook he is, was also introduced in season two. Both Poulter and Colman returned for season three in similar scene-stealing fashion.
The newest installment also introduced some new characters portrayed by major celebrities, including John Cena’s Sammy Fak and Josh Hartnett’s Frank. Even Bradley Cooper made a (very) brief appearance.
The Christopher Storer-created series finished shooting its third season only weeks before its Hulu release and will quickly jump back into filming on the already renewed fourth season. “I think the structure will look like it has in the past,” White previously told The Hollywood Reporter. His onscreen sister, Abby Elliot, who plays Sugar, added, “Because we shoot in Chicago, because we’re with our family, we just get right back into the groove and our rhythm. We kind of just leave the outside world behind.”
Below, THR rounds up all The Bear season three cameos — from returning actors to award-winning chefs that you may have missed.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Jamie Lee Curtis’ The Bear debut came in season two, and she returned to Chicago as the infamous Donna Berzatto in season three’s episode eight, “Ice Chips.” Natalie (Abby Elliott) goes into labor at Restaurant Depot while Pete (Chris Witaske) is flying back from a trip, and everyone at The Bear is getting ready for dinner service so their phones are in their lockers. With no one else to call, Natalie finally reaches out to her mother, after months of seemingly wanting to but not being able to do it. Natalie and Donna spend the majority of the episode together, as they discuss their rocky relationship and have an honest — and hopefully, healing — conversation between mother and daughter.
Jon Bernthal as Michael Berzatto
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Jon Bernthal continues to appear in flashbacks in The Bear season three. Not only does he show up in Carmy’s flashbacks this season, but also in Tina’s (Liza Colón-Zayas) past. Episode six, “Napkins,” which was directed by co-star Ayo Edebiri, follows Tina after she’s let go from her job of 15 years and tries to find new work without a bachelor’s degree. When one job she thought she would get falls through, she stumbles upon The Original Beef and befriends Mikey, who ends up offering her a line cook job.
John Cena as Sammy Fak
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
One of this season’s biggest surprise cameos was John Cena, who appears as Sammy “fucking Fak” in episode five, “Children,” putting a face to another member of the large Fak family. He stops by The Bear to help the crew buffer the floors ahead of a photographer from the Chicago Tribune stopping by the restaurant before the paper’s review comes out. Cena’s Sammy introduces the Fak family tradition of “haunting” loved ones, which is repeatedly brought up between brothers Neil (Matty Matheson) and Ted (Ricky Staffieri).
Olivia Colman as Chef Andrea Terry
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Oliva Colman makes her The Bear comeback as Chef Andrea Terry in flashbacks throughout the season and in photos of news stories when she announces that her restaurant, Ever, will be closing. In episode 10, “Forever,” several people — including Carmy, Sydney (Edebiri) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — attend the final meal at the restaurant where Carmy trained as a chef. After an entire season of White’s character panicking over wasting time in the kitchen (and his life), Colman’s Andrea tells Carmy she’s closing the restaurant because she wants to have a life outside of the kitchen.
Will Poulter as Luca
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Another actor who made his The Bear return in season three is Will Poulter. He portrays chef Luca, a former colleague of Carmy’s and the person who showed Marcus how to take his pastry chef game to the next level in Copenhagen in season two. He appears in Carmy’s flashbacks throughout season three before showing up in the final episode, as they say goodbye to Ever.
John Mulaney as Steve
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection
John Mulaney makes a brief cameo as Steve in season three, episode one, “Tomorrow,” in a flashback of Carmy’s time as a chef in New York. While working at Eleven Madison Park, he crashes on Steve and Michelle’s (Sarah Paulson) couch. On several nights, Steve covers Carmy with a blanket as he sleeps and, at one point, tells him he smells like a donkey. Mulaney and Paulson’s characters were introduced in season two’s iconic episode “Fishes.”
Josh Hartnett as Frank
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Fresh off his role in Oscar best picture winner Oppenheimer, Josh Hartnett made his way to Chicago for an appearance in The Bear season three. He portrays Frank, the fiancé of Richie’s ex-wife Tiff (Gillian Jacobs), in episode four, “Violet.” Richie drops off his daughter, Evie, at Frank’s house, and the two have an awkward conversation about how they’re now a part of the same family. Frank also apologizes for not having spoken with Richie before proposing to Tiff, as Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” plays from inside the house.
Gillian Jacobs as Tiff
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Gillian Jacobs’ Tiff made her first appearance in the series in the now-iconic season two episode, “Fishes.” Her introduction gave viewers a glimpse at Richie’s life before The Bear began, happy and in love with his then-pregnant wife. In season three of the Emmy-winning show, Tiff returns as she prepares for her pending nuptials to Josh Hartnett’s Frank and insists Richie attend her wedding, whether he wants to or not.
Joel McHale as Chef David Fields
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Joel McHale has made a few appearances throughout The Bear in flashbacks, but viewers saw him in the present day in the season three finale at the farewell dinner at Ever. Over his appearances, his character, Chef David Fields, was seen as an aggressive chef who trained Carmy during his career. In the season three finale, Carmy confronts Chef David and slams him for the toxic ways in which he trained him, verbally abusing him over and over again. Of course, the confrontation doesn’t go as Carmy planned, with David basically telling him he’s only made it as far as he has in his career because the chef was so hard on him.
Adam Shapiro as Chef Adam
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Adam Shapiro made his debut in the show’s second season as a chef at Ever, Andrea Terry’s (Colman) restaurant. In season three, he tries to poach Sydney from The Bear to be the CDC (chef de cuisine, aka the head chef) at the restaurant he wants to open following Ever closing. In the final episode, Sydney has a panic attack at a party because she hasn’t decided what she’s going to do yet. Shapiro and his wife actress Katie Lowes own a soft pretzel company called Shappy Pretzel Co., which has made its way to the Oscars the last two years.
Brian Koppelman as Nicholas “Computer” Marshall
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
Brian Koppelman first appears in The Bear in season three, episode five, as “Computer,” a friend of Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt). He’s brought into the restaurant to take a look at its finances and see where they can cut costs, as Jimmy tries to make a profit off his investment. The finance guru suggests the chefs rely on food vendors instead of local farmer’s markets and that Carmy stop changing the menu daily. He also thinks Marcus should be fired because he gets paid a pastry chef salary but produces little food compared to everyone else. Nat immediately shuts down the idea. Koppelman is known for writing Ocean’s Thirteen and co-creating/showrunning Showtime’s Billions.
David Zayas as David Marrero
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX
In The Bear, David Zayas takes on the role of David Marrero, Tina’s husband. (The actor is Liza Colón-Zayas’ husband in real life.) He appears in two episodes of season three, including “Napkins,” which focuses on Tina’s journey prior to getting hired at The Beef by Mikey (Bernthal). The episode sees Tina and David discussing their financial problems after their rent went up. Outside of The Bear, Zayas is known for his work in Dexter, The Expendables and Michael Clayton, among others.
Robert Townsend as Emmanuel Adamu
Image Credit: FX
Actor-director Robert Townsend plays Sydney’s father, Emmanuel Adamu, in The Bear. He was introduced in season two of the series and has played an important role in Sydney’s life as a single parent. Townsend is known for creating and starring in the WB sitcom The Parent ‘Hood from 1995-1999 as well as directing films such as Hollywood Shuffle, Cooley High, The Five Heartbeats and Meteor Man. Prior to working together on the show, Edebiri admitted she was a huge fan of Townsend and noted he would be the dream actor to portray her father onscreen.
“I owe him a debt, and I think so many Black multihyphenates and multihyphenates in general, do because he was such a trailblazer and so excellent, whether he was in front of the camera or behind the camera, or doing content for adults or for kids,” Edebiri previously told The Hollywood Reporter of working with Townsend. “There’s just so much that he did that I love and that I have so much fondness for, and I know I’m not the only one.”
Bradley Cooper as Chef Adam Jones
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection
Bradley Cooper’s fictional Chef Adam Jones from Burnt makes a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in The Bear season three. When Carmy attends Ever’s funeral dinner service, he takes a look at a board that displays the restaurant’s history, and right smack in the middle of it is a photo of Cooper as Adam. The 2015 film followed the multihyphenate’s character, who was once a top chef in Paris until his drug and alcohol use led to a meltdown that put his career on hold.
Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, René Redzepi and More Famous Chefs as Themselves
Image Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Getty; Astrid Stawiarz/Getty; Thos Robinson/Getty
Throughout the newest season of The Bear, Carmy’s history of working with some of the best chefs in the world is highlighted. Famous French chef Daniel Boulud trains Carmy seemingly at one of his Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and encourages him to listen to “the music,” referring to the sound of food cooking in a pan. The first episode, “Tomorrow,” gives viewers a brief glimpse at Carmy’s time working at Copenhagen’s Noma, voted the best restaurant in the world on several occasions, under Chef René Redzepi. In the season three finale, a flashback shows Thomas Keller teaching Carmy how to properly roast a chicken and shares life advice on his first day working at Keller’s The French Laundry in Napa. (Per Se in New York is also one of the chef’s acclaimed restaurants.)
The final episode of The Bear season three also featured several more famous chefs, as they attend Ever’s funeral dinner service, including Malcolm Livingston II, a former pastry chef at Noma, whom creator Storer has noted was his inspiration for Marcus. Chefs Grant Achatz, Christina Tosi, Genie Kwon, Wylie Dufresne, Anna Posey and Rosio Sanchez also appear in the finale episode.
A famous chef who doesn’t show up in person in the show but who is included in some way is Nobu Matsuhisa. The Japanese cook, who’s known for the Nobu restaurants around the world, appears in a photo alongside Keller and Boulud.
Paulie James as Chuckie and Chris Zucchero as Chi-Chi
Paulie James — who portrays Chuckie in The Bear — is the co-founder of Los Angeles’ famous Uncle Paulie’s Deli, which opened in 2017 and has since expanded to three shops in the area and a Las Vegas outpost. The deli has garnered a cult following from celebrities like Pete Davidson and Jennifer Lawrence, who have been pictured in merch from the shop.
Chris Zucchero, taking on the role of Chi-Chi, is the owner of Chicago’s real-life sandwich shop, Mr. Beef, which served as the inspiration for The Bear. Zucchero and Storer have been friends since they were kids, when Chris’ father was running the shop. He appeared briefly in season one as The Beef’s meat supplier and early in season three when he brings Carmy boxes of micro-radishes.
James and Zucchero’s characters return to The Bear (formerly The Beef) to help Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson) run the sandwich window, while the rest of the restaurant staff focuses on the fine dining restaurant.
Sue Chan, Chris Black, Jason Stewart and More as Fictional Restaurant Critics
In episode three, “Doors,” Neil and Ted Fak attempt to prepare for when a food critic comes into The Bear by creating a lineup of all the biggest critics with photos of them, so the front-of-house staff knows who to keep an eye out for. (Of course, the staff realizes this ends up coming too late, as a critic from the Chicago Tribune has already dined at the restaurant at this point.) Sue Chan, founder of media agency Care of Chan and former Momofuku brand director; How Long Gone podcast hosts Chris Black and Jason Stewart; and The New Yorker writer Naomi Fry are also featured as fictional food critics on the wall.
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