What You Wish For (2024): Full list of cast

Nicholas Tomnay's directorial, What You Wish For, is a thriller film that premiered in 2023 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. It came to theatres on May 31, 2024, to a positive response from critics and the audience, and is now available to rent or purchase on streaming platforms.

What You Wish For is the story of Ryan, a talented but down-on-his-luck chef who has gambling problems. When he goes to a Latin American villa to visit an old friend who appears to be living an extraordinary life as a private chef, he is soon overcome with envy.

Ryan has no idea how his friend can afford his extravagant lifestyle and he wants that for himself as well. In a grim twist, Ryan's wishes come true as he assumes his friend’s identity and soon discovers what Jack has been up to to maintain the lifestyle he so desperately craved.

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What You Wish For: The cast list explored

Here is the full cast list of What You Wish For.

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1. Nick Stahl as Ryan

Nicolas Kent Stahl is an American actor who started out in the industry at a very young age. He gained popularity for his performance in the film The Man Without(1993) a Face, directed and co-starred by Mel Gibson. Stahl stars in the lead role as the envious chef who stumbles upon some dark truths in What You Wish For.

Some of his other film roles include Disturbing Behavior, The Thin Red Line, In the Bedroom, Bully, Sin City, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, where he played the role of John Connor. He has also appeared on the HBO series Carnivàle as Ben Hawkins, starred as Jason Riley on the AMC television series Fear the Walking Dead, and as Lucas on the Hulu television series Tiny Beautiful Things.

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2. Randy Vasquez as Detective Ruiz

Randy Vasquez is an American actor and director who was born in Escondido, California. He landed his first role in 1984, a small part on Highway to Heaven, following which he has made several appearances in TV series, like Acapulco H.E.A.T. and JAG. In 1998, he was cast as bartender Paolo Kaire on Love Boat: The Next Wave, and in the year 2002, he moved into direction with Testimony, a documentary on Salvadorean activist Maria Guardado.

Vasquez has also directed a comedic drama titled Perceptions and his 2011 film The Thick Dark Fog won the Best Documentary award at the 36th annual American Indian Film Festival. He directed a third documentary, Badger Creek in 2017, which is a film about a Blackfeet Nation family. Randy stars as Detective Ruiz in the indie suspense thriller What You Wish For.

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3. Penelope Mitchell as Alice

Penelope Mitchell is an Australian actor who is best known for her roles as Letha Godfrey in the horror TV series Hemlock Grove, and Liv Parker in The Vampire Diaries.

Mitchell has also appeared on shows like Toon Time, an Australian kids' show, the ABC show Next Stop Hollywood, which focused on six Australian actors (including Penelope) who move to Hollywood to audition for pilots, and an episode of the Australian police drama Rush. Some of her film credits include Hellboy and Zipper. Penelope Mitchell has also been cast as Renée Picard in the television series Star Trek: Picard and will star in the role of a character called Alice in What You Wish For.

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Supporting Cast Members

The list of supporting actors and their roles in the thriller is as follows:

• Tamsin Topolski as Imogene
• Brian Groh as Jack
• Juan Carlos Messier as Maurice
• Norma Nivia as Frankie
• David Tominaga as Akira
• Ariel Sierra as Officer Gallo

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Catch What You Wish For on Hulu and Amazon Prime in selected countries.