Who is Dichen Lachman? Meet the actress who plays Gemma in Severance season 2

Severance season 2 returned on Apple TV+ on January 17, 2025, with 10 new episodes that concluded on March 20, 2025. Created by Dan Erickson, the second installment of the workplace thriller series focuses on Mark's attempts to find and rescue his wife Gemma, whom he presumed to be dead.

The Australian actress Dichen Lachman plays Mark's wife Gemma Scout, who is trapped inside Lumon's testing floor and used as a test subject for the severance chip.

The official synopsis of Severance season 2, as per Apple TV, reads:

"Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe."

---

Unpacking Gemma's role in Severance season 2

Gemma and Mark, both university professors, meet at the university blood drive and quickly fall in love. Marriage soon follows, with the couple basking in their marital bliss until Gemma suffers a miscarriage. They struggle to get pregnant despite multiple rounds of IVF treatment, which puts a significant strain on their relationship.

Mark finds out about Gemma's fatal car crash not long after, and is left devastated. He decides to get severed and work at Lumon to escape his overwhelming grief for at least eight hours a day. At work, he meets the wellness counselor, Ms. Casey, who is one of Gemma's innies. However, both innie Mark and Ms. Casey do not recognize each other due to their severed memories.

In the season 1 finale, Mark's innie gets access to his outie's mind through the overtime contingency and realizes that Ms. Casey is his outie's supposedly deceased wife, Gemma.

The car accident was apparently staged as Gemma is seen living inside Lumon's testing floor in Severance season 2 episode 7. She is treated as a test subject and is closely monitored by Dr. Mauer and his staff. Her consciousness is split into 25 different innies, with each innie representing a file Mark has completed on the MDR floor.

Gemma's daily routine involves visiting multiple rooms named after the MDR files. Each room awakens a different innie who is subjected to a harrowing experience to test the severance chip's efficacy.

After the 25th and final file, Cold Harbor, is completed, Gemma is sent to the eponymous room to dismantle a baby crib, similar to the one Mark had assembled in anticipation of them being parents. Mauer is delighted to see that the severance barrier is holding, as her past traumatic experience does not cross over to the innie.

But before Lumon can kill Gemma, Mark rescues her from the testing floor. As they are away from the severed floor, Mark and Gemma switch to their outies and reunite in a loving embrace. But while escaping, they pass through the severed floor and switch to their innies. It is at this time that Mark S. tells Ms. Casey to walk through the exit stairwell while he decides to stay inside.

As soon as she enters the stairwell, the outie Gemma takes over, and she pleads Mark to join her. However, innie Mark chooses to stay with Helly instead as she is the woman he loves, and not Gemma.

---

Severance season 2 star Dichen Lachman began her acting career in 2005

Dichen Lachman, as seen in an Instagram picture from September 2022 (Image via Instagram/@dichenlachman)

Dichen Lachman is an Australian actress and model who was born in Kathmandu, Nepal. She has Australian heritage on her father's side and is of Tibetan descent on her mother's side.

Dichen's breakout role was playing Katya Kinski in the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 2005 to 2007. She has also played the leading roles of Sierra / Priya Tsetsangin in the sci-fi series Dollhouse, Suren in the supernatural series Being Human, and Reileen Kawahara in the cyberpunk series Altered Carbon.

Additionally, she has guest starred on popular shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Supergirl, Shameless, Animal Kingdom, and The Last Ship, among others.

On the big screen, Dichen has appeared in films like Aquamarine, Jurassic World Dominion, Bad Therapy, Aftermath, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Lust for Love, etc.

---

Severance season 2 is available for streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.