Here’s Who’s Playing Professor Snape in HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Show

A new actor is donning the robes of Professor Severus Snape in HBO’s Harry Potter TV series.

Ghanaian-British actor Paapa Essiedu, 35, has been cast in the role of the Hogwarts professor of Potions and head of Slytherin House.

The actor follows in the footsteps of the late Alan Rickman, who portrayed Snape in all eight of the Harry Potter films. The character is one of the most complex characters in author J.K. Rowlings’ book series and serves as the story’s anti-hero. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowlings’ 1997 debut novel on which Season 1 of the series will be based, Snape comes across as the story’s primary antagonist.

The role marks the latest in Essiedu’s storied career, which began at the Royal Shakespeare Company with a role in productions of Hamlet and King Lear. He has since gone on to star in both TV and film, in 2021 earning Emmy and BAFTA nominations for his role as Kwame in BBC’s I May Destroy You. He also received a BAFTA Lead Actor TV nom for The Lazarus Project, in which he starred as George. His other credits include Anne Boleyn, Gangs of London, Murder on the Orient Express, and Black Mirror, among others.

HBO announced Essiedu’s casting as Snape in April. Celebrating his casting at the time, the actor wrote on Instagram that it was “an honor and a privilege to be going on this journey with these legends. We shall eat and we shall leave no crumbs.”

Essiedu’s casting has been the most controversial yet, with some Potterheads arguing that he doesn’t match the physical description of Snape in the books. Throughout the seven-book series, the character is described as thin with sickly-looking skin, and is numerous times referred to as having “pallid” and “sallow” skin.

Amid the initial backlash, Jason Isaacs, who portrayed Lucius Malfoy in the film series, called out what he described as “racist” backlash.

“Paapa Essiedu is one of the best actors I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve seen some people online who are being rude about him. What they’re being is racist,” Isaacs said at FanExpo Denver. “All the cast of the new Harry Potter TV series are amazing. They will be swallowing their tongues, hopefully — you know, their digital tongues — when they see what [Paapa] does on screen.”

Some have also questioned Rowlings’ own opinions on Essiedu’s casting after he was was one of over 400 actors who signed an open letter calling for industry action on trans rights following a UK Supreme Court ruling in April that defines a woman based on biological sex. Rowliing, known for her anti-trans rhetoric, later shared on X that she doesn’t “have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did. I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”

In addition to Essiedu, HBO’s Harry Potter series also stars Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, John Lithgow has been cast as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Professor Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch, among others.

The series is currently in production at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, UK and is set to premiere sometime in 2027.