Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends cast has been revealed and we’re excited!

Filming for the new Hulu series starts soon

Cover image from Conversations with Friends book by Sally Rooney
(Image credit: Hogarth)

When we all finished binge-watching Normal People, there wasn't much to fill the void (although thankfully Bridgerton and its myriad sex scenes was there to help for a brief spell). But nothing captured our hearts quite like the angsty, messy, often sultry Irish story that was filled with complex characters that we immediately fell in love with. 

Happily, that is all about to change as Sally Rooney’s first coming-of-age novel, Conversations with Friends, is getting its very own series—and the cast has just been revealed.

The BBC Three and Hulu adaptation is being directed by Lenny Abrahamson, who also brought us Normal People. The 12-part series will follow two female university students in Dublin: Frances, the intelligent, artsy poet, and her attractive and outgoing friend/ex-girlfriend Bobbi.

The two perform at spoken word gigs around Dublin and meet Melissa, an older, married photographer who befriends them and introduces them to her charming actor husband Nick and their circle of creative friends. Although Frances and Melissa flirt, it is Frances and Nick who have an affair, which as you can imagine leads to a lot of drama. 

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Much like the pitch-perfect casting of Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell in Normal People, Conversations with Friends is promising us an equally dreamy cast. 

Taking on the lead role of Frances is Alison Oliver, a new star who actually went to the same drama school as Paul Mescal—that’s all the convincing we need to know she’ll be great! Sasha Lane, known for her role in American Honey, will be bringing to life the charming and beautiful Bobbi. 

Girls star Jemima Kirke will be starring as Melissa and Joe Alwyn, known for his role in The Favourite and as Taylor Swift's IRL main squeeze, will be playing Nick, Melissa's husband. Together, they will form two parts of the messy love triangle that includes Frances.

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Conversations with Friends will begin filming in Dublin this year and is already looking to be a success for the BBC. Normal People sent the world into a frenzy and earned several nominations at high-profile award shows, including the Golden Globes and the Emmys. 

And there's more good news for Sally Rooney fans—her third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, is also set for release in September. We know what we'll be reading this fall. 

Naomi Jamieson
Lifestyle News Writer

Naomi is a Lifestyle News Writer with the Women's Lifestyle team, where she covers everything from entertainment to fashion and beauty, as well as TikTok trends for Woman&Home, after previously writing for My Imperfect Life and GoodTo. Interestingly though, Naomi actually has a background in design, having studied illustration at Plymouth University but lept into the media world in 2020, after always having a passion for writing and earned her Gold Standard diploma in Journalism with the NCTJ.


Before working for Future Publishing’s Lifestyle News team, she worked in the Ad production team. Here she wrote and designed adverts on all sorts of things, which then went into print magazines across all genres. Now, when she isn’t writing articles on celebs, fashion trends, or the newest shows on Netflix, you can find her drinking copious cups of coffee, drawing and probably online shopping.