Created by Bruce Miller.
The Testaments premiered on April 8, 2026, in the United States.
Distributed by Hulu in the United States and Disney+ internationally.
The Testaments TV Series Review
The Testaments is a dramatic and emotional TV series set in the world of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale.
The story follows Agnes and Daisy, two young girls living very different lives who slowly discover secrets about the dangerous system around them.
The show focuses on friendship, fear, survival, and rebellion.
Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday give strong performances, while Ann Dowd returns as the powerful Aunt Lydia.
The series is dark, serious, and sometimes emotional, but it also gives hope through its young characters.
Overall, The Testaments is an interesting and powerful sequel that expands the world of Gilead in a fresh way.
CR Rating: 8.5/10.
The Testaments Actors
Chase Infiniti as Agnes MacKenzie
DOB: May 1, 2000.
Bio: American actress from Indianapolis, Indiana, who emerged as one of the notable younger performers in prestige television during the 2020s.
After studying at Columbia College Chicago, she began attracting industry attention through dramatic screen performances that combined emotional vulnerability with quiet intensity.
Role: Agnes is the biological daughter of June Osborne, known in The Handmaid’s Tale as Hannah Bankole.
In The Testaments, she is raised inside Gilead’s system and begins to question the world around her, making her the emotional center of the series.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Her first name was inspired by Nicole Kidman’s character Chase Meridian from Batman Forever, and her middle name comes from Buzz Lightyear’s “to infinity and beyond.”
Notable Works: Presumed Innocent, One Battle After Another.
Lucy Halliday as Daisy
DOB: N/A.
Bio: Scottish actress from Paisley, Scotland, who gained major critical attention after her breakout screen performance in Blue Jean.
Her work quickly established her as one of the promising younger performers emerging from British independent cinema.
Role: Daisy is a Canadian teenager from beyond Gilead who arrives with a hidden connection to the regime.
She becomes an undercover Mayday operative and one of the show’s two key leads, driving the story’s resistance thread.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Halliday has said she landed the role through a self-tape, and she has described the part as a major leap from her earlier work.
Notable Works: Blue Jean, 7 Miles Out.
Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia Clements
DOB: January 30, 1956.
Bio: Award-winning American actress known for her extraordinary range across film and television.
She won widespread acclaim for The Leftovers and earned an Emmy for The Handmaid’s Tale, where she made Aunt Lydia one of modern television’s most feared and fascinating characters.
Role: Aunt Lydia is now the headmistress of a school for elite Gilead daughters.
Publicly she is still a loyal enforcer of the regime, but the series also shows her secret resistance work and her complicated long game from inside the system.
Episodes: 8 eps.
Interesting facts: Dowd won a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance as Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid’s Tale and has frequently discussed the emotional and moral contradictions inside the character.
Notable Works: The Leftovers, The Handmaid’s Tale, Compliance, Mass.
Mabel Li as Aunt Vidala
DOB: N/A.
Bio: Australian actress who trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and has steadily built a strong television career through emotionally complex drama roles.
She became increasingly recognized through Australian series that blend social realism, mystery, and psychological tension.
Role: Aunt Vidala is one of the younger Aunts serving at Ardua Hall in The Testaments.
Fiercely disciplined and committed to maintaining Gilead’s rigid order, Vidala represents a newer generation of authority within the regime.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Li has spoken publicly about how acting helped her overcome childhood shyness and develop confidence.
Notable Works: Safe Home, New Gold Mountain, The Tailings, Erotic Stories.
Brad Alexander as Garth Chapin
DOB: N/A.
Bio: An actor, writer, and filmmaker who has worked across screen acting, directing, and editing.
Before gaining wider attention through larger television productions, he built experience through independent and short-form creative work behind and in front of the camera.
Role: Garth is a Guardian working for the MacKenzie family, but secretly he is a deep-cover Mayday agent and Daisy’s handler.
He is one of the show’s most important moving parts because he sits directly between Gilead power and resistance strategy.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Alexander has discussed how the television adaptation expands and changes Garth compared to the version presented in The Testaments.
Notable Works: You, and short-form work as a director and editor.
Isolde Ardies as Hulda Marie Edwardson
DOB: N/A.
Bio: A young actress whose professional screen career is still emerging, with Wayward and The Testaments currently standing among her most visible credits.
As one of the newer faces in the cast, Ardies represents part of the younger generation of performers entering large-scale prestige television adaptations.
Role: Hulda is one of Agnes’s fellow Plums, and she is portrayed as guileless, optimistic, and eager to embrace the future Gilead has planned for her.
Her innocence makes her an important contrast to the darker and more questioning girls around her.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Because Ardies is still early in her screen career, The Testaments is expected to serve as one of her first major international exposure roles.
Notable Works: Wayward.
Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite Hayes
DOB: October 14, 2001.
Bio: American actress who became widely known through Girl Meets World and later moved into more adult work with Snowpiercer, Crush, and Poker Face.
She has evolved from child star to mature dramatic performer with a strong public profile.
Role: Shunammite is one of Agnes’s friends, a blunt and pampered girl from a powerful family.
She understands the status game in Gilead and wants the luxury that comes with it, which makes her both socially sharp and morally complicated.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Blanchard started acting at age five and has been public for years about feminism, queerness, and social justice.
Notable Works: Girl Meets World, Snowpiercer, Crush, Poker Face.
Mattea Conforti as Rebecka “Becka” Grove
DOB: May 22, 2006.
Bio: American actress, singer, and Broadway performer who began her professional career at a very young age across theatre, television, and voice acting.
She first gained recognition through stage performances in major Broadway productions before expanding into television drama and genre storytelling.
Role: Becka is Agnes’s closest friend at Aunt Lydia’s school, but unlike many of the other girls she clearly does not feel comfortable inside Gilead’s future-wife system.
Her discomfort and emotional honesty give the series one of its most human friendships.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: She began performing on Broadway as a replacement Matilda and later originated young Anna in Frozen.
Notable Works: Frozen II, Power, NOS4A2.
Zarrin Darnell-Martin as Aunt Gabbana
DOB: 1984.
Bio: Canadian actor born in Montreal who grew up between the U.S. and Canada, became fluent in French, and later trained at the National Theatre School of Canada.
Her work includes Ginny & Georgia, Fellow Travelers, Murdoch Mysteries, and several other Canadian and American productions.
Role: Aunt Gabbana is one of the strict disciplinarians at Ardua Hall in The Testaments.
Serving closely alongside Aunt Vidala, she helps enforce the harsh ideological and behavioral rules imposed on Gilead’s girls.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Darnell-Martin has spoken about staging homemade performances as a child long before becoming a professional actress.
Notable Works: Ginny & Georgia, Fellow Travelers, Murdoch Mysteries, Spotlight.
Eva Foote as Aunt Estee
DOB: N/A.
Bio: Canadian stage-and-screen actress whose work spans theatre, television, and literary adaptations.
She has appeared in productions such as Murdoch Mysteries and stage interpretations of classic material.
Role: Aunt Estee is the youngest and most compassionate Aunt at the academy.
She has a “cool” reputation among the students, but the series also reveals that she is not originally from Gilead, which makes her one of the more intriguing moral wildcards in the school.
Episodes: 10 eps.
Interesting facts: Her profile suggests a strong theatre background, and recent coverage of her work emphasized the way she brings warmth to a harsh setting.
Notable Works: Murdoch Mysteries, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Miniature Wife.
Kira Guloien as Rosa
DOB: February 8, 1978.
Bio: Canadian actor raised in Edmonton, where she trained as a competitive singer and dancer from an early age.
She has appeared in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Good Doctor, and Women Talking, and she brings that grounded, expressive quality to The Testaments.
Role: Rosa is a dedicated Martha in the MacKenzie household and serves as a caring, maternal figure for Agnes.
Her presence gives the MacKenzie home some emotional warmth, but she also has to navigate the dangers of serving inside Gilead’s elite households.
Episodes: 7 eps.
Interesting facts: Her family background is heavily musical, with parents active in the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and jazz scene.
Notable Works: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Good Doctor, Women Talking.
Amy Seimetz as Paula MacKenzie
DOB: November 25, 1981.
Bio: American actress, writer, director, editor, and producer known for her extensive work in independent cinema and prestige television.
She built her reputation through emotionally intense and psychologically layered performances while also becoming an acclaimed filmmaker in her own right.
Role: Paula is Agnes’s prickly stepmother, and she is determined to mold Agnes into the perfect Gilead wife.
Her resentment toward Agnes’s biological mother creates a constant layer of tension inside the MacKenzie home.
Episodes: 8 eps.
Interesting facts: Seimetz has balanced acting with a highly respected directing career, particularly within independent film and television.
Notable Works: The Killing, The Girlfriend Experience, Upstream Color, Pet Sematary, She Dies Tomorrow.
More Actors
• Shechinah Mpumlwana as Jehosheba Yardarm.
• Birva Pandya as Miriam Dawson.
• Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne.
• Hattie Kragten as Constance.
FAQ – The Testaments TV Series
What is The Testaments about?
The Testaments follows a new generation of young women growing up in Gilead years after The Handmaid’s Tale. The story focuses on Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia as secrets, rebellion, and resistance begin to grow inside the regime.
Is The Testaments connected to The Handmaid’s Tale?
Yes. The Testaments is a direct sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale and is based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name.
Is The Testaments based on a book?
Yes. It is adapted from Margaret Atwood’s bestselling sequel novel The Testaments, published in 2019.
How many episodes are in Season 1?
Season 1 contains 10 episodes, released weekly after the premiere.
Where can I watch The Testaments?
The series streams on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in several international regions.
Conclusion
The Testaments successfully expands the world of The Handmaid’s Tale by focusing on a younger generation growing up inside Gilead.
With strong performances, emotional storytelling, and important themes about freedom and control, the series feels both powerful and timely.
Chase Infiniti, Lucy Halliday, and Ann Dowd help make the show engaging from beginning to end, giving fans a thoughtful and compelling return to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian world.