Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Velma pilot.The HBO Max show Scooby Doo characters, with its cast being modeled on what their voice actors look like in real life. The pilot episode promises to reveal how the title character assembled "the greatest team of spooky mystery solvers ever." As the series opens, however, they are far from being the fine-tuned mystery machine they are destined to become.
The announcement that HBO Max was producing a dark take on the Mysteries Inc. gang drew fire from those who felt an R-rated Scooby Doo spinoff was a bad idea. Thankfully, Velma is more than just Scooby Doo with sex, violence and curse words, offering a smart satire of other adult adaptations of children's entertainment, like Riverdale. Here's a look at the core cast of Velma and the actors who voice them.
Mindy Kaling as Velma Dinkley
Velma Dinkley is smart, ambitious and doesn't suffer fools gladly. These traits have marked Velma as an outcast and caused her to be voted Most Likely To Seek Revenge by her class. Small wonder that she becomes the prime suspect when a serial killer starts targeting all the most popular girls at Crystal Cove High. This pushes the amateur sleuth to find the real killer and prove her innocence, fighting through the disturbing delusions in the HBO series that have plagued her since the unsolved disappearance of her mother, mystery author Diya Dinkley.
Velma Dinkley is voiced by Mindy Kaling, who is also an Executive Producer on Velma. Famed for playing Kelly Kapoor on The Office, Kaling is also a gifted writer and producer, who was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and won a Tony for producing the 2022 Best Musical, A Strange Loop. Apart from her role in The Office, Kaling is perhaps most recognized for her series The Mindy Project and for playing Mrs. Who in the 2018 film adaptation of the classic children's book A Wrinkle In Time.
Sam Richardson as Norville Rogers
The son of Crystal Cove High's principal and guidance counselor, Norville Rogers is the editor of the school newspaper. He is also Velma Dinkley's best friend and the only person willing to help search for her missing mother. This is partly because of his dream of being a real investigative reporter and partly because of his crush on Velma.
Norville Rogers (which is Shaggy's real name) is voiced by Sam Richardson. He is most famous for playing Richard Splett in the HBO political comedy series Veep, but first found fame playing Athlead co-founder Colin in The Office season 9. A former member of Second City, Richardson co-created and starred in the Comedy Central series Detroiters and was recently nominated for a 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work as Edwin Akufo in Ted Lasso.
Constance Wu as Daphne Blake
The adopted daughter of a lesbian couple, both of whom are detectives in the Crystal Cove Police Department, Daphne Blake is the queen bee of Crystal Cove High and the Regina George of the Scooby Doo show and its own Mean Girls. Once upon a time, she and Velma were best friends. That changed when Daphne grew out of her awkward phase and suddenly found herself ranked among the pretty and popular. She's quick to turn her crew against Velma when her new friends start turning up dead, but there are some signs she misses her former BFF.
Daphne Blake is voiced by Constance Wu, who is most famous for her Golden Globe nominated performance as Rachel Chu in Crazy Rich Asians. Wu first found fame playing Jessica Huang in the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. She most recently starred as Katie Buranek in The Terminal List and played Mrs. Primm in the film adaptation of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.
Glenn Howerton as Fred Jones
Heir to the Jones Gentlemen's Accessories fortune, popular rich kid Fred Jones seems to have it all. Yet in addition to his wealth, his good-looks and his choice of Crystal Cove High's most beautiful girls, Fred Jones has a dark secret. He also has a complete lack of self-awareness and empathy for others that aggravates Velma, even as she lusts after him.
Fred Jones is voiced by Glenn Howerton, who is best known for his work on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which he co-created with Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, and on which he plays the role of bartender Dennis Reynolds. Howerton worked with Mindy Kaling before Velma, having had a recurring role on The Mindy Project as Mindy's love interest, Cliff Gilbert. He also played Don Chumph in the first season of the Fargo television series.