Cast of 'Suits': Catch Up With the Stars of the Binge-Worthy Legal Drama

Everyone is addicted to something — we're particular to dark chocolate, which is actually good for you, right? — but what about being hooked on a TV show? Suits seems to have captured audiences and makes for incredibly addictive TV. Sure there are other legal drams (L.A. Law, The Practice, Damages and even Ally McBeal, to name a few), but this sleek, charming show struck a chord with people thanks to the chemistry between the cast of Suits and their characters, storylines and of course, chic and expensive suits.

The premise centers around talented college drop-out Mike Ross who is running for his life due to a drug deal gone bad. Somehow he lands a job interview with one of New York City’s top legal attorneys, Harvey Spencer, who gambles on hiring Mike after seeing that Ross’ photographic memory and innate talent could benefit Spencer’s law practice — despite the fact that Ross never attended law school. But degrees don't matter as Harvey and Mike continue win and close case after case.

The show ran for nine seasons — from 2011 to 2019 — and made the Suits cast household names. Throughout its 134 episodes, the series was nominated for numerous awards and has received an immense surge in popularity after it was added to Netflix and Peacock last year.

The cast of Suits

So where have the talented legal minds ended up today? Let's find out!

Gabriel Macht as Harvey Specter

The self-proclaimed “best closer in the city," Harvey Specter had been a name partner since the firm began being called “Pearson Darby Specter." After marrying Donna Paulsen in the series finale, he lives in Seattle along with Mike Ross and Rachel Zane.

Born in the Bronx, Gabriel Macht had his first screen success at the tender age of eight in the movie Why Would I Lie? (1980) and was nominated for a Best Young Motion Picture Actor Award.

“My father is an actor," he has said. “I used to go on set to visit him. I saw the stories he was telling and said, 'That’s what I want to do.' I was always in awe whenever I went to the movies or when I watched television.”

Not wanting to have the career limitations of a child actor, Macht studied theatre at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama after high school and, in fact, still maintains an active presence on the stage with a variety of theater credits, among them Turnaround in Los Angeles, Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile on off-Broadway, and What the Butter Saw in D.C.

Returning to the big screen, Macht starred opposite Jack Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs, The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, Whiteout, Because I Said So with Diane Keaton and many others with big name stars.

But Macht might always be better known for being part of the cast of Suits, having starred in all episodes. While on the show, he also appeared in S.W.A.T., A Bag of Hammers, Suits Webisodes and the short-lived Suits spin-off, Pearson. 

Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or spent a few years in space, you know of Meghan Markle’s rise to fame — and not as part of the cast of Suits, though clearly it was this drama that gave Markle acting cred. Naturally it's her engagement to Prince Harry and marriage to the Royal in 2018, the two of them welcoming children, Archie and Lilibeth.

On the small screen, Markle was Rachel Zane in Suits, the daughter or Robert Zane, one of the best lawyers in New York City. Despite getting a job offer at his firm, she takes one as a senior paralegal at Pearson Hardman, one of her dad’s competitors.

She later becomes an associate at Pearson Specter Litt, the first to attend a law school other than Harvard. *Spoiler* Come the Season 7 finale, she and Mike Ross marry and ride off into the sunset (or, more precisely, Seattle).

Born Rachel Meghan Markle in Los Angeles, and growing up in Hollywood due to her father’s photography and lighting director jobs, Markle began to appear in small roles following her graduation from Northwestern University in 2003. Working as a freelance calligrapher in order to support herself between early acting gigs, her first onscreen appearance was a small role as a nurse in one episode of General Hospital, where her father worked as lighting director. Other small guest roles followed including, CSI: NY, The War at Home and, later on, Fringe.

Modeling jobs came and went, including a stint as “briefcase girl” on Deal or No Deal. Markle wrote in 2015 that she had some difficulty getting roles early in her career: “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white. Being ethnically ambiguous as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role. Sadly, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job.”

Taking her character, and the fact that she was part of the cast of Suits seriously, Markle had re-positioned Rachel Zane from ingénue to moral conscience and, according to The Irish Times, “gave viewers the unique portrayal of a daughter, whose African American father is in a position to help her career and advance her strong desire to break several racial and gender glass ceilings.”

After marrying Prince Harry, leaving Suits and giving up Hollywood, Markle closed her social media presence and thanked everyone who had followed her accounts over the years.

Since leaving the royal family, Harry and Meghan created the Archewell Foundation and produced and appeared in two docu-series, Harry & Meghan and Heart of Invictus. So what’s next for the dynamic royal duo? “Things that make people feel – I was going to say good, but its more than that…things that make people feel something, right?”, she told Variety in November 2023. “And feel a sense of community. But we have so many exciting things on the slate. I can’t wait until we can announce them, but I’m just really proud of what we’re creating. My husband is loving it, too.”

Today, Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lilibeth live outside Santa Barbara, California.

(Click through for more First for Women royals stories.)

Patrick J. Adams as Michael Ross

Hired by Harvey Specter to be his associate despite no law degree, his character gets caught in season 5 and take a deal to serve two years in prison. He later takes another deal to get out early and finally — In the Season 6 finale — he passes the bar to finally become a legitimate lawyer.

Born in Toronto, where the series was filmed, Patrick J. Adams appeared in TV dramas such as Cold Case, Without a Trace, Heartland, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, Lie to Me, Lost, Luck (opposite Dustin Hoffman) and many others before joining the cast of Suits.

Adams also held a presence in the Los Angeles theater scene, most notably with an award-winning production of the hit revival, Marat/Sade, which he produced and directed and which brought home the gold in the category of Best Production at the L.A. Weekly Theatre Awards.

He made the professional leap to Broadway in 2022’s Take Me Out, for which he received a nomination from the Outer Critics Circle Awards for his role as Christopher “Kippy” Sunderstrom. Clearly it was his Suits role that actually kicked his career into high gear; who can forget the episode of Suits in 2011 where he gets slapped not once — but twice — by Meghan Markle?

In his spare time, Adams is an avid photographer who owns more than 25 cameras. His photos were featured in Suits: Behind the Lens.

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Sarah Rafferty as Donna Paulsen in the cast of Suits

Paulsen was Harvey’s irreplaceable assistant and confidante before she later became a partner in the firm — not really a surprise given her impeccable knowledge of all the firm’s happenings, and the fact that she was admired and feared by everyone there. Through several ups and downs, mishandling of clients and legal papers, and staff imprisonments, Donna and Harvey got together by Season 8’s end and get married in the series finale. Yeah!! A sigh of relief from avid viewers who were rooting for the couple for several seasons.

Born in New Canaan, Connecticut, Sarah Rafferty was drawn to acting when late for field hockey practice, the coach telling her to skip practice and join the cast of Richard III. So she did! Rafferty may have been part of the cast of Suits, but had appeared in numerous TV series such as Law & Order, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, Bones and features Four Single Fathers and Falling For Grace, along with many stage productions.

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She is still baffled by the millions who were — and still are — viewers of Suits. “I don’t get it. I’m incredibly grateful, because our world right now feels like it is growing increasingly dark and fractured and if escaping for a few moments through TV helps…that makes me feel good.”

So popular is the resurgence of the show, that Suits creator Aaron Korsch is in development for a Suits-like show featuring new characters in a new location, most likely Los Angeles.

Though the probability of Donna Paulsen returning to a new cast of Suits is almost a solid no, never say never when it comes to acting. For now, in addition to her performances, Rafferty volunteers to many causes, including Alzheimer’s Association and The Brain Project.

Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson in the cast of Suits

Jessica Pearson may co-founded Pearson Hardman, but it took until the Season 1 finale for her to find out that Mike Ross was practicing law without a degree. But instead of firing him, Harvey convinces her to keep Mike and himself in the firm so they can beat Daniel Hardman, the other founding partner who has returned after an absence.

In season 5, she decides to move to Chicago with her lover, but is forced to return and admit she knew about Ross’ fraud, causing her disbarment. “I have been very, very fortunate on Suits where the writers do come to me and they ask my comfort level and if they want to push an envelope in a certain direction, if I’m okay with that," Gina Torres, an integral part of the cast of Suits, has said. "And by and large, I am. I think it’s important.”

Born in New York City, Gina Torres is known for various starring roles besides Suits, as in the sci-fi series Firefly and its feature film sequel Serenity; and currently on the series 9-1-1: Lone Star.

She been featured in the sci-fi films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, drama films Jam and Selah and the Spades. Throughout her busy career, Torres also appeared in supporting roles on TV series including Hercules, Xena Warrior Princess, Alias, The Shield, The Vampire Diaries, Westworld and opposite David Borenanaz on Angel.

Despite such an impressive resume, acting was not Torres’ first career choice. A mezzo-soprano, she began singing at an early age and trained in opera and jazz, and performed in a gospel choir. She applied and was accepted to several colleges but could not afford to attend, so she chose to pursue a career in acting and hasn’t looked back since.

Rick Hoffman as Louis Litt in the cast of Suits

Initially a junior partner at Pearson Hardman, his underhanded and self-serving tactics tend to overshadow his real love for law. In the beginning, Louis had a grudge against Harvey Specter, but they later make up and become friends. As you can guess, of course, he used his knowledge of Mike Ross’ secret to threaten Jessica Pearson into making him a name partner. Though he could sometimes be viewed the villain of the legal drama, Litt considered the firm’s associates his biggest successes,having been their tough but out-and-out mentor.

Born in The Big Apple, Richard Hoffman was well known before Louis Litt and becoming a part of the cast of Suits. He starred in the Bernie Mac Show as Jerry Best, and Chase Chapman on Samantha Who? His very first foray into acting was as a security guard in Conspiracy Theory in 1997. Other small roles came his way until the short-lived Wall Street series The Street, in 2000, had him making ends meet and he quit his job waiting tables in Los Angeles. Back to New York and once again, other roles in short-lived series came his way. Then there was cast as Louis Litt. Other notable roles include: Billions and Ballers.

Hoffman has a long list of guest starring credits on TV and film: The Day After Tomorrow, Cellular, The Condemned and guest starring on Law & Order: SVU, NCIS, The Practice, CSI: NY, Monk, The Mentalist and short-lived law drama Philly in 2001. “No matter what set she’s been on over the last years, my mother always finds a way to get in the way. Not in a bad way," he's explained. "Like, she once got caught on a law show I did called Philly, trying to take a picture — she was caught on-camera in the background.”

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