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'The Morning Show' Season 5 casts Reneé Rapp in a recurring role as the newsroom drama intensifies

Rapp will play Samantha in the upcoming season of the hit show alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston

'The Morning Show's cut-throat world of television news has got a brand new entry who will shake up the power dynamics at UBN. Season 4 of the comedy-drama series premiered in September 2025 after the show had already been renewed for Season 5. Now the cast for the upcoming season is shaping up well as Apple TV has roped in the singer-songwriter Reneé Rapp to join the show in a major recurring role, Deadline reported. She will join the Emmy award nominee Jeff Daniels and 'Grey's Anatomy' star Jesse Williams, who were previously announced to star in Season 5. 'The Morning Show' centers on a fictional morning TV talk show and is based on the 2013 book 'Top of the Morning' by Brian Stelter.

Rapp is slated to play Samantha, "a young rising star in the UBN news division determined to make it in media on her own terms," as per the character's official description. She'll fit right in with the show's ambitious bunch of characters navigating the media landscape, led by Reese Witherspoon's Bradley Jackson and Jennifer Aniston's Alex Levy. Daniels will appear as Lukas, "a billionaire who built his fortune from the ground up and now runs a major investment firm." Meanwhile, Williams will play Vernon, "UBN’s newest Head of News, who is known as a brash pot-stirrer with a talent for grabbing and keeping an audience." Plot details for Season 5 of the award-winning series are currently under wraps. 

The 26-year-old Rapp took on a leading role as she played Leighton Murray in the HBO Max comedy 'The Sex Lives Of College Girls' for the show's first two seasons. She also played Regina George in the Broadway production of 'Mean Girls' from 2019 to 2020 and reprised the iconic role in the musical film adaptation in 2024. She then began to focus on music and released two studio albums - 'Snow Angel' in 2023 and 'Bite Me' in 2025. So her return to acting is a welcome surprise to fans, who can't wait to see her on screen in the Apple TV series.  

The cast of 'The Morning Show' features a talented line-up of stars, including Billy Crudup as Cory Ellison, Mark Duplass as Charlie 'Chip' Black, Karen Pittman as Mia Jordan, Nicole Beharie as Christine Hunter, Jon Hamm as Paul Marks, and Nestor Carbonell as Yanko Flores. Charlotte Stoudt serves as the showrunner and executive producer of 'The Morning Show' alongside Mimi Leder, the show's longtime director. Furthermore, Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer also executive-produce the series through Media Res, in addition to Micah Schraft and Zander Lehmann.