:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/the-family-stone-110725-45343aff74ce43dbb5d425dce1235e48.jpg "The Family Stone cast, then and now: See the all-star ensemble 20 years after the holiday classic...")
The sweet (and strange) family drama debuted back in 2005. The Family Stone cast, then and now: See the allstar ensemble 20 years after the holiday classic premiered The sweet (and strange) family drama debuted back in 2005. By Randall Colburn :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RandallColburnauthorphotoe7e8b48d9f8645588439077e721a5f48.jpg) Randall Colburn Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at . His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications. EW's editorial guidelines November 29, 2025 9:00 a.m.
The sweet (and strange) family drama debuted back in 2005.
The Family Stone cast, then and now: See the all-star ensemble 20 years after the holiday classic premiered
The sweet (and strange) family drama debuted back in 2005.
By Randall Colburn
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Randall-Colburn-author-photo-e7e8b48d9f8645588439077e721a5f48.jpg)
Randall Colburn
Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.
EW's editorial guidelines
November 29, 2025 9:00 a.m. ET
The ensemble cast of 'The Family Stone'. Credit:
Theo Westenberger/Fox
- *The Family Stone* sees chaos ensue when an eldest son brings his high-strung girlfriend home for Christmas.
- Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Rachel McAdams led an all-star cast.
- The holiday heart-warmer celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
*The Family Stone*, believe it or not, was originally titled *F---ing Hate Her.*
Would it still, 20 years after its release, be so fiercely beloved by its fanbase had it been released as such? You think we're going to say no, but if this movie can still become a new holiday classic despite its alien characterizations and tonal whiplash, it could've made that title work.
Following its release, ** described *The Family Stone* as a "beautifully styled cashmere throw draped on an Eames chair than a lumpy granny afghan tossed on a Barcalounger." It continued, "But somehow, it dramatizes the attractive traps of bohemian-bourgeois aspirations (and snobbism) and, with a light comedic touch, also holds its ground as an old-fashioned and even sweet story about love — and the swapping of perfectly wrapped presents."
It doesn't hurt, either, that it's populated by some of this century's most charming Hollywood icons, including the effervescent Diane Keaton, who died in October at the age of 79.
Below, we check in with the cast of *The Family Stone*, then and now.
Diane Keaton as Sybil Stone
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Diane Keaton in 'The Family Stone'; Keaton on August 20, 2024, in Brentwood, Calif.
ZADE ROSENTHAL/Fox; London Entertainment/GC Images
Diane Keaton led *The Family Stone *as Sybil, the clan's bohemian matriarch, who we come to learn is struggling with cancer.
"I thought of my mother, and how much she meant to me in my life. What that experience is like to know you're dying," the actress said in EW's oral history of* The Family Stone*. "There was never anyone in my life like her. She was the greatest mother. So it was very moving for me to play that part."**
Just two years prior to *The Family Stone*, the Oscar-winning actress and fashion icon won a Golden Globe for her spirited turn in Nancy Meyers' *Something's Gotta Give*.
She spent the two decades after *The Family Stone* acting in charming, feather-light comedies like *Mad Money* (2008), *Love the Coopers* (2015), and Pixar's* Finding Dory* (2016). She also linked up with fellow screen legends Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen for 2018's *Book Club* and its 2023 sequel.
In 2011, she published a memoir, *Then Again*, which EW lauded for being as "idiosyncratic as its subject."
She died in October 2025 at the age of 79.**
Craig T. Nelson as Kelly Stone
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Craig T. Nelson in 'The Family Stone'; Nelson attends the world premiere of "Incredibles 2" at El Capitan Theatre on June 5, 2018, in Los Angeles.
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett; Jesse Grant/Getty
*Coach* legend Craig T. Nelson oversees the Stone clan alongside Keaton's Sybil as Kelly, a college professor and bona fide "wife guy."
Nelson went on to costar with Keaton in *Book Club* (2018) and its 2023 sequel, and returned to the small screen with roles on NBC's *Parenthood* (2010–2015) and CBS's *Young Sheldon* (2019–2024), as well as the latter's spinoff, *Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage *(2024–present).
He also reprised his leading role as *The Incredibles*' Mr. Incredible in the animated hit's 2018 sequel, as well as several video games.
Dermot Mulroney as Everett Stone
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Dermot Mulroney in 'The Family Stone'; Mulroney attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations Presents 'When I'm, Ready' event at the Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists on March 19, 2025, in Los Angeles.
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett; Amanda Edwards/Getty
Dermot Mulroney was already a veteran of rom-coms like *My Best Friend's Wedding* (1997) and *The Wedding Date* (2005) when he starred in *The Family Stone* as eldest son Everett, who brings chaos to Christmas by bringing home Parker's Meredith.
"I have the same experience of the movie as people who see it," the actor told EW. "The warm embrace of that family that's on film is what I felt like on that movie when we were shooting it. A couple years from now we can probably call it a classic. Give it a little time before you throw that word around, please. Just so we don't seem that old." (That interview was five years ago, so we can now call it a classic. Deal with it, Dermot!)
Mulroney has remained prolific in the two decades since *The Family Stone*, pairing work with brilliant filmmakers like David Fincher (*Zodiac*), Clint Eastwood (*J. Edgar*), and Park Chan-wook (*Stoker*) with roles in lighter fare, including *Scream VI* (2023), Marvel's *Secret Invasion* (2023), and *Anyone but You* (2024).
Fascinatingly, Mulroney is also a talented cellist and has contributed to the scores of blockbusters like *Jurassic World* (2015), *Rogue One* (2016), and *Spider-Man: Far From Home* (2019), among many others.**
He currently helps lead two popular TV series: NBC's *Chicago Fire* (2024–present) and Netflix's *The Hunting Wives* (2025–present).**
Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton
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Sarah Jessica Parker in 'The Family Stone'; Parker attends the New 42 Studios' 25th anniversary luncheon at New 42 Studios on September 8, 2025 in New York City.
ZADE ROSENTHAL/Fox; John Nacion/Getty
Sarah Jessica Parker plays *The Family Stone*'s most divisive figure: Meredith, the fiancée of Mulroney's Everett, who rankles the liberal Stones with her buttoned-up personality.
In their review, EW's critic praised Parker's performance as the "anti-Carrie Bradshaw." In a 2014 retrospective, however, another EW critic described Meredith as a "social terrorist from space who has the emotional intelligence of a five-year-old raised in a bomb shelter."
Speaking with EW for our oral history, Parker was aware of her character's polarizing effect. "I was scared. It can feel personal. It's a really weird thing when you are playing somebody who isn't liked and the other actors who are not liking you are really good," she said. "It started to feel unpleasant."
The actress, who was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards (and won two) for her iconic work on *Sex and the City, *went on to reprise the role of* *Carrie Bradshaw for a pair of film spinoffs and three seasons of *And Just Like That...* (2022–2025), an HBO sequel series.
Parker, never one to shy away from nostalgia, also reprised her slinky witch Sarah Sanderson for Disney+'s *Hocus Pocus 2* (2022).
Her son, James Wilkie Broderick, whom she shares with husband and actor Matthew Broderick, is also an actor, having recently costarred with his dad in a 2024 episode of *Elsbeth*. The couple also has twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha.**
Rachel McAdams as Amy Stone
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Rachel McAdams in 'The Family Stone'; McAdams attends the 77th Annual Tony Awards Meet The Nominees press event at Sofitel New York on May 2, 2024, in New York City.
20th Century Fox; Jemal Countess/Getty
Rachel McAdams was fresh off the one-two punch of *Mean Girls* and *The Notebook* (both released in 2004) when she costarred in *The Family Stone* as Amy, who one EW critic called "the world's least convincing hipster."
McAdams' rapid ascent to the A-list worried the film's writer and director, Thomas Bezucha. "I'd met Rachel for the Amy character many years earlier," he told EW for our oral history. "In the intervening time, before this version she had done *The Notebook*, *Mean Girls*. It was like, 'She's never going to do this movie.' And we got a call from her saying, 'That part's mine, right?'"
McAdams has remained a Hollywood heavyweight in the years since, leaping nimbly between big-budget dramas (*The Time Traveler's Wife*), action franchises (*Sherlock Holmes*), comedies (*Game Night*), and even the Marvel Cinematic Universe (*Doctor Strange*). In between, she's worked with the lofty likes of Woody Allen (*Midnight in Paris*), Terrence Malick (*To the Wonder*), and Wim Wenders (*Every Thing Will Be Fine*).
She was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting turn in *Spotlight* (2016), which went on to win Best Picture, and received ample acclaim for her work in the affecting Judy Blume adaptation *Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret* (2023).
McAdams shares two children with her longtime boyfriend, screenwriter Jamie Linden. She'll next appear opposite Dylan O'Brien in *Send Help*, a new thriller from Sam Raimi.**
Luke Wilson as Ben Stone
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Luke Wilson in 'The Family Stone'; Wilson attends the premiere of Netflix's 'No Good Deed' at TUDUM Theater on December 4, 2024, in Hollywood.
ZADE ROSENTHAL/Fox; Kevin Winter/Getty
Luke Wilson, renowned for his work with filmmaker Wes Anderson, costarred in *The Family Stone* as reefer-puffing film editor Ben.
Speaking with EW for our oral history, Wilson reflected on his penchant for ad-libbing during production. "I kept ad-libbing different stuff. [Director] Tom [Bezucha] would get a kick out of my ideas sometimes," he said. "I just remember I said something kind of bizarre, and when they said cut, Diane was just looking at me and she was like, 'Where are you from?'"
In the year after *The Family Stone*, Wilson led Mike Judge's cult satire *Idiocracy*, dumped Uma Thurman in Ivan Reitman's *My Super Ex-Girlfriend*, and cameoed in *Jackass Number Two. *He's remained a consistent presence in film since, but some of his best work can be seen on Mike White's wonderful HBO series *Enlightened* (2011–2013), in which he plays the addict ex-husband of Laura Dern's idealistic Amy Jellicoe.
Most recently, Wilson has appeared in Kevin Costner's *Horizon: An American Saga *(2024), as well as Netflix's *No Good Deed* (2024) and the animated series *Bat-Man* (2025).**
Elizabeth Reaser as Susannah Stone Trousdale
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Elizabeth Reaser in 'The Family Stone'; Reaser attends the Los Angeles premiere of 'The Uninvited' at the Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on November 15, 2024, in Los Angeles.
20th Century Fox; Michael Tullberg/Getty
In *The Family Stone*, Elizabeth Reaser plays Susannah, the Stones' eldest daughter and a stay-at-home mom with a second child on the way.
In our oral history, the actress cited the film's tonal shifts as a feature, not a bug. "You think it's going to be one movie, and then it's this other movie," she said. "I think it's what makes the movie really special. It had a real story to tell about family and loss."
Just two years after its release, Reaser was nominated for an Emmy nomination for her run on *Grey's Anatomy* (2007–2008). Not long after, she nabbed the role of Esme Cullen in the *Twilight* franchise, starring in all of its five films between 2008 and 2012.
Over the past decade, she's appeared in numerous horror films and series, including filmmaker Mike Flanagan's *Ouija: Origin of Evil* (2016) and *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018).**
Tyrone Giordano as Thad Stone
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Tyrone Giordano in 'The Family Stone'; Giordano on 'Washington Black'.
20th Century Fox; Disney/Lilja Jonsdottir
Tyrone Giordano, a deaf actor with a long history in theater, appeared in *The Family Stone* as Thad, the Stones' deaf son who's considering adopting a child with his partner, Patrick.
As revealed in EW's oral history, the cast learned sign language for the film. "As a deaf person, I loved that the family signed," Giordano told us. "Rachel was a quick study. Diane was comfortable getting into it, having learned a few signs from a previous film. Brian [J. White] approached it as choreography. Dermot had many, many questions."
Giordano went on to appear in films like *Untraceable* (2008) and *The Next Three Days* (2010), and, per his LinkedIn, has spent the last decade teaching ASL and working in communications in both corporate and academic settings.
Giordano recently returned to the screen opposite Sterling K. Brown on the 2025 Hulu drama *Washington Black*.**
Brian J. White as Patrick Thomas
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Brian J. White in 'The Family Stone'; White attends the 54th NAACP Image Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 25, 2023, in Pasadena.
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett; Leon Bennett/Getty
Brian J. White appeared opposite Giordano in *The Family Stone* as Patrick, Thad's partner who rocks cozy sweaters.
White went on to appear in multiple Tyler Perry films, including *I Can Do Bad All by Myself* (2009) and *Good Deeds *(2012), as well as cult horror hit *The Cabin in the Woods* (2011).
He's been especially prolific on TV, with roles on TNT's *Men of a Certain Age* (2009–2011), the CW's *Beauty & the Beast* (2012–2013), and ABC's *Scandal* (2015). In 2019, he scored a Daytime Emmy nomination for his turn on the Urban Movie Channel's *Bronx SIU* (2018–2019).
Most recently, he starred on the BET+ series *The Black Hamptons* (2022–2024) and recurred on season 17 of CBS's* Criminal Minds* (2024).**
Claire Danes as Julie Morton
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Claire Danes in 'The Family Stone'; Danes attends Netflix's 'The Beast In Me' New York premiere at the Plaza Hotel on November 5, 2025, in New York City.
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Claire Danes was an established film and TV star by the time she joined *The Family Stone* as Julie, Meredith's younger sister who plays a decidedly bizarre role in this whole affair.
"I found working on the film an exhilarating experience, because it forced me as an actor to be as honest as possible," she previously said about her experience. "You can't hide behind a comic or dramatic acting approach, because you would never be able to create and sustain the wide spectrum of dynamic moments throughout the film."
Danes has acted in a handful of films over the past few decades, including the Neil Gaiman adaptation* Stardust (*2007) and Richard Linklater's *Me and Orson Welles* (2008). But she's primarily focused on TV work, winning two Emmys for Showtime's political thriller *Homeland* (2011–2020).
She was nominated again for an Emmy for her turn on FX's *Fleishman Is in Trouble* (2022), which she followed with a leading role on Steven Soderbergh's *Full Circle* (2023) on HBO. She recently starred in the Netflix miniseries *The Beast in Me*, on which she's also an executive producer.
Danes is married to *Hannibal* actor Hugh Dancy. The couple share three children.**
Paul Schneider as Brad Stevenson
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Paul Schneider in 'The Family Stone'; Schneider at the Los Angeles screening of 'Florida Man' at the Roma Theater on April 12, 2023.
20th Century Fox; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Paul Schneider cut his teeth in the early movies of filmmaker David Gordon Green before taking a role in *The Family Stone* as Brad, an EMT with eyes for McAdams' Amy.
Two years following its release, the Asheville-born actor turned in memorable supporting turns in *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford* and* Lars and the Real Girl. *He joined the cast of NBC's *Parks and Recreation* (2009–2010) as Mark Brendanawicz, though his character didn't quite mesh with the show's comedic sensibilities, and he left after season 2.
He's remained a familiar face on screens big and small, with performances in films from Woody Allen (*Cafe Society*) and Warren Beatty (*Rules Don't Apply*) accompanying leading roles on series like *Channel Zero: Candle Cove* (2016) and *Tales from the Loop* (2020).
Schneider recently appeared on Hulu's *Murdaugh: Death in the Family* (2025) and the Denis Johnson adaptation *Train Dreams* (2025), currently an awards favorite on the festival circuit.**
Jamie Kaler as John Trousdale
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Jamie Kaler in 'The Family Stone'; Kaler attends a special screening and panel for "List of a Lifetime" at CGV Cinemas on September 29, 2021, in Los Angeles.
20th Century Fox; Michael Kovac/Getty
Jamie Kaler appeared in *The Family Stone* as John Trousdale, the husband of Reaser's Susannah.
The year after *The Family Stone*'s release, Kaler, a stand-up comic, found success starring on the TBS sitcom *My Boys* (2006–2010). You can also see him on episodes of *How I Met Your Mother* (2009), *The Middle* (2017), *NCIS* (2018), and *Tacoma FD* (2019–2020).
Savannah Stehlin as Elizabeth
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Savannah Stehlin in 'The Family Stone'; Stehlin in 2023 via Instagram.
20th Century Fox; Savannah Stehlin/Instagram
Savannah Stehlin was only 9 years old when she made her screen debut as Elizabeth, Susannah and John's daughter, in *The Family Stone*.
From there, she appeared on episodes of *Gilmore Girls *(2006), *Hannah Montana* (2006–2007), and *Without a Trace* (2009). Her most recent credits are a pair of movies, *The Axe Murders of Villisca* (2016) and *Low Low* (2019).
Per Stehlin's Instagram, she's actively involved with the worship team at Salty Church in Ormond Beach, Fla.
Where can I watch The Family Stone?
*The Family Stone* is currently available to stream on Hulu.
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Published: November 30, 2025 at 10:38PM on Source: RON MAG
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