Last Seen

Ian, an alcoholic former police officer, now emergency dispatcher, receives a call about a body found near his home; he thinks it may be his daughter, who went missing 11 years previously.^[1][2]

Main

• Patrick Brammall as Ian Ridley
• Brendan Cowell as Henry Reid, a reclusive fundamentalist
• Maxine Peake as Jenna Reid, Henry's wife
• Daniel Henshall as Donald Reid
• Jessica Wren as Debbie McGuire
• Zahra Newman as Isabel Pena
• Taylor Ferguson as Polly Foster
• Bert La Bonté as Bill McCracken
• Tobias Muhafidin as Dean Ridley
• Carolyn Bock as Lydia Boyd
• James Saunders as Ben Sizemore
• Chloe Jean Lourdes as Sarah Reid, Henry's daughter
• Felix Cameron as Tommy Brenton
• Colin Friels as Gareth Reid

Recurring

• Jack Green as Constable Steven Lewis

Guest

• Fletcher Humphrys as Peter Mulligan
• Justin Bell as Shane Kennedy
• Charly Thorn as Tyra Kennedy
• Aly Zhang as Penny
• Cliff Wood as Les Potter
• Spencer Ellis-Anderson as Andy Kennedy
• Oscar Redding as Jack Brenton
• Carlin Monteiro as Sam Lynch
• Dash Maxwell as Damian "Damo" Tully
• Zane Blumeris as Charlie Halloran
• Will Crittenden as Jayden Brenton
• Judith Roberts as Francine
• Jackson Raine as Angus
• Danny Matier as Tony
• Simon Maiden as Eli
• Julie Forsyth as Rebecca
• Martin Blum as John
• Ana Maria Belo as DCI Christine Jensen
• Robert Plazek as Tactical Officer Tyler

The six-part series is written by Kris Mrksa, who adapted the script from Ryan David Jahn's 2011 novel The Dispatcher, transplanting the setting from midwest US to Australia.^[1][3] Mrksa also served as an executive producer, along with Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta of 60Forty Films, and Joanna Werner of Werner Film Productions.^[4][5] Christian Schwochow is director and co-executive producer.^[6]

Patrick Brammall was cast in the lead role in June 2024.^[3] In March 2025, Maxine Peake, Brendan Cowell, Daniel Henshall, Jessica Wren, Zahra Newman, and Chloe Jean Lourdes were added to the cast.^[6][7][3][1]

Filming began in Australia in March 2025,^[8][9] with Bonnie Elliott responsible for cinematography.^[10] It is the first Apple TV show to be both made and entirely filmed in Australia.^[1]

The series premiered globally on Apple TV on 9 September 2026 with two episodes, followed by one each week.^[11]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 7.2/10, based on 22 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Last Seen serves its mystery in bold spades, taking a story of familial tragedy to the brink of heart-wrenching and engrossing, while Patrick Brammall's performance takes this series to the next level."^[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 78 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[13]

Luke Buckmaster of The Guardian gave the series 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "riveting television" and "one of the standout shows of the year".^[10] Brian Tallerico gave it 3 out of 4 stars on RogerEbert.com, praising the "nuanced character work".^[14]