Why does Sadie from 11.22.63 look familiar? Here’s where you have seen the actress before

In case you were fascinated by Sadie Dunhill in Hulu's miniseries 11.22.63, you were not the only one. The character, a librarian who develops romantic feelings towards the time-traveling main character, Jake Epping, played by James Franco, had a great impact on the audience.

But in case Sadie rings a bell with you, there is a reason why. The actor behind the character is a talented performer who proved herself over the years on big and small screens with an impressive resume across several genres.

Sarah Gadon, the Canadian actor behind Sadie, has been in the business since she was a kid. Sure, 11.22.63 put her on the radar for a lot of American viewers, but she had already shown what she could do. Gadon has a knack for bringing period dramas to life, and she has always had an undeniable presence in both film and TV.

Also Read: 11.22.63 Episode 2 recap revisited: Jake saves the Dunning family at a brutal moral cost

Why does Sadie from 11.22.63 look familiar?

Sarah Gadon was born on April 4, 1987, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you have ever watched Canadian TV in the late '90s or early 2000s, odds are, you caught a glimpse of her in shows like La Femme Nikita, Life with Derek, or Mutant X. Those gigs gave her a solid head start, letting her get comfy in front of the camera.

Now, the switch from child actor to serious drama queen kicked in big time when she hit her late teens. She was juggling university, studying cinema and English at U of T, while still hustling for roles. That film theory background actually helped her pick smart roles and dig into scripts with more brains than an average starlet.

Her cinematic breakthrough was when she worked with Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, who is one of the greatest directors in the field of cinema. First time, Sarah Gadon worked with Cronenberg on A Dangerous Method, which is a historical film about the first days of psychoanalysis and starred people like Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, and Keira Knightley. In the film, Gadon played Emma Jung, the wife of Carl Jung, attracting the attention of critics and other professionals in the industry.

The Cronenberg connection became central to the career of Gadon. She reunited with the director on Cosmopolis, co-starring with Robert Pattinson in an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s book. Sarah Gadon played the role of Elise Shifrin, the wife of Pattinson, who is an asset manager with a billion-dollar company. The movie debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and served to solidify Gadon as an actress who could handle complex stuff. She worked with Cronenberg a third time in Maps to the Stars, a satirical examination of Hollywood with an ensemble cast including Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, and John Cusack.

But she didn’t just stick with Cronenberg. Denis Villeneuve picked her up for Enemy, a movie that stars Jake Gyllenhaal playing his own doppelganger. Gadon actually had to pull double duty in that one, playing both his girlfriend and his wife.

Also Read: 11.22.63 Episode 3 recap revisited: Jake gains an ally as Oswald steps into focus

The period drama aspect of Sarah Gadon was the most pronounced in her career. She co-starred with Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the movie Belle, which is based on the actual events of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race girl in her time, who was raised in the upper social class of 18th-century England. The film was very successful both critically and commercially, and Gadon’s role as the privileged cousin was a significant factor in highlighting the differences in the protagonist’s experience.

In 2015, Sarah Gadon voiced a role in the 2015 animated film The Little Prince by Luc Besson, where she starred as Princess Aline Fractore. In the same year, she starred in Indignation, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel, portraying Olivia Hutton opposite Logan Lerman. Set in the 1950s, the film again revealed Gadon’s affinity with period settings and her skill to render the social limitations and emotional intricacies of various periods.

In February 2016, when 11.22.63 was released on Hulu, Sarah Gadon’s performance as Sadie Dunhill turned out to be one of the highlights of the miniseries. Based on the novel by Stephen King, 11.22.63 follows Jake Epping as he goes back to 1960 to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Sadie is the love interest and morality pillar of Jake in the past, a divorced librarian with a traumatic past.

After 11.22.63, Gadon resumed her filmography with a variety of works. She starred in The 9th Life of Louis Drax with Jamie Dornan and Aaron Paul, and appeared in Alias Grace, a Netflix miniseries inspired by the same-titled novel by Margaret Atwood. The series, produced by Mary Harron, was critically acclaimed and nominated for several awards, and the role of Gadon helped create a disturbing atmosphere in the series.

Gadon has starred in movies such as The Great Darkened Days, Black Bear with Aubrey Plaza, and True Detective: Night Country.

She also starred in Ferrari, All My Puny Sorrows, and in 2025, she had a supporting role in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. She also starred in Netflix's limited series Wayward as Laura Redman.

Also Read: 11.22.63 cast and characters: Here's who brought the Stephen King sci-fi thriller adaptation to life

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Edited by Sahiba Tahleel