Get to Know 13 Reasons Why's Breakout Star, Katherine Langford

By Caitlin Gallagher
Netflix
Netflix

If you've watched 13 Reasons Why, Netflix's heartbreakingly beautiful adaptation of Jay Asher's bestselling 2007 YA novel, then you probably spent the hours following episode 13 googling all you can about the incredible cast. While you might have recognized one or two faces (Dyan Minnette, for example), most of them are newcomers to Hollywood. In addition to being completely blown away by their stellar acting, we also immediately wanted to know more about them off camera, in particular the show's star, Katherine Langford (Hannah Baker). Since Katherine, 20, is already causing a lot of buzz for her amazing performance, we have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her in the near future. So get a snack, settle in, because we have some fun facts about the actress that you'll want to know.

  1. She's Australian. Katherine is from Perth, Australia, and actually auditioned for the show over Skype.
  2. Her résumé is very short. Before landing her role on 13 Reasons Why, which could very possibly get picked up for a second season, Katherine had only done one indie crowd-funded film in Australia called Daughters. Post-13 Reasons, she now has three more acting credits on her IMDb page: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Imperfect Quadrant, and The Misguided.
  3. She's on Instagram. Katherine, or @katherinelangford, has less than 30 posts on the social media app so far, but that already includes a few cute snaps with her 13 Reasons Why costars.
  1. Lady Gaga helped her discover her love for the arts. Katherine told W magazine that after listing her desired career paths in school in the order of medicine, politics, and music theater, the latter took the lead when she went to Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball.
  2. She didn't read the book before making the show. "I hadn't read the book prior," she told RadioTimes.com. "I think if I had, I probably would have put a lot more pressure on myself because it's a book that so many people identify with and are protective of."
  3. She only recently saw snow for the first time. As a native Australian, Katherine isn't used to chilly weather. But during her first trip for New York in March for the show's press, she saw that white powder (or gross slush, depending on where you live) for the first time.
  4. She bought a piano for her apartment to de-stress during filming. She told E! News that because of the extremely heavy and sensitive subject matter of the show, the first thing she bought for her apartment during filming was a piano to help lift her mood when she got home. She also watched a lot of The Office.
  1. She loved being able to experience "American" high school. During our interview with Katherine and Dylan Minnette, the actress revealed that she's always had fantasies about what it's like being an American teenager from watching TV shows and movies. "This may just be me, but I feel like everyone's dream is to live as an American high school student," she said. "There are so many teen films set in America that you live vicariously through them, anyway. But it was totally different. I got to experience Halloween, and prom, and cheerleaders . . . and the Fourth of July! It was crazy. It was definitely different. For me, personally, it was so weird and bizarre because it actually felt really, really realistic."