Who Are the Real Reporters From the Spotlight Movie?

Sacha Pfeiffer Played by Rachel McAdams

Image Source: Getty / Alberto E. Rodriguez

The lone female member of the Spotlight team is originally from Ohio and joined the Boston Globe in 1995. She was asked by Walter Robinson (played by Michael Keaton in the movie) to join the team, which would win the Pulitzer in 2003 for its investigation into the sexual abuse of the Catholic church's clergy. Pfeiffer is currently a columnist at the Globe, was a host of All Things Considered for NPR in Boston and cowrote the book Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church.

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Ben Bradlee Jr. Played by John Slattery

Image Source: Getty / Isaiah Trickey

Mad Men star John Slattery portrays the Globe editor who oversees the work of the Spotlight team. Bradlee himself has had journalism in his blood his whole life; his father is Ben Bradlee, who was the executive editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal. After the events in Spotlight, Bradlee left the newspaper to write a biography about famed baseball player Ted Williams, titled The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams.

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Walter "Robbie" Robinson Played by Michael Keaton

Image Source: Getty / Mark Brown

Boston native Walter "Robbie" Robinson had been the editor for the Spotlight team and is now editor-at-large at The Boston Globe and a distinguished professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

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Michael Rezendes Played by Mark Ruffalo

Image Source: Getty / Taylor Hill

Rezendes is a political reporter for The Boston Globe and is still part of the Spotlight team. Along with Spotlight member Pfeiffer, Rezendes cowrote Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church. You can follow Rezendes on Twitter here.

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Marty Baron Played by Liev Schreiber

Image Source: Getty / Alberto E. Rodriguez

Marty Baron, played by Liev Schreiber in the film, is originally from Florida and, as portrayed in the movie, came to The Boston Globe in 2001. He is now the editor of The Washington Post, where he went to in 2012 after leaving the Globe.

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Matty Carroll Played by Brian d'Arcy James

Image Source: Getty / Alberto E. Rodriguez

Matt "Matty" Carroll's career at The Boston Globe started in 1987, where he started as a copy editor. He joined the Spotlight team in 1997, where he is currently. He and his wife have four kids, who figure into the film, though we don't see them much.

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The Cast in the Film

Image Source: Open Road Films

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The Journalists and the Stars Who Play Them

Image Source: Getty / Alberto E. Rodriguez

From a screening at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

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