David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” was an oasis for famous actors.Based on two real-life murders, the popular series became celebrated for its distinctive, surrealist storytelling and iconic, campy lines. The show was also a breakout role for Kyle MacLachlan, Mädchen Amick, and several other stars. But what’s not mentioned enough are the many celebrities who graced the series with their presence.
The first two seasons of one of the best shows of the ’90sfeatured a few major names, and actors who became famous years after the show ended in 1991. The celebrity guest stars started flooding in with the 1992 movie “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” which starred generational rockstar David Bowie. When the series returned in 2017 with “Twin Peaks: The Return,” it was filled to the brim with celebrity guest stars, from Laura Dern playing Diane to Monica Bellucci appearing as herself in a dream sequence.
Due to the high number of celebrities, it’s easy to forget some of the stars who appeared on the series. Some celebrities weren’t even famous when they appeared on the show, so they’re a fun surprise when you rewatch the series. So, in case you’ve forgotten, here are five celebrities who guest-starred on “Twin Peaks” and its revival series.
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried was born five years before “Twin Peaks” premiered. By the timeDavid Lynch’s reboot arrived, Seyfried was a bona fide star after appearing in “Mean Girls,” “Les Misérables,” and “Mamma Mia!” So, Seyfried bagged a guest role in the series, playing Rebecca “Becky” Burnett.
If the character name rings a bell, it’s because she’s the daughter of two important characters from the original series. In the revival series, Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), Laura Palmer’s former shady boyfriend, marries Shelly Johnson (Mädchen Amick), the waitress at the Double R Diner, and Becky is their daughter. Becky is also married at this point, though her relationship with her husband is scarred by their poverty, his affairs, and physical and verbal abuse.
Seyfried gave a great performance as a complicated, troubled wife. However, fans could easily forget Becky because she appears in a couple of scenes across four episodes, and only in side stories to represent the town’s other problems. Becky has her own arc that leads to liberation from her husband, and then doesn’t appear for the rest of the show.
David Duchovny
Two years before David Duchovny found his big break with FBI agent Mulder on “The X-Files,” Duchovny played a very different agent on “Twin Peaks.” But if you don’t remember seeing Duchovny, it’s because he was wearing makeup and a wig. Duchovny played Denise Bryson, a trans woman DEA agent who appears for three episodes in the middle of the show’s second season.
Duchovny’s Denise was one of the best “Twin Peaks” cameos, and it was groundbreaking because it was rare in the ’90s to have a trans character who isn’t ridiculed, shunned, or persecuted. Though some members of the Twin Peaks town are a little confused by Denise, she gets on with her work without being treated as a spectacle. Her identity wasn’t her entire story, and Denise was even given an arc where she could be a hero for Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).
Duchovny told TooFab in 2025, “You never think as a young actor going in to audition for a TV show, you don’t even know what it is, and then for it to be something like that is quite special.” Duchovny returned to the role for a brief cameo in “Twin Peaks: The Return,” although at this time it was a little bit more controversial for a cisgender male actor to be playing a trans woman. But the scene was still praised due to David Lynch’s iconic line, “When you became Denise, I told all of your colleagues, those clown comics, to fix their hearts or die.”
Matthew Lillard
Although Matthew Lillard appeared in four episodes, he had a major role in “Twin Peaks: The Return” in the supernatural horror segment of the series. Lillard played Bill Hastings, a high school principal who discovers an alternate dimension with his mistress and comes face to face with Major Garland Briggs. “Twin Peaks” fans will remember Briggs as an officer from the original series who was in charge of a base studying paranormal activity, but “The Return” dives deeper into the supernatural.
Hastings’ giddy adventures unfortunately turn dark when he’s arrested for his mistress’ sudden murder. This leads to his own grisly demise. Fans may not have recognized Lillard, as it was his first major onscreen role in over a decade, and the perception of Lillard was shaped by his younger roles in “Scooby-Doo” and “Scream,” where he looked very different. However, since Lillard’s revival in recent years, fans are more likely to remember that he appeared in “Twin Peaks.”
The pressure of performing in Lynch’s heightened world really affected the “Carrie” actor, too. “I felt like that show is gonna be such a cultural moment that people all over the world were gonna see this moment,” Lillard told A.V. Club in 2018. “I knew that the stress of achieving what I want to achieve in my own craft was super high and it was really, really, really, really hard and scary.”
Molly Shannon
“Twin Peaks” was Molly Shannon’s second on-screen role, and sheonly appeared in one episode. So it wouldn’t be too surprising if fans forgot her. Shannon guest-starred in Season 2, Episode 12 of the original “Twin Peaks” run, where she played a social worker named Judy Swain.
Judy worked at Happy Helping Hands, an organization that helped settle Nicky Needleman with local worker Dick Tremayne to raise. Judy’s one brief scene was with the complicated love-triangle trio, Tremayne, Andy Brennan, and Lucy Brennan, where she explained to them how they can best care for Nicky. The scene is normal and brief, rendering it completely forgettable amid everything else going on. Shannon was a lot younger than the roles she’s most known for, which likely doesn’t help fans remember that she starred in the show.
Shannon revealed in her 2022 memoir “Hello Molly!” that she used the name of David Mamet, a famous playwright, to get on the series. “We started meeting everyone — agents at ICM, William Morris,” Shannon wrote (via IndieWire). “I wanted to be on ‘Twin Peaks’ so Eugene [Pack] called the casting director, Johanna Ray, and I actually did get cast on ‘Twin Peaks.’ Through the Mamet Scam.” A few years later, Shannon finally got her big break when she was cast in “Saturday Night Live.”
Billy Zane
Billy Zane arrives late in Season 2 and has a significant arc before his swift exit from the series. Zane is served up as a love interest for Sherilyn Fenn’s Audrey Horne, a high schooler who spent most of the series obsessed with the adult FBI agent Dale Cooper. However, the show never really states how old Zane’s character, John Justice Wheeler, is, or if he also has an uncomfortable age gap with Audrey.
We do know that Audrey’s father invested in his business when John was younger, and he knew of Audrey before coming to town. John and Audrey fall in love, but the character is suddenly pulled away from Twin Peaks after the death of a business partner. At the time, Zane was likely a memorable guest star because he was a rising star.
Zane had two small roles in classic movies “Back to the Future” and “Critters,” and then received acclaim for his villain role in “Dead Calm.” Following his appearance in “Twin Peaks,” Zane also starred in the worldwide hit movie “Titanic.” But Zane’s popularity has dimmed since the ’90s, which may make fans forget he was in “Twin Peaks” or not recognize his appearance at all in the show.
