The Queue

Burns’ new PBS docuseries features a star-studded voice cast, including Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

By Kevin Slane

December 4, 2025 | 12:28 PM

4 minutes to read

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All of the celebrity voices in Ken Burns’ ‘American Revolution’

The biggest draw to Ken Burns’ new PBS series on the American Revolution is the man whose name is on the six-part documentary. Burns, who rose to prominence with his 1990 docuseries “The Civil War,” is a guarantor that you’re about to watch an edifying and incredibly thorough examination of a crucial story in American history.

Despite that, Burns’ reputation is such that he is also able to recruit a number of celebrities to participate in his documentaries. I’m not talking about the historians he interviews, though they are rockstars in their own right; I’m talking about the voice actors who portray historical figures like George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.

If you’ve found yourself pausing during the 12-hour series (now streaming for free on PBS.org) to figure out whose famous voice you’re hearing, here are some of the biggest names in this star-studded voice cast of “The American Revolution,” from Tom Hanks to Meryl Streep.

Kenneth Branagh: Thomas Gage, Henry Clinton, Joseph Reed, Samuel Graves, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lee, Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and Unidentified

Josh Brolin: George Washington

Josh Charles: John Peters, Joseph Warren and David Ramsay

Peter Coyote: Narrator

Hugh Dancy: John Burgoyne, Hugh Percy, The Gentleman’s Magazine, London Morning Post, Banastre Tarleton, Charles Gravier de Vergennes and Unidentified

Claire Danes: Abigail Adams

Jeff Daniels: Thomas Jefferson

Hope Davis: Elizabeth Drinker

Alden Ehrenreich: Joseph Plumb Martin (and Town Meeting of Lebanon, Connecticut)

Craig Ferguson: Lord North, Lord Dunmore John Paul Jones, Scotus Americanus, John Purrier, Martin Hunter and William Harcourt

Morgan Freeman: James Forten

Paul Giamatti: John Adams

Domhnall Gleeson: Roger Lamb, Loftus Cliffe, John MacPherson, John Bowater and William Barton

Jonathan Groff: Erkuries Beatty

Tom Hanks: Andrew Eliot, Josiah Bartlett, Isaac Bangs, David Griffith, Thomas Jones, Ezra Tilden, Albigence Waldo and Ebenezer Denny

Ethan Hawke: Anthony Wayne and John Andrews

Maya Hawke: Betsy Ambler

Lucas Hedges: Ebenezer Fletcher, John Laurens and Garrett Watts

Josh Hutcherson: James Potter Collins, Thomas Mellen, Jabez Campfield and Unidentified

Samuel L. Jackson: Boston King, Lemuel Haynes, Caesar Sarter and Flag Resolution

Michael Keaton: Benedict Arnold

Joe Keery: John Greenwood

Damian Lewis: King George III, Nicholas Cresswell, John André, Bartholomew James and Unidentified Voice

Laura Linney: Sarah Fisher, Sarah Mifflin, Ann Hulton, Eliza Wilkinson and Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Tobias Menzies: Lord Cornwallis, Ambrose Serle, William Pitt, Horatio Gates, London Public Advertiser and Unidentified

Edward Norton: Benjamin Rush, Philip Vickers Fithian and Philip Schuyler

David Oyelowo: Olaudah Equiano and Sam (witness in Jamaica)

Mandy Patinkin: Benjamin Franklin

Wendell Pierce: William Read

Matthew Rhys: Thomas Paine (and Edinburgh Amusement)

Liev Schreiber: Nathanael Greene, Samuel Adams and Lewis Beebe

Dan Stevens: William Howe and Rochambeau

Meryl Streep: Mercy Otis Warren

Don’t see who you’re looking for? There’s even more voices listed on IMDb.

Play or Skip

Have a show you can’t stop watching? Email me about it at [email protected], and your recommendation may appear in a future edition of The Queue.

Press play on these movies and shows:

“The American Revolution” (2025): Watching Ken Burns’ newest, you get exactly what you would expect: A thorough, deeply illuminating look at the most important period in American history. At the same time, “The American Revolution” is something altogether different. Rather than photographs moving into frame set to music (known as the Ken Burns effect), the filmmaker taps reenactors to aid his historical retelling. It’s a bold choice that has failed in other docuseries, but like everything Burns touches, it’s handled beautifully. (PBS)

“A Man on the Inside” Season 2: Ted Danson is back as retired professor turned private investigator Charles Nieuwendyk, reteaming with “The Good Place” and “Parks and Recreation” creator Mike Schur for another lighthearted mystery. This time Charles is investigating a college president (Max Greenfield) being blackmailed while trying not to get distracted by a free-spirited music teacher (Marty Steenburgen). (Netflix)

“Train Dreams” (2025): Based on Denis Johnson novella of the same name, “Train Dreams” follows a laborer (Joel Edgerton) in the early 20th century who spends long stretches away from his home in the Pacific Northwest working on a railroad that will connect across America. Set a century before our present day, the story of an American worker grappling with a rapidly changing world trying to make a good life for his wife and daughter is as evergreen as the trees that fill the landscape — until (slight spoiler alert) they don’t. (Netflix)

But go ahead and skip this show:

“The Family Plan 2” (2025): Mark Wahlberg told me he had a lot of fun making this movie. He almost certainly had more fun than I did watching it. It’s not terrible, but it also doesn’t rise above the base-line quality level of 100 other new holiday movies debuting over the next couple of months. (Apple TV+)

End Credits

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Until next time, good stream hunting, everyone!

— Kevin

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