Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell play incarcerated brothers on the hit Fox series Prison Break.
The show’s zany plots captivated millions of viewers between 2005 and 2009, and it returned for a fifth and final season in 2017.
But what happened to Wentworth, Dominic, and their merry band of men after Fox River Penitentiary closed its doors? Let’s catch up with some of television’s most wanted characters…
Dominic Purcell – Then
British-born Australian actor Dominic Haakon Myrtvedt Purcell co-starred in Prison Break as Lincoln Burrows. The series’ inciting incident is his wrongful conviction and imprisonment for killing Terence Steadman, the Vice President’s brother. Surprisingly, Dominic was hired just three days before cameras rolled, making him the last actor to join the cast. When he arrived on set on the first day with a shaved head, showrunner Paul Scheuring was struck by how much Purcell resembled his on-screen brother Michael Scofield, played by Wentworth Miller.
Dominic Purcell – Now
If you recognized Dominic when he showed up in prison, it’s because you may have seen him playing Drake / Dracula in Blade: Trinity. His middle name comes from his father’s Norwegian heritage. Following the end of the Fox series, Purcell went on to play Mick Rory / Heat Wave on The Flash and The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. While filming Prison Break in Morocco in 2016, an iron bar fell on his head, breaking his nose. He was airlifted to the hospital. In 2023, he married Miley Cyrus’s mother, Tish.
Amaury Nolasco – Then
Handsome Puerto Rican actor Amaury Nolasco Garrido was born to Dominican parents in 1970. He appeared in minor roles on CSI and ER, and his first feature film role was in Takeshi Kitano’s Brother, before starring as ‘Orange Julius’ in 2 Fast 2 Furious. In Prison Break, he played Michael’s cellmate, Fernando Sucre, who wants to escape to reunite with his fiancée. Amaury thought the pilot script was “one of those failed pilots that the network didn’t really want,” but thought it was a “great page-turner.”
Amaury Nolasco – Now
In addition to playing Fernando Sucre, Amaury Nolasco also played ACWO Jorge “Fig” Figueroa in Transformers. Director Michael Bay invited him back for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but he had scheduling conflicts with Prison Break. He guest-starred as Detective René Cordero in three episodes of Southland, and co-starred in the NBC series Chase, Burn Notice, Rizzoli & Isles, Justified, Power, and Hightown. In his personal life, he has dated actresses Jennifer Morrison, Andrea Pambechy, and Dayanara Torres, but—good news, ladies—he’s currently single!
Sarah Wayne Callies – Then
Sarah Wayne Callies was born in La Grange, Illinois, in 1977. However, her parents lived in a much sunnier place, as they were both professors at the University of Hawaii. Sarah’s first acting roles were in Queens Supreme, Tarzan, Law & Order: SUV, Dragnet, and NUMB3RS. In Prison Break, she played Sara Tancredi, the daughter of Governor Frank Tancredi and prison doctor. She met Michael Scofield in the first season, discovered he was no ordinary inmate, fell in love with him, and eventually assisted in the escape of the Fox River Eight.
Sarah Wayne Callies – Now
After hanging up her stethoscope, Callies played Rick Grimes’ doomed wife in AMC’s post-apocalyptic drama series The Walking Dead. She played Lori from the series’ pilot until she was eaten by zombies in the third season. She has also appeared in Whisper, the Nigerian film Black Gold, the Canadian thriller Faces in the Crowd, and played Katie Bowman in Colony. In real life, Sarah is married to martial arts instructor Josh Winterhalt, and they have two children: a daughter and an adopted son.
Robert Knepper – Then
Ohio native Robert Knepper has been acting since the 1980s, appearing in films such as The Wild Thing, Young Guns II, and the Percy Jackson and Hunger Games franchises. He often plays brilliantly creepy characters, from The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, ER, and The West Wing, to his unsettling portrayal of Tommy Dolan in HBO’s brilliantly bizarre Carnivàle. Knepper played the cunning, violent, and manipulative psychopath and white supremacist leader Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell in all five seasons of Prison Break. “T-Bag” was one of the show’s most compelling characters.
Robert Knepper – Now
Since escaping from prison as one of the Fox River Eight, Robert Knepper has portrayed Samuel Sullivan in the final season of NBC’s Heroes, Angus McDonough in The CW’s iZombie, and Rodney Mitchum in Showtime’s revival of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Knepper has also appeared in films such as Hitman, Transporter 3, and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Since 2017, several women have come forward, making allegations of assault against Knepper. He denies the allegations. The CW found no wrongdoing, and he continues to act.
Rockmond Dunbar – Then
Rockmond Dunbar rose to fame on Soul Food in the early 1990s and posed for the November 2003 issue of Playgirl magazine. He traced his DNA to the Yoruba people of Nigeria and, when he visited their ancestral homeland, was given the name Omobowale, which means “our son has come home.” Dunbar played Benjamin Miles “C-Note” Franklin in seasons one, two, four, and five. C-Note blackmailed Michael Scofield into joining his escape team and ended up as one of the Fox River Eight.
Rockmond Dunbar – Now
Since escaping from prison through the underground tunnel beneath the prison, Rockman has gone on to bigger and better things. He appeared alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Shane Black’s wonderful Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, played Sheriff Eli Roosevelt in three seasons of Sons of Anarchy, and had leading roles in The Mentalist, The Path, Scorpion, and 9-1-1. There’s a good reason Rockman is always smiling. The lucky guy married the gorgeous Banshee actress Maya Gilbert in Jamaica in 2013, and they have four beautiful children.
Paul Adelstein – Then
Chicago native Paul Adelstein’s first film role was in 1990’s The Grifters. He went on to star in Cupid, ER, Without a Trace, Scrubs, and films such as Bedazzled, Intolerable Cruelty, and Memoirs of a Geisha. He played Paul Kellerman, a Secret Service agent working for the Vice President to ensure that the Lincoln Burrows conspiracy never came to light and that Lincoln went to the electric chair. Over the course of the series, he became Congressman Paul Kellerman.
Paul Adelstein – Now
Adelstein took a break from Prison Break in 2007 to play Cooper Freedman on Private Practice. He returned as Congressman Paul Kellerman in seasons four and five. Since the series ended, he has played Leo Bergen on Scandal, Raymond Blackstone on the Hulu series Chance, opposite Hugh Laurie, and Seamus Murphy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Since the 1990s, Adelstein has been the singer and guitarist in a rock band called Doris. He married actress Liza Weil in 2006 and they had a daughter together, but they separated in 2016.
Jodi Lyn O’Keefe – Then
Actress, model, and fashion designer Jodi Lyn O’Keefe began her modeling career at the age of eight. She rose to fame playing Cassidy Bridges on Nash Bridges and appeared in Halloween H20 and She’s All That. While in prison, Jodi played one of the series’ supervillains, Gretchen Morgan. The despicable Gretchen appears in the third season, working for The Company, and arranges for James Whistler’s escape. In doing so, Gretchen makes Michael’s life nearly impossible in every way imaginable, including kidnapping Lincoln’s son.
