Netflix’s 'Stephen' Cast And Character Guide

Stephen, directed by Mithun Balaji, is a psychological thriller that revolves around a sociopath who killed 9 women and then later surrendered himself at a police station. While he was on this maddening quest, Stephen encountered many people whose lives he ruined. So let’s find out who these people were and how they got involved in the mess that Stephen had created.

Spoiler Alert

Gomathi Shankar as Stephen

Stephen was a sociopath, and he was an extremely shrewd conspirator. There were times when Stephen lost his temper and didn’t have any control over his actions. But that didn’t mean he didn’t understand what he was doing. He made it look like he was a victim of his circumstances, but it was not so. At any given moment, he knew what consequences his actions could entail. He also knew how to play his cards in order to mislead professionals and experts who wanted to understand his behavioral traits. Deceiving a forensics expert was not an easy task, but he managed to keep them in the dark. Stephen knew that, for him to save his life, he needed to be very calculative.  He knew that if the judge were to know the truth about what he had done, he would give him capital punishment. And so the cunning man began scheming and plotting, and till the very end, he was able to deceive everybody. 

Michael Thangadurai as Michael

Michael was the one who was put in charge of Stephen’s case. Michael worked closely with Dr. Seema, the forensics expert to make breakthroughs that led them to understand what Stephen wanted, and why he had surrendered after killing 9 innocent women. There came a point during the investigation when Michael got so frustrated that he didn’t know how to go about things. Whenever he thought he was close to making a breakthrough, he hit a roadblock, and he couldn’t seem to understand how to find out the truth about Stephen. Michael, at the end, believed that he had found out the truth, but he was wrong. He had been outplayed, outmaneuvered by Stephen, who was always a step ahead of him. 

Smruthi Venkat as Dr. Seema

Dr. Seema, the forensic psychologist consultant in the case, had sessions with Stephen on a regular basis. According to her hypothesis, Stephen had killed his mother and then his father too, because he had had enough. According to what he said, Stephen had a traumatic childhood, where his mother and father both tortured him. There came a point in his life when all hell broke loose and he killed his parents so he could be free. After that, Stephen stated that he suffered from certain serious mental health disorders, which led him to take the lives of those 9 innocent girls. Dr. Seema stated in court that Stephen occasionally got these violent impulses where he didn’t know what he was doing. On the basis of Dr. Seema’s report, the court concluded that because Stephen was of unsound mind, he would not be given capital punishment, but sentenced to 28 years in prison. Dr. Seema had been wrong in her hypothesis, and she hadn’t been able to figure out that this man was a monster who hadn’t suffered any trauma and was just lying in front of everybody. 

Kuberan as Stephen’s father and Vijayshree as Mother

Stephen’s father might have been an alcoholic, but he never laid a finger on Stephen. In fact, he loved him more than anything in the world. Stephen’s mother was very strict with him because she knew the kind of person he was. She saw him killing an innocent puppy, and she realized that he had this inherent evilness inside him. She saw how shamelessly he laughed when she scolded him, and she knew that once he grew up he would wreak havoc on the world. She should have taken him to a psychologist, but that didn’t happen, and whatever she did to bring Stephen in line didn’t work. Stephen killed his parents and then made up a story that they abused him physically and mentally.  

Shrisha as Krithika 

I believe Stephen would have left Krithika alive had his fears not overpowered him. Stephen was an extremely anxious man who didn’t want his secret to come out in the open. That was the reason why he killed his father, even though he didn’t have anything against him, and then later for the same reasons he killed his partner Krithika too. He told Krithika, once they had moved in together, that he had killed his parents. She asked him to surrender to the authorities, which was when he realized that she would probably tell the police about him. Also, the man felt a strange sadistic pleasure when he killed people. He killed Krithika in cold blood, and then after that, 9 other innocent women too. 

Harija as Mary 

Mary would have become a victim of Stephen, but something unprecedented happened when they were together, and Stephen changed his mind. Stephen had called girls over to his apartment under the pretense he’d give them a role in his movie. Stephen, as he stated, was moved after he saw Mary’s performance. He said that she made him believe in the power of love once again, and so he decided to spare her life and then later surrender to the police. But that was not entirely true. Stephen surrendered because he knew that if he didn’t, the chances were the police would kill him in an encounter. 

Vijayraj as Moorthy 

Moorthy was the police officer whose daughter’s video was leaked by Stephen’s father. But that was not the truth. It was Stephen who had recorded compromising footage of Moorthy’s daughter and later leaked it. Moorthy never knew about it, and he also felt Stephen was a victim and not the perpetrator. When Stephen told him that his father had killed his mother, because of which he had to take his old man’s life, Moorthy decided to help him out. Moorthy never registered a case against Stephen, and what happened was the man roamed free even after brutally murdering his parents. 

Amruth Balaji as Mithun 

Mithun was Stephen’s childhood friend, and he often saw the latter’s parents behaving very weirdly with him. One day Mithun saw Stephen’s mother beating him, and he believed that probably what Stephen told him about his parents being abusive was right. That’s what Mithun reported to the police, not understanding how wicked Stephen was and how he was playing everybody around him. Mithun’s testimony played a vital role, as it made Michael and Seema believe that probably Stephen was not lying about his past. 

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