25 Sex and the City cameos you’ve probably forgotten all about

And Just Like That may now be dead but we’ll always have the heady heyday of Sex and the City.

For six seasons, two movies, and a follow-up series, viewers followed the lives of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda as they navigated life from their thirties into their fifties. However, the initial episodes remain the most beloved by fans.

Do you remember when Carrie (Fisher) met herself in a movie? Or that passionate romance with David Duchovny’s character, who struggled with mental health? And did you even notice Timothy Olyphant was one of her boyfriends? Get ready, because we’re about to revisit some seriously memorable moments and famous faces from her past!

Here are some Sex and the City cameos you may have totally forgotten about.

1. Carrie Fisher (herself)

Season 3, episode 14 – Sex and Another City

When Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha venture from New York City to Los Angeles, they encounter plenty of celebrity cameos. One of the most notable is Carrie Fisher, who plays a frustrated homeowner in the Hollywood Hills. Carrie and another famous guest star use her mansion as a romantic hideaway, mistakenly believing it belongs to him. Their encounter is interrupted by Fisher, leaving Carrie to awkwardly apologize and attempt to connect with her famous namesake – an effort that doesn’t quite succeed.

2. Justin Theroux (Jared/Vaughn Wysel)

Season 1, episode 7 – The Monogamists

Season 2, episode 15 – Shortcomings

Justin Theroux, often known for playing polished, successful characters in films like American Psycho and The Girl on the Train, recently took on the role of not one, but two snobby writers based in New York.

In the first season, Justin Theroux played a somewhat arrogant writer who flirts with Carrie at a bar. He returned in season two as Vaughn, a more fleshed-out character who is also a writer. Carrie enjoyed Vaughn’s sophisticated and open-minded family, but they lacked romantic chemistry, and Vaughn’s struggles with a sexual issue further complicated things.

3. Bradley Cooper

Season 2, episode 4 – They Shoot Single People Don’t They?

Before becoming famous for his looks, Bradley Cooper’s first television role involved a kiss with Carrie as she recovered from a disastrous magazine cover shoot.

He quickly ran to the store for cigarettes, then showed Carrie the magazine cover featuring her. She was so upset that she immediately left his car and walked home with a dramatic flair.

4. Sarah Michelle Gellar (Debbie)

Season 3, episode 13 – Escape from New York

When Carrie visited Los Angeles, she met several celebrities, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, known for her roles in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer.’ While exploring a potential career in Hollywood and hoping to see her columns turned into a movie, Carrie’s publicists arranged a meeting with Debbie, a driven young executive. Debbie, cool and collected, then connected Carrie with…

5. Matthew McConaughey (himself)

Season 3, episode 13 – Escape from New York

Matthew McConaughey, playing a version of himself, approaches Carrie with an idea: turning her columns into a movie. He’s even interested in playing Mr. Big! He tells a surprised Carrie that he thinks Mr. Big is incredibly cool, but wonders what Carrie’s hang-ups are. The meeting quickly goes south when McConaughey starts acting like a strange mix of himself and Mr. Big, becoming intensely over-the-top.

6. Alan Cumming (Oscar, AKA ‘O’)

Season 4, episode 2 – The Real Me

The acclaimed actor, famous for his work in films like Emma and GoldenEye, and the TV series The Good Wife, made a brief appearance on The Real Me (season 4, episode 2). He played a lively fashion designer for Dolce & Gabbana, persuading Carrie to model in a New York fashion show – an outfit consisting of a blazer and very small, jeweled underwear. While it was intended as a stylish look, it didn’t suit Carrie, and she famously tripped and fell while walking the runway.

7. Will Arnett (Jack)

Season 2, episode 12 – La Doleur Exquise!

Before Will Arnett became known for playing a melancholy horse, his character had a short-lived romance with Miranda in the show’s second season. This happened while Carrie was dealing with Big’s move to Paris. Miranda was thrilled about her new relationship with someone she met at a book exchange. They seemed like a great match, and things quickly became passionate when Miranda learned her new boyfriend only wanted to be intimate in public. But it was clear their connection wouldn’t last.

8. Jon Bon Jovi (Seth)

Season 2, episode 13 – Games People Play

Following her second painful split with Big, where Carrie dramatically declared she was better off, her friends urged her to seek therapy. It was while waiting for a therapy appointment in season 2 that Carrie, known for her effortless dating life, met Seth.

Jon Bon Jovi played Seth, a character who revealed he was in therapy to address his habit of dating women and then suddenly cutting off all contact. It seems Carrie has a pattern when it comes to the men she chooses.

9. Lucy Liu (herself)

Season 4, episode 11 – Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

In season 4 of Sex and the City, Lucy Liu made a cameo appearance as herself, a celebrity client of Samantha’s PR firm. They initially hit it off, but their relationship quickly soured when Lucy discovered Samantha had dropped her name to secure a coveted Birkin bag from Hermes, leading to a dramatic and profanity-filled confrontation.

10. Vince Vaughn (Keith Travers)

Season 3, episode 14 – Sex and Another City

Carrie and her friends didn’t stop dating even after leaving New York City. During a trip to Los Angeles in “Sex and Another City,” Carrie met Keith Travers. Initially, Keith, played by Vince Vaughn, seemed sophisticated and rich, but it turned out he simply looked after Carrie Fisher’s house. Still, it was a pretty good arrangement!

11. Jennifer Coolidge (Victoria)

Season 6, episode 3 – The Perfect Present

As a movie and TV buff, I always thought Jennifer Coolidge and Sex and the City were a match made in heaven, so I was thrilled when she showed up! She played Victoria, a friend of Carrie and the girls, and she just brought it – that wonderfully chaotic energy she’s known for. Victoria was recently heartbroken and threw all her energy into…making some truly awful purses! She even had a ‘Purse Party’ to show them off, but things took a turn when her emotions got the better of her and the party devolved into a bit of a breakdown. It was classic Jennifer Coolidge, and a hilarious moment in the series.

12. Timothy Olyphant (Sam)

Season 1, episode 4 – Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys

Before he became a well-known actor, a young Timothy Olyphant made a brief appearance on Sex and the City. He played Sam, a much younger man who briefly catches Carrie’s eye as part of a storyline exploring the characters dating younger partners. However, Carrie quickly loses interest when she sees his messy apartment and meets his slovenly roommate – the initial excitement over his piercings and energy fades fast when faced with bongs and a lack of basic necessities like coffee filters.

13. David Duchovny (Jeremy)

Season 6, episode 10 – Boy, Interrupted

In season 6, Carrie had a short-lived reunion with her high school boyfriend, Jeremy. She anticipated he hadn’t changed much, but she was surprised by his charm – actor David Duchovny brought a lot of appeal to the role – and they quickly started dating again. However, the romance ended when Carrie learned he was secretly in rehab recovering from a mental health crisis.

14. Kristen Johnston (Lexi Featherstone)

Season 6, episode 18 – Splat!

Kristen Johnston’s appearance in the final season of Sex and the City is one of the most memorable cameo roles ever. Playing a character named Splat, the actress – famous for her work on 3rd Rock from the Sun – portrays an older woman who’s frustrated with everyone else settling down. She has a particularly striking scene where she passionately protests a host’s ban on smoking while encountering Carrie and her friends at a party.

“When did everyone give up smoking?” she complains. “When did everyone start settling down?” She remembers a time when this city was full of life, but now all she sees is people smoking by open windows. She declares New York is finished – completely over. She laments that no one seems to enjoy themselves anymore, and admits she’s incredibly bored. Then, in a shocking moment, as if to emphasize her words, Lexi falls out of the very window she was talking about.

15. John Slattery (Bill Kelley)

Season 3, episode 1 and 2 – Where There’s Smoke, Politically Erect

Given John Slattery’s history of playing sophisticated roles in shows like Mad Men, Veep, and Spotlight, it made perfect sense that he’d be cast as a charming character in Sex and the City. In the third season, he played politician Bill Kelley and initially captivated Carrie, who seemed to be embracing her own glamorous, Jackie Kennedy-esque moment. But their romance took a dark turn when Bill confessed a disturbing fetish and asked Carrie to join him, abruptly ending any chance of a politically correct relationship.

Even though Carrie wrote about sex for a living, she wouldn’t give in, and the relationship ultimately fell apart awkwardly.

16. Elizabeth Banks (Catherine)

Season 3, episode 2 – Politically Erect

Before becoming a famous actress and filmmaker like Elizabeth Banks (known for her roles in The Hunger Games and Pitch Perfect), she had a small role on Sex and the City. She briefly appeared at a charity event for Carrie’s boyfriend, politician Bill Kelley (played by John Slattery), and struck up a conversation with Charlotte. Charlotte was actually getting along well with Banks’s husband when she discovered they were married. Banks’s character casually revealed she’d met him at a party where guests were asked to bring someone they’d moved on from. Charlotte immediately quipped, “One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure.”

17. Kat Dennings

Season 3, episode 15 – Hot Child in the City

You know, it’s easy to forget that “Sex and the City” launched a lot of careers, not just for the guys! I was surprised to learn that Kat Dennings – who’s now a huge star thanks to Marvel – actually got her very first on-screen role playing a spoiled, super-wealthy teen in a Season 3 episode, “Hot Child in the City.” She hired Samantha to handle the PR for her Bat Mitzvah, which is a pretty fun little piece of trivia!

18. Bobby Cannavale (Adam Ball)

Season 3, episode 9 – Easy Come, Easy Go

It’s hard to forget Samantha’s relationship with Bobby Cannavale’s character in Sex and the City. He’s become famous for his brief but memorable appearance, often remembered as the man with the oddly-flavored drink. Their season 3 romance ends quickly because of a specific issue in the bedroom – and despite Samantha’s attempts with wheatgrass shots, it couldn’t be fixed.

19. Alanis Morissette (Dawn)

Season 3, episode 4 – Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl

Okay, so there was this whole thing with me and Sean from ‘Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl.’ He was bi, which was… a lot to process, honestly. We went to a party and I met his ex, Dawn – Alanis Morissette actually played her, which was wild! Long story short, we played spin the bottle, I kissed Dawn, and it just hit me that things weren’t right with Sean. It made me realize I needed to end things, you know?

The episode has faced significant backlash for portraying harmful attitudes towards bisexuality. Specifically, viewers criticized a scene where the characters joked about bisexuality being a temporary phase before identifying as gay, making the comment during a brunch conversation.

20. Geri Halliwell-Horner (Phoebe)

Season 6, episode 10 – Boy, Interrupted

Geri Halliwell, known as Ginger Spice, played Phoebe, a posh British woman, in a Sex and the City episode. Phoebe casually mentioned her membership at the exclusive Soho House to Samantha. When Samantha learned Phoebe had easy access to a pool during a hot summer, she pretended to be a wealthy woman named Annabelle Bronstein to get into the club herself.

21. Tony Hale (Tiger)

Season 4, episode 2 – The Real Me

Before becoming famous as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development, Tony Hale had a small role on Sex and the City. He worked as a photographer’s assistant during a photoshoot with Samantha, and people remember his surprised look when Samantha posed nude.

22. Chandra Wilson (Police officer)

Season 5, episode 1 – Anchors Away

In a very brief role, future Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Wilson plays a police officer who initially tries to prevent Samantha from posting bright pink “cheater” posters around the neighborhood of her ex-boyfriend, Richard Wright (played by James Remar). Samantha caught Richard with another woman, and that’s why she’s putting up the posters. However, after learning the reason, the officer allows her to continue.

23. Andy Cohen (Shoe sales assistant)

Season 6, episode 13 – Let There Be Light

Sarah Jessica Parker’s friend, Andy Cohen, made a cameo in the final season as a shoe salesman, assisting Carrie. Meanwhile, Charlotte attempts to experience what it’s like to be blind by navigating with a blindfold, preparing to volunteer for a charity.

24. Carrie Preston (Madeline Dunn)

Season 2, episode 7 – The Chicken Dance

In season 2, interior designer Madeline Dunn (played by Carrie Preston) assists Miranda with decorating her new apartment. However, Madeline unintentionally upsets Miranda by becoming romantically involved with Jeremy, a close friend Miranda was hoping to date. They quickly fall in love and get married, which deeply frustrates Miranda.

25. Jim Gaffigan (Doug)

Season 4, Episode 3 – Defining Moments

In season 4, Miranda dated comedian Jim Gaffigan, who played the character Doug. Doug was known for consistently overstepping personal boundaries – notably, he always left the bathroom door open – which ultimately proved too much for Miranda to handle in their relationship.

Sex and the City is available to stream on Sky Comedy and NOW.

2026-03-26 10:38