14 Actors From HBO’s Chernobyl With Their Real-Life Counterparts

At 1.24am on April 26^th, 1986, a power surge in reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, led to a series of huge explosions. The force of the blasts blew the reinforced steel and concrete lid off the reactor and exposed its deadly contents to the world.

A huge radioactive cloud was released into the atmosphere and blew across north and western Europe, even reaching as far as the United States. The accident remains the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster, and unlike the earthquake-induced meltdown at Fukushima in Japan, Chernobyl was caused by human error.

The deadly blast killed between 34 and 51 people that night, either from the original explosion or acute radiation syndrome (ARS). However, the long term effects are far more insidious, with estimates ranging between 4,000 and 734,000 lives lost as a result of radiation exposure from the plant. Efforts are still ongoing to contain the site, with the original concrete ‘sarcophagus’ built over the exposed reactor beginning to deteriorate, meaning a new solution will have to be found.

The event is firmly back in public consciousness with the release of HBO’s critically acclaimed mini-series Chernobyl, which gives a dramatized but fairly accurate interpretation of the explosion and its aftermath. In this list, we compare the cast of the show with their real-life counterparts, and as you can see, they really did a great job! Scroll down to check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments.