When Harry Met Sally Cast
When Harry Met Sally explores whether men and women can truly be just friends. The film follows Harry Burns and Sally Albright from their first meeting in 1977 through twelve years of chance encounters in New York City, as they debate this question and eventually fall in love.
Main Cast
Billy Crystal
Harry Burns
Meg Ryan
Sally Albright
Carrie Fisher
Marie
Bruno Kirby
Jess
Steven Ford
Joe
Lisa Jane Persky
Alice
Michelle Nicastro
Amanda Reese
Estelle Reiner
Older Woman Customer
About When Harry Met Sally
When Harry Met Sally is one of the most beloved romantic comedies of all time. Written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, the film features the iconic "I'll have what she's having" scene at Katz's Delicatessen, delivered by director Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle Reiner.
The film launched Meg Ryan as America's sweetheart and established Billy Crystal as a romantic lead. Its witty dialogue, realistic portrayal of relationships, and the chemistry between Crystal and Ryan have made it a timeless classic that continues to influence romantic comedies today.
Cultural Impact
The film popularized many romantic comedy tropes and raised the eternal question about platonic friendships between men and women. Its New Year's Eve climax has become one of cinema's most romantic moments, and the film's dialogue is endlessly quotable.
About When Harry Met Sally
When Harry Met Sally is the 1989 romantic comedy directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Nora Ephron. The film follows Harry Burns and Sally Albright over more than a decade of meetings, friendships, and shifting feelings, asking whether men and women can really be friends without something else getting in the way.
Structure
The film moves through several distinct chapters in the leads' lives, each separated by a few years. Between chapters, the screenplay cuts to short documentary-style interviews with older couples describing how they met, which acts as a counterweight to Harry and Sally's halting progress.
Casting
Billy Crystal plays Harry, with Meg Ryan as Sally, Carrie Fisher as Sally's friend Marie, and Bruno Kirby as Harry's friend Jess. The four-handed structure — two leads supported by one close friend each — became a frequent template for romantic comedies that followed.
Influence
The film is widely cited as a defining example of the late-twentieth-century romantic comedy, and several of its individual scenes — including a delicatessen scene that became one of the best-known moments in the genre — are routinely studied and parodied. Nora Ephron's dialogue is the engine of the film, and the screenplay has been studied as a model for the genre for decades.
Where to watch
When Harry Met Sally was originally released by Columbia Pictures. The film remains a stable catalogue title on major digital storefronts and rotates through subscription streaming services depending on Sony's licensing arrangements.
Related cast pages
Viewers who like the romantic comedy genre often also look up the Anyone But You cast and the Barbie cast.
How to read this cast page
Cast lists work best as a quick reference rather than a transcript of the credits. The principal cast section above lists the actors most viewers will recognise from marketing and from the first episode or first act. The character each actor plays is shown alongside the name, with short relationship cues where they help.
Recurring versus principal cast
Television in particular distinguishes between “series regulars,” who appear in most episodes, and “recurring” or “guest” performers who appear only in some. Recurring cast can shift between seasons: someone introduced as a guest can be promoted to a regular role if the writers decide the character should stay. When that has happened on this title, we update the cast list rather than leave outdated billing in place.
Why character descriptions stay short
We keep character notes brief and free of spoilers. Late-season twists, deaths, and identity reveals are part of why audiences watch a show or a film, and a cast page that gives them away in the first paragraph is harder to use casually. If something is essential to introducing a character — a job, a family relationship, a faction — we include it; otherwise we leave it out.
Spelling and credits
Names are written here the way the production credits them. Where actors are credited differently in different markets, we use the credit listed in the production's official press notes. Stage names, mononyms, and special characters are preserved.
Suggesting changes
If you spot a name we have wrong, a character description that has gone out of date after a new season, or a credit that is missing, the contact page explains how to reach us. We update individual cast pages rather than rewriting the site, so corrections we receive turn into changes on this page directly.