The Knick

Dr. John W. Thackery

Dr. Algernon Edwards

Herman Barrow

Cornelia Robertson

Lucy Elkins (10 episodes, 2014)

Dr. Bertie Chickering Jr. (10 episodes, 2014)

Sister Harriet

Dr. Everett Gallinger

Victoria Robertson (10 episodes, 2014-2015)

Tom Cleary

Eleanor (8 episodes, 2014)

Jesse Edwards (8 episodes, 2014)

Captain August Robertson

Nurse Pell (7 episodes, 2014)

Inspector Jacob Speight

Eldon Pouncey

Lin-Lin (6 episodes, 2014)

Bunky Collier

Phinny Sears

Ping Wu

Dr. J.M. Christiansen / ... (5 episodes, 2014)

While a guest on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air," Dr. Stanley Burns (a photographic and medical historian who is a technical adviser to the TV series) said that the character of Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) is addicted to cocaine because Thackery is partly modeled on a real doctor from the period, William Halsted, who really was a cocaine addict. Halsted became addicted to cocaine because, Burns explained, it was common then for doctors to test new procedures and medicines on themselves, and cocaine, which was thought to be a good possible new surgical anesthetic, was not yet understood to be addictive.

Dr. Algernon Edwards partially based on Louis T. Wright (1891 - 1952), a brilliant African American surgeon who was active in the New York NAACP in the first half of the 20th century. Both Wright and the fictional Edwards studied at Harvard Medical School and graduated at the top of their class. Wright became Harlem Hospital's first African American surgeon in 1921, two decades after this show takes place.

The first season was shot in 73 days.