'How I Met Your Father' Casts Francia Raisa, Suraj Sharma and More

Tom Ainsley and Tien Tran have also joined the Hilary Duff-starring Hulu series.

The cast of How I Met Your Father is shaping up. Francia Raisa and Suraj Sharma, among many others, have joined the upcoming Hulu comedy starring Hilary Duff and Chris Lowell.

Raisa, who currently co-stars on Grown-ish, has been cast as Valentina, Sophie's (Duff) roommate and an aspiring stylist. "She's impulsive and adventurous and Sophie relies on Valentina's ability to cheer her up when she gets down. Valentina has just come back from London Fashion Week with the gorgeous, British Charlie," the press release states.

As news broke of the casting, the actress reassured her Grown-ish fans on Instagram that she's "not going anywhere" and will be on both shows.

Sharma is playing Sid, Lowell's character Jesse's best friend and roommate. "He's a new bar owner and plays the optimist to Jesse's cynicism."

Tom Ainsley is Charlie, "an aspiring model who fell in love with Sophie's roommate Valentina at London Fashion Week and followed her to New York. The son of conservative aristocrats, Charlie's a great guy but he's been living in a rich person's bubble his whole life," the release states.

Additionally, Tien Tran is portraying Ellen, "Jesse's adopted sister, who just moved to New York from a small farming town after separating from her wife. Ellen's more comfortable on an organic lettuce field than in a Brooklyn dive bar."

How I Met Your Father will be set in the near future with Duff's Sophie telling her son the story of how she met his dad. Through its signature narrative voiceovers, How I Met Your Father goes "back in time" to 2021, where Sophie and her group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options in New York City. 

Back in May, Duff shared during an interview with SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show that the series will tie in with the original How I Met Your Mother and hopefully feature guest appearances by the original cast.

"I mean, the script was so good," Duff said about what attracted her to the project. "I literally called and I was like, 'Please, yes, please have them pick me.' I don't want to give it all away and the script is definitely being changed a little bit. But it does tie in and, you know, hopefully we'll have some fun guest appearances from the original cast."

How I Met Your Mother starred Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris. It ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2014.

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