Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali Join Dancing With the Stars, as Season 35's Cast Takes Shape Before the Big Reveal

Verified key facts

• Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali will compete on Dancing With the Stars season 35, per TMZ.
• Previously confirmed names include Jimmy Kimmel Live sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, Love Island UK and Traitors alum Maura Higgins, Summer House star Ciara Miller and Savannah Bananas second baseman Jackson Olson, according to Deadline and Yahoo Entertainment.
• Guillermo Rodriguez will be paired with professional dancer Witney Carson, per Gold Derby.
• The full cast will be revealed on Good Morning America on 2 September, according to TV Insider.
• The season opens with a two-night premiere on 15 and 16 September on ABC.

A 90s screen icon takes the ballroom

Dancing With the Stars has landed one of its most recognisable names in years. Julia Stiles, the star of 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance, will compete on the ABC show's 35th season, according to TMZ, which also reported that Tatyana Ali, beloved as Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, joins her in the cast.

The casting of Stiles carries a wink the show will not be able to resist. Save the Last Dance, the 2001 hit in which she played a ballet student remaking herself as a dancer, remains one of the most-loved dance films of its era, and a quarter-century later its lead will be scored on a ballroom floor for real.

Two careers the audience grew up with

Stiles, 45, broke through as the sharp-tongued Kat Stratford in 1999's 10 Things I Hate About You before Save the Last Dance made her the face of the era's dance-movie boom. She went on to play the operative Nicky Parsons across four Bourne films, earned an Emmy nomination for her arc on Dexter, and has worked steadily on stage and screen since, more recently moving into directing.

Ali, 47, grew up in America's living rooms as Ashley Banks across all six seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, launched a hit music career in the late 1990s with the single Daydreamin', and has remained a television fixture since. The ballroom offers a neat piece of symmetry for her: Dancing With the Stars is co-hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro, who played her on-screen brother Carlton for six years, meaning season 35 will stage a Banks family reunion under the mirrorball.

The names confirmed before the big reveal

The two actresses join a slate of early announcements that has been building all summer. Guillermo Rodriguez, Jimmy Kimmel's security-guard-turned-sidekick, was revealed on the 17 June episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live and will dance with professional Witney Carson, per Gold Derby. Love Island UK favourite and The Traitors alum Maura Higgins, Summer House's Ciara Miller and Savannah Bananas second baseman Jackson Olson are also confirmed, according to Deadline and Yahoo Entertainment.

The mix follows the show's now-standard formula: a film or television name with genuine nostalgia value, reality-TV stars with devoted fanbases, a late-night fixture and a viral-sports curveball, this year supplied by the banana-yellow world of exhibition baseball.

September 2 on GMA, then a two-night premiere

The full roster of celebrities and their professional partners will be unveiled on Good Morning America on 2 September, per TV Insider, keeping the bulk of the cast under wraps for a coordinated morning-show launch. The season then opens with a two-night premiere on 15 and 16 September on ABC, with episodes streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Casting director Deena Katz told Parade the season was assembled around one rule for contestants, a genuine willingness to commit to the training, a nod to seasons where half-hearted celebrities wilted under the rehearsal load.

The rollout follows a now-familiar rhythm: names leak or are strategically announced through the summer, the morning-show event completes the picture, and rehearsals begin almost immediately for a premiere barely two weeks later. For the celebrities, that means roughly a month of intensive training before the first live scores, and veterans of the show consistently describe the opening fortnight as the steepest learning curve on television. ABC has kept the professional pairings under wraps even for confirmed names, with only Rodriguez's partnership with Carson made public so far.

A show riding a genuine resurgence

Season 35 arrives with the show in its strongest position in a decade. Recent seasons have been rejuvenated by TikTok-native audiences, viral routines and a younger professional corps, delivering the franchise's best demographic numbers in years and a first-ever live tour of more than 70 shows across North America announced for 2026, per AOL.

The show's blend of earnest celebrity reinvention and internet-friendly spectacle has proved unusually durable, and the early season-35 names suggest producers are doubling down on the formula: familiar faces audiences genuinely want to root for, paired with personalities built for clip culture.

Continuity anchors the season too. Ribeiro co-hosts with Julianne Hough, while the judging desk of Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough returns, per Gold Derby, giving the new class of celebrities the same gauntlet of scores, critiques and theme nights that has shaped the format for two decades.

The dance card still to be filled

Roughly half the ballroom remains officially empty. If tradition holds, the 2 September reveal will add athletes, a music name or two and at least one surprise from outside the usual celebrity circuit, along with the professional pairings that shape each season's contours.

The two headline actresses arrive with different burdens. Fresh Prince fans remember that Ashley Banks could genuinely dance, and ballroom audiences tend to punish expectations as readily as they reward them; Ali will be scored against a memory. Stiles faces the question every dance-film alum confronts on the show, whether screen choreography from two decades ago translates to a live quickstep with a professional partner and a clock running.

For now, the storyline writes itself: the Save the Last Dance star versus the Fresh Prince alum, a security guard with a nation's goodwill behind him, and a Banana in the ballroom. The mirrorball season starts on 15 September; the arguments about frontrunners start on 2 September, live on Good Morning America.

Sources

• TMZ - Julia Stiles and Tatyana Ali Competing on 'Dancing With The Stars'
• Deadline - 'Dancing With The Stars' Season 35 Cast
• Gold Derby - Dancing With the Stars Season 35 cast, premiere date, hosts, judges
• TV Insider - 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 35: Premiere Date, Cast, Judges
• Parade - DWTS Casting Director Breaks Down the First Season 35 Contestants
• Yahoo Entertainment - 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 35 adds Jimmy Kimmel's sidekick