Ted Lasso returns for a fourth season on Apple TV this Wednesday, 5 August 2026, and it is bringing a new face to the pitch: Tanya Reynolds, cast as Alice Chilton, assistant coach of AFC Richmond's women's team. Apple TV announced the premiere date in April, and the world premiere took place in late July, with Reynolds joining returning cast members Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Brendan Hunt on the red carpet.

Reynolds is best known to television audiences as Lily, the teenage writer of alien erotica on Netflix's Sex Education. Now she steps into a very different world — one she had never actually seen when the call came. Ted Lasso creator and star Jason Sudeikis offered her the role directly on a Zoom call, rather than through an audition process, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Reynolds binged all three previous seasons afterward.

Season four shifts the series' focus from AFC Richmond's men's team, which anchored seasons one through three, to the women's squad — nicknamed the Lady Greyhounds, as Elle reported on 27 July. Reynolds' character, Alice Chilton, is a former player whose career was cut short by a recurring ACL injury. She turned to coaching but, at least at the start, is not a natural in the role. Her arc across the season involves learning to communicate better and finding her own coaching voice. "Trying to bring out the best in the AFC Richmond team," is how Reynolds herself described Chilton's mission to Reuters.

The returning executive suite is familiar: Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple), Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and Ted Lasso himself (Sudeikis). New arrivals alongside Reynolds include Faye Marsay, Abbie Hern, Jude Mack, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey and Grant Feely, per Apple TV's April announcement and cleveland.com's cast breakdown on 3 August.

Ted Lasso arrives in season four as one of television's most decorated comedies. The series has won 13 Emmys, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series, and a Peabody Award, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Those accolades were accumulated across the first three seasons; the fourth now carries the franchise into new territory.

For fans, the shift to the Lady Greyhounds means a fresh dressing room, fresh dynamics, and a new coach still finding her feet — all wrapped in the show's established ensemble. Reynolds did not need to have watched Ted Lasso to land the part. She watched it only after Sudeikis handed her the role. Whether that newcomer's perspective shapes her performance is something audiences will see for themselves starting 5 August.