To celebrate the 13th anniversary of Buffy The Vampire Slayer we take a look at what some of the cast have been up to since the series ended.
13 years ago a brand new vampire orientated teen-action series debuted as a midseason replacement. The new television series shared its name and premise with a barely remembered film from several years before but this time around the Buffy project would be a success – Joss Whedon, the man behind it all, had found the natural medium for his series and a legend was born. In many ways Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewrote the rule book on the codes and conventions of the horror, sci fi and teen drama genres and combined them all together in one awesome show. Sadly all good things come to an end and after 7 years Buffy concluded its run on television and now we take a look at what some of the cast have been up to since.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Played the tile role of the series – Buffy – and was already an established actress at the time having appeared in numerous projects before hand including a stint on ABC soap All My Children. While appearing in Buffy the actress continued to take on other roles including a role in Scream 2 in which her character was memorably killed off and her. Her other roles during her stint in Buffy included Cruel Intentions and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Since the series ended the actress has continued with film roles with roles in the two Scooby Doo movies, The Grudge, The Return and Possession.
Anthony Head
Credited on Buffy as Anthony Stewart Head the British actor played Librarian Giles on the series and was intended to be given his own spin-off series Ripper but its been stuck in development hell for years now. Since the demise of Buffy the actor has been constantly busy with a wide range of roles such as playing the Prime Minister in BBC sketch show Little Britain, several episodes of Monarch of the Glen, New Tricks, Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon. His regular roles in dramas include BBC drama Manchild, The Invisibles, Sold, Free Agents and fantasy drama series Merlin as the tyrannical King Uther. He also narrates the Doctor Who behind-the-scenes series Confidential for BBC Three.
Alyson Hannigan
Played lesbian witch Willow and has been busy ever since with television and film roles. On film she’ll probably be best known for her roles in the American Pie movies and the 2006 flick Date Movie. She’s currently appearing in the sitcom series How I Met Your Mother but her other television roles include Veronica Mars, That 70’s Show and King of the Hill.
Nicholas Brendon
Played Xander Harris in the series and since it ended has played a few roles but perhaps now as many as his other former co-stars. Between 2007 and 2009 he appeared in several episodes of Criminal Minds and his other roles include Without a Trace, Kitchen Confidential and My Neighbour’s Secret.
Charisma Carpenter
Played the bitchy and popularity obsessed Cordelia in the first three seasons of Buffy and moved over to spin-off series Angel when it launched. In Angel, of which she was a regular for four seasons, Cordelia was slowly reformed and made a much more sympathetic and considerate character than her high-school counterpart. The actress left the spin-off before its demise and has appeared in a wide range of shows since such as Charmed, Veronica Mars, CSI and Greek.
Seth Green
Played Willow’s love interest Oz in seasons two, three and early season four episodes and also appeared in an episode of Angel as Oz. Oz was a werewolf and eventually left Willow because he was worried he couldn’t control his wolf nature. Seth Green was already a well established actor before joining the series and since leaving in 2000 has made numerous appearances in numerous productions, far too many to list them all. However, we’ll list a few; Austin Powers and Goldmember, That 70’s Show, Will & Grace, Family Guy, Grey’s Anatomy, Robot Chicken, Heroes and The Cleveland Show.
David Boreanaz
Played vampire with-a-soul Angel, who occasionally lost that soul and became Angelus, for three seasons on Buffy and was given his own spin-off series, Angel, which lasted for five years. The actor is now in hit crime drama series Bones playing Special Agent Seeley Booth.
James Marsters
Joined the cast of Buffy in season two as vampire Spike who turned up to try and kill Buffy and remained a fixture of the series on/off for the remainder of it – although in later seasons he became a reformed character of sorts and fell in love with Buffy. Marsters crossed over to Angel several times and for its fifth and final season joined the spin-off as a regular. Like Anthony Head its long been proposed to develop a spin-off for Marsters. As with some of his other former co-stars the actor has been very busy since the end of the series filming a variety of roles with appearances in Smallville, Lie to Me, Numb3rs, Without a Trace, Torchwood and most recently as a terrorist leader in Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel.
That’s what the main cast of the series have been up to and while we’d like to do a full run down of the cast and notable guest stars from across the seven years of Buffy we simply can’t – we don’t have the time. However, we can do a very quick run down; Julie Benz reprised her role of Darla for spin-off Angel appearing across its five years and since then joined the cast of Dexter and most recently Desperate Housewives. Michelle Trachtenberg played Dawn, the younger sister of Buffy introduced in Season Five and remained with the series until its end. Trachtenberg has since appeared in Six Feet Under, House and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The actress can currently be seen in NBC drama Mercy and CW series Gossip Girl as the bitchy and deranged Georgina Sparks. Eliza Dushku played slayer Faith from season three onwards and also crossed over into Angel for several episodes. The actress was offered her own spin-off too but passed in favour of new drama Tru Calling which was sadly cancelled after two seasons. The actress most recently reunited with Joss Whedon on his Fox series Dollhouse but that too was cancelled after just two seasons.