List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters


Major and recurring characters created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer are as follows:

Cast

Main cast

The following characters were featured in the opening credits of the program.

Recurring cast

Notable guest cast

;Note

Main characters

Buffy Summers

The show's titular protagonist, Buffy, is "The Slayer", one in a long line of young girls chosen by fate to battle evil forces in the form of vampires and demons. The Slayer has no jurisdiction over human crime. Slaying vampires and other paranormal beings is her specialty and she has a personal rule against killing humans. This calling mystically endows her with a limited degree of clairvoyance, usually in the form of prophetic dreams, as well as dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, intuition, and speed and ease of healing. Traditionally, there has been only one Slayer alive at any given moment, with a new one called upon the event of her death.

Xander Harris

Xander is a close friend of Buffy. Possessing no supernatural skills, Xander provides comic relief as well as a grounded, everyman perspective in the supernatural Buffyverse. In another departure from the usual conventions of television, Xander is notable for being an insecure and subordinate male in a world dominated by powerful females.

Willow Rosenberg

Willow was originally a nerdy girl who contrasted Buffy's cheerleader personality but also shared the social isolation Buffy suffered after becoming a Slayer. As the series progressed, Willow became a more assertive and even sensual character; in particular, she realized that she was a lesbian and became a powerful Wiccan. Willow is Buffy's best friend through everything that happens and maintains her humanity and kindness to others throughout.

Cordelia Chase

Cordelia is originally an archetypal popular, shallow, mean-spirited cheerleader. She is tactless, but direct and honest, and she becomes a reluctant ally of the Scooby Gang, even after her relationship with Xander disintegrates. After season 3, she joins Angel in L.A., where she abandons her attempts at acting to fight evil at his side.

Rupert Giles

Giles, rarely referred to by his first name, is a Watcher and a member of the Watchers' Council, whose job is to train Slayers. In the earlier seasons, Giles researched the supernatural creatures that Buffy must face, offered insights into their origins and advice on how to kill them. Throughout the series, he became a father-figure to Buffy, Willow, Xander, and the others, giving them advice not only on the supernatural world, but on life issues as well.

Angel

Angel, a vampire, formerly known as Angelus, was a cruel killer until he was re-ensouled by a Romani curse. After decades of guilt over his past atrocities, he allies himself with Buffy and they fall in love. The consummation of their relationship brings him a moment of true happiness, breaking the curse and releasing Angelus upon Sunnydale. Buffy is forced to send him to a hell dimension to save the world. After his release from hell, Buffy and Angel continue to struggle with their ongoing love. Angel breaks off their relationship and moves to L.A. to give her a chance at a more normal life. There, he gathers new allies in his own fight against evil in the five-season spin-off, Angel.

Oz

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne is a brilliant yet generally unmotivated student and part-time rock guitarist. He is Willow's first and only boyfriend and an active member of Buffy's inner circle, despite the fact that he has recently become a werewolf. Portrayed as taciturn and unflappable, the contrast between his outward coolness and his violent animal episodes is an example of the show's efforts to subvert usual character expectations, as well as to display double-personalities. As an unusual side-note, the actor Seth Green went on to co-design and supervise the creation of the acclaimed line of Buffy the Vampire Slayer action figures.

Spike

William "Spike" Pratt is a vampire character whose role varies dramatically through the course of the series, ranging from a major villain to "love's bitch", to the sarcastic comic relief, to Buffy's romantic interest in a relationship that grows from miserable lust to a friendship, and eventually to a self-sacrificing hero, dying as a Champion at the Hellmouth. His path to redemption subsequently resumes in L.A., where his resurrected character continues to develop into a selfless hero and reconciles with his former nemesis and love rival, Angel, and occasionally works with him. Spike is known for his Billy Idol platinum hair, his catch-phrase "bloody hell", and his black leather duster, which he acquired after killing his second Slayer. In Season 4, he was captured by the Initiative and had a chip implanted in his brain to prevent him from hurting humans. In Season 6, he underwent a trial in order to remove the chip, instead he had his soul restored. After accidentally killing a human in Season 7, the chip nearly killed him and he had it medically removed.

Anya Jenkins

Anya is a 1,120-year-old former vengeance demon who specialized in avenging scorned women. After being forcibly stripped of her demonic powers by Giles, the character is forced to re-learn how to be an ordinary human, a journey which is portrayed as both comical and poignant. Her story is largely focused on her romantic relationship with Xander, and like many characters on the show, she is portrayed as morally ambivalent.

Riley Finn

Riley is Buffy's first serious boyfriend after Angel. He is initially an operative in a military organization called "The Initiative" that uses science and military technology to hunt down HSTs or "hostile sub-terrestrials". Riley is Angel's opposite, an Iowa-born-and-raised man whose strength lies in his military secret identity. Buffy's superior physical strength causes him insecurity, particularly after his medically enhanced powers were removed. This, combined with Buffy's inability to truly emotionally connect with him, eventually causes him to leave in the middle of Season 5.

Dawn Summers

Dawn is introduced in Season 5 as Buffy's fourteen-year-old younger sister, sent to Buffy in human form as a disguise for the Key, a dangerous magical artifact sought by a hellgod. Although Dawn's genesis is magical, she functions as a complete and normal teenage girl, and, after her true nature has been revealed, she is accepted and loved as a sister, daughter, and friend. Although Buffy initially tries to shelter Dawn from her work as Slayer, Dawn later becomes a useful member of the Scooby Gang.

Tara Maclay

Tara is introduced first as a fellow member of a Wicca group during Willow's first year of college. Their close friendship evolves into an ongoing romantic relationship; their relationship attracted significant attention as one of few featured same-sex relationships on television at that time. Tara uses her magical skills to assist the Scooby Gang in their fight against evil, and she struggles with how to deal with Willow's growing addiction to magic. Tara is killed by a bullet intended for Buffy, her death triggering Willow's transformation into "Dark Willow".

Supporting characters

Introduced in season one (1997)

  • The Master, portrayed by Mark Metcalf : The Master is one of the oldest living vampires, and the first Big Bad that Buffy faces in Sunnydale. The Master was trapped in a church which collapsed in an earthquake and he became trapped in the Hellmouth when he tried to open it. Prophecy foretells that he will kill Buffy; he bites her and she drowns, but is revived by Xander. She kills him, and he turns to dust, leaving only his bones. When she is faced with the threat of his resurrection, Buffy later smashes them with a sledgehammer. The Master appears again in the season 3 episode "The Wish", which is set in an alternative reality where Buffy never came to Sunnydale. He is resurrected in season 8 by the Seed of Wonder to protect it.
  • Joyce Summers, portrayed by Kristine Sutherland: Buffy's mother is an anchor of normality in the Scoobies' lives, even after she learns of Buffy's role in the supernatural world. In "Lovers Walk", she lends a sympathetic ear to Spike's heartbreak, a gesture that he never forgot. In season 5, she dies of an aneurysm after a tumor is removed from her brain in "I Was Made to Love You". Joyce is one of the only two Buffyverse deaths from natural causes. She returns for one Season 6 episode, "Normal Again", as a hallucination. She also returns in some Season 7 episodes, either as a manifestation of The First Evil or as a ghost.
  • Darla, portrayed by Julie Benz
  • The Anointed One/Collin, portrayed by Andrew J. Ferchland
  • Jenny Calendar, portrayed by Robia LaMorte : High school computer teacher, whose real name is Janna Kalderash. She becomes Giles' love interest and a mentor to Willow. In the episodes "Surprise" and "Innocence", it is revealed that she is a descendant of the Romani tribe who cursed Angelus by restoring his soul, and is in Sunnydale to watch and try to prevent the development of the relationship between Angel and Buffy so that Angel continues to suffer. After Angel loses his soul, she tries to find a way to restore it, but is killed by Angelus in "Passion" just as she's figured out how to do it. Jenny Calendar was the first prominent character to be killed in the series, and Joss Whedon noted the significance of this as a sign of his seriousness about emphasizing the genuine danger his characters are in. She returns in season 3, but as the First Evil, who has assumed her form.
  • Principal Bob Flutie, portrayed by Ken Lerner : the principal of Sunnydale High at the start of the series. He allowed Buffy to attend his school despite learning of the arson that got her expelled from her last school. He kept tabs on her to prevent any mischief. He was killed and devoured by a group of hyena-like beings.
  • Principal R. Snyder, portrayed by Armin Shimerman : He was made principal after Flutie was killed. He was far more stern and strict compared to Flutie and was shown to be narcissistic. He was killed by the Mayor who was in Giant Snake form in Season 3.
  • Harmony Kendall, portrayed by Mercedes McNab : A vapid high school companion to Cordelia Chase, who becomes a humorously inept vampire in later seasons, and goes on to be a regular character on Angel. Harmony is the only character other than Angel to appear in both the first episode of Buffy and the final episode of Angel. Additionally, she appears in the unaired Buffy pilot. She returns again in Season 8, where she informs everyone that vampires exist on her reality show.
  • Amy Madison, portrayed by Elizabeth Anne Allen : A student at Sunnydale High and witch who encounters the gang. Later Amy turns herself into a rat to save herself from being burned at the stake and is stuck in this form for a few seasons until season six. She ultimately resents the Scoobies for how they treat and handle Willow after she goes "bad", yet cannot seem to have the same sympathy for her. She ultimately betrays Willow in Season 7. In the Dark Horse comic book series "Season 8", she takes on the role as a big bad in the first arc, partnered up with her "boyfriend" to seek revenge on Willow and Buffy.
  • Jesse McNally, portrayed by Eric Balfour is Xander Harris' best friend and has a crush on Cordelia Chase. He is turned into a vampire to lure Buffy to the Master, but is later staked by Xander.
  • Hank Summers, portrayed by Dean Butler : Buffy's father.