All 13 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Characters Who Appeared In Angel (& When)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t only one of the most popular TV shows of all time, but it’s also responsible for its highly successful spinoff, Angel, which saw appearances by several Buffy characters. While many TV spinoffs fail to live up to the original, Angel certainly wasn’t one of them, with the show enjoying five seasons on air between 1999 and 2004. The tight continuity between the two shows led to several Buffy and Angel crossovers, which saw many characters hopping from one series to the other.

The first season of Angel began airing in parallel with Buffy season 4, and the two shows remained on air together for the remainder of Buffy‘s run. Many characters who started life on Buffy went on to have main, recurring, or guest roles on Angel, including the titular characters of both shows. This is a list of every character that made that leap from Buffy to Angel.

13

Angel/Angelus

Played By David Boreanaz

In Buffy: Angel features in the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Buffy’s main love interest. He’s introduced as a vampire with a soul who seeks to do good to make up for all the lives he’s previously taken. Flashback episodes reveal that before he was a vampire, Angel was an 18th-century Irishman named Liam. Prior to being cursed by gypsies with a soul, Angel (or Angelus) was one of the most evil and feared vampires to have ever existed.

Angel’s soul can be taken away from him once he experiences a moment of pure happiness. This happens in the show’s second season, when Angel gets intimate with Buffy. With his soul gone, Angel reverts to Angelus and begins causing havoc in Sunnydale, forcing Buffy to send him to a Hell dimension. In season 3, he returns as Angel, before leaving Sunnydale for L.A. Angel makes a number of sporadic appearances throughout the rest of the show’s run.

In Angel: As the title would imply, Angel is the show’s main character, with the series revolving around his attempts to help the helpless of L.A. Chosen by the Power That Be to be a champion, Angel makes it his mission to save those in need. For the show’s first four seasons, he runs Angel Investigation, a detective agency specializing in cases of the supernatural. In season 5, he becomes the CEO of the once evil law firm, Wolfram & Hart. A prophecy states that Angel will one day be rewarded with the gift of humanity.

12

Cordelia Chase

Played By Charisma Carpenter

In Buffy: Cordelia Chase is the “it girl” of Sunnydale High. She’s popular, vain, self-absorbed, and treats Buffy and her friends like they are pieces of dirt. However, across Buffy’s first three seasons, Cordelia mellows into a nicer person and eventually becomes a friend and ally of the Scooby Gang. Following graduation and the destruction of Sunnydale High, Cordelia, like Angel, moves to Los Angeles.

In Angel: The very first episode of Angel sees Angel bumping into Cordelia and saving her from a multi-millionaire businessman who happens to be a vampire. From there, Cordelia helps Angel to set up Angel Investigations. Cordelia receives visions from the Powers That Be that help Angel and co to save people in need, which helps her character to move further away from the self-absorbed cheerleader she once was. In the show’s fourth season, Cordelia becomes possessed by an evil goddess, before slipping into a coma. She makes a final appearance in the season 5 episode, “You’re Welcome”.

11

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Played By Alexis Denisof

In Buffy: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is a supporting character in the third season of Buffy. A member of the watcher’s council, it is his job to train the new vampire slayer, Faith, whose powers were activated following Buffy’s temporary death at the end of season 1. Wesley is a posh, bumbling, scaredy-cat who likes to think of himself as tough, when, in reality, he is afraid of his own shadow. Wesley also engages in an inappropriate romance with Cordelia.

In Angel: Wesley joins the main cast of Angel part-way through its first season. When he first arrives in L.A., he is the same irritating buffoon who was last seen during the climax of Buffy season 3. However, over time, Wesley moves away from the comic-relief character and towards a darker and more tormented persona. Wesley appears in all five seasons of the show.

10

Spike

Played By James Marsters

In Buffy: Known for his platinum blonde hair, his fondness for leather coats, and his sarcastic humor, Spike is one of the Buffyverse’s most popular characters. Following his debut in the Buffy episode, “School Hard”, Spike went on to be the Big Bad (along with Angelus and Drusilla) for the show’s second season. A vampire, Spike was once a failed Victorian-era poet named William Pratt. After becoming a vampire, he gained the nickname “Spike” because of his habit of torturing his victims with railroad spikes. Spike is the only vampire who has ever killed two slayers.

Spike makes a one-off appearance in Buffy season 3, before joining the main cast from the fourth season onward. When a chip is put in Spike’s brain that prevents him from being able to hurt humans, he turns to killing fellow demons instead and slowly becomes an ally to the Scooby Gang. He eventually develops feelings for Buffy and gets his soul back to prove his love for her. In the show’s final episode, Spike saves the world by sacrificing himself, demonstrating that he’s capable of being a hero.

In Angel: Following an appearance in a season one episode that ran parallel with Buffy season 4, Spike joins the main cast of Angel in the show’s final year. The events of Angel season 5 take place after the final episode of Buffy and, as such, Spike is surprised to discover that he isn’t dead. Instead, he exists as a ghost-like figure for a few episodes, before being restored to his corporeal state and begrudgingly helping Angel and the gang in their fight against evil.

9

Harmony Kendall

Played By Mercedes McNab

In Buffy: Harmony is a minor supporting character during the first three seasons of Buffy. She’s a friend of Cordelia’s who is even more shallow and self-absorbed than Cordelia herself. At graduation, Harmony is one of several students who get turned into a vampire. In seasons 4 and 5, she makes several attempts to be Buffy’s arch-nemesis, but is too clumsy and incompetent to pull it off. Harmony also engages in a sexual relationship with Spike, who cannot stand to be around her.

In Angel: Harmony makes her first appearance in Angel during the season 2 episode, “Disharmony”. At first, she doesn’t reveal to Cordelia that she is now a vampire, before later betraying her and the rest of the gang by leading them to a cult of vampires. By season 5, Harmony has changed her ways and acts as Angel’s personal secretary at Wolfram & Hart. Harmony is the last character to join Angel‘s main cast, appearing in the opening credits from the season 5 episode, “Underneath”.

8

Buffy Summers

Played By Sarah Michelle Gellar

In Buffy: A vampire slayer gifted with powers to fight demons and other forces of evil, Buffy Summers is, unsurprisingly, the main character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start of the show, Buffy is a teenage girl who has recently moved from L.A. to Sunnydale with her mom, Joyce. Having recently learned that she is a slayer, Buffy soon becomes acquainted with her Watcher, Giles, who teaches her everything she needs to know about her new responsibility. She also meets Xander and Willow, who become her best friends, and aid her in the fight against evil.

Across the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy’s main emotional arc is that she feels alone. For the most part, she is the only slayer and no one else understands what carrying such a burden is like. She wants desperately to have a normal life, but her duty as a slayer prevents it. By the show’s final episode, she has amassed a whole army of allies willing to help her, and she learns that she doesn’t need to face her responsibility alone.

In Angel: Buffy makes two one-off appearances in the first season of Angel. In the episode “I Will Remember You”, Angel is temporarily made human again, meaning he and Buffy can resume their relationship, only for Angel to realize how useless he is in human form. Meanwhile, “Sanctuary” revolves around Buffy seeking vengeance against the rogue slayer, Faith. Sarah Michelle Gellar was meant to return in Angel season 5, but this never materialized.

7

Daniel “Oz” Osbourne

Played By Seth Green

In Buffy: Oz appears as a recurring character throughout Buffy’s second season, before joining the main cast in season 3. A musician, Oz is the main love interest of Willow in the early seasons of the show. He is quiet, ironic, and very laid-back. Owing to a bite from his cousin, Jordy, Oz also happens to be a werewolf. Because of this, every full moon Oz poses a threat to himself and everyone else. Nevertheless, he is a valuable asset to the team. Oz leaves Sunnydale during season 4 after he and Willow break up.

In Angel: Outside of Angel‘s main cast, Oz is one of the first Buffy characters to cross over to the spin-off show. In the season 1 episode, “In the Dark”, Oz arrives in L.A. to give Angel the Gem of Amarra, which gives vampires the ability to withstand daylight. Following this, Oz makes no further appearances on the show.

6

Willow Rosenberg

Played By Alyson Hannigan

In Buffy: One of Buffy’s best friends, Willow starts off as a dorky and socially awkward high school nerd with an above-average intelligence. She soon becomes a key member of the Scooby Gang and a secret weapon in Buffy’s fight against evil. As the series progresses, Willow gets increasingly involved with magic, eventually becoming a powerful witch.

Another one of Willow’s main storylines sees her entering into a romantic relationship with another woman, Tara. At the time of the show’s initial broadcast, Willow was one of the few lesbian characters on TV. In the sixth season of Buffy, Willow becomes consumed by magic following the death of Tara and goes on a blood-filled rampage. Fortunately, season 7 sees her returning to her normal goofy self.

In Angel: Willow shows up a few times across Angel’s five seasons. She appears on the phone in the episode “Disharmony”, and in person in “There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb”. Her final appearance in the show is in the season 4 episode, “Orpheus”, where she is once again tasked with restoring Angel’s soul.

5

Darla

Played By Julie Benz

In Buffy: Darla is notable for being the first character to be seen onscreen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the opening scene of the very first episode, Darla is shown breaking into a school with an unnamed guy. The scene sets the guy up to be a threat, but in a clever twist, Darla is revealed to be a vampire. Her backstory is expanded on in the episode, “Angel”, where she is shown to be Angel’s sire and his former love interest. In the same episode, she is killed by Angel. She makes two further guest appearances in Buffy during flashback sequences.

In Angel: Following her relatively small role in Buffy, Darla played a more prominent part in Angel, where she appeared at least once in every season. At the end of the first season, Darla is resurrected and used by Wolfram & Hart to try and get Angel to lose his soul. Darla and Angel eventually sleep together, and she becomes pregnant with his child, something that should be an impossibility. In season 3, Darla kills herself so that her child can live. In seasons 4 and 5, she appears in visions and flashbacks, respectively.

4

Drusilla

Played By Juliet Landau

In Buffy: Drusilla is the sire and love interest of Spike, who joins him in Sunnydale in Buffy‘s second season. Along with Spike and Angelus, she serves as season 2’s big bad. Originally a young Catholic woman, Drusilla was turned into a vampire by Angel, but not before he drove her completely mad. Drusilla has a childlike demeanor and often speaks in total nonsense. Following season 2, Drusilla makes five more appearances in Buffy, both in the present and in flashbacks.

In Angel: After Darla is resurrected, Drusilla is brought in by Wolfram & Hart to turn her back into a vampire. The Angel season 2 episodes, “Reunion” and “Redefinition”, therefore, depict Drusilla and Darla causing chaos around Los Angeles. As well as this, Drusilla shows up in a handful of flashback episodes in both season 2 and season 5.

3

Faith Lehane

Played By Eliza Dushku

In Buffy: Faith turns up in Sunnydale during Buffy‘s third season, where she is quickly established as a fellow vampire whose powers were activated following Buffy’s temporary death and the demise of Kendra. Faith is Buffy’s opposite; she is carefree and likes to party hard. After accidentally killing a man, Faith spirals and finds herself teaming up with the evil Mayor Wilkins. At the end of season 3, she falls into a coma, but awakes again in the season four episode, “The Year’s Girl”. By Buffy season 7, Faith is good again and joins in the fight against the First Evil.

In Angel: Following directly from her appearance in Buffy season 4, Faith crosses over to season 1 of Angel. Angel relates to Faith’s situation and helps her to learn how to become good again. In season 4, Faith breaks out of prison to help Wesley and the rest of the gang stop Angelus and restore Angel’s soul.

2

Andrew Wells

Played By Tom Lenk

In Buffy: Andrew makes up one-third of the Trio that makes life hard for Buffy during the show’s sixth season. Along with Warren and Jonathan, the Trio is a group of nerds with dreams of becoming supervillains. After Willow flays Warren alive for killing Tara, Andrew and Jonathan flee to Mexico to avoid being next. In season 7, Andrew is persuaded to kill Jonathan by the First Evil, and later becomes the Scooby Gang’s prisoner and eventually their ally.

In Angel: Andrew is the last Buffy character to cross over onto Angel. In the season 5 episode, “Damage”, Andrew arrives in L.A. to retrieve a new slayer suffering from psychosis. He reveals that he is being trained to be a watcher by Rupert Giles and that the Scooby Gang are spread all over the world. His final onscreen appearance is in “The Girl in Question”, which shows Andrew sharing a flat with both Buffy and Dawn (neither of whom appear).

1

Chanterelle/Lily/Anne Steele

Played By Julia Lee

In Buffy: Introduced initially as Chanterelle, the character first appears in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2 episode, “Lie To Me”, where she is depicted as being a member of a vampire fan club made up of people who want to be turned into vampires. However, upon seeing what vampires are really like, she soon changes her mind. The character returns in the opening episode of season three, where this time she is known as Lily. Buffy, who has run away to Los Angeles and is living under the name “Anne”, saves Lily from a group of demons. Buffy later gifts Lily the “Anne” identity.

In Angel: Anne appears in four episodes in Angel season 2. Now all grown up, Anne works as an administrator at a homeless shelter for teenagers. Her final Buffyverse appearance is in an episode called “The Thin Dead Line”.