The Vampire Diaries Cast: Where Are They Now?

Vampire films and television series have always caught the eye of YA audiences, and with "The Vampire Diaries," The CW had a bona fide hit on their hands. Telling the story of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her complicated relationship with two vampiric brothers (played by Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, respectively), the series expanded outward from a straightforward love triangle into something with sprawling lore that would take a chaotic whiteboard diagram to keep straight.

"The Vampire Diaries" ran for eight seasons on The CW, becoming one of the network's best shows. It proved popular enough to spawn two spinoffs: "The Originals," which focused on Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) and his family in New Orleans, and "Legacies," set at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. Although the influential "The Vampire Diaries" catapulted some of its actors to stardom, others have left the industry altogether in the years since it ended. Here's the main cast of "The Vampire Diaries," and where you might have seen them since they hung up their pointy teeth.

Every vampire show needs a smoldering, profoundly amoral bloodsucker with a secret soft side, and for "The Vampire Diaries," that was Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Somerhalder. He was one of the key components to the show's success, appearing in all eight seasons as an indisputable fan favorite from the very beginning.

In the years since "The Vampire Diaries" went off the air, however, Somerhalder has taken a step away from the spotlight. He starred in the short-lived science fiction series "V Wars" in 2019, and appeared in the environmental documentary "Kiss the Ground," which he also produced. Other than that, he's moved away from acting in general.

These days, Somerhalder has shifted focus to regenerative agriculture, a topic he has been passionate about for years. He also owns Brother's Bond Bourbon with his "Vampire Diaries" costar Paul Wesley, while he and his wife Nikki Reed (of "Twilight" fame, cementing their vampire credentials) own The Absorption Company, which produces dietary supplements.

Television, like life, is all about balance. For every bad boy vampire with a motorcycle and a leather jacket, there has to be a broody counterpart who's all in his feelings about the curse of immortality he's been handed. In "The Vampire Diaries," that's Damon and Stefan to a T. But to Paul Wesley's credit, he brings a lot more to the role of Stefan as the series goes on, giving him deeper nuances that belie his character archetype.

Wesley has had a successful post-"Vampire Diaries" career, with plenty of credits to his name. He starred in 17 episodes of the anthology series "Tell Me a Story" and played Frank in the period drama "The Buccaneers." Yet, perhaps his biggest role involved stepping into some pretty iconic shoes: Beginning in 2022, Wesley took on the character of classic captain James T. Kirk in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

Nina Dobrev is the heart and soul of "The Vampire Diaries," both as Elena Gilbert and her doppelgänger Katherine, and the show's not quite the same without her presence. She's at the center of the vampire-related shenanigans, diving into a love triangle with both Salvatore brothers over the course of the show.

Dobrev has acted consistently since the end of her run on "The Vampire Diaries" — which she may have left at exactly the right time — in both film and television. On the big screen, she was featured in films like "Flatliners," "XXX: The Return of Xander Cage," "Love Hard," "Redeeming Love," "Sick Girl," and "Reunion."

In 2019, Dobrev made her return to television with a starring role in the CBS sitcom "Fam," which ran for one season before being canceled (although it did earn Dobrev a Teen Choice Award for choice TV actress comedy). Hitting theaters in June 2026 is her latest film, "The Get Out," an action crime thriller that also features Russell Crowe, Luke Evans, and Teresa Palmer.

In "The Vampire Diaries," Kat Graham's Bonnie represents another supernatural element alongside all the vampires that congest the sleepy town — she comes from a long line of witches, with powers she's only beginning to tap into when the series begins. Over the course of several seasons, though, she becomes one of the most formidable characters in the entire show.

In addition to live-action roles in made-for-TV films like "The Holiday Calendar," "Operation Christmas Drop," and "Love in the Villa," Graham has branched out into voice acting. She played April O'Neil in the animated "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series, as well as both Rhythm and Blues in "TrollsTopia." Her most recent credit came in 2025, when she starred in the Lifetime film "If I Run." She was supposed to be featured in the 2026 biopic "Michael" in the role of Diana Ross, but unfortunately, her scenes didn't make the final cut.

Caroline is one of the original teen characters of "The Vampire Diaries" (not Originals with a capital O, mind you — they're different), friends with Elena and Bonnie since childhood well before their lives get taken over by the strange and supernatural. While she starts out fairly ordinary, Caroline goes on quite a wild ride between Seasons 1 and 8 (she's one of the few characters who remains a main cast member for the entire series run).

Caroline was played by Candice King, and as she quickly became one of the show's most popular characters, her career was defined by her time on "The Vampire Diaries." Like many of her co-stars, she reprised her role on both "The Originals" and "Legacies," and she's had a few key credits to her name since leaving the world of vampires. Most significantly, she played Bess Sinclair on "We Were Liars," a character she'll return to when the second season comes out in 2027.

Every supernatural series needs a normie guy to provide contrast to the vampires and witches and werewolves. In "The Vampire Diaries," that's Matt Donovan, played by Zach Roerig. He's one of the only characters who, despite being surrounded occult beings, manages to make it to the end of the show's eight seasons entirely human (well, aside from his brief time dying and coming back to life — you know, normal stuff).

For the most part, Zach Roerig has been a TV guy. In addition to his work on "The Vampire Diaries" and guest appearances on the spinoffs "The Originals" and "Legacies", he played Cash on "Friday Night Lights" alongside several other rising stars. He had a starring role in the short-lived teen drama "Dare Me" in 2019, had a one-off appearance in the CBS comedy series "God Friended Me," and was featured in seven episodes of "Step Up: High Water." Alongside these roles on television, 2025 saw Roerig star in the Western thriller "Day of Reckoning" with Billy Zane.

Tyler Lockwood, a classmate of Elena and Jeremy, doesn't exactly win over audiences when they first meet him — he's kind of a jerk at the beginning. But life has a way of humbling you, as Tyler learns when his latent werewolf abilities begin to emerge. And frankly, that's just the tip of the iceberg for this guy.

Shortly after concluding his time on "The Vampire Diaries" following an impressive 143-episode run (and a few brief pop-ins on "The Originals"), Michael Trevino took on another eerie young adult property. He joined the cast of "Roswell, New Mexico," a reimagining of the cult classic early 2000s series about a group of teen aliens, as Kyle Valenti, a role he played for three years and 52 episodes. Other on-screen performances for Trevino include appearances on the TV series "Timberwood" and "The Breakup Diet." Although his last credit was "Roswell, New Mexico" back in 2022, IMDb shows one upcoming project, a short film called "Jo."

After Elena's parents are killed in a car accident, she clings to her remaining family — including her younger brother, Jeremy. The teenager is played by Steven R. McQueen (and yes, if you recognize the name, that's because he's the grandson of Hollywood cool guy extraordinaire Steve McQueen). Jeremy goes through the wringer during his six seasons on the show — the fact that dying and being resurrected is not the weirdest thing that happens to him is a testament to the chaotic nature of his character arc (and buckle up, newbies to "The Vampire Diaries" — he's not the only character who gets brought back to life at random).

After leaving "The Vampire Diaries," McQueen hopped into another major franchise, joining the "One Chicago" universe as Jimmy Borelli on "Chicago Fire." In recent years, however, he's stepped away from the limelight. McQueen's most recent credit was playing Cal Breaker in the post-Civil War drama "The Warrant," which hit television screens back in 2020. Since then, he's been largely living a private life away from acting.

All Alaric really wants is to be a small-town high school history teacher and maybe date a nice girl. Sure, and hunt vampires — normal guy stuff. Unfortunately for him, "The Vampire Diaries" has other plans. It would take a lengthy Wikipedia page to cover all the chaos Alaric experiences during his time on the show, but suffice it to say, he goes through it.

As Alaric, Matthew Davis appears in all eight seasons of "The Vampire Diaries" (although he's only a main cast member for Seasons 1-3 and 6-8). Before he took a step into the supernatural, he was best known for a much more pedestrian role: Warner, Elle's milquetoast ex in "Legally Blonde" who famously leaves her because he "needs to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn."

In addition to reprising his role as Alaric in both "The Originals" (briefly) and "Legacies" (more extensively), Davis has continued to be a familiar face on television. In 2025, he played the role of Joel in all 13 episodes of the short-lived drama series "Grosse Pointe Garden Society," in addition to making a one-off appearance as Curtis on Netflix's "The Waterfront."

If you only watched the first few seasons of "The Vampire Diaries," you may have missed out on Michael Malarkey — which is a shame, because he's a delight. Beginning in the fifth season of the show, Malarkey played Enzo St. John, a vampire with a long and, shall we say, complicated relationship with the Salvatore brothers.

In the years since "The Vampire Diaries," Malarkey has kept busy. He played Foster on 13 episodes of the crime drama "The Oath," in addition to starring as Captain Michael Quinn in "Project Blue Book" from 2019 to 2020. He had a four-episode arc as Emmett on the HBO sci-fi series "Westworld," and popped up in episodes of "Quantum Leap" and "Law & Order: Organized Crime." In 2025, he had a key role as the villainous Markus opposite Gabriel Basso in the action thriller series "The Night Agent." Malarkey's ability to lend depth to complicated, often dark characters has served him well over the years — a skill he perfected during his time on "The Vampire Diaries."

Who is Klaus? What is Klaus? Is he an anti-hero or a villain? Is he a vampire or a werewolf? Well, it's complicated. One thing's for sure is that the minute he first turns up in the second season of "The Vampire Diaries," he's a key component of the show's success. Although he's played by a few different actors (depending on who he's possessing at the time — no big deal), the true blue Klaus is played by British actor Joseph Morgan, who followed the role from "The Vampire Diaries" to "The Originals." It's there that Klaus properly takes center stage (and gets a finale ending that proved controversial among fans).

After appearing in 92 episodes of "The Originals" (and a lone cameo in "Legacies" in 2022), Morgan moved on to other projects, although he largely stayed within the realm of television. In 2019, he played Young Jed in three episodes of "Animal Kingdom," followed by a recurring turn on "Brave New World." He briefly joined the DC universe to play Sebastian Sanger aka Brother Blood in the TV series "Titans" before joining the cast of "Halo" in 2024. He's also tried his hand at directing, taking the helm of three episodes of "The Originals" between 2016 and 2019.

Every small town supernatural drama needs a cop who's just trying to get to the bottom of things, and in "The Vampire Diaries," that's Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes, played by Marguerite MacIntyre. She's a regular fixture throughout the first six seasons of the series, appearing in a total of 50 episodes.

In addition to her work in "The Vampire Diaries," MacIntyre is known for playing Nicole Trager, the adoptive mother of a strange amnesiac teenager with special powers, on "Kyle XY," which ran from 2006 to 2009. Her most recent acting credit came in 2020, when she appeared as Grace in a single episode of "Little Fires Everywhere."

MacIntyre hasn't left the industry behind just because she's no longer acting. MacIntyre was heavily involved in the production of both "The Originals" and "Legacies," working as a staff writer and story editor for 49 episodes between the two "Vampire Diaries" spinoffs. She also created the 2022 Peacock series "Vampire Academy" alongside "Vampire Diaries" showrunner Julie Plec.

After the death of Elena and Jeremy's parents, they move in with their aunt Jenna, the much younger sister of their mother. Although she tries to walk the line between being a guardian of two teens and a surrogate parent while still a single woman in her 20s, she's decidedly unprepared for the mystical turn all of their lives take. Sara Canning played the role for the first two seasons of "The Vampire Diaries," although she occasionally popped up in later seasons as a guest star.

Canning has stayed very busy since leaving "The Vampire Diaries." She had a one-off appearance as Gretel (of "Hansel and Gretel" fame) on the ABC fantasy series "Once Upon a Time," before taking on the role of Jacquelyn in the Netflix adaptation of "A Series of Unfortunate Events." She's done a slew of holiday movies, including "The Christmas Yule Blog," "A Christmas Star," "Love Among the Stars," "Christmas at the Golden Dragon," "Coupled Up for Christmas," "Holiday Road," and "Christmas on Call." In 2026, Canning played Victoria on seven episodes of "Virgin River" before appearing in the boxing film "13th Round."

As Rebekah Mikaelson, Claire Holt plays a "Vampire Diaries" character with a certain amount of pedigree — she's one of the so-called Originals, having been born in the 10th century. She joined the cast of the series in the third season, as the ensemble (and its accompanying lore) began to grow exponentially, and stuck around until Season 5.

Holt's time on "The Vampire Diaries" may have come to a close with Season 5, but that didn't mean she was leaving its larger universe. She became a key cast member of its spinoff "The Originals," which ran for five seasons from 2013 to 2018, and appeared in two episodes of the further spinoff series "Legacies." At the same time as she was working on "The Vampire Diaries," she played Samara Cook on the first two seasons of "Pretty Little Liars." Holt also starred as Charmain Tully in 24 episodes of the David Duchovney-led series "Aquarius," and she guest starred in Season 1 of the serial killer comedy "Based on a True Story" in 2023, which appears to be her last on-screen role.

For the first four seasons of "The Vampire Diaries," Carol Lockwood is a major political player in town as the wife of the mayor and a member of the town council. She's also the mother of Tyler Lockwood, who is a key member of the young main cast. She's brought to life by Susan Walters, who had a long and illustrious career on television by the time she was cast in "The Vampire Diaries." For an astonishing 25 years from 2001 to 2026 (well, off and on, to be fair), she played Diane Jenkins on the daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless," which is by far her most significant role.

After "The Vampire Diaries," Walters shifted gears to another paranormal teen series, playing Natalie Martin on 24 episodes of "Teen Wolf." She stuck with The CW, also appearing on "The Flash" as Dr. Carla Tannhauser for a nine-episode arc and as Maia on the short-lived sci-fi romance "Star-Crossed." Her most recent on-screen roles came in 2021, when she was featured on episodes of "Tell Me Your Secrets" and "The Rookie."