The 10 Best American Horror Story Guest Stars

An anthology suggests that with every season comes a fresh start, but on "American Horror Story," which is returning for an all-star Season 13, the dead don't necessarily stay buried. Naomi Grossman's Pepper, a Briarcliff inmate from "Asylum" became something of a sensation, and the show revisited her two seasons later, opening the door for other guest stars to one day potentially return in their own way.

This list honors 10 of the best guest stars who appeared on "American Horror Story," but with one condition: None of these actors were ever billed as series regulars. That admittedly knocks out some big names, like Angela Bassett who joined the main cast after Season 3's "Coven" and Patti LuPone who returned for "NYC" as a regular, not to mention Kim Kardashian who was part of the main cast on "Delicate." Everyone below stayed a guest, checking in for an episode, if not a few more, but left an indelible impression on viewers. 

"Coven" introduced Lance Reddick as Papa Legba, the afterlife's gatekeeper who demands a human sacrifice from Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) every year in exchange for her eternal youth. When Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange) lures Legba out with drugs and tries to cut her own deal, he rejects her, because Fiona has no soul left to sell. Their solution is a grim one: Fiona and Marie drown Nan (Jamie Brewer) and ultimately give her to Legba as a sort of sacrifice.

Reddick appeared during much of the season's final stretch and returned in "Apocalypse," where Cordelia (played by Sarah Paulson, returning for Season 13) summons him for help in trapping the Antichrist and he names his price: the souls of every witch in the coven. Reddick, who died in 2023 at 60, gave "American Horror Story" a true rarity: a monster without an ounce of irony or campiness. His performance as Legba doesn't chew up the scenery so much as let the room go cold with fear, earning him a place among the best villains in "American Horror Story."

Leave it to "American Horror Story" to cast Ian McShane and have him murder a sidewalk Santa during his first moments on screen. His character Leigh Emerson is a serial killer with a warped grudge against Christmas, introduced mid-spree in the "Asylum" episode "Unholy Night." Now in Briarcliff Manor, Sister Mary Eunice (brought to life with an unforgettable performance by Lily Rabe) turns Leigh loose, and Leigh goes after Sister Jude (Jessica Lange). Leigh revels in the violence, throwing Jude around until she finds a letter opener and drives it into his neck.

McShane returned in the following episode "The Cliff Hanger" with an equally delicious, if much more understated, performance. Having survived Jude's counterattack, Leigh testifies against her, claims she killed a guard, poses as a repentant soul for the gullible Monsignor (Joseph Fiennes), and pays his now-committed nemesis a visit in her cell that plays out with Leigh planting a kiss on Jude's forehead.

It's fitting that Joan Collins, being the English acting legend that she is, joined "Apocalypse" as Evie Gallant. The Hollywood matriarch survives the end of the world, because her hairdresser grandson Gallant (Evan Peters) has a spare seat on one of the jets heading to a fallout bunker. Faced with the end of the world, Evie remains gloriously unbothered, treating the news almost like an inconvenience and tossing off withering one-liners while others around her panic. 

Bunker life doesn't really soften Evie. She gives up Gallant for breaking the outpost's celibacy rule, and when he later stabs who he believes to be the prowling supernatural Rubber Man, the illusion falls away, revealing Gallant killed Evie instead. Collins, thankfully, wasn't quite done on "American Horror Story." She resurfaced later in "Apocalypse" as the witch Bubbles McGee with her signature charm and flourish, further cementing her status as one of the season's true highlights.

During the fourth episode of "Asylum," a new patient (Franka Potente) arrives announcing she is Anne Frank: that she survived the Holocaust, and she now recognizes Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) as an Auschwitz physician who hurt women at the concentration camp. It's a bold swing even in the creatively unshackled universe of "American Horror Story," but Potente's formidable performance is the reason it lands.

Across the two-parter "I Am Anne Frank," she plays the patient's earnestness with such conviction, the eventual truth arrives as an emotional blow. She's not Frank, but rather Charlotte Brown, a housewife whose deep postpartum psychosis led her to detach from her own identity and attach to the author of history's most famous diary. Briarcliff's solution to Charlotte's case was as twisted as they come: a lobotomy. Potente, to her credit, never plays Charlotte with a wink or a twist, but as a tragedy, and the season is stronger for it.

Neil Patrick Harris was no stranger to Ryan Murphy's television empire when he appeared on "Freak Show," having previously won an Emmy in 2010 for his guest role on "Glee." But "American Horror Story" demanded something different of the versatile actor. This time, Harris portrayed Chester Creb, a salesman with aspirations of being a magician and a ventriloquist dummy named Marjorie whose opinions he took as seriously as any live person.

Although Chester only appears in two episodes later in the season, he manages a fair amount of carnage: purchasing the troupe from Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange), sawing Maggie (Emma Roberts) in half for real during a rehearsal and marching into a police station carrying Marjorie and confessing to her murder. Throughout his turn, Harris brings such a degree of sincerity, he makes even the most outlandish moments somehow believable, marking his time on the show as short yet bittersweet.

The Axeman was a real-life serial killer who once terrorized New Orleans and was never found. "Coven" reimagines him as a ghost, with Danny Huston playing him as a suave figure whom the witches of Miss Robichaux contact while using a Ouija board. He strolls into 2013 and, eventually, finds his way into Fiona Goode's (Jessica Lange) bed. Huston charmed his way through roughly half the season, equal parts seduction and lethal switchblade. It was a turn that earned the actor a Saturn Award nomination in 2014 for best guest star in a television series.

"Freak Show" brought Huston back as the gentle Italian craftsman Massimo Dolcefino, who carved prosthetic legs for Elsa Mars, also played by Lange. This time, Huston trades the Axeman's menace for tenderness, navigating a story of doomed love. It's the subtler of Huston's two performances on "American Horror Story," but the one that arguably lingers longer.

Naomi Grossman may not have had much to actually say during "Asylum," but her performance left a mark. As Pepper, a microcephalic patient at Briarcliff Manor, Grossman gave what could have been a one-note character a childlike innocence and vulnerability that made her impossible to forget. Viewers noticed, and two seasons later, Pepper returned for "Freak Show," receiving a real origin story, where it's revealed that Pepper was falsely accused of killing her young nephew.

Stepping into the role of Pepper meant undergoing a significant physical transformation for Grossman. She shaved her head and underwent three hours of makeup per shoot, according to Salon. The actress also put extreme care into her expressions and movements. "Less is more. Every little quirk or tic of Peppers has meaning," she told Collider. "Because that's all I get, so I've got to communicate their character through very little. I don't get to speak, and if I do it's one syllable at a time." After "Freak Show," Grossman returned once more for "Apocalypse," this time as another character, the devoted devil worshipper Samantha Crowe.

Eric Stonestreet deservedly won an Emmy for playing Cameron Tucker on "Modern Family" before appearing in "Murder House." But the episode "Piggy Piggy" let him stretch as an actor in a way his wildly successful sitcom never did. Stonestreet portrays Derrick, a client of Dr. Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott). Derrick covers his mirrors and sleeps with the lights on, living in constant fear of an old legend about a butcher who appears and slaughters anyone who chants "here piggy pig pig" into a mirror.

Ben's guidance to Derrick is as straightforward as it comes: face his fears. Derrick does, and "American Horror Story" rewards his courage with the cruelest payback. While uttering the words doesn't summon a supernatural entity, it does trigger the very real burglar lurking behind Derrick's shower curtain, who shoots him. The show's message, that the legend was never as lethal to Derrick as the dangers of reality itself, still has a sting to it.

Bob Thompson (Dermot Mulroney) runs the local news station in "Cult" in the worst way possible: He plays favorites with Serena Belinda (Emma Roberts), the reporter he later sleeps with at his lake house. Meanwhile, he trims Beverly Hope's (Adina Porter) coverage of the clown murders to make more room for Serena's lightweight reporting. Once the cult kills Serena mid-broadcast and recruits Beverly, the cult eventually gets around to him, too.

In the episode "Holes," cult members break into Bob's home and kill him, but not before "American Horror Story" reveals a startling twist: the man suspended in Bob's attic. It's a detail that reframes any preconceived notions viewers may have held about what Bob does in his off-hours, making him one of the few characters whose demise has become even more unsettling in the years since.

Of all the "American Horror Story" guest stars on this list, Grace Gummer has the unique distinction of being the only actor who appeared in three seasons playing three different characters across "Coven," then "Freak Show" and finally, "Delicate." Her debut came in a 1919 flashback playing the witch Millie. In "Delicate," Gummer appeared as Margaret Alcott, who dies suddenly while giving birth.

But between those appearances, Gummer found a more significant character arc in "Freak Show" as Penny, a candy striper who falls for Paul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser) and chooses troupe life over the more traditional one she had before. Penny's father (Lee Tergesen) takes his revenge, having her face tattooed to look reptilian, and her tongue split. It became one of the season's most unsettling scenes, one that turned Penny from an afterthought into a character worth remembering.