“Supernatural” cast: Here’s where Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and their co-stars are now

The actors have stayed busy since they stepped away from saving people and hunting things — you know, the family business.

Saving people. Hunting things. Eating pie. Dying over and over and over again. Oh yeah, and saving the world a lot.

“Two brothers cruising the dusty back roads in their trusty 64 Mustang battling the things that go bump in the night." That was Eric Kripke’s 2004 pitch that gave Supernatural life. By the time the show ended in 2020 after 15 seasons (and an equal number of EW covers), the CW juggernaut was the longest-running genre show to air on American broadcast television thanks to its scary, silly, serious take on The X-Files meets “Route 66,” with a little Star Wars and Kolchak: The Night Stalker thrown in for good measure.

Since then, we’ve been treated to spinoffs, new franchises, and a real-life engagement between on-screen vampire Benny and on-screen werewolf Garth. (Congrats to Ty Olsson and DJ Qualls!) Yep, the Supernatural cast has continued to carry on since they hung up their angel blades and silver bullets.

Climb into our 1967 Impala and catch up with the actors who brought the Winchesters, their friends, and their foes to life. Just don’t forget the No. 1 rule: driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Supernatural.

Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester)

Jared Padalecki was best known as Rory Gilmore’s floppy-haired high-school boyfriend Dean when he stepped into the role of floppy-haired hunter turned law student turned hunter again, Sam Winchester. For 15 seasons, audiences watched Sam deal with loss, possession, and a demon blood addiction before his joyful reunion with Dean (Jensen Ackles) in the afterlife at the show’s end.

“The series finale is my favorite episode of all-time,” Padalecki told EW. “[I] couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out.” (We won’t talk about the wig.) Off-screen, Supernatural handed Padalecki his own happy ending when his future wife, Genevieve Cortese, was cast as the demon Ruby in 2008, taking over the role from Katie Cassidy. The couple married in 2010 and have three children.

When Supernatural ended, Padalecki swapped hunting demons for chasing law-breakers in Walker, the reimagining of Walker, Texas Ranger that ran for four seasons on the CW before being canceled in May 2024. The show, which Padalecki executive produced and starred in, reunited him professionally with Cortese, who played his late wife, as well as his Supernatural grandfather, Mitch Pileggi.

While Padalecki hasn’t announced his next project, former Supernatural showrunner Eric Kripke has already expressed interest in finding a place for the younger Winchester brother in his current show, the giddily violent Amazon Prime Video hit The Boys.

Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester)

Before he died in the series finale while taking out a nest of vampires, Dean Winchester loved rock music, aliases inspired by rock musicians, and erotic print publications. In less capable hands, he would’ve been a buffoonish caricature, but not on Jensen Ackles’ watch.

The actor arrived on the Supernatural set with hundreds of Days of Our Lives episodes under his belt, having played Eric Brady, Sami’s twin brother, from 1997 to 2000. He also had recurring roles on shows like Dark Angel, Dawson’s Creek, and Smallville. But once he slid behind the wheel of Baby, he stayed for a decade and a half.

“There was a reason why I think we all stuck around though, because we just truly enjoyed it,” Ackles said on Late Night With Seth Meyers in 2022. “It was a family.” The family connection was literally true for Ackles, whose wife, Danneel, made her Supernatural debut in season 13 as faith healer Sister Jo, the human vessel of the angel Anael. The pair married in 2010 and have three children.

Since the end of Supernatural, he has carried a (legitimate) badge as Sheriff Beau Arlen in Big Sky (2022–2023); reprised his role as Dean for The Winchesters (2022–2023), the single-season Supernatural spinoff that the Ackles executive produced; and fondly patted a classic Impala in season 1 of Tracker.

He also notably stepped into some familiar shoes as Soldier Boy in The Boys (2022) and its spinoff, Gen V (2023). “I somehow managed to end with the same kind of boots for Soldier Boy that I wore as Dean Winchester,” Ackles told EW in 2020. “Different color but same boot.”

Misha Collins (Castiel)

After Ackles and Padalecki, Misha Collins clocked the most minutes in Supernatural as the angel Castiel, beginning in season 4 when he received one of the show’s most memorable character introductions.

“When you're coming onto a show as a guest star, it can be a little bit nerve-racking,” Collins told EW in the run-up to the show’s final episodes. “Coming to this set, it was an immediately different vibe. Thinking about working on other shows in the future, that's something that I aspire to bring with me.”

As Cas slowly became the Winchesters’ biggest advocate, ally, accomplice, and source of fish-out-of-water humor, his relationship with Dean often set the internet ablaze. “For years, fans would ask, ‘How do you see Cas ending on the show?’ And I've always said in some heroic sacrifice,” Collins told EW in 2020. “If he can sacrifice himself for the greater good and for his little cabal of humans who have become his family, I think that Cas will have served his purpose as far as he's concerned.” And that’s just what he did, with a first (and final) “I love you” to Dean.

Collins, who racked up guest-starring spots all over network TV before his Supernatural debut, has since taken on the role of Harvey Dent in the CW’s Gotham Knights (2023) and lent his vocal talents to the spooky podcast Bridgewater. He also launched the nonprofit Random Acts.

He was married to producer and writer Victoria Vantoch from 2001 to 2022. They share two children.

Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer)

You weren’t a true member of the Supernatural family until Uncle Bobby called you an “idjit.” Thankfully, the Winchesters’ father figure did just that, firmly and frequently. "I didn’t count the idjits, but we know there’s always at least two," Jim Beaver told EW in 2015 about one of his character’s many postmortem appearances.

Beaver’s other acting credits run the gamut from a two-episode stint on the 1970s soap Dallas to a repeat turn on ‘90s comedy 3rd Rock from the Sun to regular spots on prestige dramas Deadwood (2004–2006) and Justified (2011–2013). After Supernatural’s conclusion, Beaver played another Robert Singer in Kripke’s The Boys (2019–2022), and he brought Bobby back yet again in The Winchesters.

"I love the character, I love how he has fit into the show over the last 12 to 13 years, and I also love being there with that group of people," Beaver said in 2018. "It’s such a joyous experience every time for me."

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester)

John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is perhaps most notable for his absence on Supernatural. After all, “Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days” is the line that brought Sam and Dean back together in the pilot. It was John’s unique combination of training and neglect that turned his sons into the battled-hardened demon-slayers audiences met at the beginning of the road.

“Like a father would be, I'm very proud of the guys,” Morgan told EW in 2019. “It makes me get choked up because they've done so well here.” In fact, Morgan’s bond with his Supernatural sons is more than skin deep; the trio got matching tattoos at Morgan’s 2019 wedding (which Ackles officiated) to One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton. The couple shares two children.

Much of Morgan’s time on Supernatural overlapped with his turn as the doomed Denny Duquette on Grey’s Anatomy (2006–2009). He also played the final-season love interest for Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) on The Good Wife (2015–2016) before landing the role of love-to-hate-him, hate-to-love-him Negan Smith on The Walking Dead (2016–2022) and its spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023). The latter two projects paired him with fellow Supernatural alum Lauren Cohan, who played posh con artist Bela Talbot in season 2. Morgan will also appear in The Boys season 4.

Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester)

The death of Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) left an indelible mark on both of her sons, and her shocking return in the season 11 finale launched the show in a new direction as the famously motherless boys suddenly had their mother again.

While there were more than a few bumps along the way as Mary adjusted to life on Earth years after her death, this narrative twist gave fans the bone-deep satisfaction of watching Sam and Dean sit down to dinner with their parents. (SPN fan challenge: get through that clip without tearing up.) “Everything's right in the world in this bubble of time,” Smith told EW in 2019. “It's very romantic.”

Since her time on Supernatural, Smith has appeared on 9-1-1, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and FBI: Most Wanted. Her other credits include guest spots on Rizzoli & Isles, Profiler, and Monk, as well as the films Jerry Maguire (1996) and Transformers (2007). She and her husband, Cory, have a son.

Mark Sheppard (Crowley)

Crowley (Mark Sheppard) was a crafty antagonist and a slippery frenemy of the Winchesters for eight seasons, but his best contribution might just be his nickname for Sam. (For some reason, “Moose” stuck, but “Squirrel” never quite caught on for Dean.) Fittingly, the King of Hell was played by an actor with ample genre TV creds, including Firefly, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Doom Patrol, and The X-Files.

“I've been so lucky with Battlestar and Firefly and Supernatural to work with people, behind and in front of the camera, trying to make the best entertainment possible,” Sheppard told EW in 2023, when he reprised his role on Walker: Independence. “And you know, hey, I get to work with the Moose again, so it's kind of cool.”

In December 2023, Sheppard revealed that he had a series of heart attacks, writing on Instagram that his chances of survival “were virtually nil” without the efforts of the medical staff at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and his wife, Sarah Louise Fudge.

Sheppard has two children from a previous marriage and one with Fudge, whom he married in 2015.

Ruth Connell (Rowena MacLeod)

We love a baddie with style, and Ruth Connell’s Rowena MacLeod had that in spades. Sharp, sexy, and Scottish, Rowena was a powerful, hard-to-kill witch and the mother of Crowley (original name: Fergus). Even after her final, world-saving sacrifice, Rowena works her way up to Queen of Hell. But Connell never shied away from exposing a bit of her character’s soft underbelly.

“I have a lot of empathy for Rowena,” she told EW in 2015. “I almost see her from her point of view sometimes, and there’s a reason she’s as tough as that because at some point, she felt vulnerable, and I hope that that comes through.”

Connell reprised her witchy role on The Winchesters in 2023, and she appears in Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives, based on a Neil Gaiman comic and overseen by showrunner Steve Yockey, a former Supernatural writer and co-producer. Connell and her partner Rob Benedict (keep reading!) have one daughter.

Rob Benedict (Chuck Shurley)

Chuck is God? Surely you’re joking. But Rob Benedict’s hapless writer character, introduced in season 4, turned out to be a much, much, much bigger part of the Supernatural plan — the biggest, baddest part, you might even say.

The Felicity actor (and key player in CBS’ canceled-too-soon sci-fi blip Threshold) delivered one of Supernatural’s biggest twists before becoming one of the show’s most enthusiastic promoters thanks to his rewatch podcast, Supernatural Then and Now, which he hosts with fellow show alum Richard Speight Jr. “This is a great way for the cast, crew and producers to continue and deepen their relationship with the fans," Benedict told EW when the podcast launched in 2022. “Even though the series has come to an end, the fans continue to be an incredibly tight and supportive community.”

He and Speight also host the Kings of Con podcast. Like many of his former castmates, Benedict turned up in The Winchesters and will appear in The Boys season 4.

Richard Speight Jr. (Gabriel/Loki/the Trickster)

Richard Speight Jr.’s character went by several names on Supernatural: Trickster, Loki, Ed Coleman, Dr. Sexy, and finally Gabriel, the last of God’s archangels to be revealed. Speight also appeared in some of the show’s funniest episodes, including Mystery Spot (S3, E11) and Changing Channels (S5, E8). He even directed 11 episodes, notably helming the third-to-last episode that brought the death of Castiel.

“I did everything in my power to be sure I was leaving no stone unturned and telling the story the best way I knew how,” Speight told EW in 2020. “[Supernatural] was unique. It won't happen again because TV has changed dramatically. And I think it's cool that it's being celebrated and they got to finish their season and I got to be a part of it and tell as many stories as I got to tell.”

Speight also directed episodes of Dead Boy Detectives, Walker, and The Winchesters, reprising his role as Loki in the latter. His other acting credits include turns on Justified, Jericho, and Band of Brothers.

He has three sons with his wife, Jaci Hays.

Osric Chau (Kevin Tran)

Poor, Kevin. This high school honors student just wanted to do well in classes and be good to his mother, but instead, he got stuck deciphering the Word of God — and got killed for his trouble. Even after escaping hell, he was barred from entering heaven, and as far as we know, he’s still wandering the earth as a ghost to this day.

Actor Osric Chou played a different kind of hero in the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” five-part crossover, taking on the role of Ryan Choi, who assumes the mantle of The Atom from its previous holder, Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh). He also appeared in Roland Emmerich’s disaster film 2012 (2009) and BBC America’s gently trippy Douglas Adams adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (2016–2017).

Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills)

Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) is another civilian who became a Winchester ally after tragedy struck. (In Jody’s case, it was her husband and son’s deaths.) But by the end of the show, Sheriff Mills had built a new life for herself, became a friend to Sheriff Donna Hanscum (Briana Buckmaster), and an adoptive mother to Claire (Kathryn Newton) and Alex (Katherine Ramdeen).

To the disappointment of many fans, the season 13 backdoor pilot for a potential all-female hunter spinoff series didn’t come to fruition. CW President Mark Pedowitz instead opted to move forward with a different spinoff of a spinoff. (The Vampire Diaries begat The Originals, which begat Legacies, leaving Wayward Sisters dead on arrival despite fan attempts to save it.)

Nevertheless, Rhodes and Buckmaster persisted with The Wayward podcast. “We actually don’t see it as our consolation prize; we see it as more than a TV show because humanity and connection is so much bigger than a television show,” Rhodes told EW in 2018. “And now we have an opportunity to do that."

Rhodes, who played the titular twins’ mom, Carey, on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005–2008), is married to actor Travis Hodges. They have one daughter.

Mark Pellegrino (Lucifer)

All great heroes need great villains, and Mark Pelligrino’s silver-tongued Lucifer was one of the best at bedeviling the Winchesters. In fact, bad guys are something of a specialty for Pelligrino, who also played the heel on shows like Dexter, Lost, Being Human, Revolution, and The Tomorrow People.

“The fun part about being the quote-unquote bad guy is you get to explore parts of yourself that you could never do in real life,” Pellegrino told EW in 2013. “You could be that full-on narcissist in a sense without concern necessarily for the consequences of the actions, and [you] experience no consequences of your actions and that’s very liberating.”

Pellegrino currently stars with Jeff Daniels on American Rust (2021–present), the adaptation of Philipp Meyer’s novel that aired on Showtime before hopping to Amazon Prime Video for its second season.

He and his wife Tracy, a director, have two children.

Felicia Day (Charlie Bradbury)

When Supernatural needed an endearingly nerdy hacker in season 7, who better to answer the call than geek queen Felicia Day? Charlie Bradbury became a surrogate little sister for the show’s main men, and her death in season 10 was perhaps the most controversial indignity visited on the women of the show. (And no, an alt-reality version of Charlie doesn’t ease the sting.)

“I love being a part of fandom,” Day told EW in 2013. “I love that fans have a sense of ownership in a world and the characters and their lives. I met a lot of Charlie cosplayers over this past year. I've seen fan art. I just love interacting with the fans. They're so supportive and interested in the lore and the world of Supernatural.”

But the CW show isn’t the only fandom Day belongs to, thanks to her appearances in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot (2017–present), Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (2008), The Magicians (2018–2019), The Guild (2007–2013), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2003), Eureka (2011), and Dollhouse (2009). She founded the multimedia production company Geek & Sundry, which launched the D&D web series Critical Role.

Day has a daughter, Calliope.

Alexander Calvert (Jack)

Half-angel and half-human, Jack (Alexander Calvert) had some prejudice to overcome thanks to his father, Lucifer. But with a little (okay, a lot) of help from his surrogate dad, Castiel, and his mentors Sam and Dean, Jack figures out how to be good. And thank Chuck he did, because by the show’s end, he takes over as God.

Calvert was aware of Supernatural’s legacy when he made his debut in the season 12 finale. “I wanted to be as respectful and delicate as possible, just because people have grown up with these characters, you know? They’ve gone on just this massive journey,” he told ELLE in 2017 when he was upped to a series regular. “It’s just nice to be a part of something that people are so passionate about.”

Calvert, who appeared on A&E’s The Returned with his future Supernatural dad Pelligrino in 2015, also appears in Gen V as a college kid with a deeply unsettling power. His other acting credits include stints on Arrow (2015–2016), Bates Motel (2013), and the film The Edge of Seventeen (2016).

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.