Supernatural's 14 Best Guest Stars You Probably Forgot About
Saving people and hunting things might be the Winchester brothers' family business, but without a colorful cast of creatures and formidable foes, the wayward brothers would quickly find themselves out of work. Thankfully, there seems to be no shortage of apparitions, ghouls, and demonic forces in the "Supernatural" universe.
From the maliciously hungry Leviathans to vengeful spirits to sketchy angels, it seems like there's always another entity waiting around the corner. With the help of John Winchester's journal, Dean is always happy to break out the old salt-and-burn treatment while Sammy takes a deep dive into monster lore. And with 15 seasons of monsters to take out, that makes room to showcase a lot of great guest stars. If you love the Winchesters as much as we do, grab your angel blade and cut a slice of delicious pie as we pay tribute to the best "Supernatural" guest stars you may have forgotten about.
Robert Englund as Dr. Robert
No series about the supernatural would be complete without a visit from horror legend Robert Englund. As the actor behind Freddy Krueger, Englund's importance to genre film and television is rivaled only by his contribution to the "Star Wars" saga as the person responsible for recommending Mark Hamill for the gig, according to Hamill himself. Although he is best known for murdering teenagers in the dream realm, sci-fi fans may recall Englund's earlier role as the sweetest alien in the "V" saga.
Englund appears in "Supernatural" as Dr. Robert, a now-unlicensed doctor friend of the Winchester family who isn't afraid to get into some medically sketchy hunter shenanigans. When Dean needs someone to temporarily put him down long enough for a quick meet-and-greet with Death in Season 6's "Appointment In Samarra," he looks up Dr. Robert, who is more than happy to oblige. Although Robert tells Dean there's only a 75% success rate for bringing folks back, Dean isn't too worried since cheating death is a Winchester family pastime.
While Englund only appears in one episode of the series, he is mentioned later in the season and Dean later uses a package of syringes with a note from Dr. Robert on them in Season 13's "Advanced Thanatology." Aside from his iconic turn as Freddy Krueger, Englund has also appeared in single episodes of shows like "Stranger Things," "The Goldbergs," "Bones," Criminal Minds," and "Chuck."
Lauren Cohan as Bela Talbot
Before cementing her place in "The Walking Dead" universe, Lauren Cohan would get her first recurring role in "Supernatural" as the saucy supernatural artifact thief, Bela Talbot. Talbot first encounters the wayward brothers while in pursuit of a cursed rabbit's foot that Sam and Dean have the misfortune to cross paths with in Season 3's "Bad Day at Black Rock." As the season progresses, the troublesome femme fatale shows up again from time to time, with the boys even bailing her out when she is doomed by the ghost ship in "Red Sky at Morning." Despite her erstwhile adventures with the Winchesters, Bela eventually seals her own fate with a demon deal and eventually meets her untimely demise with the aid of some hellhounds.
After leaving "Supernatural," Cohan went on to play the vampire Rose in "The Vampire Diaries" and the daughter of Timothy Dalton's Alexei Volkoff in "Chuck," before landing the role of Maggie Greene Rhee in "The Walking Dead." After playing Maggie for more than a decade on the series, Cohan went on to expand the universe with "The Walking Dead: Dead City," which she stars in alongside fellow "Supernatural" alum, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan.
Mitch Pileggi as Samuel Campbell
Mitch Pileggi plays a key member of Sam and Dean's family as their maternal grandfather and fellow hunter, Samuel Campbell. Dean first meets his grandfather when Castiel sends him back to the 1970s in his efforts to stop Azazel. Although they work together to track down old Yellow Eyes, the demon ends up possessing Samuel, eventually killing him in the Season 4 episode, "In the Beginning." Samuel is later resurrected and deposited in the present day where he reprises his hunter lifestyle until he ends up killed by a Khan worm in the Season 6 episode, "...And Then There Were None").
Besides his role as the salty patriarch of Sam and Dean's family, Pileggi has appeared in dozens of notable film and television roles. During the '80s and '90s, the actor popped up in a number of primetime dramas including "Dallas," "The A-Team," and "Falcon Crest." From 1994 through 2002, he appeared in "The X-Files" as Mulder and Scully's boss, FBI AD Walter Skinner, a role he would reprise with the 2016 series revival.
He went on to play Colonel Steven Caldwell in "Stargate Atlantis" and a white supremacist gang boss in "Sons of Anarchy." Pileggi also appeared in the 2012 revival of "Dallas" in a different role from his 1990 appearance. In 2021, he joined his "Supernatural" grandson Jared Padalecki in the cast of "Walker" as Padalecki's on-screen father, Bonham Walker.
Kurt Fuller as Zachariah
As Sam and Dean would quickly learn, angels in the "Supernatural" universe are just as morally bad — if not worse — than their demon counterparts. While many bear personalities that would be best described as "aggressively bureaucratic," the scheming angel Zachariah carries a whimsically villainous energy, thanks in large part to the acting talents of Kurt Fuller. First appearing in Season 4, the pop culture-quoting Zachariah makes a sport of manipulating the Winchesters into ushering in the apocalypse, but it's hard to hate him for it because he is just so darned charming.
Besides his role in "Supernatural," Fuller is a well-known character actor with a history of inhabiting quirky oddballs and likable villains. One of his more memorable roles was in "Psych" as Santa Barbara PD's weirdo coroner Woodrow Strode, whose inappropriate sense of humor, affable nature, and bizarre personality made him a perfect pal for psychic sleuth team Shawn and Gus.
He also appears as Kristen Bouchard's professionally unhinged therapist Kurt Boggs in the critically acclaimed Paramount series "Evil," which finds his character dabbling in the demonic arts to the tune of "Frère Jacques." Fuller's long list of acting roles through the years includes roles in shows like "Quantum Leap," "Murder, She Wrote," "House," "Charmed," and "The 4400," as well as popular films including "Ghostbusters II," "Scary Movie," and "Anger Management."
Timothy Omundson as Cain
Like his "Psych" co-star Fuller, Timothy Omundson plays a supernatural character who runs afoul of the Winchester boys in his role as the Biblical figure, Cain. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve, Cain offered Lucifer his soul in exchange for his brother Abel's freedom, contradicting the Biblical version taught in Sunday School. But because Lucifer is smarmy, his price meant Cain had to commit the first murder, killing his own brother even if it was to save him in the end. To perform the vile act, Cain used a donkey's jawbone to craft the First Blade, a blade that, when joined with the Mark of Cain, allows its bearer to kill anyone or anything of any species.
As Cain, Omundsen played a dark, complex character whose own act of mercy led to his damnation. Cain's spiritual turmoil shares some common ground with his earlier appearance as Eli in "Xena: Warrior Princess," who would become an important religious figure in the series as well as a dear friend to Xena and Gabrielle. After "Xena," Omundson went on to play Sean Potter in the legal drama "Judging Amy." In 2007, Omundson had a recurring role in "Jericho" as Sheriff Phil Constantino, a role that coincided with his work in "Psych" as Detective Carlton Lassister. From 2015 through 2016, the actor also played King Richard in the goofy musical fantasy series, "Galavant."
Titus Welliver as War
Mark Pellegrino, who played Lucifer in "Supernatural," also appeared in "Lost" as the island's enigmatic religious figure, Jacob. The character's age-old beef with his brother, the Man in Black, played by Titus Welliver, is central to the "Lost" mythos. Pellegrino's entry into the "Supernatural" universe roughly coincided with his appearance in "Lost," and it was around that time that the man behind his island nemesis made a pit stop into the Winchesters' world as Lucifer's crony, War from the Four Horseman boy band. Fortunately, Welliver's "Supernatural" had more than a smoke monster to get around in thanks to his "horse," a classic red Mustang.
An outstanding actor, Welliver's onscreen career is full of high points. The actor appeared in all four of Ben Affleck's directorial features — "Gone Baby Gone," "The Town," "Argo," and "Live By Night." During the early 1990s, Welliver was cast in a number of primetime TV shows including "The X-Files," "L.A. Law," "Star Trek: Voyager," and "Beverly Hills 90210" before joining "NYPD Blue" in the recurring role of Dr. Mondzac.
One of his more memorable roles came in 2004 when he was cast as Silas Adams in HBO's "Deadwood," which also starred Jim Beaver who played Bobby Singer in "Supernatural." From 2009 through 2011, Welliver had recurring roles in "The Good Wife" and "Sons of Anarchy," and in 2015, he began playing the eponymous Bosch in the Amazon Prime police procedural series of the same name.
Paris Hilton as Leshii
Besides the many beloved character actors to grace the "Supernatural" set through the years, the production also featured a number of surprising guests — like reality TV star Snooki, who rose to prominence in MTV's "Jersey Shore." It's in the same spirit that Paris Hilton appears in the Season 5 episode, "Fallen Idols." One of the show's funnier episodes, "Fallen Idols" finds the boys sleuthing out the supernatural force behind a series of bizarre killings in a small town that include James Dean's allegedly cursed ride and someone who looks suspiciously like Abraham Lincoln.
The plot thickens when they trace the murders back to the local wax museum, which they find brimming with salt-and-burnable artifacts from famous figures. After a freaky encounter with a not-so-pacifistic Gandhi, they eventually discover the true culprit — and she looks an awful lot like Hilton. When the boys ultimately uncover the truth, they learn the incidents are all connected to a pagan god named Leshii, who has adapted to the modern era by taking on famous forms worshiped by others.
It's a perfect gig for Hilton, who seems to be having a lot of fun playing it. An heir to the Hilton Hotel empire, the reality star is best known for her work in shows like "Cooking With Paris" and "The Simple Life." Her appearance in "Supernatural" is self-referential as Hilton once played alongside Jared Padalecki in the 2005 slasher film, "House of Wax."
Robert Picardo as Wayne Whittaker Jr. the Leprechaun
Robert Picardo is one of those beloved actors that brightens up the screen whenever he appears on it. Through the years, he's played too many memorable characters to count, with some of the most notable ones residing in a spacefaring civilization like the EMH from "Star Trek: Voyager," Richard Woolsey of "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis," and Ildis Kitan in "The Orville." Picardo himself is something of a space aficionado. Since 1999, the opera singer and actor has been actively involved with The Planetary Society, an NGO concerned with serious political advocacy for space exploration.
As is often the case with "Supernatural," Picardo's guest appearance in the series is fittingly self-referential. The episode finds Sam and Dean investigating paranormal phenomena in which an entire town's firstborn sons are abducted by what many believe to be UFOs. In the course of their investigation, the brothers interview UFOlogist Wayne Whittaker, played by Picardo. But after Dean is subsequently abducted and manhandled himself, they discover the truth is even stranger, revealing that the town is rife with fairies and Whittaker is actually a leprechaun. The hilarious episode is a perfect fit for Picardo's comedy acting chops, and it's a fun nod at the actor's own on- and off-screen ties with the world of space travel.
Jewel Staite as Amy Pond the Kitsune
Jewel Staite plays the "Supernatural" version of a kitsune, the nine-tailed shapeshifting fox of Japanese yokai lore. Although her true name is never known, the kitsune operates under the pseudonym Amy Pond, a name that fans of "Doctor Who" will recognize as a companion of the Eleventh Doctor.
Sam initially meets Amy during their teen years after a chance encounter at a local library (seen in Season 7's "The Girl Next Door"). When Sam is assaulted by some local ruffians, Amy comes to his aid, bringing him home where she tends to his wounds before sharing a kiss with him. When her mother shows up, revealing the truth about their nature to a hiding Sam, Amy ends up killing her own mom to save his life. In return, Sam shows her mercy by letting her escape, an act that would come back to haunt him years down the road when he realizes she's feeding human flesh to her son.
Like many of the show's best guest stars, Staite is well-known to sci-fi fans for her work in the genre, especially for her role as the cheery ship's mechanic Kaylee in the cult classic space western, "Firefly," and its follow-up film, "Serenity." Staite has also appeared in shows like "Are You Afraid of the Dark?," "The X-Files," and the 2022 "Quantum Leap," and she also played the recurring role of Dr. Jennifer Keller for two seasons of "Stargate Atlantis."
DJ Qualls as Garth Fitzgerald IV
In a show chock full of colorful characters, hunter Garth Fitzgerald IV ranks among the most interesting. First introduced among the network of hunters Bobby works with, Garth is something of an odd duck who also happens to be a capable hunter. He even takes on Bobby's old gig for a while before he's bitten by a werewolf. After his lupine transition, Garth takes up the quiet life with his pacifistic werewolf family, eventually becoming a dentist.
By the end of the series, the hug-loving, piano-playing hunter is one of the Winchester brothers' dearest — and few living — friends. But Garth is just one of many charming characters played by DJ Qualls during his career. One of the actor's more memorable early roles includes the music-loving geek-turned-popular kid in the 2002 film, "The New Guy." He appeared in three episodes of "My Name is Earl" as Ray-Ray Washington, husband to Camden County's female wrestling star Liberty. From 2014 through 2018, Qualls played Citizen Z in The Asylum's irreverent answer to "The Walking Dead," "Z Nation." And he took on a more serious role in "The Man in the High Castle," Amazon Prime's highly acclaimed adaptation of Philip K. Dick's alternate history novel.
Amanda Tapping as the angel Naomi
Another "Stargate" alumni to appear in "Supernatural," Amanda Tapping appeared in the recurring role of the Castiel-menacing angel Naomi from Seasons 8 through 14 of the series. One of Heaven's more effective bosses, Naomi's accomplishments includes brainwashing Castiel and doing just about anything to keep Heaven from falling apart. Despite all of her manipulations, Naomi eventually comes around to become an ally for Castiel after concluding that even her most Machiavellian angelic machinations can't bail Heaven out.
Tapping is best known for her portrayal of Samantha Carter in the Stargate universe, but she has also acted in a long list of sci-fi and fantasy shows including "The X-Files," "Killjoys," and "Travelers." What some fans may not know is that Tapping frequently works behind the camera. The actor made her directorial debut in the Michael Shanks-penned "Stargate SG-1" episode "Resurrection," and she has been working steadily in the director's chair ever since.
Tapping is one of only a few actors in "Supernatural" to also direct for the show, joining the ranks of Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, and Richard Speight Jr. Tapping's extensive list of directing credits also includes episodes of "Dark Matter," "The 100," "Van Helsing," and "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," just to name a few.
Rick Springfield as Vince Vincente and Lucifer
A common thread running through the "Supernatural" universe is the importance of rock-and-roll to Dean and his dad, John. This is most evident in Dean's endless stream of aliases, which include the likes of James Hetfield of Metallica, Ted Nugent, and Led Zeppelin's late drummer John Bonham, just to name a few. And then there's Dean's cassette tape collection and road trip mantra "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole." So Lucifer's stint in the meat suit of an aging rock star seems pretty appropriate, and who better to play him than Rick Springfield, the Aussie rocker who won a Grammy for his chart-topping 1981 hit, "Jessie's Girl"?
After years of Pellegrino's sometimes morally ambiguous snark king Lucifer, Springfield's Season 12 portrayal of Lucifer was a reminder of how purely evil and narcissistic the fallen angel could be. In addition to his career as a recording artist, Springfield has plenty of acting credits under his belt. He can be seen playing Lieutenant Zac in the 1978 "Battlestar Galactica," and for years, he was a regular cast member of "General Hospital." His acting credits also include "True Detective," "American Horror Story," and "The Goldbergs."
Charisma Carpenter as the witch Maggie Stark
Charisma Carpenter's appearance in "Supernatural" served as a mini-reunion for fans of the 1997 supernatural cult series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its sequel series, "Angel." Carpenter, who played Sunnydale High's queen bee cheerleader Cordelia Chase, played a witch named Maggie Stark in Season 7's "Shut Up, Dr. Phil." And sharing her screen time as her husband Don was her former Buffyverse co-star James Marsters, who played the British vampire Spike in the hit teen series.
In the episode, the two play an affluent couple with some pretty messy marital problems. When Maggie learns of her husband's affair with a colleague, she uses her centuries-old witch powers to wreak havoc on their community, targeting his illicit paramour and everyone else she sees as culpable or complicit in the matter. Because Don is also a witch, things spin comically out of control until Sam and Dean's intervention.
Besides making a fantastic foe for the Winchesters, Carpenter has worked steadily through the years since her days at Angel Investigations, appearing in shows like "Charmed," "Lucifer," "9-1-1," and "Burn Notice." She also played the recurring role of Kendall Casablancas in "Veronica Mars," portraying a stepmother murderously desperate to get her hands on the Casablancas family wealth. In 2013, Carpenter hosted Investigation Discovery's "Surviving Evil," at one point recounting the true story of her own brush with a violent criminal.
Tricia Helfer as Molly McNamara
Tricia Helfer of "Battlestar Galactica" fame showed up during the early days of "Supernatural," appearing in the Season 2 episode, "Roadkill." Sam and Dean first encounter her character, Molly, while looking into a series of killings along Nevada's Highway 41, and it quickly becomes apparent that Molly is a corporeal spirit who doesn't understand that she's died.
The trouble begins when Molly runs over farmer Jonah Greely in a highway accident in 1992, an accident that she is also killed in. Over time, Greely becomes a vengeful spirit, returning to torture Molly each year on the anniversary of his death. It's one of the better episodes of the show's early seasons, with Molly learning of her death in a twist straight out of "The Sixth Sense."
Helfer is best known for her iconic appearance as Cylon Model Six in the 2003 "Battlestar Galactica" reimagining, a role that earned her a Leo Award. Helfer's appearance in "Criminal Minds" as the psychopathic thrill killer Izzy Rogers would make her a favorite among the show's guest stars. Helfer is also known for playing Charlotte Richards in "Lucifer" as well as God's ex-wife, the Goddess.