What Ever Happened To The Cast Of The Craft?

In 1996, Columbia Pictures released a movie that would inspire thousands of young women to buy black nail polish and hit their local libraries for all manner of tomes dealing with paganism and the occult at a time before neither Hot Topic nor the internet had reached their respective peaks. At least, that's our guess as to the immediate effect "The Craft" had on the zeitgeist. The film by writer-director Andrew Fleming may not have inspired rave reviews from critics up its release — it sports a middling 57% critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — but it has inspired an enduring cult following with which the coming-of-age supernatural horror jaunt is still popular some two and a half decades later.

"The Craft" tells the tale of a teenage girl who's, shall we say, spiritually gifted. Sarah Bailey transfers to a private school in Los Angeles and befriends a trio of like-minded gals, all of whom are aspiring witches. While her new friends have been researching and training, putting in time at the old witchcraft gym, Sarah comes by her powers naturally, which will of course become a point of contention with Nancy, the presumptive leader of the pack. Nevertheless, with all four compass points now accounted for, members of the newly-formed quartet all develop powerful magic abilities, but some of them lack the discipline to use them responsibly.

It's been a couple of decades since that tale of witchcraft first came out, and some of the film's actors have gone on to enjoy successful careers. Here's what happened to the cast of "The Craft."

Oh Nancy, you poor thing. It's not enough for the character played by Fairuza Balk to get what she wants twice over, in the form of her stepdad dying and her mother cashing in big on the life insurance; she wants to have it all, so she tries to invoke the spirit because she just can't stand the fact that Sarah, a natural witch, is better than her. Well, that and she clearly has jealousy and revenge on her mind, going after the swooning Chris based on their shared history.

The same year "The Craft" hit theaters, Balk washed off the goth makeup and popped in some costume incisors for the role of Aissa in the remake of "The Island of Dr. Moreau." She played the adoptive daughter of the title character (Marlon Brando), a cat-human hybrid who's, perhaps, more human looking than some of her fellow Beast Folk. Two years later, Balk brought to life another complicated, power-hungry young woman with heavy eye makeup; for 1998's "American History X," she played Stacey, the aggro soon-to-be ex-girlfriend of recently released and reformed Neo-Nazi skinhead Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton). The very same year, she took on the decidedly lighter role of Vicki Vallencourt, love interest to Bobby Boucher (Adam Sandler), in the sports comedy "The Waterboy."

In 2015, Balk landed a recurring role on the Showtime drama "Ray Donovan," playing a prostitute named Ginger who becomes friends with the title character's father Mickey (Jon Voight). In Amazon's spinoff series "Paradise City," Balk plays the role of Lizzie Thomas, the grandmother to Faith, the daughter series lead Johnny Faust (Andy Biersack) has with a former one-night stand.

Rochelle Zimmerman, as played by Rachel True, rounds out the quartet of young magical adepts as the only member involved with any school-sanctioned extracurriculars. In addition to dabbling in witchcraft, she is also a member of the school's diving team, though that's a source of both drama and trauma, given the bullying she endures by the likes of teammate Laura. Laura's racist taunts lead Rochelle to seek revenge, and she causes the superficial pretty girl to lose her hair and become despondent, a vengeance about which Rochelle seems increasingly unsure as it progresses.

Two years removed from "The Craft," True joined the cast of "Half Baked." In the dim stoner comedy, she played the super cleverly named Mary Jane Potman, the love interest who forces protagonist Thurgood Jenkins (Dave Chappelle) to choose between sex or smoking weed. Beginning in 2002, True took on the role of Mona Thorne in the UPN sitcom "Half & Half," which followed her character and foil half-sister Dee Dee (Essence Atkins), who become friends when they, by chance, begin renting in the same apartment building. True appeared on the show throughout its entire four-season run before it was canceled.

In the years since, True has appeared in several made-for-TV films, notably as Jonni Valentine, first officer aboard Flight 209, which is beset by airborne sharks in "Sharknado 2: The Second One," in 2014. The same year, she appeared in "Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys" as Marcy, a member of the fish and wildlife service who falls prey to the title monsters.

Mitt, a supporting character so vapid he doesn't merit a surname, is brought to life in "The Craft" by actor Breckin Meyer. He's the typical slacker jokester, always ready with a quip and eager to support friend and alpha dog Chris in whatever hijinks he's got cooking. Of course, once Chris goes head-over-heels for Sarah after having deceitfully slut-shamed her to the entire school, Mitt targets him as well. He's seemingly got nothing but wisecracks to offer, until he gets an eyeful of a scar-free Bonnie, that is — though that simply furthers his character's shallow nature.

In 1998, Meyer appeared in "54" alongside fellow '90s up-and-comer Ryan Phillippe, with the two playing bartenders Greg and Shane, respectively, at the infamous New York City hotspot. In 2000's sophomoric sex comedy "Road Trip," he landed the lead role of Josh Parker, a man about campus who's forced to travel across the country in order to stop a sex tape he made with another girl from being delivered to his long-distance girlfriend. Meyer played lawyer Nick Schaffer in the 2001 comedy "Rat Race," one of several people manipulated by billionaire Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) to race across the desert from Las Vegas to New Mexico in the hopes of winning $2 million.

On the small screen, Meyer played Jared Franklin, one half of the title duo on "Franklin & Bash," on which he and fellow unorthodox attorney Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) engage in legal hijinks. He joined "The Craft" co-star Robin Tunney in the 2019 legal drama "The Fix," playing semi-weasly L.A. district attorney Charlie Wiest.

Spanish actor Assumpta Serna took on the role of the mononymous Lirio for "The Craft." She may not get a lot of screen time, but the impact she has with the scenes in which she appears cannot be understated. Viewers first meet Lirio when Nancy and the gang take Sarah to her bookstore and proceed to steal multiple items each; Sarah surprises the spiritually inclined shopkeeper by actually paying for an item. On a later visit to the store, Nancy actually pays for a book herself, though we'd prefer Lirio hadn't sold her the book on invoking the spirit; things would have been so much simpler that way.

The bulk of Serna's filmography has come in international fare, though she has logged plenty of English-language projects in the years since "The Craft" premiered. Among those is the 2000 fantasy Western "Bullfighter," which has zero critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 0% audience score. She later appeared in the 2008 indie crime drama "Uncertainty," starring Jose Gordon-Levitt. Serna appears as Sylvia Montero, the mother to Bobby Thompson's (Gordon-Levitt) pregnant girlfriend, Kate (Lynn Collins).

Nancy's mother, Grace Downs, is brought to life by actor Helen Shaver. She may have lousy taste in men, as evident by her abusive loser husband, but she seems to have luck when it comes to their deaths. Then again, perhaps the windfall she's able to cash in on with her late husband's passing is more a matter of magic than luck, but she seems none the wiser to that particular fact. Grace is just too busy living the good life now to worry about such things as mysterious life insurance policies.

Shortly after "The Craft" hit theaters, Shaver appeared in the direct-to-video sequel "Tremors 2: Aftershocks." She took on the role of Dr. Kate Reilly, a geologist whose field work brings her in close proximity to the Graboids, a species of subterranean creature that's terrorizing a Mexican oil field. Original "Tremors" cast member Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) is on hand to save her life and she becomes his love interest, much like that of his former partner, Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) in the first film. That same year, Shaver landed a main cast role in "Poltergeist: The Legacy," playing Dr. Rachel Corrigan for four seasons of the horror series. Rachel, a skilled psychiatrist, is invited to join the titular secret occult society after receiving their aid, though her cynicism keeps her from believing in the paranormal.

Shaver appeared in the 2007 indie drama "Numb," playing Audrey, the mother to depressed screenwriter Hudson Milbank (Matthew Perry) whose spiral of detachment leads him to seek psychiatric help.