When a show runs for as long as Supernatural did, it’s basically guaranteed that there is going to be a wide cast of characters with many of them showing up more than once. Supernatural was on air for 15 seasons over the span of 15 years that covered numerous storylines, character arcs, and even different timelines. This was a show about two professional monster-hunting brothers, so the story-building was expansive. From heaven to hell, purgatory to Leviathans, angels and demons, and literally everything in between, this show covered everything that could possibly go bump in the night. Which leads to there being a lot of characters played by many different actors.
Since the show is so extensive in its characters and storylines, there have actually been quite a few actors on the show that have played more than one role. Supernatural is extremely self-aware and has had more than a few episodes where it actually acknowledges its existence and popularity. There was even an episode where a school orchestrates a production titled Supernatural: The Musical and Dean is offended that the teenagers interpreted their lives as a musical. This show truly knew no limits. Reusing actors to play other characters is nothing for a show like this. Some of these instances of recycling actors are quite obvious, and others are not. Here are 15 actors who played more than one character in Supernatural:
15 Alexia Fast – Missy Bender & Emma
Fans of the show most likely remember Alexia Fast for portraying Emma, the Amazonian daughter of Dean in season seven. After having a seemingly innocent one-night stand with a woman he met in a bar, Dean discovered the next day that nothing about their meeting was innocent. Turned out Dean had gotten tangled up with the Amazons thanks to Emma’s mother, and the next day he was the father of a one-day-old child who had already grown into a young woman. Their interactions were short as Emma bit the bullet thanks to Sam, but Alexia also played another character way back in season one. She played Missy Bender of the Bender family and part of the monster-of-the-week story for the episode.
14 Tyler Johnston – Matt Pike & Samandriel
Angels can sometimes be the worst characters found on Supernatural, but some of them are genuinely good. That is proven with Castiel (although he had his moments as well), but also with Samandriel in season eight who is played by Canadian actor Tyler Johnston. Nicknamed Alfie for the humans, Samandriel tried to assist in retrieving the Word of God before it got into the wrong hands but was ultimately captured and tortured by Crowley before Castiel put him out of his misery. Before that, Johnston also played Matt Pike in season one in the episode “Bugs.” Matt was a bug-obsessed teen that Sam and Dean meet while investigating a series of insect-related deaths in Oklahoma that would put his family in danger.
13 Michael Teigan – Teddy and Max Hilby
One of the most unforgettable episodes of Supernatural is episode eight of season four titled “Wishful Thinking” mostly due to the suicidal teddy bear who was wished into existence by a little girl. Canadian character actor Michael Teigan voiced the depressed teddy, but he also played Max Hilby in the season eight episode “LARP and the Real Girl”, the self-proclaimed Shadow King of Charlie Bradbury’s live-action role-play convention and the prime suspect in Charlie’s disappearance. Teigan also played a teacher in an early episode of season one but didn’t play a major part in the episode.
12 Steve Bacic – Dr. Sexy & Pastor Joe
Episode eight of season five, “Changing Channels” is one of the most iconic and ridiculous episodes of the entire show. The Trickster sends Sam and Dean into an alternate universe where they have to live through different types of TV shows. One of those shows was Dr. Sexy M.D., a soap opera that Dean had started watching at the motel they were staying at earlier in the episode.
Steve Bacic, who also played Dr. Hank McCoy in X2: X-Men United, played Dr. Sexy in that part of the episode and left Dean a bit starstruck. Bacic came back to the show in season 15 in the episode “Gimme Shelter” but as the polar opposite character, Pastor Joe. Pastor Joe was a member of a church in Missouri where Castiel and Jack were investigating a string of murders that they believed might have been linked to demons.
11 Lynda Boyd – Dr. Jennifer O’Brien & Fortuna
In season eight, Canadian actress Lynda Boyd portrayed a Djin, one of Supernatural’s most interesting monster species, who was disguised as Dr. Jennifer O’Brien. Dean and Charlie figured out that she was not working alone and was working from within the medical system, which led Sam and Charlie to enter dreams in order to stop the Djin from feeding on her victims. Boyd shows up again in the final season of the series as Fortuna, the Roman Goddess of Luck. She helped the Winchester brothers get their luck back from God as she deemed that the brothers were true heroes akin to those of ancient times.
10 Ian Tracey – Lee Chambers & Ishim
Supernatural was filmed in Vancouver for its entire 15 years, so it makes sense that they cast a lot of Canadian actors to play small parts. Ian Tracey is another one of those Canadian actors that the show reused in two separate seasons. Tracey first appeared in the season seven episode “Adventures in Babysitting” as one hunter Lee Chambers, whose daughter enlists the help of Sam to find him when he goes missing.
By the end of the episode, Chambers decided to leave the life behind for a normal life with his daughter. Tracey would reappear again five seasons later in the season 12 episode “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” as the angel Ishim. He was once part of Castiel’s old garrison but ended up having a personality more similar to sinister angels such as Uriel, but he met his demise by the end of the episode and the character never showed up again.
9 Erica Cerra – Robin & Duma
Television actress Erica Cerra appeared in over 20 episodes of another CW show, The 100, but she also had a relatively important part in later seasons of Supernatural. She first appeared in season six as Robin, a bartender who was unceremoniously killed by Soulless Sam. She and Sam spend a good portion of the episode stuck in his head as the walls put up by Death rapidly crumble thanks to then-evil Castiel. Cerra then came back to the show in seasons 13 and 14 as the angel Duma. She appeared in seven episodes as the angel, who is mostly known for her manipulation of Jack and her fatal demise at the hands of Castiel.
8 Carrie Anne Fleming – Nurse & Karen Singer
Actors who are cast to play more than one role in Supernatural typically have smaller roles that don’t affect the overarching storyline of whichever season they are guest-starred in. Occasionally, they were given a more prominent role that had the potential to be in more than one episode. This is the case with Carrie Anne Fleming, whose first appearance on the show was as a dying nurse in season two. She later appeared once in season five and once in season seven as Karen Singer, Bobby’s late wife. Karen was the reason that Bobby got into hunting in the first place as he had to kill her when she became possessed by a demon. Bobby later had to kill her again in season five when Death resurrects her, and she begs him to end her life once more, so she doesn’t hurt him.
7 Keegan Connor Tracey – Karen Giles, Sera Seige, & Witch Mother
Few actors on the show got to play more than two characters, but Keegan Connor Tracey is one of the lucky ones that did. Her first appearance came in season two as Karen Giles. Karen was the wife of Tony Giles, a victim whose murder Sam and Dean were investigating. Karen got caught in the crosshairs of the investigation and ended up killed too, which led to the brothers being arrested for her murder.
Tracey then reappeared in season four as Sera Seige, the publisher of the Supernatural books who eventually revealed to the boys that Chuck was the author of the books. Tracey made one more appearance on the show in season 15 as the Witch Mother. The Witch Mother was searching for Rowena’s magic stash after the beloved witch’s death at the beginning of the final season.
6 Aleks Paunovic – Sean’s Business Partner, Skinwalker, & Gunner Lawless
Former Canadian boxer Aleks Paunovic is also one of the rare actors who landed not one, not two, but three roles on the hit CW show. His first role was as the business partner of Sean Boyden, a hellhound victim in season two. Showing up again in season six, he went from human to monster to portray the second-in-command of a pack of Skinwalkers. Fans probably know him best from his third stint on the show in season 11 as Dean’s idol, Gunner Lawless. Gunner Lawless was a professional wrestler much like Paunovic actually was in real life, but he also happened to be a demon lackey.
5 Ty Olsson – Eli & Benny Lafitte
Ty Olsson made his first appearance on the CW show back in season two as Eli, a vampire who was part of the Lenore nest that Gordon Walker was hunting. He and Lenore chose not to feed on humans, but he was later hunted down by other hunters. Olsson then came back to the show in season eight as Benny Lafitte, also a vampire but this time he was one of Dean’s closest friends. Benny became one of the most popular characters on the show thanks to Olsson’s excellent performance. Benny and Dean fought side by side while stuck in Purgatory, along with Castiel, and the two became almost like brothers. He proved to be a genuinely good person despite constant doubts from Sam and showed up two more times during the show in season 10 and in season 15.
4 Genevieve Padalecki – Ruby & Herself
Ruby, the demon who consistently manipulated Sam throughout seasons three and four, was originally played by Katie Cassidy in the third season. After Lilith sent her back to Hell, Ruby had to find a new meat suit to walk the Earth. Genevieve Padalecki portrayed the character for the duration of season four and was responsible for getting Sam hooked on demon blood and coerced him into killing Lilith, which broke the final seal and releases Lucifer from his cage in Hell.
Padalecki resurfaced once again just two seasons later, but not as the infamous demon. She came back to star as a fictionalized version of herself in the fan-favorite episode, “The French Mistake.” The episode saw Sam and Dean transported to an alternate universe by Balthazar where their lives were actually portrayed as the TV show Supernatural.
3 Misha Collins – Castiel, Jimmy Novak, & Himself
Castiel’s first appearance came at the beginning of season four, and he quickly became one of the most loved characters on the show. Misha Collins played the character from season four all the way through until the end of the series. Castiel was a powerful angel, so he needed a human body to inhabit when he was on Earth as showing his true form would be fatal to humans. That human host came in the form of Jimmy Novak, a devout Christian and the true vessel of Castiel.
Collins actually got to play Jimmy in an episode of season four when Cas checked out and let him have both his mind and his body back. We got to see the man behind the angel and the family he gave up in order to serve Castiel as well as answer his true calling. Collins also got to play a fictionalized version of himself in “The French Mistake,” although that version of the actor is killed halfway through the episode.
2 Jared Padalecki – Sam Winchester, Lucifer, Ezekial, Gadreel, & Sam Wesson
Even the main characters get to play more than one role in Supernatural. Obviously, Jared Padalecki is Sam Winchester, the youngest of the two Winchester boys. He is one of only two actors to appear in every episode of the show. In those 327 episodes, Padalecki got to play a few different characters. Most notably, he got to portray Lucifer when he first possessed Sam in season five. He played Lucifer again in season 15 one last time before the show ended.
Padalecki also got to play the angels Ezekial and Gadreel during season nine until he was able to force each of them out of his body. He also got to play Sam Wesson in episode 17 of season four. Wesson was a cubicle-ridden tech support employee at Sandover Bridge & Iron Inc. in an episode where Sam and Dean Winchester didn’t exist.
1 Jensen Ackles – Dean Winchester, Dean Smith, Deanmon, & Michael
It is glaringly obvious that Dean Winchester is the character Jensen Ackles is most famous for playing on Supernatural. Along with Padlock, Jensen Ackles was also in all 327 episodes of the long-running fantasy show as the oldest of the two monster-hunting brothers. Similar to Padalecki, Ackles got the chance to showcase his acting chops by playing more than just his main character.
In the same season four episode Padalecki plays Sam Wesson, Ackles plays Dean Smith, the director of sales and marketing at Sandover Bridge & Iron Inc. Dean Smith was the son of Bob and Ellen, and had a sister named Jo, clear references to other existing characters on the show. Later on in season nine, Dean is killed by Metatron after accepting the Mark of Cain and is resurrected as a demon by the Mark. Deanmon was immune to exorcism but later cured by Sam in early season 10. The most notable character Ackles played other than Dean Winchester himself was the Archangel Michael in season 14. When Lucifer returns at the end of season 13 more powerful than ever, Dean gets another chance to accept Michael’s invitation to be his true vessel, which Dean had initially turned down in season five. Michael ends up seizing Dean’s body after defeating Lucifer and wreaks havoc dressed like a wealthy man from the 1920s.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
