List of ''The Vampire Diaries'' characters

The Vampire Diaries is an American fantasy-drama television series picked up by The CW for their fall 2009 schedule.^[1] It is adapted from L. J. Smith's novel series of the same name by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. The focal points of the show are the love triangle formed by series' protagonist Elena Gilbert (Dobrev) and vampire brothers Stefan Salvatore (Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Somerhalder) and the town's supernatural history, involving Elena's friends and relatives.

Main characters

The following is a list of series regulars who appear in one or more of the series' eight seasons. The characters are listed in the order they were first credited in the series.

Key

     = Main cast (actor receives "Starring" credit that season)

     = Recurring cast (actor appears in two or more episodes that season)

     = Guest cast (actor appears in only one episode that season)

Character	Actor	Seasons
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Elena Gilbert	Nina Dobrev[lower-alpha 1]	Main						Voice only[lower-alpha 2]	Guest
Katherine Pierce		Recurring	Main	Recurring		Main
Stefan Salvatore	Paul Wesley[lower-alpha 3]	Main
Damon Salvatore	Ian Somerhalder	Main
Jeremy Gilbert	Steven R. McQueen	Main[lower-alpha 4]							Guest
Jenna Sommers	Sara Canning	Main		Guest		Guest			Guest
Bonnie Bennett	Kat Graham[lower-alpha 5]	Main
Caroline Forbes	Candice King[lower-alpha 6]	Main
Matt Donovan	Zach Roerig	Main
Vicki Donovan	Kayla Ewell	Main[lower-alpha 7]	Guest	Recurring		Guest			Recurring
Tyler Lockwood	Michael Trevino	Main						Guest
Alaric Saltzman	Matt Davis	Main[lower-alpha 8]			Guest		Main
Klaus Mikaelson	Joseph Morgan		Recurring	Main		Guest		Guest	Voice only[lower-alpha 9]
Enzo St. John	Michael Malarkey					Recurring	Main

Elena Gilbert

• Played by Nina Dobrev
• Starring seasons: 1–6
• Guest starring season: 8

Elena Gilbert (based on Elena Gilbert from the novels) is the central character and one of the protagonists as well as the female lead of the series, for the first six seasons. She is the biological daughter of John Gilbert and Isobel Flemming, and adopted daughter of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert. She has a younger adoptive brother named Jeremy Gilbert, who is later revealed to be her biological cousin. She also has an adoptive aunt named Jenna Sommers who serves as her and Jeremy's legal guardian in the first two seasons of the series. She is also the descendant and doppelgänger of Amara, Tatia, Katherine Pierce.

In season one, still reeling from her parents deaths which were caused by a car accident earlier that summer, she reluctantly returns to school for her junior year. While walking out of the boys bathroom, she bumps into a mysterious new student named Stefan Salvatore. They connect instantly, and begin dating. She meets his older and darkly mysterious brother, Damon Salvatore. After researching the Salvatores, Elena realizes Stefan was alive in 1864. It is later revealed that he is a 162-year-old vampire. Damon also begins falling for Elena, although she continues her relationship with Stefan. After Stefan and Elena sleep together, she finds a picture of a woman named Katherine Pierce who looks exactly like her. Stefan reveals that it is the women who made him and Damon feud 145 years ago, and the person who turned them into vampires. He says that she is a descendant of Katherine, that Grayson and Miranda were not her real parents because she was adopted. He also told her that he is the person that saved her the night of her parent's death. At the end of season one, Elena meets her birth mother, Isobel, who is now a vampire, and she discovers that her uncle John, who she grew up hating, is her natural father.

In season two, she learns that she is a Petrova doppelgänger, resembling exactly Katherine Pierce, which means that she can be sacrificed to release Klaus' werewolf side. The sacrifice later takes place, but Elena is saved because John sacrificed himself for her after Bonnie enchants him magically. However, her Aunt Jenna is turned into a vampire and, as part of the sacrifice, is killed by Klaus, leaving Elena without a guardian. In the season two finale, while Damon is dying from a werewolf bite, she forgives him for forcing her to drink his blood and kisses him with the thought that it might be Damon's last day. However, Damon gets cured by drinking Klaus' blood. Except, in order to convince Klaus to give his blood to Damon, Stefan had to turn into his "Ripper" self and go off with Klaus, as his enforced "sidekick".

In season three, Elena does everything in her power to make Stefan regain his humanity, which he switched off to satisfy, as well as tolerate, Klaus. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Damon while working together to save Stefan and try to defeat Klaus, eventually even sharing a kiss. She later admits to Stefan that she has feelings for Damon as well, but that she has never stopped loving Stefan. While in Denver together, Elena kisses Damon, later telling him that she doesn't know how she feels about him. It is eventually revealed that Elena met Damon the night of her parents' death, though he compelled her to forget. She eventually chooses Stefan in the season finale but before she can tell him, Elena drowns while having vampire blood in her system. During the last moments of season three, she awakens as a vampire in transition.

In season four, Elena is faced with the tough decision of whether to die or to feed on human blood so she can fully transition into a vampire. After realizing Stefan's desperation to keep her alive, Elena decides to complete her transition. She claims that choosing Stefan was the best choice she'd ever made. However, her relationship with Stefan ends due to her heightened feelings for Damon, allowing them to begin a proper romance. Damon later realizes there is a sire bond between them, complicating the truth behind their relationship. During the search for the cure for vampirism, Jeremy is killed by the immortal Silas. As a result, Elena's unbearable grief over the loss of her brother causes Damon to use the sire bond to make her turn off her humanity, and thus, her grief. Elena becomes ruthless without her emotions, though she shows hints of fear when Bonnie almost kills her. When she turns on her emotions again, it is revealed that her sire bond to Damon has been broken. Still, she remains in love with him and makes the decision to be with him. During a confrontation with Katherine, Elena shoves the cure down Katherine's throat, forcing her to become human again for the first time in over 500 years.

In season five, Elena starts at Whitmore College and is happy after spending the summer with Damon. She is kidnapped and experimented on by Wes Maxfield, and she learns that her father also used to experiment on vampires. Later, when Katherine is about to die as a result of all of her years catching up with her as a result of having the cure in her system, Katherine uses a spell and possesses Elena, a fact that her friends were initially unable to deduce. But once they did, they trapped Katherine and left her with no escape. Stefan stabbed her with the traveler dagger, but ghost Katherine reveals to Bonnie, shortly before trying to cross into the Other Side, that she had injected Dr. Maxfield's enhanced ripper/werewolf virus into Elena's body, infecting Elena. The gang is eventually able to find an antidote. She unfortunately loses trust in Damon, partly because he killed her friend Aaron, so they break up, but realize they cannot survive being apart and get back together. Once Markos and his traveler army begin to take over Mystic Falls, setting an anti-magic barrier around the town, the gang comes up with a plan to take out the travelers by killing them all at the same time, overpowering the anchor to the Other Side AKA Bonnie and creating a possible way out of the now-collapsing Other Side. Elena and Damon drive into the gas-filled Mystic Grill with most of the travelers in it, blowing it up and killing most of the people in it, including Elena and Damon. She wakes up as a ghost and finds her body, sending her to Bonnie, where she passes to the Other Side, and she and many others are able to pass back to the land of the living afterwards. But the spell that allows this is broken before Damon passes back through, and as Bonnie is the anchor, she is a part of the Other Side and shall therefore disappear along with it. This leaves the gang mourning the loss of Damon and Bonnie in the season finale.

In season six, Elena starts at medical school, and is unable to step foot in her hometown. She is also unable to recover from Damon's death and starts lurking the borders of Mystic Falls in order to grab civilians, drink their blood, then compel them to forget, but as spirit magic no longer works in Mystic Falls, any of her victims who cross into the town remember the ordeal, putting her identity as a vampire at risk when one of her victims, Sarah, comes to town. Elena begs Alaric to compel her to forget that she ever loved Damon, which Alaric is able to do, due to him being an Enhanced Original, with the ability to compel other vampires. She eventually wears him down and asks her friends to never remind her once the compulsion had been done. After a number of failed attempts, Alaric successfully compels her to forget her love for Damon. She, however, leaves Alaric with some of her reminders of Damon, should she ever need them again. She is told of her former feelings for Damon soon afterwards, but decides to stay the way she is, as she doesn't want to go back to being unhappy again. She starts dating her classmate, Liam. Once Damon comes back to life, Alaric tries to convince Elena to allow him to undo the compulsion, a decision she is reluctant to make. She eventually decides to have him undo it, but Alaric goes back to being human again after crossing into Mystic Falls, causing him to lose his vampire status (he only stayed alive because his once fatal human injuries were healed), meaning he will not be able to do so. She is then left to finally come face-to-face with Damon and see if she'll still feel the same way about him. When Bonnie comes back from the prison world, she brings back the cure to immortality and Elena takes it, hoping to have family someday with Damon. Damon wanted to take the cure too from Elena's blood but in the series finale, Kai links Bonnie's life to Elena's so when Bonnie dies, Elena wakes up and Elena said goodbye to all her loved ones, knowing that she'll see Damon, Stefan and Caroline one day.

In season seven, Elena's voice is heard in the season finale as Damon is thinking about her, Nina Dobrev is not credited.

In season eight, there is archive footage of Elena in episode 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9 but Nina Dobrev is not credited. Elena returns in the series finale and appears to Bonnie when her heart stops. She and Enzo then convince Bonnie to go back. Elena's body is then taken by Katherine so she can impersonate her. Thanks to Kai Parker, Elena's body is trapped in the boiler room (the scene of the epic Katherine and Elena fight earlier in the series) in order to ensure that she dies in the Hellfire. Thanks to Bonnie's magic, Stefan sacrifices his life to save Elena's life. They're then briefly reunited so he can say goodbye. Bonnie eventually breaks Kai's spell on Elena and reunites her with Damon and her friends. Elena goes to medical school and marries Damon while continuing to write in her diary, thanking Stefan for saving her life in the pilot. Her and Damon live a long and happy human life together before they die. In the afterlife, Elena finds peace by reuniting with Jenna, John and her parents.

Katherine Pierce

• Played by Nina Dobrev
• Starring seasons: 2, 5
• Recurring seasons: 1, 3–4
• Guest starring season: 8

Katherine Pierce, born Katerina Petrova (based on Katherine von Swartzschild from the novels), was born in Bulgaria to a "Traveller" (or Gypsy) family, and was banished to England after bearing an illegitimate child. Upon meeting Klaus and Elijah, two of the original vampires, she finds out that she is a Petrova doppelgänger, which means that she can be sacrificed to release Klaus's werewolf side. She used a vampire named Trevor, who'd fallen in love with her, to escape and tricked another vampire Rose into turning her, thereby making her useless to Klaus to trigger his werewolf side. Katherine's escape infuriates Klaus, who vows to find her and kill her for her disobedience. She spends 500 years running and hiding to escape his wrath. Hundreds of years later, Katherine arrived in Mystic Falls, where both Stefan Salvatore and Damon Salvatore fall in love with her. When all the vampires in Mystic Falls are discovered and brought together to be burned to death, she escapes. During her stay in Mystic Falls she had given Damon and Stefan her blood which turned them into vampires after they were shot. Damon, believing Katherine was locked up in a tomb, spends 145 years loving her and trying to find a way to free her. When he is finally able to open it, he finds out that she is not in the tomb and was alive the entire time. In the last episode of season one, Katherine returns to Mystic Falls.

During season two, she tells Damon that she has always been in love with Stefan and never truly cared for Damon. It is later discovered that her real reason for returning is to offer Klaus what he wants: the new doppelgänger, the moonstone, a vampire, witch, and werewolf; in order to be free from him. Upon learning of her plan, she is locked in the tomb by Stefan and Damon, which has a spell that keeps all vampires locked in it. When the spell is finally broken, she is compelled by Elijah to stay in. Elijah temporarily dies and Katherine is freed, but chooses to help Stefan and Damon. When Klaus comes to Mystic Falls, he kidnaps her and keeps her in Alaric's apartment, where he tortures her. He eventually releases her, but she keeps track of Klaus and Stefan's whereabouts. When she finds out that a vampire hunter named Mikael is the key to killing Klaus, she finds him and awakens him, but when Mikael's plan to kill Klaus fails, she goes back into hiding. Katherine finally returns in season four, allowing Jeremy to be killed by Silas so she can steal the cure. It is then revealed that during her time away from Mystic Falls, she has begun a relationship with Elijah Mikaelson, indeed having real feelings for him. She decides to give him the cure to prove that her love is real, though he eventually leaves her to be with his family in New Orleans. During a physical confrontation with Elena, Katherine is forced by Elena to drink the cure, leaving her human for the first time in five hundred years.

During season five she struggles with the sudden change back to human following the events of the season four finale. She learns that her daughter who had been taken from her by her father grew up searching for her, believing herself abandoned. Nadia had herself turned into a vampire and was in Mystic Falls with her. After Silas drains her of all of her blood as it became the cure she returned to life. However, the 500 years she's existed now catch up with her, and she begins to descend into old age extremely quickly. In the episode 500 Years of Solitude she uses her Traveller heritage to transfer her consciousness into Elena's body as hers dies. In the Devil Inside she takes complete control of Elena's body, seemingly destroying Elena's consciousness. Over the next two episodes she masquerades as Elena in order to try and win Stefan's affection. In Gone Girl Stefan and Caroline finally figure out that Elena is not Elena but Katherine, and in a final goodbye scene she is stabbed by the Traveller's Knife by Stefan releasing her soul from her body. As a final cruel parting "gift" to Elena, she also injected their shared body with Dr. Wes Maxfield's experimental "Ripper Serum". She did this to turn Elena into a vampire who feeds from other vampires, with the added bonus of werewolf venom within the serum. After she died, an unknown force denied her access to the Other Side and she was ripped away into a dark void.

It's later revealed that Katherine was sucked into Hell, where over the course of six years, managed to rise up a feared presence in even the darkest place in existence. Katherine made a bet with Kai Parker, that whoever won would replace Cade as the ruler of Hell. Katherine's expert manipulation resulted in Kai's imprisonment in a Spirit Rule and her ascension into the Queen of Hell. She then escaped Hell and proceeded to taunt Stefan and Caroline on their wedding day. She manipulates Kelly and Vicki Donovan into doing her bidding, resulting in Kelly nearly killing Caroline's twins and Vicki ruining the bell. Whilst the gang is distracted, Katherine kidnaps Elena's body and traps it in the boiler room to ensure she dies in the Hellfire. She then impersonates Elena to torture the brothers. They attempt to kill her, but she just keeps rising from Hell everytime. Stefan than stays with Katherine to ensure that they both finally die in the Hellfire, destroying Hell and ironically giving Katherine what she wanted - to spend the rest of her life with Stefan.

Stefan Salvatore

• Played by Paul Wesley and Sawyer Bell (young Stefan)
• TVD starring seasons: 1–8
• TO special guest starring season: 3

Stefan Salvatore (based on Stefan Salvatore from the novels) is one the main protagonists and one of the male leads. He was born and raised in Mystic Falls, Virginia to Giuseppe Salvatore and Lily Salvatore, who died when he was younger. Stefan is the younger brother of Damon. When Stefan and Damon were human, they were very close and were best friends in life. Damon always confided and trusted in Stefan and Stefan always defended Damon, especially to their father, and was fiercely loyal to him. However, this all seemed to change when he and Damon fell in love with the same girl, Katherine Pierce, who turned out to be a vampire. Stefan had strong feelings for Katherine before finding out that she was a vampire. Once Stefan discovered Katherine's deep, dark secret, Stefan was both scared and repulsed by Katherine and vampirism in general. Katherine, however, compelled Stefan to not be afraid of Katherine, to keep her secret and go on as if Stefan didn't know she was a vampire. It was also revealed that Katherine compelled Stefan to drink her vampire blood against his will. Damon, on the other hand, drank Katherine's blood willingly, wanting and desiring the immortal life in order to spend an eternity with Katherine. In 1864, Stefan was turned into a vampire after being shot by his father, Giuseppe, along with his brother, Damon with Katherine's blood in his system, before accidentally killing his father during a visit to tell him that he was going to let himself die. Damon, who turned into a vampire as well, promised Stefan an eternity of misery as he was angry that Stefan had forced him to turn and jealous that Katherine had also turned Stefan. A newborn vampire with uncontrollable bloodlust, Stefan was unable to resist the temptations of human blood and became severely out of control and addicted (later on known as the Ripper) to the blood, killing many people because of his lack of control and extreme bloodlust. However, Stefan learned to change his ways when he was taught to control it by a vampire named Alexia "Lexi" Branson, who later on became Stefan's best friend or companion. After decades of absence from the town he called home, Stefan returned to Mystic Falls to visit his home and Zach. On May 23, 2009, Stefan heard the Gilbert's car accident at Wickery Bridge. It was then and there that Stefan fatefully encountered Elena Gilbert for the first time. After only being able to save Elena, Stefan noticed that she looked exactly like Katherine.

Stefan and Elena begin a relationship and he reveals to her that he is a vampire. However, Damon returns to Mystic Falls and also falls in love with Elena. Further on in the series, Damon and Stefan start to bond as brothers again and it becomes apparent that they do love each other. Because of his addiction to human blood, Stefan only drank animal blood in the beginning of the series, which made him weaker than other vampires. In season two, Stefan starts to take small amounts of Elena's blood each day to mitigate its effect on him and to increase his strength. When Katherine returns it is discovered that she has always been in love with Stefan and not Damon; however, Stefan is in love with Elena and not interested in Katherine. Stefan starts to build a friendship with Caroline Forbes after she is turned into a vampire. After Klaus gives Stefan his blood to save Damon from a werewolf bite, he turns Stefan into a ripper again. Stefan starts working for him as he agreed to do to save Damon, and hopes it might also protect Elena by making sure Klaus never returns to Mystic Falls, since he believes her to be dead. Klaus later finds out and compels Stefan to kill her, but when he is able to resist the compulsion, Klaus makes him turn his humanity and emotions off. However, he is later able to get his humanity back, which is seen when he saves Klaus's life to protect Damon, but yet he pretends not to care about Elena anymore. He then takes it upon himself to kill Klaus. He steals Klaus's family as retaliation, and uses them as blackmail, when that fails (the witches give Klaus the coffins when he threatens to end the Bennett line), Stefan threatens to drive Elena off Wickery Bridge with vampire blood in her system if Klaus does not get his hybrids out of town, Klaus agrees at the last minute. He and Elena get into a fight. In the season three finale, he kisses Elena. In the end, Elena chooses Stefan over Damon, but when Rebekah causes Matt's truck to drive off Wickery Bridge, she is trapped underwater. Stefan barely gets there in time, but Elena makes him save Matt first and she drowns. It is later revealed Dr. Fell gave Elena vampire blood, meaning she died with vampire blood in her system.

During season four, Stefan's relationship with Elena is tested. He becomes fixated on finding the cure to vampirism for her, which results in Damon telling him that he can only love Elena as a human. Eventually, Stefan and Elena break up as a result of her feelings for Damon, which were amplified after being turned into a vampire. Hurt, Stefan lashes out by forming a casual relationship with Rebekah, who he also had a brief affair with in the 1920s. After Elena eventually turns her humanity off as a result of her sire bond to Damon and Jeremy's death, Stefan and Damon attempt to find a way to force her to turn it back on. Eventually they do, and as a result of having no emotions, Elena's sire bond is broken. However, she still remains in love with Damon, and seemingly makes her final decision with Damon. Stefan, however, upset, accepts the decision and plans to move on with his life. However, before he can, it is revealed that he is in fact the doppelgänger to Silas, who then proceeds to lock him in a large metal safe and push it into the bottom of the lake.

He's rescued by Qetsiyah, who brainwashes him and he falls in love with Elena again. He later regains his memories and kills Silas. Suffering from PTSD, Stefan manages to recover from his months of drowning over and over again with the help of Katherine. The two begin a sort of relationship before Katherine's body fails her. Stefan is the only member of the Mystic Falls gang to show her kindness prior to her demise. It's later reveleaed that Katherine has jumped into Elena's body and attempted to seduce Stefan. They deduce this and Stefan kills Katherine after saying goodbye one last time. Julian (in Tyler's body) ripped out Stefan's heart killing him and sending him to the disintegrating Other Side. He reunites with Lexie, who manages to save him from getting sucked into Hell. Stefan manages to return to the land of the living, though Damon and Bonnie apparently die in the process.

By season six, Stefan has left Mystic Falls to attempt to live a normal life with a new girlfriend. However, a visit from Caroline and Enzo results in Enzo killing his girlfriend. Stefan returns to Mystic Falls to kill Enzo, but stays after reuniting with Damon. He later helps Caroline get through her mother's cancer and develops romantic feelings for her.

In season seven, Stefan is reunited with his mother and decides to forgive her. It's also revealed that Stefan had slept with Valerie, one of the Heretics, while he was still human, resulting in her pregnancy. Valerie lost the baby after Julian beat her. Stefan kills Julian and later develops a relationship with Valerie that ends soon after the encounter with Rayna.

By season eight, Stefan had entered into a relationship with Caroline (and later engagement) while he searched for Damon. Stefan later gave himself up in servitude to Cade (alongside Damon) in order to save Caroline's twins. Stefan's humanity switch is shut off and he goes on a murderous rampage to deliver souls to Cade. He is later sent of Elena and kills Enzo, but Bonnie injects him with the Cure, rendering him human. Stefan's guilt washes over him and greatly impacts his relationship with Caroline and friendship with Bonnie. He later kills Cade to save Damon and Bonnie. He reunites with Caroline and works towards earning Bonnie's forgiveness. Stefan and Caroline use their 'wedding' to lure Katherine out after her escape from Hell, but when she fails to show, the two carry on and get married. After their marriage, Stefan and Damon search for Elena's missing body, taken by Katherine while the doppelgänger continuously nags on them. Stefan and Bonnie then realize they can redirect the Hellfire at Katherine to destroy Hell, but someone must sacrifice themselves to ensure she's hit while in Hell. Stefan and Damon argue over who should do it, as Stefan wants to find redemption for killing Enzo and multiple others, and for give Damon a chance at happiness with Elena after taking his away by turning him into a vampire in 1864. Damon then compels the human Stefan to leave. It's later revealed that Stefan had been taking vervain. He later took some of his blood and injected Damon with it, knowing that the Cure is in his blood. Stefan the shoves the now human Damon aside and sacrifices his life to kill Katherine and save Mystic Falls. Stefan then reunites with Elena, getting to say goodbye, and also telling her to tell Caroline when she wakes up that he will forever love her. He then goes to the Afterlife, finding peace with his best friend Lexi. Years later, Stefan is reunited with Damon.

Damon Salvatore

• Played by Ian Somerhalder
• Starring seasons: 1–8

Damon Salvatore (based on Damon Salvatore from the novels) is one the main protagonists and of the male leads. He is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce, one hundred and forty-five years prior to the series' debut. He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore and the older brother of Stefan Salvatore. He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snarky person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season.

In the first season, Damon appears as the frightening older brother of Stefan Salvatore and plays as the main antagonist for the first initial episodes with a hidden agenda. Slowly, Damon begins to be kinder to the other characters showing brief moments of compassion such as erasing Jeremy's memory of vampires and removing his "suffering" so Jeremy gets his life back on track. Damon apologizes for turning Vicki Donovan into a vampire and admits it was wrong. Later at the Gilbert house, Elena returns home. He admits that he came to the town wanting to destroy it but actually found himself wanting to protect it after everything that happened at the Founder's Day celebrations and says he's not a hero and doesn't do good, saying it is not in him – those traits are reserved for Stefan, Elena, and Bonnie. The two begin to kiss passionately before getting interrupted – it is later revealed that it wasn't Elena he kissed, but Katherine Pierce.

In season two, Katherine tells Damon that she never loved him and that it was always Stefan. Elena also later says something similar, leaving Damon heartbroken. As an expression of his anger, pain, and hopelessness, he snaps Jeremy Gilbert's neck, not realizing he is wearing a ring which reverses damage done by supernatural creatures or forces. Jeremy survives because of the ring, but the action incurs Elena's wrath and pain. When Bonnie also discovers it was his blood that enabled Caroline Forbes to become a vampire, the two declare their hatred for him, leaving them angrier than ever. After saving Elena with Stefan in episode 8 of season 2, Damon shows up in Elena's room with the vervain necklace that was ripped from her neck earlier in the episode. Before he gives it back, he tells Elena that he is in love with her, and because he is in love with her, he cannot be selfish with her. He also states that he doesn't deserve her, but that his brother does. He kisses her forehead and says he wishes she could remember this, but she can't. As the camera shows a close up of Damon's eye as he is compelling Elena to forget, a tear slips. Elena blinks and her vervain necklace is back around her neck, Damon is gone and her window is open with the curtains blowing... she had no recollection as to how the necklace was returned to her. In "Katerina", Damon joins Rose to find out why the originals are after Elena; after some time and clever banter, the two have sex, stating that they could rid themselves of emotion. However, when Rose attains a lethal werewolf bite which leaves her ill and delirious, Damon gives her the memory of her life prior to becoming a vampire, and helps her to remember her most loved and cherished moments. During this meaningful moment, Damon mercifully kills Rose, leaving him to mourn the death of his one of very few friends. Elena and Damon then begin to mend fences. Damon is bitten by Tyler the werewolf, at the end of the season. Elena takes care of him, and right before he is cured by the blood of Klaus, the original hybrid, she give him a "goodbye" kiss, or so she thought.

In the third season, Damon assists Elena in bringing his brother, Stefan, back to Mystic Falls after Stefan becomes Klaus' henchman due to a bargain for his blood that would cure Damon of the werewolf bite he had received from Tyler. At first, he is reluctant to involve Elena in the rescue attempts, employing Alaric Saltzman, Elena's guardian, instead as Klaus does not know that Elena is alive after the sacrifice which frees Klaus' hybrid side. However, Elena involves herself, desperate to find Stefan. Damon, though hesitant at first, is unable to refuse her because of his love for her. He also points out to her that she once turned back from finding Stefan since she knew Damon would be in danger, clearly showing that she also has feelings for him. He tells her that "when (he) drags his brother from the edge to deliver him back to (her), (he) wants her to remember the things (she) felt while he was gone." When Stefan finally returns to Mystic Falls, his attitude is different from that of the first and second seasons. This causes a rift between Elena and Stefan whereas the relationship between Damon and Elena becomes closer and more intimate. A still loyal Elena, however, refuses to admit her feelings for Damon. In 'Dangerous Liaisons', Elena, frustrated with her feelings for him, tells Damon that his love for her may be a problem, and that this could be causing all their troubles. This incenses Damon, causing him to revert to the uncaring and reckless Damon seen in the previous seasons. The rocky relationship between the two continues until the sexual tension hits the fan and in a moment of heated passion, Elena – for the first time in the three seasons – kisses Damon of her own accord. This kiss finally causes Elena to admit that she loves both brothers and realize that she must ultimately make her choice as her own ancestress, Katherine Pierce, who turned the brothers, once did. In assessment of her feelings for Damon, she states this: "Damon just sort of snuck up on me. He got under my skin and no matter what I do, I can't shake him." In the season finale, a trip designed to get her to safety forces Elena to make her choice: to go to Damon and possibly see him one last time; or to go to Stefan and her friends and see them one last time. She chooses the latter when she calls Damon to tell him her decision. Damon, who is trying to stop Alaric, accepts what she says and she tells him that maybe if she had met Damon before she had met Stefan, her choice may have been different. This statement causes Damon to remember the first night he did meet Elena which was, in fact, the night her parents died – before she had met Stefan. Not wanting anyone to know he was in town and after giving her some advice about life and love, Damon compels her to forget. He remembers this as he fights Alaric and seems accepting of his death when Alaric, whose life line is tied to Elena's, suddenly collapses in his arms. Damon is grief-stricken, knowing that this means that Elena has also died and yells, "No! You are not dead!" A heartbroken Damon then goes to the hospital demanding to see Elena when the doctor, Meredith Fell, tells him that she gave Elena vampire blood. The last shot of the season finale episode shows Elena in transition.

Damon starts season four at Elena's bedside after finding out about her dying with vampire blood in her system, causing her to start the transition to Vampire. Damon decides to firstly try to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, yet she overpowers him. Rebekah is shot at through the Window and Damon escapes. Later in part of a plan with the Sheriff and Meredith Fell, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young. After dispatching the deputies, Damon decides to take out some aggression on Matt and is about to snap his neck when stopped by the new vampire Elena. After Elena and Stefan go hunting on animals the next morning and Elena has her first feed on a deer she pukes the blood out. Meanwhile, it seems a new vampire hunter is in town. Elena goes to Damon for help, he pulls her with him to the bathroom and makes her drink his blood because he says "You need warm blood from the vein, so maybe this'll do the trick." He says it is personal and Elena wonders why but no answer was given. She drinks his blood but pukes hours later. When Stefan finds out Damon has feed Elena his blood he's very angry and hits Damon, who just got in a fight with the vampire hunter. Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of season four seems to be looking for reasons to stay. Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him, in 'The Rager', to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire. Indeed, a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become drives Damon and Stefan apart. The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor, while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College. This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt' : how to catch, feed and erase. After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie. She leaves the party and later states that she doesn't want to be like Damon. In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive. She does, and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode. After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human. In the episode 'We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide. He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane. At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism. However, Stefan breaks up with Elena at the end of the episode because he knew Elena had gradually growing feelings for Damon. In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper", Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally begin a relationship. However, it is soon tainted when it is revealed that Elena is sired to Damon; a result of his blood being used to turn her. After Jeremy's death, Damon uses the sire bond to convince Elena to turn her humanity off. After a tumultuous period of time in which Elena becomes ruthless with her humanity switch off, Damon and Stefan finally force her to turn it back on. As a result of losing all of her emotions for a period of time, the sire bond (Which was caused due to Elena having feelings for Damon as a human) is broken. However, Elena still remains in love with Damon, and the two begin a relationship without the sire bond in the way. At the end of season five, Damon gets stuck in another dimension with Bonnie.

In season six, Damon and Bonni are trapped in a 1994 Prison World, which Damon initially believes is his own personal hell, as they are continually reliving a day from his history that Damon believes is the worst thing he ever did. Bonnie is convinced her grandmother sent them there and there is a way out. They work together to find a way back to Mystic Falls. They also form an alliance to take down Kai. During this time, he is able to form a healthy friendship with Bonnie, and they are able to move on from their past and become friends. When Bonnie has a chance to send him home, leaving herself alone with Kai, she does so. Damon initially believes Bonnie was killed in the process, but when he realized she's still alive, he becomes determined to find a way to bring her back. After returning home, he learns that Elena has had Alaric compel away all her memories of their relationship and he attempts to win her back. Damon soon learns of Liz's sickness and soon after, she passes away in the hospital in front of him, leaving him devastated. He is soon reunited with Bonnie who made it out of the prison world and shows him a video of a mysterious, who turns out to be Damon's mother. Bonnie had managed to escape the 1994 Prison World by going to Nova Scotia and regaining her magic there through Qetsiyah's tombstone. She also picked up the cure for vampirism there. He then gave Elena The Cure and shocks her by saying he's going to take it with her and become human too. The Cure also undoes the compulsion Alaric place on Elena. At the end of the season, Kai puts a spell on Elena and Bonnie which keeps the now human Elena in a Sleeping Beauty-like sleep until Bonnie dies. Damon is devastated by this and says a difficult goodbye to Elena as they lock her in a coffin while his best friend, Bonnie, lives out her remaining days.

In season seven, Damon travels with Bonnie and Alaric and learns to live without Elena. He also refuses to forgive his mother for past mistakes on her deathbed. The guilt takes a huge toll on Damon, and after Julian is killed, he decides to let himself desiccate in a coffin next to Elena, waiting out the years until Bonnie dies. He's later awakened by Stefan in order to help him take down Rayna.

By season eight, Damon and Enzo have gone missing. It's revealed that the two were taken by the siren Sybil, who forces them to go on various killing sprees. Despite Sybil's numerous attempts, Damon's love for Elena wins out. He later is forced into servitude for Cade, where he is forced to kill either Elena or Stefan. Damon refuses and instead kills himself with a piece of wood from Elena's coffin. His life is saved by Bonnie, and Stefan manages to kill Cade. In the series finale, Damon desperately searches for Elena's body, stolen by Katherine (who's now running Hell). Damon then attempts to sacrifice his life to save Mystic Falls (and most importantly, Elena) and kill Katherine with the Hellfire. Having reverted to the kind and selfless man he was before Katherine turned him, Stefan injected Damon with the Cure and shoved him out of the way, dying instead. The heartbroken Damon is then reunited with Elena. The two marry and live a long and happy human life by peacefully passing. Damon is then reunited with his brother in the afterlife.

Jeremy Gilbert

• Played by Steven R. McQueen
• Starring seasons: 1–6
• Special guest starring season: 8

Jeremy Gilbert (loosely based on Margaret Gilbert from the novels) is Elena Gilbert's younger brother, later revealed to be her biological cousin.

In the beginning of the series, Jeremy was emotionally damaged by the death of his parents, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, and he begins to use drugs as a way of coping with his parents unexpected death. He was in love with Vicki Donovan, who uses drugs as well, but she was dating Tyler Lockwood, which causes a rivalry between the two boys. Vicki later breaks up with Tyler and starts a relationship with Jeremy. However, Jeremy later witnesses how Stefan Salvatore kills Vicki after Damon Salvatore had turned her into a vampire. Elena, afraid that Jeremy couldn't handle this, asks Damon to make Jeremy forget this and take away his pain. This causes Jeremy to become more stable and to stop taking drugs. Jeremy then starts a relationship with a vampire named Anna, but John Gilbert, Jeremy’s uncle, kills Anna at the end of season one. Jeremy, not wanting to deal with this pain, tries to become a vampire by overdosing while having Anna's blood in his system, but he fails. He was later given John's ring, which protects him from a death caused by anything supernatural. In season two, Jeremy falls in love with Bonnie Bennett and they start a relationship. Jeremy later loses both his aunt and uncle on the day of the sacrifice, leaving him and Elena without a guardian. In the season two finale, Jeremy was accidentally shot to death by Sheriff Forbes, but Bonnie was able to bring him back.

However, bringing Jeremy back from the dead was said to have consequences and since then Jeremy had been able to see and communicate with the ghosts of his dead former girlfriends, Anna and Vicki, whenever he thinks about them. When the doorway to "the other side" was opened, Jeremy was even able to physically interact with Anna. Elena later catches them kissing and Bonnie also finds out, resulting in their break-up. When Bonnie closes the doorway to "the other side", Jeremy and Anna decide to let each other go. After Jeremy kills a hybrid by chopping off his head and was almost killed by Klaus, Elena asks Damon to compel Jeremy into leaving Mystic Falls in order for him to live a normal life. However, after Klaus and the other Originals find out where Jeremy was, Elena takes Jeremy back home. In season four, a vampire hunter by the name of Connor arrives in town, and only Jeremy can see his mysterious tattoos, later revealed to be a map to the cure for vampirism. After Elena kills Connor, Jeremy becomes part of The Five, a group of vampire hunters. It was revealed that in order for his 'mark' to grow, he must kill vampires. However, after doing so his urge to kill grows stronger, and he attempts to murder his own sister/biological cousin. Eventually, he finds a way to control his murderous urges, and was trained by Damon to kill vampires. After killing Kol, resulting in the death of his entire bloodline, his Hunter's Mark completes, revealing a map to the cure. However, once he and Bonnie reach Silas, Katherine reveals herself and allows Silas to feed on him in order to awaken. She steals the cure, and Jeremy was killed when Silas snaps his neck. Elena then burns the Gilbert house down with his body inside of it, creating a cover story for his death.

When Bonnie drops the veil to "The Other Side", Jeremy's ghost returns, saving Elena from being murdered by Kol. However, Bonnie performs a spell that allows Jeremy to stay despite the veil being brought back up, meaning that he is alive again. The spell, however, killed Bonnie in the process, though Jeremy can still see her due to being a medium.

In season five, Jeremy attempts to keep Bonnie's death a secret for her in order to preserve her friends happiness. Jeremy in unable to do so, and eventually reveals the truth to the gang. Bonnie and Jeremy are reunited after she becomes the new anchor to the Other Side, though she sacrifices her life once more in the finale to save Elena, Stefan, Enzo, Tyler and Alaric.

It was also revealed that Jeremy's supernatural hunter status was inactive while in his hometown as a result of the Purification Spell, as it blanketed Mystic Falls with a barrier that nullified any non-traditional magic that crossed over it. In season six Jeremy has become a drunken loser after Bonnie's death, continuously paying her cell phone bill just to call her answering machine and hear her voice. After Kai absorbed the Travelers' spell around Mystic Falls, Jeremy regained his access to his supernatural hunter abilities while inside the town borders again. Later, Jeremy came to the conclusion that it was time for him to move on with his life and leave Mystic Falls in favor of living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While nearly all of his friends and family are under the impression that Jeremy is going to art school there, in reality, Jeremy has moved there to hunt vampires, with only Alaric, who planned to feed him leads, knowing Jeremy's true plans. Jeremy made his exit as main character on The Vampire Diaries in the episode Stay. He later returns in the finale to bid his sister a goodbye.

Jeremy returns in the Series Finale after the death of Stefan and Elena's awakening, where he teaches gifted youngsters how to defend themselves against the supernatural at the Salvatore School.

Jenna Sommers

• Played by Sara Canning
• Starring seasons: 1–2
• Guest starring seasons: 3, 5, 8

Jenna Sommers (loosely based on Judith Maxwell from the novels) was Elena and Jeremy Gilbert's aunt. She was the sister of their mother, Miranda Sommers-Gilbert. After her sister and her sister's husband were killed in a car crash, she took over as Elena's and Jeremy's legal guardian and moved into the Gilbert family home. In the beginning, Jenna had trouble coping with her new role as an authority figure, for she used to be a partying college student, but as the series progresses she becomes better at it. She begins dating news reporter Logan Fell, who had cheated on her in the past. However, Logan was turned into a vampire by Anna and then killed by history teacher Alaric Saltzman and Jenna was told that he had left town, which hurts but doesn't surprise her. She later begins a relationship with Alaric.

In Season Two, John Gilbert begins to cause trouble between Jenna and Alaric, and Jenna begins to suspect that Alaric is not completely honest with her. When Isobel Flemming, Alaric's supposed to be dead wife, shows up at Jenna's door, Jenna becomes angry with Elena and Alaric, who then tell her everything about vampires. Jenna was later turned into a vampire by Klaus to be used in the sacrifice that will release his werewolf side. She attempts to kill Greta Martin, Klaus' witch, to stop the sacrifice and saves Elena, at which point Klaus stakes her to death. Jenna is buried near Miranda, Grayson, and John Gilbert.

In Season Three, Jenna is seen in the season finale, in flashbacks of the night Elena's parents' car went off Wickery Bridge.

She is later seen as one of Katherine's hallucinations in the season five episode "500 Years of Solitude", where she stabs Katherine for revenge for making her stab herself during her life.

Jenna then appears in the Series Finale, where her and her family reunite with Elena and she passes.

Bonnie Bennett

• Played by Kat Graham
• Starring seasons: 1–8

Bonnie Sheila Bennett (based on Bonnie McCullough from the novels) is Elena Gilbert's best friend. From season seven, she becomes one of two female leads. She is also good friends with Caroline Forbes. In the beginning of the series, Bonnie discovers that she is born from a line of witches and that she is also a witch. Her grandmother, Sheila Bennett, a witch too, helps her learn to use her powers, which causes them to create a strong bond. When her grandmother dies, Bonnie is devastated, but she keeps training and as the series develops she becomes more and more powerful. In the midst of season two, she starts a relationship with Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's younger brother. She later discovers, from warlock Luca Martin, that the only way to kill Klaus, the original vampire who wants to kill Elena, is for her to get the power of one-hundred dead witches, which she later gets. She then pretends to be dead, a scheme of Damon's, in order to trick Klaus. But when she brings Klaus to the brink of death, Elijah does not kill him, as planned, and carries him away before she could react.

In the season two finale Bonnie is able to save Jeremy from dying after she tells her dead ancestor Emily Bennett that she loves him. However, bringing Jeremy back from the dead had consequences, for Jeremy is now able to see his dead ex-girlfriends Anna and Vicki Donovan whenever he thinks of them. Bonnie later finds out that Jeremy kissed Anna when the doorway to "the other side" was temporarily opened and she breaks up with him. Later on, Bonnie reconnects with her mother, Abby, who had abandoned her as a child, who helps her to kill the original vampires. However, Abby is turned into a vampire by Damon and abandons Bonnie again. In the season three finale, she places Klaus's soul into Tyler's body thus preventing him from being completely destroyed by Alaric and saving Tyler, Caroline, Damon, and Stefan from dying (they are of Klaus's bloodline). In the beginning of season four, Bonnie finds out that there is a forbidden magic, but she is forced to use it to transfer Klaus back to his original body, as a result, angry spirits attack her grandmother's ghost.

Upon meeting Professor Atticus Shane, he begins to mentor her in regaining her powers. However, without her knowledge, begins to teach her in the art of Expression; the method of drawing magic from the spirits of a massacre. It is revealed that she is a key component to finding the cure, as she was a descendant of the witch who entombed Silas, and is the only one who can open the tomb. During the course of the fourth season, she becomes closer to Jeremy again, hinting at a possible reunion between the two. However, upon finding the cure he is killed by Silas. Feeling unimaginable grief, Silas, posing as Shane, manipulates her into believing she can bring him back from the dead, but only if she brings back every supernatural creature who has died. When Bonnie drops the veil to the otherside, she is over powered by Silas, who convinces her that she cannot breathe. Her Grams appears and convinces Bonnie to snap out of it. Bonnie, unable to kill Silas, does manage to petrify Silas. Afterwards, Bonnie is determined to make Jeremy Gilbert stay and attempts to bring him back to life. Bonnie's Grams warns her not to attempt the spell. However, Bonnie tries and fails. The spell ends up being too powerful and kills Bonnie. She wakes up as a spirit, though eventually she brings the veil back up, meaning that Jeremy (who she eventually resurrected), is the only one that can see her.

At some point in season five, she is resurrected but not without some consequence. Every supernatural who dies has to go through her to go to the afterlife and thus she feels the pain each supernatural felt when they died, and then she and Damon are trapped in another dimension together while the others think they are dead.

In season six, she and Damon develop a friendship and find out from another psycho killer, Kai that they can get home by using her magic. However, the plan backfires when Kai tries to kill Bonnie and she sacrifices herself for Damon, which sends him back home. Later, on Kai also returns to the living world, leaving Bonnie all alone. After many tries, in "Let her go", she finally comes back home. However, she suffers a lot after spending almost 7 months in the prison world and becomes much more violent. She got revenge when she left Kai in a prison world but when he could come back, thanks to the heretics. At the end of the season, she is linked to Elena because Kai made a spell that put Elena in a coma as long as Bonnie lives.

In season seven she is more united with Damon and their relationship develops while she starts having feelings for Enzo. Her friendship with Damon ends because he left Bonnie while he desiccated himself in coffin until Elena wakes, so Bonnie would never see him again. Three years later she had romantic relationship with Enzo. She discovers that the armory is looking for her so she hides with Enzo and he gives her pills that prevent her from doing magic, but they didn't know that she was going to die so they make a deal with Rayna to give Bonnie her last life, but she did not tell them that she was going to be the next huntress. When she woke up she tried to kill Damon, Enzo, and Caroline because she marked them. She almost killed Enzo but Damon burned the last shaman in the armory so she was not the huntress anymore and saved Enzo. Finally, she forgave Damon.

By season eight, Enzo and Damon disappeared and Bonnie could not locate them because her magic never came back, leaving her broken because she also lost two of the people she most cares about. Caroline, Bonnie and Stefan all leave entries in their letters to Elena stating that whatever Damon is doing right now, isn't his fault. She manages to rescue Damon and Enzo from Sybil's control using objects from the Armory, and resumes her relationship with Enzo. They plan for him to take the Cure and live a nice human together, but Stefan kills him after his humanity shuts off. Bonnie injects him with the Cure and her grief from Enzo's death causes her to unlock her psychic abilities. She manages to forgive Stefan and uses her power to see Enzo, but she breaks off the connection in order to channel her power into saving Caroline's twins. Inspired by her ancestors and Enzo, Bonnie finally claims her life and gains new empowerment, saving Mystic Falls with the Hellfire. Her newfound strength allows her to break the spell over Elena and reunite with her best friend. Bonnie then fulfills her promise to Enzo to live her life where she leaves to travel the world as he watches over her.

Caroline Forbes

• Played by Candice King and Mckenna Grace (young Caroline)
• TVD starring seasons: 1–8
• TO special guest starring season: 5

Caroline Forbes (based on Caroline Forbes from the novels) is Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett's best friend. From season seven she becomes one of two female leads. Caroline is the daughter of the Sheriff of Mystic Falls, Liz Forbes, with whom she had a troubled relationship but later on in the series they gain a beautiful loving relationship. Her father, Bill Forbes, left her and her mother after coming out as gay. In the beginning of the series, she is shown as shallow, self-absorbed and envious of Elena. However, Caroline's character becomes multi-layered over the seasons and she becomes mature. In season one, she was first attracted to Stefan but when he turns her down she goes for the other Salvatore brother, Damon. He used her in many ways and she was compelled by him to forget many of the things. During season one, she starts a relationship with Matt Donovan. At the end of season one, Caroline, Matt, and Tyler met an accident.

In season two, Caroline was injured and was fed Damon's blood so that she can heal; however, after Katherine Pierce kills her and later feeding on human blood from a blood bag at the hospital, she turns into a vampire. Stefan Salvatore helps Caroline control her blood lust and he promises her that he will not let anything happen to her. And they start to build a friendship. After turning into a vampire, Caroline becomes closer to Elena. She discovers that she is not able to control her bloodlust when she is around Matt, and thus tricks him into breaking up with her in order to protect him. When Tyler Lockwood starts his werewolf transformations, Caroline helps him deal and he starts to develop romantic feelings for her. However, Caroline is still in with Matt and they get back together as soon as Tyler leaves town. Matt later finds out that Caroline is a vampire; feeling alienated and betrayed, he tells her mother. At first they don't accept her, but when they realize that Caroline has retained her humanity, they soften. However, Matt still breaks up with her, due to his aversion of the supernatural since the vampire death of his sister, Vicki. When Tyler returns to Mystic Falls, he and Caroline become closer and in the season three premiere, they sleep together. However, Carol Lockwood finds out Caroline is a vampire and contacts her father, Bill Forbes. He thinks Caroline is a monster and tries to "fix" her through torture, but she is saved by her mother and Tyler. Bill and Caroline eventually make amends, and she is devastated when he is killed during season three. Klaus Mikaelson takes a liking to her during this season and she refuses to be wooed by his old school ways to charm her, staying loyal to her friends despite her attraction to him.

In season four, Caroline, as well as the others, help Elena with her vampire transition. Later on, her and Tyler's relationship gets tough with a werewolf, Hayley, and Klaus around. Caroline assumes something is going on between Hayley and Tyler, but Tyler tells her nothing is going on between them, and it's the truth. During the plan to get the cure, Caroline and Tyler watch over Klaus, while he's trapped in the living room of the Gilbert household by Bonnie. They find out more interesting information, such as there is only one dose for the cure, meaning only one person can take it. After a talk with Klaus, it's revealed that Caroline would never take the cure, preferring herself as a vampire. When the spell had worn off, Klaus told Tyler to run, because Klaus would kill him for tormenting and teasing him. Caroline doesn't want Tyler to go because she loves him but knows it's for the best.

Caroline completes the Expression triangle by killing 12 witches in an attempt to save Bonnie, which opens up the gates to Other side, letting all dead supernaturals loose in Mystic Falls. In 'Graduation', Caroline graduates with Bonnie, Matt, Stefan, and Elena. Their graduation is interrupted by the 12 dead witches Caroline killed as they make an attempt on her life, but she is saved by Klaus. It is revealed that she sent a graduation invitation to Klaus, who returns to say goodbye and that he intended to be her last love.

In season five, Caroline and Elena start their college both thinking Bonnie will come soon. Caroline assumes that Tyler will join them at college. Both the girls meet their new roommate Megan, Caroline starts to panic thinking that Megan knows that they are vampire. Caroline and Elena go to a party invited by Jesse and both not being invited to enter the house were roaming outside the house when Elena gets a call from Megan who is screaming for help and suddenly they find Megan thrown from second floor and upon inspection both find out that there is a bite mark on her neck and realize there is another vampire in Whitmore college. Later, Caroline receives a message from Tyler where he tells her that he can't return to her now and was seen crying sadly. Tyler and Caroline break up when he refuses to give up his revenge fantasy against Klaus. Klaus returns to Mystic Falls in an attempt to gloat over a dying Katherine, but is distracted by Caroline in the woods. She confesses her hidden desires for him, and they sleep together, Klaus vowing to never come back to Mystic Falls for her confession. Despite judgement from Tyler, Caroline refuses to feel guilty for her actions and builds a strange friendship with Enzo.

In season six, she realizes she has feelings for Stefan, despite his attempts to ignore her all summer. She is also looking for many ways to break the Travelers spell on Mystic Falls so that they can go home. In 6x10, Kai absorbed the magic so everyone can go home. But Liz Caroline's mom is diagnosed with cancer, which makes Stefan realize that he hasn't been there for Caroline when she needed him most and Stefan attempts to comfort her. Caroline turns off her humanity as she can't deal with the pain of Liz dying. Though after a talk with Damon, Stefan comes to the conclusion that he has feelings for Caroline but is too late as her humanity is already off. Caroline asks for a year with no humanity where she promises to behave as long as they don't attempt to trigger her humanity before then. They do not leave her alone, angering Caroline and as revenge she kidnaps Sarah Salvatore, Stefan and Damon's niece, and blackmails Stefan to also turn off his humanity so that he will stop. In the following episode, 6x17, Stefan attempts to make Caroline lose control after numerous attempts he finally succeeds. Later in the episode, Lily manages to trigger Stefan's humanity, and he is now determined to get Caroline back to normal. He pretends to Caroline that his humanity is off and they get locked up together in a B&B in Grove Hill by Damon and Elena. Caroline eventually turns her humanity back on.

In season seven, Caroline and Stefan attempt to form a romantic relationship but his past with Valerie prevents this. She later discovers that the Gemini Coven had placed Alaric and Jo's twins inside over to protect them. She gives birth to two girls, Josie and Lizzie (named after Jo and her mother, Liz Forbes). Stefan decides to break up with Caroline as he runs from the Hunter, leaving without saying a word and going on the run with Valerie. Caroline and Alaric move to Texas and become a family, where Caroline quickly steps into the motherly role.

By season eight, Caroline is co-parenting her children with Alaric and soon becomes engaged to Stefan. Their relationship once again becomes complicated when Stefan is forced to serve Cade in order to protect Caroline's daughters. Caroline saves her kids and Alaric from the recently returned Kai Parker and helps Alaric open a school for child witches. She and Stefan resume their engagement after he flips his switch back on, and two stage a wedding in an attempt to draw out Katherine Pierce. Shortly after, Caroline is forced to say goodbye to her Stefan when he sacrifices his life to save Elena and his brother. Caroline chooses to leave town with her daughters, knowing how hard it is to be without a mother, though her and Stefan do get a bittersweet goodbye. Caroline and Alaric open a school for gifted supernatural children after receiving a large donation from Klaus, who praises her actions and reminds her of his promise from 'Graduation'. It's implied from Alaric's voiceover that the donation is the "beginning of another story."

Matt Donovan

• Played by Zach Roerig
• TVD starring seasons: 1–8
• TO special guest starring season: 3

Matthew G. "Matt" Donovan (based on Matthew Honeycutt from the novels) is Elena Gilbert's childhood friend and ex-boyfriend. Vicki Donovan is Matt's older sister, who he has to take care of all by himself, for their troubled mother has left them. When Vicki dies, Matt is devastated. He is best friends with Tyler Lockwood and the quarterback of the Mystic Falls High School football team. He is also employed at the Mystic Grill as a busboy. Elena had broken up with Matt after her parents had died and in the beginning of the series Matt still has feelings for her and wants to get back together with her, since both Elena and Matt were each other's "first". However, he later starts a relationship with Caroline Forbes.

When Caroline is turned into a vampire in season two, she tricks Matt into breaking up with her, for she can't control her lust for blood around him. However, they later get back together. When Matt later finds out that Caroline is a vampire, he gets upset for he thinks she had something to do with Vicki's death. He asks her to make him forget, but he secretly has vervain in his system and only pretends to forget, a plan Sheriff Forbes came up with after he had told her about Caroline. However, he finds out that Caroline is still the same person and tells her about the plan. He then breaks up with her due to the fact that he has too much to handle with work and school and doesn't want to deal with the fact that Caroline is a vampire.

In season three, Matt finds out that Jeremy is able to see Vicki and after he drowns himself on purpose and Bonnie saves him with CPR, he is able to see and speak to her as well. She tells him that with his help, the original witch can make her come back whenever she wants without needing Matt to think about her, but after he helps her, he finds out that the original wants her to kill Elena in return and with the help of Bonnie, he makes her return to "the other side" and shuts her out of his thoughts.

In season four, Matt is upset and blames himself about Elena's transformation into a vampire. Damon also blames him and wants him dead. Matt seems to hold somewhat of a grudge against Rebekah for trying to kill him and causing Elena's transition. Matt later moves into the Gilbert house when Elena moves out, due to Jeremy's urge to kill her (caused by being a member of The Five). However, Elena moves back in, only for Jeremy to be killed not long after. Matt is shown to be devastated by the loss of his friend. He later develops a relationship with Rebekah Mikaelson and leaves Mystic Falls after graduation to travel with her.

They part on good terms as she goes to New Orleans in season five. Another woman the two had encountered (and slept with) in Europe, Nadia later appeared in Mystic Falls where she followed Matt. It's later revealed that she is Nadia Petrova, Katherine's daughter, who has been searching for her mother. He was possessed by a Traveler for a brief time and was also involved with Nadia. Nadia later compelled him to forget that Elena was possessed by Katherine. After Nadia's death, Matt helps his friends deals with the destruction of The Other Side with the help of Liv and Luke Parker.

In season six Matt helps Jeremy cope with the apparent death of Bonnie and the two later attempt to kill Enzo together. After Elena Gilbert falls into a magical, coma-like slumber being Kai Parker links her to Bonnie Bennett, Matt is forced to step up his game and eventually becomes the sheriff of Mystic Falls. During this time, Matt kicks out all vampires from the newly-human populated Mystic Falls.

In season seven he later falls in love with his partner, Penny Ares. After Penny's death, Matt is set on getting revenge on the vampire who made Matt impulsively but accidentally killed Penny. Matt is hellbent on getting his revenge on Stefan Salvatore for being involved in Penny's death. However, after a series of events that forces Matt to try and save Bonnie from being a bloodthirsty Supernatural Huntress, Matt is done fighting the war between humans and vampires. Matt decides to leave Mystic Falls and start a normal life outside the world of vampires.

In season eight Matt is reunited with his long-lost father, who had abandoned him and Vicki when they were children. His father, Peter Maxwell, reveals that Matt's ancestors were the founders of Mystic Falls before the 'founding' families took it over. They had built a bell in the Clock Tower, that upon being hit twelve times by a Maxwell descendant, would unleash the Hellfire and kill everyone around it. Stefan compels Matt to ring the bell, but Damon manages to stop him on the eleventh ring. This inadvertently allows several individuals to escape Hell (Cade, Katherine Pierce and Kai Parker), including Matt's own mother and sister. His mother and sister later go to work for Katherine in order to stay out of Hell, where Kelly injures Matt's father before dying again and Vicki plans on ringing the bell. Matt then tells his dad about Vicki, and his father decides to see Vicki. They both go up the tower and he watches his father and Vicki reuniting and hugging. Matt and his father later watches the tower going up in flames after the twelfth ring of the bell. After Hell is destroyed, Matt continues to be Sheriff and is about to run for Mayor, where he's watched over by his sister and Tyler.

Vicki Donovan

• Played by Kayla Ewell
• Starring season: 1
• Recurring seasons: 2–3, 5, 8

Vicki Donovan (loosely based on Vickie Donovan from the novels) was Matt Donovan's older sister. Vicki was a troubled girl and was addicted to drugs. She was being taken care of by Matt, for their mother has left them. In the beginning of the series she was dating Tyler Lockwood. However, Jeremy Gilbert also had feelings for her. Vicki and Jeremy hooked up a few times but Vicki didn't want people to find out, since Vicki was older than Jeremy, but Jeremy didn't care. Later on, Vicki, acknowledging that she had feelings for Jeremy too, later breaks up with Tyler and starts a relationship with Jeremy. She was later turned into a vampire by Damon Salvatore. As a vampire she was not able to control her lust for blood and when she starts attacking Jeremy, Stefan Salvatore kills her with a stake through her heart. Stefan and Damon make it seem as if Vicki had left town. Later in season one, her body was found by Caroline Forbes, devastating Matt and Jeremy. After Jeremy gets shot and Bonnie Bennett brings him back to life, he was able to see and communicate with Vicki, who asks for his help. When Jeremy tells Matt about seeing Vicki, he drowns himself only to be saved by Bonnie with CPR. Since then, Matt was also able to see Vicki. She tells him that with his help, the original witch can make sure she can come back whenever she wants without needing Matt to think about her. However, Matt later finds out that the original witch ordered Vicki to kill Elena in return, so with the help of Bonnie, he makes her return to "the other side" and shuts her out of his thoughts.

She later returns in the season five episode, "500 Years of Solitude", to ask Jeremy and Bonnie to tell Matt to stop sleeping with Rebekah. She later reappears on the other side in the episode "Resident Evil" when Liz Forbes kills Matt where she is pulled away from the other side in a similar way to Katherine in "Gone Girl".

Vicki returns in season eight and appears in Damon's mind, flashbacking back to one the worst times in his life, which was right after he attacked her in the pilot. It's later revealed that Vicki managed to escape Hell alongside Katherine and her mother. Vicki went on a killing spree before going to the Mystic Falls Clock Tower to ring the bell and bring the hellfire and destroy Mystic Falls. Vicki is then reunited with her brother and father and completely breaks down. She had wanted to get out of the torturous Hell by ringing the bell for Katherine, but her family inspires her to become the person she always wanted to be and goes through with their plan to save Mystic Falls and kill Katherine. Vicki then finds peace in the afterlife with Tyler, where they continue to watch over Matt.

Tyler Lockwood

• Played by Michael Trevino
• TVD starring seasons: 1–6
• TVD recurring seasons: 7–8
• TO special guest starring season: 1

Tyler Lockwood (based on Tyler Smallwood from the novels) is the son of Mayor Richard Lockwood and Carol Lockwood. He plays for the Mystic Falls High School football team and is best friends with Matt Donovan. Tyler does not have a good relationship with his father, who sometimes acts violently towards Tyler. However, when his father dies, Tyler is shown to be genuinely upset. In the beginning of the series Tyler is arrogant, selfish and a bully. He is dating Vicki Donovan, but she later breaks up with him due to her feelings for Jeremy Gilbert, which causes a rivalry between the two boys. Tyler is also shown to have a short temper and in season two Tyler learns from his uncle, Mason Lockwood, that he acts this way due to his family carrying the werewolf gene.

After Tyler accidentally kills Sarah, a classmate who was compelled by Katherine Pierce to provoke Tyler, his fears come true as he has triggered the curse. Caroline Forbes, a young vampire who wasn't his friend, offers her support to him, helping him through his first transformation and preparation for his new life. Tyler eventually falls in love with Caroline, but when Jules, another werewolf, comes to town and tells Tyler that Caroline and two other vampires, Stefan and Damon Salvatore, are responsible for his uncle's death, Tyler feels betrayed. After Caroline is taken captive by a group of werewolves and Tyler hesitates to come to her rescue, Caroline breaks off their friendship. Hurt by Caroline's decision and to protect his friends Tyler later decides to leave town with Jules. However, he returns when his mother is in the hospital and makes amends with Caroline, he decides to stay in Mystic Falls.

His and Caroline's friendship deepens over the summer and in the season three premiere, they end up sleeping together. After his mother learns that Caroline is a vampire and kidnaps her as she is trying to sneak out, Tyler reveals that he is a werewolf by transforming in front of her. After he helps Sheriff Forbes rescue Caroline from her father, they begin an official relationship. Tyler is later turned into a hybrid by Klaus. Due to his transformation to a hybrid, he is sired to Klaus, which means that he feels great loyalty to Klaus and would do anything to protect his master. When Tyler tells Caroline that he is okay being sired to Klaus, she breaks up with him. Tyler eventually realizes that is sire bond to Klaus is bad for both him and the girl he loves, and breaks it by turning into a werewolf many times in order to no longer feel thankful for Klaus for taking the pain of his transition away. He and Caroline get back together, but in the season three finale, Bonnie places Klaus' spirit in Tyler's body in order to save his bloodline (Which includes Katherine, Stefan, Abby, Damon, Caroline and Tyler himself). It is currently unknown what has happened to Tyler's spirit, or if he agreed to the plan. Klaus forces Bonnie to return him to his original body, or else Tyler's heart is ripped out. Once the transfer is complete, Tyler returns to his body, as Klaus does the same to his own.

Tyler, along with a new friend Hayley, begin to secretly unsire all of Klaus' hybrids. However, upon finding out this information, Klaus murders them all, along with Tyler's mother. As a result, Tyler is eventually forced to leave town, knowing that Klaus will seek revenge upon him. He does, however, return for prom but leaves. However, he is now free to return to Mystic falls after Klaus grants Caroline a present for her graduation being that Tyler is now allowed to return to Mystic Falls.

In "Man on Fire", Tyler became possessed by Julian, a Traveler. It was similar to how Katherine possessed Elena and became a Passenger in Elena's body. After the Travelers used the Body Sealing Spell on Tyler, Julian got permanent control of Tyler's body and due to Markos destroying the Traveler's Knife that was needed to remove Passengers, Julian could not be banished. Later, Julian was captured by the Travelers and they brought Julian to Mystic Falls, where they had cast a spell that can undo any magic, including vampirism. Thus, when Julian entered Mystic Falls, he lost Tyler's vampirism and they both died, because vampirism was what kept them alive. Tyler, ended up on the Other Side, but thanks to Bonnie and Damon's sacrifices, he was able to come back to life and he discovered that he was no longer a hybrid.

In season six Tyler struggles to stay human, and develops a relationship with the witch Liv Parker. At the end of the season, Liv's brother Kai attacks and critically injures them both, and Liv convinces to Tyler to kill her in order to trigger his curse and heal. Tyler reluctantly agrees, knowing that she was going to die anyways. He manages to injure Kai and save Alaric's life. Tyler leaves Mystic Falls after saying goodbye to Elena.

Tyler returns in season seven in order to take Elena's coffin to protect her from the Heretics. He returns again in season eight where he's killed by the humanity-less Damon. Tyler is seen in the series finale as having been reunited with Vicki, where the two find peace together and continue to watch over Matt,

Alaric Saltzman

• Played by Matt Davis
• TVD starring seasons: 1–3, 6–8
• TVD recurring seasons: 4–5
• TO special guest starring seasons: 4-5

Alaric J. Saltzman, also known as "Ric," (based on Alaric K. Saltzman from the novels) was the history teacher at Mystic Falls High. Alaric originally comes to town to kill Damon Salvatore because he believes that Damon killed his wife. However, it was later revealed that his wife, Isobel Flemming, isn't dead, but that on her own request she was turned into a vampire by Damon. He then starts to become friends with Damon. Alaric owns a Gilbert Ring, which he got from Isobel, which prevents him from getting killed by anything supernatural. However, John Gilbert later claims the ring. Alaric starts a relationship with Jenna Sommers. In the second season John starts causing trouble between Jenna and Alaric and when Jenna meets Isobel, she knows that Alaric was keeping things from her and she leaves him. His body was later possessed by Klaus and he uses this ruse to gain the group's trust. Eventually Klaus releases Alaric and he gets back together with Jenna, but soon afterwards Klaus had her turned into a vampire and killed for his sacrifice ritual, leaving him heartbroken. In season three, he moves in with Elena and Jeremy Gilbert to take care of them. He also joins the Founder's Council as the representative of the Gilbert family. He later starts dating Meredith Fell, a local doctor and member of the Founder's Council.

It was later found out that he was unknowingly killing people, because of the Gilbert ring he was wearing which gives him a dark vampire-hating alter ego that was referred to as "The Darkness" or "Evil-aric" in the show. He was later turned into an Original vampire by Esther in order to kill Klaus with an indestructible White Oak stake. In the season three finale, he dies when Elena drowns because their lives have been linked by Esther. He appears to Jeremy as a ghost to say goodbye, stating that he will always be there for them, and then again at his grave where he listens to Damon lament about his responsibilities.

In episode 22 and 23 of season 4, Alaric reappears as a ghost to Damon when Bonnie partially drops the veil to the other side in Mystic Falls. At the end of episode 23 when Bonnie puts the veil back up, Alaric disappears.

He appears to Bonnie and Jeremy in 500 years of solitude to say that he is always watching over them.

In the season five finale he came back to life by passing through Bonnie the anchor.

He is a regular in season six,^[2] having trouble adjusting to life as a vampire. He gets a job at Whitmore College as the Occult Studies professor, and Elena, Tyler and Liv are a few of his students. After Elena is unable to recover from Damon's death, she begs Alaric to compel her to forget that she ever loved Damon, which Alaric is able to do, due to him being an Enhanced Original, with the ability to compel other vampires. She eventually wears him down, and after a number of failed attempts, he successfully compels Elena to forget her love for Damon. She, however, leaves Alaric with some of her reminders of Damon, should she ever need them again.

Alaric starts forming a relationship with Jo, a doctor at Whitmore College, but ultimately decides it would be best if they weren't together and attempts to compel her into thinking she didn't enjoy their time together, which doesn't work, the reason being that Jo is a witch. In 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get', after Damon comes back to life, Alaric tries to convince Elena to allow him to undo the compulsion, a decision she is reluctant to make. Damon and Enzo are abducted by Tripp Cooke, who plans to kill them by driving them into Mystic Falls. Alaric and Stefan attempt to save them, but Alaric ends up past the border and begins to succumb to the injuries that caused his death until Jo arrives and manages to stop the bleeding, keeping him alive as a human. Unfortunately, this means that he is now unable to undo his compulsion on Elena, which she had just decided she wanted. In season six, Alaric and Jo get married and find out they are expecting a baby. Jo is killed at their wedding and in season seven he is attempting to resurrect her.

In season seven it's revealed that the Gemini Coven placed his and Jo's twins inside of Caroline Forbes for the protection. Caroline gives birth to their twins, named Josie and Lizzie (after Jo and Liz Forbes). They eventually move to Texas and become a family. Caroline and Alaric do not remain together as she begins a relationship with Stefan.

In season eight Alaric and Caroline co-parent their children, who've begun using magic. Alaric later turns the armory into a school for kids like his daughters to teach them to control their powers. In the Series Finale, Alaric opens a school for gifted youngsters with Caroline in Stefan's name, where he and his daughters are watched over by Jo.

Enzo St. John

• Played by Michael Malarkey
• Starring seasons: 6–8
• Recurring seasons: 5

Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John is a vampire formerly under the imprisonment of the Augustine society. He was Damon Salvatore's cellmate back in the 1950s when the latter was captured by the Augustines. He and Damon later revive their friendship and he is also looking for his lost lover Maggie. In the episode "Man on Fire" Enzo shut off his humanity after Damon reveals that he was the one who killed Maggie and then he killed himself by having Stefan Salvatore rip his heart out. He was resurrected in the season finale Home.

He is a series regular in season six,^[3] helping Caroline with her search for a way to resurrect Damon and Bonnie. After they visit Stefan and find out that he had been lying about searching for a solution, Enzo kills Stefan's human girlfriend, Ivy, in front of him. In response to this, Stefan later finds Enzo, incapacitates him, and turns him over to Tripp Cooke, a vampire hunter with a familial link to Mystic Falls. It is later revealed that Enzo had made Ivy drink his blood, and therefore she had not only died, but was a vampire now. Tripp attempts to get the names of more vampires out of Enzo and fails, so he plans to drive him and the recently resurrected and captured Damon into Mystic Falls to kill them, reuniting the two friends (in chains once again), who are then saved in an almost-failed attempt by Stefan and Alaric.

In season seven, Enzo allies himself with Lily and the Heretics, all because of his love for her. Eventually, he begins working for The Armory due to his interest in his past and later to find out what his family stands for. Enzo also hides Bonnie from the Armory as they need her to open a mysterious vault. He gives her pills to mute her magic and the two end up falling in love. Enzo is last seen running after Damon into a vault in the Armory when suddenly discolored, long-clawed hands grab his face and pull him backward out of view.

In season eight Enzo falls under the control of the Siren Sybil, killing countless humans all over the country alongside Damon. His love for Bonnie, however, manages to prevent him from falling completely under her control. Bonnie manages to rescue him and the two resume their relationship. They eventually plan for Enzo to take the Cure and become human and buy a house in New York, where Enzo is murdered by Stefan (on Cade's orders after he turned off his humanity). Enzo's death causes Bonnie to unleash her psychic powers and begins to see visions of Enzo. She's later forced to break their connection in order to channel her powers into saving Caroline's daughters. Enzo makes her promise to live her life and swears he will see her again before she lets him go. Enzo then makes Bonnie realize her strength, and continues to watch over her as she fulfills her promise to him by living her life as she happily travels the world.

Recurring characters

The following is a list of characters that are, or at one time were, a recurring guest on the series. They are listed in the order that they first appeared on the show.

Actor	Character	Season
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Marguerite MacIntyre	Sheriff Elizabeth "Liz" Forbes	Recurring							Guest
Robert Pralgo	Mayor Richard Lockwood	Recurring
Susan Walters	Carol Lockwood	Recurring
Jasmine Guy	Sheila Bennett	Recurring		Guest	Recurring				Guest
Bianca Lawson	Emily Bennett	Recurring	Guest			Guest
Arielle Kebbel	Alexia "Lexi" Branson	Guest							Special Appearance
Malese Jow	Annabelle "Anna"	Recurring	Guest	Recurring
Kelly Hu	Pearl	Recurring		Guest
Mia Kirshner	Isobel Flemming	Recurring
David Anders	Johnathan "John" Gilbert	Recurring				Guest			Special Appearance
Taylor Kinney	Mason Lockwood		Recurring	Guest
Lauren Cohan	Rose-Marie "Rose"		Recurring	Guest
Daniel Gillies	Elijah Mikaelson		Recurring			Guest
Jack Coleman	William "Bill" Forbes			Recurring
Claire Holt	Rebekah Mikaelson			Recurring		Guest
Sebastian Roché	Mikael			Recurring
Torrey DeVitto	Dr. Meredith Fell			Recurring	Guest
Persia White	Abby Bennett Wilson			Recurring					Guest
Alice Evans	Esther			Recurring
Caspar Zafer	Finn Mikaelson			Recurring
Grace Phipps	April Young				Recurring
David Alpay	Professor Atticus Shane				Recurring
Phoebe Tonkin	Hayley Marshall				Recurring
Olga Fonda	Nadia Petrova					Recurring
Rick Cosnett	Dr. Wesley "Wes" Maxfield					Recurring
Janina Gavankar	Qetsiyah / "Tessa"					Recurring
Penelope Mitchell	Olivia "Liv" Parker					Recurring
Chris Brochu	Lucas "Luke" Parker					Recurring
Tristin Mays	Sarah Nelson						Recurring		Guest
Chris Wood	Malachai "Kai" Parker						Recurring		Recurring
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe	Josette "Jo" Laughlin						Recurring		Special Appearance
Annie Wersching	Lily Salvatore						Recurring
Katie Lumpkin (season 6) / Elizabeth Blackmore (season 7)	Valerie Tulle						Guest	Recurring
Natalie Romaine (season 6) / Scarlett Byrne (season 7)	Nora Hildegard						Guest	Recurring
Fe Read (season 6) / Teressa Liane (season 7)	Mary-Louise						Guest	Recurring
Charlie Johnson (season 6) / Jaiden Kaine (season 7)	Beau						Guest	Recurring
Todd Lasance	Julian							Recurring
Leslie-Anne Huff	Rayna Cruz							Recurring
Ana Nogueira	Penny Ares							Recurring
Nathalie Kelley	Sybil								Recurring
Kristen Gutoskie	Seline								Recurring
Allison Scagliotti	Georgina "Georgie" Dowling								Recurring
Demetrius Bridges	Dorian Williams								Recurring
Wolé Parks	Arcadius "Cade"								Recurring
Joel Gretsch	Peter Maxwell								Recurring
Sammi Hanratty	Violet Fell								Recurring

Elizabeth Forbes

• Played by Marguerite MacIntyre
• Seasons: 1–6, 8

Elizabeth "Liz" Forbes is the Sheriff of Mystic Falls and the mother of Caroline Forbes. Her husband, Bill Forbes, who was a member of the town's council, had left her for another man after revealing that he was gay. She is first introduced at a Founders Day party at Mayor Lockwood's house. There, she is shown to have a strained relationship with her daughter. However, she does care a lot for her well-being, which is shown when she arrests a bartender after Caroline gets drunk. She is revealed to be a member of the Founders Council, a secret organization dedicated to protecting Mystic Falls from vampires. After Damon Salvatore saves her from vampire Lexi Branson, Liz becomes friends with Damon and is seen letting him know about the Council's plans. In the season one finale she is smacked across the head and locked up to a desk with her own handcuffs by John Gilbert, because she doesn't agree with his plan to use the town as bait in order to capture the tomb vampires. She is later saved by Carol Lockwood, but they are unable to save Mayor Lockwood, who is burned with the vampires. Liz then finds out that her daughter has been in a car crash and goes to the hospital, where she is comforted by Damon.

In season two, Carol accuses Liz of getting Mayor Lockwood killed, but Damon reminds the ladies that they are on the same side. Liz is later informed by Mason Lockwood that Damon and Stefan Salvatore are vampires. She is very skeptical at first and refuses to believe that Damon, who she considers a friend, is a vampire. She tests him by slipping vervain into his drink and he reacts negatively to it. When Damon and Stefan assume Mason did it and attempt to take care of him in the woods, Liz appears and shoots both Stefan and Damon and has her deputes inject them with vervain. Liz tortures Damon in an attempt to learn how he and Stefan can walk in the sun, but is interrupted when Elena Gilbert appears, followed by Caroline, who kills the deputies. Liz is locked up in the cellar at the Salvatore House so that the vervain can get out of her system and she can be compelled to forget everything. Now knowing that her daughter is a vampire, she asks Damon to keep Caroline away from her and says that her daughter is gone. Caroline has a heart to heart with her mom, who eventually accepts Caroline being a vampire, but Caroline still decides to compel her and Liz loses her memory of the whole ordeal. After Matt Donovan has discovered the truth about vampires from Caroline, he tells Liz, who comes up with a plan to make Matt pretend to be compelled to forget, while he actually has vervain in his system. Liz then uses Matt to spy on Caroline, who she thinks is a monster now. Liz tries to capture and kill Damon, but accidentally shoots Jeremy Gilbert instead. Believing she has killed Jeremy, she is shocked to discover that Bonnie Bennett is able to resurrect him. She also finds out that Matt came clean to Caroline. After confessing that neither wanted to secretly live in fear of one another, Liz accepts her daughter for what she is and hugs her. After Caroline is locked up in a cellar by her father, who has found out that she is a vampire, Liz and Tyler Lockwood come to her rescue. Liz continues to assist her daughter and her friends throughout the series as their relationship continues to improve and she becomes closer friends with Damon, before it's revealed that she's dying from cancer in season six. Liz then peacefully passes. She's seen in the Series Finale as watching over Caroline with a clear look of happiness, as she's clearly proud of her daughters accomplishments.

Richard Lockwood

• Played by Robert Pralgo
• Season: 1

Richard Lockwood was Tyler Lockwood's father, the mayor of Mystic Falls and the head of the Founder's Council. He had a bad relationship with his son and acts very authoritative towards him. It seems that he thinks of Tyler as a disappointment and when Tyler gets into a fist-fight with Matt Donovan at a party, he tells him to never embarrass his family again. He also is shown to be violent and a bully, for when Tyler gets into a fight with Jeremy Gilbert, he takes them outside and tells them to fight rather than talk to solve their problems. This probably is the reason why Tyler is violent and a bully as well. He had an unhappy marriage with Carol Lockwood and they constantly fight with each other. He also flirts with Pearl. Although he seems kind and amicable to the outside world, he was actually quite selfish, for when Mr. Tanner dies, he was shown to be more concerned with how his death would affect the football team and finding a replacement. In the season one finale, during Founders Day, he helps John Gilbert execute his plan to kill the tomb vampires. However, it backfires when he is also affected by the device that neutralizes the vampires, because he carries the werewolf gene with him, and the deputies think he was a vampire too and lock him up in the basement, where he was killed by one of the tomb vampires.

Carol Lockwood

• Played by Susan Walters
• Seasons: 1–4

Carol Lockwood was the wife of the late Mayor Richard Lockwood and the mother of Tyler Lockwood. She was a member of The Founder's Council and knows of the existence of vampires, but not of the existence of werewolves. Throughout season one, Carol was locked in a hostile relationship with her best friend. She acts as a bad influence on her son Tyler, with much of his negative behavior emerging as a direct result of her snobbish behavior and emotional outbursts. In the season finale she shows, for the first time, that she cares for Richard, when he was knocked out by the device. After releasing Sheriff Forbes, they vainly try to save him from the burning basement.

Carol was shaken and up-set by her husband's death and blames it on Sheriff Forbes' deputies, but Damon Salvatore reminds her and the sheriff that they are on the same side and that they have to stick together. At the end of the day, Carol finds Tyler in his father's study thrashing the room in an angry tantrum. His hostile behavior frightens her and she was further shaken after Mason Lockwood steps in to calm Tyler down. Carol later informs Damon that she was replacing Richard as the mayor until the next election and asks him to lead the council, which he accepts. At the end of Crying Wolf, after Tyler has turned into a werewolf, she finds a note from Tyler, telling her that he has run away. It was later revealed that Elijah convinced her to stop taking vervain, so that he would be able to compel her. When Elena frees him, he takes her to the Lockwood Mansion where he compels Carol to let him take refuge in the home while she goes away. In The Last Day she was compelled to make a phone call to Tyler, saying that she was in the hospital and she wants him to come and visit. When she walks up the stairs, Maddox was there and she asks him why she had to make the phone call and he says that she had a bad fall and uses his powers to push her off the stairs and onto the ground. Later she was in the hospital and Tyler visits her.

In season three, Carol finds out that Caroline Forbes is a vampire and when Caroline tries to leave the Lockwood Mansion after she slept with Tyler, Carol shoots her in the back with vervain darts. She then calls Caroline's father, Bill Forbes, and tells him about her. The next day, she slips vervain in Tyler's coffee to see if he is a vampire too, relieved to see he isn't. However, Tyler finds out that his mother slipped him vervain and asks her where Caroline is, upon which she replies that Caroline is a monster. Tyler then shows her that he is a werewolf and upon finding out that her son is a monster too, she promises him that she will make sure Caroline doesn't get hurt. However, when she later calls Bill, she was unable to persuade him to let her go. When the doorway to "the other side" was opened, the ghosts of the tomb vampires decide to revenge on the founding families and attack Carol. However. Caroline comes to her rescue and was able to hold them until the doorway gets closed again and they disappear.

In the ninth episode of season four, after Klaus finding out about Tyler's plan to put him down, Carol was killed by him as an act of revenge.

Sheila Bennett

• Played by Jasmine Guy
• Seasons: 1, 3–5, 8

Sheila Bennett was the grandmother of Bonnie Bennett and a very powerful witch. She died after overusing her magic to seal away the Tomb Vampires. She usually appears to Bonnie (as a spirit) to help guide her whenever she overuses magic or is having trouble with her powers. Sheila continues to appear throughout the series, ensuring Bonnie's (and indirectly Damon's) survival in season six. She makes an appearance in the series finale to help Bonnie save Mystic Falls one last time with the rest of the Bennet witches.

Emily Bennett

• Played by Bianca Lawson
• Seasons: 1–2, 5

Emily Bennett was the handmaiden of Katherine Pierce in 1864 as well as a powerful witch. She was a direct descendant of one of the women accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in the Salem area of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692. Emily was also the ancestor of Bonnie Bennett through Sheila Bennett. She was the one who gave Katherine, Pearl, Anna, Harper, Damon and Stefan Salvatore the jewellery which enabled them to walk in the sun. Although she helped these vampires, she also secretly fought against them, for she spelled Jonathan Gilbert's inventions, including the device, which could hurt vampires. When the vampires were rounded up by the Founding Families she and Damon Salvatore made a bargain. Damon would protect Emily's descendants and Emily would use her grimoire to protect Katherine by entombing her with 26 other vampires under the old Fell's Church. She was later burned at the stake by the Founding Families and her possessions, including her grimoire, were taken and buried in Giuseppe Salvatore's grave. Damon rescued Emily's children when the townspeople came for her. In season one Emily possesses Bonnie in order to stop Damon from freeing Katherine from the tomb. In season two, Bonnie takes on the power of a hundred dead witches, which includes Emily, by performing a spell on the place where the witches were burned. Bonnie and Stefan later go there again to ask the witches if they know a cure for a werewolf bite, in order to help Damon. Emily possesses Bonnie and tells Stefan there isn't a cure, but when Bonnie is herself again, she tells Stefan that Emily mentioned Klaus, whose blood later turns out to be the cure for a werewolf bite. When Jeremy dies, Bonnie was able to save him with help of Emily after she tells her that she loves him.

She reappeared via flashback, in the episode "500 Years of Solitude" and was with Katherine as they passed through Mystic Falls in a carriage, where Katherine noticed Stefan Salvatore.

Lexi Branson

• Played by Arielle Kebbel
• Seasons: 1–5, 8

Alexia "Lexi" Branson was a vampire and Stefan Salvatore's best friend and companion. She had known Stefan and his brother Damon for over a century. Damon killed her to make the Town Council think that she was the vampire terrorizing Mystic Falls. Lexi returned as a ghost to help save Stefan. She returned as a ghost again. However, this time Stefan was delighted to see her. She later choked Damon for killing her but let him go. She and Stefan stayed together for the most part drinking and later parting on good terms. Through flashbacks we learn years ago when Damon was in New York killing people and gaining a reputation as "Son of Sam", Stefan sent Lexi to "help" Damon. For about 6 months they hung out and got wasted then every night Lexi would ask Damon about Katherine, trying to help him remember love. One night Damon "confessed" that he didn't love Katherine anymore and that he had flipped his switch and had fallen for Lexi and they had a night of wild sex, "On the bar, the stage and eventually the roof". The next morning the sun came up and Lexi tried to run inside but the door was bolted and Damon woke up and said he had to be really quiet so she wouldn't hear him revealing that he set her up and didn't care about her and instead was punishing her for the last 6 months. She came back for a scene with Stefan at the end of the show finale after Stefan Salvatore sacrificed himself for the rest of his friends and town . He then saw Lexi and his car and hugged her.

Anna

• Played by Malese Jow
• Seasons: 1–3

Annabelle "Anna" was a vampire who comes to Mystic Falls in order to free her mother from the tomb. Anna first appears at a local library, where she befriends Jeremy Gilbert. She helps him with his paper for history class. Anna later turns out to be a vampire who was in Mystic Falls in 1864 with her mother Pearl. She wants to open the tomb where the 26 vampires, including her mother, are trapped. It was revealed that she had turned Noah and Ben McKittrick into vampires in order to make them help her save her mother. She has also turned Logan Fell in order to get his ancestor Honoria Fell's diaries. It was also revealed that she befriended Jeremy Gilbert in order to obtain his ancestor's journal. Anna later kidnaps Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett in order to make Bonnie open the tomb, but they are saved by Stefan Salvatore, who kills Ben in the process. After Bonnie opens the tomb for Damon Salvatore to get Katherine Pierce out, Anna succeeds in sneaking in and getting her mother out and bringing her back to life.

She later reveals to Damon that she knew Katherine wasn't in the tomb, but needed him to believe it in order for her to get her mother out. Anna has started to develop romantic feelings for Jeremy. After seeing Anna's vampire veins appear, Jeremy begins to suspect that she was not human and later tests his theory by "accidentally" cutting his hand and forcing her to drink his blood. Later that night, she confronts him in his room, claiming that she could have killed him and should have, but when he asks her why she didn't, she replies, "I don't know. Maybe I'm just a sucker for guys like you... lost." He then repeatedly requests to be turned, but will not state his reason, and Anna refuses. Anna initially attempts to hide her involvement with him from her mother, as he was a Gilbert, but Pearl finds out when she notices their communication at the Mystic Grill. Anna and her mother end up in a short, heated argument, which ends when Pearl, still hurt from Johnathan Gilbert's betrayal, slaps her daughter. Angry, Anna agrees to change Jeremy, only to discover that his motive for wanting it was to get over his first love, Vicki Donovan, who he suspects might have been a vampire and was now revealed to be long dead. After a short period of distance, they make up, both admitting to having used each other to begin with, but have fallen in love along the way. She enrolls in high school in order to spend time with him, and they begin a romantic relationship. Tragically, Pearl was killed by Jeremy's uncle John Gilbert, devastating Anna, but she does not seek revenge. After her mother's death, she shows up in Jeremy's room in tears, telling him about what happened to her mother. He sympathizes with her, as he's lost his own parents and consoles her.

On Founder's Day, Anna goes to Jeremy with a vial of her blood, telling him that if he drinks it he dies and he will become a vampire. He was unsure, but she leaves the vial for him, just in case he changes his mind. She goes to the remaining tomb vampires, pretending to join them in attacking the Founders later that night, and then goes to warn Damon about them, possibly to protect Jeremy as he's a Gilbert and the Gilbert's are Founders. Damon tells her about the device, but also says that it has been despelled so she is not in danger, in which she replies a lot of people are going to die because the tomb vampires. She was with Jeremy when John Gilbert sets off the device, as she went to warn and possibly defend him if any tomb vampires tried to attack him. Anna was immediately incapacitated, because she was within a five-block radius of the device. A policeman finds her with Jeremy and she was injected with vervain and dragged out of Jeremy's arms and to the Gilbert building to be burned alive, a replica of the original plan to eradicate the vampires in 1864. When John Gilbert sees Anna lying in the building with the other vampires, he stakes her, possibly out of mercy for her to receive a less painful death or out of anger that she was dating his nephew. Damon sees what happens to her and after he tells Jeremy she had died, he admits he actually felt sorry for her and wanted to help, but couldn't- this was one of the first times Damon wants to help someone else for nothing in return, making her death a crucial point for Damon, not just Jeremy. Anna's body was burned in the fire with the other vampires who were caught. Jeremy questions whether it would be better to be a vampire and Damon admits to him it would be easier to turn the emotions off. Later, Jeremy drinks Anna's blood and takes all of Elena's sleeping pills, in order to become a vampire and be able to forget all about the misery in his life.

In the season two finale, Anna, together with Vicki, appears to Jeremy, after he was brought back to life by a spell of Bonnie's, which was said to have consequences. In season three, Anna and Vicki appear more often to Jeremy, and after Vicki asks Jeremy to help her come back to life, Anna warns him not to trust her. Later, Jeremy is even able to talk to Anna, and she tells him that she was "on the other side", where she is all alone, and Jeremy was now able to see and communicate with her whenever he thinks of her and vice versa. She also tells him that she feels a darkness, which she thinks was Vicki. When Jeremy goes to apologize for hugging and kissing Bonnie in front of her, she tells him it is alright and she understands that he had to move on. They later get in an argument when she appeared to warn Jeremy when she felt the darkness, and he tells her she can't keep popping up whenever he's with Bonnie. She tells him it is a two-way street, and realizes that he hadn't told Bonnie yet because he didn't want her to know he still cared. At this, Jeremy shuts Anna out, leaving her alone, crying and scared on the other side, shouting at and begging Jeremy to hear her. When Jeremy tells Bonnie, she asks him to no longer talk to Anna and completely shut her out for good.

Katherine and Damon later kidnap Jeremy in order to make Anna tell him the location of the vampire hunter Mikael. At first Anna doesn't want to, but when Damon hurts Jeremy, she obliges. He later appears to be in regular contact with her, as she was helping him make small plans to stop Vicki, something no one else was aware off so they must have been talking again, and tells him why he shouldn't trust her. Jeremy later talks to Bonnie on the phone, and Anna appears. She states this isn't right, she shouldn't be there and he shouldn't be thinking of her when he's talking to Bonnie. Jeremy says he isn't able to stop thinking about Anna and she replies that she can't stop thinking about him, either, and when the doorway to "the other side" was opened, they are even able to touch each other. Anna and Jeremy were hanging out with each other in secret, and when Anna asks Jeremy not to tell Elena she's there, he walks off back to the spot where he last saw her, where she was pulled from his arms. He says what they're doing isn't right, and Anna says she's only there because he wants to be with her just as much as she wants to be with him, and if he didn't feel that way then he should send her back, as it was that easy. They soon share a kiss when Jeremy felt that at any time he could no longer touch her again and had to kiss her one last time, but Elena catches them. Elena starts shouting at Anna, and Anna soon disappears. Later on, Jeremy goes searching for Anna, and Anna finds Frederick, a very angry tomb vampire. It's revealed he had a member of the Founders killed, once again making Anna fear for Jeremy's life. Bonnie, after finding out about the kiss, decides she needs to close the door way, and this decision was only amplified when she finds out about the killing and the ghost of her grandmother tells her she must.

After Jeremy told Elena he loved Anna and it was always going to be her, Elena tells Anna she's just holding Jeremy back because she's dead and he's not – it is then revealed Anna stole the necklace, the key to keeping the door open, in hopes of finding her mother. Crying, she tells Jeremy she didn't meant for anyone to get hurt and she just didn't want to be alone anymore. Jeremy consoles her, reassuring her she isn't going to be alone and he won't let her. However, Anna simply places the necklace in his hand so he can give it to Bonnie so she can close the door. Giving a weak smile, Anna showed Jeremy it was alright to let her go. However, Jeremy still believed he'd be able to see her despite her previously saying they shouldn't see each other anymore because Elena was right. Before disappearing, Anna walked down a street, still up-set with how she'll be alone on the other side. She then sees her mother, both hugging and crying because they had finally found each other and would no longer be apart ever again. The door to the other side is closed, and Anna found peace with her mother, no longer alone.

Isobel Flemming

• Played by Mia Kirshner
• Seasons: 1–2

Isobel Flemming was Elena Gilbert's birth mother and a descendant of Katherine Pierce. When Isobel was a teenager she had a relationship with John Gilbert, by whom she later had a baby, Elena. When Isobel was pregnant, John brought her to his brother, Grayson Gilbert, who helped her through labor. After Elena's birth, a heartbroken Isobel gave her daughter to Grayson and his wife Miranda Gilbert. It is known that Isobel was a cheerleader in high school and was best friends with Trudie Peterson, whom she later ordered to be killed. Isobel also attended Duke University where she studied supernatural beings. Later in life she met and married Alaric Saltzman. However, Isobel became obsessed with vampires and after being romantically involved with him, she asked Damon Salvatore to turn her. She was assumed dead by the police and Alaric thought that she was killed by Damon after seeing them together. In season one Alaric comes to Mystic Falls to seek revenge on Damon, who admits that he killed her, but also turned her into a vampire on her own request. After Elena finds out that Isobel was her biological mother, she calls her, but after hearing Elena's voice, Isobel hangs up. However, she later shows up at the Mystic Grill and greets Alaric. She tells him that she wants to meet her daughter and threatens to kill everyone in town if she doesn't get her way. She is later seen being visited by John in a loaned house, where she had two human minions Cherie and Frank. It was revealed that Isobel, just like John, wants Jonathan's Gilberts device, because Katherine, whom she seemingly befriended, wants all the tomb vampires death. In season two it was revealed that Isobel also wants them dead in order to protect Elena from Klaus. She meets with Elena and asks her to make Damon give her the device. She shows Elena that she can hurt her friends and family by using Frank and Cherie to hurt Matt Donovan and kidnap Jeremy Gilbert. Elena convinces Damon to give her the device by saying that Bonnie Bennett can despell it. However, it is later revealed that Bonnie only pretended to despell it. Elena gives Isobel the device and asks her how she knew Damon would give it to her. She tells Elena that Damon loves her. In a phone call with John it was revealed that she does care about Elena and they plot to kill all the tomb vampires and the Salvatore Brothers with the device in order to protect her. Before leaving town, Isobel compels Alaric to get over her and tells him that she realizes it was a mistake to become a vampire. In season two, Isobel returns and introduces herself to Jenna Sommers as Elena's mother, but Elena refuses to invite her in and slams the door in her face. However, John trusts Isobel and invites her in the next day. Isobel asks Elena if she wants to come with her to a place where it is safe from Klaus, but Elena refuses. She later meets with Katherine and tells Katherine that she met with Klaus and made a deal with him for Katherine's freedom, which says that she has to give Klaus the moonstone and the Petrova doppelgänger, Elena. Isobel tells Katherine to retrieve the moonstone from the Salvatore brothers. It was also revealed that she has asked John to break up Jenna and Alaric because she was jealous. Isobel then kidnaps Alaric and takes Elena to a graveyard where her parents placed a tombstone for her. There it was revealed that when Isobel found Klaus in order to secure Elena's safety in some way she was compelled by him to devise a plan to capture Katherine and retrieve the moonstone, which was why she returned. At the graveyard Isobel tells Elena that as a human she had dreamed of meeting her daughter, but instead Elena has only met the part of her that would betray her own flesh and blood. She then receives a message from Maddox to set Elena free and kill herself by taking off her necklace, exposing herself to sunlight and being burned to death.

John Gilbert

• Played by David Anders
• Seasons: 1–2, 5, 8

Johnathan "John" Gilbert II, was Grayson Gilbert's younger brother, and Elena's biological father and Jeremy Gilbert's uncle. In their youth, his elder brother Grayson taught him about the vampires through the journals of their ancestor, Johnathan Gilbert. They also inherited a ring each that prevented them from being killed. John had a crush on Isobel Flemming-Saltzman and he was the one who sent her to Damon Salvatore when she wanted to become a vampire. After her transformation, Isobel found John and they formed a partenship to get their hands on a mysterious invention created by Jonathan Gilbert.

John arrived in Mystic Falls for the Founder's Day and was shown as a member of the Founders' Council. However, he knew Damon was a vampire, there had been a tomb under the Fell's Church and he knew about Katherine. He tried to intimidate Damon into helping him find the invention but Damon threatened to kill him and everyone in the Council. Along with Alaric Saltzman, Damon discovered John was keeping an eye on the vampires who had been in the tomb. Soon, he confronts Pearl about her possession of the invention but Pearl had already given it to Damon. When Isobel returns to town, John finally gets the invention at which time it was revealed Isobel and John were working for Katherine and they were planning to kill the tomb's vampires. Unofficially, their goal was to kill the Salvatore brothers and save Elena from suffering in a life filled with vampires. He was in addition responsible for staking his nephew Jeremy's girlfriend Anna's mother Pearl, who was a vampire. It was also revealed John was Elena's biological father. He gets his fingers (one of them with his ring on it) cut off and was stabbed by Katherine, who poses as Elena in order to gain access to the Gilbert house in the season one finale.

In the season two premiere, John was rushed to hospital and was confronted by Stefan and Elena about Katherine's attack on him. Stefan then tells John that Elena does not want him there (this was due to his attitude toward Stefan and all vampires) and he threatens to turn him into a vampire if he does not leave. He packs his bags but it had not been made clear whether he had actually left Mystic Falls or not. However, we do know he gave his ring (which makes the wearer invulnerable to harm from supernatural forces) to Jeremy, as it once belonged to his brother and Jeremy's father, Grayson Gilbert. John later returns to Mystic Falls and tells Jenna that he was Elena's biological father. It was also revealed that he and Isobel were working together to free Katherine. Elena had trouble believing and trusting John, especially after Isobel returns and he invites her into their house. Elena coldly rejects both and then leaves. Isobel then kills John at a party at the Lockwood Mansion, but he was seen wearing his ring and was effectively brought back to life hours later. Upon learning that Isobel had committed suicide, John comes to the conclusion he's no longer wanted anywhere in Mystic Falls and prepares to leave. Elena stops him however, telling him he was the only parent she had left, and she'd like him to stay. Later, he goes through with a spell to save Elena from turning into a vampire, in return dying himself. He leaves Elena his ring and a letter saying he would've loved her human or even what he hated most, a vampire.

Meredith Fell

• Played by Torrey DeVitto
• Seasons: 3–4

Dr. Meredith Fell is a local doctor and is a member of the Founder's Council. She uses vampire blood to cure people and starts dating Alaric. She knows that Alaric is unknowingly killing people because of his ring and wants to help him.

April Young

• Played by Grace Phipps
• Seasons: 4

April Young is a girl from Elena's and Jeremy's past. Elena used to babysit her. She first appears in episode two where she arrived back in Mystic Falls to go to her father's memorial service. She is openly nice and befriends almost everyone. April becomes Rebekah's first real friend. She was unaware of the existence of supernatural creatures in Mystic Falls and visibly frightened by Connor Jordan, who attacked her twice during his vampire hunts. When Rebekah disappears, April is worried about her and looks for her. She eventually finds out where Rebekah is hidden and frees her by removing the dagger. She learns about the existence of vampires in Mystic Falls from Rebekah and helps her gain information from Elena, Stefan and Caroline about the cure for vampirism.

Liv Parker

• Played by Penelope Mitchell
• Seasons: 5–6

Olivia Parker is a witch, who initially pretended to be terrible at magic and got Bonnie to help her, but in reality she is a very powerful and talented witch. She is in a coven (that hates everything the Travellers stand for) that protects doppelgängers from the travellers, especially Elena. She was a witch of the Gemini Coven and the twin sister of the late Luke Parker. Liv was also the younger sister of Josette Parker, Malachai Parker, Joey Parker and three deceased unnamed siblings. She was also the youngest daughter of Joshua Parker.

In season five, Liv was seen attending Whitmore College. She was introduced as an inexperienced witch and sought out Bonnie Bennett to help her. However, Liv was secretly a very powerful witch sent with her brother by their coven to stop Markos and the Travelers. In Home, after Caroline Forbes snaps Luke's neck sending him to The Other Side, Liv was forced to perform a spell that allows the deceased to be resurrected. Luke was revived and, as Liv got weaker, he told her to stop the spell. The two then flee, leaving Damon Salvatore and Bonnie trapped in the collapsing Other Side.

In season six, Liv still attended Whitmore College and had developed a romantic relationship in Tyler Lockwood. She carefully watched over Tyler, doing everything to make sure his werewolf gene doesn't trigger. In Fade Into You, Liv and Luke are reunited with their long-lost sister Jo and they reveal that, as the twin children of the Gemini Coven's leader, they must merge their powers on their twenty-second birthday and the stronger of the two will survive more powerful than ever while the weaker will die. In the season six finale, Liv was killed by Tyler with her permission and request so that he could trigger his werewolf gene in order to heal his wounds caused by Kai.

Luke Parker

• Played by Chris Brochu
• Seasons: 5–6

Lucas Parker is a warlock and Liv's twin brother. He is protective of his sister and is in the same coven as her. He is also openly gay. He is also younger brother of twins Josette Parker and Malachai Parker, Joey Parker and three unnamed deceased siblings. He was also the youngest son of Joshua Parker.

In season five, Luke was seen attending Whitmore College. He quickly found himself working with the Mystic Falls Gang in effort to stop Markos and the Travelers. In Home, Luke's neck was snapped by Caroline Forbes in order to motivate Liv to cast a spell to resurrect him, Stefan Salvatore and the rest of their deceased friends on the rapidly disintegrating Other Side. Liv eventually revived Luke, and when he saw how the spell was draining her of her life force, he used his magic to force her to stop the spell. The two then fled, leaving Damon Salvatore and Bonnie Bennett trapped on the Other Side when it collapsed.

In season six, it was revealed that Luke felt bad for leaving Damon and Bonnie trapped on the Other Side, and has started providing hallucinogenic herbs to Elena Gilbert so she could communicate with Damon. In Fade Into You, Luke explained to the group about his family's dark past and how he would eventually have to merge with his twin Liv, a fact which was causing himself and his sister a lot of stress. In Prayer For the Dying, he completed the merge ceremony with Kai through a loophole because he didn't want to kill Liv, nor did he want Kai to do the same to Jo and take the leadership of their coven. He went into the ceremony believing that he could win, but unfortunately, he ended up losing the merge ceremony and his life essence was absorbed by Kai, along with his ability to possess magic (something Kai was not born with). An unintended side effect of the merge was Kai absorbing Luke's personality traits, such as his compassion and empathy, which have tempered his own sociopathic personality.

Malachai Parker

• Played by Chris Wood
• Seasons: 6, 8

Malachai "Kai" Parker is the main antagonist/anti-hero in season six of The Vampire Diaries. He also appears as a recurring character in the eighth season of the series. Kai is the twin brother of Josette, the older brother of Olivia, Lucas, Joey, and three other unnamed and deceased Parker siblings. He is a Siphoner, a witch born without the ability to generate his own magic but does possess a rare power that allows him to siphon magic from other sources in which he can use; because of this, Kai's parents and the rest of the Gemini Coven (excluding his siblings) treated him very badly, which eventually caused him to go insane, as is coven would not accept him as their leader, as they consider him to be nothing but an abomination, when his parents discovered he was a siphoner, the decided to have more children until they produce twins born with their own ability to use magic, when Kai discovered this, he finally snapped, he killed most of his siblings (with the exceptions of his twin sister Jo, and twins Luke and Liv) in various gruesome ways, which drew the attention of the Gemini Coven. They then harnessed the power of a solar eclipse to trap him in a purgatory dimension for his crimes, which has kept him trapped in a snapshot of the day that he was imprisoned-May 10, 1994, when he would remain for the next 20 years.

Lillian Salvatore

• Played by Annie Wersching
• Seasons: 6–7

Lillian "Lily" Salvatore is the mother of Stefan and Damon Salvatore and the widow of the late Giuseppe Salvatore. She supposedly died at some point in 1858. It has been suggested that she was a lot kinder than her husband, Giuseppe. She was turned in 1858 and she faked her death. When Lily was very sick with consumption, she was sent away by Giuseppe. An unknown nurse (who was assumed to have been a vampire) had fed her vampire blood while she was held in the TB ward. Lily did end up dying of consumption, triggering her transformation into a vampire. Realizing that she was a vampire and a creature of the night, Lily then faked her death and abandoned her family, feeling like she had posed a significant threat to her family as a vampire. When she fled to Europe, she succumbed to her bloodlust and became a Ripper vampire, a vampire that slaughters their victims for blood in the most gruesome ways. Lily, as a Ripper, tore through an entire city and left trails of dead corpses and drained them of their blood (much like her younger son Stefan did in 1917 as the Ripper of Monterrey). She moved on from city to city, killing many people and gaining a relative high body count, until eventually, she was encountered by the Gemini Coven in Manhattan, New York. As a punishment for her crimes as a Ripper for killing so many people, they trapped her in a prison world on October 31, 1903 and she has been stuck there for over a century.

Valerie Tulle

• Played by Elizabeth Blackmore (season 7) / Katie Lumpkin (season 6)
• Seasons: 6–7

Valerie is a witch-vampire hybrid, member of the Heretics. She has also met Stefan before back in 1863 when she was human and had a short romance with him. Valerie stays overnight in Stefan's house because she had nowhere to go after her fight and almost-death by her own family, who have disowned her. Caroline caught them both off guard and Stefan explained to Caroline that Valerie was cast out of her family, without telling Caroline that they were originally going to be parents. Valerie later helps Alaric find where his unborn twin daughters are and it turns out that Jo's Gemini Coven spelled the twins out of Jo's dying womb and into Caroline's vampire womb, shocking Alaric and Caroline. Valerie together with Stefan discovers a desiccated Caroline and realizes the talisman didn't work. She then decides to channel enough magic to attract the babies so they could be born after refusing to because of Caroline's vampire magic. She gathers the remaining Heretics and with them performs a spell to attract the babies. However, once Rayna arrives to the hospital, now with her sword, Beau, Mary Louise and Nora are forced to leave while Valerie stays behind, saying she'll help Caroline and the babies. Bonnie then arrives and tells Valerie of Beau's death. Stefan then leaves to help Damon, which ends in him getting marked by Rayna, while Bonnie and Valerie perform a spell to attract the babies, who are finally born.

Valerie speaks to Stefan of a magical safehouse for supernatural travelers in New Orleans, though then loses contact with him and informs Bonnie about it. She then works together with Matt despite their antagonistic relationship in order to help Stefan escape from Rayna. She also informs Damon of the Armory's dark intentions. Valerie begins to assist Stefan on his three-year run from Rayna Cruz. During the beginning of their time running, Stefan and Valerie search for a rare magical herb that can cloak Stefan's Hunter scar from Rayna's tracking abilities. Valerie, along with Stefan, is disappointed to find the secret facility that Freya Mikaelson gave them was robbed of the rare magical herb. Valerie begins a romantic relationship with Stefan once again after being on the run with him for a year. Two years later, Valerie is seen in a relationship with Stefan and allied herself with Damon in order to rescue Stefan from Rayna. Damon gets Valerie to reveal that she knew all along about a cure for Stefan's Hunter scar, but she didn't tell him because she loved Stefan, she didn't want to lose him to Damon or Caroline, and she wanted to keep Damon out of his life for good. Valerie is subdued by Damon before she can transfer the scar onto Damon, which buys Rayna enough time to stab Stefan with her sword and trap him in the Phoenix Stone once again. Valerie and Damon were too late to save him and Valerie is see no douching down on an airplane runway all distressed about Stefan's entrapment.

Minor characters

The following is a list of characters who have had a story arc on the series that lasted four episodes or more. They are listed in the order that they first appeared on the show.

Season one

• Chris William Martin portrays Zach Salvatore, Damon and Stefan's great-great-great-nephew, in the first five episodes of the series before being killed by Damon after Zach locked him in a cellar.^[4]
• Chris J. Johnson portrays news reporter Logan Fell in season one. He has a short romantic relationship with Jenna, but is later killed by Damon. He returns as a vampire, having been fed blood by Anna, but is eventually killed again by Alaric.
• Sterling Sulieman portrays Harper in season one, a kindhearted vampire that escapes from the tomb when it gets opened, but he is killed by John Gilbert.
• Melinda Clarke portrays Kelly Donovan in season one. Kelly is the mother of Matt and Vicki Donovan, who returns to Mystic Falls and finds out her daughter has died. After a long absent from the series, Kelly makes a brief return in season eight. She claims to have died 2 years prior to her appearance and was sent to hell, when Matt rings the Maxwell bell earlier in season eight he opened a door to hell and the real world, Katherine Pierce helped her and Vicki (Kelly's daughter and Matt's sister) escape as long as they help Katherine burn Mystic Falls to the ground. She almost kills Matt's father.

Season two

• Bryton James portrays warlock Luka Martin in season two. He befriends Bonnie, but it is later found out that he and his father work for Elijah. He is burned to death by Damon's flamethrower when he tries to invisibly save Elijah.
• Randy J. Goodwin portrays Luka's father Jonas Martin in season two. He is a warlock and is introduced as a friend of Elijah's who can help defeat Klaus in order to save his daughter.^[5] He is later killed by Stefan by snapping his neck.^[6]
• Michaela McManus portrays a werewolf named Jules in season two, who comes to town looking for answers on Mason's death.^[7] She helps Tyler deal with finding out he is a werewolf, but is later killed during the sacrifice.
• Dawn Olivieri portrays Andie Star in seasons two and the first episode of season three, a love-interest for Damon. He first uses her mainly for feeding and sex, but later grows fond of her. She is killed by Stefan when he wants to prove to Damon that he is not worth saving.
• Gino Anthony Pesi portrays Maddox at the end of season two, a warlock who works for Klaus. He is shot by Matt in the back and soon killed by Damon.
• Anna Enger portrays Dana, first introduced in the second season, she is a student at Mystic Falls high school who was compelled by Klaus (in Alaric's body) at the decade dance to tell Elena to save the last dance for him. She makes her second and final appearance on the show in season three, Elena and all her classmates are at Prank Night and Klaus compels Stefan to kill both Dana and another student named Chad.

Season four

• Todd Williams portrays Connor Jordan in season four, a vampire hunter and one of "The Five", a group of supernatural vampire hunters. He comes to Mystic Falls to kill all the vampires there, but is later killed by Elena. He later returns as a ghost trying to cure and kill Silas, but is stopped by the ghost of Alaric.
• Rick Worthy portrays Rudy Hopkins in season four, Bonnie's father and the town's new mayor, replacing Carol Lockwood. He gets killed by Silas in the season five premiere.
• Charlie Bewley portrays Galen Vaughn in season four, another vampire hunter and one of "The Five". He attacks the group on the island to stop the waking of Silas, but gets stuck in a well and starves to death. He later returns as a ghost trying to cure and kill Silas, but is stopped by the ghost of Alaric.

Season five

• Paul Wesley portrays Silas in the season four finale and in season five, the main antagonist of season four, the first immortal being on earth. After being awakened he tries to destroy The Other Side, then take the cure so he can be with his true love, Amara. He is eventually killed by Stefan.
• Kendrick Sampson portrays Jesse in season five, a student at Whitmore College who likes Caroline. He gets turned into a vampire who feeds on other vampires by Professor Maxfield, but is killed by Elena when he attacks Damon.
• Shaun Sipos portrays Aaron Whitmore in season five, a student at Whitmore College. Professor Maxfield became his legal guardian after Damon had killed his entire family. He is killed by Damon after Katherine in Elena's body, breaks up with him because he is not good enough for her.
• Raffi Barsoumian portrays Markos in season five, the leader of the Travellers, and the main antagonist of season five who comes back from the dead. He wants to break the curse the witches put on the Travellers using Elena and Stefan's blood. Damon and Elena eventually kill him and all the remaining Travelers.

Season six

• Colin Ferguson portrays Tripp Cooke in season six, a vampire hunter and descendent of the Fell family.
• Emily C. Chang portrays Ivy in season six, she is first introduced as Stefan's human girlfriend who is later turned into a vampire after a visit from Enzo and Caroline. She is later killed by Tripp Cooke who drove her and other vampire's across the Mystic Falls border via the Traveler's spell.
• Marco James Marquez portrays Liam Davis, a medical student at Whitmore college who Elena dates for a brief time.
• Kent Wagner portrays the heretic Malcolm in the sixth season while Justice Leak portrays the character in the seventh season. He is described as being Lily's favourite out of the other heretics, she (Lily) treated him like her own.
• Wing Liu portrays one of the heretic's named Oscar Addams in the sixth season while Tim Kang portrays him in the seventh season, after being released from the 1903 Prison World by Kai, he along with 5 other heretics are cloaked away (also by Kai). In season seven Lily sends him on a mission to retrieve her one true love's body. Later it is revealed he was sent by Lily to check up on Damon during his time in the war, he is described as the fun/humorous one out of the heretics

Season seven

• Tierney Mumford portrays Elizabeth "Lizzie" Saltzman, twin sister of Josie, daughter of Alaric Saltzman and the deceased Josette Laughlin, who is a siphon.
• Lily Rose Mumford portrays Josette "Josie" Saltzman, twin sister of Lizzie, daughter of Alaric Saltzman and the deceased Josette Laughlin, who also is a siphon.
• Mouzam Makkar portrays Alexandria "Alex" St. John, distant cousin of Enzo and the former leader of the Armory. She is looking for a Bennett witch (particularly Bonnie) to undo a spell that has her sister (Yvette) trapped in the Armory's vault.

The Originals

In 2013, a spinoff television series based around the Mikaelson clan of vampires, called The Originals, was ordered to series by The CW. Many of the characters on The Originals originated on The Vampire Diaries.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: List of The Vampire Diaries characters

• Official website
• The Vampire Diares
• The Vampire Diaries on IMDb
• The Vampire Diaries at TV.com