Recycled Actors and Actresses of The CW

Kristin Kreuk was there in 2006 when The CW was born from a merger of The WB and UPN. She starred as Lana Lang on Smallville which was a hold over from The WB. Kreuk eventually left Smallville in 2009. But Kristin was a fan favorite and the network execs really wanted her back, so they cast her as the female lead in Beauty and the Beast in 2012. I've never seen the show, but I'm assuming she plays the Beauty. The show ran until 2016. In 2018 The CW picked up the American broadcasting rights to the Canadian show, Burden of Truth, on which Kristin stars.

Katie first caught the attention of The CW in 2007 when she was cast as Ruby for Supernatural's third season. Liking her so much, the network cast her as one of the leads in their 2009 reboot of Melrose Place. But alas, that show was canceled after one low-rated season. Not to be deterred, the network immediately shipped her off to New York so she could appear in 11 episodes of Gossip Girl the next fall. Katie was then cast as the female lead on Arrow in 2012.

Beautiful Canadian Jessica Lucas first came to The CW in 2008 when she had a recurring role as an undercover cop on 90210. After successfully busting a drug ring at West Bev High School, she joined Katie Cassidy as a tenant at Melrose Place in 2009, and we all know how that ended. The CW then cast her in the 2013 midseason replacement series, Cult. That show was canceled after 13 episodes and since then Jessica has had to make due with acting jobs on the FOX network and in Zac Efron movies.

Pint-sized cutie Britt Robertson first graced the small screen of The CW network in 2010 when she played a foster kid who finds her long-lost biological parents in Life Unexpected. After two short seasons, the network pulled the plug but immediately cast Britt as the lead in their teenage witch drama The Secret Circle. Unfortunately, her magic could not keep the show on the air past its first season. But Britt then graduated to The CW's parent network and started living Under the Dome.

Australian mega-hottie Phoebe Tonkin was mostly known for playing a mermaid on the Ausie teenie bopper show H2O: Just Add Water, before coming to the US and landing a role as mean girl witch Faye Chamberlain on The CW's The Secret Circle. When that show ended in 2012, The CW cast her in a recurring role on The Vampire Diaries as an orphaned werewolf named Hayley. She parlayed that role into a regular gig on The Vampire Diaries spinoff show, The Originals, which began its second season in the Fall of 2014. Mermaids, witches, werewolves. Seriously Phoebe, when are you going to play a plain ol' human?

Matt Lanter joined the cast of 90210 in the middle of its first season in 2009. He stuck around until the series ended in 2013 and then was immediately cast in The CW's sci-fi drama, Star-Crossed. On Star-Crossed, 30-year-old Matt played a 16-year-old boy from the planet Atria. After all, who are we to say that 16-year-old Atrians don't look exactly like 30-year-old humans?

Lovely Marie is a veteran of four CW shows. First was Supernatural where she guest starred in 2009. Then she landed a recurring role on Cult in 2013 and also did a guest spot on 90210 that same year. In 2014, she scored a series regular job on the juvenile delinquent sci-fi series, The 100. And if there is any doubt about what The CW sees in Marie, you should know that they had her strip down to her underwear on the very first episode of that show.

Malese Jow joined The Vampire Diaries in a recurring role during the show's first season. Her vampire character, Anna, was killed in the season finale, but returned in the season 2 finale as a ghost. She came back for part of season 3 before permanently heading off to the supernatural afterlife. She then hosted the Vampire Diaries online after show, TVD Rehash. Jow returned to the network proper in February 2014 as a series regular on Star-Crossed. Since that show was canceled in May 2014, Malese is undoubtedly waiting by the phone for The CW to call her with another job offer.

UPDATE: (10/27/14) The CW made that call! Malese was cast as Linda Park, aka Doctor Light, in The Flash and made her first appearance in episode 12 of season 2.

Arielle Kebbel may be the ultimate utility player for The CW. She starred on The Vampire Diaries where she's done eight episodes between 2009 and 2014. Arielle appeared in seven episodes of Life Unexpected's second and final season in 2010. She also did 15 episodes of 90210 between 2011 and 2013. Kebbel also hosted the iHeartRadio Party and was the host of the 2013 summer dating game show, Perfect Score. She also hosted a number of online videos that promoted shows on The CW website. At this point, she might as well moved into The CW offices.

Matt Davis joined The Vampire Diaries during season 1 as sexy history teacher/vampire enthusiast, Alaric Saltzman. Alaric was killed at the end of season 3 so that Davis could be the lead of a new CW show, Cult. But Cult was a massive bomb, so what became of Davis? He returned to The Vampire Diaries, of course, because no one is ever really dead on that show. Matt also appeared on The Vampaire Diaries spinoff, The Originals. He then got the lead on The Originals spinoff, Legacies.

JoAnna graced the airwaves of The CW during its very first year, 2006, since the sit-com Reba was a holdover from The WB. When Reba ended, Garcia got the lead role on Privileged. But in the cut-throat world of network television many shows fail to make it past season 1, and Privileged was one of those unlucky shows. But the next fall, JoAnna did a four episode stint on Gossip Girl to completed her CW trifecta.

Kristoffer Polaha first hit The CW in 2008 when her starred as Eros, the god of erotic love, on the short-lived series (8 episodes!) Valentine. He then returned to the CDub in the spring of 2010 on Life Unexpected. That show lasted much longer than Valentine, 26 whole episodes, before getting canceled. Kris (can I call him Kris?) then hit The CW trifecta when Ringer premiered in the fall of 2011.

Willa Holland began her employment at The CW with a three episode arc on Gossip Girl in 2008. She returned to the show for one episode in 2010 and for the series finale in 2012. She then snagged a role on Arrow, The CW's most anticipated show of 2012. Willa stuck with Arrow for six seasons before deciding to leave.

Ben Hollingsworth is a member of The CW trifecta club. Unfortunately for him, not one of those three shows made it to season 2. Ouch! Ben's first job with the network was in 2009 when he landed the male lead on The Beautiful Life. But you probably don't remember that show since it was canceled after just two, yes two(!), episodes. In 2013, Ben appeared in six of the 13 episodes of Cult before it was canceled. He then did two episodes on the first and only season of The Tomorrow People.

Kelly Hu is yet another actress who has hit The CW trifecta. Like many before her, she began on The Vampire Diaries. Her character, Pearl, went through the vampire ringer: being entombed for 140 years, set free, staked and killed, only to return as a ghost before disappearing forever. Kelly then moved on to Arrow where she plays supervillain China White. China was captured and jailed at the end of season 2, which probably means she'll escape someday and return to the show. Hu also did a one off in the pilot episode of The 100.

Lovely Shantel VanSanten began her run on The CW in 2009 when she joined the cast of One Tree Hill, a show she stayed on until the final episode in 2012. The next year she did three episodes of Beauty and the Beast. Shantel was then cast in a main role on the 2014-15 midseason replacement, The Messengers. It was quickly canceled, but Shantel landed a role on The Flash for the fall 2015 season.

In early 2009, The CW announced that Robert Buckley signed on to appear in a two-episode arc on the series Privileged as David Besser. In June 2009, it was announced that Buckley signed on as a series regular on One Tree Hill as Clay Evans. He remained with One Tree Hill until the show's ninth and final season. He then did a couple of episodes of Hart of Dixie before snagging a series regular role on iZombie in 2015.

Poor Austin Basis has yet to hit a CW trifecta. His recent show, Beauty and the Beast, was canceled in 2016. Prior to that, Austin was on the only two seasons of Life Unexpected. Now Austin guest stars are various shows on other networks as he eagerly awaits his return to The CW.

This one is, admittedly, a bit of a stretch. Stacey starred on the Canadian series 18 to Life in 2010. The CW bought the US distribution rights to the show and began airing it in August of 2010. But they pulled it off of the air after only three weeks (six episodes). Despite the fact that The CW didn't actually cast her in 18 to Life, they liked her well enough to give her a recurring role on Cult in 2013. And coincidentally, Stacey appeared in six episodes of that show when it was canceled.

In 2021 Stacey began recurring on Superman & Lois.

Aly Michalka was a cheerleader at Lancer University on the one and only season of Hellcats before becoming an Assistant DA on iZombie in 2015. Cheerleader to lawyer is quite the promotion Aly!

The CW loves its brooding bad boys. Enter Grey Damon. In 2012 the network cast him in a recurring role on The Secret Circle as a brooding bad boy who gets mixed up with a gaggle of teenage witches. He then became a full-time, brooding bad boy (who may also have been a terrorist!) on Star-Crossed. Since that show was canceled, Grey will now go to ABC to presumably play a brooding bad boy on a Charles Manson-inspired drama.

BONUS: His very first on-screen appearance was as a waiter in a 2009 episode of 90210, which technically means . . . trifecta!

Grey also portrayed the villain, Mirror Master, during a season three episode of The Flash.

Whether he's playing Elena's creepy uncle/birth father on The Vampire Diaries, a murdering brain-eater on iZombie or a villain of-the-week on Arrow, David Anders always seems to play the bad guy on The CW.

Robbie began his CW career as the lead on The Tomorrow People in 2013. That show was cancelled and after one season. But then he landed a recurring role on The Flash, as Ronnie Raymond.

Trifecta alert! Michael Rady was a series regular on the lone season of the Melrose Place reboot. A couple of years later he was a series regular on the short lived, Emily Owens, M.D. He then landed a recurring gig on Jane the Virgin.

Peyton List has been on a slew of CW shows: a single episode of One Tree Hill, two episodes of Smallville as Lucy Lane, four episodes of 90210, a series regular spot on the one and only season of The Tomorrow People, a three episode arc as Golden Glider on The Flash and finally, the lead role in series, Frequency. In 2020 she guest-starred on Charmed.

Hidden Palms, Smallville, Privileged

Chris Wood doesn't just have a trifecta, he's a member of The CW's Five-Timers Club. He's had guest spots on The Carrie Diaries, The Vampire Diaries and The Flash as well as series regular roles on Containment and Supergirl.

Lucy has hit the CW Trifecta with series regular roles on Privileged, Life Sentence and Katy Keene. Unfortunately for her, all of those shows were canceled after one season.

Reign, Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girfriend, Supergirl

Cress Williams played the mayor of Bluebell, Alabama for four seasons on "Hart of Dixie." He was later cast as the the title character on "Black Lightning."

The Vampire Diaries, Dynasty

Riley is another member of the CW's Five-Timers Club with roles on 90210, Beauty and the Beast, The Messengers, Frequency and Life Sentence. And in the Fall of 2019 Riley joined the cast of Nancy Drew.

Cult, Arrow, The Flash and iZombie

Jessica had recurring roles on both "The 100" and "iZombie" at the same time. She's also had guest roles on Supernatural, Arrow and Emily Owens, M.D.

The Originals and Legends of Tomorrow

Heather was a series regular on both Hellcats and Roswell, New Mexico and also did a single episode of The Vampire Diaries.

Jesse was a regular on No Tomorrow, Supergirl and the Canadian import, 18 to Life.

Jessica has appeared on Smallville, The Secret Circle, 90210, Supergirl and The Flash making her a member of The CW Five-Timers Club.

As a actress based in Canada, Melissa Roxburgh has had the opportunity to appear in numerous CW shows over the years including guest spots on Arrow, The Tomorrow People, Supernatural and Legends of Tomorrow. In 2014 she was cast as the lead in the Supernatural spin-off, Supernatural: Bloodlines, but that show didn't get picked up to series. Melissa eventually landed a series regular role on the short-lived military drama, Valor.

90210, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Roswell New Mexico

Melrose Place, Jane the Virgin and Supergirl

Trevor did a single episode of The Vampire Diaries in 2013 before becoming a series regular on the only season of Containment in 2016. He then moved to Roswell, New Mexico in 2019.

Jordan Calloway played the high school jerk, Chuck Clayton, on Riverdale before getting cast on Black Lightning.

The Originals and Roswell, New Mexico

90210, The Carrie Diaries and Charmed

Veronica Mars, Ringer, Supernatural, The Tomorrow People, The Messengers, The Originals and iZombie

Reign and Batwoman

The 100 and Walker

Supernatural and Walker

Life Sentence and Superman & Lois