Angel S5

While relatively new to the world of acting when he landed a guest-starring role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, David Boreanaz catapulted to stardom with his quiet intensity as the mysterious and tortured Angel and ultimately landed his own long-running series. Boreanaz also appeared in The Crow: Wicked Prayer, the fourth installment of the horror series, also starring Dennis Hopper, Edward Furlong, Tara Reid and Macy Gray.

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boreanaz was exposed to television at a young age -- his father is a veteran weather forecaster for WPVI in Philadelphia. After graduating from Ithaca College, he moved to Los Angeles to try his luck in Hollywood.

While studying the craft of acting, Boreanaz lived the life of a starving actor, making ends meet by parking cars, painting houses and handing out towels at a sports club. Yet, it was while walking his dog in a Hollywood neighborhood that a manager spotted his brooding, intense look and instantly signed him as a client. His first big break was a guest spot on Married... With Children playing Kelly Bundy's (Christina Applegate) biker boyfriend.

In 2002 Boreanaz starred in the romantic comedy I'm with Lucy, with Monica Potter, Henry Thomas and Anthony LaPaglia. He also starred in the Warner Bros. thriller Valentine.

On stage, Boreanaz has performed at the Ensemble Theatre in Hat Full of Rain, at the Gardner Stage in Italian-American Reconciliation and Fool for Love, and on theatre row in Cowboy Mouth. His feature film credits include Aspen Extreme, Best of the Best 2 and Eyes of the World.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Charisma Carpenter moved with her family to Mexico when she was 15. She had studied classical ballet since the age of five. She pursued dancing as part of her high school curriculum by commuting between Mexico and San Diego, California, to take classes at the School of the Creative and Performing Arts.

Carpenter did not initially intend to pursue a career in acting, but fate intervened when she was discovered by a commercial agent while waitressing in Los Angeles to save for her college education. She went on to appear in more than 20 commercials, including one for Secret antiperspirant which ran for two years.

Her first break in television came with a guest appearance on the popular series Baywatch. Shortly thereafter she landed an audition for Aaron Spelling, who cast her as a regular in the series Malibu Shores.

Carpenter first came to fame as the snarky Cordelia Chase on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. The popular character was then moved to the Buffy spinoff Angel.

In 2004, after giving birth to her first child, Carpenter posed nude for Playboy.

A fitness enthusiast, Carpenter's outdoor interests include rollerblading, rock climbing, hiking, and sky diving.

Alexis Denisof is best know for bringing his charm and wit to the role of Wesley Wyndam-Price, a role he originated on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and then continued as a regular on the Buffy spinoff Angel.

A native of Salisbury, Maryland, Denisof grew up in Seattle, where he began his acting career in productions at the distinguished ACT (A Contemporary Theatre). Following high school, Denisof continued his training overseas when he was accepted at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. While in London, Denisof enjoyed a prolific stage career, appearing as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet opposite Ian McKellan.

Upon graduation, Denisof gained his first national exposure in a George Harrison rock video, which led to his feature film debut in the British film Murder Story. His other film credits include the Sundance Film Festival hit The Misadventures of Margaret opposite Parker Posey and Brooke Shields, True Blue and First Knight. He also stars in the upcoming film Beyond the City Limits along with Nastassja Kinski and Alyson Hannigan.

Denisof is a veteran of several television projects including cable television's Hostile Waters and the television miniseries Noah's Ark opposite Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen.

J. August Richards is best-known to television audiences as the rogue, street-savvy vampire hunter on the long-running series Angel.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in the Maryland suburb of Bladensburg, Richards discovered his love for acting at an early age, enrolling in a performing arts high school and appearing in several plays a year. Academically confident and determined to move out to Los Angeles to pursue his acting aspirations, Richards applied to only one college. Not only was he accepted into the University of Southern California, he also won numerous scholarships and grants to study theatre.

Upon graduation, Richards began working steadily in film, television and theater. Playing a rapping bike messenger who believes he is an alien abductee, it was the role of Taj Mahal in the Mark Taper Forum's production of Space that first brought recognition and rave reviews to the young actor.

On the big screen, Richards has appeared in the feature films Why Do Fools Fall in Love? and Good Burger. He starred in the television movies Critical Assembly, The Temptations and Mutiny. Richards has also guest-starred on The Practice, Chicago Hope, The Cosby Show and Any Day Now.

Alexis Denisof is best know for bringing his charm and wit to the role of Wesley Wyndam-Price, a role he originated on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and then continued as a regular on the Buffy spinoff Angel.

A native of Salisbury, Maryland, Denisof grew up in Seattle, where he began his acting career in productions at the distinguished ACT (A Contemporary Theatre). Following high school, Denisof continued his training overseas when he was accepted at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. While in London, Denisof enjoyed a prolific stage career, appearing as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Hamlet opposite Ian McKellan.

Upon graduation, Denisof gained his first national exposure in a George Harrison rock video, which led to his feature film debut in the British film Murder Story. His other film credits include the Sundance Film Festival hit The Misadventures of Margaret opposite Parker Posey and Brooke Shields, True Blue and First Knight. He also stars in the upcoming film Beyond the City Limits along with Nastassja Kinski and Alyson Hannigan.

Denisof is a veteran of several television projects including cable television's Hostile Waters and the television miniseries Noah's Ark opposite Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen.

Andy Hallett was raised in the tiny Cape Cod village of Osterville, Massachusetts, part of the town of Barnstable. He attended Barnstable High School and then Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He spent his early years hiding his love for singing and performing. He would lock himself in his room when his parents weren't home and belt out his favorite tunes. Hallett eventually got to live out his dream on the Joss Whedon series Angel as Lorne, a wisecracking "good demon" who runs a karaoke establishment and can read the thoughts and souls of patrons when they sing.

Hallett considered himself shy until he had a life-changing experience at a Patti LaBelle concert. She invited him on stage to sing "Lady Marmalade" with her and when he received applause and requests for photographs, he realized that show business was in his future.

After moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting, Hallett worked as a runner at a talent agency, a property manager and a personal assistant. Angel creator and executive producer Joss Whedon saw Hallett singing at a blues revue and conceived the character of Lorne. Hallett was invited to try out for the part and landed the role, his first job as an actor.

In addition to Angel, Hallett has also starred in The Enforcers, a television mini-series about young mobsters starring James Marsters, Tangi Miller and Michelle Trachtenberg, and in the independent film Chance, written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star, Amber Benson.

James Marsters is best known for his role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the vampire Spike, a role he reprised for the hit spin-off Angel.

Born in the remote northern logging town of Greenville, California and raised in Modesto, California, Marsters always knew he wanted to be an actor. From his debut as Eeyore in a fourth grade production of Winnie the Pooh, he went on to study acting at New York's prestigious Juilliard School. He began his professional career in the theater, performing in stage productions including The Tempest and Red Noses at Chicago's renowned Goodman Theatre. In addition, Marsters revisited the stage in Los Angeles with a starring role in an original play produced by Noah Wyle titled The Why.

Marsters made his onscreen debut guest-starring on the television series Northern Exposure. He landed the prominent role of an ill-at-ease priest, which was cast locally in Seattle, soon after moving to the Pacific Northwest. He was inspired by the success to move to Los Angeles and within months was sinking his proverbial teeth into the role of Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Marsters, no stranger to television, starred in the anthology series Strange Frequency for VH1, as well as in Gene Roddenbury's Andromeda.

Other credits include the feature film The House on Haunted Hill, a psychological horror film which also starred Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs and Lisa Loeb.

In the summer of 2003, Marsters toured Europe with his band, Ghost of the Robot, to promote their new CD, Mad Brilliant. The band sold out all of their engagements in London and Germany.

A man currently on trial for smuggling Asian prostitutes begs Angel to help. Angel notes that he is guilty and says he should pay the consequences. The man says that if Angel doesn't get him acquitted, he'll "drop the bomb" and everyone in California will die.

Spike is bound to an amulet which holds his essence. Gunn warns them that the new regime at Wolfram and Hart is ruffling a lot of feathers among demons as Angel tries to put a dangerous necromancer, Hainsley, out of business.

Angel tries to help a young woman, Nina, who has been turned into a werewolf and is being pursued by a group of truly rarified gourmets.

After being menaced by a series of gruesome ghosts no one else can see, Spike finally comes face to face with the spectral being who's been trying to drag him into hell.

Strange things happen when Lorne has his sleep removed right before Wolfram and Hart's big Halloween party.

While losing heart for his own career as a hero, Angel befriends a disheartened, elderly hero, and battles an Aztec warrior demon who literally eats the hearts of heroes.

When Wesley's father visits Wolfram and Hart, the firm is attacked by a troop of spooky Ninja cyborgs.

After Spike receives a strange package, Wolfram and Hart employees are possessed by evil... while Angel and Spike are set against each other in a quest that brings their 100-year-old rivalry to a head.

When Harmony wakes up next to a dead man with vampire bites in his neck, she's afraid she lost her head and killed him... but she can't remember doing it.

While Spike is talked into taking up the good-deeds business, Eve looses a soul-sucking parasite on Angel, who then suffers disturbing, feverish hallucinations as he sleeps.

A deranged vampire Slayer is convinced that Spike is the man who kidnapped and tortured her when she was a child.

When Lindsey returns and tries to defeat Angel using a secret "failsafe" entity created by the Powers That Be, Cordelia emerges from her coma to help save Angel.

A World War II submarine sailor -- the only man Angel ever turned into a vampire since regaining his soul -- returns to seek his revenge.

While Nina the werewolf shows romantic interest in Angel, he investigates a demon-infested children's television program and gets turned into a puppet; Gunn makes a deal to keep his newly implanted mental powers; and Wes and Fred's relationship heats up.

After being breathed on by an ancient sarcophagus, Fred contracts a mysterious illness and lies near death while Angel and his friends try to figure out what's wrong with her.

Mourning Fred's death, Angel and his friends vow to find a way to bring her back, which leads to a confrontation with the ancient god Illyria, who now occupies Fred's body.

Angel, Gunn, and Spike rescue Lindsey from a suburban hell dimension; Lorne and Eve are pursued by a representative of the Senior Partners; and Wesley consoles Illyria, who hates her new world.

When a warlock brings Connor back into Angel's life, Wesley finds out that Angel has tinkered with the memories of his friends.

As Angel and Hamilton urge Wesley to get rid of Illyria, she suffers a potentially cataclysmic physical breakdown; and Gunn clashes with Angel over the enforcement of an evil demon contract.

While Angel and Spike go to Italy to retrieve the head of a demon mobster (and save Buffy from a new suitor), Fred's parents arrive at Wolfram and Hart, looking for their daughter.

As Angel's behavior grows increasingly hostile, his friends learn he's associating with members of an evil secret society, and may have deliberately engineered Fred's death.

Angel and his friends prepare for their "suicide" attack on the Circle of the Black Thorn.