“American Horror Story” has given audiences a lot to chew on over the years: wildly inventive themes, sadistic imagery, over-the-top performances and gleefully macabre mythology.
But arguably its greatest contribution to television since its debut in 2011 is its characters, an ever-expanding company of ill-fated spooks and kooks who rarely find a happy ending, and yet we relish in watching their descent into whatever brand of hell the series is conjuring that season. The citizens of this connected universe of horror storytelling, from creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchuk, are ultimately what stitch it all together, and have proven to be the enduring draw for audiences left wanting more from their favorites.
For its 13th season, “AHS” has banked on the bedrock of those characters by dipping back into its stable of actors and their alter egos for a mashup season. The satanic-centric story has been a chaotic exercise in fan service, with varying degrees of success. When it works, there are undeniable pleasures in seeing characters thought to be done and dusted come back for one more shot at a good line reading or an uncanny interaction with someone who shares their face. Many of those characters are on this list, some elevated by the extra screen time and some demoted for disrupting a previously perfect storyline.
As “AHS” plays the hits for 13, let’s rank the best characters from the series. The following list isn’t necessarily a grading of performance, but rather character arc, impact and sheer entertainment value. It should also be noted that “AHS13” focuses almost exclusively on characters from the first eight seasons, with good reason. Even for their flaws, those characters are the series’ best work. More recent seasons were considered for this list, but frankly, “AHS” hasn’t aged all that well –– even though some of its characters have.
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Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt (Leslie Grossman)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Grossman has been making a meal out of Murphy-scripted roles since she appeared on “Popular,” his first series, as Mary Cherry, so “AHS” is better off with her among its ranks. But she doesn’t get enough credit for taking so-so characters within this world and really making them sing — or scream. Take Coco St. Pierre, a Beverly Hills-bred socialite who thinks she has survived the “Apocalypse” only to learn she is really a mind-wiped witch hidden right under the nose of the Antichrist. But her power is the ability to detect gluten, and that’s not a joke. She’s a witch who believes she has nothing to provide her coven. Rather, she functions as a supportive sister who contributes to morale as much as magic, until her time comes. Stay with us here, because in “AHS13,” Coco uses her gluten spidey sense to take down the Zodiac killer by inducing diabetic shock. None of those words have ever been spoken together before, so Coco deserves her flowers for making history.
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Montana Duke (Billie Lourd)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Lourd has played a number of major roles in “AHS,” chief among them Mallory, one of its most powerful, if not the most powerful, witch. But with all due respect to that character, Lourd has never been more fun than when she was trying on the bleached blonde wig of Montana Duke, the aerobics instructor turned right hand of the Night Stalker in “1984.” The second she tore down a mouthy student in her Midnight Manerobics class, we were hooked. Did she go off the rails when it was revealed she was behind some of the slashing at Camp Redwood? Sure, but to be fair, no one was innocent that season. At least she had deranged fun with it. By the end, she becomes the eternal Walmart greeter standing at the gates of the camp. Which makes sense because she’s the only one from this season we’d ever like to encounter again.
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Nora Montgomery (Lily Rabe)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Among the tragedies plastering the walls of the Murder House like wallpaper, few were as gut-wrenching as that of Nora Montgomery, played in her “AHS” debut by fan-favorite Rabe. Nora’s mad doctor husband Charles (Matt Ross) built her the lavish home that would become a hellish prison for so many, and her spoiled and needy attitude didn’t exactly start it off on the right foot. Rabe’s prickly characterization of Nora as a woman who craves motherhood only to push it away when it gets tough could have been unforgivable. But she still managed to make the audience care for Nora when her son was dismembered, and again when Charles decided to Frankenstein him into a monster of reanimated horror. The bewildered Nora constantly wandering the halls, unaware she is what haunts them with the melancholy of her unfulfilled life, left a stain that still lingers.
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Miss Evers (Mare Winningham)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX The kindly but deranged laundress tending to the soiled sheets of the Hotel Cortez is never a leading figure in Season 5, but she benefits from “Hotel”’s talent for giving its sprawling supporting cast a taste of main character energy. Devoted to mastermind serial murderer and hotel designer Mr. March (Evan Peters), Miss Evers was a tragic figure of 1920s Los Angeles who found hope in the grand vision of her maniacal boss. Winningham had single-episode appearances in “Coven,” “Freak Show” and “Cult,” but here she is central to the understanding why the Hotel Cortez is a mecca for the lost and/or depraved. Her monologue in the finale is a beautiful evolution from willfully agreeing to March’s murder-suicide evasion of justice, to her long-awaited epiphany that an eternity spent serving an ungrateful man isn’t worth the time.
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Beverly Hope (Adina Porter)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Is TV news reporter Beverly Hope a good character, or is Porter just that good of an actor? Regardless of the answer, no “AHS” list is complete without the Emmy-nominated powerhouse, and there’s no better role than the one she was nominated for. “Cult,” as a season of storytelling, is as uneven as it is heavy handed in its post-2016 election nightmare. Yet it’s hard to take your eyes off Porter’s rage-filled reporter who finds purpose in the murderous promises of Trumpster and aspiring cult leader Kai Anderson (Evan Peters). Porter found in Beverly a recognizable discontent and fury that both sides of the aisle wrestled with in the aftermath of 2016. Despite her blood-soaked misdeeds, Beverly became a somewhat sympathetic figure once she was confronted with the all-too-real disappointment people find in the idols they glorify, who break promises as quickly as they make them. Ultimately, Beverly was a hero for snuffing out Kai, even if she is the one who helped first inflate his ego.
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Agnes Mary Winstead (Kathy Bates)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX A decade later, who could have predicted “Roanoke” would be the most controversial season of the series? Still, it will always get credit for its creative structure, as a sharply rendered true-crime docuseries that switches halfway through to damn the actors of said series to their own nightmarish fates. At the switch, audiences meet Agnes Mary Winstead, a devoted thespian who has taken her role as the Mad Butcher of the Roanoke Colony too far and comes back to stalk the co-stars and crew that spurned her. Bates’ unhinged embrace of Agnes’ psychosis was genuinely thrilling. But it is also a rather pointed commentary on actors who disappear into their roles, showing the lonely spectrum of skill and sadness one can face when committing to the craft. Her execution by the cleaver of the real Mad Butcher was also pointed.
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Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection “Freak Show” was pretty clear on its stance of who you should call a freak, and that was Dandy Mott, the privileged mama’s boy whose beautiful looks masked a deep-seated evil and callous hatred for life –– human or otherwise. Wittrock’s portrayal of one of the franchise’s most vile characters is a fan favorite because Dandy was a sicko who didn’t need to be supernatural to be scary. From killing animals to robbing the world of Patti LaBelle, Dandy was a demented person with the means to explore it. Training under Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) certainly didn’t help Dandy overcome his lethal case of only child syndrome with a dash of FOMO. But he got his due in the end, proving some evils can be curbed with old-fashioned karma and Houdini’s famous Chinese Water Torture Cell tank.
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The Countess (Lady Gaga)
Image Credit: Courtey of FX Getting Lady Gaga to succeed Jessica Lange as the grand high bitch (compliment!) of the “AHS” franchise, at least for the “Hotel” season, was an inspired choice. Giving her a character worthy of her gravitas and flare for the dramatic was a taller order. In hindsight, The Countess is more of a vibe than a character. She glided in and out of the shadows of the Hotel Cortez, feeding on Angelenos, tourists and the scenery as she made the dark souls of the hotel quake with fear. She was a living tribute to Gaga’s own prowess for fashion and fame, and proud embodiment of the misplaced fear she inspires in those who don’t understand her. The Countess was a vampire-ish villain, so it was OK that she was essentially there suck all the air out of any room she was in –– and Gaga delivered.
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Tate Langdon (Evan Peters)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Not a single thing Tate Langdon does in “Murder House” should be commended. Even his attempt to gently ease Violet (Taissa Farmiga) into the idea of her own death is riddled with self-serving delays. Yet, Peters is able to inspire, in his first “AHS” role, a deeply complicated empathy for the last person who deserves it. Sure, Tate had a rough upbringing with less-than-desirable parents, but murdering your classmates to work out those feelings is nothing short of reprehensible. The passing of time since “Murder House” (and America’s frustrating cycle of school shootings) has only further hindered any redemptive qualities in Tate. But the fact that audiences even tried to find some means of liking him in the first place laid the groundwork for similar ill-advised character evaluations in future seasons. Tate was a trailblazer in that way, forcing those who fell under his spell to question their own tolerance for evil.
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Papa Legba (Lance Reddick)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Not everyone can be the Big Bad in the “AHS” universe. Someone has to strike fear in even the darkest hearts, and Papa Legba (the late Reddick) has a knack for it. Originally summoned in “Coven,” he has the power to grant immortality in exchange for your eternal soul. He’s the Gatekeeper of the Spirit World, a job he executes with a sinister smile. Look no further than his sick sense of humor in designing a two-for-one eternal hell for enemies Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) and Delphine LaLaurie (Bates). Reddick’s performance infused the character with a certain ie ne sais quoi no one can replicate, but after the actor’s death in 2023, Orlando Jones stepped in for Papa’s return for “AHS13”–– and did his predecessor justice.
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Moira O’Hara (Frances Conroy and Alexandra Breckenridge)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy:Everett Collection / Everett Collection “Murder House” set the tone for what this show could do, and one of the more memorable characters trapped on the fateful Los Angeles property was Conroy’s Moira O’Hara, the housekeeper cursed to dust its mantles for all eternity. Conroy gave Moira a quiet resolve that became a saving grace for Vivian Harmon (Connie Britton), who saw her as the old soul she was. Conversely, Breckenridge imbued Moira with a seductive allure when seen as the younger temptress by Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott). Two sides of the same coin, Moira took the audience’s hand and gently walked us into this world, and for that, she will always be among our saints.
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Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Try as they might, multiple seasons of “AHS” have attempted to extinguish the fire that is human voodoo doll Queenie, and none have been successful. A descendant of both the Salem witches and the New Orleans voodoo community, she walks in both worlds and is among the stronger connective threads of the franchise’s mythology having appeared in “Coven,” “Hotel,” “Apocalypse” and “AHS13.” A child of foster care, Queenie has clung to the family she found at Miss Robichaux’s Academy. Even when she questioned her place among them and felt the temptation of her voodoo roots, she found her way back to “Coven” leader Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson). But Queenie should be celebrated most as one of the best “AHS” scene partners. Whether it’s with her fellow witches, or tormenting the racist disembodied head of Delphine (Bates) or beating Mr. March at cards in the Hotel Cortez, she is a fiery constant in a franchise that needs it.
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Hypodermic Sally (Sarah Paulson)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX There is something cancerous about “Hotel,” and it is best represented by Paulson’s turn as Hypodermic Sally. As tarry and disagreeable as the drugs she injected into her veins, Sally brought a bitterness to the Cortez that could have been unpalatable. Yet, she wore viewers down to her ways as the voyeuristic jester of the hotel. She was no stranger to the pain of its story, and she often contributed to it, but there was also a lightness to her, thanks to an often side-splitting humor in her nastiness. It’s as if she found, in death, the home that eluded her in life. Plus, a fleeting scene of her cuddled up in bed lit only by the light of her phone has become a meme that embodies an entire generation of doomscollers.
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Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection Full disclosure: Fraulein Elsa Mars moved up this list after her return in “AHS13,” simply because she made the most of her one scene. Some worried the wannabe actress never got her comeuppance after “Freak Show.” But her singular appearance as a minion of Satan, resurrected at his whim to perform for a crowd that could care less, was her own form of hell –– and it is “AHS13” at its sporadic best. Charged with throwing bad women of history into the flames of hell was an amusing ritual, but her razor-sharp disdain for Margaret Thatcher (also played impeccably by Lange) was the funniest thing this show has done in years. In her original run, the Nazi Germany survivor abandoned the outcasts who trusted her to give them a safe space in a world. Lange has long said this was her passion role for the series, and she exited stage left (for a while at least) after Elsa’s swan song. What she left behind was a stunning stage presence (see: her David Bowie cover “Life on Mars”) and a special breed of bad that many characters inherited by virtue of her existence.
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Misty Day (Lily Rabe)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection Rabe’s achingly naive swamp witch Misty Day is not unlike the fragile animals she can reanimate with her gifts. The world wasn’t kind to her delicate disposition, and yet she found acceptance and shelter among the girls of Miss Robichaux’s Academy. This sensitive soul getting one of the show’s crueler fates — trapped in hell dissecting a frog on a loop — gave “Coven” palpable stakes and grim consequences that later seasons have unfortunately undone. We want Misty safe and sound, but her loss was gutting in the most effective way. Perhaps her greatest gift is that anytime she is around, the White Witch herself, Stevie Nicks, tends to appear for an acoustic set — and that’s never a bad thing.
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Mr. March (Evan Peters)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Prashant Gupta / FX Networks Some of Peters’ best work in all of “AHS” is done from behind the pencil-thin mustache of Mr. March, the brains and brutality behind the Hotel Cortez. This trickster god of a character who bathed in his own horrific acts of violence has become unexpectedly central to our understanding of the franchise’s mythology. In “Hotel,” he convenes the Devil’s Night serial killer dinner party, and eventually he collects souls from various corners of this universe in “AHS13.” He is among the few to enjoy his eternal damnation, spent serving as the bloody legend he always wanted to be. He’s a psychopath who revels in his own madness, and loves holding court whenever the laws of this supernatural universe allow.
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Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection Myrtle Snow did more with a single word than most later-season “AHS” characters did with a whole storyline. The Witches Council alum turned sage advisor to Miss Robichaux’s Academy served, perhaps, the series’ best example of pure camp when she chose “Balencegia!” as her final word before burning at the stake. But she’s more than her (faux) end. From under her crimped rustic red mop, Conroy has turned a supporting character into an icon with candor and staunch loyalty for her fellow witches. These days, she exists mostly to shade those threatening the “Coven” witches and advocate for their charred end. She had to endure that fate, why shouldn’t they?
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Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX Paulson’s most revisited character has become somewhat of a patron saint of the “AHS” series. Initially timid compared to her barn-burner of a mother, Fiona (Lange), Cordelia rose to become the Supreme the “Coven” witches needed. She was strong without being cruel, capable without alienating the next generation and forward-thinking for the sake of the coven. Her anguish about putting her girls through the deadly test of the Seven Wonders, and the losses she suffers along the way, has built the character into a pillar of strength in an ominous world, one that is still allowed to occasionally tremble under the pressure. Since she was one of the few to benefit from further exploration in “Apocalypse,” hopefully “AHS13” leaves Cordelia’s legacy intact.
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Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX “AHS” continues to retcon the story of faded-starlet-turned-bitchy-witch Madison Montgomery with repeated appearances. But initially, she was a vessel for the angst and anger that came with being a young woman unsure of how to wield her literal and metaphorical powers. Her unwavering cynicism made her eternally viral “Surprise, bitch” moment such an enduring classic, and “Coven” initially treats her as a lost cause. Then “Apocalypse” turned her into a reluctant hero, and now “AHS13” has fully bent her trajectory toward foul-mouthed savior (which culminates in lighting a cigarette off the charred corpse of Jeffrey Dahmer … because, sure). She’s best when she is at war with her fellow witches as much as herself, but her impact is undeniable. Just look at who continues to stand beside Cordelia in her various battles against dark forces. Like it or not, Madison is here to save the day.
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Sister Jude Martin (Jessica Lange)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX As its second installment, “Asylum” had a lot to prove to launch “AHS” into an anthology series, so it threw everything at the audience: aliens, religion, musical numbers, Nazis. But no character goes through it like Sister Jude, a ruthless nun running from a murky past who reigns over Briarcliff Asylum with an iron fist and a cabinet full of wooden whips. Her fall from grace, becoming an institutionalized shell of herself after being subjected to the very electroshock therapy she once prescribed, proved that Sister Jude reaped what she sowed. But like the best “AHS” characters, she had enough complexity that her rather sweet ending also felt justified. Jude’s reckoning with her own horrors made her the rare person you love to loathe and hate to watch leave.
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Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection “AHS” can create all the creatures and demons it wants, but some of the worst threats already exist in the real world — and New Orleans nightmare Delphine LaLaurie is one of them. A murderer, enslaver, sadist and racist, “AHS” did Madame LaLaurie a service she didn’t deserve: It cast Bates to play her. Throughout her run in “Coven,” part of which was just as a disembodied head, Delphine is repeatedly and rightfully held to task for her unrepentant disregard for others. When she watches President Barack Obama on TV and bristles at being made to serve Queenie, you realize even hell isn’t hot enough for her.
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Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX No one runs toward the screams of “AHS” quite like Lana Winters. To her credit, things couldn’t get much worse for Paulson’s intrepid journalist after she was admitted against her will to Briarcliff; subjected to electroshock and conversion therapy to reverse her queer identity; raped, imprisoned and impregnated by a serial killer named Blood Face (Zachary Quinto); and then left to kill the resulting child years later after his own killing spree. Lana’s story could have been relentlessly depressing, but instead she became an imperfect beacon of resilience. She let her ambition for fame and recognition drive her after escaping Briarcliff, but who can blame her? Later appearances in “Roanoke” and “Cult” proved she got what she always wanted: a career spent calling out injustice and evil.
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Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX By Season 3, “AHS” needed a spark of life to shake things up, and Bassett brought it with a sizzling superiority as famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau. The series had fleeting brushes with real people before (see: the legends of The Black Dahlia and Anne Frank), but Marie was among the first to be a main character in the story. Bassett brought to this voodoo icon a banshee scream for respect as one of New Orleans’ most important historic figures. Her messy methods, killer instincts and incredibly potent threats, exquisitely conveyed by Bassett’s seething line delivery and body language, made her a force to be reckoned with, and a character who levels up this series every time she returns.
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Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection The mean streak of Fiona Goode is something unrivaled in the “AHS” universe. A blistering presence from her first scene in “Coven,” she is a menace to anyone with a pulse, even her own kind. The fact that Fiona wasn’t a cartoonish villain is a true testament to why Lange was such a great match for the early seasons of “AHS.” Fiona was selfish, vain, scared, reckless, witty, proud and literally soulless, as revealed by Papa Legba. Lange played every one of those as if it was her defining trait. But her danger lay in the fact that she built any semblance of self on the power she was given, only to watch it slowly slip away to another. Her punishment at the end of the season was humorous, yes, but it worked because hell came for her well before Fiona was damned to it. A knotty-pine eternity with the Axman was just the cherry on top.
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Liz Taylor (Denis O’Hare)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Prashant Gupta / FX Networks Although he had been part of “AHS” since the beginning, O’Hare wasn’t given something worthy of his depth until “Hotel” introduced audiences to the lavishly drawn Liz Taylor. Adorned in the kind of glamour and confidence that only comes from a well-earned journey of self-discovery, Liz Taylor is among the few selling points of the Cortez. The keeper of the secrets and the queen of the side eye, Liz managed to bind together the mismatched souls of the hotel. When she decides to end her life on the grounds of the Cortez instead of letting cancer take her, everyone trapped in its walls came to welcome her –– even The Countess, who was never more merciful than when she encouraged Liz to embrace her true identity. O’Hare deserves tremendous credit for the compassionate humanity he wove into Liz, and “Hotel” is better as a season and as a tourist trap because her company is among its amenities.
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Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe)
Image Credit: ©FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection Rabe is the most underrated ringer of “AHS” players for sheer volume of classic characters. Viewers first meet “Asylum”’s meek Sister Mary Eunice as she fumbles her way through a day as the second in command to Sister Jude. Her desperation to earn her place at Briarcliff makes her an easy target for the disembodied soul of the devil, who straightens Mary’s spine, fills her with hate and a penchant for sowing chaos. Rabe’s ability to make Innocent Mary and Possessed Mary feel like two distinct characters in one vessel is extraordinary, oscillating seamlessly between gentle soul and gleeful hellion who just wants to watch the Christians be eaten.. Mary makes other “AHS” monsters look like child’s play, and the loss of her light — even in the eyes of Nazi Dr. Arden (James Cromwell), one of those monsters — reiterated the price so many paid at Briarcliff and throughout “AHS.”
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Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange)
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX There is nothing the “AHS” audience hungers for more than Constance Langdon. A human horror in a series of supernatural terrors, Lange’s first (and best) role in “Murder House” remains unmatched. No wonder Murphy and company couldn’t resist anchoring “AHS13” in her resurrection as a servant of Satan with nothing better to do than help bring about the end of days for the hell of it. All she wants out of it is a misguided maternal request to be reunited with her children, Tate and Addie (Jamie Brewer), whom she repeatedly failed. But nursing the gooey corpse of the devil is hardly her worst trait. During her “Murder House” run, Constance was the acid-tongued neighborhood gossip, the negligent mother of a bad seed, the jilted wife with a gun, the jaded silver-screen wannabe who watched her dream wither on the vine, and perhaps most dangerously, the lost soul desperate for a purpose. With her Southern drawl and bigoted worldview, Constance was and remains the promise of the show’s title. For all its murderers, aliens, witches, vampires, cults, clowns, diseases, demons and carnies, she is the horror story worthy of America — a flesh-and-blood human who’d rather watch her neighbors die than be inconvenienced.