Charisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase, Sunnydale’s sharpest tongue turned genuine hero over in Los Angeles. Two decades later, she’s revisiting the show herself, for the first time, with fans along for the ride.
Watching Buffy for the First Time, on Her Own Terms
In 2025, Carpenter launched “The Bitch Is Back,” a podcast built around a genuinely unusual premise: she’d never actually sat down and watched her own show.
Episode by episode, she’s working through “Buffy” and “Angel” for the first time, reacting in real time, bringing on former castmates like Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, and Amber Benson to reminisce along with her. I
t’s become one of the more distinctive entries in the crowded rewatch-podcast space precisely because there’s no nostalgia performance to it, she’s genuinely seeing it fresh, more than two decades later.
What Else She’s Doing Now
Carpenter also reprised Cordelia in 2023 for “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story,” an audio drama that reunited her with James Marsters, Anthony Head, Emma Caulfield Ford, and Juliet Landau.
On screen, she’s kept a steady pace of guest and supporting roles, including a part in the 2026 thriller “The Dating App Nightmare” and a turn as Dr. Joan Unger in 2025’s “The Doctor with Two Faces.”
She’s also stayed a regular on the convention circuit, most recently appearing alongside Boreanaz and Marsters at Comic Con Manchester in July 2026, along with fellow Buffyverse alums Amy Acker and Julie Benz, the kind of reunion that keeps happening because the cast has genuinely stayed close.
Life Off-Screen
Carpenter was married to Damian Hardy from 2002 to 2008, and they have one son together, born the same year they married.
Off screen, she’s spent years deeply involved in philanthropy, working closely with the Thirst Project, an international charity focused on bringing clean drinking water to communities without it, and the Ronan Thompson Foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research.
Where Else to Watch Her
Cordelia’s sharp comic timing carried straight into Carpenter’s other work. She played Lacy in “The Expendables” and its sequel, holding her own in an ensemble stacked with action-movie legends.
She also had recurring roles on “Charmed” as a psychic demon and on “Veronica Mars” as Kendall Casablancas, plus a guest arc on “Sons of Anarchy” for fans who want to see her in something considerably darker than Sunnydale.
She also reunited with fellow Buffy alum James Marsters years later, guest starring together as a pair of centuries-old married witches in a 2011 episode of “Supernatural,” playing off their old Buffy chemistry in a genre that clearly still suits both of them.
Cordelia spent her Buffy years being underestimated and her Angel years proving everyone wrong. Carpenter’s currently doing something similar in reverse, revisiting the show that made her famous with fresh eyes, more than twenty years later.
All seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Catch up with other cast members:
- Sarah Michelle Gellar: Where Is She Now?
- David Boreanaz: Where Is He Now?
- James Marsters: Where Is He Now?
- Alyson Hannigan: Where Is She Now?
- Nicholas Brendon: His Career, Legacy & Life After ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
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