List of American Horror Story cast members

This is a list of characters from the FX television series American Horror Story.

Season 1

Main characters

• Dr. Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott), a psychiatrist, married to Vivien Harmon and the father of Violet Harmon until their deaths during the first season. At the series' start, Ben had an affair with one of his psychiatry students, Hayden, after his wife Vivien had a stillbirth. As a result, he and Vivien decided to move the family from Boston to Los Angeles in an attempt to start anew. Months after Vivien had discovered the affair, Hayden fell pregnant to Ben. Ben returned to Boston to be with Hayden and support her through an abortion. He leaves while Hayden is in the operating theatre after discovering multiple missed calls from Vivien. Hayden later shows up in Los Angeles and reveals to Ben that she had not received an abortion and planned on moving to Los Angeles so they could raise the baby together. Holding psychiatric sessions inside the house, most of Ben's patients end up being killed. He had one true recurring patient, Tate, who liked Ben's pushing his boundaries. Once Tate overstepped his patient boundaries and began to date Ben's daughter, Violet, Ben tried to stop seeing Tate as a client. Ben and Vivien's married life became strained, due to her not forgiving him. After a heated argument with Ben, the two made love. Some time later, a figure in black latex appeared in the bedroom door and Vivien believed it to be Ben, wishing to continue the lovemaking, but Ben is seen sleepwalking downstairs. She becomes pregnant with twins. Ben learns that the babies have different fathers— him and the Rubber Man,who he learns had raped Vivien. He soon discovers that the Rubber Man is the father of the other baby. The costumed figured appears to Ben and they scuffle. Ben is able to pull the mask off to discover the other man is Tate. In "Afterbirth," the season one finale, after his wife and daughter have died in the house, Ben attempts to escape with his newborn son. He is murdered by the ghost of Hayden, when she and the ghosts of the home invaders forcibly hang him from a light fixture. He is presumed by the living to have committed suicide due to his wife's death. As a ghost in the house, he and Vivien take it upon themselves to scare away new tenants and avoid allowing any more tragedy or deaths.

• Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) was a housewife and a former cellist. Prior to the series' beginning, she had a stillbirth that caused her to withdraw from her husband Ben, who then had an affair with Hayden, one of his college students. Vivien was horrified when her doctor suggests a hormone therapy to help her heal after the miscarriage. In the process of dealing with the issues of her husband and the loss of their baby, she somewhat neglects her daughter Violet, but they do seem to have a loving relationship. Vivien had been repulsed at the idea of any sexual contact with Ben, yet seemed committed to keeping the family together and to patching things up to go on with their lives. She slowly warmed to her husband enough to participate in what she then thought was a kinky sexual encounter with Ben in a rubber bondage suit. Vivien soon discovers she is pregnant with twins, but later learns that due to heteropaternal superfecundation, only one of the babies was Ben's, and the other was Tate's. When Ben's now-pregnant college student, Hayden, shows up in Los Angeles to lure him away from Vivien and is subsequently killed, her ghost and others plot to drive Vivien insane, in order to get her out of the house and to have Ben (and the house's ghost mothers) raise the children. In the "Birth" episode, Ben and Vivien learn one of twins has grown rapidly, draining the other of nutrients, and may arrive at any time. Vivien gives birth to both — one of which is stillborn, the other healthy. She dies in the house during the birth, and is currently a ghost in the house. In death, Vivien is able to forgive Ben. She and Ben together, with the help of other ghosts, resolve to scare away any new tenants in order to avoid further death in the house.

• Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) was the teenaged daughter of Vivien and Ben Harmon until her death. She was upset at her family moving, as well as with her father's infidelity and mother's stillbirth. Violet had been shown to self-harm from the start of the series. She befriends one of her father's patients Tate Langdon, and eventually falls in love with him. However, she discovers that he is in fact a ghost who murdered his classmates in a school shooting. Overcome with both fear and shock, she attempts to commit suicide by ingesting a bottle of pills, and is seemingly saved by Tate. However, Tate revealed to her, in the "Smoldering Children" episode, that she was successful and is a ghost, by showing her that he moved her body to the crawl space of the house. Neither she nor her parents were aware of this, because she remained in the house. Eventually, she discovers that Tate was the man who raped her mother, along with murdering the previous tenants of the house. As a result, she banishes him from seeing her. In the season one finale, she returned to him once again when he decides to murder the teenage boy who is currently living in the house in order for Violet to have someone forever. She told Tate that she in fact wanted him, and kissed him goodbye. However, it is shown that she only did this so Tate would let the boy go. Tate later told Hayden that he will "wait forever" for Violet to speak to him again.

• Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) is the next door neighbor to the Harmons, and a former resident of the house. Constance had four children: Tate, Adelaide, Beauregard, and one other unnamed child. She tells Vivien that her womb is "cursed" because three of her four children were born with some sort of deformity (down syndrome), and they have all died. Constance originally moved from Virginia to California in order to become a movie star, but did not want to do nudity, so her career never got off the ground. She was soon pregnant with her first child, Adelaide. At some point in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Constance and her family moved into the house. In 1983, she caught her husband, Hugo, about to have sex with the maid, Moira, and she shot and killed them both. She buried Moira's body in the backyard and ground Hugo in a meat grinder and fed him to her dogs. At an unknown time, and possibly due to financial hardship as evidenced by the unpaid bills in the beginning of the Birth episode, Constance and her family moved out. The Harvey family moved in next, and Constance began to take advantage of Larry in order to move back in the house. In 1994, Larry told his wife Lorraine of his intentions to divorce her and move the Langdon family back in with him; Lorraine then killed herself and their children in a fire. Not long after, Constance asked Larry to kill her son Beauregard, who was going to be taken away by child services due to Constance's neglectful and abusive parenting method of chaining him in the attic. Larry smothered "Beau" with a pillow, and Beau still haunts the attic where his mother had kept him chained. Later that year, her son Tate set Larry Harvey on fire for murdering his brother, Beau. Afterwards, Tate went on a shooting spree in which he killed 15 people. A SWAT team later shoots Tate in his bedroom, killing him. Constance's last living child, Adelaide, was struck by a car on Halloween and died before Constance could get her to the "Murder House" property so that she would come back as a ghost. Constance's much younger boyfriend, Travis, was murdered in the basement by the ghost of Hayden and is still in the house, in addition to Beau and Tate. In the season one finale, after the Harmon family died, Constance abducted her grandson and raised him in secrecy. Three years later, Constance claimed to her hairdresser that, with all the tragedy she's been through, that with the baby she has been given a chance to be the mother of someone destined for "greatness." The last moments show that her now three-year-old grandson, Michael, has inherited his father Tate's murderous tendencies and lack of remorse; he has brutally murdered his nanny, and is gleefully sitting next to her corpse. Constance does not react in fear or disgust, but says in the final seconds with some pride, "What am I going to do with you?"

• Tate Langdon (Evan Peters as older Tate, Paul Butler as younger Tate) was the son of Constance Langdon and brother of Adelaide, Beauregard, and at least one other sibling. He befriends and becomes the boyfriend of Violet Harmon. He first appears in the pilot as one of Ben's new patients. While in session, he describes an ongoing dream where he kills other people at his high school. It is then revealed in "Halloween: Part 2" that Tate was allegedly responsible for a school shooting that took the lives of fifteen of his classmates. During Halloween night, he and Violet are visited by the ghosts of his last five victims since this was the only time that Tate had ever left the house. He was killed at home when SWAT-team members shot him 17 times for pulling a gun. It is implied by Constance that Tate's violent and unstable behavior is the result of the house's influence, but he is also shown using meth the morning of the shooting. This is further supported by a teacher at the school, who said it seemed out of character for him. As a ghost, he has murdered numerous people in the house, often while dressed in a latex fetish suit. He also raped and impregnated Vivien. Tate has claimed to know nothing about the murders he committed, while being alive nor after his own death, but it is revealed in the season one finale that Tate has known all along and is simply in denial/unable to take responsibility for his actions. Upon finding out that Tate had raped her mother, and was therefore responsible for her death, Violet breaks up with him, and banishes him from contact with her. Tate promises to wait for her to forgive him, even if it means waiting forever.

• Larry Harvey (Denis O'Hare), a.k.a. the "Burned Man", is a former owner of the Harmon's house; he is heavily scarred, and walks with a limp. He originally claimed, in the "Pilot" episode, to acquiring these injuries after he burned his wife and children alive while being possessed by the house. He has also claimed to have been imprisoned for the crime, only being let out due to a fatal illness. Later in the series, it is revealed that Larry had actually been placed into a mental institution after his wife Lorraine killed herself and their daughters Margaret and Angie. Upon learning of Larry's affair and intention to divorce Lorraine and move Constance back into the house, Lorraine sets herself and the children on fire. In that same episode, it is revealed that Tate had actually set fire to Larry, thus scarring him for life. Larry is directly responsible for the death of Ben's mistress Hayden, who he killed with a shovel, as well as the death of at least one of Constance's children, Beau (short for Beauregard), whom he smothered with a pillow per Constance's request. He disposed of Travis' body after Hayden's ghost killed him and, in the "Smoldering Children" episode, implicated himself in the murder as a means of penance for what he had done to his wife and children. He subsequently was arrested and jailed for the murder, and has not been seen since.

Supporting characters

• Moira O'Hara (Frances Conroy as older Moira, Alexandra Breckenridge as younger Moira) was a maid for Constance and her husband, when she was alive, and her ghost continues services for the current occupants of the house. Moira has been shown to appear as an old woman to women and a young woman to men. She was murdered by Constance and buried in the back yard of the house. In the "Halloween" episode of the first season, Moira's ghost performed a mercy killing on her mother in a nursing home/hospital. Out of all the ghosts in the house, Moira genuinely cared for Vivien's well-being, as she does not approve of Hayden's plan to drive her crazy, and she talked to her frequently to comfort her. The younger Moira repeatedly flirted with Ben, and though he continually rebuffed her advances, he did fantasize about her on multiple occasions. Once Ben realized things in the house were not what they seem, he finally saw her in her older form. In the season finale, Moira, in both forms, assisted the Harmon ghosts to prevent any future deaths in the house by scaring away new tenants.

• Adelaide "Addie" Langdon (Jamie Brewer as adult Addie, Katelyn Reed as child Addie) was the daughter of Constance Langdon and sister to Tate, Beauregard, and one other unnamed sibling. She appears to have been born with an unnamed chromosomal condition, possibly down syndrome. Addie would frequently appear inside of or near the house, often giving ominous warnings of death. In the "Halloween" episode, Addie was killed in a hit and run accident. Her mother unsuccessfully tried to bring Addie's body onto the Harmon property in order to keep her ghost near. Addie appeared in the opening scene of "Smoldering Children", which detailed a time when Larry attempted to be a father figure to her and Tate. He mentioned having tickets to a weekend musical, which delighted Addie, but she was corrected by Tate, who was unhappy with the current situation.

• Hayden McClaine (Kate Mara) was the former, emotionally unstable lover and student of Ben Harmon. In the "Home Invasion" episode, she called Ben to request that he return to Boston to support her in getting an abortion. The next episode ("Murder House") revealed that she had not gone through with the abortion. She was moving to Los Angeles and expected Ben to divorce Vivien, pay for all of her expenses, and help her raise the child. Hayden is murdered by Larry Harvey. She is buried in the back yard, alongside Moira's body, and Ben builds a gazebo on top of the grave. Since that episode, Hayden has appeared several times as a ghost to harass the Harmons, particularly to drive Vivien crazy enough to be admitted for psychiatric treatment, and to stake her claim on one of the unborn babies. Convinced by Vivien's ghost to leave the house with their only surviving child, Ben was met at the stairs by Hayden's ghost, and the ghosts of the home invaders Fiona and Dallas. The ghosts garroted Ben, hanging him from the chandelier and strangling him to death. Constance found Ben's body, and immediately went looking for her grandson. She found him in the basement with Hayden's ghost cradling the living twin in her arms, intent on not allowing anyone to take him. Travis sliced her throat, took the baby, and gave it to Constance. Later, Hayden tried to convince Tate's ghost that Violet will never acknowledge him again. He told her that he would "wait forever" for that to happen.

• Marcy (Christine Estabrook) is the Harmons' real estate agent. When the Harmons first viewed the house, Marcy gave them "full disclosure" of the house's history, but in fact only told them about the previous tenants being found in the basement as victims of what was believed to be a murder-suicide. The house's past history has caused its price to drop by half of its worth. The Harmons became the new owners. Once strange things happen to the Harmons, including a home invasion, Vivien forced Marcy into putting the house back onto the market. Several of the new prospects have never been heard from again; and one, Larry, has come across as creepy, causing Marcy to pull a handgun on him. When Vivien started to think the house may be haunted, Marcy believed Vivien was delusional. After the Harmon family dies, she sold the house to a new family, again withholding the history of the house. However, the new tenants didn't stay in the house for very long.

• Chad Warwick (Zachary Quinto) was the house's previous co-owner with Patrick. Chad is shown to be a control-freak, which eventually drives away Patrick who regularly cheats on him. He buys the latex suit in order to accommodate what he believes are Patrick's sexual fantasies, but Patrick laughs at him and mocks him, devastating Chad and driving them further apart than ever. On Halloween, he is murdered, along with Patrick, by the man in the latex suit. The Rubber Man (Tate's ghost) begins to drown Chad in a tub, but ultimately breaks his neck. Both Chad and Patrick are brought into the basement, and their bodies are staged to appear as a murder suicide. It is later revealed that Tate's ghost had previously made a deal with the ghost of Nora to bring a child into the house, by any means necessary. Chad and Patrick were murdered because it appeared their relationship would not last long enough to raise children.

• Patrick (Teddy Sears) was Chad's partner and house co-owner with Chad. He is eventually turned-off by Chad's controlling manner and lack of "manliness", causing him to regularly cheat with other men, including a failed attempt with Ben. Patrick is murdered, along with Chad, by the man in the latex suit (Tate's ghost) because it appeared his relationship with Chad would not last long enough to raise children. After walking in on the Rubber Man killing Chad, Patrick is beaten and sodomized with a fire poker. After he dies, Tate's ghost drags Patrick and Chad into the basement, and stages their bodies to look like a murder/suicide. In death, Patrick and Chad seem to be attempting to reconcile and to raise Vivien's twins, but this ends after Patrick confesses to Tate that he is doomed to spend eternity with someone he doesn't love.

• Leah (Shelby Young) is Violet's bully-turned-companion. On Violet's first day of school, she was seen smoking inside the school's common area by Leah and her friends. Leah confronted the new student to the point of threatening Violet with physical force. Eventually, threats became reality and the two scuffled. Violet plotted with Tate to lure Leah to the house's basement with the promise of a drug deal, which was a ruse to merely scare Leah enough to get her to leave Violet alone. The plan got out of hand and Leah was attacked by a creature in the basement, causing deep facial scars. The scare also caused streaks of grey to later appear in her hair. The experience brought the two together as friends, leading Leah to give Violet pills to help her sleep. However, events caused Violet to overdose on the pills, which she was later saved by Tate.

• Dr. Charles Montgomery (Matt Ross) was a surgeon to the stars who had the house built in 1922. He was a very successful doctor until he became addicted to ether and his reputation faltered. He soon developed a Frankenstein complex, and experimented on animal parts in the basement. Once the family finances grew thin, he began performing illegal abortions in his basement on showgirl clients provided by his wife Nora. After finding out about a secret abortion, an angry boyfriend of one of their clients sought revenge on the Montgomerys by kidnapping and murdering their infant child, Thaddeus. The baby had been dismembered and the remains preserved in jars. Devastated by grief and still high on ether, Dr. Montgomery reassembled their son from his remains, animal parts, and the heart of an abortion client. Upon seeing the monster Charles had resurrected, Nora killed her husband before killing herself. Dr. Montgomery later appeared when he mutilates the body of Elizabeth Short, who also died in the house, so she can be transported with more ease. He is the reason for Short's dismemberment and Glasgow smile. When the time came for Vivien to have her baby, Constance sought help with the birth, in the form of Dr. Montgomery.

• Nora Montgomery (Lily Rabe) was Dr. Montgomery's wife and Thaddeus Montgomery's mother. She was a society debutante before she moved to the new home that her husband built for her; the Tiffany glass fixtures were chosen to match the color of her eyes. Nora was used to a wealthy and privileged lifestyle, and became verbally abusive to her husband when their finances began to suffer. To supplement their dwindling income caused by the lack of work due to his ether addiction, she and her husband provided illegal abortions in the basement of their home; Nora found the clients and anesthetized them, and Charles performed the procedures. After finding out his girlfriend had secretly gotten an abortion behind his back, an angry boyfriend of one of their clients sought revenge on the Montgomerys by kidnapping and murdering their infant child, Thaddeus. The baby had been dismembered and the remains preserved in jars. Dr. Montgomery had developed a Frankenstein complex and reassembled their son from his remains, animal parts, and the heart of an abortion-seeking client. The result was what is referred to as the "Infantata" by the show creators; the creature was deformed and had razor sharp teeth and claws. Nora attempted to breastfeed the creature which resulted in her being bitten on the breast, as the monster desired blood and not milk. She then attempted to kill it with a letter opener, but failed. Upon realizing what her son, husband, and she had become, Nora shot her husband in the head, before turning the gun on herself. When she appears as a ghost, there is an exit wound in the back of her head from the bullet; this seems to cause some memory problems for her since she continuously cries for her son, and intermittently appears to be unaware of what has happened to him.

• Luke (Morris Chestnut) is the Harmons' security patrol officer. Luke developed romantic feelings for Vivien, which she secretly returns. Ben picked up on the attraction and believed that Luke may be the father of one of Vivien's twins. Luke then revealed that he is infertile.

• Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson) is a medium. She was introduced, in the "Piggy Piggy" episode, to Violet, once Violet learned of Tate's murderous past. After seeing Violet's confusion, Billie told Violet about how she herself was "chosen," and how some confused spirits linger on the earth after their deaths. Constance explained that she wanted Ben to treat Tate, to get him to accept his "condition." Constance wanted Violet to help Tate move on. Violet still doubted Billie Dean's validity as a medium, thinking the ladies were setting her up. Billie Dean then asked about a woman named "Mary," a woman whom Billie "sees" formerly telling Violet that people didn't "understand" the girl. Billie asked Violet for the meaning behind the comment. Violet later understood that Tate was indeed dead and appears in his current state as a ghost. Billie Dean eventually told Constance's dead daughter, Adelaide, was angry with her. She asked Constance to "talk" to Addie, which she does. When Constance learned that Tate's ghost had sex with Vivien, she asked Billie Dean what happens when a human copulates with a spirit and there is a conception. Billie Dean told her about the Pope's Box, a locked box to which a new Pope is given a key. Inside is the ultimate secret of the end of the world, foretelling how the anti-Christ, born of human and spirit, will usher in the End of Times.

• Travis Wanderley (Michael Graziadei) first appeared as Constance's "business associate," as he was described by her to Addie when she interrupted them in the "Home Invasion" episode. He was a struggling actor, employed at a call center. He became close enough to Addie to read her stories and hear her secrets, which came across to Constance as Addie trying to take him away from her. After Addie's death, his relationship with Constance became strained. They frequently argued, leading him to become intimate with Hayden's ghost. In the "Spooky Little Girl" episode, he was murdered by her ghost, and is now one of the ghosts in the house. Travis' ghost assisted Constance in the season one finale: when Hayden tried to prevent Constance from taking the living twin out of the house, Travis sliced her throat and handed the baby to Constance.

Minor characters

• Stephanie Boggs (Alessandra Torresani) was a victim of the Westfield High shooting, and the first to die in the library. She was dressed in goth clothes, and died after Tate shot her in the head.

• Kevin Gedman (Jordan David) was a victim of the 1994 Westfield High shooting, and the second to die in the library. Once the shooting began, he ran into the library and barricaded the door. He is wearing a black leather jacket, and is covered in the blood of one of his classmates. He died while begging Tate for his life.

• Amir Stanley (Alexander Nimetz) was a victim of the 1994 Westfield High shooting, and the third to die in the library. He was editor of the yearbook. His ghost cannot speak because Tate shot Amir's jaw off when he tried to dial the phone for help.

• Kyle Greenwell (Brando Eaton) was the fourth library victim of the 1994 Westfield High shooting. Kyle wears a letterman's jacket, and was an football player who had recently earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech. He died after Tate shot him in the head.

• Chloe Stapleton (Ashley Rickards) was the final victim of the 1994 Westfield High shooting. She was a varsity cheerleader, and was shot in the chest by Tate in the library.

• The Twins, Bryan and Troy (Kai and Bodhi Schulz) are two destructive red-haired preadolescents who are victims of the house in the "Pilot" episode. They were killed by the Infantata in 1978. Their ghosts can be seen throughout the first season usually causing trouble, breaking things, and throwing bang snaps.

• Elizabeth Short – The Black Dahlia (Mena Suvari) was given an accidental overdose of nitrous oxide by Dr. Curan, the dentist living in the house in 1947. Dr. Montgomery helped Dr. Curan dispose of the body by dissecting her, making her body easier to transport. Her ghost assisted the Harmons in scaring off the Ramos family in the season one finale.

• Maria (Rosa Salazar) was a student nurse murdered in the house in 1968. She was tied up and stabbed in the back repeatedly by murderer R. Franklin. Her ghost assisted the ghost of Dr. Montgomery in delivering Vivien's twins in the "Birth" episode.

• Gladys (Celia Finkelstein) was a student nurse murdered in the house in 1968. She was drowned in a bathtub by murderer R. Franklin. Her ghost has appeared several times from a filled bathtub, as well as assisted the ghost of Dr. Montgomery in delivering Vivien's twins in the "Birth" episode.

• The Infantata (Ben Woolf) is the kidnapped, murdered, then dismembered son of Dr. Charles and Nora Montgomery, who was reconstructed and brought back to life by Charles. He is first seen in the "Pilot" episode, charging toward one of the twins after apparently attacking the other. He also takes part in Tate and Violet's basement attempt to scare Leah into stop bullying her. In the "Birth" episode, young Tate loses his toy in the basement's shadows and goes to retrieve it. Tate is grabbed by Infantata, but saved by Nora, who refers to the attacker as "Thaddeus," the name given to her once-dead son.

• Miguel Ramos (Anthony Ruivivar), along with wife Stacy and son Gabe, moves into the house after the Harmons die, in the "Afterbirth" episode. After only one night, the Harmons and Moira scare them away, preventing further deaths in the house.

• Stacy Ramos (Lisa Vidal) along with husband Miguel and son Gabe, moves into the house, after the Harmons die, in the "Afterbirth" episode. While unpacking their belongings, Stacy and her husband talk about wanting to get pregnant again. This causes the Harmons to scare the family away, so that they won't suffer like they did. That night, Ben dresses himself as the rubberman, and pretends to rape Stacy, scaring her and her family away.

• Gabriel "Gabe" Ramos (Brennan Mejia) is the son of Miguel and Stacy Ramos. He develops a connection with Violet after he finds her looking through his music. Tate then tries to kill him so that Gabe and Violet can be together. Violet walks enters just in time to distract Tate, so that Gabe can escape. He also comments that he doesn't believe in ghosts.

• Michael Langdon (Asher Gian Starita as three-year-old Michael) is the surviving infant from the birth of twins that killed his mother Vivien. His father is the ghost of Tate Langdon, and Michael is the end result of his mother's rape. According to Billie Dean, he is the living Antichrist, due to being the product of a ghost impregnating a human. After his entire family is murdered in the house, he is abducted by his grandmother Constance and raised in secrecy. At the age of three, he brutally murdered his nanny. When discovered by Constance, he is smiling in glee and pride in his actions.

Season 2

Main characters

• Sister Jude Martin (Jessica Lange) is a stern nun with a dark past, who oversees the doctors and patients at Briarcliff Institute. Though she initially appears to be strict with the patients at Briarcliff, she is later shown to be caring and vulnerable. She harbors sexual feelings towards Monsignor Timothy Howard, and has fantasies that they will one day be together. In the episode "Tricks and Treats", it is revealed that she was once a philandering nightclub singer who unintentionally killed a young girl in a drunk driving accident in 1949.

• Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto) is a psychiatrist at Briarcliff Institute whose approach to treatment creates conflict with that of Sister Jude's. He is first brought in to examine Kit to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial, and quickly becomes appalled at the dated treatments practiced at Briarcliff. He decides to help treat Lana's homosexuality through the use of aversion therapy, but abandons the treatment when he concludes that she is sane. After concluding his work at Briarcliff, Thredson sneaks Lana out of the asylum, leading her to believe that he intends to help her reveal the horrors committed there. Lana's happiness after escaping is short-lived, however, when he reveals himself to be the notorious serial killer, "Bloody Face". In the episode "The Origins of Monstrosity", Thredson explains that he was abandoned by his mother as a child, and grew up in an orphanage where it was believed that tactile affection would spoil the children. As a result, he developed a strong desire for maternal affection, and chooses Lana to be his surrogate mother, believing she has the ability to understand him.

• Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) is Sister Jude’s superior and the object of her affections. In the episode "The Origins of Monstrosity", he seemingly kills Shelley by choking her with a rosary.

• Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) is a journalist committed to the asylum after she attempts to expose Briarcliff’s darkest secrets. Lana lives in a committed relationship with her girlfriend, Wendy, keeping their relationship a secret from most people in their town. She first comes to Briarcliff to write an article about the asylum's bakery, but senses that there is a bigger story. Sister Jude, suspicious of her intentions, takes an immediate disliking to her, and commits her for her homosexuality after she is caught in the asylum after hours. Lana is appalled when she discovers that Wendy has been blackmailed into signing papers allowing her to be institutionalized, but holds onto the hope that she will get out. In the episode "I Am Anne Frank: Part 2", Dr. Thredson helps Lana escape Briarcliff and holds her captive after revealing himself to be "Bloody Face."

• Kit Walker (Evan Peters) is an inmate at Briarcliff Institute, who is believed to be the serial killer, "Bloody Face", accused of killing several women, including his wife, but he insists that she has been abducted by aliens. In the episode "I Am Anne Frank: Part 2" he is tricked by Dr. Thredson into a taped confession of the murders, after which it is revealed that he is innocent.

• Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) is a young nun who works at Briarcliff Institute under Sister Jude who has favored her, believing her naivety to be an indication of her "purity". However, she is later possessed by a sinister spirit and her behavior quickly changes.

• Grace (Lizzie Brocheré) is an inmate at Briarcliff Institute who is accused of murdering her family with an axe. She becomes an ally and later a lover of Kit Walker. She dies from a gun shot wound in episode seven after calling for the Angel of Death.

• Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) is a doctor at Briarcliff Institute and a former Nazi whose sadistic experiments have produced "Raspers", mutated former patients, who lurk in the woods surrounding the institution. He appears to have a history of violence towards women.

Supporting/minor characters

• Shelley (Chloë Sevigny) is one of the inmates at Briarcliff, who has been diagnosed as a nymphomaniac. In the episode "Nor'easter", Dr. Arden tries to rape Shelley in his office, but she laughs at the apparently small size of his penis, and he knocks her out. When she wakes up, she realizes that both of her legs have been amputated. Dr. Arden continues his experiments on her over the course of several weeks while everyone believes that she has escaped. In the episode "I Am Anne Frank: Part 1", she is discovered by another patient, prompting Sister Mary Eunice to hide her in the woods. She eventually manages to crawl to a playground where she is discovered by a group of school children. Believing that her deformed appearance is the result of tuberculosis, she is confined to a hospital bed where Monsignor Howard chokes her with a rosary after recognizing her.
• Spivey (Mark Consuelos) is one of the inmates at Briarcliff, who is considered to have aggression issues. He beats Kit Walker on his first day there. Dr. Arden catches him spying of Sister Mary bathing and he also becomes one of his experiments.
• Leo (Adam Levine) is half of the Lovers. His arm is ripped off by an unknown creature in the season premiere. He is also stabbed several times before he dies from being shot as he and wife Teresa attempt to flee the asylum.
• Teresa (Jenna Dewan Tatum) is the other half of the Lovers. She runs through an underground tunnel, only to run into Bloody Face. She escapes but is shot by two teenagers dressed as Bloody Face. Police later arrive at the asylum to find her missing, as she is seen being restrained by the real Bloody Face.
• Pepper (Naomi Grossman) is one of the inmates at Briarcliff, who is alleged to have drowned her sister's baby. She gave Lana a rose, that pricked Lana, the first time they met. She is shown to be some-what intelligent when she was discovered to have bread in her room to bring in the rats. She went to the bathroom in Nor'easter and has been missing ever since.
• Alma Walker (Britne Oldford) is Kit's wife. They are secretly married as he is white and she is black. She is believed to have been killed by Kit when she tires of hiding their marriage, but Kit staunchly affirms that she has been abducted by aliens.
• Wendy (Clea Duvall) is Lana's girlfriend, and a third grade school teacher. Sister Jude threatens to expose their relationship and blackmails Wendy into signing Lana into her custody. She quickly regrets her decision, but encounters Bloody Face when he breaks into her apartment. She pleads for her life, saying that the children she teaches will be traumatized by her death. In the episode "I Am Anne Frank: Part 2", it's revealed that she was in fact killed by Bloody Face when Dr. Thredson shows Lana her preserved body.
• Sam Goodwin (Mark Margolis) is an Israeli hunter of Nazi war criminals put in contact with Sister Jude when she believes accusations that asylum doctor Arthur Arden is a former concentration-camp doctor. Goodwin confirms her suspicions but needs Arden's fingerprints as proof. The possessed Sister Mary kills him before Jude can deliver the prints.
• The Woman/Angel of Death/Shahad (Frances Conroy) is a woman clothed completely in black and wearing a veil, she is the personification of death, she appears to those on the verge of death and if they accept death she kisses them on the lips to end their life. She appears over the course of episode seven to Terry, an inmate who has attempted suicide, as well as Sam Goodwin. Later in the episode she appears to Lana Winters and Sister Jude who reject her pleas. Finally, she appears to Grace who accepts her. It is also revealed that she has some sort of relationship with the spirit that is possessing Sister Mary-Eunice.
• Leigh Emerson (Ian McShane) is an inmate at Briarcliff, he was originally a petty criminal who was arrested and jailed for stealing a loaf of bread. Around Christmas one year, he was raped and attacked by five inmates. He left jail in 1962 and proceeded to go on a rampage and kill eighteen people while dressed as Santa Claus. He is sent to Briarcliff, in December of 1963 he attacks one of the orderlies by biting him, he is then put into solitary confinement and is finally released in December of 1964 by a possessed Mary-Eunice, he is sent to go after Sister Jude in her office, but she ends up killing him after a struggle.
• Modern Day Bloody Face Killer (Dylan McDermott)
• TBA (Eric Stonestreet)