Each new season of American Horror Story, one of television's creepiest shows, seems to be the most skin-crawlingly bizarre one yet. With the show's repertory cast becoming reassuringly familiar to audiences, it's worth exploring past roles of the American Horror Story cast, and where you've seen some of these talented and versatile actors prior to their current foray into the mad and the macabre on this hit FX horror series.
Setting it apart from similar shows of its caliber, is that the AHS creators make a point of casting the crazy American Horror Story characters with big-name stars, to the point that some critics have accused the show, exasperatedly, of "stunt casting." For a show with such a deliciously campy feel, however, casting performers with a strange and various body of work under their belt seems like a no-brainer - but even most actors you recognize are harder to pigeonhole than you might expect.
Below is a list of American Horror Story performers paired with appearances they've made outside of the series - the good, the bad, and the just plain weird. This American Horror Story trivia will keep you guessing!
Before she debuted as Evie Gallant, Mr. Gallant's nana, on American Horror Story: Apocalypse, Collins already had wealth of experience under her belt. Fans of classic Hollywood may recognize her for her sultry roles in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and Rally Round the Flag, Boys! She also has a prolific stage career, which started when she was only nine years old.
Horror seems to be a habit for Billie Lourd. Before she joined the cast of AHS: Cult, Lourd made a splash on the irreverent TV series Scream Queens. The daughter of the late, great Carrie Fisher, Lourd also joined her mom onscreen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Before he joined the cast of AHS: Cult, Colton Haynes made a splash as jerk Jackson Whittemore on MTV's Teen Wolf. Fans of superhero tales may also recognize him as Arsenal, the parkour/archery expert from the CW's Arrow.
Before making his debut on American Horror Story, Evan Peters perfected his sulky charisma playing ironically-named high school student Jack Daniels on One Tree Hill.
Jessica Lange is old school Hollywood royalty, and has been starring in critically acclaimed and award-winning classic films (like King Kong, All that Jazz, and Cape Fear) since the 1970s. More recently, Lange made an artificially-aged appearance alongside Drew Barrymore in HBO's fictionalized version of the famously quirkly mother-daughter documentary, Grey Gardens.
Emma Roberts appeared in a slew of notable big-screen roles, including We're the Millers and fledgling director Gia Coppola's indie darling Palo Alto. Fans of Roberts's vampy, two-faced sexuality in Coven and Freak Show, however, may be shocked to learn that she began her career playing perky tween Addie Singer on the Nickelodeon show Unfabulous.
