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Vanessa van Helsing
Played by: Kelly Overton
- Action Mom: Deconstructed with what we see of Vanessa in the second episode flashback. While she is a loving mother to Dylan, having "kick ass for great justice" be your first instinct is clearly not helping provide a stable environment for raising a child.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She has dark hair can be quite rigid.
- Back from the Dead: Vanessa herself was technically dead for the three years between the Rising and the start of the series, being revived after she's bitten. Happens to her again in the last scene of Season 2 when she's revived by the First Elder's bite.
- Healing Factor: Her wounds heal extremely quickly.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The more time goes by, the more Vanessa starts acting more like a vampire herself, especially by Season 3 due to the First Elder reviving her with a bite.
- The Immune: Vanessa is not only immune to vampire bites, but her blood can actually turn them human and whomever she cures also becomes immune from ever being turned back into a vampire.
- Mama Bear: Vanessa is driven by her desire to find her missing daughter Dylan. And when she learns that Jack and Violet are her daughters, she immediately becomes extremely defensive of them.
- Martial Pacifist: Becomes this in Season 4. Just because she no longer kills doesn't mean she can't still kick ass.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her Shower Scene in the very first episode.
- Put on a Bus to Hell: Midway through Season 4, she traps herself in the Dark Realm to keep Dracula from escaping.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Despite fully (and justifiably) hating him, she still sheds a tear for Sam when he's manipulated to his death by Bathory.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Takes this vow in Season 4 after nearly succumbing to her bloodlust in Season 3.
- Wife-Basher Basher: In the first episode, Vanessa violently assaults Susan's abusive boyfriend. Somewhat unusually, this isn't portrayed as a particularly good thing, as it shows her violent side and anger issues. She even later admits it was more about hurting him than helping her.
Scarlett Harker
Played by: Missy Peregrym; Camille Marty (as child)
- Battle Couple: In season 3, she forms one of these with Axel.
- The Immune: Like her sister, Scarlett can't be turned into a vampire, and anyone she bites is granted an immunity to vampirism.
- Killed Off for Real: She pushes Vanessa to sacrifice her in the third-season finale in a failed attempt to stop Sam from becoming the new Elder.
- Senseless Sacrifice: In the season 3 finale, Scarlett gives her life to try and fuel Vanessa's light so that she can become the Fourth Elder and thus prevent Sam from taking the role. It doesn't work; the Oracle tells Vanessa that she already gave up any hope of becoming the light when she killed Dylan, and thus Sam becomes the Fourth Elder anyway.
Axel Miller
Played by: Jonathan Scarfe
- Badass Normal: He doesn't have any special powers, but his determination keeps him going.
- Failure Knight: He is driven to protect Vanessa because he is haunted by his sister's disappearance.
- Determinator: Even after becoming a vampire, he's determined to find Vanessa to become human again.
- Freudian Excuse: His white-knight tendencies stem from his sister going missing when he was a teenager.
- Left for Dead: He's left behind by Doc in the farm, in the later half of season 1.
- We Used to Be Friends: Axel blames Vanessa for Scarlet's death in the Season 3 finale, and swears to kill her if they meet again. When this happens, though, just managing to non-fatally take out his frustrations on her vents the grief enough that he's able to forgive her.
Dmitri
Played by: Paul Johansson
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He truly loves his sister Antanasia.
- Evil Overlord: He rules his territory with an iron first.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's been around since the 18th century when he was human.
- Vampire Monarch: He's the ruling vampire of Seattle, and possibly a larger area.
Julius Romanski
Played by: Aleks Paunovic
- Afraid of Needles: He was sickly when he was little, and suffered through a lot of injections. Consequently, he really hates getting shots.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Even as an evil vampire, he loves his mom.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As a vampire, his mother is the only person he still cares about.
- Healing Factor: He gains one after Scarhead bites him.
- Heel–Face Turn: When first introduced, he's a particularly nasty vampire. After Vanessa turns him, he becomes one of the nicest, most cheerful people in the main cast.
- Nice Guy: After becoming human once more, he's one of the nicest characters in the show.
- My Beloved Smother: He loves his mother, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't drive him nuts sometimes.
- The Starscream: In the first season, he and Rebecca are plotting to overthrow Dmitri.
- Throwing the Fight: Back when he was a human boxer, a bunch of gangster paid him to take a dive, which he did, because he needed the money for his ailing mother. Unfortunately for him, the gangsters refused to pay up, stabbed him, and left him for dead, whereupon he was discovered by Dmitri, who turned him into a vampire.
Rebecca
Played by: Laura Mennell
- The Baroness: She has a sadistic and domineering personality.
- The Dragon: She's Dmitri's second in command.
- Dragon with an Agenda: She's plotting to overthrow Dmitri together with Julius.
- Evil Redhead: She's an evil vampire with long red hair.
- Fantastic Racism: She's a high-ranking vampire that sees very little use in human life.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: She regularly wears dark leather clothing.
- Killed Off for Real: After being burned by Vanessa, Antonasia finishes her off by stabbing her in the back as Rebecca attempts to kill Dmitri.
- Sex Goddess: She's good enough in bed that her human lover is overwhelmed and finishes off sooner than expected, which prompts her to kill him for disappointing her. Part of it seems to be due to her vampire stamina.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's a very tall and attractive vampiress.
- Would Hurt a Child: Season 1 ends with The Reveal that Rebecca turned Vanessa's daughter Dylan into a vampire.
Phil "Flesh" Fleischman
Played by: Vincent Gale
- Back from the Dead: He gets blown up alongside Lucky in the penultimate episode of season 2, only to turn up alive again at the start of season 3.
- Death Seeker: He spends much of season 3 trying to kill himself. Unfortunately, he still retains a healing factor as a result of being a vampire, so he can't die.
- The Eeyore: He is a pretty miserable person, and has a tendency to drag others down with him.
- Healing Factor: Getting bitten by Scarhead grants him the ability to heal from wounds that would have killed a normal human.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He is still haunted by his memories of murdering his kids when he was turned into a vampire.
- Pater Familicide: After he got turned into a vampire, he went on a rampage that killed his kids.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: He spends the first three seasons desperately looking for a way to die. He gets somewhat better in season 4, when he finds out that his ex-wife gave birth to a son while he was away.
Dr. Sarah "Doc" Carol
Played by: Rukiya Bernard
- Ambiguously Gay: Initially, she seems to have no interest in love or romance, but in season 2, she develops feelings for another woman, Jolene.
- Boxed Crook: In season 3, she's blackmailed into working for the government of Denver when they send her girlfriend off to prison.
- Dirty Coward: She has a tendency to sell out whenever her life's threatened.
- Relationship Upgrade: In season 3, her flirtation with Jolene turns into a full-blown romance.
Jacqueline "Jack" Hansen
Played by: Nicole Muñoz
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: She is the first known gay member of the Van Helsing family.
- Dead Guy Junior: She is an incredibly weird example: She's named for Jack van Helsing, the first vampire hunter in the family and her distant ancestor, who was born Christoph but was re-named after her, after she travelled back in time and saved him from being killed by his vampire mother when he was a baby.
- The Determinator: She doesn't have her sister Vi's fighting skills, but she makes up for it with her sheer, bloody-minded determination to complete whatever mission she's on.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: In the final season, she is sent back in time to when the Dark One first became Dracula, hoping to prevent her rise. It's a bit of a learning curve for her; she is initially mistaken for a witch and thus has trouble getting help in her quest.
- Fling a Light into the Future: When her attempts to stop Dracula from rising in the past fail, she resolves to go to America to prepare the new world for Dracula's return in the present.
- Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Hansen created her and Violet specifically to one day kill Dracula.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Vanessa sends her back in time to stop Olivia von Dracula from becoming the Dark One, but with very little guidance on how to actually do that, Jack's efforts keep backfiring.
- Trapped on the Astral Plane: Dracula traps her in the other world and then impersonates her in the real world.
- The Unfavorite: Hansen apparently had less faith in her potential than Violet, as Jack was left to fend for herself after the Rising.
Violent "Vi" Hansen
Played by: Keeya King
- The Ace: If there is a gene for fighting skills, then Vi definitely inherited it from Vanessa.
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: She's the only known black member of the van Helsing family.
- Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Hansen created her and Jack specifically to one day kill Dracula.
Sam
Played by: Christopher Heyerdahl
- Abusive Parents: His dad beat him so severely that Sam lost his hearing by the time he was a teenager.
- Arch-Enemy: Becomes this to Vanessa after killing Susan.
- Ax-Crazy: He is an insane Serial Killer who cuts off fingers as trophies when he kills his victims. He seems fixated on Mohamad, even confessing to being the murderer when the others suspect Mohamad.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In his own sick, twisted way, Sam genuinely loves Mohamad. Of course, this love causes him to murder Mohamad in order to fuel his own transformation into the Fourth Elder.
- Evil All Along: By the end of the first season, Sam is revealed to be a particularly nasty serial killer.
- Evil Cripple: For most of the first season, he's a nearly-deaf serial killer.
- Gentle Giant: For much of the first season, he seems to be one of these.
- Handicapped Badass: Before being turned into a vampire, he was profoundly hearing-impaired. This did not stop him from being an effective fighter.
- Hijacked by Ganon: In the first season, it seems like he's a lone wolf. Later seasons reveal that he's been manipulated by the Oracle as part of a long-term plan to revive the Dark One.
- Horned Humanoid: After becoming an Elder, he gains devil horns.
- Joker Immunity: He just. Won't. Die. Until season 4, when the Oracle betrays him.
- Love Is a Weakness: Under the Oracle's influence, he starts to believe this.
- Made of Iron: Regularly survives things which Julius points out even a vampire shouldn't be able to walk away from.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: For much of the first season, he pretends to be a harmless old goofball who's heavily dependent on Mohamed, all the while killing the other members of his party in order to manipulate them against each other.
- Reduced to Dust: His fate after Bathory gets through with him.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After a lifetime of betraying and killing anyone who ever helped him, Sam finally gets his when Bathory tricks him into sacrificing himself to summon Dracula.
- Super Window Jump: In "Save Yourself", he throws himself through a window to escape a losing fight against Vanessa.
- Unwitting Pawn: Sam is manipulated by the Oracle into becoming the Fourth Elder under the belief that he'll become the new Dark One. Instead, he's used as a portal to free her, which kills him.
- We Used to Be Friends: Vanessa used to love him like the big goofy brother she never had before his betrayal. When he dies, she seems genuinely sad that he never got to redeem himself.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Having spent the better part of his life deaf, he lost whatever accent he originally had and when his hearing is restored, his accent and pitch are all over the place.
The Oracle
Played by: Jesse Stanley; Anna Galvin (as Avery)
- Evil Sounds Deep: In her true form, she has deep, gravelly voice.
- Mysterious Watcher: She is initially introduced as one of these, watching Vanessa and Sam in their travels.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her attempt to resurrect the Dark One in the present without the other Brides leads to Vanessa sealing the Dark One away and Jack and Vi stealing the amulet.
- The Paralyzer: One of her talents is freezing people in place.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Her true form is a filthy wretch with a scarred face, but she is able to assume a much more attractive form.
- Smug Snake: She badly overestimates her own brilliance and it has disastrous effects.
- The Starscream: She tries to cut the other Brides out of her plans to resurrect the Dark One, thinking that the Dark One would favor her. She's also not too broken up when Michaela gets killed off.
- Romani: She was a Romani woman before she was turned into a vampire.
- Was Once a Man: Before becoming a vampire, she was the last daughter of a line of Romani vampire hunters.
William Hansen
Played by: Neal McDonough; Dakota Daulby (as Willem)
- Becoming the Mask: Over the years, he's grown to genuinely care about his adopted daughters.
- Fling a Light into the Future: He hid three pages from the Van Helsings' diary in a painting to keep the plans within them safe from the vampires until he could put them into motion.
- Love Redeems: His love for his adopted daughters causes him to turn against the other Brides.
- Redemption Equals Death: He is killed by Bathory after sabotaging the other Brides' plans for the sake of his daughters.
Michaela
Played by: Heather Doerksen
- Holier Than Thou: She's a lot more obsessed with the rituals and pomp than the other Brides. The final season reveals that she was originally a nun.
- Nightmare Face: After Dalibor beheads her, Dracula puts her back together, but her face and upper body are covered with black veins.
- Off with His Head!: Ivory lops her head off in the present. Later, when Jack is sent back in time, Michaela ends up getting her head lopped off again, this time by Dalibor, but Dracula puts it back on again.
- Older Than They Look: She is old enough that she was there when the Spanish invaded the Americas; many of her Sisterhood came from the pre-Colombian tribes the Spanish subjugated.
- Really 700 Years Old: She's been around since at least the 15th Century.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: She spent centuries trapped in stasis by Bathory.
- The Starscream: In the original timeline, she summoned the Dark One to try and enslave her. Obviously, that didn't pan out as she planned.
The Dark One
Played by: Tricia Helfer
- Big Bad: She's the ultimate villain.
- Black Eyes of Evil: She has solid black eyes.
- Came Back Wrong: In the altered timeline, Jack tried to kill Olivia before she became the Dark One, but Michaela resurrected her as a normal vampire. Olivia was not happy to discover what Michaela turned her into.
- Classy Cane: She has one with a stylized demonic skull for a head.
- Corrupt the Cutie: In the fourth season finale, she manages to turn Jack to her cause just long enough to trap her in the Dark Realm.
- Hero's Evil Predecessor: Olivia and her husband Dalibor were the progenitors of the van Helsing line, as their son Christoph was adopted and renamed Jack Van Helsing.
- I Have Many Names: Her alternate names include Baobhan, Edimmu, and Lillitu.
- Monster Progenitor: She is the mother of all the vampires. The final season reveals that her mortal form, Olivia, was the progenitor of the van Helsings.
- Samus Is a Girl: For most of the series, she's referred to by genderless pronouns, with the implication of being male. It's only upon her proper introduction that we learn she's a woman.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Centuries ago, Abraham Van Helsing sacrificed himself to trap her in a coffin in a dimension known as the Dark Realm, which can only be accessed by rituals powered by Van Helsing blood.
- Was Once a Man: The final season premiere reveals that this version of Dracula was once Olivia von Dracula, the wife of a Transylvanian Count. She was turned into the Dark One by Michaela, who had infiltrated her household in the guise of a midwife.
Ivory
Played by: Jennifer Cheon Garcia
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She swears fealty to the van Helsings for restoring her humanity.
- Co-Dragons: In Season 2, she and Scab are Dmitri's seconds-in-command.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely loves Scab and her coven sisters, as much as a vampire can.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: In the fourth season finale, she has her neck snapped by the Dark One, but, thanks to the Healing Factor gained as a Daywalker, she survives.
- Heel–Face Turn: After being restored to her humanity by Vi, Ivory immediately joins the Van Helsings.
- Klingon Promotion: She takes over the Horde by killing Scarhead.
- Malevolent Masked Man: She and the other members of the Sisterhood wear creepy bone-white masks.
- Mook Carryover: In Season 2, she's brought into Dmitri's service as one of his Co-Dragons. In Season 3, she and Scab take over the Horde. And in Season 4, she ends up serving the Brides.
- Older Than She Looks: Her pre-vampire life dates back to the pre-Colombian era.
- Really 700 Years Old: She and Zuma were turned by Michaela all the way back when the Spanish arrived in the New World.
- Rescue Romance: According to her, Vi restored her humanity, but Jack restored her heart by freeing the Sisterhood from Michaela's rule.
- Unholy Matrimony: In Season 3, she has a bizarre but loving relationship with Scab.
Scab
Played by: Roland Pidlubny
- Arch-Enemy: He becomes this to Julius after killing his girlfriend.
- Battle Couple: With Ivory.
- Co-Dragons: In Season 2, he and Ivory are Dmitri's seconds-in-command.
- Dragon Ascendant: In Season 3, he and Ivory kill Scarhead and take over the Horde.
- The Dragon: He is initially Julius's Dragon. When Julius becomes human, Scab joins Dmitri's coven.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely loves Ivory, so far as that's possible with a vampire.
- Groin Attack: In order to join the Sisterhood, he lets them castrate him.
- Mook Carryover: He starts off as Julius's Mook Lieutenant in season 1, becomes one of Dmitri's Co-Dragons in season 2, takes over the Horde in season 3, then ends up serving under the Brides in season 4.
- Mook Lieutenant: He first appears as this in Julius's coven.
- Off with His Head!: Julius ultimately beheads him.
- Unholy Matrimony: In Season 3, he develops a bizarre but loving relationship with Ivory.
Susan Jackson
Played by: Hilary Jardine
- Abusive Parents: Susan's dad sexually molested her as a kid and then threw her out after she tried to tell her mother about it. She is actually overjoyed when he turns out to have been turned during her absence, as it allows her to kill him without any guilt.
- Ambiguously Bi: She's had relationships in the past with men, but also had a brief fling with Vanessa.
- Killed Off for Real: She is murdered by Sam late in the first season, and has never been resurrected.
- Lost Lenore: She is this for Vanessa, who still mourns for her untimely death.
Mohamad
Played by: Trezzo Mahoro
- Big Brother Instinct: For most of the first season, he is motivated by his search for his older sister Sheema.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: For much of the first season, he serves as Sam's interpreter.
- Killed Off for Real: He is sacrificed by Sam at the end of season 3 in order to fuel his transformation into an Elder.
- Mercy Kill: He smothers Sheema to give her a quicker ending after she's crushed by debris.
- Voice for the Voiceless: In the first season, he is an interpreter for Sam.
Scarhead
Played by: Teach Grant
- Daywalking Vampire: Dr. Harrison gave him the ability to survive in sunlight, which he spreads to other vampires, including Scab and Ivory.
Dylan Seward
Played by: Hannah Cheramy
- Daywalking Vampire: Dr. Shomolomenko's experiments allowed her to go out in the sunlight despite being a vampire. On the other hand, when Vanessa cures her of her vampirism, she becomes vulnerable to sunlight, and dies.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: She dies in Vanessa's arms after Vanessa's attempt to cure her goes wrong and renders her vulnerable to sunlight.
- Killed Off for Real: She dies in the first-season finale.
Chad and Mike
Played By: Donny Lucas and Phil Burke
The caretakers of the Johnsons, a group of mostly child survivors living in the wilderness.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Mike by the beginning of season 4.
- Papa Wolf: They work hard to preserve the children's lives and innocence.
Colonel Nicholson
Played By: Aaron Douglas
The military commander of Fort Collins.
- Colonel Badass: Deals with the main characters firmly, and, once convinced to help them, does so himself rather than delegate this to his men.
- The Remnant: He commands one of the last groups of U.S. military forces.
Dr. Sholomenko
Played By: Duncan Ollerenshaw
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: He's been forced to serve the vampires, experimenting on making Daywalking vampires for them and is constantly teetering on the verge of insanity as a result, while being aware of how little it would take them to kill him.
Lee
Shelley, Brittney, Shona and Kim
Jack's archery teammates when the apocalypse started.
- Doomed Hurt Guy: Shona is shot, and doesn't last until Jack and Shelley get back with medical supplies.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Shona stabs the first vampire to come at them with a broken bottle.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Maybe not hard but all of them are drinking and partying the night before a tournament.
- Specs of Awesome: Shelley had some and after Jack did the most fighting.
- Took a Level in Badass: All of them managed to do well trying to survive those first hours.
Simon
Played By: Christ Pose
- Real Men Love Jesus: A competent survivor who sees the vampire attack as grounds for a spiritual awakening.
