Content Warning: The following article contains discussions of abuse, violence, sexual assault, and murder.
Evan Peters plays many of the most memorable characters across American Horror Story's first eight seasons. Year after year, Peters returns to bring a new person, or sometimes people, to life. While Peters didn't appear in 1984, he did return for season 10: Double Feature.
In American Horror Story, Peters does it all. He depicts both heinous serial killers and honest, genuine victims. These characters, in total, attest to Peters's next-level acting skills. Being able to bring out so much evil in one season and so much innocence in the next is no easy task.
Updated on October 6th, 2022, by Kevin Pantoja: The recent popularity of Netflix's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has everyone talking about Evan Peters. Although Peters won an Emmy in 2021 for playing a character who wasn't evil, someone as vile as Dahmer is not unusual for the actor. His storied career on American Horror Story has seen him portray some truly evil characters from murders to cult leaders. Of course, he has also played a few relatively heroic characters on the show too.
Kit Walker (Asylum)
A gas station attendant, Kit Walker's life is turned upside when aliens abduct him and his wife, Alma. In the wake of the abduction, Walker is falsely accused of killing his wife and two other women, prompting his arrival at Briarcliff Manor sanitorium — where is accused of being the serial killer Bloody Face.
At Briarcliff, Walker is subjected to heinous experiments conducted by Dr. Arthur Arden, who discovers a chip implanted in Walker's neck. Walker is ultimately innocent and just wanted to live a quiet life with his wife, making him more of a victim than a villain.
Jimmy Darling (Freak Show)
Jimmy Darling, who travels with Elsa Mars's Freak Show as Lobster Boy, has ectrodactyly. From a young age, Jimmy's parents exploited his condition for financial gain; Jimmy's traumatic upbringing instilled within him a sense of intense loyalty toward others in his line of work, and he will do whatever it takes to defend them from those who want to take advantage of them.
He manages to prove himself to be one of the bravest characters of the Freak Show season and easily one of Peters's most courageous portrayals on the series.
Rory Monahan (Roanoke)
Rory Monahan is an Australian actor who reenacted Edward Philippe Mott in My Roanoke Nightmare. Affable, laid back, and outgoing, Monahan falls in love with his co-star Audrey Tindall (Sarah Paulson).
Unfortunately, Monahan is the first to die in the haunted house when he returns to film the show's sequel, Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell. He was a pretty typical dude who wasn't at all villainous.
Andy Warhol (Cult)
In Cult, one of the many characters brought to life by Peters is famous contemporary artist Andy Warhol, who was shot by a woman named Valerie Solanis in 1968.
Here, Warhol is depicted as a misogynist who rejected Solanis' artistic worth simply because she's a woman. That makes him an unlikable character but certainly not one that could be considered flat-out evil.
Kyle Spencer (Coven)
After Kyle Spencer's frat brothers drug and assault witch Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), he dies alongside them when Montgomery uses her powers to flip the bus they're riding in. Spencer is brought back to life by the witches, becoming a sort of Frankenstein's monster.
Spencer is far from the typical college guy; he's smart, caring, and interested in helping New Orleanians — before he is killed and resurrected, that is.
Mr. Gallant (Apocalypse)
Mr. Gallant is a hairstylist who manages to make it one of the outpost bunkers thanks to his wealthy client, Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt. Stubborn and conceited, Mr. Gallant struggles with post-apocalyptic life.
He is seduced and then entranced by Michael Langdon, aka the Antichrist, and murders his grandmother Evie under one of Michael's spells.
Jesus (Cult)
The Jesus who appears in American Horror Story is far from the one described in Judeo-Christian holy texts.
Instead, he's ultimately a figment of cult leader Kai Anderson's imaginable. Kai's Jesus descends from Heaven to save the egomaniacal Jim Jones and give him a high five. That's really all he does so it's not one of Peters' most impressive performances and roles.
Edward Philippe Mott (Roanoke)
Rory Monahan plays Edward Philippe Mott in My Roanoke Nightmare, the original owner of the Roanoke mansion. When The Butcher who haunts the home destroyed all of his art, Mott blamed the poor people he had enslaved and confined them to his root cellar.
He met a supernatural demise a few days later and it was the kind of thing that felt fitting for the things he had done beforehand.
Marshall Applewhite (Cult)
Marshall Applewhite was initially behind the Heaven's Gate death cult, whose members infamously died by mass suicide by poisoning themselves in hopes they would ascend into the next plane, one occupied by aliens.
Applewhite died alongside everyone else. Heaven's Gate is one of the cults whose history Kai Anderson shares with his followers in Cult.
Charles Manson (Cult)
Charles Manson was be a white supremacist who orchestrated the horrific Tate/LaBianca murders in 1969. The murders acted out on behalf of Manson were some of the most brutal in history, and Peters makes for a convincing psychopath.
It's the kind of role that showcases just how perfectly cast Peters was for the recent Netflix series as he has embodied these sinister killers in the past.
David Koresh (Cult)
Another one of the cult leaders explored by Kai Anderson is David Koresh, whose religious cult, the Branch Davidians, was decimated by a violent standoff with the FBI in the early '90s.
Anderson looks toward men like Koresh for inspiration and guidance in Cult. That led him to commit some heinous acts throughout his time on the show.
Jim Jones (Cult)
Yet another cult leader Kai Anderson pays tribute to is Jim Jones, who forced his 800+ followers to drink juice laced with cyanide. Kai tests his cult by making a poisonous Kool-Aid designed to shed everyone's physical bodies and help them become immortal.
Like Jones and his Peoples Temple, Kai's intentions are far more nefarious than this.
Jeff Pfister (Apocalypse)
Jeff Pfister is a tech bro with a terrible haircut who helps Michael Langdon bring on the end times. The idea of purposely setting something like that up is pretty evil.
He works alongside Mutt Nutter at Kineros Robotics, and the two eventually sell their souls to the devil and become members of Langdon's Cooperative.
Austin Sommers (Double Feature)
Austin Sommers is one of the many vampires to appear in Double Feature. He is also a famous playwright and in his first scene, it's not clear that he's a vampire. As with the others on the show, they become these bloodthirsty creatures as a way to unlock their full talent.
Basically, they trade in their humanity to be the best at their craft. That means Austin, along with the other vampires throughout the season, fully understand that they are going to eat and kill people and are okay with it as long as they get what they want in the end.
Tate Langdon (Murder House)
Tate Langdon is one of the many ghosts stuck in the titular domicile during the Murder House season. When he was alive, he committed a mass shooting at his high school, which is among the evilest things ever done on the show.
hen he's dead, he sexually assaults Vivien Harmon while trying to seduce her daughter Violet, only adding to his horrendous acts. His attack on Vivien results in the birth of Michael Langdon, who turns out to be the Antichrist.
James Patrick March (Hotel)
James Patrick March designed the Hotel Cortez in Los Angeles as a veritable murderer's paradise, one replete with hidden rooms, secret chambers, and tons of hiding places.
After taking his own life, March's ghost remains in the hotel, where he tortures and stalks victims from the afterlife. He even coordinates a yearly Devil's Night, where famous serial killers from all over the world descend upon the Cortez for one night of mayhem.
Kai Anderson (Cult)
In Cult, Kai Anderson's capacity for evil knows no bounds. He's the most unhinged and the most dangerous character played by Peters in all of American Horror Story.
The only reason the ego-driven, maniacal cult leader who hopes to take over the world fails is because he messes with the wrong woman: Sarah Paulson's Ally Mayfair-Richards. Along with manipulating everyone he possibly can, he had even bigger plans that included murdering pregnant women, among many other awful atrocities.