Originals: Where Did the Cast Get Their Start?

This post is SPOILER FREE for ALL seasons of “Originals.”

Don’t pay any attention to the Elijah and Klaus on the cover of this post! We’re not bidding anybody in the “Originals” goodbye just yet!

While it is true that our beloved “Originals” won’t be returning until April 20th, 2018, there is much for us to chat about in the meantime! There are NINE Friday’s between now and the premiere. (Counting today) This means that you’ll be getting eight posts after this one full of “Originals” goodies! You want some examples of what we’ll be covering? Sure!

Examples: (Not in order!)

(1) What we know so far about the fifth and final season

(2) What we know about the possible “Originals” spin-off

(3) Recap of the most important season four moments before you start season five

(4) Top facts, pranks, or gags that you didn’t know were going on behind-the-scenes!

(5) How the cast is saying goodbye to their fans

(6) Comparing each seasons finale

And more!

Now, let’s jump into where our favorite cast members got their start, as well as what they’ll be doing after the show concludes! (Note: I am only including actors who will be present going into season five)

Klaus Mikaelson/Joseph Morgan 

Photo property of TV Recappers Anonymous

For a 36-year-old Brit, Joseph Morgan’s face actually didn’t start appearing on our screens until 2002. For TV shows, Morgan played Tony Reese in “Causality,” an ER-based drama. He was briefly in “Silent Witness” as Matthew Williams, in “Doc Martin as Mick Mabley, and had a central role in “Hex” as Troy. (Talk about perfect casting!) For movies, he was in the spooky horror “Open Grave” and was in a mostly shirtless role for “Immortals.” If you want to go all the way back to his beginnings, you should check Morgan out in the 2002 TV show “Spooks” and the movie “Eroica.”

Elijah Mikaelson/Daniel Gillies

Photo property of My Blueberry Nights

This 41-year-old Canadian/Kiwi certainly does not look his age, whether we’re talking as an original vampire or as an actor! Gillies has stayed very busy in-between seasons of the hit CW show! He played the mean and mysterious Robert Durst in the 2017 movie “The Lost Wife of Robert Durst.” (If you check that out, his co-star is Paige from the rediculous-yet-still-enjoyable TV show “Scorpion.”) Gillies also helped launch the new military series, “Seal Team.” (The cast is led by David Boreanaz, otherwise known as Booth from “Bones” and Angel from “Buffy.”) Gillies was also in the short-lived series “Saving Hope” as the central love interest, Dr. Joel Goran. (Another star in the show is Michael Shanks, familiar to most people as Daniel Jackson from “Stargate.”) But wait! You wanted to know how Daniel Gillies got his start! His very first role in the acting world was as a medic in the 1998 show “A Soldier’s Sweetheart.”

Hayley Marshall-Kenner/Phoebe Tonkin 

Photo property of FS Online.

For this 28-year-old Australian, there’s no time like the present for planning the next project! Yes, even though the final season of “Originals” hasn’t aired yet, Tonkin’s name is already in the credits for a TV mini-series called “Safe Harbour.” This psychological thriller focuses on four Aussie adults on holiday in Indonesia. It’s all fun and games until they discover a boat full of people who need help. Before she joined the world of vampires and werewolves, Tonkin was part of another CW show called “The Secret Circle” as Faye Chamberlain. (Guess what? That show was based on a book just like the “Vampire Diaries” was! Better yet, both of them were written by the same author, L.J. Smith!) Tonkin was also in the very popular Australian drama series “Home and Away” as Adrian Hall. Tonkin hasn’t spent a lot of time on the big screen, but she was in the Aussie film “Bait.” In it, she and a few other young gorgeous people are trapped inside a flooded supermarket along with several sharks! What was her very first big hit? Tonkin got to play a mermaid in the TV show “H20: Just Add Water.” In her career, Tonkin has played a werewolf, (Originals) a witch, (Secret Circle) and a mermaid! Not bad Tonkin, not bad at all!

Charles Michael Davis/Marcel Gerard 

Photo property of Melty

If you want to see more of this 33-year-old actor from Ohio, you won’t have to go far! Davis has spent a lot of time in the world of TV shows! Just like his co-star Daniel Gillies, Davis has no problem doing other projects between seasons of the “Originals.” He played Zane on the TV series “Younger” and Dr. Jason Myers on “Grey’s Anatomy.” In a drama having to do with basketball romances titled “The Game,” Davis had the part of Kwan Kirkland. He also had a brief stint on the show “Switched at Birth.” As for where Charles Michael Davis got his start, we’ll have to go way back to a little-known show called “Noah’s Arc.” The series focused on the lives and loves of four gay men living in LA.

Yusuf Gatewood/Vincent Griffith

Photo property of the Originals on Reddit

Just like a few of his co-stars, 35-year old American actor Yusuf Gatewood hasn’t hesitated to plunge into new projects! For him, that was the pilot to a TV show called “Good Omens” where he played Famine. Before Gatewood joined up with the “Originals” cast, he carried a badge instead. (On TV that is!) He appeared in one episode of “CSI: Miami,” one episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and one episode of “Law and Order.” Besides upholding the law, Gatewood also worked alongside the actor Ice Cube in the movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut.” For his start in show business, Gatewood was in the 2000 movie “Wonder Boys.” In it, he got to work alongside such big names as Robert Downey Jr, Michael Douglas, and Tobey Maguire.

Riley Voelkel/Freya Mikaelson

Photo property of Just Jared Jr

At 27-years-old, this American-Canadian actor is one of the youngest of the cast! Most recently, Voelkel played the distressed wife in the whodunit mystery short “Big Science, Bad Business.” In late 2018, she’ll be hopping onto the big screen in the movie “Brampton’s Own.” (The star of the movie should be familiar to CW fans. It’s Liv from IZombie!) Before joining the Mikaelson family, Voelkel was in the film “Scrambled,” which IMDB described as a cross between TV shows “South Park” and “Animal House.” For TV series’, her face can be seen as Jenna Johnson in “Newsroom” and as the young Fiona Goode in “American Horror Story.” For her beginnings, fans can see Riley Voelkel as Caroline in the pilot to the comedy TV series “Glory Daze.”

Claire Holt/Rebekah Mikaelson

Photo property of New York Daily News

Of anyone in the main “Originals” cast, this 29-year-old Australian actor has the biggest plans for after the series ends! First, she’s in the romantic drama “Irreplaceable You.” Next, Holt has the movie “Wolf in the Wild,” of which she is only one of two announced cast members. After that, she has the exciting psychological thriller “Becoming.” In that, Holt will play the fiance of a man diagnosed with being possessed by . . . something. She’ll also be starring in the film “A Violent Separation.” This will be easy territory to Claire Holt! The plot revolves around Holt’s character’s family and a truth that threatens to destroy them! Holt’s face should look familiar to fans of other CW shows. She was in the “Vampire Diaries” before Rebekah came over to “Originals” and before that, she was Samara Cook in “Pretty Little Liars.” She was briefly on the “Aquarius” TV show as Charmain Tully. She was in the terrifying “47 Meters Down” movie as one of two women stuck in a shark cage. (Fun fact? The other girl stuck in the cage is Mandy Moore, otherwise known as Rebecca from “This Is Us.”) And finally, surprise, surprise! Claire Holt got her start the same place Phoebe Tonkin did: in “H20: Just Add Water!”

(Do we know why Klaus is on top of the big rock-thing? Nope! And apparently, neither do his siblings!)

And that’s all folks! If you’d like me to do a post like this for secondary characters such as Davina, Camille, Josh, Jackson, young/old Hope Mikaelson, let me know in the comments! In fact, if there are enough people interested, we’ll do that next week! If there isn’t, I’ll go ahead and do “Top Ten Things to Read, Watch, or Listen to While You Wait for Originals to Return!”