This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters created by Joss Whedon and the writers of Mutant Enemy for the television program, Angel. For a more in-depth look at some of the minor characters on the show, please see the list of minor Angel characters. For the characters of Angel's parent show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, please see list of Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters and list of minor Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters.
Because of the nature of the Wolfram & Hart organization, they appeared in every season of Angel, providing him with a constant opposition. During the show's fifth season, Angel and his crew become the runners of Wolfram & Hart, but still fight against it in the form of its corruptive effect and their liaison to the Senior Partners, Eve.
Wolfram & Hart
- Lindsey McDonald is alternately both an enemy and ally to Angel Investigations as a rising star Associate with Wolfram & Hart and later working independently to undermine both organizations. His first appearance is in the latter moments of the show's first episode. Upon first meeting Angel, he initially boasts of how well Wolfram & Hart will protect their client (a vampire who murdered Angel's first client and attempted to kill Cordelia Chase) just before Angel throws the client out a high-rise window into the sunlight. Over the course of the following episodes his adversarial relationship with Angel becomes more personal and confrontational, trying several times to hire demon and superhuman assassins to attack and confound Angel, and even hiring rogue slayer Faith to attack him. Late in season one during the episode 'Blind Date', Lindsey has a "crisis of faith" in the work of Wolfram & Hart, and turns to Angel Investigations for their help in stopping a blind assassin (whom he defended for murder) from killing three young, blind children determined to be "threats" to the firm's agenda. Though he helps Angel infiltrate the firm and kill the assassin, the firm offers him a promotion to associate partner with a new office and a raise for his skill in outmaneouvering them, which he accepts. Having sided with the firm, his conflict becomes even more bitter in the first season finale, where Angel cuts off Lindsey's hand in combat to prevent him from burning the Shanshu prophecy and an incantation Angel needs to save Cordelia's life. During the second season, Lindsey's animosity with Angel grows as he copes with a prosthetic hand. Their conflict again comes to the forefront when Lindsey falls in love with Darla and attacks Angel brutally with his truck and a sledgehammer. However, Angel is able to overpower Lindsey and crushes his prosthetic hand. When Lindsey receives a new hand in the episode "Dead End", courtesy of Wolfram & Hart, he is forced to work with Angel when the hand begins to act oddly, realising that it was taken from a living donor who is being kept as a source of organs. At the end of the episode, having helped Angel destroy the lab holding various people to serve as similar donors, Lindsey, recognizing how far he has fallen, quits Wolfram & Hart and leaves Los Angeles to find himself, seemingly resolving his conflict with Angel.
- Lindsey returns in season 5, hoping to kill Angel. Instead of direct confrontation, he chooses to undermine Angel's self-confidence by introducing a "competitor" to the Shanshu prophecy by resurrecting Spike, the only other known vampire with a soul, and pitting them against each other. Lindsey takes the guise of "Doyle", chosen specifically due to the psychological impact it would have on Angel, as Doyle was both the first member of Angel Investigations and the first to sacrifice himself in the line of duty, claiming that he receives visions of people in trouble and directing Spike to help them. He further co-opts Wolfram & Hart's resources to turn them against Angel, first by allying himself romantically with Eve, the liaison between Angel's office and the Senior Partners, to gather intelligence, and devises a plan to release Wolfram & Hart's contingency plan (a very powerful demon designed to kill Angel) from containment. He is caught, however, while releasing the contingency by a recently awakened Cordelia and Angel, whom he engages in single combat instead. Having accumulated new skills in magic, he initially gained the upper hand through a mix of stealth, telekinesis, transmutation, demon strength, and expert swordsmanship. Overwhelmed physically once Angel regains his confidence, Lindsey is stripped of his magical advantage by Wesley and captured by the Senior Partners. In his prison, the Senior Partners removed his memory and had him tortured to death daily; he is later rescued by Angel and his associates, but at the cost of Gunn taking his place until he (in turn) is later rescued by Illyria. He switches sides once again and volunteers to help Angel delay the apocalypse and destroy the Circle of the Black Thorn. Having retained his expert swordsmanship, he easily cuts down a horde of demons alongside Lorne but discovers too late that he is the final target. Lorne shoots him twice in the chest on Angel's orders, and Lindsey dies believing that he was cheated out of his climactic confrontation to the death with Angel, killed by a mere 'flunkie'. Lindsey is the only character besides Angel himself to appear in both the first and last episodes of the series.
- A lawyer at Wolfram & Hart who originally was a part of the division designed to track Angel. He was also acquaintances with Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan. He was later killed when his boss, Holland Manners, believed that he was switching law firms and going to take clients with him.
- The show's most recurring character, Lilah Morgan was initially a lawyer at Wolfram & Hart, but would progress to become the primary face of the law firm. Highly ambitious and competitive, Lilah proved herself to be one of the show's leading antagonists. She later engaged in an affair with Wesley, and became president of the Special Projects Division. She was killed in season 4 by Jasmine (in the body of Cordelia), but later reappeared in the Hell division of Wolfram & Hart and conveyed to Angel and his team the Senior Partners' offer of control of the Los Angeles division of Wolfram & Hart. Lilah appears in 35 episodes.
- The head of Special Projects at Wolfram & Hart. He was known for arranging the deaths of people inside and outside the law firm, which included his employee Lee Mercer. He personally supervises Wolfram & Hart's operations regarding Angel. In particular, he oversees the resurrection of Angel's sire Darla and orchestrates her return to vampirism by Drusilla in an attempt to corrupt Angel. Eventually, Holland was killed in a massacre at his wine cellar by Darla and Drusilla. Angel was there, but due to Holland's corruption of him, failed to do anything to prevent the event from happening. Manners remained with Wolfram & Hart after death, as do all the firm's lawyers after their deaths.
- Nathan Reed was Lilah and Lindsay's new superior after Holland Manners' death. He appeared in "Blood Money", "Reprise" and "Dead End". He disappeared following season two, and was never mentioned again.
- Originally a lawyer for Wolfram & Hart who first appears at the end of the second season, Gavin Park had a longstanding rivalry with Lilah Morgan, whom he later worked under. He once assaulted Lilah in the season 3 episode, "Billy", which deepened their mutual dislike of each other. Gavin was responsible for setting up surveillance cameras on the Hyperion Hotel, where Angel Investigations was set up. In season 4, during the massacre at the offices of Wolfram & Hart, Gavin was killed by The Beast. However, he was subsequently brought back as a zombie, only to be killed by Gunn soon after.
- Replacing Nathan Reed as the head of the Special Projects Division in season three, Linwood Murrow was originally the boss of Lilah Morgan and Gavin Park. Instead of being concerned with Wolfram & Hart's plans to corrupt Angel, Murrow was more concerned with his safety and personal agenda. He even attempted to kill Angel at one point, though the vampire would later torture him for information. Lilah disliked Murrow, who was sexist and misogynistic towards her, and disrespected him. Eventually, upon discovering that Lilah went over his head to meet with the Senior Partners, he confronts Lilah (who had replaced him as head of Special Projects) and is beheaded by her at a department meeting.
- First appearing in the season four finale, Knox seems to be the typical Wolfram & Hart employee, and not decidedly evil, although this is quickly questioned by Wesley. From their first meeting, Knox is quite taken with Fred, and over the time that the two are working together, a romance develops, but Fred eventually dumps him. Knox, however, has become obsessed with Fred, and orchestrates for her to be the host to Illyria, the being that he has been worshipping since childhood. Finally showing his evil side, working alongside Illyria, Wesley does not hesitate to gun him down as revenge for the death of Fred.
- Eve serves as the team's liaison to the Senior Partners. The fact that the entire team does not trust her hardly unnerves her, and it is revealed she is in a relationship with Lindsey McDonald. Together, the two plot a scheme to kill Angel, but they fail and Eve is forced to go into hiding from the Partners' wrath. When new liaison Marcus Hamilton is assigned, she is also forced to sign over her immortality. Just as Lindsey returns to her, he decides to help Angel in his fight against the Circle of the Black Thorn. When she confronts Angel later, she learns he arranged Lindsey's assassination. Completely broken, she is left in the Wolfram & Hart office building as it starts to crumble around her.
- Marcus Hamilton became the team's new liaison to the Senior Partners after Eve's betrayal. He is decidedly more stern than Eve and certain to not give the team any leeway. Eventually becoming a close advisor to Angel, Marcus must stand up to face him when Angel reveals his own betrayal. Describing himself as "legion" and carrying the strength of the Senior Partners in his blood, he loses his battle against Angel, flanked by his son Connor, when the vampire uses this knowledge to drain him of his power. The death of Hamilton is the final piece in Angel's plan of assassinating the Partners' agents, and leads directly into the final moments of the series, where the Senior Partners unleash a veritable hell on the team as retribution.
Second season
- A vampire who originated on Buffy. Sired and driven mad by Angelus, Drusilla used to scour the world with Angel, Darla and her own sired vampire Spike. By the time of second season of Angel, Drusilla is called in to sire Darla by Wolfram & Hart, and together the two kill several through the city. Angel, taking a turn towards the dark, is able to defeat the two by setting them on fire, and Drusilla flees back to Sunnydale, appearing in the Buffy episode "Crush". She is not seen afterward except in flashbacks.
Third season
- First mentioned in season 2 but first seen in season 3, Daniel Holtz was an 18th-century vampire hunter who hunted Angel (then Angelus) and Darla, even more so after they killed his family. He later made a deal with Sahjhan to be frozen in time for 200 years. Upon his revival in late 2001 (in the episode "Offspring"), he hunted down Angel and the Angel Investigations team. Later, Holtz kidnapped Angel's son Connor during the season, and raised him in a hell dimension, teaching Connor to hate and kill his father. Holtz and Connor returned to Los Angeles after years in the hell dimension (which translates to only a couple of months in Los Angeles), and Connor attempted to kill his father. When the boy failed to kill his father and later started to build a relationship with Angel, Holtz ordered Justine Cooper to kill him and make it look like Angel had murdered him. This development would lead to Connor sinking Angel to the bottom of the ocean at the end of season 3.
- A demon of the Granok species, he first encountered Holtz in the late 18th century, and offered him to be frozen in time in order to kill Angel and Darla in the future. Sahjhan wanted for Holtz to kill Connor because a prophecy stated that Connor would grow into adulthood and kill him. He eventually grew impatient with Holtz when he kidnapped Connor in order to raise him to kill Angel in the hell dimension. He later abandoned Connor in the hell dimension Quor'toth, deciding he was good as dead when Holtz took him to that dimension. Sahjhan was imprisoned for a second time by Angel, but later returned. Connor killed Sahjhan in season 5, fulfilling the prophecy.
- Justine Cooper is a vampire hunter and follower of Holtz. Devastated after her twin sister Julia was killed by vampires, Justine turned to alcohol and roamed graveyards at night, searching for vampires. She was recruited by Holtz in the season 3 episode "Dad" and formed a bond with him. Justine tried to find people who have lost loved ones to join their cause, and also attacked Wesley when he tried to deliver Connor to Holtz. She was later abandoned by Holtz, and rallied the remaining members of Holtz's militia against Angel. Eventually, Justine killed Holtz on his request, and framed the death on Angel, in order to get Connor to turn against his father Angel. She ultimately helped Connor with his plan to banish Angel to the bottom of the ocean. Justine was later captured by Wesley, who bound and gagged her and placed her in a closet for several months. The character was last seen in the season four premiere, "Deep Down" when Wesley left her chained to a railing and left her with a key, and told her she had the choice of moving on with her life or continue to be a slave.
- Skip is a demon who initially claims to be working for the Powers That Be, guarding the misogynistic half-demon Billy Blim, who Angel was forced to free in order to save Cordelia. Skip later oversaw Cordelia's transformation into first a part-demon and then a "higher being". In the fourth season, he was revealed to be working for Jasmine, manoeuvring Cordelia into position so Jasmine could possess her. Having been captured and interrogated by Angel Investigations, he was killed by Wesley when he broke free.
Fourth season
- A deity, Jasmine served as one of the main antagonists of the fourth season. Jasmine, also known as the "Devourer", is a super being who seeks to gain corporeal form, then blend with all of humanity, making each human her spiritual slave. She feeds on humanity to maintain her form and delivers a Utopian existence to all via mind control. For most of season four, Jasmine possessed Cordelia, leading to her host committing several out-of-character acts, e.g. Cordelia sleeping with Connor and later killing Lilah Morgan. A subsequent pregnancy was to give Jasmine a full body, and subsequently Cordelia gave birth to Jasmine; this birth would lead to Cordelia's coma and subsequent death. Jasmine wanted a world where the people were completely devoted to her, but this agenda failed, leading to Jasmine's death at the hands of Connor. According to Skip, Jasmine arranged for almost every major event that had occurred in the past seven years: Lorne's arrival, Angel's move to L.A., Doyle passing his visions to Cordelia, Cordelia's transformation into a half-demon and her ascension to the realms of the Powers, the birth of Connor, and the coming of The Beast.
Fifth season
- The Circle of the Black Thorn (Season 5)
- The Circle of the Black Thorn serve as agents of the Senior Partners, and are to be the harbingers of the apocalypse. The Circle includes the characters Archduke Sebassis, Cyvus Vail, Izzerial the Devil and Senator Helen Brucker. They were ultimately destroyed by Angel and his team.