Invading Your TV: Our Favorite Latina Sci-Fi Queens!

Charisma Carpenter in Buffy the Vampire Slayer  (1996-1999)

When Spanish actress Charisma Carpenter first auditioned for the WB show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she wanted the role of Buffy, the show’s title character. The role ended up going to Sarah Michelle Gellar, but the show’s executive producer Joss Whedon was so enamoured with Charisma that he asked her to read for the part of Cordelia Chase, a snobby and popular high school student with entitlement issues. Charisma injected so much, um, charisma into the part that we ended up falling in love with her character, and as the show went on, Cordelia became a more sensitive and sweet person that we could all root for. When Buffy’s high school years came to an end, Whedon asked Charisma to join his Buffy spinoff Angel, which she starred on from 1999-2004.