What Happened To The Cast Of Burn Notice And Where Are They Today?

When you're a spy, you never know who to trust. You just might find yourself burned and exiled to scenic Miami, where you're forced to take odd jobs from your mom and battle two-bit gangsters while trying to figure out who got you kicked from the intelligence community. That's the setup for "Burn Notice," the spy-crime series that ran for seven seasons and a movie on the USA Network from 2007 to 2013. And like any good procedural drama, it's a show that succeeded largely on the strength and chemistry of its cast.

Jeffrey Donovan led the series as Michael Westen, the aforementioned spy-turned-freelancer after a mysterious "burn notice" gets him expelled from his former job and stuck in Miami with his assets frozen. His long quest to unravel how it all happened is aided by his mother Madeline (Sharon Gless), on-and-off romantic partner and former IRA operative Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar), and friends Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) and Jesse Porter (Coby Bell). Together, they battle kingpins, help the helpless, and ever so slowly decipher what really happened to Michael.

The series was part of a golden age for procedural TV at USA, overlapping with similarly formatted shows like "Psych," "White Collar," and the nine-season run of "Suits." It's now been more than a decade since the series went off the air, so let's check back in with the stars of "Burn Notice" and see what they've been up to.

After spending the better part of a decade playing Michael Westen on the USA Network, Jeffrey Donovan moved into a more diversified body of work. The actor stayed active on television, landing a recurring role on "Fargo" Season 2 as dangerous criminal Dodd Gerhardt just two years after "Burn Notice" aired its finale. He followed that up with the lead role on Hulu's "Shut Eye," playing psychic magician Charlie Haverford for the show's two seasons. He also joined the "Law & Order" universe as Det. Frank Cosgrove.

On the big screen, Donovan has been similarly prolific since "Burn Notice" ended. He played Steve Forsing in 2015's "Sicario" and the 2018 sequel "Sicario: Day of the Soldado," as well as playing John F. Kennedy in the 2016 Woody Harrelson-led biopic "LBJ." Since 2019, he's been particularly active in film, with credits including the 2020 Liam Neeson thriller "Honest Thief," the 2022 John Boyega drama "Breaking," and the 2023 Western "Surrounded." Donovan has also ventured into the voice acting realm, with a brief turn as the robotic mobster Machine Head on Prime Video's animated superhero series "Invincible" and another voiceover role as Steve Trevor in the animated DC movie "Wonder Woman: Bloodlines."

Outside of work, Donovan married his wife, Michelle Woods, near the end of the "Burn Notice" run in 2012, and they have three children together.

As Fiona Glenanne, Gabrielle Anwar was the one often bringing the fire — quite literally in the form of various explosives — to "Burn Notice." Fiona's intense personality is the perfect balance to Michael's cool, calm demeanor, and their complicated will-they-won't-they is an anchor throughout the show's run — as such a storyline often is for any procedural worth its salt.

In the wake of "Burn Notice" ending in 2013, Anwar hasn't been quite as active in Hollywood, though she has popped up here and there over the years. Her most notable performance since the spy saga wrapped up came on the ABC fairy tale series "Once Upon a Time," in which she played the dual role of Victoria Belfrey and Lady Rapunzel Tremaine. As those familiar with the show will know, actors often played two versions of the same character in the real world and the magical one. Anwar was nominated in the best villain category at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards for her performance.

Her only other major credit since "Burn Notice" came in the 2019 coming-of-age film "The Last Summer," where Anwar played the mother of KJ Apa's lead protagonist, Griffin. In 2015, Anwar married restaurateur Shareef Malnik, making her own wedding gown for the ceremony.

Bruce Campbell was already a cult film legend by the time he debuted as Sam Axe on "Burn Notice" Season 1. After making a name for himself alongside director and longtime friend Sam Raimi with the Evil Dead franchise, Campbell has built an eclectic filmography, never straying too far from his genre B-movie roots. More casual audiences may know him best from his appearances in later Raimi movies, including the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy.

As Sam Axe, Campbell brought the comic relief to "Burn Notice," always happy to provide a bit of mojito-drenched advice or assistance to Michael when needed. The series became so popular that Campbell even starred in a TV movie prequel for the character, showing a bit of Sam's prior military career.

Campbell's biggest TV role since "Burn Notice" is certainly that of the eponymous hero in "Ash vs Evil Dead," a Starz continuation of the original horror films series that aired from 2015 to 2018. Like "Burn Notice" co-star Jeffrey Donovan, he also had a brief appearance on "Fargo" in 2015, playing Ronald Reagan. He's also leant his voice to animated series like "Archer" and "The Last Kids on Earth."

On the big screen, Campbell has mostly done cameos, including in Raimi movies like "Oz the Great and Powerful" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." He's reprised the role of Ash Williams in the latter-day Evil Dead movies as well as the Starz series, and he's voiced Ash in a number of video games, including "Call of Duty" and "Dead by Daylight."

No one else in the "Burn Notice" cast had the TV pedigree of Sharon Gless when the show began, nor do they now. She rose to fame in the early '80s by playing Detective Christine Cagney on the acclaimed CBS series "Cagney & Lacey," winning two Primetime Emmy awards and being nominated another four times. Two more nominations came on the early '90s drama "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill," and Gless solidified her status as a cross-decade TV star by playing Debbie Novotny on "Queer as Folk."

Gless got yet another Emmy nomination in 2010 for her performance as Michael's mother Madeline on "Burn Notice." Since the series ended, she's only had one major film credit in the 2023 Pierce Brosnan thriller "Fast Charlie," but she's remained quite active on the small screen. Given her career path, that shouldn't be surprising to anyone.

In 2016, Gless played Chris MacNeil on Season 1 of Fox's "The Exorcist" series. She followed that up with appearances on "The Gifted," "Casualty," and "Station 19." While she hasn't had a main cast role since "Burn Notice" wrapped up, the actor has continued to expand her already impressive legacy over the past decade. In 2022, she published a memoir, "Apparently There Were Complaints," with Simon & Schuster, detailing her long life and career.

Jesse Porter, played by Coby Bell, is the odd man out in the main "Burn Notice" cast, in that he doesn't enter the story until Season 4. Michael ends up getting him burned unintentionally, and after a period of tension, he becomes another core member of the crew.

At the same time that he was appearing on "Burn Notice," Bell was also co-starring on "The Game," a series centered around a fictional American football team that premiered on The CW and continued on BET. Bell played team captain Jason Pitts on the show, returning in 2021 for the revival on Paramount+. After a few smaller appearances on shows like "Mad Dogs" and "Hand of God," he landed another main cast role on the Fox X-Men series "The Gifted" as Sentinel Services agent Jace Turner. In 2019 and 2020, Bell made guest appearances on "SEAL Team" and "Lucifer."

Bell has also co-starred on the "Walker, Texas Ranger" reboot "Walker" on The CW, playing Texas Ranger Larry Samuel James alongside lead star Jared Padalecki. "Walker" was canceled this year after four seasons, opening up Bell's schedule for whatever may come next.