What The Gilmore Girls Cast Looks Like Today

On October 5, 2000, Amy Sherman-Palladino brought television audiences to the sleepy fictional hamlet of Stars Hollow for the very first time and introduced them to the titular Gilmore girls — young, cool mom Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and her precocious daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). From the very start, viewers loved the quirky, funny, pop-culture obsessed mother-daughter duo who talk too fast and eat too much, but the show didn't only focus on them; Rory and Lorelai are constantly surrounded by memorable, lovable, and even a few wholly irritating characters who flesh out their whole world (looking at you, Michael Winters' town busybody Taylor Doose).

In the years between the original run of "Gilmore Girls" on The WB (which became The CW during the show's seventh and final season) and the 2016 four-part Netflix revival "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life," some cast members sadly passed away. Most notably, Richard Hermann, the venerated actor who joined the show as Lorelai's imposing yet big-hearted father Richard Gilmore, died of brain cancer in 2014, forcing the rest of the Gilmore family to mourn his absence during that revival. But what about the rest of the cast? What have they been up to since the original series came to a close in May of 2007, besides returning for "A Year in the Life" (which everybody on this list did)?

It's impossible to imagine a world where the fast-talking, coffee-swilling, burger-loving Lorelai Gilmore was played by anyone besides Lauren Graham, who fits the role so perfectly it's as if it was written just for her. Lorelai is 32 years old when the series begins, and if you quickly do some math when you realize that Rory is 16, it brings one of the major narrative throughlines to light: Lorelai was a teenage mother who left behind her wealthy, stern family to raise her daughter Rory on her own. Throughout "Gilmore Girls," Lorelai finds, loses, and finds love, opens her own inn, stands by Rory's side even during particularly tough times, and, yes, drinks gallons upon gallons of coffee (along with a decent number of martinis). So what did Graham do when the series ended?

Obviously, Graham returned for "A Year in the Life" — where she grapples with the loss of her father and looks out for a flailing Rory — but besides that, she memorably starred on the TV drama "Parenthood" as Sarah Braverman from 2010 to 2015 and appeared in films like "It's Kind of a Funny Story," "Max," and "Joshy." Graham is also an author; her first novel, "Someday, Someday, Maybe" released in 2016, and she's also written two memoirs — 2016's "Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)" and 2022's "Have I Told You This Already?"

Alexis Bledel was only 19 years old when she started playing the brilliant, bookish, and quick-witted Rory Gilmore — who turns 16 within the show's first few episodes — and "Gilmore Girls" legend says that Lauren Graham had to help the inexperienced young actress find her marks a lot on set (which explains why Lorelai is always touching Rory in early seasons, as Graham was literally leading her young protegé around the set). Rory can definitely be an infuriating character — remember when she steals a yacht and drops out of Yale? — but her intense drive is admirable and her fumbles are often relatable, despite the fact that Rory is supposed to be incredibly, almost alarmingly bright for her age. Throughout the series, Bledel seriously improved as a performer ... and clearly, her experience on "Gilmore Girls" not only launched her career, but taught her quite a lot.

Bledel, who joined her onscreen mother Graham in "a Year in the Life," starred in both "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" movies and took a more adult role in 2005's "Sin City" (while playing Rory), and in 2012, she played a guest role on AMC's hit series "Mad Men" as Beth Dawes, an unhappy housewife who has a fling with Pete Campbell (Victor Kartheiser). (Bledel and Kartheiser ended up getting married in 2014 but ultimately split in 2022). In 2017, Bledel won her first Emmy for her guest role in "The Handmaid's Tale" as Ofglen, a queer woman tortured by a totalitarian government; she earned three more nominations for the role in 2018, 2020, and 2021.

One could argue that, even though the title "Gilmore Girls" ostensibly centers around Lorelai and Rory, it also includes Lorelai's mother Emily Gilmore, played by Tony Award-winner Kelly Bishop. (Bishop certainly thinks so; her 2024 memoir just so happens to be titled "The Third Gilmore Girl.") Emily can certainly be difficult and stubborn, especially when it comes to her headstrong daughter Lorelai, but she's also incredibly funny (at one point, she tells Lorelai, "I was going to wait until you called me, but my life isn't as long as yours") and cares deeply about her family, particularly her granddaughter Rory. 

Emily's storyline in "A Year in the Life" centers around the loss of her beloved husband Richard, and besides the revival, the "Dirty Dancing" veteran has stayed plenty busy. Bishop got her real start in show business onstage in the original production of "A Chorus Line" — which is how she won her Tony — and after "Gilmore Girls" ended its initial run, Bishop returned to the stage in projects like a revival of "Anything Goes" led by Sutton Foster. Bishop also showed up a handful of times on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" as a lawyer, reunited with Amy Sherman-Palladino on "Bunheads" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and worked on acclaimed shows like "Halston."

There are so many great "will they, won't they" relationships in TV history, but it's safe to say that Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes — played by Scott Patterson — earned their spot in the hall of fame. Introduced as the proprietor of Luke's Diner — a Stars Hollow "hotspot," so to speak — Luke has a short fuse when it comes to pretty much everybody except for Lorelai and Rory, of whom he's extremely fond. It feels obvious right away that Luke and Lorelai should be together, but the show really takes its time and doesn't even let them kiss for the first time until the Season 4 finale; though they encounter a ton of truly insane stumbling blocks (like the fact that Luke discovers he has a daughter, which ended up being one of the show's least popular plotlines), Luke and Lorelai eventually reunite after spending, frankly, too much of the series apart. (Lauren Graham and Patterson have really, really great chemistry, and it's honestly stupid of the show to bother splitting them up.)

During "A Year in the Life," we learn that Luke and Lorelai have been together for years and live in Lorelai's house — and at the end of the final episode, "Fall," they finally get married. Besides "Gilmore Girls," Patterson has also appeared in a few "Saw" movies as Agent Peter Strahm, led the TV series "The Event" from 2010 to 2011, and began starring on the Canadian drama "Sullivan's Crossing" in 2023.

Rory has three significant boyfriends throughout "Gilmore Girls," and unfortunately for Jared Padalecki, Dean is undoubtedly the worst of them. As Rory's first-ever boyfriend, Dean seems nice enough, but that exterior masks a possessive nature and an extremely jealous streak that leads to Rory endlessly placating him (Dean even breaks up with her for the first time after he tells her he loves her and she's not ready to say it back). Despite the fact that Dean and Rory seem to split for good when a new boy moves to Stars Hollow, Dean keeps popping up — he and Rory reunite while she's attending Yale after a truly crappy storyline where they sleep together while Dean is married — but thankfully, the two high school sweethearts part ways for good during the show's fifth season.

Dean reappears — married with kids — in "A Year in the Life," but thankfully, the two don't have any more romantic moments. Padalecki is definitely best known for his starring role as Sam Winchester on "Supernatural," which he led alongside Jensen Ackles as his on-screen brother (who happens to be named "Dean," actually), and from 2021 to 2024, he produced and starred on "Walker." 

Milo Ventimiglia's Jess Mariano could have been Rory's best boyfriend, but unfortunately, he never really gets a fair shot; Jess and Rory only date for a little while and end their relationship when he abruptly leaves Stars Hollow without telling her. Jess ends up in the small town in the first place because he's Luke's nephew, and when his mom — Luke's sister Liz, played by Kathleen Wilhoite — can't deal with him, she asks Luke to take him in. Despite the fact that he's clearly resentful of Luke and Stars Hollow as a whole, Jess clearly likes Rory, and when she and Dean break up, she and Jess start dating straight away, and he reappears a handful of times throughout the series to reunite with Rory (most memorably, he calls her out on her terrible life choices during her leave of absence from Yale).

You probably know Ventimiglia from a whole host of 2000s projects like "Heroes," "Rocky Balboa" (where he plays Rocky Balboa Jr.), and "American Dreams," and he returned to TV in a big way in 2016 thanks to a lead role as Pearson patriarch Jack on the hit drama "This Is Us." Besides his return in "A Year in the Life," Ventimiglia has also appeared in movies like "The Art of Racing in the Rain," reunited with Amy Sherman-Palladino for a few episodes of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and led the series "The Company You Keep," which was canceled in the spring of 2023 and subsequently removed from Hulu.

As "Gilmore Girls" fans age, they all come to the realization that Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry) is, without a doubt, Rory's best boyfriend. Introduced in Season 5 during Rory's time at Yale University, Logan comes from an incredibly wealthy and powerful family — his father Mitchum (Gregg Henry) is a newspaper magnate, which was a real thing back in the 2000s, and the whole clan is loosely based on the Ochs-Sulzberger family that owns the New York Times. As such, Logan is definitely spoiled and haughty, but he's always kind to Rory and never pretends to be anything he's not; he's honest with her about the fact that he rarely commits to women, but loves Rory enough to be her boyfriend. He even proposes to her at the end of the series, but Rory says no and leaves to work on Barack Obama's campaign.

Like Rory's other boyfriends, Logan appears in "A Year in the Life" — he's living in London and having an affair with Rory even though he's engaged to a French heiress named Odette, whom we never meet — but you also probably recognize Czuchry from his high-profile role in "The Good Wife" or his starring role on "The Resident." In 2024, he led "American Horror Story: Delicate" as Dexter Harding, husband to Emma Roberts' Anna Alcott, an actress experiencing strange symptoms during her pregnancy.

Throughout "Gilmore Girls," Lorelai's best friend Sookie St. James — played by Melissa McCarthy — works alongside Lorelai, first at the Independence Inn and then at the inn they buy and run together, the Dragonfly Inn. According to every single person on the show, Sookie is a world-class chef who also happens to have a serious knack for getting into accidents in her kitchen (a particularly funny detail is that Sookie always has bandages on her fingers). During the course of the show, Sookie ends up marrying Jackson Belleville (Jackson Douglas), a vegetable purveyor who works at both inns with her and Lorelai, and they have two kids — Davey and Martha (though Sookie ends the show pregnant with a third child, whose name we never learn).

Based on the fact that McCarthy got very, very famous after "Gilmore Girls" — she earned an Oscar nod for her supporting turn in "Bridesmaids" in 2011 and basically never slowed down again — a lot of fans wondered if she'd even have time to show up for "A Year in the Life," but thankfully, she made a small appearance in the episode "Fall." You probably know what else McCarthy has been up to — she has two Emmys, has starred in huge comedies like "Spy" and "The Heat," and picked up a second Oscar nomination for "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" All in all, it's pretty wild that McCarthy, whose character was definitely on the sidelines in "Gilmore Girls," emerged as the show's biggest star.

When Liza Weil first auditioned for "Gilmore Girls," she went out for the role of Rory Gilmore, but she impressed the show's team so much that they created another role for her: Paris Geller, Rory's classmate at the prestigious Chilton School who immediately forms a rivalry with the bright young girl from Stars Hollow. As they attend Chilton and then Yale together, Paris and Rory ultimately become best friends — it could honestly be argued that Rory's boyfriends barely matter, as her best relationship is with Paris — and Weil's performance is excellent, especially because the writers give her so many good lines. (After Paris and Rory head back to their Yale dorm after a downpour and a girl asks if it's raining, Paris simply replies, "No, it's national baptism day. Tie your tubes, idiot.")

Weil went on to join the television universe informally known as "Shondaland," appearing briefly on Shonda Rhimes' creations "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal" before joining the cast of "How to Get Away with Murder" as lawyer Bonnie Winterbottom. Like many of her other "Gilmore Girls" veterans, Weil also showed up on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and she currently plays Katherine Russo on "The Cleaning Lady."

Kirk might just be the very best character on "Gilmore Girls." Though Sean Gunn plays a different guy in the show's second episode named Mick, he later joins the Stars Hollows fray as Kirk, an oddball who constantly has five different jobs at once — whether he's working at the store's sole beauty store, driving people around town in a strange little cart, or performing duties as a notary. Kirk is utterly bizarre and Gunn really leans into that, like the moment where Kirk reveals to Luke that he has night terrors and asks him to intervene if they happen during his first-ever night sharing a bed with his paramour Lulu (Rini Bell). (He has the night terrors anyway and ends up running naked through Luke and Lorelai's very first kiss.)

Despite the fact that Bradley Cooper voices Rocket Raccoon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Gunn — whose brother is director James Gunn — provides the motion-capture for the character and also appeared in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies as Kraglin. Plus, now that his brother is a big part of the DC Cinematic Universe, Gunn is joining that too; in late 2023, it was announced that he would replace Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord in future projects. Oh, and he showed up in "A Year in the Life" as Kirk, who's still working odd jobs in Stars Hollow.

You can stream both "Gilmore Girls" and "A Year in the Life" on Netflix.