13 Actors Who Left Their TV Shows But Eventually Returned And 13 Who Never Did An Episode Again

After starring on Grey's Anatomy for several seasons, Kate went on to do Private Practice and still appeared in a few episodes. Kate's first appearance in nine years happened during Season 18 when she arrived at Grey-Sloan for a surgery. Speaking about returning, Kate said, "I was very satisfied and delighted by it. And, honestly, that’s always been [the thought]: you do this for the fans."

Now, we haven't hit the series finale of this show yet, so I'd never say never, but for now, it looks like Sandra doesn't want to return. While she always thanks Grey's Anatomy for giving her the chance to play Cristina, she's said, "In my mind, it’s gone. But for a lot of people, it’s still very much alive. And while I understand and I love it, I have moved on."

In 2011, everyone believed that Steve wanted to depart The Office, but in the recent book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, several crew members revealed that NBC executives never made an offer to keep him around after his original contract ended. Steve eventually came back for the series finale, which featured Michael attending Dwight and Angela's wedding.

During Donald's final episode, Troy said goodbye to his friends and left to compete in a sailing trip around the world with LeVar Burton. Reflecting on Donald's departure, Danny Pudi said, "It was kind of nice to be able to grieve in a show where you're grieving about your real-life friend saying goodbye." Donald did reprise his role when the cast reunited for a table read in 2020.

A contract dispute is what led to Christopher originally stepping away from the series. His original final episode featured Stabler simply retiring offscreen. Looking back, Christopher called his original departure "inelegant." Now, he and Mariska Hargitay are frequent scene partners again since both of their characters often cross over into each other's shows. 

Emmy left the series to pursue other opportunities, so her final episode featured Fiona leaving Chicago. When the show's final season came around, Emmy was expected to appear in the series finale, according to showrunner John Wells; however, strict COVID-19 restrictions prevented her from returning.

Lexa's death on The 100 sparked fan outcry when it occurred in March 2016. Adding to the "Bury Your Gays" trope, Lexa's death was unnecessary and many stopped watching the series because of it. However, for the series finale, Alycia did return as a version of Lexa. Speaking about coming back, she said, "I wanted to do it specifically for the fans and to have a little closure to finally feel like there was a positive spin that had happened. I know it was Lexa as the Judge and it wasn't necessarily Lexa as herself, but I still thought the sentiment was important."

Lincoln's death on The 100 came only two episodes after Lexa's tragic end. Ricky Whittle made the choice to leave the series and accused showrunner Jason Rothenberg of "bullying." He explained that Jason "abused his position to make my job untenable," and Ricky even said Jason cut him out of storylines he was originally supposed to be in.

In an Instagram post, America said, "The last five years on Superstore have been some of the most rewarding, enriching, and enjoyable years of my career." The show ultimately ended the following season, so America wasn't absent for very many episodes too.

The last episode Tim filmed for Schitt's Creek was the Season 4 episode "The Rollout." Speaking about watching the show become such a success, Tim said, "It was so crazy and just wild, especially watching Annie Murphy's career take off. I mean, Dan [Levy], Eugene [Levy], and everyone deserve all the recognition they've gotten, but something about watching Annie become an Emmy winner was...it was so wild."

Chad came back to OTH during Season 9 when Nathan went missing and Haley was looking for him. In recent years, Chad has expressed interest in doing a One Tree Hill reunion or reboot as well. 

At the time, there were a lot of rumors surrounding Hilarie's decision to leave the show, including that there were "negotiations based on money" that didn't work out in her favor. In 2017, Hilarie, along with 17 of her One Tree Hill female costars, detailed the sexual and verbal abuse and misconduct they suffered at the hands of series creator Mark Schwahn. This was one of the reasons Hilarie decided not to renew her contract.

Lauren left the series after doing a handful of episodes in Season 9 in order to star on the short-lived ABC series Whiskey Cavalier. It also happened while she was trying to negotiate a new contract for The Walking Dead, and it wasn't panning out in her favor. Now, Lauren has returned for the show's final season as Maggie reunites with Daryl, Carol, and the rest of her group.

Of course, Meghan's exit from the show was announced after she got engaged to Prince Harry in 2017. Meghan's final Suits episode involved Rachel and Mike moving to Seattle for Rachel's new job after their wedding.

Originally, Paget opted to leave Criminal Minds in order to pursue other projects, which included a comedy pilot in 2012. Then, during Season 12, Paget returned to the show as a series regular once again. At the time, executive producer and showrunner Erica Messer said, "The BAU family has definitely missed her, on screen and off. Having her back on set has been great, it’s like she never left."

Mandy's sudden departure early in Season 3 came as a shock to fans of this beloved series. At the time, Mandy said he left the series due to the subject matter, which often included very violent crimes. He continued, saying, "The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different."

Emily decided to step away from Arrow to focus on theater and other projects. Talking about ending Felicity's story before the final season, Emily said, "I feel like Felicity has done her time. We knew this was coming for awhile — for over a year — so the whole thing is exactly what we wanted to happen."

Teen Wolf Season 5 ended with Kira being left in the desert to repay her debt to the Skinwalkers, so it was somewhat shocking when Arden announced her departure ahead of Season 6. In a video, Arden said, "I loved my experience on Teen Wolf. I love the cast and crew. It’s been an amazing almost 3-and-a-half years."

Milo left the show after the episode "Those Are Strings, Pinocchio," and almost got his own Jess spinoff series too. While reuniting on Scott Patterson's podcast, Milo talked about if he'd ever revisit Jess again. He said, "The thing is this, I can't ever get away from it. For me, knowing that like you, Lauren [Graham], Alexis [Bledel], and probably just about everybody else in the show would show up, and on top of it, it'd probably be Dan [Palladino] and Amy [Sherman-Palladino] there writing their asses off, it's like, yeah, why wouldn't I?"

Adam only starred in nine episodes of Gilmore Girls, but he made a lasting impression on fans. Of course, he left the series to go star as Seth Cohen on The O.C. Talking about his Gilmore Girls role, Adam said, "It was a joy. It was phenomenally well written. In hindsight, almost 20 years later, I realize that’s still some of the best written stuff I’ve ever gotten to do and the rarity of it."

Finding out Wes was the one who was under the sheet during Season 4 was one of the biggest OMG moments from this show. Speaking about his departure at the time, Alfred said he found out "about a month and a half" before the episode aired, and he was the one to break the news to the rest of the cast. While Wes died, Alfred did return during the final season to play Wes and Laurel's adult son.

Quentin's death in the Season 4 finale caught every single fan of this show off guard, especially considering he was the main character. In fact, Jason kept this massive secret from his fellow cast members for a year. The show even gave the rest of the cast a fake scene at the end of the episode, where it looked like Quentin survived after everyone mourned him during the bonfire. 

After departing The Vampire Diaries before Season 7, Nina made her return as Elena during the final episode when Elena woke up from her magical coma. At the time, Nina announced it on Instagram. She captioned a photo of her script on Instagram with, "I know it's Thursday, but this is not a TBT."

Seth's last episode was during the Season 4 finale, which featured Oz appearing in Willow's dream and telling Tara he warned her about Willow. Talking about how passionate the Buffy fandom still is, Seth said, "We have had this incredible experience of adults who watched the show while it was on currently, now showing it to their own kids and sharing it with their family, which I think is really cool."

Jennifer said one of the reasons she decided to leave was because she had gone from House to How I Met Your Mother to Once Upon a Time and felt like she needed a break from the long hours a TV show demanded, and she wanted to "not be living away from home." Alongside Jennifer, Josh Dallas, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jared Gilmore, Emilie de Ravin, and Rebecca Mader also left at the same time and then returned during the final season.

One of the biggest unresolved TV character arcs has to be when Bennett suddenly left OITNB and we never saw him again. Speaking about Bennett's final episode, Matt said, "Part of me would have wished for death over the way that it happened. Because as someone who's a fan of obviously the show itself and Daya's relationship with Bennett, it was pretty heartbreaking to me how he ended up leaving."