Hot Gallery: This Season’s Witches and Fairy-Tale Favorites Before They Were Stars

Britt Robertson (The Secret Circle)

Then: Robertson shared the big screen with Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life back in 2007, but most of us remember her as Lux on last year’s CW series Life Unexpected. Lux was a foster child who was perpetually shuttled from home to home before discovering her now-estranged biological parents. The series followed the emotional ups and downs that Lux and her long-lost family experienced after a judge ordered that her parents now share custody of her. A great ensemble cast wasn’t enough, and sadly, Life Unexpected was canceled after only 26 episodes.

Frank Ockenfels 3/ The CW

Britt Robertson (The Secret Circle)

Now: Robertson stars as 16-year-old Cassie, who goes to live with her mother in New Salem. She falls for a local boy named Adam but is shocked to discover that she, Adam, and the other students are all witches.

Thomas Dekker (The Secret Circle)

Then: Born into the entertainment industry with parents who are both “in the business,” Dekker started acting at the age of 6. His first big break was in the series Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and he continued to work steadily in the years following. Most recently you may have caught him in the role of Zach on the first season of Heroes or as John Connor in the 2008-2009 series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Frank Ockenfels 3/The CW

Thomas Dekker (The Secret Circle)

Now: Dekker stars as Adam Conant, the object of Cassie’s affections and the boyfriend of Diana, the leader of the witches at the high school in New Salem. Adam is also a witch. We wonder if this Secret Circle is also going to become an enchanted love triangle.

David Giuntoli (Grimm)

Then: Giuntoli has had many supporting roles on shows ranging from Veronica Mars to Grey’s Anatomy and The Unit. Avid fans of shows on the CW might remember him for his recurring role on Privileged as the headmaster who had a secret relationship with JoAnna Garcia's character.

Scott Green/NBC

David Giuntoli (Grimm)

Now: Giuntoli returns to our living rooms as homicide detective Nick Burckhardt on NBC’s Grimm, airing on Friday nights. Detective Burckhardt learns he is the last in the line of hunters known as Grimms, whose job it is to keep humanity safe from supernatural creatures such as the kinds found in storybooks. He even teams up with a reformed “Big Bad Wolf” to solve his cases and protect the people of Portland.

Bitsie Tulloch (Grimm)

Then: She starred on the (very short-lived) NBC drama Quarterlife, the brainchild of the creators/producers of thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again. Unfortunately, the social-media-focused show lasted only six episodes.

NBC

Bitsie Tulloch (Grimm)

Now: Tulloch stars as Juliette Silverton, Detective Burckhardt’s girlfriend. No word yet on whether she knows his secret identity or whether she is one of the many people at risk of being harmed by the storybook villains.

Silas Weir Mitchell (Grimm)

Then: Mitchell gave a brilliant performance as paranoid schizophrenic Charles “Haywire” Patoshik on the Fox series Prison Break. As one of the Fox River Eight who escaped the prison at the end of the first season, Haywire helped with an integral part of the break by remembering a part of the tattoo that served as their map. His character committed suicide in the second season.

Silas Weir Mitchell (Grimm)

Now: Mitchell taps into his bad side again, playing the reformed “Big Bad Wolf” that has turned traitor and now helps Detective Burckhardt.

Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time)

Then: She's starred with Julia Roberts and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Mona Lisa Smile and Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, but most of us know her as sweet Margene Heffman from Big Love. The third wife of Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) on the polygamy-focused HBO series that ran from 2006 to 2011, Margene grows from compliant sister-wife to opinionated and career-driven woman.

Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time)

Now: Goodwin plays Snow White in the new ABC series that focuses on a small New England town called Storybrooke. The residents of Storybrooke are fairy-tale characters who have no knowledge of their alternate identities and live as "real people." In Goodwin’s character’s case, she is Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard. How will she find out she’s Snow White as well? Or will she?

Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon a Time)

Then: Although she started acting in 1994 and appeared in bit roles in Dawson’s Creek and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Morrison got her big breakthrough as Dr. Allison Cameron on House M.D. from 2004 to 2010. She left the show to pursue other opportunities, including a multi-episode comedic arc as Ted’s love interest on How I Met Your Mother.

Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon a Time)

Now: Morrison stars as Emma Swan, a bail bonds collector who gave her son Henry up for adoption many years ago. Henry finds her and brings her back to Storybrooke, where she learns that she alone holds the power to save the Enchanted Forest and the Real World.

Robert Carlyle (Once Upon a Time)

Then: Carlyle memorably turned a group of out-of-work Brits into a male striptease act in 1997's The Full Monty. The Scottish actor has been extremely successful in his long career, so you might also recognize him from films such as Trainspotting, The World Is Not Enough, and 28 Weeks Later or the shows The Last Enemy or SGU Stargate Universe.

Robert Carlyle (Once Upon a Time)

Now: Caryle steps into the world of fairy tales as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold. Will he be as evil as the imp that threatened to take the miller's daughter's child in return for spinning her straw into gold? We shall see!