The following is a list of characters that were recurring guests on the series; they are listed in the order that they first appeared on the show. Many characters have had storylines that have spanned multiple seasons, while the others are restricted to arcs that occurred during a single season of the show. ,
Lucio,
Cassidy and
Wilde Overview Taryn Baker Taryn Baker is one of the "Newpsies;" wealthy, bored women who live in Newport Beach and spend their days lunching, shopping, and gossiping. Many of her appearances centered on her sexually adventurous side. In the first-season episode ("The Countdown"), she attended a swingers' party, claiming that such events had "saved [her] marriage." Later, she helped spread the rumour that Luke Ward's father had been having an affair with his male business partner ("The Secret"), and that this was why he had turned her down when she propositioned him. In the fourth season, it was revealed that swinging eventually did not save her marriage, which ended in divorce. Since her divorce, she had been sleeping with as many young men as possible, and goes out clubbing most nights, inviting Julie Cooper to come with her on one occasion. ("The Metamorphosis"). She also appeared in flashback, in the fourth-season episode ("The Case of the Franks"), where it was revealed that she attended high school with
Kirsten Cohen and Jimmy Cooper. who played Rachel
Rachel Hoffman Rachel Hoffman is a former colleague of
Sandy Cohen in the district attorney's office. She invites him to work with her in a private firm called Partridge, Savage and Kahn. Sandy takes the offer, and later Sandy's wife, Kirsten, finds Rachel and Sandy enjoying a drink, causing tension between Sandy and Kirsten. Rachel shares the case of Balboa Heights with Sandy, because the plaintiff is Caleb Nichol's company. While negotiating with Caleb, Caleb accuses Sandy and Rachel of having an affair. Some time afterwards, when Sandy and Rachel work until late in Rachel's apartment, Rachel flirts with Sandy but he rejects her advances. When the chemistry between the two fizzles out, Sandy and Kirsten attempt to set her up with Jimmy Cooper, but fail. who played Dr. Kim
Dr. Kim Dr. Kim is the Dean of the Harbor High School. She gives
Ryan Atwood a chance to enter Harbor if he passes an admission exam, which he does, although he leaves halfway through the exam when
Seth Cohen and
Summer Roberts barge into the room and beg Ryan to come with them to help
Marissa Cooper, who is recovering from her drug overdose in Tijuana. She persuades Marissa to continue her role as social chair despite Marissa's tarnished reputation after overdosing on painkillers. She later returns to have a meeting with
Kirsten,
Sandy and Ryan, after Ryan reads
Oliver Trask's files in the file storage room. In 2005, she was confronted by Julie Cooper and Sandy, claiming that she does not have the power to decide to expel Marissa and Ryan, after the gunshot incident, deferring to the new Dean of Discipline, Jack Hess. However, she assists in re-admitting Marissa into Harbor by revealing a precedent in 1996, in which a similar incident to Trey's shooting had occurred with a formerly suspended student. At Harbor's 2006 graduation, Summer spontaneously leaps into Dr. Kim's arms.
Rosalind Chao, who portrayed Dr. Kim, was born in Orange County's largest city,
Anaheim.
Carson Ward Carson Ward, portrayed by
Brian McNamara, is the husband of Meredith Ward, and the father of
Eric,
Brad, and
Luke Ward. He graduated from the
University of Southern California with a degree in history. He owns three auto dealerships. Carson and his family appeared happy, but in a sad twist, the family was not really "perfect". At one of his auto dealerships, Luke and Ryan discover Carson making out with another man and after realizing his son caught him, Carson decides to tell his wife who then files for divorce shortly after. Luke later admits to Ryan that his father "traveled" a lot and that he felt somewhat resentful of Carson for it when it turns out that the "traveling" was a cover for his affair. Months later, by season 2, Carson and Meredith's divorce has been finalized and Carson moves to
Portland with Luke moving with him, but Brad and Eric staying behind in Newport with their mother. Carson later returns in the season 2 episode "The Distance", where Seth was staying at Luke and Carson's house in Portland.
Brad and Eric Ward Brad and Eric Ward are
Luke Ward's younger twin brothers. When they first appeared in season 1, they were around 12. After their parents divorced, Luke decides to live with their father and the twins are not seen; they presumably stayed behind in Newport with their mother, Meredith. They returned in season 4 and are classmates and friends with Kaitlin Cooper. Eric resembles
Luke more than Brad and both are often seen flirting with female classmates. They also have a crush on
Kirsten Cohen.
Cindy Cindy, played by
Holly Fields, is the younger sister of Julie and is also the aunt of
Marissa and Kaitlin Cooper.
D.J. D.J. played by
Nicholas Gonzalez is described by creator
Josh Schwartz as "the yard guy who works at Caleb's mansion". Later, however, it is revealed that
Marissa Cooper has struck up a relationship with him after
Ryan Atwood left Orange County. Marissa and DJ kept their trysts secret to prevent Marissa's mother Julie from finding out and firing D.J. When Ryan returns to Newport and asks Marissa if she was seeing anyone, Marissa lies to him and says she's single. However, Ryan discovers the truth when he finds Marissa and D.J. kissing. D.J. is angry with Marissa when he finds out about her lie, saying he felt like a back-up she only came to when Ryan was not around. Marissa apologizes and the two reconcile shortly afterward, with Marissa revealing their relationship to her mother by announcing that as he was her boyfriend, D.J. should appear with them in family portrait photographs to be taken with Caleb Nichol. As expected, this enrages Julie, who felt D.J. was socially beneath her daughter. Arranging a secret meeting with him, Julie gives D.J. a check for $5,000 to leave Marissa. D.J. does so, but first gives the check to Marissa, suggesting she go on a spending spree. He then leaves her, saying he had no regrets about their relationship, but he feels Marissa was with him only to spite her mother. who played Renee Wheeler
Renee Wheeler Renee Wheeler once had an affair with
Caleb Nichol which led to her having a child, Lindsay Gardner. Caleb continues to pay her money and the DA misunderstand that, thinking that Caleb is bribing Renee for a building permit, for which Caleb is arrested ("The New Era"). Sandy figures out that the reason Caleb pays Renee is that she is the mother of his illegitimate child ("The SnO.C."). Caleb admits to having had an affair so he will be released from prison but the news angers his daughter,
Kirsten Cohen ("The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't"). Renee later returns, asking
Ryan Atwood to help her stop Caleb from adopting Lindsay as Caleb wants a paternity test and Renee isn't sure if Caleb really is Lindsay's father ("The Test"). The test results confirm Caleb's paternity but Lindsay ultimately decides that she doesn't want Caleb to adopt her because of how he treats her and she and her mother leave Newport for
Chicago ("The Rainy Day Women").
Rebecca Bloom Rebecca Bloom is an ex-girlfriend of
Sandy Cohen played by
Kim Delaney, who is described as Sandy's "love of [his] life" by
Kirsten Cohen. Twenty years ago, she was accused of burning down a lab and killing a man in the fire. Rebecca denies that and claims that she fled the site because she did not want to testify against her friends. Her father, Max, asks his former student Sandy to find Rebecca, as he is dying and wants to see his only daughter one last time before dying. Rebecca shows up, and Max asks Sandy to clear her name; soon after this, he dies. Sandy continues to assist Rebecca, thus placing his marriage in jeopardy. Sandy and Rebecca finally realize that their love was a thing of the past, and Rebecca flees yet again.
Carter Buckley Carter Buckley is introduced as a new editor of
Newport Living. He has edited several magazines before,
The Ugly American and
GQ being two of them, and self-published
Revolution. Carter is in a middle of divorce and becomes lugubrious.
Kirsten Cohen puts an issue of
Revolution into his mailbox in order to encourage him to restart his life. Carter accepts the job and spends a lot of time working with Kirsten who develops a crush on him. Carter's alcoholism helps develop Kirsten's, as they drink much during work. Carter leaves Orange County when offered a job in
New York City. At the farewell dinner at the Cohens' house where Kirsten and Carter are alone, they share a kiss. Kirsten is apparently upset about his departure, and her drinking increases.
Lance Baldwin Lance Baldwin is Julie Cooper's ex-boyfriend. Back in the 1980s, when she was in desperate need of money, she starred in a porn flick he directed, entitled "The Porn Identity". Although the film was never published, a desperate Lance suddenly shows up, and threatens Julie to pay $500,000 or else he would leak the film onto the internet. Julie asks her husband, Caleb Nichol, for help, but instead of paying Lance, Caleb sends two thugs to attack Lance. Furious, he sabotages the launch of Julie's new magazine, "Newport Living", by replacing the promotional video with archive footage from "The Porn Identity." A devastated Julie flees Orange County with Caleb Nichol and later returns after the controversy dies down. After Lance redeems himself, he and Julie reminisce over their past together, and share a kiss which is caught on camera. Caleb subsequently asks Julie for a divorce (and fires her from the newport group), and reveals to his wife that he has had people spy on her since before their marriage.
Jess Sathers Jess Sathers was a student at Harbor who overdoses at
Trey Atwood's 21st birthday party. She survives and begins a relationship with Trey that leads him to start using drugs. She then attempts to seduce Trey's brother,
Ryan Atwood, in view of
Marissa Cooper at Harbor, but Ryan rejects her advances. After botching an attempted drug deal which results in shootout at The Bait Shop, Jess decides to leave town with Trey but remains when he is shot by Marissa. In the third season, Jess asks Ryan to help her with boyfriend troubles, disrupting Ryan's attempts to start a relationship with Sadie.
Charlotte Morgan Charlotte Morgan is a con artist, posing as a recovering alcoholic. She met Kirsten in rehab and tried to get money from her. However, this failed and she moved on to Julie. The two planned to throw a fund-raiser, a ploy by Charlotte to steal all the donations, but she gets found out when Julie goes into her handbag at a restaurant and finds numerous credit cards in different names. Charlotte gets Julie in on the scam; however, Julie does the right thing and asks people to write checks to the charity so Charlotte could not steal the money. With her plan foiled, she departed from Newport. In July 2005 it was reported that
Jeri Ryan was joining
The O.C. in a seven-episode arc as "a mysterious woman
Kirsten Cohen (
Kelly Rowan) befriends in rehab". Later on Josh Schwartz said that "We were told to add this Jeri Ryan character to the show that we had no idea what to do with. We were just told we had to add an adult female character. It went nowhere, and we had no plan for it, and it just didn't fit the show." Rob Lineberger of
DVD Verdict "thought Jeri Ryan made a compelling bad girl". Derek Hanson said that Ryan's addition was meant to get the "14–24 demographic excited", but stated that Charlotte Morgan had "a terrible storyline, that just didn't sit quite right."
Reed Carlson Reed Carlson is the Vice President of the graphic novel company Bad Science. She was an assistant of
Carter Buckley and he arranges a meeting after getting to know
Seth Cohen and Zach Stevens, who co-created
Atomic County. She likes the comic so she helps them to publish. Seth deliberately misleads
Summer Roberts that Reed is a man, infuriating Summer. Later, Reed asks Seth to bring Summer, the real Little Miss Vixen, to a party. Summer does not like the place and asks Seth to leave, but Reed stops Seth from leaving, making Summer even angrier. Reed then threatens to sue Zach when he wants to pull out. Reed offers Summer a chance to be the star of the comic to ensure that Summer will stop convincing Seth and Zach of giving up on it. Summer shows up at the launch party wearing costume, but the party ends with Seth and Zach literally fighting for Summer. Reed is outraged about the debacle so she just let one person to meet
George Lucas, who is interested in
Atomic County. who played Dean Hess
Jack Hess Jack Hess who has a master's degree in education and who taught six years at boarding schools, is the new
dean of discipline at Harbor High and is responsible for the measures to be taken after the gunshot incident. He wishes to punish
Marissa Cooper but is only able to expel her. When
Ryan Atwood punches him in the face, Jack uses that to have expelled Ryan as well. He then gives
Seth Cohen two months' detention when he and
Summer Roberts steal a tiki hut, which was a prop in a school play, so Ryan and Marissa can have sex in the hut on the beach. He is also responsible for Summer losing the social chair to
Taylor Townsend by tricking her to admit that she helped Seth steal the tiki hut. At the Summer Dance, Summer sees Taylor and Jack sharing an intimate tryst and Sandy uses the information to blackmail Jack into leaving Harbor to save his career and get Ryan back into Harbor. The Dean of Discipline position is filled by Dean Torres (
Tia Carrere) in season 4 ("The Gringos"). who played Chili
Dennis Childress Dennis "Chili" Childress is Johnny Harper's best friend and one of the kids
Marissa Cooper befriends at Newport Union. He introduces himself to Marissa as "Chili" and his similarities to
Seth Cohen, earned him the short-lived nickname "
Bizarro Seth" from
Ryan Atwood. Chili is a good friend and aids Johnny, especially when he has to deal with
Casey cheating on him and when he is injured by a car accident. Chili lies to Marissa about Johnny, telling her that he got back on the surfing team and will be leaving Newport Union to travel with them, as he and Johnny know that Johnny is the only reason Marissa is staying at Newport Union. Chili wants Johnny to confess to Marissa how he feels about her but when he does, Marissa tells him that she doesn't love him. After Johnny's death, Chili stops going by the name Chili and wants to be called Dennis instead, as Johnny never liked the nickname.
Heather Heather attends Newport Union and disliked
Marissa Cooper from the very beginning, harassing her and doing all she can to make Marissa's life as difficult as possible. She is extremely jealous of Marissa, assuming she still lives an exorbitant lifestyle despite Marissa and Julie having received nothing from Caleb's will. She helps
Kevin Volchok kidnap Marissa in order to get
Ryan Atwood to fight Volchok. She reappears at a party at Volchok's place, where she is given a spiked drink by Volchok's friends and is nearly raped by them before Marissa rescues her. In the third-season finale, Heather helps Volchok to leave Newport in a stolen car. She is in the car when Volchok drives into Ryan's car, leading Ryan to drive off a cliff, which results in Marissa's death. In "
The Cold Turkey" in season 4, she appears briefly and apologizes to Ryan about the night of Marissa's death, but claims to have had no control over Volchok's actions.
Casey Casey attends Newport Union and dates Johnny Harper. She befriends
Marissa Cooper when she enrolls at Union. She helps Marissa dodge the insults of
Heather, the school bully, but when she notices that Johnny and Marissa are growing closer and closer, she feels jealous and suspicious, finally cheating on Johnny by making out with his rival Kevin Volchok. Johnny walks in on them and breaks up with her. She later explains to Marissa that she's not a bad person, and she could just see Johnny was falling in love with Marissa.
Matt Ramsey Matt Ramsey is a 26-year-old associate of the company that will take over the Newport Group. He convinced
Sandy Cohen to keep the company so that they can run it as co-partners and is then named vice president and director of development. In the episode "
The Disconnect", he takes
Ryan Atwood as an intern due to Ryan's knowledge and experience in construction. Matt takes Ryan to a strip club and is fired by Sandy, but gets another chance when one of the dancers comes to Sandy and explains why he goes there. He doesn't have any trouble bribing to get green light for projects which are against Sandy's principles. Sandy tries to "do it his way" but has to give in to Matt's way as the latter has most of the board members on his side. Matt has a brief relationship with Maya, daughter of the head of the hospital's board,
Henry Griffin, but breaks up with her when Sandy proposes a deal with Henry. Henry asks Sandy to fire Matt because of his relationship to his daughter. Matt warns Sandy about Henry who takes kickbacks from vendors and tries to sell the story to newspapers but stops doing so after being beaten up by goons Henry has hired. Matt asks Henry for compensation as he has evidence that incriminates Henry. The deal is stopped by Sandy who pays Matt for the evidence. Matt then leaves for Chicago.
Sadie Campbell Sadie Campbell is Johnny Harper's cousin and comes to Orange County to help Johnny's mother Gwen after her son dies ("The Heavy Lifting").
Ryan Atwood befriends Sadie, helping her to decorate the house and get money from Johnny's father ("The Road Warrior"). After some trouble, Sadie and Ryan start dating as
Marissa Cooper and Ryan have broken up once again after Johnny's death ("The Undertow"). The relationship is doomed however, as Ryan is soon afterwards accepted to
Berkeley and Sadie doesn't want to be the reason Ryan doesn't live his college life as he should and breaks up. She then leaves Newport to restart her jewellery-making business ("The Day After Tomorrow"). It was reported that
Nikki Reed would make her television debut in a four-episode
arc, which later became six. Reed stated that Sadie became "far from what I was originally pitched", suggesting that "glamming up the bohemian character" was to give the fans "someone who can give Mischa a run for her money." It was also rumoured by Reed herself that Sadie would return for the
fourth season.
Henry Griffin Henry Griffin is the Head of the Hospital Board. His daughter, Maya, dated
Matt Ramsey briefly before breaking up, as Matt agrees
Sandy Cohen's request to get Maya's help in giving a proposal to Henry. Henry asks Sandy to fire Matt for Maya which he does. Matt accuses Henry of taking kickbacks from ventures, and tries to sell the story to newspapers. In return, Henry orders three ruffians to vandalise Matt's apartment and beat him. After knowing what Henry did, Sandy threatens Henry to resign so he will "take [him] down". To stop Sandy, Henry bribes Sandy with a recommendation of a revitalising project. Later Matt asks Henry to pay him in exchange of evidence, and Henry brings a goon when they are ready to "make" the deal, but Sandy stops it. Sandy takes the evidence and pays Matt instead. Henry later is investigated by D.A. and banned from the board. Sandy finally gives up the hospital and supports D.A to charge Henry, by giving the documents D.A. needs.
Unnamed Harbor School bully Portrayed by Tyson Chambers, the unnamed student is very cruel to Seth and Taylor in season 3.
Che Cook Winchester "Che" Cook (Chris Pratt), is a friend of
Summer Roberts who attends
Brown University with her. He was the driving force behind Summer's
left wing activism. When he and Summer break into a science lab and are interviewed by the Brown board, he blames all his illegal activities on Summer. As a result of Che's actions, Summer was suspended from Brown. Che later feels guilty and regretful for his actions and travels to Newport to ask her forgiveness. Later it's discovered he is actually extremely rich – his father owns a pharmaceutical company. In "
The Chrismukk-huh?", he appears in an alternate universe when
Ryan Atwood and
Taylor Townsend are in a coma. In this universe, he took what would have been Ryan's spot for admission at Harbor High School, and was engaged to Summer Roberts, and having an affair with
Julie Cooper and any woman he could get his hands on. In this universe, he wasn't an activist, as he is in real life. Later, in an attempt to repay Summer for her forgiveness for his misdeeds, Che tries to help Seth feel harmony with himself and takes him to the woods to connect with his spirit animal. During this trip, Che is convinced by a dream that Seth is his soul mate. Che attempts to test this idea in "
The Groundhog Day" with mixed results eventually winding up with the pair in prison. His last name, Cook, is revealed as the officer announces his release. However, Che realises that Seth was not his soul mate, it was actually the environmentalist girl who is placed in the cell next to them. Together, Che and his soul mate leave Newport.
Gordon Bullit Gordon Bullit, who refers to himself as "The Bullit", is a colorful oil merchant from Texas. Although he has been involved in bad deals, he is extremely wealthy. In prison, he met
Frank Atwood, who he later hired to be in charge of his finances. He soon after developed a crush on
Julie Cooper, and after some intimate e-mails he thought he was sharing with Julie (which was later revealed to be from Kaitlin Cooper pretending to be her mother) he proposed to Julie. She rejects him, as she is already in a relationship with Frank Atwood. She initially breaks up with Frank and dates Bullit when Kaitlin reveals how much she would like Bullit to be her stepfather, but realizes that Frank is the one she wants to be with and reunites with him on Valentine's Day. In the series finale, set six months after the earthquake, Julie is engaged to Bullit after Frank panicked and left her when he discovered she was pregnant. Ultimately, when she has to choose between Frank and Bullit Julie decides to stay single. Despite Julie's decision to not marry Bullit after all, he and the family remain good friends. Bullit has 12 sons, whom he jokingly introduced to Kaitlin Cooper as "A Buffet of Bullits", all of which are named after cities in Texas where he has oil refinery—
Austin,
Dallas,
Houston,
Lubbock,
Odessa,
El Paso,
Amarillo,
Texarkana,
San Antonio and
Corpus Christi—with the exception of
Hanoi (named after Vietnam's capital), where he also has a refinery, and Spencer. Hanoi is Asian and presumably adopted. Amarillo is a "doctor for women's private parts" (i.e. gynecologist).
Spencer Bullit Spencer Bullit is Kaitlin Cooper's tennis instructor and
Gordon Bullit's son. Kaitlin develops a crush on Spencer, who refuses to get involved with her as she is
jailbait. Instead, he has a brief affair with
Julie Cooper, which ends when Kaitlin tricks him into interrupting Julie on a date with his
father. Later, he joins Julie's and
Kirsten Cohen's agency,
New Match, and uses their match-making to work as a
gigolo. He has 11 brothers, most named after Texan cities. who played Frank Atwood
Frank Atwood Francis "Frank" Atwood initially appears as a business associate of
Gordon Bullit, calling himself Frank Perry. He starts working at
Kirsten's and
Julie's matchmaking agency NewMatch. Frank had met Bullit in jail and Bullit offered him a position in his business. Later, Frank reveals to Julie that he had an ulterior motive for choosing Newport and that he was
Ryan's biological father. Meanwhile,
Sandy discovers that Frank was in prison for armed robbery. He wants to reunite with Ryan, but Ryan tells Sandy to pass on the message that he does not want to see him. According to Kirsten, Frank was an abusive alcoholic, as shown by Ryan visibly tensing up when hearing about Frank wanting to reunite with him. Frank tells Kirsten that he was dying of cancer and Kirsten invites him over to their home for dinner. However, Sandy, whose experience as a public defender led him to be suspicious of Frank's story, finds out from a physician friend in the prison system that Frank was lying and punches him, sparking a fight, which Ryan quickly breaks up. Ryan asks Frank to leave, saying that he was not ready to accept him into his life. In subsequent episodes, Ryan and Frank make amends and appear to be on speaking terms but Ryan has made it clear that even though he addresses Frank as "dad", he considers Sandy to be his father figure. Despite his past Frank is generally portrayed as a protagonist who is trying to get his life together. Later in Season 4, Frank begins a relationship with Julie Cooper which is broken off when she decides to date Bullit for her daughter's sake because she and Gordon develop a close relationship. She later decides that Frank is the one she wants to be with and they begin dating again. Their son whose name is unknown was born a few months after
Kirsten and
Sandy's daughter. In season 1, it was revealed that Frank (he was still unnamed and known simply as "Ryan's father" at that time), Dawn and their sons : Trey and
Ryan lived in
Fresno, California, where Frank worked as a mechanic. Like his ex-wife, he had alcohol problems and was arrested multiple times for alcohol-related offenses (
DUI and
public intoxication). After he was imprisoned for armed robbery, Dawn and the boys moved south to
Chino, California, where the series begins. Ryan rarely mentioned him during the first three seasons, except through vague remarks. ==Special cameo appearances==