Despite his utterly convincing British accent on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marsters was born and bred in California. Trained at Juilliard, the sexy thespian honed his craft for a decade on the stage in Chicago and Seattle and was already in his mid-thirties when cast as bleach-blond bloodsucker Spike, a character he played for eight years on both Buffy and its spin-off Angel. On the side, Marsters pursued his musical ambitions, fronting the band Ghost of the Robot before touring as a solo performer in 2005. That same year, he returned to the small screen with a villainous stint on Smallville.