17 of Evan Peters’s Best Movie and TV Roles, From “Kick-Ass” to “American Horror Story”

In one of his earliest roles in this 2004 teenage classic, Evans plays a dorky skateboarder named Russell “SpongeBob” Hayes determined to win the heart of the school’s queen bee, Staci.

One of Peters’s breakout projects was this superhero parody. He plays Todd, best friend to Dave and a fan of Kick-Ass, not realizing they’re the same person. The role was taken over by Augustus Prew for the 2013 sequel.

Peters joined the X-Men universe with 2014’s “Days of Future Past,” playing Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver. Heavily hinted (and later confirmed) to be the son of Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto, he’s a powerful mutant with super speed. He’s initially introduced in “Days of Future Past,” recruited by the X-Men to help break Magneto out of prison. He reprised the role in two more X-Men films, “Apocalypse” and “Dark Phoenix,” joining the X-Men officially.

At first, it looks like Peters’s appearance in “WandaVision” is hinting at a coming Marvel crossover. He shows up claiming to be a version of Peter, who, in Wanda’s universe, died several years ago during the battle with Ultron (and was played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in that movie). Soon, however, he’s revealed to be Ralph Bohner, an actor who is being possessed or manipulated by Agatha Harkness to find out more about how Wanda created the reality bubble.

Portraying a semifictionalized version of the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer earned Peters his first Golden Globe. The controversial miniseries depicts Dahmer’s youth, his descent into horrific crime from a young age, his apprehension, and his ultimate death. Peters also served as an executive producer on the series.

Peters’s longest-running professional affiliation has been with Ryan Murphy, and it all started when he was cast in the first season of this horror anthology. In this season, he plays Tate Langdon, a violent and erratic teenager who lives in the house as a ghost. He becomes involved with Violet, the teenage daughter of the current occupants, but also interacts with other characters in disturbing ways. His behavior is eventually revealed to have been the influence of malevolent forces that gained power over him during his abusive upbringing, leading to a split in his persona.

In the second season of the anthology, Peters returns as a new character: Kit Walker, a young man accused of being a famed serial killer. As a result of the accusation, he’s committed to an asylum, where strange things seem to keep happening. He slowly begins to doubt his own memories, wondering if he really is the serial killer and just can’t remember, while forming a bond with at least one of the other patients. The reality, he soon learns, is even stranger.

Peters is reunited with “Murder House” scene partner Taissa Farmiga in the third installment of “AHS.” The season focuses on a mysterious coven of witches, descended from victims of the Salem witch trials and now based in modern-day New Orleans. Peters plays Kyle, a good-hearted frat boy who is killed in a bus crash, then reanimated by magic. His “undead” self, however, turns out to be more difficult to handle than they anticipated.

Peters continued his “AHS” streak with the fourth season, set in a 1950s “freak show” in Florida. He plays Jimmy, a young man who is part of the troupe due to a genetic condition that fuses his fingers together to resemble “claws.” He’s particularly protective of a pair of conjoined twins, Bette and Dot, and he soon finds himself in the middle of a tangled web of blackmail, con artists, and frame-ups for murder.

In the fifth installment, Peters takes on a more villainous role as James “Jimmy” Patrick March. In the 1920s, March is a wildly wealthy oil baron who uses his money to build a hotel that is secretly a death trap for him to carry out murders. After ending his own life to avoid arrest, he becomes a ghost haunting the hotel, along with other spirits and supernatural beings.

In between “American Horror Story” seasons, Peters joined another FX show: “Pose,” the acclaimed drama about drag and ballroom culture in New York in the ’80s and ’90s. In the first season, he plays Stan Bowes, an ordinary businessman who begins an affair with Angel, a trans woman and sex worker. He’s torn between his life with his wife and their kids and his growing feelings for Angel, but he’s not really able to fit into Angel’s world.

Evans portrays up-and-coming Canadian journalist Jay Bahadur, who discovers his real passion when he’s inspired to investigate piracy in Somalia. Bahadur finds himself in more and more danger as he pursues his investigation and builds connections with the Somali pirates.