The O.C. stars: Where are they now?

By Rebecca Silverstein 4:03am PST, Dec 16, 2020

For four seasons, we watched Ryan Atwood, Seth Cohen, Summer Roberts, Marissa Cooper and the rest of the gang from "The O.C." endure more than their fair share of on-screen drama, from overdoses and stalkers to cheating scandals and teen deaths. As the actor who brought Seth to life — Adam Brody — celebrates his 41st birthday on Dec. 15, 2020, Wonderwall.com is taking a look back at what the cast of "The O.C." is up to today. California, here we come…

Adam Brody starred as adorable and slightly nerdy comic-book-loving Seth Cohen, who strikes up a sweet romance with longtime crush Summer Roberts (played by Rachel Bilson, whom he also dated in real life).

Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson crushed teen dreams everywhere when they split in December 2006 after three years of dating. (Their characters on "The O.C.," however, stayed together and ended up getting married.) But Adam's heart didn't leave "The O.C." executive producer Josh Schwartz's TV universe. In 2013, he started dating Leighton Meester, whom he met while filming the 2011 indie flick "The Oranges." Adam and Leighton wed in February 2014, which is probably the closest we'll ever get to a "Gossip Girl"-"The O.C." crossover. They now share a daughter and a son. Adam hasn't really eclipsed playing Seth Cohen, but he has kept busy. Over the years, he's appeared in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," "Jennifer's Body," "Scream 4" and "Baggage Claim," among other films, and popped up on TV's "House of Lies," "StartUp" and other shows. More recently, he did a five-episode stint on wife Leighton's show "Single Parents" as well as an episode of the FX series "Mrs. America." He ended 2020 with a role in the buzzed-about film "Promising Young Woman."

Most of the drama on "The O.C." revolved around troubled rich girl Marissa. The actress who played her — Mischa Barton — left the show after season 3 following Marissa's death in a tragic car accident.

Life might have imitated art for Mischa Barton. In December 2007, she was arrested for a DUI, marijuana possession and driving without a license and was sent to court-ordered rehab. Two years later, Mischa threatened to take her own life after her family staged an intervention, and she was sent to a mental health ward on a psychiatric hold. Her romantic life has been as chaotic as Marissa's: She's been linked to Brandon Davis, Cisco Adler, Luke Pritchard and Sebastian Knapp, from whom she split in August 2013. Although she was an "it" girl during her time on "The O.C.," Mischa's personal struggles significantly slowed her career. In 2009, she starred on the short-lived series "The Beautiful Life: TBL." She's also starred in a number of limited-release movies, mostly horror flicks and thrillers. Mischa has also delved into the fashion world. After designing collections for companies like ASOS, she debuted her own clothing and accessories line called Mischa's Place in 2012. In 2016, Mischa was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev on season 22 of "Dancing With the Stars," coming in 11th. Three years later, she returned to reality television of a different kind, joining the cast of "The Hills: New Beginnings." The first season aired in 2019.

Benjamin McKenzie played Ryan, a tough teen from the other side of the tracks who gets adopted by a rich lawyer and his family.

Benjamin McKenzie was already in his mid-20s and a college graduate when he broke out on "The O.C." Since then, he's continued to have a successful TV career: He played a cop on the acclaimed TNT drama "Southland" and until 2019 starred on FOX's Batman prequel series, "Gotham," where he struck up a relationship with co-star Morena Baccarin. They married in 2017 after welcoming daughter Frances a year earlier. In December 2020, Morena announced that she was expecting their second child in 2021.

Spoiler Summer — Marissa's best friend and the object of Seth's obsession — was only supposed to be a supporting character. But Rachel totally nailed the part, so her role was upgraded and she became one of the show's four main stars.

Although Rachel Bilson's relationship with Adam Brody didn't pan out, she gave on-set romance another shot when she hooked up with Hayden Christensen, whom she met on the set of "Jumper" in 2007. The couple got engaged in 2008 and welcomed their first child, daughter Briar Rose, in 2014. They eventually split up in 2017. Like Summer, Rachel is a fashionista. In 2008, she launched the clothing line Edie Rose. But her stylishness also made her a target for the Bling Ring, which stole more than $300,000 worth of designer clothing and jewelry from her in 2009. Rachel went on to star on The CW's "Hart of Dixie" for four seasons until it ended in 2015. She's also appeared in movies like "The Last Kiss" and "The To-Do List" as well as commercials for Magnum ice cream bars. More recently, she starred in the TV movie "Lovestruck" and dated comedy star Bill Hader in late 2019 and early 2020.

When she was 7, Willa Holland got the Steven Spielberg seal of approval. She was having a playdate with the director's kids at his Hamptons house when he told Willa's mother to get her daughter into modeling and acting. She scored the part of bad girl Kaitlin Cooper on "The O.C." seven years later.

Willa Holland has made a career out of playing troubled teens on TV. After "The O.C.," she guest starred on "Gossip Girl" as Agnes Andrews, who was a very bad influence on Jenny Humphrey. She starred on "Arrow" as Thea Queen until the show's conclusion in 2020. She's also acted in movies like "Legion," "Straw Dogs" and "Tiger Eyes" and lent her voice to the "Kingdom Hearts" video games as Aqua. Off screen, Willa keeps her life private and isn't very active on social media.

Chris Carmack played Marissa's unfaithful jock boyfriend, Luke Ward. Though he was only a principal character on the show for one season, Chris gave us the series' most iconic line: "Welcome to the O.C., b****!"

Chris Carmack left California for Tennessee to join the cast of "Nashville" beginning in 2012. He remained on the show until its end in 2018. He also appeared in movies like "The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations" and "Shark Night 3D" and voiced Garth in "Alpha & Omega." In 2018, he joined the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" and has been breaking hearts ever since. He's been married to Erin Slaver since 2018. They share a daughter who was born in 2016.

When Autumn Reeser joined the cast for season 3, her character, Taylor Townsend, was an overachieving goody-two-shoes. But on the show's final season, she calmed down enough to join the core crew and even dated Ryan.

Although we don't know if Taylor and Ryan ever reunited after splitting up, we do know who Autumn Reeser married in real life: writer-director Jesse Warren. The pair, who have two sons together, split in November 2014. Although Autumn has appeared in some movies, like 2016's "Sully," she's worked more consistently on the small screen, with recurring roles on shows like "Entourage," "Necessary Roughness," "Last Resort" and "Hawaii Five-0." She's also been in multiple Hallmark Christmas films.

Peter Gallagher had a pretty robust career before playing idealistic lawyer Sandy Cohen. Before "The O.C.," he starred in movies like "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "American Beauty" and "The Man Who Knew Too Little" and in Broadway shows like "Guys and Dolls," "Hair" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Peter Gallagher didn't just play a devoted family man on TV. The actor has two children, James and Kathryn (a Tony- and Grammy-nominated actress who appeared on season 1 of "You" and starred in Broadway's "Jagged Little Pill"), with wife Paula Harwood, whom he married in 1983. Peter has also appeared on shows like "Rescue Me" and "Californication" and in movies like "Burlesque" and "Step Up Revolution." He did a five year stint on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and more recently joined the cast of "Grace and Frankie" in 2017 and "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" in 2020.

Kelly Rowan played Sandy's more conservative other half, workaholic (and alcoholic) Kirsten Cohen.

On the series finale, Kirsten gave birth to a baby girl. A year later in 2008, actress Kelly Rowan did the same thing in real life. Her child's father is media mogul David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet — the richest man in Canada. The couple were engaged but called it off right before their daughter's arrival. Kelly starred on TNT's "Perception" as Eric McCormack's therapist and imaginary friend before the show was canceled in 2015. That same year, she landed a guest-starring role on ABC's "Castle." Although she's appeared in a lot of TV movies, like ABC Family's "Cyberbully" and Lifetime's "In God's Country," she's also made it to the big screen in flicks like "Jack & Jill vs. the World." She hasn't appeared in anything since the 2016 TV movie "Tulips in Spring."

Before playing disgraced financial planner Jimmy Cooper, Tate Donovan starred in movies like "SpaceCamp," "Ethan Frome" and "Love Potion No. 9" and voiced the title role for Disney's "Hercules."

Tate Donovan made headlines in the '90s for his love life — he famously romanced Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock. But Tate didn't say "I do" until 2005 when he married writer-actress Corinne Kingsbury. However, the couple divorced in 2008. Tate — a longtime pal of George Clooney and Grant Heslov, both of whom he met while in college at USC — has appeared in two of the duo's movies: "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Argo." He's also appeared on TV shows like "Damages," "Hostages" and "24: Live Another Day." Tate is equally prolific as a TV director, helming episodes of "Medium," "Nip/Tuck," "Weeds," "Gossip Girl," "Glee" and, more recently, "Hawaii 5-0" in 2020.

Melinda Clarke was born to play a character as deliciously conniving as Julie Cooper: Her father, John Clarke, was an original cast member on "Days of Our Lives," and Melinda starred on the soap for a bit. Plus the actress is actually from Orange County, California.

Melinda Clarke continued to work on TV after "The O.C." came to an end. For three seasons, she played Amanda on "Nikita." She's also guest starred on "The Vampire Diaries" and has played a fictionalized version of herself on "Entourage." More recently, she did a three-episode stint on "Gotham" in 2016. The actress has a teenage daughter, Catherine Grace, with her ex-husband, actor Ernie Mirich. In 2015, she married professional river rafter Adam Farmer.