Matt Donovan (fictional character)

The Vampire Diaries is an American fantasy-drama television series picked up by The CW for their fall 2009 schedule. It is adapted from L. J. Smith's novel series of the same name by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. The focal points of the show are the love triangle formed by series' protagonist Elena Gilbert (Dobrev) and vampire brothers Stefan Salvatore (Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Somerhalder) and the town's supernatural history, involving Elena's friends and relatives.

The following is a list of series regulars who appear in one or more of the series' eight seasons. The characters are listed in the order they were first credited in the series.

Elena Gilbert (based on Elena Gilbert from the novels) is the central character and one of the protagonists as well as the female lead of the series, for the first six seasons. She is the biological daughter of John Gilbert and Isobel Flemming, and adopted daughter of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert. She has a younger adoptive brother named Jeremy Gilbert, who is later revealed to be her biological cousin. She also has an adoptive aunt named Jenna Sommers who serves as her and Jeremy's legal guardian in the first two seasons of the series. She is also the descendant and doppelgänger of Amara, Tatia, Katherine Pierce.

In season one, still reeling from her parents deaths which were caused by a car accident earlier that summer, she reluctantly returns to school for her junior year. While walking out of the boys bathroom, she bumps into a mysterious new student named Stefan Salvatore. They connect instantly, and begin dating. She meets his older and darkly mysterious brother, Damon Salvatore. After researching the Salvatores, Elena realizes Stefan was alive in 1864. It is later revealed that he is a 162-year-old vampire. Damon also begins falling for Elena, although she continues her relationship with Stefan. After Stefan and Elena sleep together, she finds a picture of a woman named Katherine Pierce who looks exactly like her. Stefan reveals that it is the women who made him and Damon feud 145 years ago, and the person who turned them into vampires. He says that she is a descendant of Katherine, that Grayson and Miranda were not her real parents because she was adopted. He also told her that he is the person that saved her the night of her parent's death. At the end of season one, Elena meets her birth mother, Isobel, who is now a vampire, and she discovers that her uncle John, who she grew up hating, is her natural father.

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