DAVID DUCHOVNY
Fox Mulder
The movie career that Duchovny seemed destined for never really materialized: Despite roles in Return to Me (2001), Zoolander (2002), Evolution (2002) and The TV Set (2006), he never really caught on as a leading man. Currently, he’s starring in Showtime’s Californication as a frustrated novelist who sleeps with lots of people. The X-Files’ creator Chris Carter continues to say that he wants to make a third X-movie (following 1998’s Fight the Future and 2008’s I Want to Believe), but no date has been set. Later this year, he’ll appear in the submarine thriller Phantom, opposite Ed Harris and Lance Henriksen.

GILLIAN ANDERSON
Dana Scully
Anderson’s post-X-Files career has been dominated by all things British. In 2005, she starred in a BBC adaptation of Bleak House, then followed it with 2006’s The Last King of Scotland, 2010’s Any Human Heart (in which she played the Duchess of Windsor) and 2011’s Great Expectations—while also finding time for Johnny English Reborn and the two X-Files flicks. Up next is a starring role in a BBC police series, The Fall.

CHRIS CARTER
Creator/executive producer
The X-Files has been the dominating presence in his career for the past 20 years or so, between the series itself, the movies and the Lone Gunman and Millennium TV shows. There is, allegedly, another film in the works and he’s developing new television pilots. He also wrote and directed an upcoming thriller called Fencewalker.

MITCH PILEGGI
Walter Skinner
It seems like after The X-Files, Pileggi appeared on every TV series ever broadcast: Law & Order: SVU, The West Wing, CSI, Day Break, The Batman, Reaper, Stargate: Atlantis, Human Target, Medium, Sons of Anarchy, Castle, Leverage and Supernatural ... to name more than a few. His next gig is as a series regular on TNT’s Dallas reboot.

WILLIAM B. DAVIS
The Cigarette Smoking Man
If you need someone to be either avuncular, creepy or creepily avuncular, Davis is your man. And he’s brought that particular set of skills to TV shows like Smallville, Kingdom Hospital, Stargate SG-1, Fear Itself, Caprica, Masters of Science Fiction, Supernatural and Human Target. He since founded his own acting school in Vancouver—The William Davis Centre for Actors Study—and directs a bunch of TV and theater in the great white north. He also gives lectures on Skepticism all over North America.

ROBERT PATRICK
John Doggett
Ever since his time investigating the unknown, Patrick has been in demand as either a bad guy or a voice actor, popping up in projects like Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Lost, Stargate: Atlantis, Walk the Line, Ben 10, Bridge to Terabithia, The Batman, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Chuck, Burn Notice and Red Faction: Origins. Patrick is also in the upcoming LA cops-and-crooks movie Gangster Squad and ABC’s new submarine series, The Last Resort. And still, most likely, rolling in Terminator 2 residuals.

DEAN HAGLUND, BRUCE HARWOOD, TOM BRAIDWOOD
The Lone Gunmen
These conspiracy nuts got their own spin-off series, which lasted only 13 episodes. Harwood’s been on Stargate, Smallville and Stephen King’s Dead Zone; Braidwood has become a working TV producer-director in Canada and Haglund hosted Ghost Adventures Live and appeared on an episode of Bones as a Roswell, NM denizen.

LAURIE HOLDEN
Marita Covarrubias
After her ten episodes of The X-Files—and a tour of duty on The Shield and in Frank Darabont’s The Mist—Holden landed on a little show called The Walking Dead. You might’ve heard of it.

JERRY HARDIN
Deep Throat
Now in his 80s, Hardin isn’t as active as he used to be—his resume includes Reds, Cujo, Big Trouble in Little China and Star Trek: The Next Generation—but he pops up now and again. (Though his daughter, The Office’s Melora Hardin, carries on the family name.)

NICHOLAS LEA
Alex Krycek
His handsomeness and willingness to play the baddie got Lea a ton of post-X-Files work: CSI, Kyle XY, Without a Trace, V, Burn Notice, Supernatural and, most recently, Once Upon a Time have all called on his services.

ADAM BALDWIN
Knowle Rohrer
He’s been busy.

STEVEN WILLIAMS
Mr. X
Genre television has conspired to keep Williams gainfully employed: Jake 2.0, Veronica Mars, and a recurring role on Supernatural pay the bills. And we won’t even hold that episode of Desperate Housewives against him.