IZombie: 10 Actors From Veronica Mars Who Have Appeared On The Show

Rob Thomas (the writer, not the singer) created the worlds of both Veronica Mars and iZombie, and if you are a fan of both shows, you surely recognized that quite a few stars overlap the two witty but dark dramas. Both shows follow a strong female lead who uses their unique gifts to solve cases.

Rob Thomas seems to have loved working with these actors so much that he keeps hiring them. He was even known to have many actors from Party Down, another show he created, on Veronica Mars when both shows were still on. Here’s a list of the best actors who appeared on both Veronica Mars and iZombie.

10 Francis Capra

On Veronica Mars, Francis Capra plays Weevil, the motorcycle gang leader, and sometimes intel for Veronica. On iZombie, he plays Baron in three episodes, first appearing in season 4’s musical episode, “My Really Fair Lady.” 

He helps Liv (as Renegade) as a coyote, smuggling zombies and humans in and out of the walled city. Sadly, he gets killed in season 5 when he attempts to smuggle a dying teen and his two friends into the city. His death might have something to do with his role in the Veronica Mars revival.

9 Enrico Colantoni

In Veronica Mars, Enrico Colantoni plays the sleuth’s private investigator father, always there to give her advice and encourage her to be a good person. On iZombie, he plays Detective Lou Benedetto, who is who Keith would be if he would have become a detective, moved to Seattle, and developed a drinking problem.

His morals are not as high as Keith’s either, as he gets shot when he tries to double-cross a Blue Cobra Gang leader and run off with his drug money.

8 Kristen Bell

Veronica Mars herself has appeared on iZombie, but only her voice. Just like her role in Gossip Girl, the busy actress only lent her voice to a librarian who dabbles in erotic book writing in the season 2 episode, “Fifty Shades of Grey Matter.”

In the episode, we never see the librarian in question but we hear her voice through her audiobooks and its clear Bell had fun recording the NSFW lines. Between these two roles and Frozen, Kristen Bell seems to be doing well, just off her voice.

7 Jason Dohring

Jason Dohring had the biggest role of the Veronica Mars alumn, appearing on the show as Chase Graves for 15 episodes in seasons 3 and 4. On the show, he is Veronica’s on-again-off-again love interest, Logan Echolls, everyone’s favorite bad boy.

On iZombie, his role is closer to the Navy man version of Logan, as Chase Graves is the militant leader of Filmore-Graves, the zombie-run paramilitary group. He takes over the company after his sister-in-law is killed and he tries to run the company in a just way, but learns that this is hard to do.

6 Percy Daggs III

On Veronica Mars, Percy Daggs III plays Wallace Fennel, Veronica’s loyal friend and often accomplice in crime.

He appears in one episode of iZombie in season 1 episode 9 “Patriot Brains,” in which Liv and Clive investigate the death of a sniper. In iZombie, his character is even more intelligent than the engineering major, Wallace. He plays a wealthy tech-savvy genius that’s a suspect in the sniper’s murder. Don’t worry, he didn’t do it.

5 Ryan Hanson

Ryan Hanson plays Logan’s BFF and the annoying thorn in the side of Veronica in Veronica Mars. His character loves is a lovable airhead who enjoys surfing, drinking, and trying to hook up with anything in a dress. Dick always has the best things to say on Veronica Mars, and his laid back personality transfers over to Caron McComb, the character he plays on iZombie.

In season 1’s “Flight Of The Living Dead,” Carson is a Max Rager, a professional snowboarder who is a suspect in the death of Holly, a daredevil and former sorority sister of Liv’s. Carson gets around just as much as Dick did, which, like Dick, gets him in trouble.

4 Adam Rose

Adam Rose plays Max, the smart college R.A. who sells term papers and dates Mac in Veronica Mars, meeting Veronica when he hires her to track down a prostitute he loved.

In iZombie, he plays the neighbor of a victim being investigated by Liv and Clive who turns out to have killed the man by accident by kicking the car he was working under. He confesses to the crime but believes it was just karma for the man kidnapping his dog.

3 Daran Norris

On Veronica Mars, Daran is Cliff McCormack, the low-level lawyer with moral ambiguity. He is often seen hanging around with Keith after cases having a drink or bailing Veronica out of jams.

In iZombie, he plays Jonny Frost, the toothy news anchor with even fewer morals than Cliff, who pops up in 12 episodes throughout the series, usually as a reluctant witness for Liv or someone being extorted. He cares a lot more about his appearance than unkept Cliff does, as he seems to think he’s more famous than his local news show allows.

2 Ken Marino

On Veronica Mars, he plays the corrupt P.I. Vinnie Van Lowe, the complete opposite of Veronica and her father in the show. He will do anything as long as the person pays, and has no trouble breaking the law or moral code to do so. In iZombie, he plays Brandt Stone in three episodes of the show, starting in season 2.

Instead of playing a sleazy PI, he instead plays a sleazy lawyer. He actually helps Major out of some trouble in his premiere episode “Dead Beat” and in a role reversal, he represents Daran’s character, Johnny Frost. But he also represents Vaugh Du Clark the evil CEO of Max Rager, responsible for starting the virus that created the zombies.

1 Chris Lowell

Rob Thomas snuck one more Veronica Mars alumni in the very last episode of iZombie, with Chris Lowell. In Veronica Mars, he plays Stosh Piznarski, Piz for short, the nice guy who finishes last and loses the girl to the bad boy. His portrayal of Piz in Veronica Mars garnered him a lot of supporters, but even though the Veronica Mars movie was the last fans saw of Piz, fans would be happy to see him pop up in iZombie.

He even plays a role similar to Piz, as Piz was a radio jockey and Byron is the host of a virtual-reality interview show called America The Virtual, which is in the same vein as This American Life, which Piz works for in the movie.

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