Cordelia Chase (born December, 1980 in Sunnydale, California, died in 2004 in Los Angeles) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The character is portrayed by Charisma Carpenter.

Sunnydale

Rich and beautiful, Cordelia led her clique at Sunnydale High and enjoyed ridiculing those she saw as inferior. She first appears in "Welcome to the Hellmouth," sharing a textbook with Buffy Summers on her first day at the school and showing her to the library. Cordelia soon reveals herself to be a mean, popular cheerleader as she mocks Willow Rosenberg ("Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears!"), much to Buffy's horror. That night, Buffy mistakes her for a vampire and almost impales her with a stake. Cordelia turns on Buffy and makes sure Buffy becomes a social outcast at the school.

Cordelia keeps finding herself in life-threatening situations in the first season, but often comes out untouched — she is almost killed by The Master's vessel, blinded by witchcraft, and targeted by a psychotic girl she helped snub into invisibility. Cordelia is elected May Queen in her sophomore year.

Cordelia grows to accept the existence of dark forces in Sunnydale and becomes a full-fledged member of the Scooby Gang. A corresponding fall in her social status reaches a low with her publicized romance with Xander Harris. Though she won't admit it, she begins to have feelings for him. She has pictures of Xander in her locker to which he says "I didn't think I was locker material." She answers with "I look really good in those photos." Their relationship ends during their Senior year when she finds him kissing Willow.

Cordelia struggles to revive her popularity when her father's "little mistake on his taxes...for the last twelve years" costs her family everything, including their house and her car, cell phone, and wardrobe. She takes a job at an expensive local boutique, April Fools, to pay for a prom dress on layaway. Cordelia does not earn enough in time, but Xander finds out and pays it off for her. Her brief, mutual infatuation with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce ends with two bad kisses before graduation.

Los Angeles

Despite her intelligence and having been accepted to the likes of Columbia, Cordelia is unable to afford college, and therefore, she moves to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Meeting Angel at a Hollywood party, she pretends to be successful, when she is, in fact, nearly penniless, renting a dilapidated apartment, and stealing food from such parties. Her agent is ignoring her calls, and she has no family to turn to, having severed ties. Desperate, Cordelia meets with a producer who turns out to be a vampire.

After being rescued by Angel and talking to Allen Francis Doyle, Cordelia charms Angel into turning his fight against evil into a business. She becomes Angel Investigations's office manager while pursuing her acting career but never breaks out of commercials and plays. She reaches a turning point mid-season when her budding romance with Doyle ends with his sudden death. Visibly devastated, Cordelia attempts to carry on, but during an audition for a commercial, she receives her first vision, a gift transferred to her by Doyle during their first and last kiss. It gives her a powerful ability to help others, and over the course of the next few years, she comes to consider them her reason for being.

As Angel's link to the Powers That Be, Cordelia grows more sensitive to the feelings of others as she experiences those of the subjects of each vision. The visions become increasingly frequent and intense, and begin to physically damage her brain. For months, she secretly takes powerful painkillers and undergoes CAT scans that indicate the slow deterioration of her brain tissues. Yet when presented with the opportunity to pass her visions to the heroic Groosalugg during a short trip to the alternate demonic dimension Pylea, Cordelia refuses, stating that the visions are a part of her and make her who she is, a hero.

But as the visions are intended for demons only, Cordelia struggles to hide the effects from her friends. This continues until her 21st birthday, when she is rocked by a vision that sends her spirit into an astral plane. This opportunity is seized upon by Skip, a mercenary demon who sells his expertise to the highest bidder; in this case, a fallen member of The Powers That Be waiting to manifest on Earth.

Skip masquerades as Cordelia's guide from The Powers That Be. Through a series of manipulative events, such as selectively showing her excerpts of Angel calling her nothing but a rich girl from Sunnydale and giving her the "perfect" life as a successful actress that she has always wanted (knowing she would eventually look for a loophole), he transforms Cordelia into a part-demon. Cordelia can then harbor the visions without pain, but mystical side-effects come as well, including temporary physical manifestations of the subject and being able to re-enter the vision at a later point.

Possession

Unbeknownst to everyone, Cordelia's transformation also sets in motion a major chain of events -- her body becomes suitable for use by the forces of evil. Cordelia's transformation gives her the power, not entirely under her control, to cleanse evil influence with a white glowing light. In the third season finale, Skip reappears to Cordelia, who is on her way to meet with and declare her love for Angel. Skip tells her that she has done so much good on Earth, she is ready to ascend to a higher plane to do more good as a higher being there. It is a ruse to get her onto the fallen power's plane, in order for it to enter Cordelia. Having been convinced by all she had seen and heard, Cordelia accepts the call to the higher plane, ascending into the sky surrounded by twinkling lights, eventually winking out of this dimension. Angel could not have met her anyway, having been sent to the bottom of the sea in his own troubles.

During the four months she lives on the higher plane, Cordelia is bored. Unable to talk to her friends and not doing any good, she is unaware that the fallen power was violating her body. Cordelia finally returns to Earth from the higher plane, but the descent wipes out her personal memories and forces the fallen power into hibernation. Angel hides the truth from Cordelia, fearing it would be too much for her to handle. Confused and suspicious of Angel Investigations and those who work there, Cordelia seeks the truth and is horrified by what she discovers. After being attacked by a violent demon and several Wolfram & Hart operatives, Cordelia is rescued by Connor, Angel's teenage human son and, feeling safe with him, decides to live in his loft. She appreciates Connor's honesty about the supernatural.

During her stay, Cordelia feels lost and alone, becoming frustrated with her inability to remember her past. She realizes that she needs to learn to defend herself again. As his father did a year earlier, Connor offers to train Cordelia in combat. Cordelia's natural athleticism and warrior's heart make her a natural fighter, and during one session, a jubilant victory hug from Cordelia to Connor becomes a stolen kiss. To Connor's dismay, Cordelia cannot let anything happen until she knows who she really was.

Cordelia's memories are finally restored through a spell by Lorne in the episode "Spin the Bottle", but the spell awakes the fallen power, too. The entity later known as Jasmine had merged itself with every cell and fiber in her body; now it completely submerges her consciousness. In the episode Apocalypse, Nowish, Jasmine's possession of Cordelia becomes apparent as she uses Cordelia's body to have sex with Connor, become pregnant and create a separate body for herself.

While pregnant and under Jasmine's possession, Cordelia butchers the last sun totem Manjet, Lilah Morgan, and the Svear family to serve Jasmine's plans. She convinces Angel and his team to bring back Angelus to distract them and to keep her plans secret. Cordelia steals Angel's soul so Angel cannot return, and continually tells Connor that they are special, deceiving him into believing that the rest of the group hate them and would kill their baby.

Eventually, Cordelia is discovered and Angel's team interrogate Skip, who reveals Jasmine's plan. He says that all the events of the last eight years had been carefully nudged into place. Jasmine may have simply seized on Cordelia's knock from her body, but whether that was the case will never be known. Skip also says that Jasmine cannot be removed from Cordelia without killing her or putting her into a permanent, vegetative state. Before Angel can kill the woman he loves, Cordelia performs a ritual with Connor's help to bring Jasmine out and manifest on this plane at last. Afterwards, Cordelia falls into a coma, her life-force having been drained. After Angel joins Wolfram & Hart, Cordelia is transferred to their hospital in an effort to revive her.

After Coma

Cordelia returns in the episode "You're Welcome," helping a disillusioned Angel get back on track. However, she is simply an astral projection facilitated by The Powers That Be, who are repaying a debt to her. After kissing Angel and giving him a vision that points him in the direction of the major players in the upcoming apocalypse, it is revealed that Cordelia had died in her sleep, never having woken.

Like many characters in the Buffyverse, Cordelia evolved dramatically throughout the two series. She changed from an egocentric fashion plate to a person whose life was increasingly dedicated to helping others. When first introduced, Cordelia felt no burning desire to become a better person, but suffered rejection and mockery from her original friends as she outgrew their shallowness. She died with a grounded confidence and compassion for those in need, which replaced the arrogance and vanity of her adolescent self.