THEN & NOW: What happened to the stars of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 20 years later

For 20 years, a petite, beautiful blonde girl has subverted the norm.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered on March 10, 1997, and ever since, we've been able to watch (and re-watch) Joss Whedon's fast-talking, atypical heroine save the world a hundred times over from vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness.

"Buffy" spawned a fanatic cult following, created its own language, inspired hundreds of scholarly books and articles (often dubbed Buffy Studies), and truly was "golden" even before the almighty Golden Age of Television started.

Beyond the show's large cultural footprint, "Buffy" also launched careers for many of its main stars. And some have had some surprising paths.

See what the main "Buffy" cast has been up to since the show premiered 20 years ago:

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Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers)

After retiring Mr. Pointy, Gellar was at the peak of her "it girl" status — which was especially so after she married fellow early-2000s royalty Freddie Prinze Jr. But she never did anything that topped "Buffy." She had memorable turns in the “Grudge” films, and in 2011 and 2013, she did single-season stints on the CW (“Ringer”) and CBS (“The Crazy Ones,” with the late Robin Williams).

Since, Gellar has laid relatively low. She continued her voice acting on “Star Wars Rebels” and filmed the now-shelved TV reboot of one of her hit movies “Cruel Intentions.”

But nothing is stopping Gellar from her latest passion: baking. Gellar cofounded Foodstirs, which is aimed at helping families bond in the kitchen (Gellar has two kids) by baking with consciously sourced ingredients. She actively promotes the culinary-lifestyle brand on Instagram. Gellar also wrote a cookbook called “Stirring Up Fun with Food,” which will be released April 4. (Freddie Prinze Jr. has his own cookbook, too.) It’s about as far as you can go from slaying vampires.

Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg)

Hannigan married "Buffy" costar Alexis Denisof in 2003, a few months before the show ended, but she didn’t have to wait too long to find her next hit TV series. Starting in 2005, Hannigan starred in the beloved sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” as Lily Aldrin for nine years. Since the show's end in 2014, Hannigan has taken a step back. For one season in 2016, she hosted “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” a competition series in which aspiring magicians show their best tricks to the famous duo. She was also tapped to star in the TV remake of “The First Wives Club,” but the project has been shelved for now.

Like Gellar, Hannigan has also focused on a hobby that involves her two children: crafting. She’s such a crafter that she converted her Los Angeles home’s guesthouse into a hyper-organized crafting room.

You can tell she’s really into it:

Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris)

Over the course of seven years, Brendon appeared in 21 episodes of “Criminal Minds” as Kevin Lynch, but beyond that, he's unfortunately led a tumultuous life after “Buffy.”

Since 2010, he has been arrested several times. In September 2015, he was arrested after an alleged domestic dispute with his girlfriend and was charged with third-degree robbery along with two counts of criminal mischief and one count of obstruction of breathing. He's also been arrested on a charge of public intoxication.

In August 2015, he walked off the set of “Dr. Phil,” writing later in a Facebook post that he felt Dr. Phil “went for the jugular, talking about some of my recent mistakes, with no build up. I felt that he wanted me to lay the darkest parts of myself on national TV right from the start, and I’m not willing to do that.”

Brendon has spent time in rehab and admitted to a relapse in mid-2016.