Dawson’s Creek may have come to an end 22 years ago, but fans old and new still love catching up with the gang from the fictional small town of Capeside.
The popular WB teen drama aired its season finale on May 13, 2003, concluding the journeys of a core group of friends as they experienced the ups and downs of friendship and romance in high school and college. Dawson’s Creek was also known for covering heavy issues like mental health, death and homophobia among typical teenage fare like prom dates, new friends and first love.
James Van Der Beek led the ensemble cast as Dawson Leery, a wannabe filmmaker who has his heart set on his own happily ever after with one of his best friends, Joey Potter (Katie Holmes). Dawson’s other best friend, Pacey Whitter (Joshua Jackson), and Capeside newbie Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) put a crinkle in Dawson’s carefully plotted-out future.
With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait” as the theme song probably still stuck in your head, Dawson’s Creek helped launch its young stars into the spotlight.
Twenty-two years after the finale of Dawson’s Creek aired, here’s what the cast is up to now.
James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery
James Van Der Beek, who played the titular role of Dawson Leery, has filled most of his time since with TV pursuits, including ABC’s comedy Don’t Trust the B—- In Apartment 23, on which he played a version of himself — and scored a Teen Choice Award nomination, hearkening back to his Dawson’s days.
The Pose actor now lives in Texas with his wife Kimberly and their six young kids: Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. In November 2024, he announced he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, though told PEOPLE, “There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.”
Van Der Beek’s costar Jackson said on The Jennifer Hudson Show in April 2025 that his friend’s diagnosis “brought the whole gang back together.” He said the Dawson’s Creek cast is now in a group chat together.
Katie Holmes as Joey Potter
Fittingly for the woman who portrayed Capeside High valedictorian Joey Potter, Katie Holmes went back to school for a time, even attending the entertainment, media and sports program at Harvard University to further her skills for her production company, Noelle Productions Inc.
Aside from raising Suri (her daughter with ex-husband Tom Cruise), Holmes has devoted much of her time to film and TV, including multiple stints portraying Jackie Kennedy and directing and co-writing the 2023 film Rare Objects.
Holmes has harbored fond Dawson’s memories, previously saying it was a “special show, and I loved every minute of it.”
Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter
Joshua Jackson, the Fatal Attraction and Doctor Odyssey star, previously expressed that a Dawson’s reboot would be “shocking” to fans.
“We are not cute kids anymore,” he joked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016, per EW. “It’s been a long time. I mean, we’re holding up okay, but I think if you put the four of us now next to the four of us them, it might be a little shocking.”
In early 2023, he returned to Wilmington, N.C. — where Dawson’s Creek was filmed — to shoot a new series from Ava DuVernay. He also appeared in Karate Kid: Legends in May 2025.
Jackson, who played Pacey Witter in the series, wed Jodie Turner-Smith in 2019, though the pair split in 2023. Together they have one child.
Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley
Once Capeside’s resident occasional bad girl, Michelle Williams has “made good” with a serious career on the big screen, earning several Oscar nominations, including a Best Actress nod in 2023 for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.
Williams is mom to daughter Matilda Rose, with late actor Heath Ledger, as well as three children with husband Thomas Kail.
Hopes for a Dawson’s reboot are also lost on the star, whose character, Jen Lindley, didn’t make it to the series finale alive.
“I would have to come back as a ghost — or put a lot of filters on the camera, and I’ll do flashback scenes,” she previously said.
Meredith Monroe as Andie McPhee
Columbia TriStar Television/courtesy Everett Collection; David Livingston/Getty
DAWSON’S CREEK, Meredith Monroe, Season 2, 1998-2003. Meredith Monroe attends the WE ALL PLAY FUNdraiser hosted by the Zimmer Children’s Museum at the Zimmer Children’s Museum on April 30, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Since her days playing high-strung Andie McPhee, Meredith Monroe has built her TV-acting résumé with recurring roles on Criminal Minds, Hart of Dixie and 13 Reasons Why, and guest spots on a crop of other popular series.
During a cast reunion interview, she told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that shooting the series in Wilmington “was like growing up together. I felt like I was so grateful that it was shooting in Wilmington. We all got to really connect in a way that I don’t think we would have had we been in New York or L.A.”
Monroe married Steven Kavovit in 1999, and the pair have at least two kids.
Kerr Smith as Jack McPhee
After playing Jack McPhee, Andie’s older brother who comes to terms with his homosexuality throughout the series, Kerr Smith landed roles on The Fosters, Life Unexpected, Charmed and Riverdale.
Smith’s favorite memory from Dawson’s comes from the actors’ group trips to the beach.
“In the summer, we as a cast would go to Masonboro Island [North Carolina]. We’d get out the grill and go Jet Skiing and swimming. It was the most fun I ever had in my life,” he previously told PEOPLE.
Off-screen, Smith was married to actress Harmoni Everett from 2003 to 2009.
Busy Philipps as Audrey Liddell
Courtesy Everett Collection; Allen Berezovsky/FilmMagic
DAWSON’S CREEK, (Season 5), Busy Philipps, 1998-2003. Actress Busy Philipps attends the Uplift Family Services at Hollygrove Gala at W Hollywood on May 18, 2017 in Hollywood, California
Busy Philipps, who played Joey Potter’s college roommate, has stayed booked and busy on series like Cougar Town and Girls5eva. She also played Regina George’s mom in the 2024 musical remake of Mean Girls.
The actress has two children, Cricket and Birdie, with ex-husband Marc Silverstein.
Off-screen, she has remained close to Dawson’s bestie, Williams; the pair have frequented red carpets together and reunited for girls’ hangouts.
John Wesley Shipp as Mitch Leery
Columbia TriStar Television/courtesy Everett Collection; Bobby Bank/WireImage
DAWSON’S CREEK, John Wesley Shipp, 1998-2003. John Wesley Shipp attends 2016 Chiller Theatre Expo Day 1 at Parsippany Hilton on October 28, 2016 in Parsippany, New Jersey.
John Wesley Shipp played Mitch Leery on Dawson’s Creek.
During the cast’s 2018 reunion, he recalled how the series’ dialogue was groundbreaking for the times: “I remember a big star who shall remain nameless said to Kevin [Williamson, the show’s creator], ‘Young people don’t talk like that,’ ” Shipp told Entertainment Weekly. “Kevin said, ‘Well, maybe not, but they’d like to.’ We had a feeling that we were pioneering a different way of telling stories about young people.”
The actor, who was known for playing The Flash in the ’90s, came back to the story for The CW series by the same name from 2014 to 2023.
Mary-Margaret Humes as Gail Leery
Courtesy Everett Collection; Araya Diaz/Getty
DAWSON’S CREEK, Mary-Margaret Humes, 1998. Mary-Margaret Humes attends the “Dancing For NED” benefit for the Cedars Sinai Women’s Cancer Program on May 4, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.
Following her days playing Dawson’s anchorwoman mom, Mary-Margaret Humes has acted in several Hallmark and Lifetime TV movies.
She told EW she happened to be with star Van Der Beek the first time he was ever asked for an autograph after Dawson’s Creek premiered.
“He signed it and said, ‘Oh my God, Mary-Margaret, that was my first!’ And, of course, my thought was, ‘Oh, honey, hang on,’ ” she said.
Off-screen, Humes married Raul A. Bruce in 1992.
Nina Repeta as Bessie Potter
Columbia TriStar Television/courtesy Everett Collection; Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
DAWSON’S CREEK, Nina Repeta, (2000). Nina Repeta ‘Armageddon Time’ premiere, 60th New York Film Festival, New York, USA – 12 Oct 2022
Since playing big sis to Holmes’ Joey, Nina Repeta has continued to act in various films and has sparked a music career, singing everything from the blues to jazz. She is also involved in music therapy, singing jazz in local memory care units.
“[It] has allowed me to have a front-row seat to the miraculous power of music,” Repeta told PEOPLE. “Patients who have been unresponsive for weeks will light up and even sing along to tunes they recognize and love. It is, by far, one of the most fulfilling moments for me as an artist to use music therapy and see its results instantly.”
Repeta’s son Banks Repeta, who she shares with husband Mike Repeta, has also followed in her footsteps by forging his own acting career with roles in 2021’s The Black Phone and 2022’s Armageddon Time, the latter of which earned him a Critics’ Choice Awards nomination in 2023.
“I do feel like I have passed the acting torch to our son Banks,” Repeta told PEOPLE. “[At the Critics’ Choice Awards], we got to hang out briefly with [Michelle] Williams and [Busy] Philipps at the ceremony. As long as he continues to enjoy it, I feel like he will continue his journey as a film actor.”
Mary Beth Peil as Evelyn “Grams” Ryan
Courtesy Everett Collection; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty I
DAWSON’S CREEK, (Season 5), Mary Beth Peil, 1998-2003. Mary Beth Peil attends the 2017 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 11, 2017 in New York City.
Jen’s “Grams” has worked steadily in post-Dawson’s years: Mary Beth Peil had recurring roles on The Good Wife and Katy Keene and many turns on Broadway, including the Dowager Empress in Anastasia.
When Williams was honored at the 2022 Gotham Awards, she used her time to thank Peil for influencing her and taking her under her wing.
“Mary Beth Peil was the first artist that I had ever met in my life. She didn’t call herself that, but there was something different about her,” Williams said. “It was the way she asked questions, the way that she leaned into conversations, and how excited she seemed for every moment of every day on our TV set. And I didn’t know what this ineffable quality was, but I knew I wanted to pull my chair closer to hers.”
In her personal life, Peil was married to Jerry Kirkbride, with whom she raised two children. The pair divorced in 1993, per The New York Times.
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