Where Is Elvira Now? Inside the Mistress of the Dark's Life Four Decades After She Debuted the Vampy Character (2025)

Cassandra Peterson, more famously known as her campy character Elvira first created her gothic persona in 1981.

Her star began to grow when she was a member of the iconic improv trope The Groundlings and was hired by KHJ-TV, a Los Angeles-based television station, to host a weekend horror movie program. The show was called Elvira's Movie Macabre and aired locally from 1981 to 1986, catapulting Elvira to fame, thanks to her unique, charming brand of comedy.

In 1988, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, a feature film revolving around her sexy, gothic character was released. Now, she’s a pop culture icon (and a common Halloween costume) in her own right.

Peterson continues to engage with her long-held fan base while also finding her way into modern conversations. In 2021, she released a memoir in which she came out as “sexually fluid" and introduced her longtime partner to the world.

Peterson also made headlines during theWickedpress tour in October 2024, when she spoke about having a disappointingexperiencewith starAriana Grandeyears prior.

So, where is Elvira now? Here’s everything to know about the horror star’s life today.

She returned to the TV screen in 2014

While Elvira’s fame was at its peak in the late ‘80s, she has continued to make TV appearances in the years since. In 2014, she reprised her role, playing a horror hostess in a Hulu series, 13 Nights of Elvira.

In 2021, Shudder released Elvira's 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special, Special, a four-episode series celebrating four decades of the Mistress in the Dark. The same year, Peterson worked on a Netflix series, Netflix and Chills with Dr. Elvira.

Over the years, Peterson also made cameos on a variety of shows. The actress has been a guest commentator on WrestleMania 2, as well as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race, Dragula and Halloween Wars.

She came out as “sexually fluid” in her 2021 memoir

In 2021, Peterson published a memoir titled Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress in the Dark. In the book, she details her life, from the trials of show business to a long romantic relationship she continues to share with a woman, Teresa “T” Wierson. In the book, Peterson called herself “sexually fluid,” marking her public coming out.

As she said to Variety in 2022, Peterson felt it was the right time to come out when she turned 70: “If I don’t do it now, when the hell am I going to do it? Who cares if people hate my character as Elvira and it goes down the tubes?”

Peterson has been in a relationship with Wierson since 2003, around the time she and her then-husband Mark Pierson split. Until 2021, she kept the relationship private and felt she was living a double life.

“It made my personal life not fun. I felt like a hypocrite. You’re hiding something, and it certainly didn’t make ‘T,’ my partner, feel good,” she told Variety.

Since the book’s release, Peterson added that it “feels good to be able to introduce her as my partner, and to be able to hold hands.” The couple took a vacation to Hawaii after Peterson's memoir was published and enjoyed finally having the opportunity to show affection in public.

The actress also told the publication that others see a difference in her, too, saying, “They’ve commented that I feel lighter.”

She continues to stand up for her beliefs

While Peterson became known predominantly for her career as a performer, she also has a history of standing up for progressive causes.

Peterson was particularly outspoken during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 1993, she hosted a telethon that raised $1.6 million for AIDS patient care through the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. In a 2022 conversation with +Life, Peterson shared her personal perspective on the crisis.

“One of the people who helped me create the [Elvira] character Robert Redding, who helped me design the hair, the makeup, the dress was one of the people who died of AIDS very early on and I made it one of my life’s goals to do anything I could to bring awareness to AIDS and to help in any way that I could people with HIV and AIDS," she said.

She went viral for criticizing a past interaction with Ariana Grande in October 2024

In 2024, just as the promotional tour for Wicked was going into high gear, Peterson made headlines by saying that her worst celebrity encounter of all time was with Ariana Grande. In a video that quickly went viral across YouTube and TikTok, Peterson spoke at an event and said that one of her worst celebrity encounters happened years ago with the Wicked star.

In the video, Peterson claimed that Grande had brought a large group of family and friends to one of her performances as Elvira. Peterson alleged that after she took pictures with each of Grande’s guests, the star declined to take a photo with her.

"She came and she brought 20 guests, so she wanted 20, 21 tickets," Peterson claimed. "She comes backstage and she asks if I could take pictures with all of her friends and relatives she brought."

"I take a picture with every single one of them. I sign autographs for every single one of them," she continued. "Then I say to her, 'Can we take a photo together?' She goes, 'Nah, I don't really do that.' "

On Instagram, Grande responded to the allegations by commenting on a post Peterson shared about the interaction. “i actually don’t even remember getting the chance to meet you because i had an anxiety attack and to my memory, left before the rest of my family (this was around 7 years ago and at the time i was really not great with being in public crowds or loud places),” the pop star wrote. “but if i’m misremembering this moment, i sincerely apologize for offending you so,” she added.

Finally, Grande sent well wishes to “our queen of Halloween!"

“thank you for being so nice to my mom, she told me how lovely you were (she might have different feelings about that now but i’ll talk to her… clearly, we all have our days!)," she concluded.

Elvira has a lot of "new things" coming in 2025

These days, Peterson is continuing to work, and trusts that Elvira will live on for years to come. In October 2024, the actress attended The Groundlings’ 50th anniversary party in Los Angeles and shared her hopes for Elvira’s legacy.

“I have a lot of new things coming up in 2025,” she told PEOPLE. “I've got two books and two movies, and maybe I'm being very over the top, but I kind of have a feeling that Elvira is getting into Santa Claus mode and that [she] might just be around every single Halloween with or without me.”

Peterson also parents her daughter Sadie Pierson whom she welcomed with her then-husband Mark. Before she and Wierson's relationship turned romantic, the trainer moved in with Peterson and Sadie, an experience the actress wrote about in her memoir.

"Evenings were spent with all of us [Peterson, her daughter Sadie and Wierson] laughing, cooking, singing, and dancing around the kitchen while she helped me prep dinner," the performer wrote.