 Rabe, Matt Ross, Finn Wittrock, Christine Estabrook, John Carroll Lynch, and Anthony Ruivivar. This is the second season that is not strictly anthological, with Christine Estabrook, and Matt Ross reprising their previous roles as Marcy (Murder House) and Charles Montgomery (Murder House) respectively, and Gabourey Sidibe reprising her role as Queenie from Coven. Paulson herself also reprises a previous character from Murder House (Billie Dean Howard). This is the first season not to feature mainstay Jessica Lange. This is also the first season not to feature Frances Conroy in any capacity.

Cast members

Main cast
 Kathy Bates as Iris
 Sarah Paulson as Sally McKenna and Billie Dean Howard
 Evan Peters as James Patrick March
 Wes Bentley as Det. John Lowe
 Matt Bomer as Donovan
 Chloë Sevigny as Dr. Alex Lowe
 Denis O'Hare as Liz Taylor
 Cheyenne Jackson as Will Drake
 Angela Bassett as Ramona Royale
 Lady Gaga as Elizabeth Johnson / the Countess

Supporting cast

Characters

Main characters

Iris
Iris (portrayed by Kathy Bates) is the manager of the Hotel Cortez who works at the reception desk and is often seen doing crossword puzzles. Despite hating the hotel, she remains in order to keep proximity to her son Donovan, who despises her after she divorced his father and became involved in a breatharian cult which prevented her from providing him medical care. She remains protective of him, pushing Sally McKenna out of a window of the hotel's seventh floor in 1994 after she supplied him with China White heroin, which killed him. Since then, Iris and Donovan have maintained an ongoing rivalry. After Donovan rejects her in a heated confrontation, Iris asks Sally to help her commit suicide, but a damaged Donovan revives Iris by infecting her with the blood virus. 

Iris initially rejects killing, but is driven to it when her craving for blood takes a physical toll. She teams up with Donovan and Ramona Royale to kill The Countess out of revenge, despite her initial loyalty to the Countess. She begins killing guests a