Zelena (Once Upon a Time)
In December 2013, Rebecca Mader was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West. She made multiple appearances during the second half of season three and was promoted to a series regular for the show's fifth season. The role of the Wicked Witch of the West was written specifically for Rebecca Mader. It was announced that the writers had chosen not to continue with Zelena's storyline and Mader would not be returning for the seventh season of the show. However, Mader later revealed that she would be returning for multiple season seven episodes.
Barbara Hershey
Hershey appeared as an American actress, Mrs. Hubbard, in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" for the British television series "Poirot" (starring David Suchet), which aired in the United States on Public Broadcast Service in July 2010. Also in 2010, Hershey co-starred in Darren Aronofsky's acclaimed psychological thriller "Black Swan" (2010) opposite Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. The following year, she co-starred in the James Wan horror film "Insidious" (2011). From 2012 to 2013, she had a recurring role in the first two seasons of ABC's hit drama "Once Upon a Time" as Cora, the Queen of Hearts and mother of the Evil Queen. In 2014, she reprised the role in one episode of the show's spin-off "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland". In 2015, she once more reprised the role when she returned to the show for an episode of its fourth season, and in 2016, she appeared again for two episodes of the show's fifth season, most notably its landmark 100th episode.
In A&E's series "Damien", Hershey portrayed series regular Ann Rutledge, the world's most powerful woman, who has been given the task to make sure Damien fulfills his destiny as the Antichrist. The role marks Hershey's most recent TV gig following "Once Upon a Time, The Mountain, Chicago Hope", and Lifetime's "Left to Die" TV movie.