Xander Kiriakis

Xander came to Salem as the leader of an international blood diamond smuggling ring. He forced and threatens Serena Mason to come to Salem to steal an elephant statue that secretly hid smuggled blood diamonds from Africa. As a cover for his criminal activities, Xander owns a European pharmaceutical company that supplies various charities around the world.

Xander meets Nicole Walker, who pretends to show an interest in him, and the two begin a flirtation. Later Xander meets with his uncle Victor Kiriakis where its revealed that Xander has been doing criminal operations for Victor in places such as Cyprus and Cuba in addition to money laundering for the Kiriakis family. Xander is reacquainted with his cousin Brady Black but both Victor and Brady are cold and distant from Xander. Xander also goes to meet his old friend Daniel Jonas.

Xander continues to hassle Serena about the diamonds and even threatened her and her boyfriend Eric Brady. While Xander continues his romantic interest in Nicole, she only uses Xander to make Daniel jealous and Victor tells Xander not to get involved with Nicole because Daniel wants her. Victor's love for Daniel begins to aggravate Xander and Nicole's reluctance to date him also begins to anger him. When Xander catches Nicole lying to him and later sees her kissing Daniel he plans his revenge. Victor orders Xander to leave town for disobeying him and continuing his pursuit of Nicole and a furious Xander confronts a silent Victor for his hypocrisy on unconditionally supporting Daniel, Brady, Philip, and Sonny while being unsupportive of him. Nicole investigates Xander's past and discovers that Xander was imprisoned in Scotland for murder but Victor bribed government officials and got Xander's charges reduced from manslaughter to assault and battery and Xander was freed on the condition that he leave Scotland.

At Titan, Xander tracks down Nicole and when she lies about her scheme and false interest in him he attacks her but is stopped by Eric. Xander's female accomplice comes to his aide and they corner Nicole and Eric in the furnace room at Titan. Eric and Nicole barricaded themselves in the furnace room to prevent Xander from killing them. Xander and his accomplice trap Eric and Nicole in the space next to the furnace and turn the furnace up to full blast in order to kill them. Xander and his accomplice erase any evidence linking them to the crime and leave Eric and Nicole to die.

Eric and Nicole are rescued by Brady and the Salem Police and immediately implicate Xander in the attempt on their lives. Meanwhile, Xander is preparing to leave Salem when he is kidnapped by Victor's henchmen. A furious Victor berates Xander not following his orders to leave town and his attempt to kill Nicole and Eric, who as Salem police commissioner Roman Brady's son, will bring extra police efforts to convict Xander and thus bring attention to Victor's criminal activities. Xander explains to Victor that he has always been devoted and loyal to Victor and the Kiriakis family and has done numerous unpleasant deeds that none of Victor's other relatives had the intelligence or willingness to do. Xander also berates Victor for favoring Daniel over Xander, who is Victor's flesh and blood while Daniel is not even family. Victor reveals the distance between him and his brother Titus Kiriakis, Xander's father. Eventually Victor had stopped communicating with and helping Titus when he died. Its strongly implied that Victor's contempt and distance for his brother Titus were transferred to Xander because he was Titus' son.

Xander told Victor he would die for him, and Victor ordered one his henchman to cut Xander's throat. At the last minute, Victor changed his mind and realized Xander may still be of some use to him. He agreed to give Xander another chance but said Xander would be stripped of his privileges and wealthy lifestyle and would be little more than a servant. The Salem Police fail to find enough evidence against Xander for his attempted murder of Eric and Nicole but Xander put under surveillance and is hated by everyone in Salem.

Victor demoted Xander to work as a gardener at the Kiriakis mansion. Xander is constantly humiliated by everyone in Salem. Enraged and deeply hurt, Xander plots his revenge against everyone who was hurt him. Brady's ex-lover Theresa Donovan seduces Xander but makes it look like Xander tried to rape her and when Brady walks in he attacks Xander and calls the police. Xander explains the true events to Victor but Victor refuses to help Xander, who is arrested for attempted rape and assault. The police arrived, and Xander sat there as Theresa accused him of rape. The police then arrested Xander and hauled him off to jail. When Serena is strangled and killed in the park the police suspect Xander and question him but since he was locked up in police custody, Xander is cleared as a suspect.

In September 2016, Xander is seen in prison with Clyde Weston and Orpheus. Xander says he wants revenge on Theresa and Nicole. As the trio are being transported with other prisoners, Eduardo Hernandez attacks and kills one of the convicts. I the confusion, Orpheus does something to the driver, causing the prison transport can to crash.

Xander headed straight for Theresa's to confront her about accusing him of rape. Theresa apologizes, and says Victor is the one he should be after since he helped make sure Xander sent to prison. Xander says he all deal with Victor, and starts to strangle Theresa as Brady comes in, and Xander escapes.

Xander, Clyde, and Orpheus regroup at a shack on the pier. Xander is anxious to do after his enemies, but Orpheus advises him to be patient. Xander and Orpheus wait for Clyde to return with their disguises and weapons. The trio got into the Johnson house and hold Kayla Brady and Joey Johnson hostage. Steve Johnson comes home, and tried to rattle Clyde and Xander's faith in Orpheus. Xander restrains Steve, but Steve gets free back handing Xander and he and Orpheus get into a struggle. Steve is shot, and the three once again make their escape with Joey in tow.

Xander is assigned to watch Joey while Clyde and Orpheus are out. Xander starts to doze off, but wakes up just in time to stop Joey from undoing his binds. Clyde and Orpheus return, and start bickering. Orpheus has been shot, and attends to his wound. Clyde shows him the paper that says Steve survived. The trio talk about where they will go, and how they will gain leverage to make their demands. Clyde asks where they will go, and Xander says that after they kill the entire Kiriakis family, they can hide at the Kiriakis compound.

Xander and Clyde eventually decided to go off on their own. Xander found Nicole at Daniel's grave, and held her at gunpoint. Nicole and Deimos Kiriakis, Xander's uncle who had previously visited him, made a deal to let him go if he didn't hurt Nicole; Xander agreed to their terms. Deimos was supposed to lead Xander into a trap that would send him back to prison, but Deimos helped Xander fake his death, believing Xander could be of use to him one day.

In April 28, 2017, Xander found Brady and Nicole in a cabin house in Canada. He held them at gun point, shot Brady, and when Nicole removed his mask she was shocked to see it was Xander. Once Nicole was for over her shock, she begged Xander not to hurt Holly. Xander said he would never hurt an innocent child. He noted how cute they are, but passive aggressively said they are loud, so Nicole calmed her down.

Nicole asked Xander to leave Holly and Tate with Brady, and to get Brady help. Xander says he doesn't care about Brady, despite them being family, and he cruelly steps on Brady's wounded chest before ushering her out the door and leaving Brady for dead.

Xander shows up at Deimos' suite in Canada, with Holly in hand. He tells Deimos that Nicole is in the trunk of his car, and assures Deimos he just chloroformed her. He adds that he had to shoot Brady, and emphasizes that Brady will likely die, but is stunned that Deimos doesn't care. Deimos tells Xander he wasn't sure if he had made the right decision in letting him go, but Xander has proven to be a valuable employee. He muses how easily everyone bought his story about him killing Xander. He tells Xander that the plan is for him to win Nicole back by rescuing her from Xander. Xander worries he is expendable since Deimos doesn't care about Brady. Deimos tells Xander he puts loyalty above all else, and that Brady betrayed him by stealing Nicole from him. Xander says Deimos doesn't have to worry about him, since he hates Nicole. Deimos makes sure to let Xander know not to hurt Nicole or Holly.

Xander takes Nicole and Holly to his private island on Greece. Nicole has Xander get her supplies for Holly, spills the baby powder, and hits Xander over the head as he goes to clean up the powder. Xander catches up to Nicole and locks her in a cage, but he does let her spend time with Holly. Nicole tries to convince Xander to let her go, and tells him he can be apart of the Kiriakis family again. Xander rejects Nicole's offer, so Nicole offers to give him a massage, and attempts to take the keys when Xander appearance to have fallen asleep. Xander catches Nicole and forces a kiss on her when Eric bursts in and punches Xander.

Xander awakens and his men grab and hold Eric. Xander punches Eric a few times in the chest, before locking him and Nicole in a room. When Deimos arrives, Xander gives Deimos a list of demands to make sure Deimos wouldn't turn on him as soon as he got what he wanted. Nicole escapes with Eric's help, and went to an officer for help, not knowing the officer was on Xander's payroll. The officer brought Nicole right back to the compound and Xander locked Nicole up in the room where he had chained Eric up.

Xander heard Eric and Nicole arguing and went to break them up, but it was a ploy and Eric attacked Xander while Nicole tried to escape. Milos entered the room and held the duo at gunpoint. Deimos phoned Xander and told him he was on his way to get Nicole. Xander enquirer on what to do with Eric, and Deimos told Xander to leave Eric to him. Xander had Eric locked in the cage and taunted him about his confinement before being clocked in the back of the head by Nicole, who had stolen Milos' keys, and locked in the cage by Eric and Nicole.

Deimos arrived to find Xander locked in the caged, and he was held at gunpoint by Eric. Xander woke up, and the room. And under Fire. Xander cowered to avoid possibly getting shot when the police arrived. They arrested Deimos, and Eli Grant retrieved Xander from the cage. When asked if Deimos was working with Xander, Xander lied and said he was working alone.

Xander becomes a suspect in Deimos' murder when another keycard is found on the night of Deimos' murder. A magazine called Busty Broads is found, and on July 18, Xander is seen in a Greek prison reading that same magazine. On July 21, John and Paul reviewed the security tapes of Xander laying in his cell, staring up at the ceiling. They conclude that Xander couldn't have killed Deimos, but still asks to speak to him. On July 24, Paul and John interrogate Xander about Deimos' murder, but he denies being anywhere near Salem when Deimos was murdered. On August 7, Victor admitted to Brady he brought Xander to Salem to kill Deimos, but called off the deal when Xander demanded more than what he and Victor originally agreed on.

Xander is seen with Nicole Walker in October 2018 when Eric goes to find her. It is then revealed that he blackmailed her to marry him. In that same month, it is also revealed that Xander was the one who shot Marlena Evans at her wedding, and not Sami.