To make up for initially only having a passive power, Phoebe develops martial arts skills in order to better assist her sisters when they fight evil beings.

She later becomes the middle sister from season four onwards, after Prue dies and the series introduces their younger half-sister Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan).

Her longest on-screen relationship is with half-demon Cole Turner (Julian McMahon); they have a turbulent marriage in the fourth season, and in the fifth, following their divorce, she is compelled to vanquish him.

In addition to the television series, the character has also appeared in numerous expanded universe material, such as the Charmed novels and its comic book adaptation.

[1] In order to create the series, Constance M. Burge was hired as the creator as she was under contract with 20th Century Fox and Spelling Television after conceiving the drama Savannah.

A jobless Phoebe returns from New York City and moves back to San Francisco into her family's Victorian Manor with her two sisters Prue (Shannen Doherty) and Piper (Holly Marie Combs).

Initially drawn apart due to Prue's speculation of Phoebe being the cause of her failed engagement to Roger (Matthew Ashford),[4] the two sisters mend their relationship over the course of the season.

[9] In the show's third season (2000–01), Phoebe receives the active power of levitation and enters a relationship with Cole Turner (Julian McMahon),[10] who is actually the demon mercenary Belthazor that was sent by The Triad (who have replaced The Council) to kill The Charmed Ones.

Prue and Piper unwittingly expose themselves as witches to the world after being caught on camera by a local news crew fighting with The Source's personal assassin Shax.

[15] Later in the episode, while attending Prue's funeral, Phoebe meets Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) and receives a premonition of the woman being attacked by Shax.

After being tricked by Cole and The Seer (Debbie Morgan) into participating in a dark marriage ceremony,[20] Phoebe lands a job as an advice columnist for the newspaper The Bay Mirror.

[24] In the season finale, the Angel of Destiny (Dakin Matthews) visits and gives the sisters an offer to live a normal life without magical powers or the threat of demons.

For this, Phoebe is stripped of her unique powers by a Tribunal Council made up of both high-powered demons and Elders, though she retains her basic abilities as a witch and Charmed One.

[40] After she begins to feel disconnected from her advice column audience, Phoebe takes a sabbatical from work and is temporarily replaced by a ghost-writer Leslie St. Claire (Nick Lachey).

[41] In the hopes of having a demon-free life, Phoebe and her sisters join forces with The Avatars, powerful beings who are neither good nor evil, in their plan to turn the world into a utopia.

During this season Cole, while stuck in Limbo, arranges for the good-natured demon Drake De'mon (Billy Zane) to enter Phoebe's life and keep her from giving up on love.

[45] In the season seven finale, during a suicide mission to vanquish Zankou, Phoebe and her sisters fake their deaths in order to escape the constant threat of demon attacks, as well as police and government investigations.

[46] For the eighth and final season (2005–2006), Phoebe takes on the false identity of Julie Bennett (Monica Allgeier) and begins a relationship with an artist named Dex Lawson (Jason Lewis).

[47] While under the influence of a spell cast by the prodigy of the Charmed Ones, Billie Jenkins (Kaley Cuoco), Phoebe marries Dex under the alias of Julie.

When Phoebe discovers that Billie and her sister, Christy (Marnette Patterson) are the ultimate power The Charmed Ones must defeat to save Leo from the Angel of Death (Simon Templeman), she has reservations because the women are human and not demons.

[53] Phoebe's first appearance in Charmed literature takes place within the novel The Power of Three by Eliza Willard on November 1, 1999, which acts as a novelised version of the series premiere episode.

[72] In the Charmed comic books, specifically in issue #16 "The Heavens Can Wait", her power has been shown to have grown stronger, allowing Phoebe to levitate Paige's orb shield which contained herself, her two sisters and Leo.

[36][76] In the season two episode, "Morality Bites", when the sisters travel to the future, it is revealed that Phoebe uses a magical power to kill a man named Cal Greene out of revenge.

[79][80] Her skills in hand-to-hand combat which includes Kung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do, & Kickboxing have advanced to the point where Phoebe is capable of beating multiple adversaries, most notably demonic wrestlers, furies, and vampires.

"[86] In another review of the pilot episode, John Levesque of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer also labelled Phoebe "free-spirited", but felt that Milano's acting needed "seasoning.

"[87] PopMatters' Michael Abernethy wrote that Milano provided "a lighter touch" to Charmed and noted that her "comic training" in sitcoms was "ideal for her carefree character" Phoebe.

[88] Angelica Bastien of Bustle magazine called Phoebe a "fan favorite" and commented that Milano "definitely fits the role much better than Lori [Rom] did.

"[93] BuzzFeed's Jarett Wieselman commented on Phoebe's outfits in the later seasons, noting that many of the episodes featured her wearing "a series of progressively revealing and ridiculous costumes in the name of vanquishing.

In the film, Kaylee (Amanda Bynes) recalls watching an episode of Charmed on The WB where Milano "was about to cast a spell on her cute demon boyfriend.

"[101] In his review of the television series Witches of East End being too similar to Charmed, Christian Cintron of Hollywood.com noted that Jenna Dewan-Tatum's "ne'er-do-well, bed-hopping character" Freya Beauchamp is a lot like Phoebe.