Riley Finn is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Most notably, Riley is one of three long-term romantic interests for series' heroine Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar).

Whedon intended Riley to be the antithesis of Buffy's boyfriend of the past three seasons, Angel (David Boreanaz), who now headed his own spin-off show.

In stark contrast to broody, often pensive Angel, Riley is optimistic, trustworthy and reliable, and in theory presents Buffy with her first opportunity for a "normal" romantic relationship.

Subsequently, the character appears in Expanded Universe material such as the canonical comic book continuation to the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–11).

Even though he leads a double life as part of a secret government organization known as The Initiative, Buffy finds some normalcy in Riley as a regular college guy and someone to whom she could relate.

In "Out of My Mind", it is discovered that the drugs that Professor Walsh had secretly fed him are causing Riley's pain receptors to shut down and his heartbeat to spike, and could eventually have killed him.

Even with this knowledge, Riley initially refuses to accept medical treatment from the government out of paranoia, though Buffy eventually convinces him to do so.

He is, however, mentioned in the season 7 episode "The Killer in Me" where Buffy attempts to contact him for advice on the malfunctioning chip in Spike's head.

Riley also appears in the first issue of the follow-up series Season Nine (2011–2013); the structure of "Freefall, Part I" suggests that Riley—like Spike, Xander, Willow and others—could have been Buffy's possible one-night stand after the party she hosts at her apartment in San Francisco.

He is also notable in that he is the only boyfriend of Buffy who was accepted by and developed a friendship with Xander Harris, who usually displayed jealousy of the males in her life.

"[2] During season 5, writer/co-executive producer, Marti Noxon, noted that they were making Riley a more tortured complex character, "He's starting to fray around the edges.

Kane says he played his audition for Riley "perhaps a little less than wholesome", which he feels resulted in Joss Whedon later casting him as a darker character.