<P> Charlotte Drake is a fictional character in Pretty Little Liars, an American mystery drama television series based on the homonymous novel series written by Sara Shepard . Charlotte is a character that only appears in the television series and is portrayed by Vanessa Ray . The character is also featured in the Pretty Little Liars web series Pretty Dirty Secrets . </P> <P> Charlotte was introduced in the third season using the pseudonym CeCe Drake . Acting as a best friend and mentor to Alison DiLaurentis, CeCe moved back to Rosewood two years after Alison's disappearance . Having stolen the game from Mona Vanderwaal, Drake acted as the leader of the A-Team, recruiting minions to do her biding whilst also concealing her identity from them as Red Coat . Following the events from "A dAngerous gAme", the group disbanded and her schemes were from then on primarily assisted by a single ally, later divulged to be Sara Harvey . </P> <P> During the fourth - season episode "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", CeCe is revealed to be Red Coat . In the sixth - season episode "Game Over, Charles", Drake unmasked herself as Big "A", and revealed that she was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery . In the following episode "Of Late I Think of Rosewood", it is shown that Charlotte spent the subsequent five years at the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital . Charlotte is eventually released from Welby after the Liars (minus Aria) lie under oath and testify in favor of her release as a favor to Alison . However, Charlotte is murdered by an unknown assailant merely hours after leaving Welby . Her death fueled the rise of a new "A", using the alias A.D., who was severely adamant on avenging Charlotte's homicide . During the sixth - season finale "Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars", the Liars discover that Jessica DiLaurentis has an identical twin sister, Mary Drake, a former patient at Radley Sanitarium who is Charlotte's biological mother . In "The DArkest Knight", Mary is revealed to be Spencer Hastings' biological mother, thus making her Charlotte's maternal half - sister . During "Farewell, My Lovely", Mona confesses to killing Charlotte after finding out that her mental health hadn't improved and her intentions were to harm the Liars again . In "Till Death Do Us Part", the elusive A.D. is revealed to be Alex Drake, Spencer's identical twin sister . Alex believed the Liars knew who orchestrated Charlotte's murder and was also set on physically replacing Spencer due to envying the upbringing she was able to have . </P> <P> It was reported that Vanessa Ray was cast to portray CeCe Drake, who was later known to be Charlotte DiLaurentis . When Ray was announced to start filming again for Pretty Little Liars fourth season, she spoke about returning, stating: "It's so fun to do, and what a crazy character I get to play . She's sort of a sociopath . I think she's so weird because she's, like, 22 but hangs out with high - schoolers . It's like,' Hey, girl! Get a life!"' Drake was characterized as a "beyond - charismatic twenty - something blonde stylist at a boutique that has one heel in the present, one in the past ." Pretty Little Liars executive producer Oliver Goldstick stated that Drake acted as a mentor to Alison DiLaurentis, teaching her "the wicked ways of the world ." Drake's is described as having a sociopathic personality: controlling, charming, seductive, dominant, and extremely intelligent . The character was also described by Ray as "off - the - wall, self - centered, bizarre fashionista ." </P>

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