Shapeshifting can be a rich symbolical and narrative tool and shapeshifting fiction has been around at least since the days of ancient Greece. Today, the theme appears in many fantasy and science fiction stories. Both occasionally feature races of shapeshifters, and both magic and technology can be used to impose a change in form.

• The Green Knight in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th century English epic poem. The Green-Knight can shapeshift due to the magical power of Morgan le Fay.
• Beast, in Beauty and the Beast, was originally a handsome prince and, for a reason that varies from tale to tale, is trapped in a beastly shape until he wins Beauty's love  
• The Frog Prince is a transformed prince who must be restored his original form; few variants specify why he was transformed. The Frog Princess, a fairy tale of a frog married to a prince, concludes with her transformation into a beautiful princess. In some variants, she was originally a princess.
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, in which the main character wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin.
• Beorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth is a skin-changer, a man who could assume the appearance of a bear.
• The Dungeons & Dragons series of Baldur's Gate games showcases numerous encounters with a race of shapeshifters known as Dopplegangers. These beings kill and assume the lives of their victims, altering their outward appearance appropriately. They are a preditory and ruthless race who frequently appear Human until confronted with violence, and exhibit a prejudice against Humans and other "primates".
• Mavin Manyshaped and her son Peter in Sheri S. Tepper's True Game novels are both shifters, being a subspecies of humans having this power.
• C. S. Lewis transforms several characters in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan himself appears in several forms besides a lion, include a lamb and perhaps an albatross. Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Rabadash in The Horse and His Boy are, punitively, turned into a dragon and a donkey respectively, and must fulfill conditions to regain their original form. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader includes Monopods that were once Dwarfs; though the transformation was punitive, and they call it "uglification", they become reconciled with their new forms. In The Silver Chair, the Lady of the Green Kirtle is revealed to be able to transform herself into a large, green, and poisonous snake, at will.
• Sharon Shinn's The Shape-shifter's Wife depicts a magican who can shift the shapes of other beings.
• Maya from Space: 1999.
• Morph and Mystique in the Marvel Comics universe.
• Odo, one of the main characters of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• Zam Wesell in Star Wars, appearing in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, from a race of shapeshifters called Clawdites.
• T-1000, an evil robot with shapeshifting abilities from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Many types of shapeshifters occur in Laurell K. Hamilton's novels in the Anita Blake series, such as werewolves, werejaguars, wererats, and even a wereswan.
• In the Harry Potter series, trained Animagi can transform at will into one specific animal, and so far each example in the books has taken a different form. Metamorphmagi including Nymphadora Tonks possess shapeshifting abilities which have been only sketchily defined so far. There is also a creature called Boggart which will transform itself to his opponent's biggest fear. When not confronting any humans, it has no definite shape.
• D. M. Wind's novel The Others is about a group of shapeshifters from another dimension who can turn into any animal at will, though they usually take the form of either wolves or panthers.
• Many of Jack L. Chalker's novels involve one or more transformations; he wrote an essay on physical transformation as a metaphor for various psychological changes, included in his short story collection Dance Band on the Titanic. This theme is used several times in the Jerry Cornelius stories by Michael Moorcock, as well as in works by Robert Sheckley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and others.
• Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series includes not only a race of werewolves but a race of unicorns that can transform themselves into human form, and another animal form specific to the individual unicorn.
• The Animorphs series is about a group of five kids who are able to "morph" into any animal they have touched and purposely "acquired" its DNA. The Animorphs received their powers--rather, technology--from a scientifically advanced alien species called the Andalites.
• Martia from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• The wolmerrelle, a race derived from men and wolves in the Ruin Mist world, are shapeshifters. Their true form is the animal form, and they are able to shapeshift into men.
• Shang Tsung, an evil sorcerer who can copy the appearance and abilities of his opponents in the Mortal Kombat video game series. Also, fallen Elder God Shinnok of the same series, who possesses the ability to imitate any person down to the voice.
• Beast Boy, The Martian Manhunter Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Amazing Man as well as (to a limited extent) Elongated Man in the present-day DC Universe, as well as Chameleon Boy/Chameleon of the Legion of Super-Heroes and other natives of his home planet, Durla.
• The vermicious knids from Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator are able to stretch or compress themselves into any shape they want.
• Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Kiesha'ra series features falcon, snake, and hawk shapeshiters.
• Dr. Jonathan Chase from the TV-Series Manimal is able to change into any animal
• The Irda, a race derived from the original ogres in the Dragonlance world, were given the power to shapechange by the gods of good after the gods of evil abandoned them.
• The creature from the movie The Thing is able to imitate any organism perfectly, until exposed to too much stress. It is also able to combine the DNA of varous previously-imitated organisms to form composite creatures. Based on the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• The Pokémon Ditto is able to transform into other pokemon in battle.
• In Sony's Everquest 2 game, several classes have the option to shapechange, such as shaman into bears, hawks, and stags, monks into tigers, and druids into lions (females and males have different models!).
• In Blizzard's World of Warcraft, the minotaur-like Tauren and elvish Kaldorei Druids of the Claw are capable of shapeshifting into bears and cats to fight, cheetah-like cats to flee, sea lions to swim, and some individuals may even change into owlbears called Moonkin. Long before this game takes place, Druids of the Talon were able to shapeshift into raven-like birds called stormcrows (the stormcrow model does exist in the game, however).
• "Facedancer" assassins from Frank Herbert's 'Dune' series are capable of assuming the guise of any human (provided they know what the person looks like) they may do so for espionage and for assassination.
• Envy from the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist was a failed transmutation, and became a monster who could change form in any way he desired. He is mostly depicted as turning into other humans that he has met before, and for his acknowledgement that he created the form he is mostly seen in.
• The characters of the Bloody Roar video games transform into anthropomorphic creatures.

Fictional werecats tend to be portrayed as less influenced by the lunar cycle than werewolves, and they appear in heroic roles slightly more often. In addition, the females seem to outnumber the males, which is the opposite of the tradition in werewolf fiction.

• The Inheritance Trilogy including the novel Eragon, include a werecat known as Solembum, a black cat able to communicate telepathicly as well as changing into a young boy with a black dagger. Later on other werecats are noted.
• The movie Cat People was the most influential item of werecat fiction, about a real sex kitten who turns into a black panther. It was followed forty years later by Cat People, a remake in name only with a vastly changed storyline that now included two shapeshifters, brother and sister.
• The film Sleepwalkers portrayed hairless werecats as the basis for vampire legends.
• Half-Caste, a mockumentary made in the style of The Blair Witch Project, purports to base its story on legends from South Africa.
• The Anita Blake novels contain many werecats, mainly wereleopards.
• The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell is about an Aztec slave girl who is descended from jaguar gods and can transform into a jaguar.
• Two Witch World fantasy novels by Andre Norton focus on werecat characters, Year of the Unicorn and The Jargoon Pard.
• The comic and television series Ranma ½ has plenty of shapeshifters, including the werecat Shampoo.
• Kyo Sohma in the anime and manga Fruits Basket becomes a house cat, and Kisa Sohma becomes a tiger.
• The anime KO Century Beast Warriors has a weretiger named Wan, and other shapeshifters, as the heroes.
• Clan of the Cats is a comic that has a black panther werecat as the main character.
• Gold Digger is a comic with a cheetah werecat as the sidekick of the main character.
• The Wotch has a werecat character named Katie McBride.
• The post-crisis Cheetah characters from DC Comics were represented as true werecats instead of the earlier costumed supervillians.
• The role-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse includes werecats called Bastet.
• The PlayStation RPG series Breath of Fire features a race of cat-like humanoids called Woren. One of them (Rei, from Breath of Fire 3) can turn into a large, extremely powerful weretiger during battle.
• In Season 3 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Kat Hillard, while under the control of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, she could become a white Angora cat, and when she paralyzed Tommy to gain control of the Falcon Ninjazord, cat scratch marks appeared over his body.