List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia characters

From left to right, Mac, Deandra, Charlie, Frank, and Dennis

The following is a list of recurring characters from the FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The Gang

Mac

Mac is Charlie Kelly's childhood friend and Dennis's high school friend and later roommate. He is a co-owner of Paddy's and its bouncer. He brags about his incredible hand-to-hand combat skills, though it is quite obvious he lacks any real skill or even a sense of proper athletic balance.

Dennis Reynolds

Dennis is a co-owner of Paddy's and is Deandra's twin brother. Dennis is extremely narcissistic, selfish, histrionic and vain perpetuated by his Ivy League education at the University of Pennsylvania. His sense of self-worth is entirely dependent on what others think of his appearance and he often suggests the best way to sleep with a woman is to make her think she may get raped.

Charlie Kelly

Charlie is co-owner at Paddy's and a childhood friend of Mac and Dennis. He is also Frank's roommate. Charlie is the janitor at the pub and an illiterate alcoholic and huffer who suffers from deep psychological problems and lives in squalor. Charlie's intentions are often pure but his plans are almost always foiled. Charlie has anger management issues and often screams to get his point across.

Deandra 'Sweet Dee' Reynolds

Dee is Dennis' twin sister, the main bartender at Paddy's and the show's main female character. She is often subject to ridicule from the rest of The Gang. Dee dreams of becoming an actress even though she has no acting experience and lacks talent. Like her brother, Dee is very egocentric.

Frank Reynolds

Frank is the legal (but not biological) father of twins Dennis and Dee, and possibly the biological father of his roommate Charlie. He used to be a successful businessman with a long history of illegal operations and dealings with sordid characters. Though he has the money to live elsewhere, he chooses to live in squalor with Charlie.

Recurring characters

The Waitress

The Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is the most frequently recurring character outside of The Gang. She works at a coffee shop not far from Paddy's, and is introduced in the first episode, "The Gang Gets Racist," as the object of Charlie's affections. The Waitress has absolutely no interest in Charlie but harbors an unrequited crush on Dennis, who slept with her in the episode "Charlie Has Cancer". She did spend the night with Charlie while they were both at the Jersey Shore but only did so because she was high on Ecstasy, and in the morning she was sickened and ran away from Charlie after accusing him of drugging her. However, Charlie wasn't upset by her reaction and was happy he got to spend any time with her at all. Charlie goes to great lengths to woo her, while she goes to great lengths to attract Dennis' attention. In attempts to make Dennis jealous, she "banged" Frank in the episode "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom" and went grinding on a homeless man in the episode "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off." Frequently, her infatuation with Dennis causes her to make decisions against her better moral judgment. Also because of her obsession with Dennis, she is often the victim of The Gang's manipulative schemes. She is a recovering alcoholic, a fact referenced first in "The Gang Gives Back," when she becomes Charlie's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, and referenced again in "Who Pooped the Bed" and "The Waitress Gets Married." As a running gag, none of the characters seem to know her real name; she is simply referred to as "The Waitress," although it was hinted Charlie may know her name in "The Gang Sells Out" when he chides her for liking Dennis when he doesn't even know her real name. The only clues to her real name are that it does not start with "W" and is not "Beautiful"; the name Dennis gave to her when he was accused of not knowing what it was. In "The Waitress Is Getting Married," it is revealed that she went to high school with the gang, and she and Sweet Dee both dated the same guy in high school. Mary Elizabeth Ellis is Charlie Day's real-life spouse.

Artemis

Artemis (Artemis Pebdani) is one of the more frequently recurring secondary characters, introduced in "Charlie Gets Cancer" as Sweet Dee's friend from her acting classes who acts out a scene from Coyote Ugly (which featured actress Kaitlin Olson in a small part). Artemis is overly serious about her craft and displays bizarre habits and outbursts. She is very open about her sexuality and often offers to perform in the nude, even when it is unnecessary. Recently she was involved in a sexual relationship with Frank and the two shared a food fetish. She likes having sex with bacon bits in her hair because it makes her feel like a cobb salad. She and Frank once had sex in a dumpster behind Wendy's, where she did something with a roll. She has openly proclaimed that she has a "bleached asshole".

Rickety Cricket

Matthew Mara (David Hornsby), also known as "Rickety Cricket", is a former priest and classmate of the Gang. He wore humiliating giant leg braces in high school, which gave him his nickname. He first appears in "The Gang Exploits a Miracle" to reveal that he still harbors his high school crush on Sweet Dee. He admits he was convinced to eat horse feces for a chance to kiss Dee, which she refused since, as she says, "his breath smelled like shit". Mac and Dennis have been teabagging Cricket at every opportunity since high school. Dennis claims that he has a shoebox full of pictures of him and Mac doing this, and pictures are surfacing on the Internet. One recurring theme in the series is Cricket's downward spiral; due to his involvement with the Gang he leaves the priesthood, begs for change in the streets, becomes addicted to crack cocaine, is beaten by the mob, has his throat injured by Frank in a wrestling match, and is hunted by Mac and Dennis for sport. He has since carried a vendetta against The Gang and attempts to get his revenge in various episodes, but consistently fails to do so. He shows up in "Mac's Big Break", when he appears on Dennis and Sweet Dee's inaugural podcast, remarking about his life as a homeless person. He also shows up in "Dee Gives Birth" because Frank was trying "to cast a wider net" in finding out the identity of Dee's baby's father and he considered Rickety Cricket to be "the wildcard".

The McPoyle Brothers

Brothers Ryan McPoyle (Nate Mooney) and Liam McPoyle (Jimmi Simpson) are creepy former elementary-school classmates of Mac and Charlie. They are introduced in "Charlie Gets Molested" when they falsely accuse a former teacher of pedophilia and Charlie and the rest of the gang foil their plan and turn them in to the police, which sparks the McPoyles' antipathy toward the Paddy's Pub gang. Liam and Ryan have an incestuous relationship with each other and their deaf-mute sister Margaret (Thesy Surface). As seen in "The Gang Gets Invincible", they have at least 14 other siblings and family members, who all sport the McPoyle unibrows, acne, and eczema. The most notable relative is "Doyle McPoyle" (Bob Rusch), an aspiring football player who lost his chance to play for the Philadelphia Eagles when a hallucinating Frank accidentally shot him in the leg. Ryan and Liam avenge this in the episode "The Gang Gets Held Hostage" by faking a raid on the bar. The McPoyles also have a strange obsession with milk and prefer warm, clammy conditions.

Carmen

Carmen (Brittany Daniel) is a male-to-female transsexual who was dating Mac. She first appears in the season 1 episode "Charlie Has Cancer", then reappears in the season 3 episode "Mac Is a Serial Killer". She is attractive but displays an obvious bulge in her pants. She keeps Mac interested in her with promises of undergoing sexual reassignment surgery and with constant flattery of Mac's physique. In "Mac Fights Gay Marriage", she has completely removed her penis, and has gotten married to Nick, much to Mac's chagrin. In "Dee Gives Birth" it is revealed that Carmen is the father of Dee's baby (she had her sperm frozen before she had her penis removed) and that they used an anonymous egg donor and Dee was merely a surrogate. Dee gave the baby to Carmen and her husband Nick to raise. In the unaired pilot Carmen is portrayed by Morena Baccarin.

Nick

Nick (Windell Middlebrooks) is Carmen's portly African-American husband. Mac is initially annoyed that Carmen had moved on to Nick instead of calling him after she had her penis removed. Mac does not agree with gay marriage and quotes the Bible verse Romans 1:27 to Nick, to which Nick responds with the Bible quote Exodus 21:20 endorsing slavery. Nick later appears in "Dee Gives Birth" where it is revealed that Dee is a surrogate for the couple since Nick cannot have kids but Carmen had frozen her sperm before her operation.

Ernie

Ernie (David Zdunich) is the "Barfly" who is commonly seen in the background in the bar. He is in every single episode that is shot in the bar, but he is noticed in the episode "Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia." handing over the paper to the "gang" for them to see the journalist's article.

The Lawyer

The Lawyer (Brian Unger) is first seen in "Dennis and Dee's Mom Is Dead" where The Gang mistake him for having personal involvement as the executor of Barbara Reynolds' will. He returns in Season 5, eager to personally stop Frank—he represents a family that Frank is trying to force out of their house. After Charlie makes an attempt to prove that he's more legally apt than the actual lawyer, he challenges him to a duel; the lawyer immediately accepts, claiming to have a loaded gun in his office desk. He also appears again in "Paddy’s Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens" when The Gang goes to him to get patents for products that they have created. He later tricks them into signing a document that grants him all the profits from the products that is also a restraining order against The Gang. He makes hundreds of copies after learning of Mac's tendency to eat such documents. He next appears in "Dennis Gets Divorced" where he represents Dennis's wife Maureen Ponderosa pro bono in their divorce.

Ben Smith

Ben Smith (Travis Schuldt) is first introduced in "The Gang Wrestles for the Troops" as Dee's online chat buddy "soldier of fortune". He served as an American soldier in Iraq. He is mistaken as a handicapped person while getting off a bus from the airport in a wheelchair. Dee does not want to date a handicapped person so she decides to pretend that he was talking to Artemis over the internet, but soon discovers he isn't handicapped, he just twisted his knee getting off a plane in Germany. Ben is seen again in the episode "The D.E.N.N.I.S system" as Dee's boyfriend. He dumps her, calling her a "mean person" and goes for a pharmacist that dumped Dennis after the latter "Dennis-ed" her. Travis' character recurs again in season six with the episode "Mac's Big Break." Ben is seen chiefly wearing the jean shorts Frank purchased for him as a welcome-home gift. He appears again in "Dee Gives birth" as one of Dee's baby's potential fathers. He is again seen wearing the jean shorts.

Jack Kelly

Uncle Jack Kelly (Andrew Friedman) is Charlie's uncle (the brother of Charlie's mother Bonnie). He first appeared in the season 1 finale "Charlie Got Molested" wherein Charlie's family gives him an intervention to get him to admit he had been molested by his elementary school teacher (this belief was fostered by the scam the McPoyles were running to extort money from the school system). Uncle Jack appears again in the season 5 episode "The Great Recession." When Charlie tries to move back in with his mother after Frank kicks him out of their apartment, she reveals that she sublet Charlie's room to Uncle Jack to earn extra money. Jack insists they share the room and spend time wrestling there. In the season 6 episode "Dennis Gets Divorced," Charlie and Frank call in Jack, who is revealed to be a lawyer, to handle their divorce. Later, Dennis and Mac use him to try to get their apartment back from Dennis' ex-wife, only to find that she hired The Lawyer. Jack proves to be incompetent, getting the apartment back in exchange for Dennis taking his wife's $90,000 debt. It is heavily implied that Uncle Jack is a pedophile and wants to have sex with his nephew. Charlie has mentioned how, as a child, he would stay awake at night because Uncle Jack would want to sleep in his bed, and Charlie's lyrics to "Nightman" seem to revolve around a man sneaking into his room at night and raping him.

Gladys

Gladys (Mae Laborde) is the senior citizen with a penchant for long rambling stories who played the piano during Charlie's play in the season 4 finale "The Nightman Cometh". Dennis pretends she is his grandmother to win back a former girlfriend in "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System". In her many stories she claims she was friends with Calvin Coolidge and that her grandmother was the lesbian lover of Susan B. Anthony.

Lil Kevin

Kevin Gallagher (Kyle Davis) a potentially retarded rapper who dates Dee in "Sweet Dee Is Dating A Retarded Person". Dennis convinces Dee to dump Kevin because he's retarded only for her to later discover he isn't. He later returns as one of Dee's potential baby's fathers in "Dee Gives Birth".

Rex

Rex (TJ Hoban) first appears in "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest" as one of the male models vying for the spot on Paddy's Pub's billboard. Although an early favorite of Frank's eventually Frank himself appears on the billboard. Rex returns in "Dee Gives Birth" where it is revealed he has slept with Dee after she insulted him.

Maureen Ponderosa

Maureen Ponderosa (Catherine Reitman) is Dennis's high school girlfriend and the sister of Bill Ponderosa. Dennis eventually gets back in touch with Maureen and marries her in "Mac Fights Gay Marriage". She has a dead tooth that makes her breath "smell like she nibbled on little pieces of shit". Dennis gets tired of Maureen fairly quickly and in "Dennis Gets Divorced" she hires the Lawyer as a divorce lawyer who gets her alimony.

Bill Ponderosa

Bill Ponderosa (Lance Barber) first appears in "Mac Fights Gay Marriage" and the follow-up episode "Dennis Gets Divorced" as Dee's high school crush and the brother of Dennis's high school girlfriend Maureen Ponderosa. He has put on a lot of weight since high school. Dee eventually becomes his mistress when Dee thinks he bought her a new car when in fact the car belongs to another of Bill's mistresses. Bill returns to his wife. Bill later returns in "Dee Gives Birth" as one of Dee's potential baby's daddies. Bill reveals that he tells girls he's had a vasectomy so he doesn't have to use a condom. He also displays an affinity for cocaine.

Korean busboy

The Korean Busboy (Maxie J. Santillan Jr.) worked at the Korean restaurant that threatened to steal business away from Paddy Pub's in "The Gang Solves The North Korea Situation". Dee sleeps with him to get information about their secret microbrew recipe. He laters returns as one of Dee's potential baby's fathers in "Dee Gives Birth".

Principal Brian McIntyre

Principal Brian McIntyre (Dave Foley) is the high school principal who hires Dee as a substitute teacher and Charlie as a janitor in "The Gang Gets A New Member". He fires both of them in the next episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" because Dee took her students on a field trip to Paddy's Pub to watch Mac and Dennis's Lethal Weapon 5 movie and because Charlie's mentoring of a student named Richie led to him dressing up in blackface after watching the movie. The principal laments that he probably won't be employed at the school much longer either due to their shenanigans.

Duncan & Z

Duncan (David Gueriera) and Z (Chad Coleman) are Frank's bizarre friends that he met under a bridge. They appear in "Charlie Kelley: King Of The Rats" where Frank wants the gang to invite them to go to the gang's luau. They later appear in "Dee Gives Birth" to provide music for their party/interrogation of Dee's potential baby's daddies.

Rum Ham

The Rum Ham is a anthropomorphized ham soaked in rum that Frank somehow obtains in "The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore." Mac estimates that it is about 90-proof. Rum Ham accompanied Frank and Mac on their ill-advised inflatable raft ride. While Frank and Mac are passed out Rum Ham somehow ends up in the water, and floats away. Frank is crushed by the loss of his friend, and goes so far as to try to stab Mac yelling "It should have been you!" The ham is later serendipitously recovered by an Italian fisherman, at which point Frank and Mac resume eating it. The remains of the Rum Ham can be seen in the background of "Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties" in Frank and Charlie's apartment.

Geno Reynolds

Geno Reynolds (Jon Polito) Frank's older brother who ran a nightclub from the 1960s throughout the 1980s. During the 1970s he sent Frank to Columbia to be his cocaine quality control. After years of writing letters to Shadynasty, his girlfriend who he was going to propose to, and doing copious amounts of cocaine, Frank returned to confront Geno. Upon returning he finds that Geno has stolen Shadynasty from him, ostensibly due to her considerable cocaine habit. Years later, Geno returns to Paddy's to settle their feud once and for all, but Shadynasty eventually spurns both of them.

Parents

• Barbara Reynolds (Anne Archer) — Frank's gold-digging ex-wife, Dennis and Dee's mother. She is a cold, cruel, selfish woman with little affection for her family. Frank refers to her as his "whore wife". The finale of season two revealed that Barbara tricked Frank into raising the twins because she thought he was wealthier than their biological father, Bruce Mathis (played by Stephen Collins). She dies of a botched neck-lift in the third season; Frank, ecstatic over the news, delivers the news to The Gang armed with champagne.
• Bruce Mathis (Stephen Collins) — Dennis and Dee's biological father. The antithesis of Frank Reynolds, Bruce devotes his time and money to charities and philanthropic efforts, including adopting several suffering children in Africa. He reconnects with his twins through Sweet Dee's MySpace page (in the episode "Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad"), but they are unable to have a successful relationship with him because of his good nature. He returns in "Dennis and Dee's Mom Is Dead", in which he inherits Barbara's fortune and calls The Gang "the most horrible people alive".
• Bonnie Kelly (Lynne Marie Stewart) — Charlie's mom, a sweet and timid woman who is attracted to cruel men, but not to Dennis. She had a one-night stand with Frank Reynolds 30 years ago, possibly making him Charlie's biological father. She later reconnects with Frank, enjoying his harsh treatment and becoming his "bang-maid", but she quickly transfers her affections to the intimidating Luther Mac after meeting him at a dinner party thrown by Mac and Charlie. Quite neurotic and emotional, she is prone to dramatic episodes. There is evidence (as shown in the Christmas special) that Bonnie may have once been a prostitute, a fact which greatly upsets Charlie. In "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down", Mrs. Mac accidentally burns her house down and goes on to move in with Bonnie, the two bonding over mutual racism.
• Luther Mac (Gregory Scott Cummins) — Mac's father, a convicted felon. He is tall and has numerous tattoos and a generally intimidating appearance because he never blinks. Possibly due to his past imprisonment and intimidating presence, he is one of the few people The Gang does not immediately try to manipulate or exploit. The warm and gentle Bonnie Kelly is attracted to Luther's aloof behavior and criminal past. In his first appearance ("Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad"), he attempts to get Mac and Charlie (who have come to visit him in prison and bond with him) to smuggle heroin into the prison. In "Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender", he is out on parole and convinces Mac to help him "take care of some people" he has listed, including former witnesses in his trial and the judge who sentenced him. Charlie and Mac become convinced that he is using them as drivers while his murdering the people on his list (similar to the movie Collateral) and try to sabotage Luther's parole. They fail to do so and Mac is initially relieved when Luther is arrested for violating the parole on his own, but Mac is horrified to learn that A) Luther was APOLOGIZING to the people on his list and didn't harm any of them and B) the parole violation occurred when Luther made proscribed plane reservations to leave the state and take Mac and Charlie to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Luther calmly tells Mac he had no plans to hurt him before, but once he gets out of prison again, he's definitely going to murder him and Charlie. When he is paroled anew, Mac and Charlie fake their deaths to escape what they believe is an unstoppable wrath. Luther forgives Mac for this in a note which also tells Mac to stay far away from him and that he loves him and always had. He now spends his days sunning on a Mexican beach.
• Mrs. Mac (Sandy Martin) — Mac's mom first appears in "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom". Like Bonnie, she thinks Dennis is unattractive. She is usually seen smoking and watching television on the front porch of her home. She is extremely apathetic, demonstrated by her falling asleep at her son's "funeral" with a portable TV on her lap and remaining the same as usual when Luther is out on parole. In "Mac's Mom Burns Her House Down", she accidentally burns her house down and goes on to move in with Mrs. Kelly, the two bonding over mutual racism.
• Pop Pop (Tom Bower): "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy" found Dennis and Dee's grandfather languishing in a nursing home, rarely visited by relatives. He was a former Nazi of whom Dennis is the spitting image. Charlie pretended to be Pop Pop's grandson when he and Dee visited him; after Pop Pop's death, Charlie appropriated Pop Pop's Nazi-uniform cap. It is not stated whether Pop Pop is Dennis and Dee's paternal grandfather or maternal grandfather. It's more likely that he is their maternal grandfather, for it is seen in a picture of his young self that he looks a lot like Dennis.

References