List of Community characters

Community is an American comedy television series. It was created by Dan Harmon. The show revolves around the on-campus exploits of seven students who are connected through their study group at Greendale Community College. The show features eight main characters, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown), Annie Edison (Alison Brie), Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), Señor Chang (Ken Jeong), and Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase). The series also features several recurring characters who are the group's fellow students and the teachers at Greendale.

Main characters

The show revolves around the on-campus exploits of seven students who are connected through their study group at Greendale Community College.

Jeff Winger

Jeff Winger
Community character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Dan Harmon
Portrayed by	Joel McHale
Information
Occupation	Lawyer, Student
Significant other(s)	Annie Edison Britta Perry Professor Slater

Jeffrey Tobias "Jeff" Winger (Joel McHale) is a 33-year-old snarky, glib ex-lawyer attending Greendale Community College.^[1]

Jeff was a lawyer until the Colorado Bar Association found out that he did not get a bachelor's degree from Columbia University but, in fact, got one that was "less than legitimate" and "better than real"^{[citation needed]} from the country of Colombia. He returns to college by attending Greendale Community College as a deal with the bar in order to prevent him from being disbarred. He consequently hopes to graduate as quickly as possible.

In the pilot, Jeff forms and joins the study group because he is attracted to fellow student Britta whom he hits on, despite her rejection of his advances.^[2] However, by the end of the pilot episode, he is kicked out of the group before being asked to join back in. In episode "Spanish 101," he is seen developing a tentative friendship with Pierce Hawthorne, the oldest member of the study group.

After Britta definitively rejects his advances, he begins flirting with his Statistics professor, Professor Slater, and they eventually begin dating. Before this, he shares a number of awkward moments with another study group member, Annie, after she kisses him to win a debate. After Professor Slater breaks up with him, he sleeps with Britta in the study room after a paintball fight in "Modern Warfare." At the end of season one, Britta and a newly interested Professor Slater compete for his affections, culminating in Britta professing her love for him at the school's Tranny Dance.^{[citation needed]} Soon after, he meets Annie outside and they kiss. At the beginning of season two, Britta recants her "I love you," saying she was caught up in the spirit of competition, and he comes to an uneasy understanding with both Britta and Annie. Later in the season, the study group finds out that Britta and Jeff had been hooking up in secret throughout the year, which they immediately stop doing afterwards because of it no longer being secret.

Jeff is continually sarcastic and often displays much less enthusiasm for Greendale activities than other members in his Spanish study group. Initially, Jeff tends to be manipulative and self-centered towards his study group, but gradually shows an increasing maturity and tolerance for the viewpoints of the other group members and considers them friends. Because of his background as a lawyer and his compelling personality, many people, including Dean Pelton and Señor Chang, seek help from him. These ventures include stints as a member of the debate team and editor of the school paper and efforts to improve Chang's professional and love life. Due to his competitive nature and air of superiority, Jeff has a difficult relationship with his accounting, billiards, and pottery teacher when he ends up doing poorly in their class. Jeff enjoys being in positions of authority.^{[citation needed]} and acts as the effective leader of the group. It becomes apparent that several members of the group rely on him playing this role, while Pierce tends to insult Jeff whenever he can, despite his lack of wit.

Britta Perry

Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs) was born in Riverside, Colorado in October 1980.^{[citation needed]} Britta has two older brothers, one of whom works with children with some type of special disorder in a hospital.^[3] On her eleventh birthday an eager-handed man in a dinosaur costume intruded in on her party at a restaurant. This event has haunted her into adulthood.^[4]

Britta decided to drop out of high school because she thought it would impress Radiohead.^{[citation needed]} After dropping out of school, she started vandalizing billboards around the area where she grew up. During the vandalizing she became friends with other people who liked to vandalize. The friends created a small group of "anarchist billboard vandals". When the group grew larger she was kicked out, due to the democratic voting system the anarchists used to vote her out. Soon after her departure, the group developed into a high-end advertising firm.^[4] After her fallout she joined the Peace Corps, did some foot modeling, got teargassed at a World Trade rally and took an extended vacation in Africa.^[4] Realizing she needed to do something with her life, Britta got her G.E.D. and enrolled at Greendale.^[4] In the Season 3 premiere, Britta tells the study group that she's decided to major in Psychology and work towards becoming a therapist, a career goal the study group is extremely skeptical about.

She is often the voice of reason within the group but is often mocked by fellow members for her excessively pronounced East Coast sensibilities,^{[citation needed]} as well as her rigid moral code. Notably, the group makes fun of her for pronouncing the word "bagel" strangely, and for being a vegetarian. Additionally, while the group appreciates the role she plays, they sometimes refer to her as a "buzzkill" and the group's least fun member, something Britta initially bridled at but has since learned to take in stride. Characters also frequently refer to Britta as being 'the worst' due to her outspoken nature and opinions. In Season 2, it is revealed that she is having severe financial difficulties, and that she has begun working as a waitress at a rundown diner--where the manager hates her, she earns no tips, and she eventually gets fired.

Although she has unceasingly tried to portray a lack of romantic interest in Jeff, one episode shows she may have recently given in to secret feelings for him.^[5] She eventually sleeps with him during a prolonged paintball match and later embarrasses herself by admitting her "love" for him, which she claims, in the end, was merely the result of her compulsive competition with Professor Slater. Surprisingly, this false admission makes her more popular at the beginning of her second year by giving her a reputation for fearlessness. Britta and Jeff like to think of themselves as the group's mom and dad, and often assume they know what is best for their friends; this dynamic of their relationship is explored in several episodes, culminating in Troy's realization on his 21st birthday that they are just as dumb as he. It is later revealed by Abed that Britta and Jeff have had an affair throughout Season Two,^{[citation needed]} and while the group didn't really care, the fact that their fling was no longer secret ruined any interest they had in continuing it.

Abed Nadir

Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) is a trilingual (English, Arabic, and Polish) Palestinian/Polish-American pop-culture junkie who aspires to become a director and is currently taking film directing classes at Greendale Community College.^[4] His original plan at Greendale was to take business classes to eventually help run his father's falafel stand, but this became his backup plan when Britta inspired him to pursue his true passion.^[4] While he has emotion and sympathy for his new friends, he speaks with a rather detached and emotionless tone, as well as with a distinct straightforwardness lacking a mental filter, leading some of his friends to suspect he has Asperger's. However, he is also intelligent and (alone among the study group) grades out as almost-100% non-violent in a psychology questionnaire Britta had the group fill out; everyone else had either a majority or nearly all of the questions about violent tendencies answered in a variation of "Yes, I have those."

Despite his odd social behavior, Abed seems to be very popular with the ladies and he seems to glean certain insights on life by comparing his life to various television shows and movies. This talent translates into him usually meta referencing their lives in relation to the show, by commenting on the dynamic of the characters together, their story lines, and can sometimes predict exactly what they will do at a given time. This gift combined with his ability to personify anyone he chooses allows him to help his friends work out their mental baggage. He also possesses many hidden talents that usually go overlooked such as being surprisingly athletic and coordinated.

Abed and Troy share a uniquely close friendship, leading others in the group to comment on their "weird little relationship";^{[citation needed]} the closing credit sequence is almost always about them filming skits or pulling pranks together. Abed initially hurt Troy's feelings at the end of Season 1 by making it clear he did not want them to become dormitory roommates, but he later explained that he did not want to ruin their friendship through the extreme and constant proximity of them living together. In Season 3, Abed and Troy have become roommates in an off-campus apartment.

Shirley Bennett

Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) is a recently divorced mother of three who attends Greendale Community College.^[6] Shirley is a devoted Christian and is very sweet but also has thinly veiled rage issues and gossips compulsively. She is proud to be an African American and a woman but appreciates not being defined by those characteristics.^[6] She is very friendly to everyone, but sometimes has problems minding her own business or keeping secrets.

She was very slow to show tolerance for the faiths of the multiple non-Christian members of the study group (apparently, she also tried to covertly baptize Annie, who is Jewish and did not appreciate the attempt). She also feels uncomfortable sometimes about being a much more devout Christian than anyone at Greendale.

At Greendale, Shirley is taking classes which will allow her to market her baked goods, specifically her famous brownies.^[6] Within the study group, she is particularly friendly with Annie and Britta, yet is often angry at Pierce given his tendency to accidentally say racist things and absentmindedly harass her. In the Halloween episode of season two, she and Chang hook up after bonding over how their costumes are misunderstood (she being Glinda the Good Witch and not Miss Piggy and he being Peggy Fleming and not Kristi Yamaguchi or Michelle Kwan). She was divorced at the time but reconects with her ex-husband before learning about the pregnancy. Beyond the evidence of a voice mail that Chang sent to Troy, however, no one remembers this incident due to the Army wiping their memory and blaming it on roofies after a zombie incident. During the episode 'Cooperative Calligraphy' it is revealed she has a home pregnancy test in her bag. In 'Asian Population Studies', Shirley's pregnancy is confirmed, with the father possibly being Chang. The baby is born in 'Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts' in an anthropology classroom and is her husband's. She decides to name the baby Ben after Chang as he helped her during the delivery.

In 'Mixology Certification' it is revealed that Shirley once had a heavy drinking problem, and becomes furious when the group finds out despite them being pleased she once had a wild side.

Annie Edison

Annie Edison (Alison Brie), born in December 1990, is a straight-laced Jewish twenty-year-old who is in her third year at Greendale Community College.^[7] She lost her virginity to her high school boyfriend "to Madonna's Erotica on the floor of his walk-in closet", but due to him being a closeted homosexual, he refused to let her see his penis, an organ she has still never seen. She lost her college scholarship and dropped out of high school due to an addiction to Adderall, having a nervous breakdown that culminated in her jumping through a window yelling "Everyone's a robot!" Against the wishes of her mother, she chose to confront the addiction and go to rehab, and is currently estranged from her family. In Season 2, the group learns she is living in a horrible neighborhood (in an apartment situated over an all-night sex shop) and Troy and Abed invite her to move into their new place in Season 3.

Though younger than most of the group, she is also by far the most studious and the most serious, becoming very intense about grades and school activities. She has a talent for making the other study group members feel guilty, using her "Disney face." A noticeably cheerful person, she is enthusiastic when it comes to helping out the school, both writing for the school paper and participating on the debate team, along with organizing school events. She also takes the cohesion of the study group more seriously than the other members and, in trying to get the group to retake Spanish 102, gets Senor Chang fired for his fake degree. However, she has been shown to choose her own interests over keeping the group intact, first by choosing to leave Greendale and the group to follow her boyfriend Vaughn to another college and later by deciding to exclude Jeff from the group and her friendship during his 3rd season premiere nervous breakdown; however, in both cases no harm is done and Annie remains in both Greendale and the study group. Annie's naivete often means that she is less involved with the more immoral practices of the group though she has been involved in them on occasion and genuinely enjoys spending time with them. Annie has the self-assigned nickname "Irony Free Annie."

She used to pine after Troy, on whom she had a crush since high school but stops when she begins dating another student, Vaughn. While she initially intends to transfer from Greendale and join Vaughn in Delaware, she decides to stay for the second year. At the end of the first season, it appears as if she has developed a romantic dynamic with Jeff, whom she kissed both to win a debate competition and at the end of the season. While she is still interested in Jeff at the beginning of the second season, after the study group learns he'd had sex with Britta during the paintball episode she begins to think of him as "gross." Later in the season she develops a crush on Dr. Rich, a fellow Greendale student that Jeff had clashed with. While he seems to return her affections he turns down her advances due to their age difference. There have been indications that Annie may still harbor feelings for Jeff, and it has been suggested that he may feel similarly. At the end of season two, she shares a passionate kiss with Abed during the paintball match, but they chalk it up to the heat of the moment and have not expressed any romantic feelings for each other since then.

Troy Barnes

Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), born December 4, 1989, is a former high school football star who now attends Greendale Community College.^[8] Born and raised in Greendale, Colorado, Troy made a name for himself as the varsity quarterback of his high school football team, and was also prom king.^[8] He injured himself during a "keg flip" in high school that cost him a football scholarship, an injury he later revealed to be intentional because he could not take the pressure of a talent scout at a big game. He now plays quarterback for the nonathletic Greendale Human Beings, saying he would rather play football for fun.^[8]

While he starts off hanging out with Pierce at Greendale, he becomes best friends with Abed who shares his peculiar sense of humor. The two spend most of their time at Greendale together and most episodes end with one of their antics. As the two hang out over the course of the first two seasons, Troy gradually discounts his identity as a jock and embraces the notion of being a nerd. In doing this, he saves the whole school in season two's Halloween episode. Troy's fondness of Abed is such to the point that he dumps an attractive librarian immediately after she calls Abed weird and becoming jealous when he suspects Jeff and Abed will become best friends after Jeff throws Abed a Pulp Fiction themed birthday party and gets him a replica briefcase from the actual movie.

Instead of being Abed's roommate for their sophomore year, however, Troy decides to live in Pierce's mansion. While living with him over the summer, Troy started up a Twitter account documenting unintentionally funny things Pierce says at "oldwhitemansays," which Pierce was originally angry at but embraced after learning the account had 600,000 followers. Troy often feels the need to assert that Shirley is not his mom. Long oblivious to the crush that Annie has on him, Troy later makes a few broad attempts at wooing her. In the 2nd season, it is hinted that Troy has feelings for Britta and reaches the point of lying about having his uncle molest him to take advantage of Britta's attraction to men with pain. He kisses her but comes clean about his lie and is disappointed when she claims kissing him was a mistake. He hints that he would not mind being in a relationship with her.

Troy is a Jehovah's Witness, as revealed in the episode "Comparative Religion". Though he tries to deny it, he is extremely talented at plumbing. He also plays down his serious interest in interpretive dance, which conflicts with his image as a football player. Notably dim-witted, Troy has a number of unique opinions and beliefs, such as that there are only boy dogs and girl cats. He has evolved from the start of the series as a cocky, selfish, image-obsessed boy to a silly and emotional yet good-hearted and responsible man. His lifetime idol is actor LeVar Burton, but he was so terrified to meet Burton in person that when he did so he went catatonic.

Ben Chang

Benjamin "Ben" Chang (Ken Jeong), usually referred to as Señor Chang, was originally the group's unhinged Spanish teacher.^[9] In the first season, he is the only main character who is not a member of the Spanish study group. At the end of the first season, however, it is revealed that he does not actually have any teaching qualifications and that, like Jeff, he will have to attend Greendale as a student in order to get a degree.

He can be quite theatrical at times (once even faking his own death to get a rise out of his students), and also has a huge ego and anger management issues. These over-the-top personality traits veil deep issues of being left by his wife, with whom he was later reunited, although this did not hinder his rash behavior towards his students afterward.

Chang has an antagonistic relationship with almost every student and faculty member at Greendale. He is on especially bad terms with Professor Duncan, who potentially foreshadows Chang's lack of teaching qualifications early in the series when he notes Chang demands to be called "Señor" because he is not a real professor. In the first season finale, Chang and Duncan come to blows when Chang becomes a student and Duncan is suspended from teaching, resulting in a physical battle at the end of the year dance. Though Duncan gets a restraining order against him, Chang in turn nullifies this by getting a restraining order against Duncan, thus allowing him to take his anthropology class. They seem to have formed a grudging respect for each other since.

His brother is Rabbi Chang, who ironically criticizes Señor Chang on his confusing title and behavior. He enjoys jetting around on a scooter, plays the keytar as an instrument, and has a history of having his clothes stolen from the local YMCA. According to Chang in "Modern Warfare," he plays paintball three times a week, and he uses his skill in the sport against Jeff and Britta. As a student, he seeks a degree in music theory so that he can use his keytar skills professionally. In the Halloween episode of season two, he and Shirley have a sexual interlude after they bond over how their costumes are misunderstood (she being Glinda the Good Witch and not Miss Piggy, and he being Peggy Fleming and not Kristi Yamaguchi or Michelle Kwan). Beyond the evidence of a voicemail that Chang sent to Troy, however, no one remembers this incident due to a government coverup of the entire Halloween party.

His self-proclaimed nickname is "El Tigre Chino" (Spanish: "The Chinese Tiger") and he owns a black jacket which has on the back that moniker and the image of a Bengal tiger. His office features a portrait of him as a matador with "El Tigre" at the bottom and a statue of a tiger.

In the second season, he is in the same anthropology class as the study group. In the episode "Anthropology 101", after he asks the study group to let him join them, he is then seen in the study room secretly plotting his revenge on them for getting him fired, switching between evil and good sides in a manner similar to the character Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. He eventually joins the study group in the episode "Asian Population Studies" after being voted in over Rich. He proves his worth in the next episode helping Annie and the group save their drug awareness play from Pierce's antics. Chang wants to get to know Shirley after he finds out that he may have impregnated her on Halloween, a night which no one at Greendale can remember. His rescue of Annie initially seems to win over Shirley, however she is visibly disturbed to see his extremely unbalanced behavior. He later moves in with Jeff after his wife throws him out again (after he confesses about his fling with Shirley) but Jeff grows sick of his stupid, unbalanced behavior and finally orders him out. However, his behavior in helping Shirley when she goes into labor during a riot at Greendale wins her over to the point that after the baby (whose father is Shirley's former husband Andre) is born, she decides to name her newborn son Ben after him.

In the third season premiere, Chang is still homeless, and has taken to living in the air ducts on the Greendale campus. When Dean Pelton discovers this (by Chang being driven into his office during the pest-control operation), he offers Chang room and board in exchange for working as a security guard. When the rest of the security staff soon quits, including Sgt. Nunez, he becomes head of campus security.

Pierce Hawthorne

Piercinald Anesthesia "Pierce" Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) is a moist towelette tycoon attending Greendale Community College. His father created Hawthorne Wipes, the award-winning moist towelette company.^[4] He claims to be a world traveler, a toastmaster, magician, keyboardist and self-styled hypnotherapist, and considers himself a "quality of life person".^[4]

He enrolled in Greendale in 1999 looking for companionship and popularity, but is held back by his clumsiness and his lack of tact. Much older than most Greendale students, he is sometimes disoriented by youth culture while still trying to embrace it. He also unknowingly buys into many sexist and racist stereotypes which often lead him to unintentionally make offensive statements, the nature of which he's completely unaware. Much of this is directed at Shirley, whom he sometimes mistakes for other black women; Abed, whom he suspects being a terrorist because he is Muslim; and Jeff, whom he actively tries to insult in an attempt to be cool, despite his inability to do so with wit. This leads Troy to start up a popular Twitter account with 600,000 followers called "oldwhitemansays", documenting anything outrageous said by Pierce. After his behavior became untenable in Season 2, the study group put Pierce on a "diet" with a strict limit on when and how often he can say offensive things. Although he has occasionally made rude comments about Jews, he has also said that Annie Edison (the only Jewish member of the group) is his favorite person in it. Given his age and his eccentricity, Pierce occasionally surprises his friends with wise insight and support when they truly need it.

Though he considers himself to be a "Reformed Neo-Buddhist," he is actually a member of an obscure religious cult. This plays an important role when his mother dies in season two and Pierce believes his "Buddhist" teachings that she will be reborn, carrying a canister of what he thinks is his mother's soul around. When, along with Jeff and Troy, he listens to a CD made by his mother telling him she's gone and encouraging him to let her go and live his life, Pierce simply shrugs it off as her losing her mind. At the same time, Jeff decides he's better off with that rationale and lets him continue with his belief.

Pierce has been married seven times and has 32 "ex-stepchildren" he tries to be close with, though most of them either avoid him or take advantage of him for his wealth. He is the author of Greendale's unusual school song and was for a brief time a member of Vaughn's band. He is also incredibly claustrophobic. Because of his moist towelette business, Pierce is very wealthy and owns a mansion, where Troy also lives over the summer and during the second year. It has been shown that Pierce may often act out due to the utter lack of attention and care his father, also a business tycoon, showed him as a child. His father even went to the extent of hiring another child to play Pierce in a commercial while berating and insulting the real Pierce.

In Season 2, Pierce becomes more and more annoyed at the study group for leaving him out of their activities. He temporarily joins an elderly group of students who act like teenagers called the Hipsters, to feel accepted. He breaks both of his legs in a trampoline accident after revealing a secret trampoline Jeff and Troy were hiding. To move around, he buys himself an ineffective wheelchair powered by his breath, which he claims to have outbid three hospitals for. After this, he grows dependent on his painkillers and also becomes increasingly at-odds with the study group because of the combination of his nasty behavior and their tendency to exclude him from their activities. He begins to play the role of the study group's villain but both trends seem to subside when he comes to terms with the group after overdosing on his painkillers. These underlying tensions come to a head in "A Fistful of Paintballs", however, when it's revealed that the other members of the group secretly took a vote about whether they'd include him in the group next year, with only Annie voting to keep him in; by the end of "For A Few Paintballs More", while the other group members have reconsidered and are willing to let him back in the group, Pierce says he's not interested in staying with "whatever this is". He also tells the group that he assumes all of his relationships will end, which is why he constantly tests and provokes people, and why he's had seven divorces and never kept a group of friends at Greendale for longer than a semester (until he joined the study group).

However, at the start of Season 3, he promptly returns and rejoins the study group.

His father, also a racist, was named Cornelius Hawthorne, wore a carved ivory wig and walked with a cane.

Craig Pelton

Dean Craig Pelton (Jim Rash) was an educator at Greendale Community College for 10 years, and has been dean for four years. He desperately wants his school to be more like a real university and thus he strives to better it, often asking favors of the students and trying to earn popularity. He also goes to strenuous and excessive lengths to seem politically correct and is responsible for changing the school's team name from the Greendale Grizzlies to the Greendale Human Beings. However, acts such as these only further his candid racism and prejudices as he states that the primary reason for the title change was that "most of these people have been called animals their entire lives". He manages Greendale's budget rather poorly, for example, the $6,000 judge's table next to their Olympic-size swimming pool, and funding five dances every year. He seemingly has a crush on Jeff, and uses him to improve the school's fledgling extra-curricular programs, pressuring him to join the debate team, edit the school's newspaper, and convince Troy to play quarterback for the football team. Among other hints at sexual proclivities such as late-night visits to truck stops and public restrooms, he has had a growing fetish for people in dalmatian costumes, which he believes he has pursued in secrecy, but seems to be common enough knowledge to the students and faculty. Dean Pelton has a tendency toward transvestism; he has been known to dress up like female pop culture icons such as Tina Turner, Catwoman, Scarlett O'Hara, Lady Gaga, as well as other general feminine costumes including an America-themed outfit. He is currently writing a novel called Time Desk, focused on the adventures of a character called Dean Dangerous which Jeff says will never be published, and is the "worst book he will read cover to cover."

Recurring characters

The series also features several recurring characters who are students and staff members at Greendale.

Faculty

Ian Duncan

Dr. Ian Duncan (John Oliver) is a British-born professor of psychology at Greendale Community College. Though Jeff once successfully represented him as a lawyer by exploiting the legal system, Duncan refuses to help him cheat. He also has a certain self-importance complex as made evident when one of his infamous theories was disproved. He provides free therapy to several students including Britta and, at one point, hopes to write about Abed's issues for a book deal. He also has a rivalry with Señor Chang and cheerfully antagonizes Chang over being fired and subsequently becoming a student at Greendale. At the end of the first season, he is suspended by Dean Pelton for his drunken behavior at a school function, prompting Chang to punch Duncan in the face with a roll of quarters and attack him. Because of this, he temporarily gets a restraining order against Chang, which he abuses by chasing him around and preventing him from getting to places. After Greendale suspended Professor Bauer, he took over her anthropology class, despite his complete lack of knowledge about the subject. Despite his boorish behavior, Duncan is often able to figure out Jeff's problems with himself, which he points out to Jeff. As is alluded to several times over the course of his appearances, Duncan appears to have a drinking problem.

Michelle Slater

Prof. Michelle Slater (Lauren Stamile) is a statistics professor at Greendale.^[10] She had a strict policy against dating students, but became romantically involved with Jeff, after he begs her to sleep with him during a Halloween party. She and Jeff share a similarly tough sense of humor and cynicism. Later on, she broke off their relationship. She later reacquires interest in Jeff, consequently developing a rivalry with Britta for his attention. Jeff later states that if he did pursue a relationship with her, it would evolve him, while a relationship with Britta would help him know more about who he really is. In addition to Jeff, she draws interest from other members of the faculty such as Señor Chang and Professor Duncan, who have made comically bad attempts to seduce her. It is later noted by Troy and Abed's closed-circuit television show of the student body elections that she is actually missing.

Eustice Whitman

Prof. Eustice Whitman (John Michael Higgins) is an accounting professor at Greendale Community College, the college's debate coach, and a strong believer in carpe diem.^[11] Despite believing that Whitman would be an easy teacher, Jeff had trouble passing his accounting class since the highly eccentric and excessively exuberant Whitman grades his students not on their academics but on how well they "seize the day". In later incidents, he instructs Jeff as coach of the debate team and offers him unsolicited advice on how to lead his life fully in different circumstances.

Sean Garrity

Prof. Sean Garrity (Kevin Corrigan) is the theatrical drama instructor at Greendale. He gets involved in a conspiracy intrigue with Jeff, Annie and Dean Pelton, when he mysteriously poses as Jeff's fake Conspiracy Theories night school class teacher, "Professor Professorson". He later teaches Troy and Britta in an elective acting class and directs Troy in an all-black cast stage production of Fiddler on the Roof, entitled, "Fiddla Please".

June Bauer

Prof. June Bauer (Betty White) is an anthropology professor at Greendale. Though very old, she is a blunt speaker and a surprisingly good fighter. Bauer has engaged in many worldly yet strange pursuits, such as hunting monkeys with a blow gun in the Amazon and drinking her own urine for its health benefits. She is also not afraid of attacking her students, shooting a disrespectful Star-Burns with a blow gun and nearly killing Jeff with her weapon of nine weapons, after which she gets suspended from teaching. She then leaves Greendale to go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Robert Laybourne

Vice Dean Robert Laybourne (John Goodman) is head of Greendale's air conditioner repair annex and the true power behind Greendale. When Dean Pelton decides to confront Laybourne over the annex requesting a cappucino machine, the very stern and intimidating Laybourne shows him that the air conditioning annex is the main source of Greendale's funding and that he thus holds complete power over the dean's office. Later, upon learning Troy's plumbing abilities, Laybourne tries to recruit him to the air conditioner annex.

Marshall Kane

Prof. Marshall Kane (Michael K. Williams) is the biology teacher at Greendale, who is noticeably more serious and intense than other Greendale professors. He just came off of a twenty year prison sentence and is baffled by some of the ways in which the world has since changed.

Students

Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne

Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne (Dino Stamatopoulos) is a middle-aged student at Greendale Community College known for his copious facial hair and sideburns shaped like stars. He is a member of the campus' "cool study group", and a true music lover.^[12] Though Star Burns is habitually laid back and sloppily dressed, he has a son who, in stark contrast to him, is incredibly businesslike. In Season 2's "Intro to Political Science," he admits to being a drug dealer. He takes a number of classes with the main characters including Spanish and Boating. He worked in the school cafeteria until the group got him fired for siphoning off chicken fingers for his friends. For the most part, however, he is disconnected from the group and he sometimes seems confused as to who the individual members in the group actually are. He does know who Jeff is, and acts as the impromptu campus spokesman after Britta and Professor Slater both declare their love for him by saying everyone's waiting for Jeff's response to what happened. Though he enjoys the attention he receives with his sideburns, he craves an identity beyond them and begins wearing a top hat at the beginning of the second season to draw attention away from them. He eventually grows irritated with the nickname "Star-Burns", unsuccessfully insisting that people call him "Alex" instead. In the third season premiere, he also gains a lizard which perches on his shoulder. It is also revealed in that episode that he sells marijuana.

Leonard Briggs

Leonard Briggs (Richard Erdman) is an elderly man who is studying business at Greendale Community College.^[13] He and Jeff have a comically antagonistic relationship and both take billiards for PE credit. Though noticeably older than the other students at Greendale, he acts in as reckless and laid-back a fashion as most young adults, often using slang and engaging in such activities as playing pranks and bass guitar and encountering "pregnancy scares". He leads a rowdy, disobedient band of elderly Greendale students called the "Hipsters" (because they all apparently have hip replacements), which Pierce temporarily joins. He has children, though they are never seen on camera. In the season two finale he claims to have been one of the Little Rascals, to have been in "few real wars" and to have been banned from the Denny's near the fifteen exit. During the student election episode from Season Two, he ran for office, using the surname "Rodriguez" in an attempt to court the Latino vote.

Vaughn Miller

Vaughn Miller (Eric Christian Olsen) is a permanently shirtless, earth-friendly mellow student with small nipples who is the lead singer of a rock band at Greendale Community College.^[14] A frequent hacky sack and Ultimate Frisbee player, he has had several notable interactions with the show's main characters, as he initially dated Britta and was in a band with Pierce. Though he at first seems very laid back and peaceful, he started writing popular hate songs about Britta and Pierce after his relationships with them turned sour. However, he and Annie began a relationship, much to the bemusement of Jeff, Britta, and Troy and later, Shirley.^[14] At the end of the first season, he transfers to a community college in Delaware because of their strong hacky sack athletic program, and Annie initially decided to join him there before changing her mind.

Rich Stephenson

Rich Stephenson (Greg Cromer) is a student who is in Jeff's pottery class, that Jeff grows jealous of for his skills. An accomplished doctor who is continually friendly and well-liked by everyone, he stands in stark contrast to Jeff who tries to catch him as a ringer. Nicknamed "Doc Potterywood" by Jeff, it is implied that Jeff may actually have been right and Rich had secretly taken previous pottery classes at different colleges. It is hinted at the end of 'Beginner Pottery' that his relationship with his mother is extremely strained as opposed to Jeff's loving one with his mother, further showing the stark contrast between them. Rich had a brother who died in a roller-coaster accident. He spends time with the study group again in the season two Halloween episode, when he attempts to treat the infected students while dressed as a banana and causes Jeff to openly admit his hatred for him. After spending winter break volunteering with Annie, he joins Duncan's anthropology class and unsuccessfully competes against Chang for a spot in the study group. When he turns down a date with Annie due to her young age, Jeff begins to admire his ethics and seeks life-advice from him although it is to abuse the power Rich gets from everyone loving him.

Fat Neil

Fat Neil (Charley Koontz) is a student at Greendale who is frequently ostracized for being fat. Jeff, who accidentally coined the name "Fat Neil" at Greendale, attempts to make it up to him after he thinks Neil is considering suicide. Jeff organizes a Dungeons & Dragons game with the study group (without Pierce) where Neil, a huge D&D fan, will save the day. Though Pierce attempts to sabotage the event and mocks Neil, Neil still regains his confidence after winning the game. It is implied in "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts" that he and Vicki have feelings for each other.

Magnitude

Magnitude (Luke Youngblood), short for "Magnetic Attitude", is a student at Greendale who is described as a "One man party." He is usually shown wearing a collared shirt, tie, and some patterned article of clothing on top of that (a plaid vest, argyle sweater, etc.). His consistently repeated catchphrase is "Pop pop!", which comprises almost everything he says to the point of absurdity. At one point, his age was stated as 16 years old. It is also implied that he is disliked by the faculty staff particularly Professor Marshall Kane. ^[15]

Other recurring students

• Garrett Lambert (Erik Charles Nielsen) is a noticeably nerdy student at Greendale, who usually appears in an exasperated or otherwise intense state. He takes several classes with the main cast, including Professor Duncan's psychology class.^[16]
• Eric Wisniewski (Bill Parks) is a football player at Greendale, who sometimes yells at members of the study group.^[17]
• Pavel Iwaszkiewicz (Dominik Musiol) is a Polish exchange student, and a hallmate of Abed, serving - among other things - as his directing assistant.^[18]
• Vicki Jenkins (Danielle Kaplowitz) is a Dance Major at Greendale who is continually ignored by her peers. It is implied she and "Fat Neil" have feelings for each other. She once didn't let Pierce borrow a pencil, leading him to hate her and often mocking her.
• Mark Millot (DC Pierson) is a member of the student newspaper as well as one of the founders of the college sketch group the Greendale Goofaws, which also include Linda Greene (Meggie McFadden), Buzz Foster (Dominic Dierkes) and Derrick Bideos (Dan Eckman).^[19] In real life, actors Pierson, McFadden, Dierkes, and Eckman forms the comedy group Derrick Comedy, with Donald Glover as the fifth member.
• Quendra (Marcy McCusker) is a student at Greendale that Jeff brings to a mixer in order to keep Rich from being voted into the study group in "Asian Population Studies". She also appears in "For a Few Paintballs More".

Other

The Greendale Human Being

The Greendale Human Being is the "ethnically neutral" school mascot created and designed by Pierce and Dean Pelton. Though intended to embody a spirit of inclusivity and to avoid derogatory stereotypes, its featureless appearance is distinctly unnatural. It appears in a number of different events and initiatives sponsored by the Dean as the school's mascot. It has been seen with a female version of itself.

Andre Bennett

Andre Bennett (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) is Shirley's ex-husband. Though he had cheated on her, he becomes her boyfriend again after learning of her pregnancy and stays loyal to her even after discovering that Chang could be the father. Surprisingly, he also takes a much kinder approach toward Chang than the study group does.

Gobi Nadir

Gobi Nadir (Iqbal Theba) is Abed's father, with whom Abed has a rather difficult relationship. While Mr. Nadir wants Abed to take over the family's falafel restaurant, Abed plans to become a film director. Abed also thinks Gobi blames him for his mother leaving them. Gobi is a very protective yet argumentative father, but he learns to accept the fact that his son needs filmmaking to express himself. Gobi appears on Family Day and disapproves of the lenient way in which Shirley raises her boys.

Officer Cackowski

Officer Cackowski (Craig Cackowski) is a local police officer, repeatedly visiting Greendale in the line of duty. He originally appeared as a member of campus security before inexplicably becoming a police officer. He seems to be friends with Professor Garity, referring to him as Sean.

Dean Spreck

Dean Spreck (Jordan Black) is the dean of rivaling City College, who makes several subversive efforts to shut Greendale down. Like Dean Pelton, he seems to have an ambiguous sexuality.

Jerry

Jerry (Jerry Minor) is the head janitor at Greendale. After he learns of Troy's supreme plumbing abilities, he makes several attempts to convince him to become a plumber and warns him against becoming an air-conditioning repair man.

Annie's Boobs

Annie's Boobs was Troy's pet monkey. Annie's Boobs was reportedly named by a competition held via the monkey's personal Twitter account. Troy maintains that the account belongs to Annie's Boobs and thus Troy cannot legitimately change the monkey's name. Since he was set free by Abed, he has spent his time collecting items owned by the study group and storing them in a nearby air vent. It's unknown what happened to him after Chang found his stash of items.

Sgt. Nunez

Sgt. Nunez (Mel Rodriguez) is the chief of campus security for Greendale College. All of Nunez's officers quit when Dean Pelton informs them that the college no longer has funds to pay them, and they can only be reimbursed in class credits. Nunez stays because he needs SCUBA certification, and Chang becomes his new underling. He eventually quits after Dean Pelton sides with Chang.

Guest characters

• Nurse Jackie (Patton Oswalt in "Home Economics" and "The Psychology of Letting Go") is the school nurse at Greendale. He considers himself the Hawkeye of Greendale.
• The helicopter pilot (Andy Dick in "Aerodynamics of Gender" and "Early 21st Century Romanticism") is a tiny man that Pierce hallucinates when he takes his painkillers after breaking his legs on the trampoline.
• Jeremy Simmons (Aaron Himelstein in "Debate 109") is a student at a neighboring community college, who is the primary rival of Greendale's debate team.
• Doreen (Sharon Lawrence in "The Politics of Human Sexuality") is an escort that Pierce meets in his marketing class and later gets into a relationship with. After she dumps him during a Greendale school dance, he borrows money to pay for her company.
• Mike Chilada (Anthony Michael Hall^[20] in "Comparative Religion") is a bully at Greendale who gets into a big brawl with the study group before Christmas. He reappears briefly at the beginning of "A Fistful of Paintballs" chasing Fat Neil.
• Buddy Austin (Jack Black^[21] in "Investigative Journalism") is a student at Greendale, who, while no one ever noticed him, was a member of the study group's Spanish class taught by Senor Chang. He desperately wants to join the study-group, and despite his irritating behavior was eventually accepted. However he joins a cooler study group that includes Star-Burns and is led by Owen Wilson in a cameo when he finds out they voted him in.
• Madame LeClair (Twink Caplan in "Interpretive Dance") is the ballet professor of Greendale.
• Coach Herbert Bogner (Blake Clark^[22] in "Physical Education") is a physical education coach who teaches billiards at Greendale. He comes into conflict with Jeff, who refuses to wear gym shorts when playing pool, and the two face off in a billiards match which ends in the nude.
• Rabbi Chang (Tom Yi in "Basic Genealogy") is Señor Chang's older and critical brother with lots of unresolved history between them. Rabbi Chang is blind to the surface incongruity of his being a Rabbi, but chides Señor Chang to drop his Spanish act. As much as these two brothers might seem to be at odds, Señor Chang does leap to his brother's aid and fights in his honor when Pierce obliviously harasses Rabbi Chang during a game of Pictionary.
• Amber (Katharine McPhee in "Basic Genealogy") is one of Pierce's 32 ex-stepchildren, who pretends to like him and comes to Family Day since he sends her big sums of money. She also has sex with Jeff.
• Nana (Fran Bennett in "Basic Genealogy") is Troy's grandmother, whom he fears and avoids. Britta argues that the elderly should be cherished and respected, but Nana is incensed by being called old and insists on spanking Britta with a switch.
• Prof. Marion Holly (Tony Hale^[23] in "Beginners Pottery") is the pottery professor at Greendale. While his class seems very easy and passable, he has a zero-tolerance policy for students who jokingly reference the pottery scene from the film Ghost (1990) (which he calls "Ghosting") and thus comes into conflict with Jeff.
• Admiral Lee Slaughter (Lee Majors in "Beginners Pottery") is the gruff teacher of boating at Greendale who runs his classes on a sailboat in the school's parking lot.
• Alan Connor (Rob Corddry in "Accounting for Lawyers") is an unlikeable former lawyer colleague of Jeff's who attends Narcotics Anonymous sessions at Greendale, where he had once met Annie. Though he does not admit it to Jeff after they meet again, the study group knows that he had sent an email to his law firm exposing Jeff's credentials, which got him fired.
• Ted (Drew Carey in "Accounting for Lawyers") is Jeff's former boss. He started up a law firm so that he could have people around him who would not inquire about the weird hole in his hand. He and Jeff have a good relationship as evidenced by his offering Jeff a consulting position at the firm.
• Meghan (Hilary Duff in "Aerodynamics of Gender") is the leader of a group of "mean girls" at Greendale, who come into conflict with Britta, Annie, Shirley and Abed.
• Joshua (Matt Walsh in "Aerodynamics of Gender") is a groundskeeper at Greendale who secretly has a giant trampoline on campus that gives people a spiritual calm when they jump on it. Though he lets Jeff and Troy know about it and jump on it, he is fired when Pierce tells the rest of the school after breaking his legs. It turns out that he is staunchly racist.
• LeVar Burton appears as himself in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" when Pierce hires him to meet Troy, who, despite looking up to Burton as a role model, had hoped to never meet him in person.
• Paige (Brit Marling in "Early 21st Century Romanticism") is a student at Greendale befriended by Britta. Britta believes that Paige is a lesbian, and uses her friendship with Paige to show her open-mindedness. Annie learns from Paige's friend that Paige is heterosexual, and interested in Britta for largely the same reasons Britta is interested in her.
• Special Agent Robin Vohlers (Eliza Coupe in "Intro to Political Science") is a emotionless Secret Service agent, who scouts out Greendale in preparation for Vice President Joe Biden's arrival. She meets and is intrigued by Abed with whom she has several similarities. The two seem to develop feelings for each other enough for Vohlers to try and make him a threat to national security so she can spend more time around him, while Abed claims he can make napalm out of dish soap and catfood on television so she can observe him. They end up having a "date" watching Kickpuncher with Vohlers watching through binoculars from her van in the parking lot. She also bugged Abed's room.
• Prof. Peter Sheffield (Stephen Tobolowsky in "Competitive Wine Tasting") is a professor at Greendale who ignites an academic rivalry with Abed. He is the author of Who Was the Boss? and What Was Happening?, critical analyses of the television series Who's the Boss? and What's Happening!!
• The Black Rider (Josh Holloway in "A Fistful of Paintballs") is a mysterious professional paintball assassin hired by City College to win the paintball contest at the end of season two. He takes an online course at Greendale and draws the ire of Jeff, who feels insecure around him because of his good looks.
• Professor Cligoris (Martin Starr in "Geography of Global Conflict") is a history teacher at Greendale who helps Annie found the school's chapter of Model UN. He is obsessed with the history of the United Nations.
• Todd (David Neher in "Competitive Ecology") is a student at Greendale who takes biology with the study group. They all pick on him to an absurd degree after he is paired with Pierce on a class project and inadvertently upsets the natural balance of the group.

References

1. ^ "Community TV - Joel McHale". NBC. http://www.nbc.com/community/bios/joel-mchale.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
2. ^ "Greendale Community College - Jeff Winger". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/jeff-winger.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
3. ^ "Pilot". Community. NBC. 2009-09-17. No. 1, season 1.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Greendale Community College". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/britta-perry.shtml/. Retrieved 2011-01-05. 
5. ^ "Greendale Community College - Britta Perry". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/britta-perry.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "Greendale Community College - Shirley Bennett". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/shirley-bennett.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
7. ^ "Greendale Community College - Annie Edison". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/annie-edison.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
8. ^ ^{a b c} "Greendale Community College - Troy Barnes". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/troy-barnes.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
9. ^ "Community TV - Ken Jeong". NBC. http://www.nbc.com/community/bios/ken-jeong.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
10. ^ "Greendale Community College - Michelle Slater". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/faculty-admin/michelle-slater.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
11. ^ "Greendale Community College - Prof. Eustice Whitman". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/faculty-admin/eustic-whitman.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
12. ^ "Greendale Community College - Alex Osbourne". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/alex-osbourne.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
13. ^ "Greendale Community College - Leonard Briggs". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/leonard-briggs.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
14. ^ ^{a b} "Greendale Community College - Vaughn Miller". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/vaughn-miller.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
15. ^ "Intro to Political Science". Community. NBC. 2011-02-24. No. 17, season 2.
16. ^ "Greendale Community College - Garrett Lambert". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/garrett-lambert.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
17. ^ "Greendale Community College - Eric Wizniewski". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/eric-wizniewski.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
18. ^ "Greendale Community College - Pavel Iwaszkiewicz". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/pavel-iwaszkiewicz.shtml. Retrieved 2010-11-19. 
19. ^ "Greendale Community College - Mark Millot". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/mark-millot.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
20. ^ "Greendale Community College - Mike Chilada". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/mike-chilada.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
21. ^ "Greendale Community College - Buddy Austin". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/buddy-austin.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-16. 
22. ^ "Greendale Community College - Herbert Bogner". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/faculty-admin/. Retrieved 2010-03-11. 
23. ^ "Greendale Community College - Marion Holly". NBC. http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/faculty-admin/. Retrieved 2010-03-26. 

External links

• Official website
• Community at the Internet Movie Database
• Community at TV.com