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Maxine "Max" Black
- Played by: Kat Dennings
One of the waitresses at the Williamsburg Diner. Han initially allowed her to sell homemade cupcakes in the diner, which led to her going forward with Caroline's idea to go into the cupcake business. The brunette Max is street-smart, tends to deliver insults with a smile, and often pokes fun at her own promiscuity, her large breasts, and indulgence in marijuana. She always wears knee-high brown leather boots while waitressing and being snarky and sassy with costumers.
- Big-Breast Pride: She displays this on numerous occasions. Not that she goes out of her way to emphasize them (except in the first season finale with Martha Stewart...) but when they're noticed, she generally reacts with pride, as well as amusement when others notice the patently obvious.
- Broken Bird: Judging by the dark places her jokes go.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Max has this problem when asking people for favors.
- Catchphrase: Oh HELL no!
- Dark and Troubled Past: She is a poor working class girl who had a rough childhood in Hope, Rhode Island and an equally rough adult life, driven by both genuine poverty and being raised by a mother who was usually absent and dangerously incompetent when she was around. It is implied that her mother was a drug addict.
- Deadpan Snarker: One couldn't imagine the show without her snide one-liners.
- Disappeared Dad: Disappeared so early in her life she doesn't know who he is.
- Double Entendre: Spits out these frequently. Especially involving any version of the word "come".
- Dynamic Akimbo: Max almost always has her hands her hips. There's a reason her page image has her in this pose.
- Hidden Depths: Despite her tough exterior, Max has a soft spot for innocent things like cartoon characters and toys because they brightened up an otherwise crappy childhood.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite regularly being snide and sarcastic, she genuinely felt bad for Caroline and allowed Caroline to stay in her home without really asking for anything in return. It's pretty much established at the end of "And The Reality Check" that she's rather nice as Max is holding back tears as Chestnut is sent away for the winter. She's either a golden-hearted jerkass or possibly a Knight in Sour Armor.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: As revealed in "And the Kitty Kitty Spank Spank", she likes cats.
- The Lad-ette: Especially in contrast to Caroline, she often displays a rather macho behavior. It's revealed she pees standing up and seems confused at the fact that other woman pee sitting.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Ever since Max helped her find her footing, Caroline has depended on her for support when things are bleak.
- Noodle Incident: A walking example. She spits out at least one of these an episode. Apparently she's been shot before and claims to have killed a French man, among many other things
- Pungeon Master: Puns are a common ingredient of her one-liners.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Mentioned once she was something of a bully in school, when Caroline met one of Max's old teachers, with Caroline acknowledging that she's not quite grown out of it.Teacher: You look just like the girls Maxine used to give wedgies to.Caroline: Still does.
- The Stoner: Not overemphasized, but Max is indicated to be a pot smoker, with "And the High Holidays" even acknowledging that she has a dealer. In season 3, the diner crew gives her a case filled with joints instead of pens.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Tends to be snarky regularly insults just about everyone, but tends to be somewhat compassionate at times.
- Supreme Chef: Max is this when it comes to cupcakes, although she may also be a One-Note Cook. Ultimately subverted in "And The Secret Ingredient": She uses store-bought cake mix because she never learned how to make cupcakes from scratch, although The Reveal seems to have fallen into Canon Discontinuity.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tough, snarky, streetwise Tomboy to Caroline's wealthy, high society Girly Girl who likes riding horses.
- Tomboyish Name: She goes by "Max" which is more often than not a man's name.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's The Lad-ette, but also enjoys baking and sells homemade cupcakes from the diner where she works.
- Wake Up Make Up: Hands down the most blatant example of the cast and perhaps also of the current TV landscape, she sports her dark red lipstick and heavy eye makeup even during bedtime and in the bath tub.
Caroline Channing
- Played by: Beth Behrs
A new waitress at the Williamsburg Diner. She is a formerly rich high society girl (in the style of Paris Hilton) and University of Pennsylvania Wharton graduate who lost all of her money when her father was arrested and thrown in jail for a Ponzi scheme. She is forced to start over and becomes Max's co-worker, roommate and eventual best friend. She comes up with the idea of starting a cupcake business with Max. Despite being spoiled since birth and then losing her money, Caroline is perky, kind and optimistic, though materialistic and high-maintenance at times. The dumb blonde Caroline always wears large pearl necklaces with her waitress uniform as well as high-heeled shoes.
- A-Cup Angst: Not so much on Caroline's part, but Max frequently teases her about her chest.
- Alliterative Name: Caroline Channing, played by Beth Behrs
- Butt-Monkey: Caroline is the Cute Clumsy Girl of the show.
- Daddy's Girl: She's got a very close relationship to her father due to having a Missing Mom and being treated like a princess for her whole life.
- Dirty Coward: In one episode where the diner she and her friend Max work at gets held up by a potentially armed robber. She begs the robber to take Max instead of her, pushes her closer to him, and actively uses Max as a human shield. Caroline later tries to shrug the incident off when everyone makes fun of her. To further highlight her cowardice, the show has her pee herself when she learns of the armed robber.
- Ditzy Genius: She's clumsy, has some hilariously naive beliefs about poverty and sexuality ("Max, you can't get pregnant doggy-style!"), and yet she's got a degree and when dealing with her and Max's cupcake business, displays lots of business sense.
- Dumb Blonde: She surprisingly averts this trope; while she's definitely naive and ditzy, she's far from being completely stupid and can hold her own in a lot of areas.
- Fallen Princess: In many ways, she's just as much of a victim of her father's Ponzi scheme as the people he ripped off. He told her that they were making legitimate money and, being his daughter, she believed him.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's grossly naive when it comes to the lower-class lifestyle, but doesn't let it get in the way of her helping Max and others.
- Missing Mom: Her mother cheated on her father and was gotten rid of... in a society way, much worse than in the Mob way.
- Naïve Newcomer: She has a hard time adjusting to being poor.
- Omniglot: She's shown to speak several languages including Korean, Japanese, Spanish and French. She likely picked those up from her past rich life, although she admits her French isn't very good and she only does it to impress Americans.
- Potty Failure: When the diner gets held up, she gets so scared that she wets herself.
- Preppy Name: English people would have no trouble believing that someone called Caroline came from money.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Season 1 makes a point of showing that she catches a lot of flack for her father's crimes.
- Smarter Than You Look: Caroline is a business school graduate who obviously couldn't have gotten through it without some semblance of intelligence, she's just not as skilled in the middle class world. She's even great with taxes, as shown in "And the Messy Purse Smackdown".
- Riches to Rags: Before her dad went to jail for his Ponzi Scheme, her family had a ten-figure net worth.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The wealthy, high society Girly Girl who likes riding horses to Max's tough, snarky, streetwise Tomboy.
- Upper-Class Equestrian: A former high society girl who still keeps her beloved horse Chestnut outside her apartment.
- Upper-Class Twit: Averted. While we might expect her to be an Airhead Heiress she seems to have a fair bit of common sense and adjusts to her new situation quickly. She is not a bad waitress, considering her lack of experience, and has no problems washing her uniform in a sink. Also, she is an excellent saleswoman. She does display some elements of this though, like being unfamiliar with how a grocery store works or the finer points of using coupons.
Han Lee
- Played by: Matthew Moy
The owner of the Williamsburg Diner. He is constantly a target for jokes (mainly from Max) involving his height, his effeminate mannerisms in spite of his claims of being heterosexual, and his lack of knowledge of American culture. He is originally from South Korea and he references his parents and his home country often.
- Ambiguously Gay: In one episode Han is seen entering the men's room or a movie theater with another man. Another episode has him admitting to having paid for sex. He also mentions a homosexual experience in college, but quickly backtracks upon apparently realizing it wasn't one. Max makes make one or two closet jokes about him as well.
- Aroused by Their Voice: In one episode, Max and Caroline overhear him speaking on his cell phone in Korean. They both state that he sounds very attractive. And they weren't even being sarcastic!
- Asian Store-Owner: He owns the diner the girls work in.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's a nice, polite guy, but he also keeps a loaded gun in that bag he carries around and, as demonstrated when the diner got held up, he has no issue with using it.
- Butt-Monkey: He is usually the butt of many jokes. Usually involving his height or the fact he could be mistaken for a woman or a young boy. Exaggerated by Sophie in "And The Pearl Necklace".
- Older Than They Look: Due to his shortness and finical behaviour, the diner employees alternate between calling him an old man and a freaky child. He's 29, actually, much to everyone's shock.
Earl
- Played by: Garrett Morris
The cashier who has worked at the Williamsburg Diner since 1962, or 1989. Max is very close to him.
- Cool Old Guy: An elderly former jazz musician with a love of marijuana and gambling.
- Informed Ability : Earl is supposed to be a musician, but we never see him in action. We see in Season 5's "And the Sax Problem" that he was a jazz saxophonist, and he has a reunion with his old band.
- Nice Guy: One of the nicest on the show.
- Parental Substitute: Although they talk like drinking buddies, Max frequently says that she wishes he was her father.
Vanko Oleg Golishevsky
- Played by: Jonathan Kite
Oleg is a Ukrainian cook at the Williamsburg Diner. He sexually harasses Max and Caroline constantly with inappropriate jokes, innuendo and propositions for sex, but his behavior is benign and easily ignored (or mocked, by Max).
- Abhorrent Admirer: At first Sophie rebuffs him, but they wind up in a relationship later on in the series.
- Carpet of Virility: Is very hairy-chested.
- Casanova Wannabe: He often makes overly sexual remarks towards the girls and later Sophie, which come out as repulsive more than anything else.
- Funny Foreigner: From Eastern Europe.
- Good Parents: At the very least it's implied that he's better at parenting than Sophie is, evidenced when he is completely determined to spend quality time with his baby daughter even Sophie is monopolizing her.
- Hidden Depths: He loves the musical "Cats" enough that he saw it nine times on Broadway.
- Middle Name Basis: He goes by Oleg to tell him apart from the many other Vanko's in his family.
- Relationship Upgrade: As of Season 4, he and Sophie are currently a Happily Married Official Couple and expecting their first child.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Loves his tank tops.
Sophie Kuczynski
- Played by: Jennifer Coolidge
A Polish woman who owns a cleaning company, lives in the apartment above the girls, and often bugs them with stories about her sex life and growing up in Communist Poland.
- Dumb Blonde: She can come across this way when she is rather dismissive of everything that doesn't interest her.
- Funny Foreigner: From Eastern Europe too.
- Happily Married: To Oleg as of Season 4, and currently expecting their first child to boot.
- Incoming Ham: Hiiii girls!
- It's All About Me: Sophie is very self-centered and whenever she arrives at the diner or at the girls’ cupcake window, it’s usually just to talk about herself, and often gets upset whenever anyone even slightly drifts the subject from hers.Sophie: Here we go: Grandma Kuczynski's pot roast.Caroline: This looks amazing. I love a root vegetable in the winter.Sophie: CAN IT EVER JUST BE ABOUT ME?!!
- Jerkass: Tends to be demeaning towards people, especially Caroline, and is unapologetic when corrected by Caroline after calling Han a woman. She occasionally dips into Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory.
- Maternally Challenged: After having her baby girl, she is often shown dragging her baby's pram up and down stairs with no delicacy, constantly bumping or crashing the pram, spraying her baby with perfume, and getting her a spray tan.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Jennifer Coolidge gets one at the beginning of Season 2.
- Pet the Dog: Despite the aforementioned trope of Jerkass, she does care about the girls, including Caroline, even deciding to give them a check for 20.000 dollars to help their cupcake business.
- Self-Made Woman: Sophie owns a successful cleaning company.
- Sensual Slavs: Her outfits are always extremely flamboyant and show off lots of cleavage. Also, she's rather promiscuous, much to her downstairs neighbours' chagrin.
- Statuesque Stunner: Jennifer Coolidge is 5'10'' and her character is almost always seen in high heels.
Johnny
Martin Channing
- Played by: Steven Weber
Caroline's father, who is currently in prison for a ponzi scheme he masterminded.
- The Atoner: His time in prison has given him plenty of time to think about those he hurt by his actions especially Caroline.
- Silver Fox: Max seems quite smitten with him when they get introduced.
Andy
- Played by: Ryan Hansen
A candy store owner whose business was across from the cupcake store, and Caroline's love interest in season 2
- The Bus Came Back: He comes back briefly to have casual ex-sex with Caroline only to disappear again. He returns in season 5, only to announce he's getting married
- Nice Guy: He's so sweet, he owns a candy store.
- Put on the Bus: After his and Caroline's relationship ends, he closes his store and disappears from the show.
Nicolas Saintcroix
- Played by: Gilles Marini
A French "master baker" who owns and teaches at the Manhattan School of Pastry and Caroline's former love interest.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: In accordance with the show's other cultural stereotypes, the French guy has to be gorgeous.
- Innocent Innuendo: Pretty much every character makes a sex joke every other line. Nicolas is the only one who does it without knowing!
- Meta Casting: Sort of. Marini is a baker's son and was quite talented as a youth.
- Mr. Fanservice: Easily the most conventionally attractive male cast member
Deke Berg
- Played by: Eric André
A sarcastic half-black/half-Jewish student at the Pastry School who quickly becomes Max's friend, lover and later ex-boyfriend.
- Class Clown: In pastry school.
- Secretly Wealthy: He comes from a very wealthy family, much to Caroline's enjoyment.
- Put on a Bus: After his parents threathen to cut him off if he doesn't end it with Max, Max breaks up with him instead, thinking he couldn't live without the money.
