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SPRQ Point
Engineers
Zoey
Zoey Clarke
Portrayed by: Jane Levy
The introverted, musically-illiterate, newly promoted programming supervisor, who gains the superpower to understand people's innermost thoughts and feelings by perceiving them as elaborate musical numbers.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Anyone working for Joan can end up like this, and while Zoey isn't her actual assistant, she does report directly to her, and is often overwhelmed or intimidated by her.
- Broken Ace: She is an incredible software engineer, an effective leader who gains her manager position by proving her ability to do the job before she gets it, genuinely respected by the engineers she manages, had a stellar academic career complete with a perfect SAT score, and once she gains the power, is quite empathetic to the feelings of those around her. However, she has a difficult time connecting with her loved ones and getting respect from the colleagues she supervises. In one episode, she confesses that her family praising her so much ended up leading to her feeling pressure to prove them right. She also struggles deeply with how to sensitively handle the emotions she and others feel, even after her new power makes her much more aware of them.
- The Confidant: She's this to Simon and Joan willingly, and, in a way, is this unwillingly to literally everyone. If you have a deep, dark personal problem that's causing you anguish, she will know about it, and be obligated to help out.
- Consistent Clothing Style: Usually wears collared shirts paired with a sweater or cardigan and pants. Lampshaded; "wears too many sweaters over collared shirts" turns up as a "flaw" in her peer review.
- Daddy's Girl: Framed family pictures on the wall of Zoey's childhood home indicate that Zoey was very close to her dad, Mitch when she was growing up. This closeness continues to the present with Zoey's frequent visits to her parents, her insistence that Mitch get out more and their tradition of taking turns kissing each other's injuries that continues into Zoey's adulthood, as in the episode "Zoey's Extraordinary Silence".
- The Empath: Her superpower. When people experience intense emotions in her presence, she has a vision of them breaking out into a song and dance number.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Zoey's dynamic with just about every guy in the show, even genderfluid Mo, since Zoey is very short (Jane Levy is 5'2), so everyone around her is One Head Taller. Most other women too tend to look like giants next to her.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Zoey is unfailingly adorable and kind with bright blue eyes to match, courtesy of her actress Jane Levy.
- Innocently Insensitive: Zoey is certainly a good-hearted person who wants to do the right thing, but she's not great at identifying what the right thing is in each particular situation, causing more harm than good in the short term. After Simon calls out the institutionalized bigotry at SPRQ Point, Zoey's early efforts to support him hit all the wrong notes, briefly alienating Simon and Mo in the process.
- Intergenerational Friendship:
- She develops one with her boss, Joan, who is implied to be quite lonely and appreciates that Zoey bothers to check up on her and see if she's doing okay after her divorce.
- Zoey dabbles in this with Deb, the widow she meets at the cemetery and asks to help Maggie cope with Mitch's oncoming passing. Although Deb doesn't interact with Zoey as much as she does with Maggie, it's likely that Deb has developed a fondness for Zoey and vice versa.
- Love Revelation Epiphany: At the beginning of the show, she was oblivious to Max's feelings and had a crush on Simon. Hearing that Max is in love with her strains them for a while, but she later begins to reciprocate.
- Morality Pet:
- Zoey is definitely one for Joan. Around workers like Max, Tobin and Leif, she is impersonal, hard-to-please and blunt, but when Joan is with Zoey one-on-one, she reveals a more compassionate and understanding side.
- She is also a downplayed one for Tobin. In season 1, her ways of handling him help his character development. In season 2, while Tobin can be a little annoying/misogynistic at times, Zoey seems to effectively get Tobin back on track. Like, he is harrasing George for a bit, but after Zoey speaks to him, that makes him drop that behavior and even befriend George.
- Nice Girl: Despite her introverted social awkwardness and bouts of Innocent Insensitivity, Zoey is ultimately a loyal, supportive, helpful, selfless and kind-hearted young woman who always does everything she can to help or cheer up her family and friends when they need it.
- No Social Skills: Zoey's very much an introvert who prefers code to people. This becomes exceptionally uncomfortable when her ability forces her to engage with people on a deep emotional level. In fact, one episode lampshades that she often can't tell what other people are feeling unless they're putting on a literal song and dance about it in front of her, and has her working to overcome that and pay more attention outside of heart songs.
- Parental Love Song: As a result of her powers, Zoey experiences this in the child to parent variety. In "Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch", after Zoey learns that her powers of getting people to express their inner thoughts, feelings, needs and wants through song and dance also effect herself Zoey offers this to Mitch after learning that his PSP is advancing to the final stages in the form of Leann Rimes "How Do I Live".
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: She's very music illiterate as she mostly listens to podcasts. This becomes a running gag where she doesn't recognize even popular songs and has to explain the lyrics to Mo to identify them and interpret their meaning, which becomes funny when the song's title is in the refrain.
- Power Incontinence: She has no conscious control over her ability to see someone's innermost feelings through a musical number. This becomes a problem when she sleeps with someone, because the mood is constantly being killed by them bursting into song.
- Power Stereotype Flip: She's an empath who hears other people's powers as music, but she's awkward, introverted, and doesn't recognize many of the songs she hears.
- Psychoactive Powers:
- In "Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch" her powers invert due to her suppressing her grief over an advancement in her father's illness. Now instead of witnessing a musical number about other people's feelings, she herself uncontrollably breaks out into song and dance whenever she's not being honest or open about her feelings. While she hears background music and sees the people nearby dancing backup, when this is shown from outside her perspective, to everyone else she looks like someone awkwardly singing and dancing to a song, by herself, with no music to do either to.
- A different glitch happens in "Zoey's Extraordinary Mystery", with Zoey unintentionally ignoring Emily's requests to hang out leading to a situation where people's heart songs are mixed up with other people's heart songs (i.e. Maggie singing - both parts in - "Anything You Can Do" and the SPRQ Point programmers singing "One is the Loneliest Number", which should have been the other way 'round).
- Red Is Heroic: Zoey has red hair, often wears the color red and is the main protagonist.
- Resigned to the Call: Zigzagged. Zoey does attempt to ignore a cry for help from Joan early on, only to find her powers won't let her—if she tries, the melody of the heart song will just keep playing everywhere. So when she hears someone sing about their problems, she’s grown resigned to talking about it with them no matter how uncomfortable it makes her—eventually letting her guard down enough to also help because she genuinely cares.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: A bit of a downplayed example. Ordinarily, Zoey is portrayed as a bit unfashionable, with her fashion sense being critiqued by one of her coworkers. She rarely wears much make-up, jewelry or high heels (in fact her go-to-shoes appear to be sneakers), but with her glossy red hair, fair skin, sparkling blue eyes, and her colorful and feminine wardrobe, Zoey is already stunning in normal circumstances. Though in the SPRQ Point launch party in "Zoey's Extraordinary Boss," Mo says she's looking even better than usual by name-checking this trope.
Max
Max Richman
Portrayed by: Skylar Astin
Zoey's best friend, and one of the more down to earth and friendly programmers.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: At the end of the second season finale, "Zoey's Extraordinary Goodbye", when Zoey confesses her love to him, Max is able to hear it as a heart song (after a season of relationship troubles caused by the fact that she always knew his mind, and he knew she knew, but not vice versa).
- Crappy Holidays: Tells Zoey that Halloween wasn't fun at his house, with his dad being a dentist.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He's mostly the nice, sympathetic variety, pining for his best friend while trying to help her out at every turn. However, he does have some qualities of the not-so-nice kind, such as his tendency to spring big, flashy gestures on her, and getting downright pissed when he realizes she doesn't want to date him. To his credit, he tries to get over it, but it's still there.
- It's All About Me: He can be quite selfless, and actually does go out of his way to help others without asking anything in return. However, when it comes to romance and romantic interest, he's very self-concerned, and it's directly what leads to his Innocently Insensitive and Not Good with Rejection issues. When he breaks up with Autumn it never crosses his mind that it might hurt her to see him immediately acting like nothing happened the next day. Meanwhile, he's constantly getting mad that he and his feelings aren't Zoey's highest priority, despite being aware of what's going on with her dad.
- Innocently Insensitive: While he's a nice guy, he's not always observant and can often do things that he thinks are cool gestures or not a big deal but actually cause a great deal of hurt or trouble.
- When he breaks up with Autumn, he thinks that because she handled it maturely that it means they're cool and it's no problem him coming to her place of work and ordering a fancy drink the next day, after having been obliviously gloating at how good he is at breakups. It doesn't register to him that this is a dick move and it causes Autumn to snap at him all the frustration he caused her by dumping her, especially since it was very clear she really liked him. In his defence, he didn't know that Autumn was desperately looking for a serious and loving relationship when getting together with him, and when he learns that he hurt her, he tries very hard to figure out a good way to apologise.
- When he makes his declaration of love to Zoey, he does so through song with a large and well-orchestrated music and dance number performed by a flash mob. He's completely unaware of Zoey's superpower and that this plays out exactly like a heart song does, and as such is frustrating and confusing for her. Of course, he also doesn't register that this is a terrible way to put someone on the spot with such a gesture, either, especially someone as timid and shy as Zoey.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It takes him a while, but by the end of the first season, after Mitch passes away, he decides to stop obsessing over his Will They or Won't They? with Zoey and even makes the effort to reach out to Simon.
- As seen in "Zoey's Extraordinary Session", on their first day, Danny Michael Davis held a competition to narrow down the slate of new programmers to two. He ultimately chose Max and Lief, but Max, knowing that Zoey was actually the better programmer and that having to deal with her mom's heart attack that day had affected her performance, insisted that Danny hire Zoey instead of him (he later ended up at SPRQ Point anyway after Danny fired his own cousin). For a long time, everyone knew this except Zoey.
- Meaningful Name: His last name is Richman, and his dad (a very successful dentist) actually is rich. Enough so that he can afford to throw money at Max and Mo's restaurant venture even though he doesn't think it'll succeed (which pisses Max off enough to tell him to keep his money).
- Nice Guy: A consistently nice person and supportive friend, especially to Zoey. When he does get upset, it’s usually with good reason and he tries to talk it out maturely sooner or later.
- Nice Jewish Boy: He's the "guy next door" type of love interest and a nerdy coder who mentions his Jewish upbringing.
- Not Good with Rejection: His nice guy persona falters when he feels rejected. When Zoey tries to put distance between them after discovering his feelings, he takes immediate offense to it, and later when he tells her how he feels via flash mob he gets angry that she didn't respond positively to this. As time goes on his resentment towards Zoey not reciprocating leads him to lashing out, and even siding with Ava and the Sixth Floor during the "bake-off" explicitly because Zoey pulled a I Want My Beloved to Be Happy when he was offered his dream job on Floor 6 rather than fight for him to stay. Ironically, he's terrible at recognising when he hurts others.
- The Scapegoat: Even though it was entirely Leif who leaked code to Floor 4, Ava fires Max from Floor 6 for recruiting Leif in the first place.
- Secret-Keeper: From the seventh episode of the first season onwards; it takes some effort but eventually Zoey succeeds in convincing him that she can hear people's inner feelings through song. So far, he and Mo remain the only ones in on her secret. Ironically, this causes tensions when he and Zoey finally start dating in the second season, because Max is aware that Zoey knows what he's thinking and feeling all the time but he can't read her mind in return. Until the end of the season finale.
- Unwitting Pawn: He doesn't see that Ava clearly poached him from Floor 4 to sabotage and usurp their development of the Chirp. He obliviously says they only want him back when they want something from him when that's also the reason Ava recruited him after admitting to watching him and his work. He might have had a realization after being fired.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He has a difficult relationship with his father, and at one point sings a heart song about it. Unfortunately, even though his dad makes an attempt of sorts to bridge things between them by investing in Max and Mo's restaurant venture, it's clear he doesn't really believe in it, which is what Max actually wanted from him.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He spends the majority of season 1 convinced he's the male lead of a Rom Com. It comes crashing down in episode 7 when he learns he's a secondary character in a Magical Realism Musical Dramedy.
Leif
Leif Donnelly
Portrayed by: Michael Thomas Grant
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In season 2 he finally gets the promotion he wanted and is able to create his own development team. He brings in employees that are just like he and quickly discovers that they are unmanageable. They goof off rather than do work and will not listen to him ordering them to do work. He has to eat crow and ask Zoey for help.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts nice outwardly to Zoey but most of the songs Zoey hears him sing indicates his true intentions are less than favorable.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He's actually quite the skilled engineer, but chooses to instead goof off with Tobin most of the time. This gets him in trouble when Zoey is promoted over him for actually doing the work.
- Can't Take Criticism: A brutally honest anonymous review sends him into days worth of useless moping, which he only recovers from by assuming it was written by Zoey.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Zoey gets the promotion over him, rather than understand that it was because Zoey stepped up to the plate while he was busy slacking off and using false-friendliness to rise, he merely assumes Zoey used her gender to manipulate a bond with Joan to get the promotion. And when he sees Zoey trying to help Joan he continues to assume she's only doing it to help her career, not understanding that Zoey is just genuinely concerned for Joan.
- Foil: To Zoey. Both are super-smart and talented coders who both have a close relationship with Joan and work closely with their best friend. However though Zoey pals around with Max and Simon, she takes her job seriously, but struggles with shyness and a lack of self-esteem. Leif meanwhile prefers to mostly use worktime as a social gathering (hard at work only when Joan or other SPRQ Point higher-ups sans Zoey are present), and is an outgoing and a seemingly affable sort. While Zoey is an empathetic person who is distracted from her work by her need to help others, Leif actively only works to his own advantage and will sabotage or manipulate others any chance he gets, all just to rise up in the company. Lastly, while Zoey's relationship with Joan is an honest friendship born from Joan's admiration of Zoey's potential and Zoey's concern for her feelings, Leif's relationship with her is built on taking advantage of her while she's drunk and vulnerable, then seduces her so he can worm his way up.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Though he hides it better than Tobin, he's a very sexist person. Rather than be played as a Straw Misogynist, however, he's played for uncomfortable realism where he constantly undermines Zoey and refuses to take her abilities or authority seriously, and takes personal insult when she's promoted above him. He tries to hide his opinions from the 'polite' work environment, but it's made clear from his songs and actions, as well as his peer review of Zoey, that he holds her in strong contempt. He initially also doesn't hold much respect for Joan, either, instead seeing her as a means to rise up the corporate ladder and holds greater respect for her ex-husband.
- Ignored Epiphany: When Zoey is promoted above him, he could have realised this was a sign he was goofing off too much and wasn't working hard enough, but since he believes he's better than she is and deserves the promotion it must mean Zoey manipulated her way to the top and he has legitimate reason to conspire against her now. When a peer review criticises his lazy attitude and obvious two-faced nature, rather than understand he needs to improve on these points he assumes someone hates him and, after Zoey tries to encourage him to build off of it, he assumes it was her. Ironically, this cheers him up because, in his mind, it confirms that Zoey is as two-faced as he is and demonstrates a strange workplace Villain Respect because of it. (It was actually Joan who wrote the review.)
- Not Good with Rejection: When Joan ends their relationship in the interest of keeping things professional, he jumps ship to help Ava’s team in the race to finish the Chirp. Subverted when he turns out to be a voluntary mole, passing code through Tobin to help Joan’s team and hopefully win her back.
- Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Zoey discovers through her ability that his relationship with Joan is purely so he can climb the corporate ladder. Though, unfortunately for him, he eventually starts liking her for real.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks he's hot stuff and that Zoey was promoted over him because of sexism. In actuality he's a bit of a slacker Jerkass.
- Unknown Rival: Until she got her heart song ability, Zoey had no idea Leif not only didn't like her, but was actively conspiring against her to rise up. She merely thought they were work friends who had a mutual desire to succeed and rise up, and she's clearly taken aback when she realises he's actually a closet Jerkass.
Tobin
Tobin Batra
Portrayed by: Kapil Talwalkar
A member of the engineering team and best friends with Leif.
- Bollywood Nerd: Not particularly notable considering he works at a tech company, but he mentions growing up as an Indian immigrant and having to study hard to assimilate.
- Character Development: Initially coming off as a shallow, immature jerk, he later starts trying to take his work more seriously and grows less antagonistic to Zoey.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Played for Laughs when first mentioned, but apparently he has a history of criminal hacking and is actually quite infamous for it, and claims to have spent time in jail as a result. Zoey had apparently heard of him before she met him and was very impressed with his rep, even.
- Hidden Depths: Zoey lampshades that he constantly surprises her.
- Though everyone's songs tend to be this, it's shown explicitly with him that while outwardly he's a goofy sexist jerk making crude jokes, he's privately hurting really bad that Leif is putting distance between them.
- He also admits that as a child he felt like an outsider because he was a young immigrant from India that other kids picked on, and much of his current behaviour is likely a result of a lifetime of rejection. He plays this off briefly as a joke to explain his sexism, but admits to Leif that he holds their friendship so highly because of it. Come Season Two, in the fallout of Simon's public denouncing of SPRQ Point's culture, Tobin is revealed to be a full-blown Sad Clown, using his humor to mask the real pain and isolation he feels over being the only person of color on his programming team, and one of the few in the company overall.
- He’s both fluent in and fond of ASL, though admits he picked it up to impress a girl at first.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's introduced as an immature, misogynistic "brogrammer", but slowly shows a nicer side.
- Straw Misogynist: Like Leif, he's a He-Man Woman Hater, though his sexism is far more casual and pronounced, and he throws in a lot of casual hetero-normative attitudes such as dismissing having heart-to-heart conversations and expression emotion as a 'girly' thing and generally insults Zoey for her gender any chance he can. He even claims to have a Freudian Excuse for it, that he's spent his life being rejected by women, to explain why he holds women in such low regard.
- Those Two Guys: He and Leif are a comic "jerkish rival coworker" pair who like to rag on Zoey in early episodes.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Tobin starts off the series more of an outward jerkass than Leif, but in later episodes, Tobin's jerkish behaviors are less frequent such as giving a mild What the Hell, Hero? when Zoey tricks Howie's daughter, Abigail into coming to SPRQ Point to talk to Howie to even letting go of his misogyny towards Zoey after hearing her entry on him being a legend among the hacker community and becoming a more loyal employee to her and a budding Jerk with a Heart of Gold in general.
- Ultimate Job Security: He can't go five minutes without doing or saying something that would get a person fired in a company with a functioning HR Department.
George
George
Portrayed by: Harvey Guillén
The newest hire of the 4th floor.
- Butt-Monkey: Upon his arrival, he quickly becomes the butt of jokes by the rest of the 'brogrammers', until Zoey calls them out on it.
Marketing
Simon
Simon Haynes
Portrayed by: John Clarence Stewart
The Head of Communications at SPRQ Point, who recently lost his father to suicide. He begins the series engaged to Jessica, but bonds with Zoey over their shared grief of losing their fathers.
- Big Man on Campus: Non-college, workplace variant of this trope. As a communications manager, he's an extroverted Cool Guy in a company almost all otherwise comprised of awkward nerds. It's pretty apparent everyone holds him in high regard at the company and Zoey's crush on him comes off as the shy nerd girl crushing on the BMOC, and Jessica's jealousy-born antagonism even feels like the Alpha Bitch girlfriend butting heads with her.
- Birds of a Feather: How he and Zoey become so close; they're both managers at SPRQ Point who have dead/dying fathers, and so can mutually understand what the other are experiencing in a way others can't.
- Broken Ace: He comes across as an outwardly successful alpha male, but he is emotionally broken over the loss of his father.
- Hidden Depths: When first introduced he was a happy and excitable social media manager, but Zoey discovers he's hurting over his father's suicide. This likewise applies to his view of Zoey as he saw her as a shy but happy coder before discovering her own trauma.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- He and Jessica ultimately realise that they're not working out, and so break up. However, they both hope for the best for each other, symbolised by their shared Heart Song duet, "Happier".
- In the last episode of Season One, he's shown to be jealous of Zoey and Max, but rather than be hostile, he instead decides to support Zoey no matter what. When Mitch passes, he even drops by to tell her to focus on herself, giving her a lasagne, and promises to be there for her. He's even shown later becoming friends with Max.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Simon remains unaware that Zoey has powers, even after they start dating in Season 2 (if not especially after, since knowing about her secret contributed to Zoey's "pause" with Max earlier in the season and she's worried the same thing will happen). During his at-home spa session with Max and Mo, the other two are quick to offer denials when he says he sometimes feels like Zoey can read minds.
- Nice Guy: Emotionally cheating aside, he's nothing but a friendly, affable guy who is loyal to his fiance and charming with others. Even the emotional cheating, he realises it's wrong and the two actively pull back, and it's pretty clear that he can't help but be attracted to Zoey thanks to their mutual traumas.
Leadership
Joan
Joan Bennett
Portrayed by: Lauren Graham
The Founder of SPRQ Point, who bonds with Zoey following the latter's promotion to supervisor. She is outwardly cold, but has a soft spot for Zoey, and tends to pawn off employee relations to her.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: While she's more brash and outspoken than most characters of this type, she's still an intimidating presence to most of the characters. Even after befriending her and being willing to be blunt with her, Zoey's still wary of pissing her off.
- Broken Ace: She's a hard-working career woman who's clearly good at her job as both a coder and a manager, but her relationship with her husband is a toxic mess that has made her a bit of a closet Broken Bird.
- Brutal Honesty: Leif's anonymous review, which harshly called out his attitude and performance, was written by her as an attempted wake-up call.
- Domestic Abuse: Emotionally from her husband; after years of him undermining her confidence, bullying her into taking the blame for any problem they have, and treating basic decency gestures like 'supporting her work' as a favour she had to earn, she went from being the "fun one" in their relationship to being the one who stays home while he's out partying with models. There's apparently some financial abuse too, as he had become incredibly wealthy during their marriage and would lord it over her.
- Extreme Doormat: To her husband, she put up with him constantly undermining her success, blaming her for any disagreement and constantly put her under a great deal of emotional abuse, and any time he did anything wrong she would end up apologising to him for it. Thankfully, after encouragement from Zoey she hits her breaking point and drops that toxic asshole.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She was apparently the “fun one” before her marriage, and eager for a night out to celebrate her divorce. Complete with a rendition of TikTok.
- Hidden Depths:
- She's tough, fierce, snarky, and confident... until her husband shows up, at which point she becomes an Extreme Doormat craving his approval. Zoey is shocked, and helps her stand up for herself and leave him.
- It's very strongly implied that she has no real friends, possibly in part because of her marriage. She latches onto Zoey (her subordinate) and takes her out drinking and partying because Zoey's actually nice to her and cares about her.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Zoey gradually becomes her closest friend after she helps her stand up to her husband.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Demanding and rude she may be, she genuinely cares about Zoey, and has moments of warmth towards her.
- Luxurious Liquor: She's well-off and at one point treats Zoey to 72-year-old scotch.
- Mean Boss: Downplayed. She doesn’t abuse or exploit her team, but can be brutally honest, refuse to listen and shows a poor grasp of professional boundaries. However, she does care about her employees; she steps in to help when they're understaffed and gives Zoey all the time she needs to process Mitch's upcoming death.
- Put on the Bus: Leaves in the season 2 premiere for a new job position overseas.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: To Ava, due to their professional rivalry and mutual pettiness.
- Stacy's Mom: She's twenty years older than most of the cast, but is acknowledged as very beautiful and desirable.Tobin: Sleeping with the boss is the fastest way to career advancement. I mean, I'd sleep with Joan if... No, I'd just sleep with Joan.
- You Go, Girl!: Evident from her behaviour she went through this in the past, rising up to CEO in an industry known for being unsupportive of women. She tries not to play favourites with Zoey but it's apparent she sees some of her own struggles in her and is grooming her for similar success.
Ava
Ava Price
Portrayed by: Renée Elise Goldsberry
A high-level employee that works on the sixth floor, and a rival of Joan's.
- Black Boss Lady: She's in charge as at least as many people than Joan, and is implied to have even more leverage in the company than her.
- Go-Getter Girl: An adult version. She's competitive, ambitious, and more than a little scary, but very competent.
- Passed-Over Promotion: In season 2, it's mentioned that she was also vying for the position Joan got promoted to in the season premiere, and quit SPRQ Point after Joan got the position over her.
- Put on a Bus: She no longer works on SPRQ Point as of season 2.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Has a professional rivalry with Joan, complete with an antagonistic duet!
Danny Michael Davis
Danny Michael Davis
Portrayed by: Noah Weisberg
The eccentric CEO of SPRQ Point.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: His defining characteristic. He forgot that he loves bread and gave Zoey the permission for a project BECAUSE she was weird.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Somewhat Played for Laughs, but he reveals in the last episode of season 1 that he's in trouble with several agencies, from the FCC to the CIA, and needs to 'go away' for a while. He then says he'll probably be gone longer if they raid his sister's home and find a hard drive he apparently has stashed there.
- Full-Name Basis: Most of his employees refer to him by his full name "Danny Michael Davis".
- It's All About Me: His other defining characteristic. For example, when he finally decides to do the right thing and crack down on racial bias in his company, Simon and Zoey have to remind him that it's not about him being the hero in the situation.
Friends and Family
The Clarke Family
Maggie
Maggie Clarke
Portrayed by: Mary Steenburgen
Zoey and David's mother, who retired from her job as a very successful landscape architect to take care of Mitch full time as his condition worsened.
- Career Versus Man: More of career vs sick spouse. She retired from her career when it became clear Mitch needed full time care, but returns to it as his urging, and later hires a full time caregiver.
- Happily Married: With Mitch. His illness has left her stressed and exhausted, but they are still very happy together.
- Stepford Smiler: Maggie is still supportive, kind and keeping a stiff upper-lip, but it's no secret to her family that Mitch's declining health and being his full-time caregiver (at least until Howie enters the picture) is weighing heavily on her. Zoey Lamp Shades this by telling Maggie: "There's nothing in the world more beautiful than your smile, but it's even more beautiful when it's real".
Mitch
Mitch Clarke
Portrayed by: Peter Gallagher
Zoey and David's father who has a rare neurological disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), which causes him to lose muscular faculties. He's almost completely unable to move, but after going on a new medication, he's able to communicate with the help of a keyboard.
- And I Must Scream: PSP has destroyed the majority of his mobility. He can no longer speak and can barely move, but Zoey's power lets her realize his mind is still there.
- Can Only Move the Eyes: He can't even do this in the Pilot, but later goes on medication that allows him to emote and type words.
- Facial Dialogue: Apart from his songs, this is how most of his emotions are, by necessity, displayed.
- Family Man: Dialogue indicates that he was a caring father before his illness robbed him of most of his physical abilities. His family and friends all adore him.
- Parental Love Song: As part of Zoey's power, he's able to express his lover for her with Cindi Lauper's "True Colors". In the episode "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist", Zoey returns this with Leann Rimes' "How Do I Live". after finding out Mitch's PSP is nearing the final stages.
- Secret-Keeper: He's one of the first people Zoey confesses her ability. Naturally this allows him to sing a song to comfort her.
David
David Clarke
Portrayed by: Andrew Leeds
Zoey's brother and a Public Defender for the City of San Francisco. He begins the series married to Emily, and nervous to be a father as they expect their first child.
- Aloof Big Brother: He and Zoey get along, but they have very different personalities and butt heads the way siblings do. Apparently he rubs in the fact he's a public defender quite a bit, apparently as a dig to the fact she's just a coder, though it doesn't appear serious on his part.
- Big Brother Instinct: Shown in season 2 when he tells Max that he better not hurt his sister.
- Crusading Lawyer: Unlike his wife Emily, who's specifically a corporate lawyer, David is a public defender. This means he gets less money but also gets to help people.
- Extremely Protective Child: In the season 2 finale he becomes an overprotective son when Maggie reconnects with a boyfriend from high school (who later turns out to be married) via Facebook, warning her about the possibility of a Serial Killer hiding behind a fake social media profile.
- Failed a Spot Check: When he temporarily joined Aiden's band, he somehow didn't notice the love song "Next-Door Redhead" they were rehearsing was about his sister until the performance.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: He tells Max to watch out if he hurts his sister in season 2, after the latter and Zoey hook up for the first time.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: And he's greatly ashamed of it. As a child he was apparently really into musicals and was generally not very masculine, and as an adult he still feels insecure in his masculinity because of it. When guys from work want to grab beer at a sports bar, he goes with them despite hating sports simply to fit in with the guys.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With his wife Emily; he's a fan of musicals and grew up with teddybears and generally not a very masculine guy, while she's a blunt career woman who half-jokingly calls her baby a 'tapeworm'. This actually causes marital problems, as he's self-conscious of his feminine interests because he knows she doesn't like them and he's afraid he'll be a terrible role model for his son.
- Poor Communication Kills: His biggest problem in his marriage is that he and Emily fail to communicate, leading to a great deal of frustration.
Emily
Emily Kang
Portrayed by: Alice Lee
Zoey's sister-in-law, wife of David, and a corporate defense lawyer. She's pregnant with her and David's child in the first season, and is having trouble due to their communication problems.
- Character Development: Emily initially starts off as a sarcastic, unsupportive of David's individual wants or needs and seemingly uncaring woman who resents her pregnancy (semi-jokingly calling the child a "tape-worm") and doesn't appear to want to be close with her in-laws, but as the series progresses while she maintains her sarcasm, she becomes more empathetic, supportive and is more openly affectionate and devoted more with her family, especially Maggie and Zoey to a degree.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Downplayed, but as she's pregnant, she's insecure about her body and is troubled that David isn't being intimate with her. The fact he was spending late nights at a bar with his friends rather than spending them with her didn't help.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Jenna's Foolish, as Emily is a driven career woman with dry wit and Jenna is extremely extroverted and floats from one half-formed business idea to the next. Ironically, Jenna is the older sibling but acts like a younger one.
- Hello, Attorney!: She's a very pretty lawyer, who is sexually frustrated with her husband. Somewhat downplayed as she's pregnant in the first season and a frazzled new mother in the second, and the effects on her body annoy her.
- The Lad-ette: She's a tough-talking defense attorney who hates feminine things like musical theatre, and is very blunt about her distaste for her pregnancy, calling the child a 'tapeworm' semi-jokingly.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: While David is an In Touch with His Feminine Side sort, Emily is apparently quite The Lad-ette, having originally had no interest in having a baby such that it was a big concession for her and hating musicals, never mind working in a fairly un-feminine profession. Unfortunately, he feels insecure because of it.
- Poor Communication Kills: On the receiving end of this, and is aware of it; David is being distant with her due to his insecurities about his upcoming fatherhood, but is too afraid to tell her. She can sense he's keeping something bottled up, but he won't open up and she's left to let her imagination run wild and torture her with possibilities.
Jenna
Jenna Kang
Portrayed by: Jee Young Han
Emily's older sister who has come to help Emily and David raise Miles and possibly help Maggie.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Emily's Responsible, as Emily is a driven career woman with dry wit and Jenna is extremely extroverted and floats from one half-formed business idea to the next. Ironically, Jenna is the older sibling but acts like a younger one.
- Genki Girl: She has a cheerful and upbeat personality.
Zoey's Building
Mo
Mo
Portrayed by: Alex Newell
The genderfluid super of Zoey's building as well as a professional DJ. He becomes Zoey's confidant, immediately believing in her power and wanting to figure out its rules and limitations. The fact that he knows a lot more about music than Zoey does and can identify the songs she hears for her also comes in handy.
- Ambiguous Gender: Mo, Zoey's neighbor played by Alex Newell, prefers feminine dress, but is referred to with male pronouns in-universe and played by Newell, a male actor known for his gender-bending roles. Episode 3 has Zoey tell Simon that Mo doesn't believe in labels when Simon asks about Mo's gender. Episode 4 reveals that, according to the pastor at Mo's church, Mo is genderfluid and assigned male at birth, and uses he/him pronouns. In the eleventh episode of Season 2, he tells his boyfriend's ex that he usually uses "he/him" but doesn't mind "she/her" and "they/them" either.
- Anger Born of Worry: He eventually blows up at Zoey for constantly bending over backwards to help Simon, who has been nonstop drama and emotional trouble for her since they got involved, but it's because he doesn't like seeing what it does to her, and is frustrated that she's putting herself in that situation again.
- Audience Surrogate: In terms of shipping, Mo often acts as if he's watching Zoey's romantic woes like it's a show, and expresses opinions as if he was a viewer. Mo's insight actually gives a good indicator of when a character is meant to be seen negatively.
- Big Beautiful Gender Fluid Person: Mo is big, and quite popular with suitors of all genders.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mo will snark about just about anything, but he's usually nice about it.
- The Fashionista: A big fan of flashy outfits who likes giving makeovers. He also once tried to launch his own fashion line.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They can be quite blunt and rude, and a little selfish, but it's generally not serious and they're a very caring and supportive friend. They claim that they only really care about Zoey because her superpower is interesting, but it's pretty clear this is just Mo being somewhat teasing and they show a great deal of affection and care for Zoey.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Zoey's Blue: Mo is loud and sassy; Zoey is reserved and quiet.
- Sassy Black Woman: Variant: the African-American Mo is nonbinary; he uses male pronouns and mostly presents as female. Besides that, he's more extraverted and performance-inclined than Zoey is and frequently sassily comments on her life.
- Secret-Keeper: Mo is the first person whom Zoey tells about her powers, and so far one of only two to be in on her secret (after Zoey tells Max as well in the seventh episode).
- Shipper on Deck: Mo alternates between shipping Zoey/Max and Zoey/Simon, and often acts as an Audience Surrogate, espousing the opinions shippers likely have regarding the two potential ships.
- Token Religious Teammate: He's quite religious and sings in a church choir, and has quite a lot of personal anguish due to the fact that he hasn't been able to feel comfortable presenting femininely at church.
Others
Autumn
Autumn
Portrayed by: Stephanie Styles
A barista at Zoey and Max's favorite coffee shop, who is desperately alone. She dates Max for a short while when Zoey fixes them up.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Easily one of the nicest girls you could ever meet, but when Max acts Innocently Insensitive towards her after their breakup, she lashes out.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: She feels very alone and is depressed about not having anyone to love. Zoey fixes her up with Max both to try and deflect Max's attraction to someone else, but also because she wants to help Autumn with her loneliness.
- Nice Girl: Zoey certainly thinks so, and from what we see, she's actually very emotionally mature and compassionate. Just don't be a dick to her.
- Not Good with Rejection: Zigzagged. She actually handles the breakup rather maturely and encourages Max to find what he's looking for. However, Max misconstrues how well she took it and thinks nothing of coming by her place of work the next day, acting like nothing happened. Then she has words for him.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She's a peppy and upbeat girl who dates the more levelheaded Max, but ultimately he's put off by her energy and they break up.
Howie
Howie
Portrayed by: Zak Orth
Mitch's new caregiver who bonds with Mitch as well as cares for him. He has the tendency to say what is on his mind. His heart is usually in the right place, but sometimes he has fear that he hides.
- All-Loving Hero: Besides the fact he's a care-giver, he's shown to be a very compassionate man who had previously served in Afghanistan as a medic. Despite literally seeing men die, he's still shown to have an optimistic outlook.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Eccentricities aside, he's a really good caregiver, and a great fit with Mitch.
- No Social Skills: He makes a terrible first impression on everyone but Mitch, who is entertained by his awkwardness. He doesn't convey how skilled he is at his job, provides a reference that's crumpled up, and is wearing a jumper with visible stains on it. Fortunately, their original choice turns out to be too professional, and Howie's more humane approach wins out.
- Parents as People: The relationship between him and his daughter is strained because her deafness has made him extremely determined to keep her safe, which caused her to feel like she was less of a person.
Abigail
Abigail
Portrayed by: Sandra Mae Frank
Howie's daughter, a college student studying computer science, who also happens to be deaf.- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She does not like being treated like she's incapable of looking after herself.
Eddie
Eddie
Portrayed by: Patrick Ortiz
Mo's boyfriend.- Put on a Bus: Absent from season 2 due to working overseas on a cruise.
- Satellite Love Interest: He gets very little character development beyond dating Mo.
Jessica
Jessica
Portrayed by: India de Beaufort
Simon's former fiancée.- Disposable Fiancée: Of the Latent Jealousy kind. She seems a nice enough woman at first, but she becomes extremely jealous as soon as she starts suspecting about Zoey's interest in Simon, with him eventually realizing he connects better with Zoey than with her, leading to their breakup, which also marks the last time Jessica appears on the show.
Aiden
Aiden
Portrayed by: Felix Mallard
Zoey's childhood friend and neighbour, who first appears in season 2.- Formerly Fat / He Is All Grown Up: Apparently he was quite chunky when he was a kid. When he moves back into town as a young adult, Zoey immediately notices that he's become much more attractive.
- Garage Band: He is the frontman of one, and their noise is how the Clarkes first learn that he's back in town.
- Third-Option Love Interest: Subverted. Seems like one at first, given Zoey's reaction to seeing that He Is All Grown Up and their subsequent hanging out and getting stoned together, presenting her with a third option in addition to Max and Simon. Ultimately, however, when he sings a Love Confession song at her birthday, she politely but firmly tells him that it wouldn't work because of the age gap between them and his lack of life plans.
Perry
Perry Haskins
Portrayed by: David St. Louis
A fire marshal who becomes Mo's new love interest after his breakup with Eddie.- Amicable Exes: Still on friendly terms with his ex-husband Brad (with whom he shares custody of their son and daughter), whom he introduces to Mo. Mo and Brad get along very well, too.
- By-the-Book Cop: He is very strict when it comes to fire safety enforcement, and refuses to issue the permit for Mo and Max to open the restaurant until they have corrected every single code violation he spots.
- Straight Gay: Discussed, in relation to Gayngst. Perry confesses to Mo that even after he came out, he was able to avoid some homophobia from his friends and family because he was a "masculine"-acting gay man, and that he fears the repercussions of being with someone flamboyant and gender fluid like Mo. He ultimately gets over it.
