Jason T. Conrad
- Voiced by: Mark Marten (Direct-to-video), Quinn Lord (T.V. version)
A seven-year-old boy who would much rather be at Space Camp than at his grandmum's cottage, he is the one who initially discovers the Penguins' ship in the attic (his sister discovered the Penguin figurines) and that the Penguins are alive, albeit by accidentally dropping the toy spaceship when he was trying to annoy Michelle.
At first, some of his adventures with the Penguins are his experiences only. Eventually, his sister goes with him on these missions.
Although he's smart and clever for his age, he can be a little selfish at times. Even though he'd like to be at Space Camp, he still manages to make the best out of his situation.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be bratty, mischievious and selfish, but he usually learns his lesson in the end and he does genuinely love his sister and grandma.
- Meaningful Name: His name means "healer". His figuring out the way to complete some of the missions via quoting a Bible verse can be considered as "a healing the mission of its problems".
- Mysterious Middle Initial: It's never stated what his middle initial stands for.
Michelle Frances Conrad
- Voiced by: Melissa Peterson (Direct-to-video), Claire Corlett (T.V. version)
A seven-year-old girl who is Jason's older twin sister, albeit by five minutes, she is the one who discovered the Penguin figurines (her brother discovered the Penguins' ship later on). Initially, she didn't believe Jason when he told her the Penguins are alive. She does go on an adventure with the Penguins' after her brother.
Like her brother, she typically went with the Penguins alone. Later on, she and her brother would go on missions with the Penguins together.
Just like Jason, she is smart and clever for her age. Sometimes, she thinks she knows a lot, but she comes to realize that she has a lot of lessons to learn from her penguin friends. Unlike Jason, she doesn't like wearing her glasses.
- Girlish Pigtails: The girly 7-year old Michelle has her hair in pigtails.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: She often tries to ditch her glasses in the early episodes.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Similarly to Jason, she can be arrogant, pretentious and bratty, but she means well and always learns her lesson in the end.
- The Smurfette Principle: She is the only main female character. She even lampshades it in Compassion Crashin.Michelle: And since I'm the only girl around...
- Youthful Freckles: She is a kid with a freckled face.
Grandmum
- Voiced by: Pamela Thomas (Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn original release), Annie Walker-Bright (The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka and The Amazing Carnival of Complaining original releases), Kymberly Mellen (Later releases of the first three episodes and all releases of Runaway Pride at Lightstation Kilowatt to Moon Menace on Planet Tell-a-Lie!), Ellen Kennedy (TV episodes)
The British grandmother of Jason and Michelle, her cottage is where Jason and Michelle are staying for the summer while their parents go on a business trip. She quotes a verse from The Good Book to them whenever she sees them acting up in any way, shape or form. Little does she know that every verse she quotes provides a way for her grandkids to complete missions whenever they're with the Penguins.
As you can see above, she has gone through quite the number of voice actors.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Some of her experimental dishes include jellied eel donuts (Runaway Pride at Lightstation Kilowatt) and prune trifle (The Doom Funnel Rescue).
- The Faceless: She always has something covering her face. However, her face has finally briefly appeared fully in "Moon Menace On Planet Tell-A-Lie" without anything covering it up.
- Granny Classic: Has a love of baking and knitting? Check. Wears her hair up? Check. Dishes out advice from the Bible to Jason and/or Michelle? Check.
General
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: They otherwise wear full space uniforms, but while the back of their feet have some coverings on them, their toes are left bare.
- Four-Man Band:
- Midgel is the Only Sane Man. He is not without his flaws or quirks, but he is usually the most down-to-earth member of the crew.
- Fidgel is The Smart Guy, being the standard Gadgeteer Genius of the crew.
- Zidgel is the Casanova Wannabe, if only in a way that he is the most appearance-concerned of the crew.
- Kevin is the Butt-Monkey. He stands out from the rest of the crew, even with his name and is the most common target of the show's slapstick comedy.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The arrogant Jerk with a Heart of Gold Zidgel is choleric, the cool and laidback Midgel is phlegmatic, the polite but occasionally neurotic smart guy Fidgel is melancholic and the happy-go-lucky Kindhearted Simpleton Kevin is sanguine.
- Rhyme Theme Naming: Three out of four of them are just "-idgel" with a different letter at the beginning. Kevin is the only exception.
Captain Zidgel
- Voiced by: Ron Wells (Direct-to-video), John Payne (T.V. version)
A rockhopper penguin who acts as captain of the U.F.P.S Rockhopper. He mostly does captainly things like working on crossword puzzles and ordering his crew to retreat from anything that looks remotely dangerous. He is also pretty obsessed over his physical appearance. Sometimes, when he tries to complete a mission, he just makes matters worse.
Although he isn't that good of a captain, he is a talented pianist. His piano training began when he found an ad for a piano correspondence course on his jar of Jerry Lee Lewis Rock 'N Roll Hair Parmade. The reason why he took the piano is because he can always check his appearance on its shiny black mirror-like finish.
- Brainless Beauty: He was apparently voted the most handsome space captain. He also can't think of a 7 letter word for "ship commander" despite being a captain himself, among other things.
- The Captain: Captain of U.F.P.S Rockhopper. Not exactly the best at it, though.
- Comical Overreacting: As the example below shows.Zidgel: SWEET SPAWNING SALMON, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
- Expy: He is a cross between the heroic Captain James T. Kirk and the vain Ted Baxter.
- Hairstyle Inertia: "The Doom Funnel Rescue" shows that he's had the same pompadour ever since he was a baby and "Practical Hoax" shows that he kept it when he was at the academy.
- Hammerspace Hair: Keeps his Comb here, etc...
- Insufferable Imbecile: He can be almost as oblivious, ditzy and clueless as Kevin, if not more so at times, but while Kevin is a Kindhearted Simpleton, Zidgel is very conceited, rudely dismissive, often insensitive and apathetic towards aliens he is supposed to be saving and often acts like he knows what's best when he actually really doesn't. He does ultimately mean well, though.
- It's All About Me: Pops up from time to time; he often only tries to save his own tail when a danger presents itself, in "The Doom Funnel Rescue", while everyone else is focused on helping Space Colony Doublewide, he just insists on showing his baby pictures and in "Compassion Crashin'", he suggests cancelling Michelle's birthday party so that they can throw a party for him instead after she leaves it upset.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When it comes to advice given to him on how to complete a mission, he's apathetic at best and rudely dismissive of it at worst. He even lampshades how much of a jerk he is when he says, "All it needed was one big jerk!" in "Runaway Pride at Lightstation Kilowatt". While the "Heart of Gold" part is very subtle, the Direct-to-Videos show he does mean well.
- Large Ham: Midgel lampshades this in "Fair and Square" when he holds of a picture of ham when Zidgel sings his second solo.
- "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In the promo, he tries to say "Adventure is my middle name!" It's revealed later by Midgel that his middle name is actually Loyde
- Nobody Touches the Hair: In Lazy Daze, he tells Midgel, "I don't touch your buttons, you don't touch my 'do'."
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Has a pretty rocking pompadour for a penguin. Probably justified, as he is technically an alien penguin.
- Significant Double Casting: Jason's and Michelle's dad, as heard in the pilot, is also voiced by Ron Wells and sounds a lot like Zidgel. While this may not seem important at first, it's also worth noting that this isn't the only similarity between the penguins and the Conrad family, as Fidgel bears an Uncanny Family Resemblance to Jason's and Michelle's late grandfather.
- Took a Level in Badass: In In the Big House, he manages to throw a replica of Saturn three times his size at Cavitus' ship to prevent him from escaping with the galeezel.
First Officer Midgel
- Voiced by: Greg Mills (Direct-to-video), Paul Dobson (T.V. version)"Banzai!!!" (cue bonsai tree)
An Adelie penguin who acts as the engineer and helmsman of the U.F.P.S Rockhopper. Midgel managed to land his spot on the Rockhopper crew after an early mishap at the Academy. In this mishap, he successfully constructed an emergency beacon with nothing but a karaoke machine, parts from a build it yourself theremin and a battery constructed from two large lemons, a penny, and a paper-clip.
Even though he is the first officer, he's never seen taking command of the Rockhopper due to the circumstances allowing Zidgel to remain the one in command.
He took up the acoustic base after realizing the main skills required were counting to four and standing up.
- Ace Pilot: Although his landing skills leave a lot to be desired, he still has the ability to successfully pilot the Rockhopper.
- Awesome Aussie: Has a thick Australian accent and is the Rockhopper's crew cool tempered Ace Pilot.
- Captain Crash: His landings tend to be bumpy at best, and until Jason arrived, he had never even heard of landing gear.Jason: What went wrong?Fidgel: Wrong? That was a pretty good one! Spot on!
- Deadpan Snarker: Being basically the Straight Man of the Rockhopper crew, he can be quite quippy when he wants to be, especially towards Zidgel.
- Hey, That's My Line!: He actually says this verbatim when the other members of the Rockhopper crew yell out his catchphrase in In the Big House.
- Never Bareheaded: He is never seen without some sort of headgear.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He can hold his own. Most of the time...
Doctor Fidgel
- Voiced by: Page Hearn (Direct-to-video), Lee Tockar (T.V. version)
A macaroni penguin who acts as the science officer of the Rockhopper. As such, he's responsible for doing science things like speaking in Techno Babble (he does explain it sometimes), galeezeling Jason and/or Michelle into the ship, and using his scanner to sense things.
He received his advanced doctoral degree in psycho-aeronautics, after completing his dissertation, which proved that penguins, are in fact, aerodynamically capable. They just choose to waddle instead of fly because "waddle" sounds funnier, and penguins are one of the few birds capable of sustained comedy.
Technically speaking, he's the only member of the Rockhopper crew without musical talent. To make up for this, he invented a guitar that is controlled by how he imagines he could play if he did have musical talent.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Has rather thick and bushy eyebrows as a reference to macaroni penguins' large crests.
- Ditzy Genius: Although he is a scientist, he has a horrible understanding of things like jinxes.Fidgel: (In reaction to Zidgel being jinxed) Perhaps I can remedy the situation...Midgel: No, doctor, it's a game.
- Expressive Hair: Fidgel's crests tend to droop when he's down.
- Eye Glasses: His glasses move and change shapes based on his expressions.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: His default expression.
- Geek Physiques: The scientist of U.F.P.S Rockhopper who also has the skinniest body type out of all four.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: The Rockhopper crew's smart guy who is fairly well-mannered and polite.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: In Lazy Daze:Fidgel: My dear girl, I'm a scientist, not an exterminator.
- The Smart Guy: Being the resident science officer of Rockhopper crew, he definitely counts.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Being the science officer of the Rockhopper crew, this is a given.
- Techno Babble: He often uses overly complicated sciency-sounding words to explain even simple occurrences.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like the twins' deceased grandfather.
Kevin
- Voiced by: Ron Smith (Direct-to-video), Michael Donovan (T.V. version)"Hello!"
An emperor penguin who acts as the Rockhopper's...Kevin. As such, he has various duties such as janitor, substitute pilot, and interpreter of alien languages such as the language of the light bulbs of Lightstation Kilowatt and whatever language B.I.N.G. speaks.
He trained at the Academy on a full-ride drum scholarship and spent most of his time there in the band, where his assigned rank was airman 3RD class instrumental specialist. This lead to his mistaken assignment to the Penguin space crew when somebody at the federation apparently thought that Kevin's Instrumentally specialist meant that he was good at reading instruments, not playing them. Nonetheless, he has made special contributions to each and every penguins' mission.
- Acrofatic: As stated below...Fidgel: For a big man, he's got a great vertical.
- Big Fun: The biggest and chubbiest of the Rockhopper crew and also the most happy-go-lucky and friendly.
- Genius Ditz: He had low scores at the Academy and was apparently was placed on the ship by mistake. However, he can understand the R2-D2-ish language of the light bulbs.
- Gentle Giant: The largest member of the Rockhopper crew in both height and body size and also the friendliest member, mostly quiet and just wants to be helpful.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: He is ditzy and not quite there mentally, but he is also probably the nicest and most innocent member of the team.
- Meaningful Name: His name means "kind, gentle, handsome". Although he isn't exactly handsome, he is indeed kind and gentle.
- Nice Guy: While not without his faults, Kevin is consistently the kindest and most easygoing member of the Rockhopper crew.
- No Brows: The only member of the Rockhopper crew to not having any visible eyebrows, which adds to his goofy look.
- Odd Name Out: The other penguins' names ends with "-idgel".
- The Quiet One: Kevin doesn't speak much, and when he does, his sentences are only a few words long.
- Simpleton Voice: Has a deep and goofy-sounding voice, quite similar to Patrick Star, albeit with a British accent.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: His Establishing Character Moment in the very first episode, after the rest of the crew are introduced and their jobs explained, Jason asks what Kevin does, and at that moment Kevin accidentally gets himself sucked into a vacuum cleaner, and Zidgel says "Uh, mostly he just does that." He actually was assigned to the ship by mistake, as somebody thought he was trained in reading instruments, he actually was trained in playing musical instruments, but they kept him on the ship anyway to do various jobs and because he often proves to have useful skills on mission, such as in a few episodes where he translates alien languages.
