Character sheet for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Kimmy vs. The Reverend.

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Main Characters

Kimmy

Kimmy Schmidt

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/00211.jpg

"Smile until you feel better. I call it Kimmying, watch!"

The titular character, she was trapped alongside three other women in an underground bunker for fifteen years after being kidnapped by an insane religious cult leader and told the world had ended. After being rescued and seeing that the apocalypse had, in fact, not occurred, she decides that instead of going back to Indiana (where she knows she'll be treated like a victim), she'll start a new life in New York. She's always smiling and is a general source of light to the people around her.

Age-Inappropriate Dress: Since she was kidnapped in middle school and wore old-fashioned dresses the entire time she was in the bunker, she wears bright, childish clothing (such as light-up sneakers and floral pants). It is lampshaded at one point, with someone saying she "wears clothes for children".
All-Loving Hero: She's willing to help out anyone no matter how much of a jerk they are to her initially. This is deconstructed in season 2. Andrea and Lillian tell her that she needs to take a serious look at her own underlying problems, such as her anger and abandonment issues and learning that giving up can be healthy for her.
Badass Adorable: She's a naive and cheerful woman, who can easily kick your ass in a fight.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's incredibly strong for her size and can easily fight a grown man. In one episode, she takes on two people while drugged up on anesthesia. Also, in season 2, when Lillian pretends to leave her at the deli to illustrate a point to Kimmy, Kimmy flips and goes on a rampage through the store.
Big Sister Instinct: She seems to be very protective of the other mole women, Cyndee in particular. For example, in the first episode, when the SWAT team starts breaking down the door, Kimmy immediately shoved the other women behind her and tried to shield them.
Book Dumb: Kimmy is ^note clearly intelligent but being kidnapped at the age of fourteen and forced to spend the next fifteen years in a bunker has left her education unsurprisingly stunted. It bites her right back when she gets an athletic scholarship to Columbia but ends up failing out. An alternate universe where she was never kidnapped has her graduate college as valedictorian, further cementing that she genuinely has some smarts.
Characterization Marches On: Season 1 Kimmy is pretty smart, and her cluelessness is caused by her having been out of touch with the rest of the world for fifteen years. Flash forward to season 3, and she is genuinely obtuse to the point where Xan's first-season (and at the time unjustified) complaint that "it's like talking to a chicken!" feels all too accurate. The season 3 finale comes right out and states that she is not very intelligent, though it still credits her with "emotional intelligence."
Charles Atlas Superpower: She's portrayed as, while not superhumanly so, stronger than any lady of her stature should be. Justified by the Training from Hell she did in the bunker where she'd continuously work the "mystery crank" so the other Mole Women wouldn't have to. She also spent an unspecified amount of time lying on her back holding up a table with her thighs.
Consistent Clothing Style: Her outfits are usually brightly-colored and brightly-patterned.
Cool Big Sis:
- Was this to Cyndee during their time in the bunker. She even play-acted dates with her, playing the role of Cyndee's crush to keep her spirits up. This comes to a head in season 2 when she manages to stop Cyndee from marrying her gay childhood crush.
- Eventually becomes one to her younger half-sister Kymmi.
Cute Bruiser: Her self-sufficiency extends into physical confrontations as well.
Xan: I want to fight you.
Kimmy: No, you don't. I would destroy you.
The Cutie: She is adorable and has a positive outlook in life, specially to prove that 15 years of Break the Cutie weren't enough to fully ruin her.
Cult Defector: She escaped from a guru who made her and two other women fear the End of Times.
Determinator: The show is named "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" for a reason.
- The most obvious example is the fact that despite living over half her life in a cult, she survived with her sanity intact. The Reverend repeatedly failed to break her spirit, and she never stopped looking for proof that he was lying to them.
- Deconstructed on a few fair occasions, where Kimmy's utter refusal to give up sometimes causes more problems than it solves. At one point, Lillian tells Kimmy that she should give up on Dong because it would be a lost cause, and save her hope for something worthy.
Disappeared Dad: The only thing Kimmy knows about her real dad is that his name started with either an "S" or a "5".
Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: Soon after Kimmy is hired as a nanny for Jacqueline's kids, she is tasked with planning a birthday party for her son Buckley. Thinking that he likes superheroes, she throws him a hero themed party, except it turns out that Buckley actually likes supervillains. Fortunately, her friend Titus works as a knockoff Iron Man impersonator on Broadway. She has him over so that Buckley can beat him up with baseball bats and gold clubs. To quote Titus on it: "I've made less for worse".
Endearingly Dorky: Handles almost everything with adorably childish enthusiasm. While others are a bit put off by this, they acknowledge that she's a positive influence and are glad to have her in their lives.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: The normally cheerful and childlike Kimmy has nothing but utter contempt towards Reverend Wayne Gary Wayne, for kidnapping her and locking her in a bunker for 10 years. She initially didn't want to go to his trial because she wanted to dissociate herself from him, only relenting when it went in his favor. In the interactive movie, there are three situations where she straight up murders him (leading to a Downer Ending).
Fish out of Water: Naturally, living in an underground bunker for years has left her without a working knowledge of modern society. She's not as bad as other examples though, as fifteen years is not quite enough to make her completely socially inept.
Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Played With. She is apparently legally married to Reverend Wayne and initially wants nothing more than to divorce him, but then becomes this when she realizes she can milk the proceedings for money.
Genki Girl: Incredibly motivated and perpetually perky.
Girly Bruiser: Very girly and cutesy, but can pack a mean punch.
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: She has a general refusal to swear.
Heroic BSoD: Suffers a long-overdue one during Cyndee's wedding. It's apparently the first time she's cried since leaving the bunker.
Hidden Depths: Despite her Pollyanna-ish qualities, she is seen to have been the most skeptical of the Mole Women, presenting her captor with a live rat and asking him angrily how, if all life on the surface has been exterminated, he can explain it. She's also pretty quick to throw punches.
Living Emotional Crutch: Steadily becomes one for Jacqueline.
Missing Mom: Her mother disappeared during her captivity. She's reunited with her in the second season finale.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Played by the slender Ellie Kemper, but has prodigious strength that amazes her buffer Columbia rower friends due to spending all that time turning the crank in the bunker.
Nice Girl: She's quick to help out everyone she meets.
Only Sane Man: A zig-zagged example as no one who has spent fifteen years living in a bunker can be entirely sane, but her lack of exposure to the modern world has prevented her from getting broken by it like every other character has, making her serve as a voice of reason and The Conscience for several of her friends.
Perpetual Smiler: It's rare to see her without a massive grin across her face, and when you do, she'll put another one on in no time.
Plucky Girl: Her whole outlook is based on being unfailingly cheerful and not letting anything get her down.
The Pollyanna: She refuses to let anything keep her down for long. Later explored and deconstructed, since it's a psychologically unhealthy coping mechanism. Part of her arc in season 2 is learning to feel anger and sadness.
Rape as Backstory:
- Kimmy admits to Titus that the Mole Women experienced sexual assault. Her violent responses to men touching her suggest that she was traumatized by the Reverend's sexual abuse.
  Kimmy: Yes, there was weird sex stuff in the bunker.
- In season 3, another character describes Kimmy's situation with the Reverend as a Noel Coward play, and Kimmy quips back that it would apply "if Noel Coward really was a coward who rapes everybody."
Red Is Heroic: The only significant redheaded character and also the only one with any particularly heroic qualities.
Rags to Riches: Starts out a broke nobody in New York, and through sheer pluck and determination, becomes a hugely successful children's book author.
Rags to Royalty: The interactive special takes her Rags to Riches status further, as she's about to marry an English prince.
Scholarship Student: She attends Columbia University on a rowing scholarship.
Stepford Smiler: A downplayed example - Kimmy's perky and enthusiastic personality for the most part is genuine, but it's also shown that her experiences in the bunker affected her more than she lets on.
Two Decades Behind: All of her cultural references are from the '90s, as she spent all of the 2000s and half of the 2010s living in a bunker.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: She has a very optimistic view of the world which the show treats as naive but admirable.
Womanchild: She's 29 years old when she's first introduced, but she's still mentally thirteen in many ways, as a result of being kidnapped at that age and living in a bunker for fifteen years.

Titus

Titus Andromedon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stills1_0013.jpg

"I'm pretty but tough like a diamond. Or beef jerky in a ball gown."

Played By: Tituss Burgess

One of Kimmy's first post-bunker friends as well as her roommate, he has been living in New York for years. After having given up on his singing dreams due to financial troubles, Kimmy convinces him to follow his dream again.

All Gays are Promiscuous: Well, he tries to be at least. Not many are interested in him any more.
All Gays Love Theater: Titus certainly does. He has auditioned for the Lion King musical many times and even tried to make his own production.
Amicable Exes: Initially, not at first with Vonda (though being abandoned mere moments after their wedding gives her one hell of a good reason to be angry). At the end of the episode, the two reconcile with a duet at a train station.
Attention Whore: To the point where being the star of an embarrassing auto-tuned music video completely swells his head.
Big Eater: Eating three pizzas by himself is a common occurrence for him.
Breakout Character: Very quickly became the runaway favorite of the main cast, causing his screen time to balloon in the second and third seasons.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Useless slob he may be, but the dude can sing. It's suggested that it was simply bad luck that kept him from going anywhere in his youth, and his following failures were simply a result of him giving up immediately after he failed to attain instant success.
Camp Gay: Very much so. Gets a Lampshade Hanging, because his natural tendency for this it makes it hard for him to be cast in roles outside of the funny gay friendinvoked. He ends up getting coaching so that he can pass off as Straight Gay.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While normally a useless wimp, he was previously an all-state champion football player, and very rarely gets to show off that he's retained some of his former skill.
Cure Your Gays: As a young man, he was sent to a special camp for boys who were too "musical". By Titus' account, it was a "total bangfest".
The Cynic: Begins the series quite jaded after his dreams didn't really take off.
Everyone Has Standards: Titus may go to desperate lengths to secure acting jobs, but even he has limits. In season 3, he refuses to have sex with a Sesame Street executive and his puppet in exchange for a lucrative role.
Famous-Named Foreigner: His Japanese alter ego is named Murasaki.
Freudian Excuse: A ridiculously absurd one, but still an excuse nonetheless. He has vivid memories of all of his past lives throughout history, each of whom spent their entire lives futilely chasing their dreams. The repeated failures throughout his multiple reincarnations have resulted in Titus adopting the apathetic defeatist mentality that causes him and his friends so many problems.
Future Loser: He was the Big Man on Campus in high school and is now an overweight actor who has never actually done any acting work. Subverted in that Titus hated his high school days, because he had to constantly hide his real personality (eg, by playing sports and dating women when neither held any interest for him).
Gratuitous French: He speaks fake French to act as if he belongs in an upscale cafe and titles his song "Pinot Noir".
Grew a Spine: In the second episode of season 1, he rounds up other costumed performers. With Titus as their leader, they demand that a stingy novelty shop owner return the money he owes them.
His Own Worst Enemy: Whenever life is going well for Titus, he sabotages himself. Kimmy accuses him of being afraid of succeeding.
- In season 2, when Mikey shows himself to be a genuinely good man, Titus breaks up with him because he fears that Mikey won't stay. Fortunately, the two reconcile and develop a loving relationship.
- After finding a job with a steady income at the horror-themed restaurant and rising to the rank of manager, Titus suddenly quits. Kimmy calls him out for his irresponsible decision.
- At the climax of season 2, Titus finally earns a role in a cruise theater performance, the break he's been waiting for. At the bus station, however, he boards a bus to Titusville instead of Miami, where the cruise will depart. Titus eventually realizes that he will waste his life if he doesn't take this opportunity, and returns to Miami to board the ship.
It's All About Me: It's not that he doesn't care about other people, it's just that he's so utterly self-centered that he downplays, ignores or outright doesn't realize that he's not the only person in the world with problems, wants and needs. Part of his character development in season 2 involves moving past this and learning to at least occasionally make sacrifices for other people. That's not to say he ever loses the attitude entirely — even though he'll be there for Kimmy, it's still apparent that he puts his own needs above hers and often only half-pays attention to what's going on with her. In season 4 he even managed to act in DJ Fingablast's documentary, even playing Kimmy in the bunker in one scene without ever realizing what the acting job was even about.
I Was Quite the Looker: He was a lean Pretty Boy in his youth and continues eny the fact that he isn't one any more. This is something of an Informed Attribute, as Tituss Burgess still plays him in all flashbacks to his youth, with the only change from his modern appearance being a comically fake-looking flat top.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a pretty terrible roommate who relies on Kimmy to pay all of the rent and is filled with nothing but put downs, but he quickly comes to see Kimmy as a friend and is very supportive of her overall.
Kavorka Man: For a selfish, out of shape and borderline destitute guy, he's gone out with some very cute men. Played with somewhat due to the fact that Mikey, his longest-running and most serious love interest, is fairly average-looking himself.
Large Ham: He's an incredibly campy aspiring thespian, so it's a given.
The Load: He's almost never any help to Kimmy, and frequently requires her to bail him out of his own problems.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: He shows a great command of Japanese in his one-man show, when he sings traditional Japanese songs in a moving manner. Did he simply do his research, or can he really remember his past life as the geisha Murasaki?
Mentor in Queerness: To Mikey, who comes out later in life and has no idea how to be gay. Titus introduces him to gay mannerisms and hobbies, and then later breaks up with him so he can experience other romances.
Neet: After he failed to achieve his dreams, he spends almost all of his time inside watching TV and eating, only leaving his apartment for a few hours a day to hand out flyers for a handful of quarters. Kimmy has steadily pushed him out of this.
The Nicknamer: Has a different nickname for Kimmy every time he has to say her name.
Occidental Otaku: Implied in season 2. He puts on a one-man show as a geisha, owns a kimono and speaks fluent Japanese.
The One Guy: The only male member of the main four.
Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: Revealed at the end of the first season, when his wife Vonda appears in Indiana after discovering that Titus was alive and well.
Raised by Grandparents: He was raised by five aunts in his hometown, with no current mention of what happened to his parents.
Scary Black Man: Played for Laughs. Titus is one of the least intimidating figures imaginable. But when he needs to deal with a group of white teenagers, he simply charges toward them, angrily yelling "what'd you just call me?", and the kids scatter in fear.
The Slacker: He hates doing work and even complains to Kimmy when he has to leave their apartment more than once a day.
Small Name, Big Ego: While he's willing to admit his failings when under pressure, Titus generally acts much more egotistical than you'd expect an unemployed overweight actor to.
Twofer Token Minority: Black and Gay. Lampshaded when he realizes he's getting old as well - he won't know what box to check on the Hate Crime form.
Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: While you certainly feel for him at times, his self-involved and lazy attitude, combined with his ridiculously over the top mannerisms, will also certainly make you want to smack him in the face.
With Friends Like These...: He likes Kimmy, but he's generally lazy and has a bad habit of letting her down for his own benefits.
Yellowface: In season 2, episode 3, he puts on a one-man show as a geisha. Subverted as his performance was respectful and moving, thereby pacifying his detractors.
Younger Than They Look: While his actual age isn't specified (he's implied to be in his late thirties), he is mistaken for an old man due to the horrendous shape he is in multiple times.

Lillian

Lillian Kaushtupper

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9932bd5daa352322af61f61c25e030de.jpg

"Hey, can I borrow a cup of flour? Some white kids outside want cocaine... "

Played By: Carol Kane

Kimmy and Titus' landlord. Very friendly to both of them and often accompanies Titus on his adventures, although she's a bit odd, either due to old age or drugs or just being weird in general.

Ambiguously Evil: She is repeatedly hinted to be a psychopathic murderer, but nothing ever comes of it and she is overall pretty pleasant.
Berserk Button: Gentrification. She fears that incoming hipsters will drive up property values, making the rent unaffordable for the neighborhood's original residents. In season 2, she handcuffs herself to construction equipment to protest the trend.
Catchphrase: "Run, Lillian!"
Celebrity Paradox: Carol Kane played Detective John Munch's first wife. A clip of an episode of Law & Order: SVU is seen with Richard Belzer as Detective Munch.
Character Development: Season 3 has her dealing with moving on from her dead husband and accepting the changes to the neighborhood as not only inevitable, but also good for her and the people there, since there is such a thing as good changes.
Character Focus: As of season 2, she starts having her own plotlines. Season 2 has her facing against hipsters and the attempts of gentrification in the neighborhood, gaining a lot of focus in several episodes and even ending with the cliffhanger of being asked to run for mayor of New York.
Cloud Cuckoolander: She says a lot of non-sequiturs, though it is heavily implied that everything she says is completely true.
- The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: Probably a coincidence, but she was right when she said high heels were invented by men.
Cool Old Lady: She's very odd, but also warm and supportive of Kimmy from the moment she meets her.
December–December Romance: With Artie.
Drop-In Landlord: She's a kooky older woman who owns the basement Kimmy and Titus live in, and frequently hangs around to commentate on their affairs.
Female Misogynist: She doesn't seem to take women seriously, not being able to take news from one and not believing any woman ever invented anything.
Happily Married: While her husband was alive. Even if she killed him by accident.
The Heart: When Kimmy gets lost, she takes this role. Most prominent in "Kimmy Loses Hope".
Innocently Insensitive: At times. It is even why she lost her husband: she thought a black man entering her room had to be a burglar and shot him in the face.
Intergenerational Friendship: Mostly with Titus who she interacts with the most, but also shades of it with Kimmy. She later develops this with Jacqueline as well.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a self-involved, narrow-minded swindler but also genuinely cares about both Kimmy and Titus.
Odd Friendship: With Jacqueline, specially as she hates rich people and sophistication in general.
Shipper on Deck:
- She supports Kimmy/Titus, despite knowing that Titus is gay.
- Later on supports Mikey/Titus, and is instrumental in getting Titus to accept that Mikey is different than all his other flings.
Street Smart: She understand the streets better than anyone else, knows every place and everyone in the neighborhood and even the gangs, at one point even advising Kimmy against wearing yellow not to be mistaken as one of the "Banana Boys".
Swiss-Army Weapon: Her handy hammer, which she mentions to be a key, a bus pass and a hammer. When she decides to deal with a problem Kimmy has with someone else, she brings the hammer with her.
Team Mom: Lillian denies having any maternal instincts whatsoever, but she clearly cares deeply for both Kimmy and Titus, and tries to keep them both steered on the right track.

Jacqueline

Jacqueline White (formerly Voorhees and Snyder)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stills1_0007.jpg

"I'm not running a charity here, except the one where I donate my old towels to poor people with the same initials as me."

Played By: Jane Krakowski

The rich wife of Julian Voorhees, as well as mother to Buckley and stepmother to Xanthippe, she is a vapid, rather ditzy woman who hires Kimmy to be a nanny for Buckley and generally work for them. She and Kimmy become friends, despite a rocky start.

Ambiguously Bi: Only "ambiguous" because it hasn't been outright stated, but she has expressed an attraction to Kimmy multiple times, and has a large amount of tension with her nemesis Deidre. She has instigated an Almost Kiss with both. She also maybe had sex with Russ' grandma's ghost.
The Baby Trap: Implied to have used it and recommends it to Kimmy.
Broken Bird: Kimmy immediately recognizes her as one, and she seems to make it a secondary goal of hers to get her out of it.
Character Development: Zigzaged in season 2. While she is far more determined, with nobler goals than just being rich and has better relations with her origins, she can still be a self-centered jerk. She gets even better in season 3, where she dedicates herself to several causes and manages to thrive by herself, since Russ is in the hospital, and breaks up with him once he shows no more interest in helping her out in her causes.
Jacqueline: "[My reward] was knowing that I am smart and strong and I can do anything. I cooked, I had sex with your grandmother's ghost. You know, the Jacqueline who made that video would have loved this Russ. But we're going in different directions.
The Chessmaster: Against her nemesis Deidre, her ultimate plan to stop her charity event was use the mistresses of the rich man in the party to lure them to her own gala.
Dumb Blonde: Not a natural blonde but certainly dumb. When Kimmy leaves for a few days Jacqueline is unable to figure out how to unzip one of her own dresses and seems very hazy as to what her maid does with the trash ("Does she eat it?")
Failed a Spot Check: When she and Lillian are driving to Durnsville in "Kimmy Makes Waffles!" while Jacqueline is mentally reconnecting with her Lakota roots, she observes geese flying south to determine which way is west. She completely fails to notice a road sign right in front of the car that indicates they are already going west.
Foil: She, like Kimmy, is an innocent woman who is frequently taken advantage of by other people. Unlike Kimmy, who has an iron will, Jacqueline immediately submits to their authority. In fact, she is shown to actively seek out these kinds of relationships due to her fear of failing to make it on her own.
Gilded Cage: Kimmy sees her as a kindred spirit due to her being just as trapped within her marriage as she was in the bunker.
Gold Digger:
- She became a flight attendant specifically to meet rich businessmen in the hopes of marrying one.
- Subverted in season 2, when Jacqueline actually falls for a wealthy lawyer whom she originally plans to marry for his money.
Hands-Off Parenting: At the beginning of the series, she interacts with her son and stepdaughter infrequently, and refuses to discipline them to boot. Subverted slightly in season 2, as her relationship with Buckley begins to get better. She plays Transformers with him and nurtures his maniacal impulses.
Hayseed Name: Her birth name is Jackie Lynn White, and she grew up in rural South Dakota. As a New York socialite, she now goes by the more sophisticated-sounding Jacqueline.
Hiding Your Heritage: She's a Native American (Lakota specifically), but presents herself as white in order to advance in society.
Hypocrite: Julian was a married man when she first began her affair with him. After marrying him and discovering his infidelity, she's furious.
Idle Rich: Especially in season 1, where she basically had no life outside of attending high society events. She attempts to avert this in season 2, trying to use her social clout to help her Native American family's tribe. Granted, the rest of her social circle doesn't care, but it's the thought that counts.
Innocently Insensitive: She's actually a rather nice woman, just too spoiled and self-involved to understand the problems of others or to hide her lack of interest.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ironically, as self-centered and self-involved as she can be, she actually sometimes shows she's capable of caring about other people. Hell, the reason she went back to New York was to try to raise money to help her family's tribe.
Odd Friendship: With Lillian, who is kooky and unsophisticated.
Refuge in Audacity: Changes the name of the Redskins in season 3 by convincing everybody that it's easier to make money off the people that are angry at them rather than the fans, since they burn merch and need to buy more in every protest. Jacqueline shows that they get even more money by pissing off a larger minority than native-Americans, so the Redskins become the "Guntakers".
Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: On meeting Kimmy, she takes a bottle of water from the fridge and asks Kimmy if she'd like some water. When Kimmy says no, rather than put the unopened bottle back in the fridge, she tosses it in the bin without missing a beat.
Rags to Riches: While flashbacks show that her family was comfortable, Jacqueline considered life on a reservation to be a dead end so she moved away, cut ties with her past (to the point of pretending to be Caucasian when she's really Lakota), and became a rich man's trophy wife. Subverted in season 2, when Jacqueline becomes relatively poor due to her divorce... "Relatively" in the sense that the divorce left her with $12 million. Jacqueline's desire to break back into her one-percenter social circle (and her idiotic insistence on immediately spending about $11 million to keep up appearances) does leave her cash-strapped as season 2 goes on.
Riches to Rags: Following season 3, she now has to fend for herself as Titus' agent. She finds out the hard way he is the hardest client to find jobs she could ask, being that he gathered a bad reputation, so she has no money and depends on Titus' inexistent income as her only client. In early season 4, it's revealed she's been living on Kimmy's office, due to renting her apartment to gather some more money.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: In season 4, she sets up shop at a Giztoob desk and never leaves, despite not working there. Knowing Zach, he likely didn't want to deal with her.
Trophy Wife: At least she was one previously. Fully gives up on this by season 3.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: After her asshole husband Julian cheats on her and she divorces him, Jacqueline finds herself falling for Russel, who, while not handsome or charismatic, is an honest man who uses his job as a lawyer to help those that can't help themselves. It's when he explains his reasons for becoming a lawyer that Jacqueline stops seeing him as a Meal Ticket and starts seeing him as a true potential partner. She breaks up with him when he starts becoming shallow and egocentric with his newfound good looks. And whether her eventual suitor, a talent agent whose actions to undermine Jacqueline lead to both developing Belligerent Sexual Tension, counts as "good" is up to you.
Weak-Willed: Has a bad habit of instantly submitting to the will of any male authority figure, this gets fully subverted by season 3, where she grows into a starter Determinator.

Savior Rick's Spooky Church of the Scary Apocalypse

The Reverend

Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne a.k.a. Methuzalophsteron

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wayne_richard_wayne_gary.jpg

"The only book I ever read was The Good Book. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton."

Portrayed By: Jon Hamm

The senior prophet and CFO of Savior Rick's Spooky Church of the Scary Apocalypse and is responsible for kidnapping Kimmy Schmidt and three other women, holding them captive for 15 years.

Apocalypse Cult: He's the leader of his own self-made apocalyptic cult, although the members are all kidnapped women with only one true believer.
Big Bad: Richard is the man who originally kidnapped Kimmy, and is a recurring force of antagonism throughout her life. Even when he doesn't appear, his presence is strongly felt.
Beware the Silly Ones: He has a goofy persona in keeping with the tone of the show, but like the show itself, there's a lot of darkness hiding under that silliness. The Reverend is still the monster who imprisoned four women, raping them repeatedly for years and keeping them in fear through psychological torment.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Good god yes. At his trial he effortlessly wins over everyone apart from Cyndee and Kimmy, simply by showing up clean-shaven, talking a lot about God (although he refers to the creator as 'Gosh') and bursting into song every so often.
The Charmer: He's very charismatic.
Titus: He is wonderful! I mean he's a bad person but he sure is watchable.
The Bus Came Back: Calls Kimmy in the end of season 2, to tell her he wants a divorce and that he met someone else.
Draco in Leather Pants: An In-Universe example. Rev. Wayne is so handsome and charismatic that people continue to fall for him even while he's on trial for kidnapping teenage girls. The show itself, however, makes it clear that he is a creep and an awful human being.
The Faceless: We hear him speak, but we never get a clear shot of his face until his trial, where it turns out He Cleans Up Nicely.
Faux Affably Evil: He's superficially charming, but there's no disguising his evil.
For the Evulz: In the interactive special, Kimmy asks him why he kidnapped her and the other Mole Women, and he replies "because I could."
Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity: His personal hero is Donald Trump. He desperately wanted to be on The Apprentice.
Hate Sink: As funny as he is, the show makes it clear that the Reverend is still a manipulative and psychopathic rapist who kept several women locked up in a basement for literally no reason. It's very telling that he is one of the few people that Kimmy genuinely, and rightfully, loathes.
He Cleans Up Nicely: With a beard, looks like a crazy cult leader. Without it, he looks like Jon Hamm.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Double Subverted. The Mole Women initially find a videotape locked in his safe, and initially assume it to contain incriminating evidence, only for it to include a general load of nonsense, karate practice and auditions for The Apprentice. Kimmy only chooses to play it at the trial out of desperation and even then it seems to only make him look good in front of everybody. Only when Gretchen calls him a "son of a bitch" does Kimmy figure out the timestamp on his Apprentice audition tape implies that he didn't even believe his own preaching and is enough evidence to not just prosecute him but to make him lose his cool and lose his standing with the community as a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
Informed Ability: For all the talk of his astounding charisma, he generally comes off as not only transparently corrupt but extremely stupid. This is played for both laughs and drama, as, while he's an idiot, everyone around him is even dumber, allowing him to have no trouble manipulating them to get what he wants.
Insane Troll Logic: Most of his "defense" at trial consists of this. If he were not up against two incompetent prosecutors, dealing with a judge who is more interested in building a bird house than presiding over the case, and dealing with a fairly gullible jury, he probably would have been convicted early on.
Karma Houdini Warranty: He gets arrested at the end of Season 1 and is killed in the Grand Finale film "Kimmy Vs. The Reverend" (the viewer even had the choice of seeing him die by Kimmy's hand or that of his most recent victims).
Laughably Evil: He's an absolute scumbag to be sure, but he's amusing nonetheless.
Manipulative Bastard: In the bunker, when Kimmy insisted that she didn't believe his claims that the world had ended, and that she was willing to go out there and find out for herself, he countered by insisting that she ask Cyndee to do it, knowing that Cyndee would look up to Kimmy and do whatever she suggested. This forced Kimmy to accept that she wasn't 100% positive that he was lying, and wasn't willing to consign Cyndee to a possibly fiery death. It also worked during his trial, setting Cyndee against Kimmy when she learned that Kimmy had a chance to set them free and didn't take it.
Politically Incorrect Villain: He has pretty backwards views about women and society in general, though he seems to mostly stand by them in order to manipulate others who believe in them rather than out of any kind of genuine belief on his part.
Put on a Bus: Gets arrested at the end of season 1.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kimmy tells Titus that "weird sex stuff" took place in the bunker, suggesting that he sexually abused his captives. In season 3, he is likened to Noel Coward, "if Noel Coward really was a coward who rapes everybody."
Repetitive Name: Richard Wayne Gary Wayne.
The Sociopath: He's extremely self-centered, shamelessly uses other people for his own benefit, persuades them to allow it with superficial charm, and will happily turn on them when they're no longer useful to him.

Gretchen

Gretchen Chalker

Played By: Lauren Adams

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gretchen_uks.jpg

"I've got a clean brain, you could eat off of it"

A willing member of the cult, who believes everything she was told.

Ax-Crazy: As it turns out, without a controlling influence, she varies between nigh-homicidal hedonism and starting her own cult. Even within the cult, she was the craziest; she placed her hand on a boiler just to prove she could do anything.
Brainwashed: She entered voluntarily and is still into the cult after being freed. She shakes it off after it becomes clear he never believed his own bullshit.
Broken Pedestal: During Reverend Wayne's trial, she's the first to notice that the timestamp on the video indicates he made his video audition to The Apprentice a day before his claimed date for the apocalypse. She immediately gasps and says "you son of a bitch."
Death Seeker: In season 3, after getting tired of running a cult, she decides to make a homemade bomb to end everything.
Gretchen: Death is the eternal slumber, sister Kimmy. And mama needs a nap.
Double Standard: In-Universe, extensively so. Because she's a woman cult leader, she gets no respect from her male followers nor the FBI attempting to take her down, who rely in stereotypes like sending a gay friend with drinks to calm her down, or stopping attacks when she is crying (never mind that they threw tear gas at her). Instead of appearing as a threat to public safety, her pictures are used to be put on "Who Wore it Better" and quotes from her scripture are published on the New Yorker as a joke. After she decides to accept arrest, she decides to create a women's only cult, focused on helping each other out.
The Dragon: Of sorts to the Reverend. He doesn't care about her, but she's devoted to him and actively tries to stop Kimmy from exposing him.
Dragon Ascendant: Kimmy convinces her to start her own cult rather than join another one, pointing out that while she can't function in real life, she does have what it takes to lead rather than follow.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: She gets treated as a not real threat by the FBI, despite being a kidnapper and a cult leader with access to heavy artillery. The boys she's kidnapped also don't seem to be the least bit scared of or even interested in her, just expecting her to cater to them hand and foot.
Foil: She has Kimmy's iron will and cheerfulness, but they are used in the benefit of the cult. As of season 2, is also revealed that she can't make her own decisions while Kimmy has full control of herself and is able to live a happy healthy life.
Harmless Villain: Subverted. She is so bad at being a cult leader that she ends up spending most of her time cooking and cleaning for her kidnapping victims... but she's still heavily armed and planning to shoot everyone in sight since she can't get them to respect her.
Pity the Kidnapper: She kidnaps a bunch of teenage boys as "child brides," but finds that she can't control them at all and that she just ends up feeding and cleaning up after them. It doesn't help that she didn't even want any teenage sex slaves - she apparently just thought that as a cult leader, she was supposed to have some.
Took a Level in Kindness: She becomes much nicer following Reverend Wayne's imprisonment.
"Walk on the Wild Side" Episode: She's shown to be self-destructive and irresponsible without someone telling her what to do. Kimmy lets her do whatever she wants one night to make up for all the years that she was under the Reverend's control. Gretchen responds by eating five ice cream cones, taking in a pit bull, entering a wet T-shirt contest, getting a huge tattoo, and snorting drugs with a guy in a dirty Elmo costume. Kimmy concludes that Gretchen needs someone to tell her what to do, because she's incapable of running her own life.
Weak-Willed: Along with going really along with the Reverend's words, turns out she's really easy to convince, nearly raising her shirt to follow a song going "Put them on the glass!". This leads Kimmy to intervene wanting her to have some agency.

Cyndee

Cyndee Pokorny

Played By: Sara Chase

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cyndee_uks.jpg

"Yes. I had waited on Reverend Richard a bunch of times at a York steakhouse I worked at. And, one night, he invited me out to his car to see some baby rabbits and I didn't want to be rude so... here we are."

Kimmy's best friend from the cult.

As You Know: Parodied. Every time she and Kimmy meet, she reminds Kimmy that they were kidnapped together, while an irritated Kimmy has to point out she obviously already knows that.
Cloud Cuckoolander: She's far more naive and inept than Kimmy, who is far from savvy herself.
Foil: To Kimmy. The two of them were closest to each other when in the bunker and consider themselves sisters, but while Kimmy actively tries to escape her identity as a mole woman and live a normal life, Cyndee embraces her status as one to achieve all of her dreams. While Kimmy at first looks down on her for this, she comes to respect her decision, as it has made her happy.
Incompatible Orientation: With Brandon, her boyfriend. She knows he's gay but wants him anyway and he feels too sorry for her having lived fifteen years of her life as a molewoman.
Manchild: She still has the mentality of a middle schooler, which has had disastrous effects on her hometown.
Nice Girl: Compared to the standoffish Gretchen and the surly Donna Maria, she comes off as a sweet girl.
No Social Skills: Unlike Kimmy, it's pretty clear that she'll never be able to function in normal society after what happened to her.

Donna Maria

Donna Maria Nuñez

Played By: Sol Miranda

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donna_uks.jpg

A Mexican maid who was tricked into going into the bunker as a "job opportunity."

Earn Your Happy Ending: She ends up becoming very successful selling mole sauce, eventually becoming a member of the Mexican version of Dragon's Den.
Elective Unintelligible: She deliberately speaks only in Spanish in spite of being trapped in the bunker for fifteen years. Nonetheless, she understands English because she actually learned it two years into her captivity in the bunker.
"These bitches don’t learn any Spanish, so…"
Jerkass: Comes off as callous and indifferent most of the time. Being trapped in a bunker for 15 years with a bunch of sheltered teenagers, all of whom are varying degrees of Innocently Insensitive will do that to you.
Out of Focus: Compared to Cyndee and Gretchen, we see far less of Donna Maria. When she does finally get her Day In The Limelight in the last season, it's revealed that she intentionally avoided reconnecting with the other Mole Women, both because she didn't want to be around people who reminded her of her ordeal and because the other Mole Women never really made an effort to get to know her.
Took a Level in Kindness: If you catch her on the phone in Kimmy vs. the Reverend, she kindly gives Kimmy relationship and wedding advice (in English, too!).

Jacqueline's Family

Fern & Virgil

Fern & Virgil White

Played By: Sheri Foster & Gil Birmingham

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fern_virgil_uks.jpg

"We didn't say anything when you dyed your hair and when you got blue contact lenses or even when you started saying things like "neato" and "tennis.""

Jacqueline's Lakota parents.

Deadpan Snarker: Both of them, but Virgil in particular.
Good Parents: They tried...
N-Word Privileges: Virgil makes several jokes about Native American stereotypes.

Xanthippe

Xanthippe "Xan" Lannister Voorhees

Played By: Dylan Gelula

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xan_uks.jpg

"Stepmothers are not scary, nannies are not magical, and dwarfs do not let you spend the night at their house without expecting something."

The pretty, popular, and seemingly bratty stepdaughter of Jacqueline, who is later revealed to be hiding her high achieving, 'good girl' personality.

Attention Whore: Only lies about drinking and having sex to impress the popular kids.
Back for the Finale: She returns for the show's final episode. She is the one that reveals that Kimmy's book has become a major sensation while she wasn't paying attention as many college students were impressed by the themes in her book.
Bratty Teenage Daughter: Oh yes. Though it's gradually revealed that a large chunk of this is simply due to her desire to be appreciated.
The Bus Came Back: In season 3's "Kimmy Goes to College", where Kimmy runs into her at college.
Butt-Monkey: Kimmy will constantly show up in her life to spite her resentment of her presence and always finds a way to humiliate her.
Cassandra Truth: The only member of the Voorhees family who notices something is off about Kimmy.
Closet Geek: Secretly gets good grades and loves birdwatching. She's also a former debate champion that has participated in spelling bees.
Hidden Depths: It's revealed she has straight A's, plays the oboe in band, and has a secret bird watching hobby and is really a good kid. She fakes drinking and doing drugs around her friends as well.
Hidden Heart of Gold: Most of her bad girl attitude seems to be for show, as is mentioned above, she's a good kid who has a lot of teenage angst. She does briefly make peace with Kimmy, but after Kimmy feels it's best for her to live with her mother, she promises revenge.
Inspector Javert: Takes on this sort of dynamic towards Kimmy, who she constantly attempts to expose.
Meaningful Name: Xanthippe shares her name with the wife of Socrates, who made it a classical by-word for a harsh and difficult woman. (and add a middle name from particularly vicious family from A Song of Ice and Fire and the same surname of the serial killer from Friday the 13th...)
Preppy Name: Her name is about as pretentiously ridiculous as they come.
Put on a Bus: On season 2, she has to move in with her mother to Connecticut, due to Jacqueline and Julian's divorce.
Spoiled Brat: Not as bad as her brother though.
Wrong Genre Savvy: She put on a front as a Spoiled Brat and a Bratty Teenage Daughter in her preppy high school in order to fit in, but in college, this persona made her a social outcast who has to rely on Kimmy's popularity to even be noticed, since the people there are far more responsible, mature and from far different backgrounds, not to mention aware of the punishment for breaking rules that they can't rely on rich parents to get them off the hook.
Snark Knight: Combining teenage cynicism with disdain for people such as Kimmy, and she's often throwing mean remarks.

Buckley

Buckley Voorhees

Played By: Tanner Flood

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buckley_uks.jpg

"Can we go sit someplace quiet like a shoe store?"

Jacqueline's son.

Characterization Marches On: He seems to be generally pretty normal in his appearances in seasons 3 and 4, in stark contrast from his Enfant Terrible persona in season 1.
Creepy Child: He hates superheroes, much preferring supervillains since they get to blow up hospitals.
Enfant Terrible: His first scene has him trying to steal from a food stand and he only plays with superhero toys so he can be the supervillain. In the second episode, he repeatedly beats Titus with a bat and a golf club, pretending that he's a supervillain defeating Iron Man. His supervillain name was stated to be Professor Genocide.
Out of Focus: Despite being the reason Kimmy meets Jacqueline, he doesn't nearly get as much screentime as Xanthippe. This reverses in season 2 with Xan sent off to Connecticut.
Spoiled Brat: He makes a point of saying that he already owned every single one of the (many) toys he got for his birthday.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: A subtle case. During his birthday party, he stares sadly at his presents before telling Kimmy that he's not allowed to open his presents until his dad gets home. He also acts brattier after it's announced that his father isn't coming.

Julian

Julian Voorhees

Played By: Mark Harelik

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/julianuks.jpg

My company, Rapier Private Equity, is teaming up with the brilliant Isaye Watanabe to bring a technology to the market that will change the face of health care, the service industry, and one day, I truly believe, prostitution.

Jacqueline's often absent husband. Jacqueline is his second wife, after his first wife had the temerity to turn fifty on him.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: Quite obviously based on Donald Trump.
Put on a Bus: Never appears in season 3.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: He spends so much time working and traveling that he rarely interacts with his children. In the second episode, he didn't even bother to return to the U.S. to celebrate his son's birthday.

Kimmy's Family

Randy

Played By: Tim Blake Nelson

"Hey! What did I tell you about using sarcasm, little lady?"

Kimmy's stepfather, a very incompetent state trooper who met Kimmy's mother while searching for and failing to locate the missing Kimmy.

Bumbling Dad: To Kymmi.
Clueless Detective: He was the lead detective on Kimmy's missing persons case and is basically this trope taken to its logical extreme.
The Ditz: Far and away the dumbest character on the show. Considering a large source of humor comes from their ignorance, this is saying a lot.
I Call It "Vera": Named his gun "Oopsie."
Intoxication Ensues: Does a lot of heroin to prove he's not a cop.
Nice Guy: If there's one thing this guy is not, it's mean. He very clearly loves his daughter and cares about Kimmy. He's just too stupid to be effective and what little insensitivity he ever shows is the result of said stupidity rather than any malice.

Lori-Ann

Played By: Lisa Kudrow

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lori_an.jpg

“I just was trying to get one minute of peace on a mechanical bull.”

Kimmy's mother, a roller-coaster addict.

Adult Child: She's not very mature, having run away from her child and her family to ride roller-coasters.
Parental Neglect: Zigzagged. She didn't originally want Kimmy but then determined to keep her when she gave birth and appears to have been an decently average parent. When Kimmy was kidnapped, a lot of police and media attention painted her like this, leading her to avoid public attention, dampening her attempts to search for Kimmy, and starting her roller-coaster addiction. It comes back when it's revealed that she knew that Kimmy had been released from the bunker but had avoided contacting her because of all of the above.
Stepford Smiler: To a degree. Certainly her jovial demeanor is holding back a lot of guilt and anger.
Teen Pregnancy: She was only 17 when she had Kimmy.
Thrill Seeker: She is addicted to roller coasters, even giving birth in one!

Kymmi

Played By: Kiernan Shipka

Kimmy's sister.

Bratty Teenage Daughter: Resents Kimmy for taking over her childhood and is a right brat about it.
Freudian Excuse: The reason why she acts out is because she never quite had a life of her own thanks to her missing sister stealing all of the attention. She was even given a similar name! Also, because of Kimmy's kidnapping, Randy and Lori-Ann became very paranoid and never let Kymmi out of their sight which prevented her from making friends.
Replacement Goldfish: Her parents gave her a name that is very similar to her kidnapped sister's.

Love Interests

Mikey

"It never even occurred to me that you could play video games with a guy and watch sports with him and, like, touch butts and stuff, all in one guy!"

Played By: Mike Carlsen

A construction worker who hits on Kimmy, only to realize he's gay thanks to her response. He becomes Titus' boyfriend in season 2.

Ascended Extra: Going from two scenes in one episode in season 1, to Titus' love interest in season 2.
Coming-Out Story: First to himself over an episode in season 1 and then to his parents in season 2. They immediately accept him.
The Ditz: Dopey and easily fooled.
Fish out of Water: Has no idea how to be gay.
Love Interest: Titus' primary love interest.
Manly Gay: His sexuality hasn't really changed his interest in sports.
Nice Guy: Generally an enthusiastic and friendly guy.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man to Titus' sensitive guy. Subverted somewhat in that he's generally shown to be a much nicer and more understanding guy than Titus is.
Took a Level in Kindness: From a misogynistic wolf whistler to Titus' patient and understanding boyfriend.

Dong

Dong Nguyen

Played By: Ki Hong Lee

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dong.jpg

I don’t want to go back to Vietnam, Kimmy. It’s full of baby-boomer tourists trying to feel something.

A Vietnamese classmate in Kimmy's GED prep class.

All Asians Know Martial Arts: Parodied. He assumes that he does simply because of this trope. While it results in him breaking through a wall, Jillian reveals that it was made of cardboard covered in frosting.
Asian and Nerdy: He's very good at math, which gets lampshaded the first time it comes up.
Kimmy: He's really good at math.
Titus: That's racist.
Kimmy: ...He is good at math, though.
Titus: I didn't make the rules.
Betty and Veronica: The Betty (nice, poor, and friendly) to Logan (rich and standoffish)'s Veronica.
Citizenship Marriage: Needs one in order to stay in the US. He asked Kimmy, but ultimately she can't be reached in time when he is found and he is forced to marry Sonja.
Funny Foreigner: To a degree. His English is decent but he has a tendency to have humorous misunderstandings with Kimmy due to their cultural gap.
Insane Troll Logic: When Kimmy reveals that she learned the Olsen twins are actually four people in this universe, Dong immediately realizes this makes sense because if it took two of them to play one baby on Full House and we always see two of them in real life, then there must really be four of them.
Nice Guy: One of the only characters who never takes advantage of Kimmy, being nice to her from the moment he meets her.
The Illegal: He's constantly evading deportation.
Put on a Bus: He's arrested mid-way into season 2 and deported.
Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: He's an illegal immigrant who has to live in the restaurant he works at, in contrast to the privileged Logan.
Sham Marriage: He consents to a sham marriage with Sonja so that he can earn American citizenship. Being in a platonic marriage with a disturbed older woman is miserable for him, and he longs to be with Kimmy instead.

Logan

Logan Beakman

Portrayed By: Adam Campbell

An upscale man from a wealthy family who was interested in Kimmy.

Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Dong's Betty
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He comes off as a somewhat snobby but otherwise likable guy for the most part, but he becomes downright brutal once he learns of Dong's crush on Kimmy.
Derailing Love Interests: He tries to get Dong thrown out of the country by reporting him to Immigration.
Murder the Hypotenuse: Not necessarily murder, but Logan reports Dong to Immigration to get him out of the way.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Lampshaded - Logan is actually from Connecticut and only has an English accent because his parents "spoke British at home."
Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense:
- He buys a Kimmy a dolphin even though she lives in an apartment in New York. It dies.
- When asked to provide ice for a party, he arrives with three cubes in a designer box a hundred times more valuable as the ice it contains.
Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: He is much richer than illegal immigrant Dong.
Upper-Class Equestrian: Played for Laughs; he appears in equestrian gear at one point, before the camera pans out to show him on a tiny pony.

Charles

Portrayed By: Andy Ridings

Buckley's tutor (who doesn't teach him so much as actually do his homework for him) and Kimmy's first boyfriend.

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after "Kimmy Kisses a Boy!"
The Generic Guy: He's Buckley's tutor and that's about all of his characterization.
The "I Love You" Stigma: Kimmy tells Charles that she loves him after misinterpreting a phone call between the two. This turns him off.
Romantic False Lead: Gets introduced as Kimmy's first potential love interest, but he disappears about half way through the first season.

Bobby

Bobby Durst

Portrayed By: Fred Armisen

A former flame of Lillian's.

Cloud Cuckoolander: Even more than Lilian. He walks with a briefcase for seemingly no reason and speaks in monotone and even disguises himself as Lillian for no reason.
Hidden Depths: He is surprisingly insightful of his relationship with Lilian, gently breaking up with her and justifying it by the fact that he is bad for her and they are better off separated. He also tells Kimmy why keeping the Reverend in her life is a bad idea, even if she's now the one in control.
Kimmy: See? I turned the tables.
Bobby: But you're you're still at the same table.
New Old Flame: To Lillian. They dated once, and got back together in season 2, only to quickly break up later.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Is strongly suggested to be Robert Durst, the American real estate heir who's strongly suspected of murdering his wife.

Russ

Russ Snyder

Portrayed By: David Cross, Billy Magnussen

An attorney that Jacqueline pursues.

Beauty Equals Goodness: Inverted, despite being unattractive and awkward, with multiple unattractive traits, he's a very sweet and kind-hearted man who devotes his life to helping others. By contrast, his wealthy and attractive family members are all shallow and cruel people who treat him terribly. In season 3, after reconstructive surgery makes him suddenly good-looking, he rapidly becomes conceited and self-involved. His family finally accepts him because of his looks, and he immediately embraces them, turning his back on all the causes he cared about.
Better with Non-Human Company: His social skills are weak, but he loves animals. He fondly reminisces about his childhood pets. One of his brothers teases him about performing CPR on a dying bird.
The Dog Bites Back: After years of enduring disrespect from his father and brothers, he agrees to help Jacqueline tackle the racist mascot of the Washington Redskins, which the family owns.
Genius Slob: He's an intelligent man who has made a reputation for himself as a high-powered attorney. He also has a sweaty beard, bad breath, and a number of other unpleasant physical traits.
Good is Not Nice: He works tirelessly as an attorney for just causes. However, he's also blunt, rude, and abrasive.
Hidden Depths: He's an awkward, abrasive workaholic lawyer. Then we find out why he's like this: He had a terrible stutter as a child, which led to him being bullied by both classmates and his own family. He knows what it's like to be forced to be silent, so he devotes his life to speaking for those who can't speak for themselves.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Russell is blunt, abrasive, has No Social Skills, and is generally an awkward mess. But give him a worthy cause to help with, and he's all for it. He also truly cares about Jacqueline, and jumps on the chance to help her take down the Washington Redskins.
Kavorka Man: He's David Cross with a scraggly beard and poor personal hygiene. Despite this, Jacqueline becomes genuinely attracted to him, though it's more because of his honest, good-hearted nature. Before his smooshing that is
Magic Plastic Surgery: After being smooshed by a car, he goes through a major surgery that turns him into a hot and gorgeous man (played by a different actor).
The Nth Doctor:
The Unfavorite: His father and brothers have no respect for him and take every opportunity to humiliate him. It's only after he becomes attractive thanks to some Magic Plastic Surgery that they accept him.

Perry

Portrayed By: Daveed Diggs

A philosophy college student who manages to get to Columbia. He and Kimmy have a flirtatious relationship.

Bait-and-Switch: Perry is played by noted rapper Daveed Diggs, and spends one episode preparing to give a class presentation, which he plans to give in hip-hop format. You'd naturally assume it was a setup for The Cast Showoff, but Perry turns out to be terrible at rap.
Black and Nerdy: Not quite nerdy, but definitely among the most intellectual characters in the cast.
Dark and Troubled Past: His father died when he was young, so he needed to step up and work from a young age, only getting to go to college way later in his life than what he wanted, so he could help support his family.
Deadpan Snarker: He occasionally makes exasperated quips at Kimmy's Innocently Insensitive behavior.
Endearingly Dorky: Handsome, enthusiastic about philosophy, and painfully uncool. Kimmy, who is also dorky, is drawn to him in part because of this.
Hard Work Hardly Works: Shows a small amount of annoyance at the ease at which Kimmy was able to get into Columbia when it took him years of hard work to do so.
Nice Guy: The friendliest person Kimmy meets at Columbia.
Only Sane Man: One of the most grounded characters to ever appear in the show.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Kimmy.
Self-Made Man: Worked his way up from poverty to become one of the most promising students in Columbia's philosophy department.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Gone without so much as a mention in season 4.

Artie

Artie Goodman

Portrayed By: Peter Riegert

The owner of a supermarket franchise "Big Naturals". He falls for Lillian when they have to work on the construction of the Big Naturals of her neighborhood.

Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Lillian. They fall in love in the midst of a political battle, as she attempts to prevent him from expanding his business in her neighborhood. Her passion in fighting him is explicitly one of the things he's attracted to.
Lillian: I'll fight you every step of the way!
Artie: Well... I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot of each other.
Cool Old Guy: A very nice guy who is about Lillian's age.
December–December Romance: With Lillian.
Foil: To Lillian. Lillian tries to hold on to her past and desperately deny any sort of change due to not believing in progress, but Artie believes in technology and working towards the future.
Killed Offscreen: He dies at the start of season 4, during a trip with Lillian.
Meaningful Name: He's most definitely a good man.
Nice Guy: A good-natured and amicable guy.
Opposites Attract: The very forward-thinking Artie who relies on technology and progress falls for Lillian, who refuses to live in the present and tries to hold on to the past.
The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In season 4's mid season finale, it's played the video of his will. He asks if Lilian and his daughter are fighting yet, right after they just started fighting over the fact that Lilian now controls her trust fund.
Uncle Pennybags: For all his wealth, he's still a very kind and charitable man who just wants to make the neighborhood a better place.
Your Days Are Numbered: He has a heart issue that cannot be cured for anything but a full transplant. He is using a device to keep blood flow, but he has only one or two years left if he doesn't get a transplant, but refuses to pay to get at the front of the line for one.

Reuben

Portrayed By: Michael Benjamin Washington

Titus' boyfriend in season 3, a church choir singer with a young daughter.

Good Parents: For his baby daughter Linda.
Nice Guy: He is a generally nice and affable guy.
Temporary Love Interest: He only dates Titus for a couple episodes. The relationship breaks apart due to his and Titus' clashing interests, Titus being freaked out by Reuben's baby daughter, and the fact that Titus is still in love with Mikey.

Frederick

Prince Frederick Windsor

Portrayed By: Daniel Radcliffe

Introduced in Kimmy vs. The Reverend as Kimmy's fiance. Frederick is a distant heir to the English throne who is thrilled to be marrying Kimmy.

Named After Somebody Famous: Depending on the path, his middle names can be "Phillip Eurythmics" or "Henry Bono".
Parental Neglect: His mother was very distant, which left him with a boatload of mommy issues that make him rather unprepared to marry Kimmy.
Prince Charming: Played With. Frederick is a dapper, upbeat, and charming prince, but he's emotionally stunted and rather...odd. However, this makes him absolutely perfect for Kimmy, who is just as kooky as he is.
Sheltered Aristocrat: Doesn't know much about normal life, let alone the peculiarities of America, so he's a little out of his depth throughout the interactive special.
Uncanny Family Resemblance: Played for Laughs. A tabloid photo of one of the royal gardeners, purported to be Frederick's father, shows Daniel Radcliffe in a beard.
Uptown Girl: Played With. To Frederick's snotty royal family, he's marrying commoner trash, but in Lillian's eyes, Frederick is useless and broke without his titles, and is the one marrying up since Kimmy is wealthy.

Antagonists

Deirdre

Deirdre Robbespierre

Portrayed By: Anna Camp

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deirdre_uks.jpg

"Not enough people know about Lupus Awareness."

Jacqueline's Blood Knight rival in the New York social scene.

Ambiguously Bi: She was about to kiss Jaqueline after being defeated.
Blood Knight: She desperately want some other rich mom and Trophy Wife that will fight with her for dominance over the social circle.
Combat Sadomasochist: She gets visibly turned on by Jacqueline outwitting her.
Dumb Blonde: Subverted. She acts like a typical shallow, foolish New York socialite, but she's actually a highly-educated and intelligent woman. She's just suppressing her intellect to fit the Trophy Wife standard.
Friendly Enemy: To Jacqueline. They engage in passive-aggressive combat and compete with each other. Deirdre herself desperately wants an enemy due to being a passive-aggressive Blood Knight.
Jacqueline: [laughing] Oh, Deidre, I never can tell whether you're trying to help me or destroy me.
Deidre: [laughing] I honestly don't know!
Ironic Name: The incredibly wealthy, elitist Deirdre shares a last name with Maximilien Robespierre, a French revolutionary who famously despised the wealthy and elite.
Laughing Mad: She's utterly insane. After being defeated, she zigzags between this and crying.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Implied to be suppressing her intellect to fit into New York high society. Deirdre's intelligence comes out when she's stressed; combative comments to Jacqueline reveal that she got a political science degree at Princeton, worked at the State Department, and has a thorough knowledge of ancient Greek history.
Rich Bitch: She's a catty woman married to a wealthy man.
Stepford Smiler: Hoo boy yes. She frequently comments on how painfully empty and unfulfilling her life is, always in a psychotically cheerful tone and with a sunny smile on her face.
Trophy Wife: For her unseen husband.
Worthy Opponent: She sees Jacqueline as one, and even encourages her.

Orson Snyder

Portrayed By: Harris Yulin

Russ' father and the Snyders' patriarch.

Abusive Parents: To Russ, whom he bullied and abused due to his looks and stuttering.
The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed, he did changed the name from Redskins to Guntakers, but just because Jacqueline proved he'd win even more money by offending a bigger minority than the Native Americans.
Big Bad: To Jacqueline's plotline in season 3. He is the owner of the Redskins after all.
Greed: Jacqueline constantly lampshades that he only cares about the money.
Karma Houdini: His actions get no comeuppance and he actually gets more money by the end and successfully replaces Duke for the now handsome Russ in the family.
Pragmatic Villainy: He's an all-around awful person with no redeeming features, but his primary goal is simply making money. Jacqueline exploits this by pointing out that protesters buy more merchandise than fans, to publicly destroy it. That means he'd make more money by changing the name of the Washington Redskins to something that would offend more people. He immediately changes the name to the Washington Guntakers.

Duke Snyder

Portrayed By: Josh Charles

Russ' brother. He is Russ' main bully and is much more favored by the family than him.

Asshole Victim: Orson frames him as an ISIS agent so Jacqueline wouldn't be able to use the tape to shame the NFL. However, he receives no sympathy for being such a Big Brother Bully to Russ.
Big Brother Bully: Perhaps only losing to his father in bullying Russ.
Caught on Tape: Jacqueline accidentally get him talking about the NFL's secret to Titus (down to saying how concussions were good for a business and that they pay senile retired players with food) and is able to use it to blackmail him into helping her.
The Dragon: To his father, Orson.
Evil Is Petty: He decides to seduce Jacqueline just because he doesn't have a loving relationship and Russ has.
Green-Eyed Monster: He can't accept Russ having anything he doesn't and bends over backwards to take it from him. Be it a recipe their grandma gave Russ or Jacqueline's love.
The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: When they discuss Orson receiving an organ transplant from a Guatemalan landscaper, the Snyder's insist that he died "of natural causes".
Duke: Yeah, he fell on a shotgun. Luckily, we happened to have a bathtub full of ice ready.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: His father reports him to the FBI as an ISIS agent to guarantee that Jacqueline's tape of him is useless to shame the NFL.

Other Characters

Marcia & Chris

Portrayed By: Tina Fey and Jerry Minor

Incompetent prosecutors in the case against "the Reverend".

Creator Cameo: Show creator Tina Fey plays Marcia.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: They are suggested to be Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, the prosecutors of OJ Simpson's murder trial.

Sonja

Portrayed By: Suzan Perry

Dong and Kimmy's classmate who Dong marries to stay in the country.

Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She thinks she's cheating on Dong with a golden statue of Poseidon, for starters. She's also convinced that wearing a tin foil helmet makes her invisible.
The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: The Olsen twins really are more than two people, though, and she did mysteriously vanish in the library...
Sham Marriage: With Dong, who needs to marry a U.S. citizen to stay in the country.
Trademark Favorite Food: Popsicles.

Andrea

Andrea Bayden

Portrayed By: Tina Fey

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrea.jpg

"We're gonna figure this out like a couple of lesbians hooking up a hot-water heater."

A bipolar therapist who is put together at day, but drunk at night.

The Alcoholic: Andrea drinks every day to the point where she's formed something of a Split Personality.
Blackmail: Her drunk self blackmails her sober self to help Kimmy.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's a well-educated therapist and well regarded by her clients and peers; she's also a drunken wreck.
The Bus Came Back: Kimmy goes to find her in season 3, and as it turns out if she did go to rehab, it certainly didn't work, because she's still daydrinking and has lost her psychiatry license, though she doesn't seem particularly upset about it.
The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: In regards to her inability to tame "Night Andrea."
"It's called compartmentalizing, and it's not a problem because I know the words to describe it."
Creator Cameo: The second character played by show creator Tina Fey.
Good is Not Nice: She encourages Kimmy to stand up for herself and genuinely wants to help her. When she does so drunk, however, she's loud, sarcastic, and abrasive.
Pronouncing My Name for You: Tells Kimmy to pronounce her name with a short-a (like in Andrew).
Split Personality: Has something of one. During the day, she's a calm, professional therapist. At night she's a mouthy, impulsive drunken mess.
- Might be a subversion as what she says in "Kimmy sees the Sunset" implies that she does not have separate personalities, but just gets loose when she drinks.
"I'm not two different people. I'm just one big mess and you can't fix me."
There Are No Therapists: Averted with her introduction.

Mimi

Mimi Kanasis

Portrayed By: Amy Sedaris

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mimi_6.jpg

"Don't answer, it's an ostrich."

An acquaintance of Jacqueline's who suffers from her divorce.

Ascended Extra: During season 2, when she becomes Jacqueline's helper in attempting to throw her Gala.
Body Sushi: In a season 3 episode, she offered to set up dinner while Jackie and Kimmy talked. Moments later, they realize she laid herself up in this method. Later, she complains she received a rash from it.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She's not all there.
Demoted to Extra: In season 3, where she only appears twice.
Green-Eyed Monster: She sees Kimmy as a threat to her and Jacqueline's friendship.
The Load: She's not all that useful and Jaqueline mostly puts up with her because she's one of the few friends she has left (and even then Jacqueline finds her incredibly annoying).
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nearly ruins Jacqueline's banquet by putting the wrong date on the invitations.

Wendy

Portrayed By: Laura Dern

Reverend Wayne's fiancée who intends to marry him as soon as Kimmy divorces him.

Broken Bird: She has a past of emotionally and possibly also physically abusive relationships with men who seemed to be good. This led her to desperately seek a relationship in which she has some sort of control, in this case, with a convict that she can only see one hour a week.
Titus: She is one of God's little babies, Kimmy.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: A well educated and beautiful woman who, due to past relationships, internalized that she is utterly useless and unimportant and states that being with the reverend only one hour a week is the way to guarantee he will never realize that.
Love Makes You Dumb: She can't recognize that Richard is the bad guy in the events, nor that he has any guilt as a kidnapper and rapist due to a very flimsy Freudian Excuse (his mother worked) and that he now has to live with what he has done, despite that he doesn't really feel any guilt over it. She also blames Kimmy for several of his problems.

Zack

Portrayed By: Noah Robbins

A classmate in Kimmy's philosophy class who eventually seeks her out for advice.

Because You Were Nice to Me: After hardly, if ever, interacting with each other, Kimmy still recognizes Zack from class and knows his name. He tells her that he is dropping out of college and she tells him that there is no shame in doing so because it is his choice. The fact that Kimmy notices him and gives off such a comforting and helpful presence causes him to seek her out and offer her a job.
Chekhov's Gunman: Right when even Kimmy is ready to give up, he comes in and tells her how much her advice helped him and offers her a job, pulling her out of her slump.
Foil: To Kimmy. She has no book smarts, only emotional intelligence; he's got no emotional intelligence, only book smarts.
Jewish and Nerdy: He offhandedly mentions his Bar Mitzvah, and he's incredibly smart and socially awkward.
Nice Guy: He's nothing but kind to Kimmy, and even offers her a job after she helps him, recognizing how useful her people skills could be.
Noodle Incident: Hoped that Perry's philosophy rap would make people forget something embarrassing that happened to him at his Bar Mitzvah.
No Social Skills: He started a new business and all of the people he had hired so far, he does not know how to talk to them, which is why he seeks to hire Kimmy.
Shout-Out: To Back to the Future. In his second appearance, he's dressed just like Marty McFly and drives a Delorean.

DJ Fingablast

Douglas J. Fingerberg / DJ Fingablast

Played By: Derek Klena

A former dog masseur turned DJ.

Ambiguously Jewish: He has a Jewish-sounding last name and first met the Reverend while he was DJing at his Bar Mitzvah.
Ascended Extra: He comes back in season 4, for an entire episode focused on his quest to learn what happened and learn try to free DJ Slizzard.
Attractive Bent-Gender: Pulls off drag well enough to Catfish both the Reverend and Fran.
The Corruptible: Spending time with Wayne and Fran makes him accept the idea that women should be treated poorly after he is dumped by his fiance.
Connected All Along: His hero and inspiration to be a DJ turns out to be DJ Slizzard, The Reverend's DJ Persona.
A Day in the Limelight: He's the focus of an episode in season 4, in which he learns about Wayne's story and stands up for the Reverend's innocence.
The Ditz: Is portrayed as an easily-deceived moron.
Fauxlosophic Narration: His documentary in season 4 is filled with inane ramblings spoken as though they were profound statements.
Gold Digger: Attempts to be one to Jacquelyn, trying to get with her as a way to use her money to launch his DJ career. Surprisingly, he becomes rich on his own later.
Gullible Lemmings: He seems like a decent enough guy, but his idiocy, blind trust in the Reverend and depression over his fiance leaving cause him to be easily manipulated into helping him escape his prison sentence.
Horrible Judge of Character: Worships the Reverand, who, even before being outed as a despicable cult leader, was known as "Durnsville's worst DJ", and thinks that Fran, a pathetic creep, is a pretty cool guy.
Only Known by Their Nickname: He only says his real name once, and cuts himself off before he finishes saying it in favor of using his DJ name instead.
Significant Monogram: The initials of his first and middle name are D and J, which is his profession. This seems to be an in-universe example as well, as he seems to believe that all DJs have names that start with D and J, and is shocked to learn that the Reverend does not.
Rebuilt Pedestal: In a single episode, his pedestal of DJ Slizzard is broken, and later rebuilt when he is told by Fran that there is a war on masculinity, and what he did shouldn't be a crime.

Fran Dodd

Played By: Bobby Moynihan

A man who is supporting Reverend's Wayne's fight for freedom, as well as that of a number of men accused of sexual harassment, leader of a organization called The Innocence Broject. He sells bridal wear as a day job.

Angry White Man: Of the self-centered misogynist flavor.
Basement-Dweller: Still lives with his mother.
Fat Bastard: Is rotund and an utter creep.
Gender-Blender Name: "Fran" is most commonly a woman's name. The irony is obvious.
Horrible Judge of Character: As a rape apologist, he naturally vouches for several terrible men. Most notably the Reverend.
Laser-Guided Karma: After all of his poor behavior across season 4, it's no surprise that he receives a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Kimmy when they finally meet in person. He's also far too embarrassed at being beaten up by a girl to press charges.
Never My Fault: Believes women to be snobs for always rejecting him when he asks them out at work. He works at a bridal store and only ever asks out soon to be married women and their mothers.
Playing the Victim Card: Insists that men are unfairly judged and mistreated in modern society, and accuses every woman he meets of persecuting him.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Is a horrible misogynist and rape apologist who believes there's a "war on masculinity".
Straw Character: He's basically every negative stereotype about men's rights activists exaggerated to the maximum.
Take That!: Is an incredibly obvious jab at rape apologists, men's rights activists and misogynists in general who are convinced women are undermining men in general.

Sheba Goodman

Played By: Busy Philipps

Artie's troubled daughter. A party girl who tries to pretend to have her act straight to get her brother to give her access to her trust fund.

Acquired Error at the Printer: It's implied that she tried to get the same facial tattoo as boxer Mike Tyson, but passed out before the artist began work. In her second and subsequent appearances, she has a tattoo that reads "MIKE TYSON'S FACE TATTOO" on her face.
Black Sheep: Her father and brother are both responsible, reasonable businessman, while she's a burnt out party girl.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the foolish to her brother's responsible. And it's this foolishness that causes her to miss out on her inheritance.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Artie's pretty disappointed in her as a result.
Womanchild: Is generally immature and refuses to take responsibility for anything. Artie even states in his will that he doesn't trust her with any sort of inheritance because of her immaturity.

Characters / Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

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