The seven main cast members appear during the
opening credits, while later additions receive star billing after the credits.
Main character appearance summary }
Liz Lemon Elizabeth Miervaldis "
Liz"
Lemon (
Tina Fey), the series' protagonist, is
head writer of
TGS with Tracy Jordan. Jack Donaghy describes her as a "New York third-wave feminist, college-educated, single-and-pretending-to-be-happy-about-it, over-scheduled, undersexed, you buy any magazine that says 'healthy body image' on the cover and every two years you take up knitting for... a week". Lemon is a
Star Wars fan and is portrayed as a "geek." She also lacks certain social skills and is a stress eater, particularly ingesting junk food. She is generally shown to have liberal political views. Despite her high standards in men, personified in her imaginary perfect husband,
Astronaut Mike Dexter, Lemon has had some "really terrible boyfriends", but eventually finds happiness with Criss Chross, with whom she adopts two children.
Tracy Jordan Tracy Jordan (
Tracy Morgan) is the loose-cannon star of
TGS. He is a movie star with a reputation for erratic behavior. This reputation is well-deserved; much of it is an intentional attempt on his part to maintain his "crazy" persona in the eyes of the media. In
the pilot episode,
Jack Donaghy forces
Liz Lemon to hire Tracy as the new star of her
sketch comedy program
The Girlie Show. To the chagrin of Liz and Jenna, Jack renames the show
TGS with Tracy Jordan in the following episode. Tracy has remained the star of
TGS ever since.
Jenna Maroney Jenna Maroney (
Jane Krakowski) is the histrionic costar of
TGS and Liz's best friend and former roommate. Though a talented singer, she is often shown as being extremely insecure about herself. A recurring
motif in the show is Jenna's pursuit of fame through some ill-advised project ending up in public humiliation from which she never learns. She is a self-described "soul-sucking monster". Off-camera she is comically conceited, frequently lying about her age and attempts, but fails, to use her sexuality to manipulate men (almost always to disastrous effect).
Kenneth Parcell Kenneth Ellen Parcell (
Jack McBrayer) is a cheerful, obedient
Southern-born
NBC page who "lives for television". In the early episodes, Kenneth seemed unfamiliar with some of Liz's staff (and Liz herself). In the pilot, Liz refers to Kenneth as "that NBC page". As the series progressed, his character became familiar with the other staff of
TGS (including Jack Donaghy). Kenneth acts as Tracy Jordan's personal assistant (for instance, getting Tracy
nachos from
Yankee Stadium); he is a member of Tracy's entourage and becomes close to Tracy, Grizz, and Dot Com. By the end of the series, he ends up as the president of NBC. It is revealed several times over the course of the show that not only may Kenneth not sleep, be immortal, and possibly be a clone, but also as stated by his mother (portrayed by
Catherine O'Hara) that at the time of his birth he said to her, "Mama, I am not a person. My body is just a flesh vessel for an immortal being whose name, if you heard it, would make you lose your mind."
Pete Hornberger Peter "
Pete"
Hornberger (
Scott Adsit) is the producer of
TGS, who often serves as a
straight man to the other characters. He works closely with and serves as a trusted friend to Liz, whom, as stated in "
Blind Date", he has known for ten years. In early seasons, Pete is Liz's closest friend at work and the only one she can rely on. Much like Liz, Pete generally plays straight man to the other characters, especially to Liz when she is temporarily pushed over the edge. Prior to his work on
TGS, Pete was a skilled archer qualified to compete in the
1980 Summer Olympics, but lost his chance when President Carter decided to boycott the Moscow Games. Four years later, a case of "the yips" led him to botch his chance at making the
1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He was a member of the band
Loverboy during his teenage years and his father was a member of the
United States Congress. Pete is married to Paula, with whom he has four sons and a daughter; her back-to-back pregnancies forced him to drop out of college twice. Aside from a brief scene in the pilot where Pete appears at home with one of his sons, the members of his family were unseen characters until the episode "
Greenzo". In one episode, Pete reveals that he is afraid of his son Kyle, who is apparently very strong and, in "
Black Tie", he spoke with his son Kaleb over the telephone, pretending to be popular fictional character Elmo, to encourage his son to "aim your pee-pee at the potty." In "Greenzo", Liz mentions he has three sons named Robert and Jack, and an unnamed one referred to as "that creepy little one who's always rubbing himself on the carpet". In the episode "
Anna Howard Shaw Day", his daughter Evelyn is selling cookies for a school fundraiser. His wife, Paula, is implied to have a rather overbearing personality and Pete often goes to great lengths to make her happy, as in "
Up All Night" when he realized that it was Valentine's Day, which also happens to be his wife's birthday. Pete also passed when one of Tracy's entourage expressed interest in him during that episode, showing that he may not always be happy in his marriage but he remains faithful. In the episode "Tracy Does Conan", Pete stated that his wife wishes he was not bald and, in "Black Tie", Pete mentions that they were married in a botanical garden. He lied to his wife about getting a vasectomy, but, as of "The Fighting Irish", she is becoming suspicious. Therefore, Pete has asked Liz for the keys to her apartment for "my own safety." He is still living with Liz as of "Greenzo." However, Liz finds out that Pete and Paula are having an "affair" where they sneak around and use her apartment for trysts that include silk scarves and Pop-Tarts; Pete tells her that he and his wife got pregnant almost immediately after they began dating and have never had an exciting romantic/sexual life because of that, so they have found this way to spark their marriage. With his role of Liz's confidant increasingly filled by Jack Donaghy, Pete played increasingly reduced roles as the series continued, although his marital woes and inability to catch a break were increasingly mined for humor. Jack pities Pete for his aimlessness and unattractive appearance, and occasionally attempts to boost his confidence, beginning by convincing him to wear a wig for a week in "
Tracy Does Conan." In "
Nothing Left to Lose", Jack is shocked to find out that Pete's only ambition is to remain in his current job. Jack attempts to help Pete by having him make adjustments to his lifestyle, including shaving off what remains of his hair. Unfortunately, it is revealed that his ring of hair was hiding an obscene birthmark that Jack describes as "a swastika made of penises", leading him to be beaten in the street and forced to wear another wig. When
TGS is canceled in "
Last Lunch", Pete implies repeatedly he is planning to fake his death and escape from his life and family. He succeeds in doing so, setting up a new identity under the name "Dan Silversmith" in
Hickory, North Carolina, but is tracked down a year later by his wife and meekly returns to his previous existence.
Frank Rossitano Francis "
Frank"
Rossitano (
Judah Friedlander;
Fred Armisen in select scenes of "
Live from Studio 6H") is a writer at
TGS of
Sicilian descent. After Liz, Frank is the most prominently featured and prolific writer of the
show-within-a-show. Frank is habitually slovenly and childish; he lives with his mother and is an aficionado of video games, comic books and figurines, and pornography. He wears a variety of
trucker hats with humorous phrases (which Friedlander also wears in real life) and large, thick-lensed glasses. Frank delivers most lines in a deadpan style, and is often shown to be something of a perverse character with an obvious interest in the opposite gender (although in one episode Frank questions his sexuality after meeting a physically attractive man named Jamie), Frank appears to have an understanding of popular culture and sometimes displays surprising amounts of intelligence. Frank is
allergic to peanuts. In "
Audition Day", it is revealed that (as Friedlander is in real life) he is a standup comedian. Friedlander said he made the hats for his character himself, using phrases he invented; in "
Jackie Jormp-Jomp", when Liz is suspended from work, one of her final requests before being forced out of the building was to know what Frank's hat said. Frank first started wearing the hats at age 14; his eighth-grade class photo shows him in a hat reading "My First Hat". Frank was raised largely in Queens by his mother, Sylvia, after his father, a lawyer for the mafia, went into the
Witness Protection Program. Sylvia's fear for her son led him to leave law school at her insistence and enter comedy. In "
Goodbye, My Friend", Jack Donaghy learns of Frank's legal aspirations and offers him a scholarship to
Columbia University Law School, but reneges on his offer after Sylvia warns him of the danger in which a law career would place Frank due to his family's mafia connections. Frank pursues women frequently, usually older, psychologically damaged, or physically unattractive women he considers "low-hanging fruit", though it is hinted in the episode "Jackie Jormp-Jomp" that he and Cerie had a secret relationship. The great love of Frank's life occurred at the age of 14, where he had an affair with his middle-school teacher, Lynn Onkman, who fell in love with him during his
scoliosis test. She was sent to prison for the offense, but he remained in love with her and after her release ("
Queen of Jordan"), they reconciled and began a relationship despite the objections of everyone else.
Jack Donaghy John Francis "
Jack"
Donaghy (
Alec Baldwin) is the decisive, controlling, suave network executive who must deal with (and/or causes) unusual events at
TGS. He is an Irish-Catholic and a
Republican who has suppressed his
Boston accent. Donaghy is portrayed as a slick, brilliant and scrupulous network executive who directs many overtly
backhanded compliments to Liz. Lemon (as he refers to her) and Donaghy have a
work spouse relationship and were briefly technically married owing to a translation issue at his second wedding. Jack was married two times (and engaged two other times), and with his second wife, television reporter Avery Jessup, he has a daughter, Elizabeth "Liddy" Donaghy, named after Liz Lemon. Avery and Jack were divorced after her return from North Korea (where she was held hostage by Kim Jong Il) when they admit they only married because of Avery's pregnancy. Shortly after becoming the CEO of Kabletown, Jack suffered an emotional crisis and resigned, only to return to General Electric.
Cerie portrays Cerie.|thumb|170px '''''' (
Katrina Bowden) is Liz's young, beautiful, laid-back assistant. Cerie is named after an actual person who was Lorne Michaels’ assistant at SNL. The heiress of the
Xerox family, her surname is revealed to also be "Xerox" in a scene cut from the broadcast version of "
SeinfeldVision". She is the object of intense desire from the male writers of
TGS because of her beauty and sometimes revealing clothing. As Liz's assistant, her excessive youthful naïveté causes her to often misinterpret Liz's instructions to humorous effect and frequently overestimate Liz's age. Despite her clueless demeanor, Cerie has shown great intellect on multiple occasions. She frequently receives drunken phone messages, which she states she does not think are cute, even when they are from Liz. In "
Jack the Writer", she says that, career-wise, she doesn't actually want to work in television; rather, she plans to "marry rich and design handbags." She is also in a band that has performed on Letterman. Contractually, she can only hold beautiful black babies in Benetton advertisements. In "
The Baby Show", Cerie becomes engaged to Aris, who never appears on screen, after five weeks of dating. When Liz tells Cerie that she may be rushing into marriage, Cerie replies that she would only be able to be a "young hot mom" for a limited time, and that she didn't want to be "like... 50" when her children graduate from high school. If their first child is a girl, possible names include "Bookcase", "Sandstorm", and "Hat", though Cerie thinks "Hat" is "more of a boy's name". In "
Up All Night", it is mentioned that Cerie and Aris were fighting because he wants a
Greek Orthodox wedding but she disagrees with the Church's
stance on Cyprus; soon after, he is kidnapped by
Somali pirates while on his father's yacht. Aris returns three seasons later, apparently "thanks to the A-team." Cerie notes that he is quieter upon his return, has a different energy, and is recovering from Stockholm Syndrome. Cerie and Aris finally marry three seasons later in "
I Do Do". Liz and Jenna serve as Cerie's bridesmaids, along with Andy Roddick's wife, Cerie's Dutch cousins, and Penelope Cruz's hotter sister Monica. Aris's groomsmen include several Somali pirates. In "
Secret Santa", Cerie tells Jack Donaghy and Liz Lemon that her mother was born in 1976. This probably means that Cerie's mother was a teen mom when Cerie was born. However, in a previous episode, Cerie said that her mother is 38 years old. Cerie states in "
A Goon's Deed in a Weary World" that she quit years earlier, but inexplicably kept coming to work. She joins the rest of the
TGS crew and cast on-stage, to resign personally to the Kabletown board of directors, to prevent the show from being recommissioned and thus enable Liz to devote her time to her newly adopted children. She sticks around to pack up the
TGS writers' room, and orders both the writers' would-be last lunch which Liz dictates, and its replacement decreed by Lutz. ("
Hogcock!", "
Last Lunch")
Toofer Spurlock James "
Toofer"
Spurlock (
Keith Powell) is a proud African-American
Harvard University alumnus, Harvard
Krokodiloes alumnus, and
TGS writer, who often disagrees with Tracy and Frank (although he and Frank often socialize with Lutz). He detests the stereotypical aspects of
black culture he believes are embodied by
Tracy Jordan, and he serves as a
foil to Tracy, who (like the majority of the
TGS staff) finds him pretentious. According to Liz, Toofer is "afraid of black people" and he is disappointed when he is set up on a date with a black woman. Despite this, he claims tremendous pride in his black heritage and identity, showing off a photo of an ancestor who was an officer in the Civil War; later, he discovers the man actually fought for the Confederacy. According to Jack, his nickname is "Toofer" because "with him you get a two-for-one; he's a black guy and a
Harvard guy". Frank (with whom he shares an office) called him a "black nerd" à la
Steve Urkel. It was revealed in "
Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter" that Toofer was only hired because of
affirmative action; he quits in anger, before he agrees to return. He insisted that to return, his fellow writers must stop calling him Toofer, but he relented when they suggested worse nicknames. Pete's suggestion of "Threefer, because you're also gay", is the first time that Toofer's sexuality is officially called into question, though Liz had previously insulted him, saying "Look, it's Sherlock Homo here to solve the case of the gay sweater." Toofer also agrees that he can get the group through "black-, gay-, and nerd-controlled areas". However, in some episodes, like "
The Pilot", "
TGS Hates Women", "
Anna Howard Shaw Day", and "
Up All Night", Toofer has shown an attraction to women. The character's name was inspired by series writer
Robert Carlock.
Josh Girard Josh Girard (
Lonny Ross) was the male star of
TGS before Tracy was hired. Liz found him while he was opening for a puppet. He, Tracy, and Jenna Maroney are the three main actors on the
show-within-a-show from Seasons 1 through 3. His character has been compared to
SNL alumnus
Jimmy Fallon. Josh is frequently seen in the writer's room, and appears to be the only member of the
TGS cast who also works as a writer for the show. Often referred to as being a "kid", Josh is described in dialogue in a way that implies he is young, guileless, and unintelligent. He is indeed typically portrayed as lacking smarts and is often shown doing things that are considered juvenile. Most of Josh's work on the show seems to be as an impressionist; he has performed impressions of
Ray Romano,
Michael Jackson,
Stone Phillips,
Jay Leno,
Elizabeth Taylor,
George W. Bush,
Christopher Walken and
Jerry Seinfeld. His impressions have raised eyebrows from people who are not impressed, like Elizabeth Taylor (played by
Rachel Dratch), who knocked him out with an extinguisher and leaving him severely concussed after he did a sketch that offended her in which he impersonated the actress. Original characters that he plays on the show include "Dr. Ridiculous", a Chinese man named Mr. Wang, and Gaybraham Lincoln. In "
The Baby Show", Tracy got mad at Josh for impersonating him, claiming that Josh was turning him into a caricature. In "
Hard Ball", it is implied that Josh is Jewish, and in a carry-over during "
Ludachristmas", from the "Secret Rodney" ads that were running, Kenneth says "Merry Jewish" to Josh when passing out gifts. He, Frank, and Toofer are often observed fooling around and admiring Cerie. In the episode "
The Break-Up", Josh states that his parents raised him as a girl for 10 years. Jack Donaghy mentions in the show's second episode that Josh had a 760 SAT score and graduated from
SUNY Cortland. In "Hard Ball", Josh's agent Alan Steiner is introduced. In sharp contrast to Josh, Steiner was portrayed as slick and cunning. Steiner uses unnecessary abbreviations and has a "really bad sex addiction." In "
The Rural Juror", Josh sneaked into Liz's office to get her copy of
The Rural Juror and quickly dislikes it upon seeing the title ("Well, this is disappointing...I had to let Tony [the security guard] watch me pee to get that tape"). He does not appear in season three until the 13th episode, "
Goodbye, My Friend". In "
Season 4", Josh becomes frustrated with everyone's poor treatment of him and quits
TGS. He then winds up auditioning again in "
Audition Day", but he is rejected; Danny Baker replaces him in the main
TGS cast. Lonny Ross was written out of the series in season four. He appears via a flashback to a raunchy
TGS sketch with Tracy in the series finale.
Dot Com Walter "
Dot Com"
Slattery (
Kevin Brown) is a member of Tracy's entourage. Another
recurring character during the first two seasons, he is also credited as a series regular during seasons three and four. Dot Com is Tracy's driver and cook; in "
Hard Ball", his and Grizz's last names are revealed. With the cancellation of
TGS, Dot Com develops Grizz's sitcom,
Grizz & Herz. He is soon joined behind the camera by Liz Lemon ("
Last Lunch").
Grizz Warren "
Grizz"
Griswold (
Grizz Chapman) is another member of Tracy's entourage. A
recurring character during the first two seasons, he is credited as a series regular in seasons three and four. Grizz is the most physically imposing member of Tracy's entourage and the cast; referencing their long friendship in "
Argus", Tracy tells him "I've known you since you were six feet tall!" Within the entourage, Grizz is charged with "sitting on" Tracy when he is overstimulated, in addition to a very fluid list of other responsibilities. In "
Kidney Now!" it is revealed that Tracy and Grizz attended high school together. Grizz was apparently Tracy's financial manager, and he blames
Worldcom for Tracy's financial problems that led to him joining the cast; in season 5 he was suggested to be Tracy and
Adam West's talent manager. Despite his calm demeanor, Grizz is shown to be a romantic and deeply emotional man. "Sexual history" between Grizz and Liz Lemon (whom he alone addresses as 'Beth') is referred to in several episodes. A drunken Liz came onto him at Kenneth's party in "
Greenzo", which traumatised him. Despite their history, he cajoles her into serving as his "woman of honor" (i.e., female best man) in his wedding to his fiancée, Feyoncé. Grizz reads
George R. R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire and expressed shock at a climactic moment toward the end of
A Game of Thrones. With the cancellation of
TGS, Grizz remains at NBC. He is cast as the lead in a fish-out-of-water situation comedy developed by Dot Com,
Grizz & Herz, in which his character runs an inn in
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Liz eventually follows the duo, taking a behind-the-camera position and occasionally bringing her adopted children to work. ("
Last Lunch")
Jonathan Jonathan (
Maulik Pancholy) is Jack's assistant. Jonathan harbours a desperate crush on Jack. His obsessive admiration of his boss is coupled with disdain towards Liz, whom he considers unworthy of Jack's attention. In the episode "
Believe in the Stars", Jack reveals he only hired him because he was heavily medicated on Comanaprosil and he mistook Jonathan for
M. Night Shyamalan. In season 4, episode 11 ("
Winter Madness") it is revealed that Jonathan is of Indian descent, and in episode 18 ("
Khonani") he addresses the janitor Khonani in
Hindi. Elsewhere, he mentions meeting his "birth parents", revealing he is adopted, and when in the season-five episode "
Let's Stay Together", when Jack asks Jonathan to provide a distraction by pretending to be a stereotypical Indian and faking an Indian accent, Jonathan objects, "But I'm from
Palo Alto!" Jonathan has repeatedly made highly racist comments about people from
Indian Kashmir ("
Khonani", verbally assaulting a Kashmiri janitor, and even hoping for a natural disaster to devastate them, asking for divine intervention that would "strike them from the sky". "
Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning"). As a Christmas gift one year, Jack secured the release of Jonathan's sister from a North Korean prison. Jack's wife Avery was later kidnapped to North Korea herself. Liz once caught Jonathan wearing a wedding dress and dancing with one of Jack's suits. ("
Hogcock!") Jonathan retains his position when Jack is replaced by Kathy Geiss, and is heartbroken by Jack's departure. He stays on as Jack's assistant when Jack is reinstated and keeps the same office despite Jack's promotion to chairman of NBC. Jack fires Jonathan in "
Cutbacks", but he reappears as Jack's assistant three episodes later without explanation. He relocates with Jack to a suite upstairs when the latter is appointed chairman of Kabletown and eschews the company's Philadelphia headquarters in favor of remaining in the G.E. Building. ("
Hogcock!" / "
Last Lunch") Jonathan is off-camera throughout the show's sixth season, something that the characters appear not to notice. His disappearance was due to actor Pancholy's co-starring role on another NBC sitcom,
Whitney. Pancholy exists within the
30 Rock universe independently of Jonathan, being mentioned by Jack in "
The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell" during that period; Alec Baldwin likewise exists independently of Jack who mentions the actor in "
Hogcock!" Jonathan returns in season seven, stating that he was away looking after his sick grandmother. ("
The Beginning of the End")
Lutz Johnny "J. D." Lutz (
John Lutz) is a lazy
TGS writer who is often ridiculed by the rest of the staff. When characters enter the room they sometimes yell, "Shut up, Lutz!" even if Lutz was not speaking at the time. The other characters are unconcerned about his well-being; when Lutz ran headfirst into a wall in "
The Ones", no one helped him until a wall-mounted television fell on him, and even then, Pete (the producer) tells the writers, who instigated the incident, "I hope you've learned your lesson. Because of what you did, we almost lost a monitor." Lutz is originally from
Alaska (which he hates), and claims to be part
Inuit. His first two initials were mentioned in "
The Aftermath", in which it was also revealed that he has a
thyroid problem. The J is revealed to stand for Johnny (or John) in "
The Moms". He attended
Oberlin College; after his junior year, he traveled to
South by Southwest (a film, interactive, and music festival in Austin, Texas). The show implies that he is a gay man in the process of coming out, although everyone ignores (or forgets) this due to their dislike of him. Lutz periodically mentions a girlfriend who lives in Canada, named Karen. No one believes him; therefore, Lutz created a website (JDLutz.com/karen/proof—an actual page on the
30 Rock website). He finally identifies himself as bisexual while shouting at his fellow writers on their last day of work in "
Last Lunch". It is also mentioned during season six that
Kellan Lutz from the
Twilight series is his grandnephew, and while everyone thinks this is another one of his lies, Kellan actually does show up in Season 7 to hang out with his relative (and to try and tape a pro-Obama skit for
TGS). In the series finale, Lutz finally takes revenge on the writing staff after seven years of ridicule by insisting that their final free lunch will be ordered from
Blimpies, going to absurd lengths to ensure his victory, including legally changing his name to
Johnny Aardvark so he will be first alphabetically. Lutz's mother is portrayed by John Lutz in drag in "
The Moms"; however, this may just be the character Lutz impersonating his own mother, since they are not seen together. ==Recurring GE/NBC/Kabletown employees==