List of How I Met Your Mother characters

This page lists characters from the television series How I Met Your Mother.

Main characters

Theodore "Ted" Evelyn Mosby

Played by Josh Radnor and born on April 25, 1978, Ted met Marshall and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University. He is originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he grew up with his younger sister, Heather, and his taciturn parents. He now lives in New York City near the corner of 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue as shown in the episode "Zip, Zip, Zip". Ted always dreamed of being a famous architect, and spent years at a prominent New York design firm before striking out on his own. After failing to establish his own design firm, Ted accepted a teaching position at Columbia University, where he almost runs into his future wife. Ted regularly corrects people's minor errors (mostly pronunciation and grammar) and loves Art Deco architecture, especially the Empire State Building. He is a poetry buff, often quoting literature such as Dante's Divine Comedy in the original Italian, and is disappointed when his friends don't appreciate it. He is also fluent in American Sign Language. During his early 20s he became friends with Barney Stinson and 3 years before he turned 30 he met Robin Scherbatsky. He and Robin dated for a year, but broke up and managed to stay friends. He and Robin will salute if any character on the show uses a military rank in conversation, for example 'Major Buzzkill' or 'Private Joke'. Also known as "Teddy Westside". In the episode "Big Days", it is said that Ted will meet the mother of his children at a wedding.

Marshall Eriksen

Played by Jason Segel. Born in 1978 and of Scandinavian descent, Marshall met Ted and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University. He is a Columbia Law School graduate originally from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Even though he stands at six-foot-four(193cm), he is the shortest male member of his family. Marshall became a lawyer because he was interested in environmental protection laws. Ultimately, he accepted a job at a corporate law firm where his only client is an amusement park riddled with various safety violations. He later joins the legal team at Goliath National Bank, where Barney also works. Marshall is also very good at games and highly interested in food and paranormal happenings, specifically Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster (or as he refers to "her", "Nessie"). He can play the piano fairly well, as seen in the episode "Slapsgiving" where he performs a song after slapping Barney. Marshall seems to be the most physically formidable out of Ted, Barney and himself as proven in the episode "The Fight". At the end of the episode "Bad News", Marshall learns from Lily that his father has died from a heart attack. It is revealed in "Last Cigarette Ever" that in the future, he and Lily have a son.

Lily Aldrin

Played by Alyson Hannigan and born in 1978, is a kindergarten teacher. She is married to Marshall Eriksen and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Like Ted, and Marshall, she is also a graduate of Wesleyan University. Lily also dreams of being an artist and at one point paints a portrait of Marshall in the nude. She also has a huge debt problem because of her impulsive buying practices. She is able to hide this from Marshall until they apply for a mortgage. She cannot keep a secret, and is often shown to be the most spoiled of the group, but despite those traits she is a very caring person and will much of the time do thankless acts for the good of her friends. In the episode "Mosbius Designs" she is described by Barney as a diabolical puppet master, manipulating every single situation to get exactly what she wants, she is pure evil, but he also says to Marshall that you got a good one there, hang on to her. She met Marshall and Ted in college and almost immediately started dating Marshall. They were together for about 9 years and engaged for almost a year when Lily broke up with Marshall to move to San Francisco to concentrate on her art. She was there for a summer and came back to NYC but Marshall was too hurt that they stayed separated for another couple months afterward. They eventually patched things up and got married. They moved into an apartment in Dowisetrepla which they do not know at first stands for Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. They want children, but for a while are scared so they didn't try. Later Lily and Marshall make a bet that once they have seen the doppelganger of every member of their gang they will start trying for a child. By the summer of 2010 they have seen all but Barney's doppelganger when Lily sees what she thinks his doppelganger (it wasn't). The rest of the gang knew this meant she was ready for a child and let her believe it. In the season six episode, "The Mermaid Theory", future Ted was telling a story (out of place in the present time-line) of a fight that Lily and Barney have while she's pregnant. Future Ted stated the pregnancy as "way down the road" as he told the story.

Barney Stinson

Played by Neil Patrick Harris and born in 1976, Barney is a womanizer, favors suits, enjoys playing laser tag and performing magic tricks often involving fire, and frequently uses the words "awesome" and "legendary," which Ted believes he uses too liberally. Barney was engaged to a woman in college, and when she broke up with him (leaving him still a virgin), his black, gay brother arranged for him to lose his virginity. The woman claimed he was awesome (as a favor to Barney's brother) which ignited Barney's unlimited confidence. Prior to losing his virginity, Barney was a long-haired hippie with plans to join the Peace Corps. Soon after he got into wearing suits. Shortly after this he met Ted Mosby (in the bathroom) and became friends with him and his college pals Lily and Marshall. Several years after that the gang added Robin. During this time he was a womanizer who worked for a bank. Even though he seemed to be anti-marriage he thought that Lily and Marshall as well as Ted and Robin made good pairs. When Lily and Marshall broke up Barney actually flew to San Francisco to convince her to come home. Two years after Ted and Robin broke up Barney realized that he had fallen for Robin. He did nothing about it for a while, but for a short while they were a couple. Barney and his African-American homosexual brother, James, were raised by their mother, Loretta.

Robin Charles Scherbatsky Jr.

Played by Cobie Smulders. Born on July 23, 1980, Robin is a Television news reporter/co-host of a 4 AM TV news show, 'Come On Get Up New York'. She was originally from Canada and named after her father, who treated her more like a boy than a girl. For most of the second season, she dated Ted after Ted spent much of the first season pursuing her romantically. Early in the first season, it was established that she does not become Ted's wife, instead becoming "Aunt Robin" to Ted's children. Despite their break-up, there continued to be some sexual tension between them throughout most of the third season, most obviously when Robin brought home her new Argentinan boyfriend from the trip she and Ted had planned together. As a teenager, she was a bubblegum pop singer named Robin Sparkles who toured malls across Canada following her minor hit "Let's Go to the Mall" and debacle "Sandcastles in the Sand." Her first boyfriend was Simon, who starred in her second music video. In season 4, Robin moves in with Ted after leaving her short-lived job in Japan. During the fourth season finale, she and Barney pursue a relationship, but they mutually end it later in season 5. One of her idiosyncrasies include having predilections towards fights. She also is frequently made fun of for her tendency to laugh while lying, and well as her references to places and history exclusive to Canada, including Mount Waddington and Danby's. Though she stated explicitly throughout the seasons that she does not like children, future Ted mentioned that she eventually grew to like them and even became close to Ted's children (hence appearing in their drawings). After being unemployed for a while after being in Japan, Robin found out that she would be deported back to Canada if she did not get a job. Barney helped her land a job for an early morning show. Soon after she started she got a co-host named Don whom she could not stand. However, she started to have feelings for him and they were a couple for a while. While she was with Don, she had a job opportunity for an anchor job outside of NYC, but she turned it down to continue her relationship with Don. However, she was upset when she found out that Don actually accepted the position.

Secondary characters

;Ted's future wife : The titular mother has been an unseen character so far. Present Ted hasn't met her yet, while Future Ted has only mentioned very little about her. In "Belly Full of Turkey" a stripper tells Ted that her name is Tracy, right before Future Ted makes a joke telling his kids that she is their mother. In "Wait for It", it is revealed that the short story of how they met involved her yellow umbrella. In "No Tomorrow", Ted finds the umbrella at a club and takes it home after attending a St. Patrick's Day party which she also attended but at which they did not meet. Stella (Sarah Chalke) mentions in passing to Ted when he tries to ask her out that she has only been out once to a party that year, which was St Patrick's Day, hinting that it may have been her yellow umbrella (this later turns out to be false). Future Ted strongly implies that his wife is a brunette, telling his children in "Shelter Island" that had he married the blond Stella, they would have turned out to be blond (his children are both, like Ted, brunettes). On his first day of teaching as Professor Mosby, as seen in the season 4 finale "The Leap", he is seen in front of the classroom of students, one of which Future Ted says is the titular mother. But in the first episode of season 5, "Definitions", it is revealed that he was actually in the wrong classroom, Economics instead of Architecture. Then in "Girls Versus Suits", Ted dates a graduate student named Cindy (played by Rachel Bilson), whose roommate is his future wife - when in Cindy and the mother's apartment he picks up many of her belongings and comments on how compatible he and Cindy are (thinking they are Cindy's) and glimpses her foot as she disappears into her room after taking a shower. Ted forgets to take the yellow umbrella with him when he goes out, and Future Ted mentions, "And this is how your mother got her yellow umbrella back." In the season 6 opener "Big Days" it is revealed Ted meets his future wife during a wedding at which he is the best man. Later in the episode "Glitter" Ted's old high school friend Punchy asks Ted to be the best man at Punchy's wedding. In the episode "False Positive" Robin asks Ted to be her future best man. ;Ted's daughter and son : Not much is known about them, except that they still do not know all the events that led to Ted meeting their mother and that they are in their late teens in the year 2030, meaning they probably were born sometime in the early 2010s. In his twenties, Ted apparently wanted to name the children Luke and Leia because in "Milk" Ted was told to "swear on his unborn son and daughter," to which he replied, "I swear on Luke and Leia." This is obviously a joke on Star Wars. The daughter is played by Lyndsy Fonseca, and the son is played by David Henrie. ; Carl : Played by Joe Nieves. Bartender at MacLaren's Bar, which is frequented by the main characters. In the pilot, he is dating a Lebanese girl. In "The Pineapple Incident" he writes his phone number on a very drunk Ted's arm to call if he gets lost. Although never stated in the show, creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas mention on the Season 1 DVD that Carl’s last name is MacLaren and he owns the bar (thus the name). During Carter Bays & Craig Thomas's commentary track for The Pineapple Incident, it was stated that Joe Nieves, who plays Carl, received the part after the scene he was supposed to be in was cut from the pilot but no one had told him, and he turned up on set in full costume (he was meant to be a police officer). As no-one wanted to tell him that they had cut his scene, they gave him the role of Carl. ; Ranjit : Played by Marshall Manesh. Ranjit is the cab and limo driver from Bangladesh who drives the main characters around on a few occasions and, on one occasion, drinks champagne with them in MacLaren's bar. He also drives the limo right after Marshall and Lily are married. Ranjit helps Ted with his two-minute date with his dermatologist Stella in the episode "Ten Sessions" as well as driving Barney and Ted to Ted's 30th birthday party in the episode "The Goat". In episode 15 of season 5, Ranjit is heard speaking Persian in an argument in favor of ducks. Indeed, the actor is Iranian, but it appears as an inconsistency as Ranjit is supposed to be from Bangladesh, and therefore speak Bengali. In the episode Three Days of Snow he was at the airport to pick someone up when he saw Lily and when he learned she needed a ride he left the person he was supposed to pick to help Lily. Ranjit appears in 10 episodes. ; Victoria : Played by Ashley Williams. Baker at Buttercup Bakery. She and Ted met at a wedding reception for which she had made the cake, where they spend the night hanging around by themselves under the promise that they will never see each other again so as not to ruin their memory of that night. This promise is soon broken and they start up a relationship with each other. This is complicated when she is offered a cooking fellowship in Germany. They eventually decide that a long distance relationship cannot work and break up. A vision of her appears to Ted shortly before the break-up, when he lies to Robin about having already ended the relationship before the fact. Appears in 6 episodes- would have been made the mother if the show was canceled after the first season. ; Stella : Played by Sarah Chalke. Ted's dermatologist, who removes his ill-advised butterfly tramp stamp tattoo. Ted attempts to convince her to go out with him over the course of the episode Ten Sessions. Stella initially refuses, telling Ted that she has to focus on being a mother to her daughter, but eventually agrees to go on a two minute lunch date. She and Ted begin dating soon after. Her future with Ted is intentionally left up in the air and there is some speculation that she may be Ted's eventual wife. In the last episode of season three, Ted proposed to Stella, and in the season four premiere she accepted. On Shelter Island, after her sister's wedding falls apart, she and Ted agreed to take over the wedding. She ends up leaving Ted at the altar and getting back together with Tony, her ex-boyfriend and the father of her daughter. Appears in nine episodes among seasons three and four. She later appears in Right Place Right Time as the mystery woman who all the tiny events of Ted's day cause him to meet; she is still with Tony and it is he, feeling guilty for stealing Ted's fiance, who gets Ted his teaching position. Shortly after Ted bumps into her on the street she moves with Tony to California where Tony made a movie about the love triangle called The Wedding Bride. The gang go to see it and are stunned about how much liberty Tony took with the story. ; James Stinson : Played by Wayne Brady. Barney's African-American and gay half-brother who also enjoys wearing suits and acts nearly the same as his brother - they used to go out on the pull together ('no crossover of targets'). He is married and he and his husband have one adopted son. In the sixth season episode "Cleaning House," James found his father, a man named Sam Gibbs. He has appeared in three episodes to date. ; Brad : Played by Joe Manganiello. A friend of Marshall's from law school. Brad and Marshall begin to hang out after they both find out they are single dudes on the town after getting dumped by their respective girlfriends. The go to brunch and to a musical together before Brad gets back together with his girlfriend. He also attends Marshall's bachelor party and wedding. He gets punched in the face by Barney when he tries to kiss Robin at a hockey game. Appears in 5 episodes. ;Stuart : Played by Matt Boren. A good friend of Ted and Marshall's who accompanies them to Marshall's bachelor party. Stuart also was about get married to another friend of Ted's, Claudia, but when Ted wanted to bring a guest to their wedding Claudia freaked out that no more people could come. Ted went behind Claudia's back and asked Stuart if he could bring Robin to his wedding and Stuart agreed. This resulted in Stuart and Claudia breaking up; Marshall eventually got the two of them back together. He briefly appears in Intervention, where in they intervene out of their concerns for him about his alcoholism. Appears in 4 episodes. ;Wendy the Waitress : Played by Charlene Amoia. A waitress from MacLaren's bar. Characterized as sweet and somewhat naive, she appears well liked by The Gang who always refer to her as "Wendy The Waitress". Barney has had a brief relationship with her which ended up with her getting over the breakup easily, while he was convinced that she was trying to kill him and all the drinks she served him were poisoned. In that episode, Robin jokingly refers to her as "Wendy the Waitress-hyphen-Stinson." ;Robin's five dogs : They were sent away to Robin's aunt in the farm because Ted was jealous and was freaked out about them (due to the argument in the episode "Stuff", where Robin became angry because Ted was keeping the things his ex-girlfriends gave him and Ted became angry she got to keep the dogs who were given to her by her ex-boyfriends). Although she visits her dogs often to make sure they don't forget her, she didn't take the dogs back because she didn't want to keep five dogs in one New York apartment. ;Zoey Van Smoot: Played by Jennifer Morrison Ted first meets Zoey, an activist who is protesting the destruction of an historic New York building, in the 6th season episode "Architect of Destruction". At first Ted is attracted to her even though he is the architect responsible for the building's inevitable demolition. When she finds out that Ted is the architect, she turns on him and spends the next few weeks staking out his house and office to torment him. In the episode "Natural History", Ted meets her rich husband, who calls himself the Captain, at a black tie event at a museum that the whole gang is invited to because of Ted's building project with Goliath National Bank. Though their interactions that night are somewhat amicable, they leave the museum still hating each other. In the episode "Blitzgiving", she spends the night before Thanksgiving hanging out with the gang (minus Ted) which causes her to invite them to her place for Thanksgiving. In the end, Ted realizes that Zoey is disappointed because her step daughter hates her and wont spend Thanksgiving with her. Because of this understanding Ted and Zoey become friends. Zoey is (by marriage) a Van Smoot, whose family is shown to have owned the mansion in which Marshall and Lily were married, and an apartment in the Alberta building. Appears in 5 episodes so far.

Occasional and guest characters

; Sandy Rivers : Played by Alexis Denisof (Alyson Hannigan's real-life husband). Robin's former co-anchor. A sleazebag, (and, as described by Ted, "a total jackass") he constantly asks Robin out until one night she accepts, making Ted extremely jealous. Before this, he was a favorite of Ted and Marshall, as they enjoyed laughing at the section of his morning news bulletin where he simply read through front pages of newspapers in a spoof of Pat Kiernan's morning show on NY1. In the first season finale, he reveals that he has accepted a position at CNN and has recommended Robin to succeed him as lead anchor of Metro News One. He later appears in Season 6 as Robin's boss at World Wide News. It is revealed that Sandy's hair is a toupee, as seen by Ted. ; Katie Scherbatsky : Played By Lucy Hale. Robin's younger sister. First introduced in the "First Time in New York" episode, where she comes to visit. Appears in one episode. ;Heather Mosby : Played by Erin Cahill. Ted's irresponsible younger sister. Appears in "Little Minnesota" and mentioned in "Home Wreckers". ; Hammond Druthers : Played by Bryan Cranston. Ted's boss at the architecture firm until Ted submits better design for a building in the episode "Aldrin Justice." Druthers wanted the building he designed to look like an erect male organ and after the client told him no Ted showed him his own after which he got promoted. He, much to his displeasure, begins to work for Ted afterward. Appears in 2 episodes. ; (Crazy) Meg : Played by April Bowlby. A girl who appears obsessed with commitment and Barney. She initially hooks up with Barney in Marshall and Lily's display apartment in "Dowisetrepla" and is arrested for trespassing when Barney leaves her there. She reappears in "The Bracket" as the Upper West Side champion to whom Barney must apologize. She also appears in "The Rough Patch" as part of Lily's plan to break up Robin and Barney. Here it is shown she is still obsessed with Barney and possibly Alan Thicke. Appears in 3 episodes. ;Karen : Played by Laura Prepon Ted's former college girlfriend. Thus far, we know Karen is snooty and pretentious, she cheated on Ted constantly throughout their relationship, and that Marshall and Lily hate her. Lily recalls an incident back in college, when Lily was painting Marshall, who was posing nude. Karen walked in and as she excused herself, she lingered with her gaze fixed on Marshall's nether regions. ; Trudy : Played by Danica McKellar. The girl who ends up in Ted's bed after Barney convinces Ted to do instead of think. Appears in 2 episodes. ; Penelope : Played by Amy Acker. A girl who hooked up with Barney twice and helps teach Ted how to do a rain dance. Appears in 1 episode. ; Chloe : Played by Morena Baccarin. A girl who works at a coffee shop who dates Marshall for a bit, and also starts the trend of people calling Barney "Swarley." ; Amy : Played by Mandy Moore. A girl who Ted meets at Mclaren's and uses to get over Robin. She steals a bottle of tequila from the bar. She takes an intoxicated Ted to get his first tattoo, which the gang call a tramp stamp because it is a butterfly on his lower back. ; Abby : Played by Britney Spears. Stella's receptionist. Very energetic and scatterbrained, she developed an obsessive crush on Ted while he was pursuing Stella. Barney ended up sleeping with her, and then they worked together to torment Ted with their faux relationship since they both disliked him at that time. However, Abby was simultaneously still in love with Ted and seemingly unable to comprehend that the relationship with Barney was a charade. Appears in 2 episodes. ; Professor Lewis : Played by Jane Seymour. Marshall's recently divorced law professor who is considered a "cougar" by Barney, who attempts to "tame her." ; Korean Elvis : Played by George Cheung Korean Man who dresses up as Elvis and hangs out with the group after meeting when Barney, Marshall, and Lily went to go sing Karaoke after Marshall and Barney got off of work. He whispered something to Lily, and she kicked him in the "nards". It's a joke that reoccurred every once in a while. ;Gael : Played by Enrique Iglesias. He appears in Season 3 for the first two episodes. He was Robin's boyfriend who she starts dating during her vacation on Argentina just after breaking up with Ted in the last season's finale. He is a good massuese and more laid back and relaxed than Robin which eventually broke up with him. ;Tiffany: Played by Carrie Underwood in the season 5 episode, "Hooked". She is a pharmaceutical sales rep, who the friends of Ted believe is stringing him along. ;Anita Appleby: Played by Jennifer Lopez in the season 5 episode "Of Course". Anita is a dating guru and man eater. She is hired by Robin to seduce Barney Stinson. ;Rhonda: Played by Stephanie Faracy Known as the "man-maker," she appears in the season 3 episode, "The Yips". Rhonda is a friend of Mrs. Stinson. She is the woman who takes Barney's virginity. ;Bilson: Played by Bryan Callen, Barney and Marshall's boss from work. ;Blauman: Played by Taran Killam (Cobie Smulders' real life fiancé) Barney and Marshall's coworker, friends with Bilson. ;Scooter (Bill) : Played by David Burtka, (Neil Patrick Harris's real life boyfriend) in 5 episodes. He is Lily's ex-boyfriend who won't let Lily go. He actually went to Lily and Marshalls wedding to try to get Lily back. He first appeared in the season 1 episode "Best Prom Ever" in one of Lily's high school flashbacks as her boyfriend. ;Jessica Glitter: Played by Nicole Sherzinger In the episode "Glitter", she plays an old friend of Robin's from Canada. Glitter was her character's name on a Canadian Tv show called "Space Teens" where she and Robin Sparkles used math to complete missions in space. Appears in 1 episode, so far. ;Steve (the Blitz): Played by Jorge Garcia In the episode "Blitzgiving" he plays a college friend of Ted and Marshall's. He gets his name from the curse he has which makes awesome things happen whenever he leaves a place. During the episode, Jorge makes numerous allusions to his Lost character including using "the numbers" 4,8,15,16,23,42 as a random phone number, and mentioning feeling like hes been on "that island" for eternity. The episode features the curse passing from a few characters starting with Ted, going to Barney and finally ending up with the original Blitz again.

References

How I Met Your Mother Category:How I Met Your Mother