Characters of The Bear (TV series)
The characters of the FX Networks television series The Bear, an American family dramedy television program launched in 2022, are predominantly people who work with the Berzattos at family businesses including a semi-seedy Italian beef sandwich shop, the Original Beef of Chicagoland. The Beef is later transformed into a high-end dinner destination known as the Bear. The series is set in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Cast list
Color key:Top-billed cast
Three or more appearances per season
One or two appearances per season
Background
is a major theme of the series since main character Carmy Berzatto returned to Chicago generally disgusted by the alcoholism and abandonment that forged their "dysfunctional nightmare" of a family. Over time Carmy began connecting with the employees of the Beef and the Bear in a way that replicated healthy familial attachments. It is a truism of the series that "someone doesn't necessarily have to be a Berzatto to be a Bear." Still, the Berzattos and their seemingly irresistible swag are the show's center of gravity: "The Berzattos are a difficult clan to belong to but magnetic nonetheless. Lifelong friends and ex-in-laws alike linger in their orbit, forming an amorphous, unofficial family that mystifies outsiders."As a Vulture writer put it in 2025, "If The Bear is about only one thing, it's family. Sure, it's about food and jokes and arguing and money and past trauma, but all of those things can be wrapped up into one big familial package. Carmy came back to take over his late brother's restaurant because of family. Richie and the Faks aren't technically related to Carmy and Nat, but they’re family all the same. Tina's motherly and Ebra's a bit of a kooky uncle. Remember: The reason the shiny new Bear exists at all is because of Mikey's 'family dinner' recipe that urged Carmy to open up the smaller cans of tomatoes. Everyone workingor even diningat the Bear is family, whether they like it or not." Carmy initially resisted Mikey's family-meal spaghetti, deeming it an underseasoned, oversauced mess, but later relented, which an anthropological examination of Italian-American food rituals suggested may be critical to the formation of the family: "Enjoying the 'taste' of the authentic sacred dishes is, therefore, a sign of cultural competence—of becoming fully integrated as an authentic group member."
The known family members include a clutch of cousins who are roughly the same "generation" as siblings Carmy, Nat, and Mikey; a set of uncles who are the roughly the same generation as their mom and dad; some grandparent-tier matriarchs known only from references in dialogue; two restaurant families, now partially integrated; and a miscellaneous assortment of other family friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Broadly speaking, the family is composed of "a lot of people with very specific and unique personalities that feel things very strongly and experience life intensely."
Nuclear family
The core Berzatto family consists of the unnamed long-absent father "Pop," mom Donna, the kids Mikey, Sugar, and Bear, and Cousin Richie, a biologically unrelated neighborhood kid who grew up in the family as Mikey's best friend and a de facto foster sibling. The pilot script suggests that Richie has a decade or two on Carmy.Carmy Berzatto
The youngest sibling by birth order, Carmen Anthony Berzatto moved back to Chicago following the death of his brother Mikey. Carmy is "a chain-smoking baddie, but he's also a grieving brother, a prodigal son, a self-lacerating overachiever, and a bewildered product of chaos and dysfunction." He left Chicago fairly young to train and work as a chef; he transformed himself from an "insecure, friendless slacker from a troubled home" into a white-hot name on the American culinary scene, cooking at the best restaurants in America and collecting racks of awards. Since returning home, he has reluctantly, incrementally moved into Mikey's place as the acknowledged leader of the family. Carmy is played by Jeremy Allen White.Sugar
is the middle sibling by birth order. She is close with her surviving brother, Carmy. Originally opposed to Carmy's attempts to rehabilitate the Beef, she left her job at a bank when she was recruited by Carmy's partner Chef Sydney to serve as business manager for the forthcoming Bear restaurant. Nat is played by Abby Elliott.Pete
Pete Katinsky is Natalie's kind and loving husband and baby Sophie's dad. When Pete was first introduced, he appeared to be "universally disliked by the family, he turns out to be just a big softie—perhaps naive to the others' hardened ways, but charming because of his kind manner and willingness to look for the best in everyone." Pete works as a lawyer and helps the family with contracts for the restaurant. Pete is played by Chris Witaske.Sophie Katinsky
Sophie is an infant, Natalie and Pete's first child, born the first week of August 2023. She was born in the episode "Ice Chips," and her name was revealed in the episode "Replicants" when she was introduced to the restaurant-dwelling Bears. Generally speaking, Berzattos smell like onions, but baby Sophie smells like "raspberries that are chewed up."Mikey Berzatto
Michael Berzatto shot himself in the head on the State Street Bridge four months before the opening of the series. The loud, lionized, charismatic, and larger-than-life oldest brother of the family, Mikey was first described by Uncle Jimmy in the second episode of the series: "No disrespect...your brother, he was an animal, surrounded by dickheads, and then he lost his mind, and now he put you in a real tough spot."Donna Berzatto
Donna, also known as Aunt DD, is the alcoholic, mentally ill mother of Carmy, Natalie, and Mikey. Donna is, for the most part, "an oppressive presence, spoken about in hushed tones, the Babadook of the Berzattos." She is considered to be a "bringer of chaos." She was a terrible mother, but her convivial spirit seems to have assured her a central role within the larger community. In her partying days she enjoyed a type of whiskey cocktail called a 7-7. She got sober following Mikey's death and is in recovery. Donna worked at the restaurant when Pop first bought it and seems to have later become a real estate agent.According to assistant costume designer Lariana Santiago, "One note from Christopher Storer that stuck with us was about dressing Donna like she had been rich for one year...The set design played into this, too, with the velvet bedspread and that leopard statue." Her house is decorated in 1980s style, with big wooden hutches and plastic-covered department-store-rococo couches; recurring motifs include black lacquer, Italiana, and felines. There is an oil painting of a nude woman over the mantel in her bedroom, and in the living room a portrait in pencil of her son Mikey and a family pet. Her leisure reading taste is revealed in piles of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel novels. In the kitchen she keeps a collection of American mass-market cookbooks, including The Pillsbury Cookbook, The Betty Crocker Cookbook, and Everyday Italian.
Donna is played by Jamie Lee Curtis. When asked about Donna's hair design and nails, show runner Christopher Storer sent Curtis photos of Monica Vitti and the "desperate housewives of New York." Curtis won a guest star Emmy Award for her debut appearance on the show in the Christmas episode "Fishes." In her Emmy acceptance speech, Curtis said, "You know there's a saying, 'Hurt people hurt people,' but I also think you can add to that and say, 'Helped people help people,' and I think that's the story of The Bear." In 2025 The New Republic
"Pop" Berzatto
The father of the Berzatto children has been absent from the family for many years, probably since the 1990s. He has been referenced in dialogue but not appeared onscreen outside of a photograph of him in company with Uncle Jimmy, as seen in the episode "Dogs." The Berzatto dad's fate is ambiguous and fans speculate about whether or not he is alive or dead.According to Jimmy, he drank, did drugs, gambled, could not pick a career, and launched the Original Beef of Chicagoland restaurant on a whim after a visit to Ed Debevic's, a heavily marketed family-oriented diner that opened in River North in 1984. The dad was mentioned in the pilot episode "System" when Carmy proposed a video game tournament to bring in customers, saying "Nerds come in from Rockford to play," to which Richie replied, "Yeah, like in 1987. You know, when you were still in that deadbeat's balls. In "Napkins," Mikey told Tina, "My old man, he opened it. He also ran it into the ground. He had a giant stack of unpaid bills. He took one look and he split, you know? He hightailed it. Ran for the hills, never came back." Mikey called him "Pop," and told Carmy that their dad was an unavailable asshole. According to Donna, she and her husband argued frequently. He asked for a sedative to relieve his anxiety while Donna was in labor with Carmy.
The last time Jimmy talked to Mr. Berzatto was "about 20 years ago". Carmy remembers that his dad always unhappy, and does not remember the last time he talked to him. Carmy told Marcus, who was also raised by a single mom, that he "used to" wonder about his dad but not anymore.