List of Desperate Housewives characters


Desperate Housewives is an American comedy-drama series that aired on ABC. It focuses on the residents living on the fictional Wisteria Lane as narrated by their deceased neighbor, Mary Alice Young. Specifically, the series follows four protagonists and Mary Alice's friends, Susan Mayer, Lynette Scavo, Bree Van de Kamp, and Gabrielle Solis. Desperate Housewives features an ensemble cast, which also includes the women's husbands, children, love interests, neighbors, and other acquaintances.

Main characters

The following are characters whose portrayer received "Starring" billing at any point of the series. They are sorted in the order in which they were introduced to the main cast, and not by episode count, screen time, or popularity.

Susan Mayer

Lynette Scavo

Bree Van de Kamp

Gabrielle Solis

Edie Britt

Mike Delfino

Rex Van de Kamp

Carlos Solis

Paul Young

Mary Alice Young

Julie Mayer

John Rowland

Zach Young

Zachary "Zach" Young is the son of Paul and Mary Alice. Zach's birth parents are [|Deirdre Taylor] and Mike Delfino; however, this, along with his original name of Dana Taylor, is not revealed until "One Wonderful Day".
Zach is put in a mental institution by his father after his mother's suicide. Zach later runs away and is found hiding in Julie's room, and after they start dating. Whilst at the institution, Zach was diagnosed with clinical depression and a borderline personality disorder. When Julie eventually ends their relationship due to his mental instability, Zach blows up her kitchen.
Zach then goes into hiding, and later Mike and Susan look for him, Mike having realized he is his father. Susan finds him, but when he speaks about reconciling with Julie, she suggests he go to Utah and find Paul and gives him money for the bus fare. Months later, when Paul is arrested, Paul begs Zach to ask his grandfather, [|Noah Taylor], for money to pay a lawyer. Noah refuses, and Zach turns off Noah's respirator, killing him. After, he finds that he has inherited a vast fortune and no longer wants anything to do with Paul. Zach moves to his grandfather's mansion.
Zach reappears in season three as Gabrielle's secret admirer. Zach unsuccessfully tries to impress Gabrielle with luxurious gifts and his wealth. After getting her drunk, Zach lets her believe that they had sex, which she cannot remember. Gabrielle then asks Carlos to scare Zach off, and Carlos realizes that Zach and Gaby had not slept together, after accidentally seeing Zach's penis at the urinals, and telling Gaby that if they had sex, she would have remembered. Later Zach proposes at Scavo's Pizzeria but Gabrielle declines as she does not want a relationship with him.
Zach returns in season seven, shooting Paul at the end of the episode "Down the Block There's a Riot". He first appears as a delivery guy delivering flowers to Bree. Later in the episode, a gun matching the one used to shoot Paul is found on Bree's couch after Zach planted it there. It's revealed that Zach is now addicted to drugs and gambling and has lost his entire fortune on both. Paul and Mike both momentarily put their differences aside to help Zach by placing him in a rehab clinic for treatment, where he remains for the rest of the series.

Betty Applewhite

Tom Scavo

Karl Mayer

Orson Hodge

Katherine Mayfair

Dave Williams

Andrew Van de Kamp

Angie Bolen

Ana Solis

Ana Solis is the granddaughter of Carlos' Aunt Connie. Ana arrives to Wisteria Lane in the fifth-season finale to live with Carlos and his family when her grandmother could not take care of Ana anymore. They eventually become her legal guardians.
Later, Ana gets a job working for John Rowland, Gabrielle's ex-lover, and develops a crush on him, until Gabrielle confesses to her about her past affair with John after Ana witnesses him kissing her, and she quits her job.
Ana begins to date Danny, but Gabrielle sends Ana to New York to protect her after hearing Angie and Nick argue about their dangerous past. By the end of season 6, Ana remains in New York City, and Danny leaves to be with her.

Renee Perry

Karen McCluskey

Bob Hunter and Lee McDermott

Bob Hunter and Lee McDermott are the first gay couple to live on the fictitious Wisteria Lane. They first appeared in the season four episode "If There's Anything I Can't Stand" on October 21, 2007. Within the series, Bob is an attorney, and Lee is a real estate agent. At the end of season 7, they adopt a 10-year-old daughter named Jenny.
Prior to the fourth season of Desperate Housewives, the series' sole leading gay character was Andrew Van de Kamp, whom critics noted as having a minimal role in season three. In July 2007, two months before the premiere of season four, series creator Marc Cherry announced that a gay couple would be moving to Wisteria Lane around the fifth episode of the new season. Cherry named the characters after ABC journalist Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee, and based them on his own experiences and interactions with neighbors as a gay man. Cherry decided not to make the new characters "issue-oriented" and treat them like the heterosexual couples on the series. Actor Tuc Watkins was cast in the recurring role of Bob in August 2007, having previously auditioned for the role of Adam Mayfair for the series only a few weeks earlier. Kevin Rahm, who was cast as Bob's partner Lee, originally auditioned for Bob.
Both Watkins and Rahm were promoted from recurring guest stars to series regulars for the seventh season. However, for the eighth and final season of the series, both of them were demoted to "Also starring".

Jenny Hunter-McDermott

Jenny Hunter-McDermott is the 10-year-old girl adopted by Bob Hunter and Lee Dermott. She is introduced at the end of season 7, in "I'm Still Here". She develops a close relationship with Renee, who helps her with "girl things", since she does not have a mother.

Chuck Vance

Chuck Vance is introduced in the seventh season as the investigator in charge of keeping an eye on Felicia Tilman who has moved back onto the lane. He begins dating Bree Van de Kamp until she discovers he is still married, though he had filed for divorce a year ago. When Bree confronts Chuck with this information, Chuck retaliates by telling her he had also run a background check on her. After an argument, they make up and continue to date. In the seventh season finale, Lee tells Bree he recognizes Chuck as a gay man he has seen in local gay bars. Bree drops in on him at the police station, and her suspicions deepen, leading her to believe Chuck's marriage has broken down because he is gay. After a dinner date, Bree insists Chuck take her to a gay bar, where several patrons and a waiter recognize him. Chuck tells her he had worked undercover in the bar, and discloses his marriage broke down because his wife had been having an affair with his police partner.
In the eighth season, Bree continues her relationship with Chuck, but she fears that he might discover what happened with Alejandro in "Come on Over for Dinner", so she breaks up with him on the same night Chuck had planned to propose to her. Chuck is later given a missing person report for Alejandro. Chuck recalls seeing Alejandro at Wisteria Lane the night of the progressive party, so he guesses that Bree is involved in the case. Chuck investigates while harassing Bree and her friends, in an attempt to get revenge and make Bree suffer. Chuck is close to discover the truth until he is run over and killed by Orson. Chuck appears amongst other deceased characters in the series finale.

Ben Faulkner

Ben Faulkner is an Australian real estate developer who moves to Wisteria Lane in the final season. He attracts Renee's attention, and they eventually begin dating. Bree comes to volunteer at Ben's soup kitchen and helps him get the right to build his houses for the poor in the woods, but she later finds out that it is the same place that the girls buried Alejandro. Bree first tries to prevent Ben from building the houses there, but after Ben finds the corpse, Bree decides to reveal the secret to him, and asks Mike to bury it under the concrete foundations at the site.
Ben has a financial crisis and decides to do business with a loan shark but later has trouble paying him back. After a stress-related attack, he is taken to the hospital. Mike tells Renee about the situation with the loan shark, so she pays off the loan shark behind Ben's back.
Ben decides to propose to Renee, but he gets arrested when the police find Alejandro's body at his construction site. Renee gets the ring on her finger before he is taken in for questioning. Ben is let go, but when Bree is thanking Ben for covering up the murder, the cops are listening in to their phone call. Renee confronts Ben after finding out that Ben is on the witness list for Bree's trial, but Ben tells her he cannot tell her anything because he does not want to put her at risk. Ben goes to the trial but refuses to speak. He is arrested and jailed until he speaks, and the prosecutor threatens Renee with sending him back to Australia unless she confesses what she knows. In the end, Bree is exonerated, and Ben finally marries Renee.

Juanita Solis

Juanita Solis is the legal daughter of Gabrielle and Carlos Solis born in the 5-year gap between seasons 4 and 5. Kaili Say was originally cast to play Juanita as seen by the end of season 4's final episode. However, Madison De La Garza replaced her from season 5 onwards. She is named after [|Carlos' late mother].
In Season 7, Carlos learns that Juanita was switched at birth with Grace Sanchez, and that her biological parents are Hector and Carmen Sanchez. Upon discovering the switch, Gabrielle tracks down her biological daughter, Grace. Unaware of the truth, Juanita is jealous of the attention her mother bestows on Grace. When Juanita's biological parents turn out to be illegal immigrants, Grace is forced to leave with them, causing Gabrielle to be heartbroken. She tries to get through her feelings by writing a note to Grace but Juanita finds it and discovers the truth. She yells at Gabrielle and even shoves her down before fleeing the house, ending up in the back of Lee's car during the riot caused by Paul. When the car is attacked as part of a riot, Juanita is nearly hurt but is rescued by Gabrielle and Carlos and appears ready to forgive her parents.
De La Garza is promoted to "Starring" status in the eighth season, but only in the episodes she appears in.