List of Abbott Elementary characters


Abbott Elementary is an American television series created by Quinta Brunson for ABC. It stars Brunson as a second grade teacher at Abbott Elementary, a fictional predominantly Black school in Philadelphia. The ensemble cast includes Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph and William Stanford Davis. The following is a list of characters, including the main cast and those who appear alongside the main cast in the series.

Cast overview

; Key

Main characters

Janine Teagues

Janine Teagues is the plucky and optimistic lead of the series who works as a second-grade teacher at Abbott Elementary. Throughout the series she remains unjaded by all of the things the school lacks and strives to make sure her students have enough to learn and grow. While helping the students of Abbott, Janine also deals with challenges and relationships within her personal life.
During the events of the first season, Janine is looked over by the staff of Abbott, particularly Ava who bullies her numerous times. Within the season, she dates Tariq, who she has been with since the 8th grade. She struggles with the thought of ending her relationship with Tariq; with the staff of Abbott siding with their breakup. At the end of the season, she breaks up with him when he decides to move to New York City to pursue his career as a professional rapper. In the second season, Janine struggles to get over Tariq and has trouble paying her rent, since she originally split the bill monthly with Tariq. When trying to rekindle Melissa's relationship with her sister, Janine describes her complicated family history, with a mother who never paid her any attention and a sister who lives in another state. She begins regularly hanging out with Jacob and Erika, an old mutual friend of Tariq, who supports Janine and invites her to parties to increase her social mobility. She dates Gregory's friend [|Maurice] throughout the season, which prompts unspoken jealousy. After Janine breaks up with Maurice, she and Gregory confess their feelings for one another but agree to remain friends for personal growth. In the third season, Janine and Gregory move past their awkward conversations as she begins a job working for the Philadelphia school system. In the fourth season, Janine begins dating Gregory.

Relationship with Gregory

While hinted at in the pilot episode, Janine and Gregory have a will-they-won't-they dynamic that is apparent in almost every episode. They teach classes next to each other and have developed a special bond. They almost share a kiss during the Christmas episode, but they are interrupted by Amber. After Gregory breaks up with Amber, he shares a drunken kiss with Janine at a teacher conference but they vow to ignore it.
When asked by late-night host James Corden about the relationship between Gregory and Janine, Tyler James Williams said:
Their relationship has been compared to that of Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly from The Office, which shares a similar mockumentary presentation style with Abbott Elementary.
They officially begin dating during the fourth season premiere.

Gregory Eddie

Gregory Thompson Eddie is the co-lead of the series and a substitute, later full-time, first-grade teacher at Abbott. Gregory harbors a crush on Janine, however at first he hides it well. When he arrives at Abbott during the Pilot episode, Gregory reveals that he originally applied to be the school's principal, and is upset with an unqualified Ava for taking the job he worked hard to obtain.
In the first season, Gregory is hired as a substitute to cover for Tina, he immediately befriends Janine; who teaches a class right beside his. Gregory receives a phone call from his unsupportive father who tells him that he should leave his career of teaching and pursue a more stable career with him as a gardener. He also meets Barbara's daughter Taylor whom he begins dating. He applies to be a full-time teacher in the season finale, which he ultimately gets due to the school being unable to find a full-time replacement for Tina. During the second season, Gregory begins his first year at Abbott as a full-time teacher and continues to date Taylor; however later, Taylor breaks up with him. Following his breakup with Taylor, Gregory begins dating Amber, the parent of a student in Janine's class much to her unspoken jealousy. After a breakup with Amber, Gregory confesses his feelings for Janine who reciprocates them, but argues that they should remain just friends for the time being. In the following seasons, their relationship continues to develop, with Janine even impressing Gregory's father. In the fourth season, after Ava is sacked, Gregory becomes the interim principal but soon everybody realises that Gregory is struggling in his new position due to being awkward at social interactions.

Ava Coleman

Ava Eva Coleman is the school's chaotic, insensitive, grossly incompetent, careless, narcissistic & tone-deaf principal. She also harbors a casual sexual attraction to Gregory, which she does not hide well & in turn makes him uncomfortable. She is also an avid user of social media and often focuses on it rather than her responsibilities of being principal. Apart from being the school principal, she also runs a side business of selling stylish clothing online, hence keeps a cabinet filled with her wares in her office chamber.
The first season showcases Ava's carelessness and antics on full display. She spends her entire time doing livestreaming on Instagram, making Tiktoks, watching Love Island and bullying the staff, especially Janine. During the Pilot episode, it is revealed that Ava obtained her job as principal after blackmailing the superintendent, whom she caught cheating on his wife. However, the superintendent later visits Abbott and tells Ava that he has divorced his wife and is now married to the woman he was caught with by Ava, and that she is at risk of losing her job. In the penultimate episode of the first season, Ava wins over the district and the superintendent, and keeps her job. Following her successful presentation to the district, Ava continues her normal antics in the second season, although as the season progresses, it becomes clear that she is engaging with the job more and that she is developing actual skills as a principal. She also gets more compassionate with children, giving them money for lunches and clothes in need and organising a fundraising campaign for the school by arranging students to sell candy at the local mall, a sharp contrast from the first season, where she pilfered the funds sent by the district board to create a flashy new school signboard featuring herself instead of providing the staff with necessary items. However, she gets into an argument with Barbara after the latter is publicly berated by her fellow church-goer who was overcharged by a student acting upon Ava's instructions. Ava defends her amoral advice by describing her own struggles with poverty and stating that the kid in question was in desperate need of money due to his family's financial strain. After substituting for Janine when she is out sick, and sitting in on Jacob's class to investigate allegations of racism against him, Ava realizes that she actually likes her job and learning and decides to start studying for the principal's certification she should have had to get the job in the first place. She attends Harvard University, using their Wifi to complete her online course in Master of Education and returns completely changed in the third season, but this change doesn't last long. Ava also starts to show more care and compassion for her staff when she starts supporting them in their activities and personal lives and has even started to like Janine a little more. In the fourth season, she blackmails Miles Nathaniel for procuring computers for the impoverished school. At the end of the season, the district authorities find out about Ava's acceptance of the bribed computers and sack her, but the entire staff and students of Abbott Elementary, alongside the parents and the local community rallies behind her, causing in her reinstatement as principal.
Ava maintains an intense rivalry with Crystal, her sorority sister from Grand Canyon University, currently working as a principal in another similarly impoverished public school called Liberty Rings in Philadelphia. In the fourth season, when Ava is unexpectedly invited to a prestigious meeting of the district educators in recognition of her positive impacts to Abbott Elementary, she overhears Crystal, frustrated at Ava's success, bemoaning the loss of opportunity to obtain funding for her impoverished school. Ava, who manages to get a generous amount of aid sanctioned for Abbott Elementary, insists that the aid material be divide among themselves, but Crystal refuses.
A writer for the show is also named Ava Coleman, but this is a coincidence as Coleman started writing for the show in Season 2.

Melissa Schemmenti

Melissa Ann Schemmenti is a second-grade teacher at Abbott, who has a large Italian-American family with questionable connections. She has a close connection with Barbara, with both being veteran teachers at Abbott. Melissa's family is native to the local fire department, and is referenced in numerous episodes. However, she has a somewhat strained relationship with her family due to her status as a divorcee.
During the first season, much of the humor surrounding Melissa's character concerns her family's questionable connections to local municipal agencies and criminal elements. Although these connections generally worry her colleagues, they never question them since a large percentage of the time it benefits the school. Melissa begins going out with the vending machine stocker, Gary, at the end of the first season; the relationship continues into the second and third seasons, until their ultimate breakup after Melissa tells Gary that she does not ever want to get re-married. In the second season, when classes get combined due to a teacher shortage, Melissa receives ten third-grade students in her second-grade class. This proves to be too difficult to keep up with on her own, and the school offers her an aide in the distracting and childish Ashley Garcia, who only causes more problems for Melissa. Melissa is revealed to have a sister, Kristen Marie, a teacher at Addington Elementary, a local charter school with which Abbott Elementary is in competition, with whom she has a rivalry with. When Janine attempts to salvage their bond, Melissa reveals that Kristen Marie left her alone with the responsibilities of her sick grandmother, and disrespected her when the funeral came around. Beginning in the fourth season, Melissa becomes attached to her class' pet guinea pig, who she names Sweet Cheeks. She includes the guinea pig in various events at the school, even dressing up as Sweet Cheeks for Halloween. In the fifth season, she is promoted to teaching mathematics at sixth grade.