List of Glee characters
Glee is a musical comedy-drama television series that aired on Fox in the United States for six seasons from 2009 to 2015. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing in the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues.
The initial main cast encompassed club director and Spanish teacher Will Schuester, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury, Will's wife Terri, and eight club members played by Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz. For the second season, formerly recurring cast members Mike O'Malley, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera were promoted to the main cast. In the third season the main cast remained at fifteen, with Harry Shum Jr. and Darren Criss promoted to it, while Gilsig and O'Malley no longer received star billing. The fourth season began with fourteen in the main cast, with Chord Overstreet being promoted, and Mays and Agron were removed and demoted to recurring cast. The fifth season saw the biggest change, with Monteith's death, and Morris, Riley, Salling and Shum all being switched to recurring status. At the same time, Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner, Alex Newell and Becca Tobin were promoted to the main cast and are credited as such for the season, though they appear only in the first thirteen of the twenty episodes, after which New Directions is disbanded and the series shifts to the glee club alumni in New York City for the remainder of the season. The sixth and final season's main cast was reduced to nine: Colfer, Criss, Lynch, McHale, Michele, Morrison and Overstreet continued from the previous season, Riley returned to the main cast, and Dot-Marie Jones as football coach Shannon Beiste was promoted to it.
The series has many supporting characters, including faculty members, students and relatives of the glee club members. Broadway stars including Idina Menzel, John Lloyd Young, Jonathan Groff, Phoebe Strole and Kristin Chenoweth have been featured in guest roles. A number of the principal actors were cast directly from Broadway, while those without theatrical backgrounds were required to demonstrate singing and dancing as well as acting ability.
Casting
In casting Glee, series creator Ryan Murphy sought actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles. Instead of using traditional network casting calls, Murphy spent three months on Broadway, where he found Matthew Morrison, who had previously starred on stage in Hairspray and The Light in the Piazza, Lea Michele, who starred in Spring Awakening, and Jenna Ushkowitz, from the Broadway revival of The King and I. The role of Rachel was written specifically for Michele.Chris Colfer had originally auditioned to play Artie Abrams. Although Colfer had no previous professional experience, Murphy was so impressed by Colfer's performance that the role of Kurt Hummel, named after the character Kurt from The Sound of Music, was created for him.
Auditioning actors with no theatrical experience were required to demonstrate their ability to sing and dance. Jayma Mays auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" from The Rocky Horror Show, while Cory Monteith initially submitted a tape of himself acting only, and was requested to submit a second, musical tape, in which he sang "a cheesy, '80s music-video-style version" of REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling". Cory Monteith has deemed his casting "spot on" as his lack of formal training is reflected in the abilities of his character, Finn Hudson.
Kevin McHale came from a boy-band background, having previously been part of the group NLT. He auditioned with the song "Let It Be" and tested alongside Colfer and Ushkowitz. McHale explained that the diversity of the cast's backgrounds reflects the range of different musical styles within the show itself: "It's a mix of everything: classic rock, current stuff, R&B. Even the musical theater stuff is switched up. You won't always recognize it." Jane Lynch was originally intended to have a recurring role in the show, but became a series regular when a Damon Wayans pilot she was working on for ABC fell through.
Dianna Agron was the last primary actor to be cast, having won the role only days before the pilot began filming. Agron auditioned for Glee coming from a background in dancing and acting. Agron said in a 2009 interview pertaining to her casting session: "I nearly bailed on my audition for the show. I was so nervous". With her wholesome good looks, Agron certainly looked the part, but the producers wondered if she appeared too innocent. Agron said in an interview: "They told me to come back with straight hair and to dress sexier. Later that week, I started work." Agron auditioned with Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon". The Glee producers said "we really lucked out in finding Agron to play Quinn".
Table of cast members
Main characters
Will Schuester
William Michael "Will" Schuester is McKinley High's Spanish teacher who becomes director of the glee club, which he renames New Directions, hoping to restore it to its former glory. Morrison has assessed that the crux of Glee is "about passion for music and influencing his kids". Will is married to his high school sweetheart Terri. Believing her to be pregnant, unaware that she is actually experiencing a hysterical pregnancy, he considers leaving the teaching field to become an accountant. He ultimately decides against it, though briefly works after hours at the school as a janitor to earn extra money. His dedication to the glee club wavers when his choreography skills are called into question, but after starting a well-received all-male a cappella group, the Acafellas, he recommits to the club. After discovering Terri was faking her pregnancy, Will ends his marriage and shares a kiss with Emma. Their relationship does not solidify over the remainder of the season, however, and Emma starts dating Carl Howell at the end of the school year. In the second season, though Will tries to win Emma back, she marries Carl. Will has a brief relationship with Holly Holliday starting in the episode "Sexy". Holly takes a job in Cleveland, leaving Will free to pursue Emma after Emma's marriage ends in an annulment. April Rhodes returns and asks for Will's help with her new Broadway project: a one-woman show entitled CrossRhodes, but he ultimately decides that his students in New Directions are more important than his dreams of Broadway. At the start of the third season, Will and Emma are living together. He proposes to her after New Year's, and she accepts. He later switches from teaching Spanish to teaching history, though he continues directing the glee club. New Directions wins Nationals, he and Emma have sex for the first time, and eight of his seniors graduate at the end of the year.Rachel Berry
Rachel Barbra Berry is a "strong, driven" member of the glee club who is misunderstood by her peers. Michele took the role in Glee because of Rachel's characterization, explaining: "Not only is she a singer, but she has so much heart—I think it's what we need on TV." Michele described the first thirteen episodes of the series as: "Rachel's journey of finding herself within the glee club", explaining that: "She's learning how to be a team player and work within this group."Rachel has an on-off relationship with Finn throughout the series. She briefly goes out with his best friend Puck, and later dates Jesse St. James, the lead singer of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, who ultimately betrays her in favor of his club. Rachel, who has two gay fathers, discovers that Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran is her birth mother, but the two fail to forge a relationship. At the end of season one, Finn professes his love for her. They date over the summer and for several episodes in season two, but break up when Rachel makes out with Puck in revenge for Finn having lied about losing his virginity to Santana in season one. At the end of season two, they renew their relationship after Nationals in New York, though Rachel warns Finn she will be returning to New York for good after she graduates. In the beginning of the third season, Rachel plays Maria in the school's production of West Side Story, and she and Finn have sex for the first time. In the new year, Finn asks Rachel to marry him, and she accepts. Although she blows her audition for a New York dramatic arts college, NYADA, her Nationals performance in Chicago serves as a redo and she is ultimately accepted, but Finn is rejected from his New York school. After graduation, on the day of their wedding, Finn drives her to the train station and announces she will be going to New York without him.
At NYADA, Rachel struggles to impress her dance teacher, Cassandra July, and embarks on a new romance with upperclassman Brody Weston. Santana, who has moved to New York and is staying with Rachel and Kurt, is suspicious of Brody; she initially believes he is a drug dealer, but later discovers he is a male escort, and gets Finn to come to New York and confront Brody. Brody and Rachel break up. Rachel auditions for Funny Girl and she gets the role. Finn's death affects her greatly. Rachel's friendship with Santana is fractured when Santana auditions to be her understudy and is given the job. The two reconcile after they both return to Lima when New Directions is disbanded by Sue. She leaves NYADA as she feels that she is not able to split her time between school and Broadway. Funny Girl opening night is a great success, but she later leaves the musical to be in a TV show. The show is cancelled after a single episode; she gets depressed and returns to Lima and tries to revive the glee club with the aid of Kurt, who is on leave from NYADA. After a successful season with New Directions, she asks to be reinstated at NYADA, and ultimately chooses to return despite being offered another role on Broadway. She also gets back together with Jesse, whom she later marries. In 2020, she becomes a surrogate mother for Kurt and Blaine, and wins a Tony award, thanking Will for his support.