List of Shameless (American TV series) characters
The following is a list of the fictional characters appearing in the American comedy-drama television series Shameless, created by Paul Abbott. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2011 on the Showtime network. It is based on the UK series of the same name.
Shameless is set in Chicago's South Side.[1] It tells the story of an alcoholic father, Frank Gallagher and his six children, who strive to take care of each other and create better lives despite Frank's poor influence. Abbott grew up in a family in the United Kingdom much like that portrayed in the UK series Shameless.[2]
Cast overview
Main cast
- A Credited as "Special Guest Star" in the opening title.
- B Credited only in the episodes he/she appears.
- C Portrayed by Jane Levy in season 1 and Emma Greenwell in seasons 2 through 6.
Supporting cast
- D Portrayed by twins Brennan Kane and Blake Alexander Johnson during seasons 1 to 2, by twins Brandon and Brenden Sims from season 2 to season 7, and by Christian Isaiah since season 8.
- E Portrayed by Dove Cameron in season 2 and Danika Yarosh in seasons 4 and 5.
- F Portayed by Luca Oriel during seasons 5 and 6 and by Damien Diaz in season 8.
Special Guest Stars
- G Parts of her body are seen in season 8.
Gallagher family
Frank Gallagher
Vernon Francis "Frank" Gallagher (William H. Macy) is the father of six children. He is a deadbeat alcoholic, drug addict and morally deficient freeloader who relies on his children to barely get by. He also swindles the state welfare system and this type of opportunistic deceit has been learned by his children. According to Fiona, since Frank refuses to work and most of them are uneducated, the family lives far below the federal poverty threshold for a family their size. Frank did attend college to study psychology, where he met Monica. They had only dated for about 2 weeks before they got married.
Frank bangs almost any available woman, resulting in the births of even more children. For instance, he begins a relationship with Sheila Jackson when he discovers that she gets maximum disability benefits for her agoraphobia. Frank is the biological father of Sammi, Fiona, Lip, Debbie, Carl, and Liam, but not of Ian, who is the children's half-brother and cousin.
The children refer to their father as "Frank". Although Frank pontificates self-righteously about political and social issues, he spends most of his time developing schemes to cheat the system and take advantage of others in order to make money. He pays little attention to his children but can display care and concern for them in drastic circumstances.
In season 4, his liver fails, as the result of his chronic alcoholism. He tracks down his daughter Sammi, and although she is not a match for a liver transplant, she and Sheila go out of their way to arrange Frank's liver surgery. They find an unlicensed Bangladeshi surgeon willing to do the operation, using a Bangladeshi donor. The surgeon initially asks for $30,000 but when the two women admit they can only pay $26,000, he reluctantly agrees to operate. With money acquired by Sammi from the sale of Sheila's furniture, along with Sheila's savings, the cost of the surgery is covered. The surgeon makes off with the money and one of Frank's kidneys, leaving Frank with his original failing liver. Nevertheless, Frank is supplied with a replacement liver from the emergency room that allows him to continue drinking.
In season 5, a home beer still mishap causes Sheila to leave for good. In episode 9, Frank embarks on a "bucket list" style spree with Bianca, who has advanced pancreatic cancer. They spend Bianca's last days together and although Bianca's thrill seeking is too much for Frank, they end up in Costa Rica. After leaving a note for Frank, Bianca commits suicide by walking naked into the ocean. Frank returns home crying and tells Lip and Ian that Bianca has died.
In season 7, the Gallagher kids, except Liam, have had enough and kick Frank out of the house. He "disowns" them and makes a "new" family at a luxurious homeless shelter he created by a scheme, of course. He is defenestrated when the homeless patrons find out he's been hiding money they earn.
In season 8, Frank will cope with Monica's death by doing all of the meth she bequeathed to him, then having a midlife crisis where he tries to restart his life as a 21 year old, having realized that Monica was the trigger of his alcoholism and bad parenting. He will become sober, clean his hygiene up, get a real job, a car, and tries to be a more productive member of society.[3]
Fiona Gallagher
Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum), age 28, is the eldest of the Gallagher children. Because of her mother's absence and Frank's neglect, most of the responsibility for child-rearing falls on her shoulders which forces her out of high school in her junior year. Fiona works a few dead-end minimum-wage jobs to support her five siblings. Though often stressed and exhausted by her responsibilities, she always performs them. Prone to selflessness, she sometimes needs to be reminded to look out for her own happiness. Even though Fiona wants everything under control, she enjoys a little bit of chaos once in a while.
At the close of season 2, Fiona receives her GED and begins to take more interest in jobs. In season 3, after Frank calls social services out of sheer spite, Fiona wins a court case (and with the admiration of the judge) is appointed her siblings' legal guardian. This strains her relationship with Jimmy.
Towards the end of season 3, Fiona finally gets a more rewarding job with a cup manufacturing company. In season 4, she begins dating her boss Mike but then has sex with Mike's addict brother Robbie. When Mike finds out he breaks up with her. In the aftermath of the breakup, Liam ingests cocaine that Fiona got from Robbie (a birthday gift; she kept the coke but made Robbie leave) at her birthday party and is hospitalized. Fiona is arrested for child neglect and drug possession. Mike posts her bail and she is put under house arrest with a curfew. When Fiona breaks her probation while partying with Robbie, she is incarcerated. She is released shortly afterwards though, due to overcrowding in the prison and gets a job at a diner.
In season 5, episode 4, Fiona impulsively marries Gus Pfender, the bassist of an indie rock band and changes her last name to Pfender upon marriage. She then cheats on Gus with Jimmy when he appears in town once again. Afterwards she begins a relationship with her boss Sean. Her extramarital affair with Jimmy, along with her budding relationship with her boss, Sean, results in her marriage ending. She discovers she is pregnant around the same time as Debbie but doesn't know whether the father is Gus or Jimmy, she has an abortion and urged Debbie to do the same. By the end of season 6, Fiona and Sean plan to be married, but Frank ruins the nuptials by revealing Sean's relapse to Fiona at the altar, causing Sean to leave her.
By season 7, Fiona starts to act more selfishly as she is tired of being unappreciated by her family members, especially Lip, and she is more focused than ever on building wealth. Her boss Margo is also a high school dropout but has amassed a net worth of $300 million; Fiona wants to follow in her foot steps. She sees an opportunity to invest in a deteriorating laundromat and puts the Gallagher home as collateral which angers Lip. She eventually sells the laundromat to Margo. She then buys an apartment building.
When Monica dies, Fiona is indifferent, declaring her willingness to have the funeral consist of a bonfire in the funeral home parking lot with the ashes stored in a bag. Although it doesn't come to that, she does bury her portion of the inheritance in Monica's casket.
Lip Gallagher
Phillip Ronan "Lip" Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) aged 23, is the second Gallagher child and is the most academically minded. In high school he was a straight-A student. He created various money-making schemes to help the Gallagher clan survive, such as running an ice cream truck that also sold beer and marijuana. He also made money by taking the SATs for fellow students for a fee, but had to stop when he was caught by Professor Hearst, an investigator from the Educational Evaluation Service. After testing Lip in private, Hearst discovers Lip is one of the statistically very rare students capable of achieving a perfect SAT score and offers him an internship at the robotics lab at the University of Chicago, which Lip turns down. Hearst gets Lip in trouble with his past clients by invalidating all of their SAT scores, since they didn't actually take the tests themselves. In addition to being adept scientifically, Lip is multilingual; in season 2 he exhibits knowledge of Portuguese and Italian and in season 4 he speaks Spanish.
Outside the classroom Lip spends much of his time drinking beer and smoking weed and eventually participates in car theft schemes with Jimmy. Lip has a strong bond with Ian and is also the first one to discover that Ian is gay. During the first season of the show, while tutoring Karen Jackson in mathematics, Lip develops a sexual relationship with her, and soon falls in love with her despite betrayals such as her having sex with Frank. Karen though, decides to marry Jody, and gives birth to a baby that is neither Lip's nor Jody's. Karen led Lip to believe the baby was his.
Lip then starts a new relationship with Mandy Milkovich. People may wonder the provenance of their relationship since he was with Karen for all of the first season but it is winkingly hinted in "Aunt Ginger", the third episode of the series, that he's attracted to her; they consummated their relationship in season 2 episode 4: "A Beautiful Mess". They live together from season 2 until season 3; Lip briefly lived at her house and she eventually moved herself in with the Gallaghers. Though Mandy and Lip have an insatiable sexual relationship–he had a plethora of condoms ready when she moved in–he is annoyed with her living with him because he thinks she's turning the relationship into a common law marriage. Lip has trepidation that he possibly got her pregnant in season 2, but in season 4 during one of their trysts, he flippantly recommends her to get off the pill and get pregnant with his baby even though he wouldn't be around to take care of it. When Mandy discovers Lip doesn't plan on going to college, she considers that he is wasting his potential and his chances for a brighter future. When she secretly applies to colleges on his behalf, he is accepted by MIT, among others. Lip breaks off their relationship when he learns that Mandy hit Karen with her car, an accident that resulted in serious injuries and brain damage, to keep Karen from him (he doesn't know she threatened to poke a hole in his condoms).
In season 4, Lip begins courses at the fictional Chicago Polytechnic. He struggles to juggle his studies, his job at the cafeteria, and his family life. Lip's new girlfriend Amanda helps him and his grades improve.
In season 5, Lip works for Tommy in construction. At Amanda's summer home, Lip and Amanda's father do not get along. However, Amanda's father offers Lip an internship when they find some common ground. Lip starts to follow a changed life but is challenged when Mickey and his brothers plan to raid a café. After the raid, Mickey locks Lip out of the getaway car, leaving him to hide from the police. Despite difficulties paying for his education, Lip receives a grant and also begins an affair with a professor named Helene Runyon. Helene invites Lip into her home and her husband catches them, but condones the affair due to an apparent taste for voyeurism. Also, Lip starts losing interest in Amanda and she punches him in the face after he says their relationship wasn't as serious as she thought it was.
In season 6, Amanda gets her revenge by posting a naked picture of Helene on Twitter. This causes Helene to get fired. Lip has trouble getting over her until Queenie uses reflexology to give him a foot massage that arouses him and "cures" his stress. Lip is also friends with an alcoholic teacher named Professor Youens until he starts drinking and Youens starts taking advantage of him. After this, Lip continues drinking and smashes up Youens' car out of rage. Lip gets arrested but is bailed out by Professor Youens who takes pity on him and tells him he's been expelled. Youens takes Lip to rehab and sets him up with a job for when he gets out.
In season 7, Lip is sober as well as an intern at a sketchy company that has the possibility of a future lucrative career in tech and marketing, but is soon shut down due to an FBI investigation. He then gets a job a Patsy's Pies working for Fiona. In this season, their relationship is that of sibling rivalry. Lip believes that because his internship can lead to a 6-figure income, that he is the one who should be the breadwinner of the family and that Fiona's job isn't enough, which makes Fiona furiously leave the house and vow to stop taking care of everyone else. He then meets a girl named Sierra who also starts working for Fiona, they begin to become friends with benefits but soon turn into more. Youens then tries to convince Lip to go back to college, Lip agrees to go and testify to get a position back in the college but is denied because of his previous actions, and proceeded to start drinking again and has a fight with Sierra's ex-boyfriend. Sierra then tells Lip she can't see him anymore. Lip goes on a few benders and ends up breaking into Helene's house whilst drunk, she proceeds to tell him to sort himself out and "move on". He leaves weeping. At the end of the season Lip decides he wants to stop drinking and tells Sierra he's thinking about going back to college.
Ian Gallagher
Ian Clayton Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan) aged 20, is the third of the Gallagher children. He resembles Monica but is not Frank's child. Ian participates in Army JROTC. He works at the Kash and Grab grocery store. When the series begins, Ian's employer, Kash, is aware of his homosexuality. Ian later tells Lip and eventually the rest of the family of his sexual orientation.
Ian develops a complicated relationship with his neighbor, Mickey Milkovich. At the end of season 3, Ian, still underage, enlists in the Army using his brother Lip's identity. In season 4, it is revealed that he has deserted training camp, stolen an army helicopter, and is being pursued by Army MPs.
When season 4 begins, he is working as a dancer and a rent boy at a gay bar called The White Swallow while squatting in an abandoned house. Lip and Debbie track him down and try to persuade him to return home.
Ian's behavior becomes more and more erratic and he is diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, which also affected Monica. Ian is offered treatment but refuses it despite his family's encouragement. In season 5, episode 10, Ian is arrested then released soon afterwards into Monica's care. When Monica takes Ian to live in her trailer, he discovers she is using methamphetamine and he leaves. He returns to the Gallagher household and by the end of the season has ended his relationship with Mickey, citing his mental illness. In season 6, Ian visits Mickey in prison. Mickey asks Ian if he'll wait for him but it's quite obvious that Ian is over him. After being tired of getting bossed around by Fiona, Ian quits his job at Patsy's Pies, and Lip gets him a job as a janitor at the college. Ian thinks Lip and his friends are making fun of him and they get into a fight. When Ian sees a car crash occur, he rescues a woman from a burning car. He passes out and is saved by a firefighter. Ian eventually meets a firefighter named Caleb (Jeff Pierre) with a religious priest father who disapproves of his homosexual lifestyle. Caleb convinces Ian to lie about his bipolar disorder when he applies to be a paramedic. Ian does get fired but convinces them to let him keep his job. Ian later discovers that Caleb has been cheating on him with his female friend from high school and they break up. Ian then meets a trans man named Trevor and they begin dating. Ian soon finds out that Mickey has escaped from prison and "kidnaps" Ian and asks him to go to Mexico with him in season 7 episode 10 and Ian decides to go with him. However at the Mexican border, Ian realizes that he has changed and decides not to go, devastating Mickey. Ian tells Mickey he loves him for the first time. He and Mickey kiss, say goodbye and Mickey sneaks into Mexico. After this, Ian apologizes to Trevor and they break up.
Debbie Gallagher
Deborah "Debbie"/"Debs" Gallagher (Emma Kenney) aged 16, is one of the middle Gallagher children. She is plain and reserved yet keen to impress. Debbie will cover for others but is not brash or reckless like her older brothers. She forgives her father's neglect and irresponsibility as well as her mother's absence. She is very mature in some ways and therefore has trouble making friends with people her age. Like her siblings, Debbie knows clever ways to make money at a young age and she runs a business. In the early seasons, Debbie is often stressed by her adult responsibilities but is upset that she doesn't get the recognition for it; when she was a child she addressed Fiona for making her play both sides: when Child Protective Services come over Fiona wants her to "act like a kid" but when bills need to get paid Fiona wants her to contribute like an adult.
In season 3, Debbie becomes a teenager and is more rebellious, disrespectful, and secretive like her siblings. In season 4, her friends Holly and Ellie glamorize sexual promiscuity. Debbie meets the twenty-year-old Matty (James Allen McCune) and tries to seduce him, but is rejected because of their age disparity. Debbie becomes jealous of Matty's girlfriend, Seema. Debbie makes harassing calls to Seema at work, puts a snake in her car and plans to stab Seema with a homemade shank. As revenge, Seema hires a boy in Debbie's class to humiliate her. Matty then breaks up with Seema and says he has committed himself to Debbie because even though Debbie was horrible first, Seema "is the adult." In season 5, Debbie has a falling out with Holly and Ellie and continues to desperately pursue a first sexual encounter. At a party, Debbie rapes an intoxicated Matty after which he leaves and tells Debbie to never speak to him again.
Debbie then meets Derek and begins a relationship with him. By the end of the season, she has purposely become pregnant, hoping this will make Derek want to marry her. In season 6, Derek leaves her once he finds out she is pregnant with his baby and became pregnant on purpose. Derek's family rightfully points out that Debbie was too busy trying to trap Derek into fatherhood and marriage that she never listened to his hopes and dreams. Furthermore, Debbie's decision to have a child creates a major rift between herself and Fiona, who refuses to raise yet another child. In episode Paradise Lost, she gives birth to a baby girl on the Gallagher's kitchen table.
In season 7, Debbie is struggling as a single mom and with Fiona threatening to kick her out. She considers dropping out of high school, marrying Sierra's brother, sex working, and panhandling. CPS pays her a visit after a video of her fighting a woman while holding Frances is posted online.
Carl Gallagher
Carl Francis Gallagher (Ethan Cutkosky) aged 16, is the second-youngest Gallagher child. He shares a room with Lip and Ian, who try to keep their more adult interests from him. Carl is often in trouble at school for attacking other students. In his early years, he displays several psychopathic tendencies such as mutilating his toys and killing stray animals, although this behavior seems to be less prevalent as he ages. He also begins to show concern for Frank. His bond with Frank is strengthened after Frank convinces him he has cancer (for one of his schemes—later "cured"). In season 4, when Frank's liver fails, Carl takes it on himself to find him an organ donor. Carl falls into crime with Bonnie, committing robberies of stores and cars. Carl begins his sexual life with Bonnie and then Holly Herkimer. In season 5, episode 9, Carl deliberately commits a crime to be sentenced to juvenile detention to "get his education and street cred". In season 6, he gets out of juvie and has a friend named Nick who helps him sell firearms. After someone steals his bike, Nick murders the kid and gets arrested once again. Carl shows up and is traumatised by Nick's actions. One of Carl's superiors asks him to do a drug run. When Carl tries to decline, he is pistol whipped and threatened. Sean eventually helps Carl get out of the drug business and gets him a job at Patsy's Pies. Carl also decides to be a cop to try to win the approval of his girlfriend's father. He eventually enrolls in military school, becoming much more responsible and mature.
Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher (Brennan Kane Johnson & Blake Alexander Johnson, Brenden & Brandon Sims) aged 7, is the youngest of the Gallagher children. He is African-American. Although stunted in verbal and emotional responses, the whole family feels sentimental towards Liam. In season 4, Liam ingests Fiona's cocaine (for which she was arrested thereafter) and possibly suffers brain damage but he recovers. In season 7, he starts to take after Frank.
Other main characters
Jimmy Lishman
Jimmy Lishman (Justin Chatwin) is a main character in seasons 1-3, a guest star in season 4 and a recurring character in season 5. He is also known as Steve Wilton and Jack. Jimmy is a young man who relentlessly courts Fiona, going to great lengths to win her over because she is his "dream girl". He has expensive possessions and spends money liberally. Fiona finds this off-putting and then she discovers that he is a professional car thief. It is later discovered that his real name is Jimmy and he comes from a wealthy family who presumes he is in medical school.
In season 2, he marries Estefania, the daughter of Nando, a Brazilian mafia mob leader, even though he is not interested in her. Fiona and Jimmy resume their relationship at the end of season 2. Nando wants Estefania to become a citizen and stay in the US. He threatens to kill Jimmy if he does not convince the Department of Immigration that he is her devoted husband.
In season 3, Jimmy vacillates between Fiona and Estefania but he professes to Fiona "just say the word and I will leave her". Beto, one of Nando's cronies, watches Jimmy. Estefania does not convince Immigration that her marriage is real. Nando then takes Jimmy on a boat, presumably to murder him. In the post-credits scene of the Season 4 finale, Jimmy, called "Jack" is alive.
In season 5, episode 6, Fiona encounters Jimmy at her diner job. She sleeps with him, cheating on her husband, but later comes clean. They all agree to meet at the diner to discuss the affair but Gus immediately punches Jimmy in the face. Fiona talks to Jimmy and he offers to whisk her away to Dubai but she decides it's better to end their relationship and she still doesn't know his real identity. Jimmy's business partner Angela then tells Fiona the truth that their business dealings in Dubai actually fell through and tells her that "Jack" is a good thief but a terrible person.
Veronica Fisher
Veronica "V" Fisher (Shanola Hampton) is the Gallaghers' neighbor and Fiona's best friend and confidante. She often gives Fiona advice concerning relationships, caring for her siblings, and caring for herself. Veronica had pursued a hospital medical career until she was fired for stealing medical supplies and now works as a webcam girl.
Veronica and her husband Kevin are unable to conceive. Veronica's mother Carol acts as a surrogate. However, Carol wishes to keep the baby when Veronica becomes pregnant with triplets (one of which is non-viable). Veronica delivers two girls. In season 5, Veronica misses attention from Kevin. She contacts an old high school acquaintance but on meeting him again, she walks away. She and Kev eventually reconcile. By season 7, she and Kevin and are in a "throuple" (menage-a-trois) relationship with Svetlana.
Kevin Ball
Kevin "Kev" Ball (Steve Howey) is Veronica's husband. He is separated from his first wife who left him. Kev is the owner of the Alibi Room and is the Gallaghers' neighbor and friend. Though frequently exasperated by Frank's lifestyle, he gives Frank drinks on credit at his bar and cashes his disability checks for him.
Kev is dyslexic and grew up in foster care. When Kev and Veronica take in a foster daughter, Kev takes it upon himself to make her feel as comfortable as possible. However, she runs away and so Kev and Veronica are no longer allowed to be foster parents.
Kev has inherited the bar from its previous owner, Stan. (Stan's son is an effeminate homosexual man who was estranged from homophobic Stan.) To keep his bar afloat, Kev brings Mickey into the business. When Mickey steals from the bar, Kev brandishes and accidentally fires a shotgun. Veronica tells Kev to get rid of the weapon.
In Season 5, Kev spends more time with his daughters and wishes to learn to be a better parent. He goes to internet chatrooms, watches Svetlana breastfeeding and shaves off all of his hair after his babies keep pulling on it. Veronica is appalled by Kev's actions and puts him in the spare room. V feels that Kev gives much more precedence to the babies than their own relationship, while Kev feels that V is acting too detached from the girls and that their relationship would be stronger if she was more attentive to them (V is alleged to have post partum depression). Kevin cheats on Veronica with co-eds. When they try to reconcile their relationship, further problems ensue.
Beginning in Season 7, Kev is in a three way relationship with Svetlana and Veronica.
Sheila Jackson
Sheila Jackson (Joan Cusack) is Karen's mother and Eddie's widow. Sheila is a kind and caring person, if a bit empty-headed. She has agoraphobia and a fear of germs, developed when Karen was young. Frank seduces Sheila in order to live in her home, taking advantage of her cooking, disability checks and bedroom hospitality. Sheila eventually overcomes her conditions and continues to spend a great deal of her time with Frank. Sheila starts a relationship with Jody and they appear to have a loving, healthy relationship. However, when Karen has an accident, Sheila breaks things off with Jody and encourages him to take care of Karen. In season 4, Sheila starts internet dating. She meets a Native American man with five little nieces and nephews. She wants to adopt the children but is required to be married, so she marries Frank while he is unconscious in the hospital. However, he is still married to Monica so they never really get married. Her request for adoption is denied. Then, Sheila and Sammi begin to disagree about Frank and the house and many other things, and Frank finds himself in the middle of their little "war". All three get into a fight and Frank yells at both of them, and his home brewing setup blows up destroying Sheila's home. She steals an RV and leaves to fulfill her dream to travel and go live with Karen and Jody.
Karen Jackson
Karen Jackson (Laura Slade Wiggins) is a regular character in seasons 1 and 2 and a recurring character in season 3. Her mother is Sheila and her father is Eddie.
She is tutored by Lip and is seen as the neighborhood bad girl. Karen begins a casual relationship with Lip, but due to her promiscuous nature she refuses to make any real commitment, leading to a complicated relationship with him.
When Eddie invites Karen to his church's purity ball in exchange for the gift of a car, Karen is humiliated over her past sexual escapades. Eddie calls Karen a whore in front of everyone else. Karen responds by dying her hair black, gets Whore tattooed on her arm, and eventually sexually assaults Frank when he is on pain medication which is shown on a webcam to her father, which led to his eventual suicide.
In season 2, Karen is revealed to be attending Sex Addicts Anonymous and dating a fellow addict named Jody. Though she later marries Jody, she continually cheats on him with Lip. She becomes pregnant and is unsure who the father is. She attempts to sell the baby to a childless couple for as much as possible. At the end of season 2, Karen gives birth to a baby with Down syndrome. The baby is also Asian, indicating that neither Lip nor Jody is the father. The couple who planned to adopt the baby back out due to his disability and Sheila insists on raising him, even giving him the name Hymie. When Sheila refuses to send the baby away, Karen runs away.
Later the baby's father shows up and takes the baby. Not long later, Karen returns but it is revealed that she called the baby's father and convinced them that Sheila was not capable of raising Hymie so she could come home and not have to deal with him, devastating Sheila. After threatening to derail the future Mandy is trying to set up for Lip, she is run over by Mandy and suffers frontal-lobe brain damage resulting in her ability to only recall memories, but cannot make new memories. Jody takes Karen and her baby to Arizona to be with faith healers. While Karen and Jody do not appear again, in season 5 they are briefly mentioned by Sheila.
Mickey Milkovich
Mikhailo Aleksandr "Mickey" Milkovich (Noel Fisher) is a recurring character in season 1, 2 and 7, a regular character in season 3-5 and a guest character in season 6. Mickey is Mandy's older brother. He is aggressively antisocial and carries firearms illegally. Mickey has a very long prison record, just like his father, Terry.
Mickey and Ian began their relationship when Ian goes to Mickey's house to retrieve Kash's gun, which Mickey stole from the Kash and Grab. In season 2, Frank sees Mickey and Ian having sex at the Kash and Grab but does not seem to be fazed. Mickey is afraid Frank will expose him and plans to attack him, but refrains, as he feels guilty, because of Ian. He throws his gun away and punches an officer instead, landing him in juvenile detention.
In season 3, Mickey is let out for overcrowding and continues his 'relationship' with Ian. Ian manages to get him a job at the Kash and Grab and after seeing Ian's 'boyfriend' becomes jealous and beats him up. Mickey suggests Ian stay at his house for the night instead of going back to foster care. Terry comes home to find Mickey and Ian having sex and beats them up. He has Svetlana, a Russian prostitute, rape Mickey to fuck the gay out of [him]. Svetlana becomes pregnant and Terry forces Mickey to marry her. Ian leaves to join the army, leaving Mickey heartbroken.
In season 4, Mickey becomes a pimp with Russian prostitutes and persuades Kev to allow him to use the upper floors of the Alibi Room. Ian who has left the army without permission is now working in a strip club which is where Mickey finds him and sets out to find Ian and brings him home to his family. At his son Yevgeny's christening party at The Alibi Room, Mickey comes out in order to salvage his relationship with Ian. Mickey, Ian, Terry and a friend of his fight resulting in their brief incarceration. At the end of season 4, Mickey notices that Ian is depressed and asks Debbie and Carl for help. Debbie tries to talk to Ian and quickly identifies the symptoms. Fiona thinks he may have bipolar, like their mother, and suggests he be hospitalized. Mickey strongly disagrees and says he will take care of Ian himself.
In season 5, Ian cheats on Mickey twice due to his hyper-sexuality. Mickey and Ian make a plan to destroy a homophobic church. Ian's mania increases as he shoots a porno and runs away with Yevgeny. Ian is hospitalised and at first, on his discharge, Mickey avoids seeing him, but after Debbie tells him he won't be able to just forget about him, they reunite. They later on get into a fight because Ian does not like Mickey nursing him and accuses him of going soft, they make up immediately as Ian says the fight is the first time he's felt something since his symptoms started. As they go home, planning to go on a date, Sammi has notified the army MPs of Ian's whereabouts and Ian is taken away. Mickey and Debbie take revenge by "roofie"-ing Sammi and thinking they have killed her, put her body in her moving crate which is moving her stuff to her new house. In the finale, Ian breaks up with Mickey after admitting he no longer wants to take his medication, Mickey is heartbroken but has to run away as Sammi appears and starts shooting at him.
In season 6, he is incarcerated once again and appears only in the first episode. When Ian comes to visit him, Mickey asks if he will wait for him. Ian is clearly over Mickey and unwilling to promise to wait. Mickey asks him to lie and Ian promises to wait.
In season 7, Mickey escapes prison, while serving a fifteen-year sentence. He comes back to Chicago and through proxies manages to see Ian, to let him know that he's going to go to Mexico. Ian, despite dating Trevor, goes with Mickey to the Mexican border in Texas. At the last moment, Ian has a moment of clarity and realizes that the person he was before, is not him now. Mickey upset with Ian says goodbye. Mickey manages to make it across the Mexican border, due to dressing up in drag.
Mandy Milkovich
Mandy Milkovich (Jane Levy season 1) (Emma Greenwell season 2 to 6) is a recurring character in season 1, 2 and 5, a regular character in seasons 3 and 4, and a guest character in season 6. Mandy is Mickey's sister who has a reputation at school for her sexuality. She originally wanted to date Ian but was humiliated when he rebuffed her advances. She sent her brothers to beat him up but he confessed to her that he's actually gay. She offers to be his beard and they become close friends.
In season 2 she starts dating and sleeping with Lip. Mandy was raped by her intoxicated father (who had mistaken her for her dead mother), which explains a part of her private side regarding situations that happen in her family. She aborted it in "A Great Cause". In season 3 her dad is mixing drugs and alcohol again so she moves in with the Gallaghers, to Fiona's chagrin. While living with the Gallaghers, Mandy and Lip frequently have sex and she is often scantily clad in his house. Though their romantic life is passionate, Lip starts to feel that Mandy is too clingy, wifely, and obsequious and says their relationship was never "official".
Mandy loves Lip and secretly sends his applications to colleges when she sees he's wasting his potential. After she tells him he should be grateful for how hard she worked to get him into universities, he ends his affairs with Karen. Mandy objects to Karen's advances on Lip and injures her with her car. Lip confronts Mandy and they break up. Lip does thank Mandy for all she has done before he leaves for college.
In season 4, Mandy's live-in boyfriend is Kenyatta. He physically abuses Mandy and Ian tries to help her. At the end of season 4, Mandy works as a waitress at the Waffle Cottage. Lip is served by Mandy and suspects something is wrong but she won't talk to him about anything other than the menu items.
In season 5, in contrast to her previously moody behavior, Mandy is dressed demurely and is good natured. In episode 3, Mandy considers leaving with Kenyatta for Indiana to "clean port-a-potties". Ian and Lip try to convince her not to go. However, during sex, Lip tells Mandy she is "gorgeous, sweet, funny, very smart, and a good person". She admits to Lip that she loves him but he is unable to say it back, so she goes with Kenyatta.
In season 6, it is revealed that she left Kenyatta and works as an escort. She enjoys her profession as her clients treat her well. She calls Ian for help when a client dies during an appointment and almost manages to avoid Lip before she leaves again.
Jody Silverman
Jody Silverman (Zach McGowan) is a recurring character in season 2 and a regular character in season 3) is a man Karen meets at Sex Addicts Anonymous and later marries. Jody is good-natured, if somewhat absent-minded. He is a keen tattoo artist, often looking for work. Jody adores Sheila and calls her Mom. Through the middle of season 2 after Karen has her baby and runs away, Jody begins a romantic and sexual relationship with Sheila but subtly ends after Sheila urges him that he is truly right for Karen. Eventually he and Karen leave Chicago to travel to Arizona.
Mike Pratt
Mike Pratt (Jake McDorman) is a recurring character in season 3 and a regular character in season 4. Mike is responsible and good natured. He is Fiona's corporate boss and in season 4, becomes her boyfriend. Fiona cheats on Mike with his brother Robbie, which Mike eventually learns. Although very hurt by Fiona's betrayal, Mike does not fire her and bails Fiona out of prison. Mike makes it clear that he never wants to see her again. At the end of season 4, Fiona is having a hard time finding a job because of her felony conviction. She asks Mike's sister to lie and say that she was not fired because of her drug and child neglect arrest but because of downsizing. Mike's sister berates Fiona for taking advantage of someone as nice as Mike, asking the company to lie to the federal government for her and causing a rift in their family.
Svetlana Fisher
Svetlana "Suka" Fisher (Isidora Goreshter) (formerly Milkovich, birth name unknown) is a Russian prostitute hired by Terry to have sex with Mickey to "cure" his homosexuality. She becomes pregnant and despite her occupation, she says the father is Mickey. In season 4, Svetlana is living in the Milkovich house together with other prostitutes. She threatens Ian when he returns because she fears he will distract Mickey from his duties as her child's father. After the birth of her son, Svetlana threatens to tell Terry that Mickey and Ian's relationship continues and demands Mickey give her money to keep quiet. In season 5, Svetlana is a softer and more comic character. She becomes a surrogate mother to the twins. She moves in with the Fisher/Balls and performs oral sex on them both as part of her 'wifely' duties. In season 6 she regularly visits Mickey in prison (baby in tow) and works as a bartender at The Alibi - often providing comic relief to Kev and V's storylines. When Kev accidentally reveals Svetlana came to America illegally to Immigration, V and 'Lana pretend to be married to keep her here, but fall in love in the process. In season 7, she lives with Kev and V as a three-way couple, the "Throuple". Her father comes to America, and stays with the family, until Svetlana "gets rid of him" in unknown terms, disturbing Kev and V. She later takes ownership of the Alibi behind their backs, to help them out of debt, but ruins the Throuple in the process.
Sammi Slott
Samantha "Sammi" Slott (Emily Bergl) is a recurring character in season 4 and a regular character in season 5. Sammi lives in a trailer in a rundown neighborhood with her son, Charles (Kellen Michael) called, Chuckie. Sammi can be caring but can also be impulsive and violent. She is Frank's eldest daughter but this is only revealed when Frank needs a liver transplant and he seeks her out. Sammi learns that Frank is her father when she is not a match for him and he carelessly lets it slip. Sammi is enraged at being dumped but accepts her relationship with Frank. In season 5, Sammi moves in with the Gallaghers after her trailer is confiscated. Frank lies to Sammi about getting her a new trailer and she chases after him. Sammi eventually shoots Frank in the arm when he doesn't leave the house and Frank gets payback by setting up and ratting Chuckie out to the police when he unknowingly helped Carl try to make a drug run. Sammi rats on Carl because he tricked Chuckie into helping him and none of the Gallaghers care that Chuckie is innocent, preferring to let him take the fall for Carl. Carl gets locked up. Carl says that he'll hurt Chuckie but Sammi physically fights him. After telling him that he will get raped in juvie, Sammi tattoos a swastika on Chuckie's head to make sure he doesn't get hurt. When the judge finds out he only has an IQ of 71, she gives him an appeal of 120 days. Later on, Sammi calls military police on Ian as revenge. Mickey and Debbie try to get back at Sammi by drugging her, but Mickey thinks she's dead and they stuff her in a moving crate. However, Sammi comes back and tries to shoot Mickey. In Season 6, when Chuckie is released from juvie, he stays with the Gallaghers as it is revealed that Sammi is in prison for attempting to kill Mickey.
Recurring cast
Tommy
Tommy (Michael Patrick McGill) is a heavyset, cheery regular at The Alibi Room. He works as a construction crew manager and takes Lip on as a summer temporary employee. Tommy provides comic relief and is a voice of optimism.
Kash
Kash (Pej Vahdat) is the owner of the grocery store Kash and Grab, where Ian works. He has an affair with Ian despite being Muslim and married with children. When Linda, Kash's wife, learns of his sexuality, she allows it as long as he gives her another child. Kash is unable to stand up to Mickey, who constantly steals from the store. When Linda becomes pregnant, he tries to restart his affair with Ian and is shocked to find him now with Mickey. Faced with this knowledge, Kash finally managed to stand up to Mickey and shoots him in the leg, leading Mickey to be returned to juvie. However, Kash continues to feel trapped in his marriage and he leaves without word.
Tony Markovich
Tony Markovich (Tyler Jacob Moore) a police officer, is the Gallaghers' neighbour who lives with his overbearing mother. Tony courts Fiona and learns of the Gallaghers' illegal activities. In Season 6 Tony identifies as gay, stating it to be a consequence of his relationship with Fiona.
Eddie Jackson
Eddie Jackson (Joel Murray) is a season 1 character. He is Sheila's husband and Karen's father. He is religious and stuck in an unhappy marriage. He breaks down when he learns of Karen's promiscuity and at the end of the season, commits suicide.
Linda
Linda (Marguerite Moreau) is Kash's wife, a business-minded busybody. She is a Muslim convert and a proud mother but treats everything like a business, including her marriage. When Linda discovers her husband and Ian have been having an affair, she accepts it, but only on the basis he gives her another child and he does not touch Ian until she is pregnant. She does fall pregnant but Kash leaves. In a deleted scene, Linda finds out about Kash leaving and cries.
Monica Gallagher
Monica Gallagher (Chloe Webb) is Frank's ex-wife and the mother of the Gallagher children. Monica has bipolar disorder: she feels terrible for abandoning her children but can never sustain her love and concern for them for very long before succumbing to drugs, selfishness, and depression. The older Gallagher children resent and distrust her, but she is sometimes able to coax Debbie or Carl into spending time with her. In season 1, Frank tricks Monica into returning for financial gain. However, Monica announces she is gay and in a relationship with Roberta, or "Bob" who she will marry. Monica and Bob try to leave with Liam but Fiona asks Monica to give him back and she does so.
In season 2, Frank goes to Monica when his mother dies. The following morning, Frank and Monica are at the Gallagher household cooking breakfast. Bob has left. At the end of the second season, Monica finds the Gallaghers' squirrel fund and convinces Frank to spend it with her.
Later, Monica cuts her wrists in front of the family. After a long discussion with Fiona, Frank takes Debbie and helps Monica escape the clinic with her new girlfriend. Monica is last seen, speeding away in a car, telling Debbie she loves her. Monica reappears in season 5, episode 11, when she visits Ian in prison. She and Ian hitchhike out of the city. Monica takes Ian to live with a boyfriend called Walter who makes methamphetamine.
In Season 7, Monica returns to Chicago in another attempt to make amends. She tells Frank that she is dying and that she returned in order to leave something behind for the children. Monica and Frank renew their wedding vows. Monica dies the following morning from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
Kermit
Kermit (Jim Hoffmaster) is one of Frank's acquaintances at The Alibi Room. He often listens to Frank's rants and stories. He is quick to defend his name when people liken it to that of Kermit the Frog. Kermit has an extensive collection of firearms: his motto is, "Prepare and prevent, not repair and repent." Kermit was a friend of Dorothy (Butterface).
Kate
Kate (Kerry O'Malley) is a fiery redhead. She works with Kev as manager of The Alibi Room. When Kev inherits the bar, Kate tells him that the bar is not profitable. Kate witnesses Frank calling Children's Services on his family, saying "That is a whole new low even for you, Frank." Frank often reminds her that they have slept together during his comebacks.
Terry Milkovich
Terry Milkovich (Dennis Cockrum) is the father of Mandy and Mickey. He has evaded arrest numerous times and hence, Frank turns to him for an alibi. When he sees Ian and Mickey having sex, he beats them. He then hires Svetlana to "fuck the gay" out of Mickey and forces him to marry her after Svetlana becomes pregnant with Yevgeny. When Mickey comes out as gay at Yevgeny's christening, Terry and his brothers get into a massive fight with Ian and Mickey. This breaks Terry's probation and he is returned to prison, while Mickey taunts him relentlessly. Despite this, it is never confirmed if Terry disowned Mickey.
Carol Fisher
Carol Fisher (Vanessa Bell Calloway) is the mother of Veronica. She is the gregarious owner of a beauty salon. Carol acts as Veronica and Kevin's surrogate. After giving birth, Carol wishes to raise Dominique and Veronica decides to allow her to do so.
Jasmine Hollander
Jasmine Hollander (Amy Smart) is a married mother of three with a free-spirited approach to parenting. Jasmine is Fiona's friend and tries to help by inviting her to parties and setting her up with different men. Jasmine has cheated on her husband and is kicked out by him with nowhere to go.
Ethel
Ethel (Madison Davenport) aged thirteen, is Veronica and Kevin's foster child. She was removed from a polygamist colony where her elderly husband, Clyde, was arrested for molestation. Ethel has had a child by Clyde, a son called Jonah who is also taken in by Veronica and Kevin. Initially, Ethel struggles to adjust to her new home but soon warms up to Kevin and Veronica and the Gallaghers. In the middle of season 2, Ethel meets a boy named Malik who has a daughter the same age as Jonah. When Ethel finds two bags of marijuana hidden in a hole in Kev's backyard, Malik sells it to fund their elopement. Kev and Veronica are worried about Ethel and Jonah leaving but she writes a thank you note and tells them not to worry.
Peg Gallagher
Peg Gallagher (Louise Fletcher), also known as "Grammy", is Frank's formidable mother and the Gallagher family matriarch. She is sent home from prison on a medical furlough after lying about her health. She immediately goes after a retired meth dealer who profited from her arrest. Despite her hostile nature, she tries her best to reach out to the Gallagher children, giving Fiona money and showering Carl and Debbie with gifts. Frank briefly contemplates killing his mother in her sleep but is shown to continue to assist her in her deteriorating health. At the end of season 2, Peg allows Sheila to smother her for the purpose of euthanasia due to the pain that she suffers from terminal cancer.
Professor Hearst
Professor Hearst (Dennis Boutsikaris) is a college professor. He ensnares Lip when he catches Lip trying to take someone else's exam. He tries to channel Lip's talents into worthwhile endeavors. However, in return, the professor wants drugs and he wants knowledge about contemporary youth and popular culture in order to bed his female students.
Jess
Jess (Missy Doty) is a lesbian and is the bartender at The Alibi Room. She is witty with a dry sense of humor. When it becomes evident that Kev is dyslexic, she does the bar's books. The owner of the bar, Stan, is slowly losing his mental faculties. Jess and Kev argue over how to help Stan.
Little Hank
Little Hank (Nicky Korba) is Carl's socially awkward and slightly twisted friend. He tries to woo a number of girls. He often leads the way on pranks and stunts that land him and Carl in trouble. Little Hank and Debbie have a fledgling relationship.
Adam
Adam (James Wolk) is a banker who courts Fiona while she is working at a bar. Veronica tells Fiona that Adam is just a second rate version of Steve, but she takes no notice. Adam encourages Fiona in her track work and they begin dating. When Steve returns, Fiona, Adam, Steve and Estefania double date. When Adam notices favour between Fiona and Steve, he leaves heartbroken and humiliated.
Estefânia
Estefânia (Stephanie Fantauzzi) is the daughter of a drug lord. She marries Jimmy despite her relationship with Marco. At the end of season 2, Marco abuses Estefania and she moves to the Gallagher household. She breaks up a fight between Ian and Frank, knocking Frank out who the Gallaghers decide to remove from the house for the night. In season 3, Estefania and Marco are living together. When Estefania's father, Nando, comes to the States he murders Marco by shooting him in the head.
Lloyd Lishman
Dr Lloyd "Ned" Lishman (Harry Hamlin) is Jimmy's father. He is a surgeon who has a brief sexual relationship with Ian. When Jimmy invites Fiona and her siblings to meet his family, both Ian and Ned are stunned to see each other again. Ned reveals to Jimmy that he and his wife are getting a divorce and he spends the night at the Gallaghers after drinking too much. Unfortunately, he accidentally climbs into bed with Lip and everyone is made aware of his relationship with Ian which devastates Jimmy. Despite this, they continue seeing each other. Their relationship makes Mickey jealous and he beats Ned senseless when Ned calls him Ian's boyfriend. Ian admits he likes Ned since he buys him things and isn't afraid to kiss him, prompting Mickey to kiss Ian for the first time. He recruits Ian and Mickey to get some of his things back from the house, telling them they can help themselves to anything else. His wife wakes up as they are robbing the place and shoots Mickey in the buttock. Ned rushes to the Gallagher house to remove the shrapnel from Mickey's wound.
Nando
Nando (Pêpê Rapazote) is the father of Estefania. He is a Brazilian drug lord. He tells Steve (aka Jimmy) that he can see Fiona as much as he wants but he wants Estefania to become a US citizen. Nando assigns Beto to watch over Steve and follow him wherever he goes. Nando tells Jimmy to get a job, stay out of trouble and stop stealing cars. Near the end of the third season, Nando learns Estefania is being deported and takes Jimmy away on his boat. It is implied that Nando was going to murder Jimmy.
Chuckie Slott
Charles 'Chuckie' Nevins Slott (Kellen Michael) is a recurring character in seasons 4-6. Chuckie is Sammi's son. He has an IQ of 71 and is naive to the intentions of others. He ends up in prison along with Carl for being his drug mule. He is released later than Carl and stays with the Gallaghers despite their previous tension with Sammi. Although Carl threatens to hurt Chuckie, Carl doesn't follow through his threat. In Season 6, Chuckie writes an essay expressing his absolute disapproval of minorities in America with propaganda provided by neo-Nazis in prison with school officials threatening to expel him; although Frank disapproved of Chuckies views, Frank defends Chuckies freedom of speech right and Chuckie is allowed to read out his essay to his class, with Frank chuckling, "...little Donald Trump". After the Gallaghers lose their home, they forget to inform Chuckie who is left to camp under the porch alone. Eventually, Sammi calls her mother Queenie to look after him and she takes him to live at her Eco Village. While there, he works tending poppy plants and is mauled by a mountain lion.
Robbie Pratt
Robbie Pratt (Nick Gehlfuss; season 4) is Mike's alcoholic brother. Fiona starts an affair with Robbie while dating Mike. Robbie is irresponsible and lives a careless life. He funds his lifestyle by leeching off Mike and his parents. He justifies his manipulative actions by saying that he cannot live a "normal, boring" life with a desk job like his brother.
Mike learns of the relationship between Fiona and Robbie at a family occasion and punches Robbie. When Fiona rejects Robbie, he leaves a bag of cocaine at Fiona's house that is ingested by Liam, leading to her arrest. Fiona can no longer get a job and tells Robbie he has ruined her life. Fiona violates her probation by becoming intoxicated. The next day, she takes ecstasy, joyrides with Robbie's friends and is abandoned at a gas station. One day, when Robbie was hungover, he tells Debbie and Ian that he does not know where Fiona is. Debbie angrily tells Robbie to stay away from Fiona.
Ron Kuzner
Ron Kuzner (Adam Cagley) is a regular character in season 4 and makes a cameo appearance in season 5. Ron is Lip's supportive college roommate. Lip steals from Ron and goes behind his back with Amanda. Ron appears briefly in season 5, episode 1, when he is playing a PC game, semi-oblivious to Lip with an unknown girl.
Amanda
Amanda (Nichole Bloom) is a recurring character in seasons 4 and 5 and a guest character in season 6. In season 4 she is a sexual acquaintance of Lip's roommate Ron and later Lip. Amanda begins helping Lip care for Liam in his college room when Fiona is jailed, and she becomes attracted to Lip. She seduces Lip by performing fellatio on him in the middle of the night. She reveals to Lip that she has never had vaginal sex and she's saving it for her husband. She begins organizing Lip's daily schedule and starts buying him suits and expensive jewelry. Amanda is the rebellious adopted daughter of Jason and Sheryl, an affluent Caucasian couple. According to Amanda, she was rescued from a Subic Bay brothel and they are unsure of her ethnicity. They pay Lip $10,000 to stay away from Amanda but Lip and Amanda continue to see each other.
In season 5, Amanda invites Lip to spend a week in the summer with her and her family at their estate in Miami where Lip bonds with her father, and she gives Lip her "virginity". In their second year of college, she invites Lip to move in with her at an off-campus apartment. He declines and so she finds a roommate, Muff Bull Dagger, on Craigslist. Muff is a violent, sociopathic lesbian who stalks Amanda. She hides in Lip's room to avoid Muff and learns Lip is having sex with Helene. Gradually, she becomes more attached and possessive of Lip as she falls in love with him and Lip distances himself as he falls for Helene, even going so far as to blatantly ditch Amanda. When she confronts him in the college library, Amanda punches Lip and accuses him of making her fall in love with him.
In season 6, Amanda returns and gets her revenge on Lip by posting a nude photo of Helene online, ultimately resulting in the latter's firing from the university. However, things also turn bad for Amanda when she reveals that her actions have angered a group of "femin-nazis" and she is being run off campus.
Bonnie
Bonnie (Morgan Lily) is a recurring character in season 4. She becomes a friend and accomplice of Carl when they meet in after school detention. She lives in a van in a grocery store parking lot with her siblings. At the end of the season, Carl finds Bonnie and the van gone.
Jackie Scabello
Jackie Scabello (Alessandra Balazs) has a cameo appearance in season 4 and is a recurring character in season 5. Jackie is one of Fiona's co-workers at Pasty's Pies, where they are both waitresses. Jackie, similar to many of the other employees, is a recovering addict and is trying to make positive strides in her life in order to gain custody of her daughter. After her appeal for custody is denied, Fiona and Sean find her in her apartment unconscious after a heroin overdose. She recovered but Sean tells Fiona that he had no choice but to terminate her employment.
Sean Pierce
Sean Pierce (Dermot Mulroney) appears in seasons 5 and 6. He is a heroin addict, struggling hard to kick the habit while knowing that he will always be addicted. He has a son, Will, who has been taken away to Pittsburgh by the boy's mother. Sean manages a diner and is Fiona's rehabilitation supervisor. The chemistry between the two of them is apparent immediately, but both resist for personal reasons. Fiona then marries Gus, a caring indie-musician, but when that relationship falters, Fiona turns to Sean for help with that and multiple issues. They begin and are in a relationship throughout season 6. Sean reveals to Fiona that his past includes murdering a fellow drug user while high, but though he fears Fiona will leave him for this, she is unfazed. He helps out Fiona and her siblings multiple times, letting Fiona stay when the Gallaghers lose the house and eventually asking her to move in, buying Gus' ring back from the pawn shop and getting Carl out of the drug business. However, he loathes Frank and verbally and physically assaults him. He and Fiona were due to be married until Frank revealed Sean's relapse to Fiona at the altar. Following this revelation, Sean leaves to focus on Will, remarking that Will is more important.
Gus Pfender
Gus Pfender (Steve Kazee) is a recurring character in season 5. Gus is a bass guitarist for an indie rock band. Fiona meets him while working in the diner. They marry on an impulse. Gus goes on tour without Fiona because she has cheated on him with Jimmy. When he returns, Fiona has already moved on with Sean, infuriating him. When Fiona attempts to apologise and remain friends by going to his gig, he sings a humiliating song about her. To punish him, Fiona pawns his grandmother's engagement ring in order to get a mortgage to buy her home back. He returns some time later, asking for the ring and a divorce. Sean buys the ring back for him so they can finalise their divorce and he can propose to Fiona.
Derek Delgado
Derek Delgado (Luca Oriel) is a recurring character in season 5 as Debbie's boyfriend. Derek is an aspiring mixed martial artist who fosters Debbie's passion for fighting. Derek claims he came third in a city championship. He is the father of Debbie's baby. In season 6 he goes to live in Florida with his grandmother after finding out Debbie is pregnant, leaving her to be a single mother.
Bianca Samson
Bianca Samson (Bojana Novakovic) is a recurring character in season 5. She is a physician who examines Frank's gunshot wound. She is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and decides her whole medical career was for nothing. She starts a freewheeling relationship with Frank to get away from her parents who want Bianca to treat the cancer. She buys Frank a $10,100 bottle of Macallan whiskey '39, which is destroyed while they make love on the train tracks. When Frank tries to get her medical treatment, she flees to Costa Rica. Frank wakes up to find Bianca missing only to learn that she has gone off to die.
Helene Runyon
Helene Runyon (Sasha Alexander) is a recurring character in seasons 5 and 6. She is a highly respected Professor of Critical Theory at the college Lip attends. She and Lip have an affair throughout the last four episodes of season 5 and the first five episodes of season 6. Helene's husband, Theo, (Michael Reilly Burke), who is a Doctor of Theology, is aware of Helene and Lip's relationship. Helene's affair with Lip comes to an abrupt halt when Lip's ex-girlfriend Amanda posts a nude photo of Helene in Lip's room throughout the whole college.
In the sixth episode of season 6, Lip tries to protect her in front of the college board and help her keep her job. When Helene is summoned to the college board (with Lip remaining in attendance) she tells them that in addition to cutting off all ties with Lip, she will also be seeking a psychologist to help her with her sex addiction. Lip tries to talk to her one last time as she leaves the school grounds, having openly proclaimed his love for her in the college board meeting, but Helene (who coldly ignored that proclamation during the meeting) looks him in the eye and tells him to never contact her again, to stay away from her and her family, and to keep out of her life as she tries to fix her own problems. Lip goes to her house drunk one night, and yells at her to talk to him, but she does not respond. In the tenth episode of season 7, he had drunkenly broke into her house. She tells him to move on and get help for his alcoholism.
Professor Youens
Professor Youens (Alan Rosenberg) is a recurring character in season 6. A professor at the University of Chicago, he acts as a father figure, mentor, and drinking buddy to Lip, whom he employs as a teaching assistant. After a falling out with Lip towards the end of season 6, he bails Lip out of jail and encourages him to enter alcohol rehab. Youens has had his own struggles with alcohol and has a strained relationship with his son.
Dominique
Dominique (Jaylen Barron) is a recurring character in seasons 6 and 7. Carl loses his virginity to Dominique, and they have a relationship. She convinces him to get circumcised but she ends up cheating on him and gets gonorrhea. Her father helps him get into military school.
Sierra Morton
Sierra Morton (Ruby Modine) is a recurring character since season 7. She is a new employee at Patsy's Pies who Lip starts dating. She is a single mother to a son named Lucas. Her brother is physically disabled (he was in a car accident) and is briefly engaged to Debbie. Lip and Sierra have a casual sex relationship, he is scared it will get too serious given his commitment issues. At the first inkling that the relationship is getting deeper he starts panicking--she admonishes him that he isn't the playboy he thinks he is. When Lip finally realizes that she is a good-hearted person and wants a deeper relationship she tells him she has her own issues to worry about and isn't with him to be his support group. Sierra's baby daddy is a drug addict named Charlie. Lip drunkenly beats him up when he shows up to their job. Sierra tells Lip she can't deal with two addicts in her life, he goes back to AA.
Neil Morton
Neil Morton (Zack Pearlman) is a recurring character since season 7. He is Sierra's brother. He is permanently in a wheelchair after an car crash. He runs into Debbie in the street, and she starts to think he could give her a home to get her daughter back. They later get married to do so.
Lucas Morton
Lucas Morton (Cooper J. Friedman) is Sierra's son. He finds Sierra and Lip having sex in season 7. She is very protective of him because his father Charlie is a drug addict. Lip offers to babysit him while Sierra goes to a date with Charlie in season 8.
Charlie
Charlie (Chet Hanks) is Sierra's ex-boyfriend and Lucas' father. Sierra tries to keep him out of Lucas' life because of his drug addiction. In season 8, she decides to give him a new chance.
Trevor
Trevor (Elliot Fletcher) is a transgender man who is an LGBTQ+ activist. Ian Gallagher, much to his own surprise, falls for him over the course of the 7th season. Trevor doesn't like talking about his past and doesn't mention family often or at all, nor does he mention a last name or many details about himself other than him being trans, gay, and pro LGBTQ+. Trevor does introduce Ian to his friends, which are all a part of the LGBTQ+ community, prompting Ian to ask questions and learn more about it. After some reluctance due to their seeming incompatibility in the bedroom (Trevor is a top in addition to being trans), Ian and Trevor start sleeping together and begin to form a strong relationship. Trevor wound up meeting and bonding somewhat with Monica, as she understood why he was upset, afterwards sharing drinks with her as he learned about Ian, commenting on how crazy she was and that he liked her. When Mickey drifts back into Ian's life, Trevor is left on the sidelines, finally pushed to the breaking point when Ian departs Chicago with his ex. When Ian returns after being out of contact for more than a week, Trevor is sympathetic to his motivations and Monica's recent death, but makes it clear that their relationship is over.
In season 8, Trevor maintains firm boundaries with Ian, but it is obvious to everyone that a spark is still there. Ian, trying to work his way back into Trevor's good graces, spends much of his own time and money at the LGBTQ+ center. Trevor begins to warm back up to Ian, and the two settle into a friendship, albeit one with lots of flirting. Trevor nearly ends things again when one of his kids loses a place in a shelter because Ian thoughtlessly helped her, but Ian responds by helping Trevor try and open a new shelter in an abandoned church. The added time together eventually leads to them again giving in to their simmering attraction.
Nessa Chabon
Nessa Chabon (Jessica Szohr) will be a tenant of Fiona's apartment building in season 8. She is a "tough and smart lesbian". She and Fiona will become close friends throughout the season. She likes "blond a' bitchy" girls like her actual girlfriend, Mel.
References
- ^ Douglas S. "Hit Showtime series 'Shameless' filmed right in our backyard." Archived February 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Depauliaonline.com February 3, 2012. Accessed October 26, 2015.
- ^ Jeffries S. "Why I write." The Guardian.com February 7, 2005. Accessed November 9, 2015
- ^ https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/shameless-season-8-spoilers-emmy-rossum-jeremy-allen-white-william-h-macy-1202547937/