List of House characters

These are the recurring characters in the television series House.

Main characters

• Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) – As the show's protagonist, he is the head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, an infectious disease specialist, and nephrologist. Dr. House is seemingly lacking in bedside manner and prefers to avoid direct contact with his patients whenever possible. Due to an infarction in his right thigh, House lost a substantial portion of the muscle in his upper leg and must use a cane to assist with walking. As a result, House is also forced to deal with constant physical pain, which he manages through a dependency on the prescription pain-medication Vicodin. Although his behavior can border on antisocial or misanthropic, House is viewed as a maverick physician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect and an unusual level of tolerance from his professional colleagues.

• Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) – Administration: Dean of Medicine, endocrinologist. Though commonly seen as a thorn in Dr. House's side, Dr. Cuddy is an ally and frequently acquiesces to House's often outlandish medical requests. Additionally, Dr. Cuddy has the distinction of being one of the few characters on the show (Dr. Wilson being the other) who can match wits with the fast-talking Dr. House in conversation (and arguments). She usually gets left to pick up the pieces of House's outlandish medical practices.

• Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) – Department Head: Oncology. Dr. Wilson is Dr. House's best (and only) friend. Dr. Wilson is very well-respected and well-liked by both his colleagues and his patients, making his close friendship with the antisocial House especially puzzling to the other hospital employees. Wilson claims that his job and his "stupid, screwed up friendship" with House are the two most important things to him. He, along with Dr. Cuddy, usually aid and abet House's Vicodin addiction.

• Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) – Department: Diagnostic Medicine, immunologist. Dr. Cameron is earnest and committed to doing good, in contrast to Dr. House's misanthropy. Of all the members of House's staff, Cameron is the most empathetic. A growth in character development has her more brazen in her beliefs and actions. In addition to this, she has also taken on a tad of House-like characteristics, which has proved to make her more cynical but unlike House, she still manages to be more or less as compassionate as before. Cameron resigned at the end of Season 3.

• Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) – Department: Diagnostic Medicine, cardiologist & intensivist. Dr. Chase's demeanor appears to have been either influenced or amplified by House, as he has previously displayed a penchant for insulting patients behind their backs, takes clear and vicarious joy in watching House tear into others, finds House's antics more amusing than others do, and repeats House's mantra of "everybody lies" whenever a patient's full disclosure of any required medical history is called into question. Moreover, when suggesting treatments to diagnoses, Chase is arguably the most creative member of House's staff, often proposing unconventional treatments that had not previously been considered, but whose perceived effectiveness is generally agreed upon. Chase was fired by House at the end of Season 3.

• Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) – Department: Diagnostic Medicine, neurologist; attended Johns Hopkins Medical School. Of all the members of House's staff, it is strongly implied that Foreman performed best academically throughout college and medical school. However, during the pilot, Dr. House tells Foreman that a major factor in his hiring was the fact that he was a former juvenile delinquent who once broke into houses and had 'street cred'. Despite his youthful offences, Foreman may be the best-adjusted of House's medical team. As a result, he frequently voices his disapproval of House's maverick methods and daring decisions. Foreman resigned at the end of Season 3.

Recurring Characters

• Stacy Warner (Sela Ward) is Dr. House's former live-in girlfriend (of 5-years), a Constitutional lawyer and Duke University graduate. Two years after their breakup, she married Mark Warner. She appears in 9 episodes during the run of season 2, taking a job at PPTH (after asking Cuddy to make sure it was okay with Greg) to be close to her husband during his recovery. House and Stacy's relationship has been strained due to his relentless pursuit to prove she still has feelings for him. Mark aided House's cause by driving a wedge between himself and his wife when he suspects a brewing affair. Mark was eventually proven correct, as Stacy fell for House all over again and they slept together. As Stacy prepared to leave her husband for House, he then rejected her (stating that he could not make her happy, because he could not change). She quit her job at the hospital and went back home to Short Hills with Mark. An enraged Wilson believed House broke her heart not out of guilt for Mark (which is not his modus), but as a last-ditch resort to ensure that he (House) doesn't allow himself happiness. The aftermath of this botched affair left House in a stark depression.

• Mark Warner (Currie Graham) is Stacy's husband. A high school guidance counselor by profession, he became a patient at PPTH against his will in episode 1.22 ("The Honeymoon") and was eventually diagnosed with porphyria by House. Mark is jealous of House, and House's sharp words and actions indicate the feeling is likely mutual. Still recovering from his illness, Mark is confined to a wheelchair and attends both physical therapy sessions and psychological counseling at PPTH; during this time, Stacy and Mark began arguing with increasing frequency due to Mark's frustration with his illness and slow recovery. In episode 2.11 ("Need To Know"), Mark confronted House about Mark's own fears of losing Stacy and his suspicions of House and Stacy's interactions; their confrontation led Mark to physically grapple with House and undo months of rehabilitation. House realized that Mark was willing to do the things House himself could never do for Stacy, giving him an excuse not to not follow through with their relationship. House broke up with an astounded Stacy and she left with Mark for good.

• Edward Vogler (Chi McBride) is the billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical firm and former board chairman of PPTH, a position he gained through a $100 million donation to the hospital. Vogler appears in five episodes (1.14–18): "Control", "Mob Rules", "Heavy", "Role Model", and "Babies & Bathwater". Vogler sought to reshape PPTH into a testing facility for his firm's new drugs and saw House's maverick ways and blatant disregard for rules and authority figures as a substantial legal and financial liability. When House refused to kowtow to Vogler's increasingly capricious demands (including an order for House to fire one of his fellows) and made a mockery of Vogler's company at a press banquet, Vogler gave the board an ultimatum: Fire House, or lose Vogler's grant. After an impassioned plea from Cuddy for the board members to put the hospital's independence ahead of Vogler's deep pockets, the board voted to retain House, as well as voting Vogler off the board of directors and therefore losing his $100 million.

• Detective Michael Tritter (David Morse) is one of House's clinic patients. After House refuses to run tests at Tritter's request, Tritter trips House. House agrees to the tests and tells Tritter he has to check his temperature with a rectal thermometer. House then leaves the room on a pretense with the thermometer inserted in Tritter's rectum; House never returns and Tritter endures the rectal thermometer for 2 hours. Afterwards, Tritter demands an apology from House for deliberately leaving the thermometer in him. House refuses, apparently spurred on by the patient's attitude, which is at least as bad as House's. Caught speeding and arrested for possession of allegedly unprescribed medication, House is thrown in jail overnight by Tritter, who searches his house the next week and finds a large amount of Vicodin. He has also interviewed House's staff looking for inconsistencies in their stories. He proceeds to tighten his vise grip on Wilson by freezing Wilson's bank account, towing his car, and revoking his drug prescription rights because he wants Wilson to testify against House in court. After Tritter discovers that Wilson refuses to betray House, he turns on to House's assistants, freezing Foreman and Cameron's accounts, before talking to each one of them in turn. Foreman and Cameron refuse to testify in court about House, but when Tritter talks to Chase, he makes it appear to the hospital staff as though they had had a pleasant lunch together. This makes Foreman and Cameron seem to think that Chase has told Tritter something, although he had refused to, his only stated reason being that he would lose his job. Tritter finally succeeds in his goal however, when Wilson comes to him, requesting "thirty pieces of silver" in a symbolic statement of his decision to betray House, whom he has come to see as spiraling out of control. In the final days leading up to House's trial, Tritter confronted him in rehab to see if he was really going through with it. When the charges against House were dropped at the trial, because the judge believed Tritter was just being vindictive, Tritter wished House good luck and said that he hoped he was wrong about him. Tritter has not appeared on the show since.

Fellowship Applicants

• "Thirteen" ((Olivia Wilde) is an Internist who is a finalist in Dr. House's competition for three fellowship spots. Unusually, she is slow to reveal any information about herself, and even more unusually, is good enough at this to mystify even Dr. House, calling many of his guesses (such as "daughter of an alcoholic father") "not even close." In her first appearance, all fellowship applicants were identified by number, and she so far has chosen to stick with her designated number, although House is presumably aware of her real name. She survives the first round of cuts and proceeds to the second. In 97 Seconds", she diagnoses a collapsing and disabled patient with Strongyloides, a type of worms, and treats him with ivermectin, which was in fact the correct diagnosis and treatment. However, the patient fails to take the pills and they instead wind up inside his dog, leaving both dead. Dr. House confronts her on the mistake in not supervising the patient taking the medicine, but does not fire her, because he feels she won't make the same mistake twice.

• Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) is a Sports Medicine specialist who is a finalist in Dr. House's competition for three fellowship spots after the exodus of his original team in the Season 3 finale. Kutner actually failed to survive House's seemingly arbitrary cuts, being fired in his first appearance for reporting Amber Volakis's recording of patient information. He continuing to work even after being "fired" by House by turning his #6 into a #9 by turning it upside down and refusing to leave, and then coming up with a clever stress test for a patient's liver, using alcohol to intoxicate the patient. Kutner again survived the "cuts" as he was on the "winning" team in 97 Seconds and continued to use House's "Cutthroat Bitch" nickname for Amber Volakis.

• Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) is a Plastic Surgeon who is a finalist in Dr. House's competition for three fellowship spots after Foreman, Cameron and Chase all left the position. While initially criticised by the other candidates for his specialty, Taub proved himself to be quite clever, using his specialty to help House's many attempts to work around the "rules." When in The Right Stuff", House cannot figure out how to do a biopsy without alerting NASA officials or the hospital, Taub proposed the solution of covering the necessary surgery with an elective breast augmentation, which allows Chase, watching from observation to notice the true cause of the condition.

• Henry Dobson (Carmen Argenziano) is a finalist in Dr. House's competition for three fellowship spots after the original team vacates the position. Unusually, Dobson refuses to perform even basic tests on patients, but shows a very gifted medical mind. House, when making his first round of cuts, pull Dobson aside and reveals the truth; Dobson is not even a doctor; he never attended medical school, and simply audited 30 years of medical school classes. Dobson admits this, but House, impressed by his gall allows him to stay on as an "assistant." However, in 97 Seconds, House does reveal to the remaining team members that one of the remaining "applicants" is not even really a doctor, although they have yet to realize who this is.

• Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek) is an Interventional radiologist in competition for the three open fellowship positions on House's diagnostic team. Unlike many of the other doctors, Volakis is willing do anything to get the job, including tricking others into getting fired. This is first seen when House assigns her first team to wash his car. Amber tells them it's a waste of time and that she is leaving, which all but one doctor agrees with. When she returns she admits it was a ruse and simply gamesmanship to get everyone to quit, increasing her chances. This results in House and other applicants beginning to refer to her as "Cuttthroat Bitch" due to her tenacity. She continued to do anything she could get the job, including pestering the reassigned Chase and Cameron into helping her, and by refusing to join a team she was assigned to because she thought they were unlikely to succeed in diagnosing a patient. Amber was also paged by House in 97 Seconds just before his experiment with "death" so that she would quickly revive him.

• Travis Brennan (Andy Comeau) is an Epidemiologist who is in competition for the three open fellowship positions on House's team. Brennan was invited back for the second round of cuts, and survived again when the female's team was eliminated for failing to properly supervise the patient, resulting in his death.

• Jeffrey Cole (Edi Gathegi) is a Geneticist in competition for three open fellowship positions on House's team. Unusually, Cole is a Mormon which seems to draw the Athiest Dr. House's ire. Cole was the only doctor to not fall for Amber's ruse when washing House's car, and advised the other doctors to no longer follow her advice. Cole's faith came into question when House ran a test on a patient that involved getting drunk with her as test subjects, as alcohol is forbidden by Mormon law. However, Cole performed the test anyways, and survived the first and second round of cuts.

• "The Twins" (Melinda Dahl and Caitlin Dahl) are identical twin Pediatric endocrinologists who apply for House's open fellowship positions in early Season 4. Although they survive the first round of cuts, they are eliminated after the patient they are assigned to dies.

• Jody Desai (Meera Simhan) is a former Veterinarian turned doctor who applies for House's open positions on the diagnostic team. Although she survives the first round of cuts, they are eliminated after the patient her team is assigned to dies.

Minor Characters

• John and Blythe House (R. Lee Ermey and Diane Baker) are House's parents. One episode, 2.05 ("Daddy's Boy"). Mother Blythe seems to be the standard military housewife, and House calls her a "human polygraph". His father John used to be a Marine Corps pilot and is incessantly honest, a trait which House seems to be quite bitter about. House's father is hard on him for not dealing with his leg better, telling him "your problem is that you don't know how lucky you are". When House was young, his father was stationed in Egypt, and was stationed in Japan when he was a teenager. In episode twelve of season three (One Day, One Room), House reveals that his father abused him as a child, making him sleep on the lawn and take ice baths.

• Dr. Rowan Chase (Patrick Bauchau) is Dr. Robert Chase's estranged father and an acclaimed rheumatologist. He left his alcoholic wife and teenage son, and some unspecified time later, remarried. He is seen in one episode, 1.13 ("Cursed"). In episode 2.08 ("The Mistake"), the character was revealed to have died of lung cancer, without ever saying goodbye to his son, and in 2.22 ("Forever"), it is revealed that he also left his son out of his will.

• Rodney Foreman (Charles S. Dutton) is Dr. Eric Foreman's religious father, appears in Euphoria, Part 2 and House Training.

• Steve McQueen is House's pet rat, which he captured in Stacy's attic in episode 2.07 ("Hunting"). Originally supposed to be exterminating the rat, House granted him reprieve in order to diagnose his odd neck tilt. By the end of the episode House had determined the cause to be mycoplasmosis, aggravated by Stacy's smoking. House has used Steve McQueen for medical experimentation. In Episode 2.21 "Euphoria, Part 2", House uses Steve to do a walkthrough of the Cop's home, he stated that when Steve began to show symptoms, as House saw it on his webcam, he would be hit with a 'cane-shaped object'. Steve never showed symptoms, however, so House didn't end up killing him. Since then, he can be seen in the background in House's apartment during various episodes.