Community is an American television sitcom created by Dan Harmon that ran for 110 episodes. The show, set at the fictional Greendale Community College, depicts the on-campus exploits of a close-knit study group. In the pilot, the main cast members are Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, and Chevy Chase. Ken Jeong joined the main cast starting with the second episode, and Jim Rash was promoted to the main cast at the start of the third season. John Oliver, Jonathan Banks, Paget Brewster, and Keith David also played major roles throughout their stints while not actually being credited among the main cast. The series also features recurring characters, mainly fellow students or teachers at Greendale.
Overview Main Actor Character Seasons Film 1 2 3 4 5 6 Main cast Joel McHale Jeff Winger colspan="7" Gillian Jacobs Britta Perry colspan="7" Danny Pudi Abed Nadir colspan="7" Alison Brie Annie Edison colspan="7" Yvette Nicole Brown Shirley Bennett colspan="5" Donald Glover Troy Barnes colspan="5" Chevy Chase Pierce Hawthorne colspan="4" colspan="2" Ken Jeong Ben Chang colspan="7" Jim Rash Dean Craig Pelton colspan="2" colspan="5"
Recurring Actor Character Seasons Film 1 2 3 4 5 6 Recurring cast John Oliver Dr. Ian Duncan colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="2" Richard Erdman Leonard Briggs colspan="6" Erik Charles Nielsen Garrett Lambert colspan="6" Dino Stamatopoulos Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne colspan="3" Craig Cackowski Officer Cackowski colspan=3 colspan="2" Lauren Stamile Professor Michelle Slater colspan="6" Eric Christian Olsen Vaughn Miller colspan="6" John Michael Higgins Professor Eustice Whitman colspan="6" Iqbal Theba Gobi Nadir colspan=2 colspan="3" Dominik Musiol Pavel Iwaszkiewicz colspan=2 colspan="2" Patton Oswalt Nurse Jackie colspan=2 colspan=5 Bill Parks Eric Wisniewski colspan=2 colspan="5" DC Pierson Mark Millot colspan=2 colspan=4 Meggie McFadden Linda Greene colspan=2 colspan=4 Greg Cromer Rich Stephenson colspan=5 Danielle Kaplowitz Vicki Cooper colspan="5" Charley Koontz 'Fat' Neil colspan="4" Luke Youngblood Magnitude colspan="4" Marcy McCusker Quendra colspan=3 Jordan Black City College Dean Spreck colspan=2 colspan="3" Malcolm-Jamal Warner Andre Bennett colspan="4" Rob Corddry Alan Connor colspan=2 colspan=2 Betty White June Bauer colspan="5" Andy Dick Helicopter Pilot/Tiny Man colspan="5" Kevin Corrigan Professor Sean Garrity colspan="2" colspan="2" LeVar Burton colspan=2 colspan=2 John Goodman Vice Dean Robert Laybourne colspan="2" colspan="4" Dan Bakkedahl Murray the AC Repairman colspan="2" colspan="4" Travis Schuldt Rick colspan=2 colspan=2 J. P. Manoux Faux-by/Dopple-deaner colspan="2" colspan="3" David St. James Professor Albrecht colspan="2" colspan="2" Mel Rodriguez Sgt. Nunez colspan="2" colspan="4" Michael K. Williams Dr. Marshall Kane colspan="2" colspan="4" Wil Garret Harry Jefferson colspan="2" colspan="4" Irene Choi Annie Kim colspan="2" colspan=2 Jerry Minor Jerry the Janitor colspan="2" colspan=2 colspan="2" Eddie Pepitone Crazy Schmidt colspan="2" colspan="2" David Neher Todd Jacobson colspan="2" colspan="2" Larry Cedar Cornelius Hawthorne colspan="2" colspan="4" Malcolm McDowell Professor Cornwallis colspan="3" colspan="3" Brie Larson Rachel colspan="3" colspan="2" Brady Novak Richie Countee Jeremy Scott Johnson Carl Bladt colspan="2" Leslie Simms Rhonda colspan=4 colspan=2 Jonathan Banks Professor Buzz Hickey colspan="4" colspan="2" James Michael Connor Subway Rep colspan="4" colspan="2" Darsan Solomon Dave colspan="4" Paget Brewster Frankie Dart colspan="4" Keith David Elroy Patashnik colspan="2" colspan="2" Martin Mull George Perry colspan="5" Lesley Ann Warren Deb Perry colspan="5"
Main characters The show revolves around the on-and-off campus exploits of seven students connected through their study group at Greendale Community College.
Jeff Winger
Jeffrey Tobias Winger (played by Joel McHale), born c. 1974, is a sardonic, charismatic, and quick-witted ex-lawyer attending Greendale Community College. He was born in Denver, Colorado, to parents William and Doreen Winger. His father divorced his mother when Jeff was very young and later had another child named Willy Jr., Jeff's half-brother. At the age of 10, he was bullied and humiliated in front of his friends at a YMCA over a game of foosball, eventually wetting his pants. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, the girl who beat him was his study-group peer Shirley, who was then 12 and a bully. He tells her that he had to change schools, as well as his hair, his clothes, even his personality because of the incident. In 1997, around age 19, Jeff submitted an audition tape for MTV's The Real World: Seattle, which would later come back to haunt him during an election for Greendale's student-body president. In the season 5 episode "Geothermal Escapism", as study-group member Troy is about to leave Greendale, Jeff discreetly reveals to him that he has "never set one foot outside Colorado".
Because of his background experience as a lawyer and his confidence, many people, including Dean Pelton and Señor Chang, seek help from Jeff. Jeff's adventures include stints as a member of the debate team and substitute glee club, and editor of the school newspaper, as well as efforts to improve Chang's professional and love lives. Due to his competitive nature and air of superiority, Jeff has a problematic relationship with his accounting, billiards, and pottery professors, and he ends up doing poorly in their classes.
Britta Perry
Britta Perry (played by Gillian Jacobs) is a student at Greendale and a member of the central study group. Politically conscious and driven by a strong moral conscience, Britta's sensibilities often put her at odds with the rest of the group as well as other students at Greendale, who see her as a "buzzkill." Having dropped out of high school under the impression that it would impress Radiohead, she attends Greendale to get her G.E.D and eventually opts to study Psychology in order to become a therapist. Britta moves away from her childhood home and cuts off contact with her overbearing parents when she is 17, later reuniting with them after discovering they had a change of heart and have secretly been sending her money through Annie, Abed and Jeff.Season 6, Episode 2: “Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care”.
Britta joins the study group in order to improve her Spanish grade, though she quickly realizes that Jeff has only created the group in order to sleep with her. Though she initially rebuffs his advances, the two have sex toward the end of the school year ("Modern Warfare"). Britta, in an attempt to compete with Jeff's affections for Professor Michelle Slater (played by Lauren Stamile), publicly confesses her love for Jeff. Though she is humiliated by this, she finds that she has attracted the attention and respect of many women on campus who hail her for her bravery. Jeff and Britta continue sleeping together covertly during their second year, up until Abed reveals their relations to the group. In season 4, Britta enters a relationship with Troy, though Troy initiates their breakup on their first anniversary and Britta is left saddened but also stays friends with Troy afterwards.
While vocally passionate about many causes, Britta fails to take action related to her social interests, and her political efforts run a gamut from sincere but ineffectual to counterproductive and embarrassing. Jeff describes her as "pro-anti" due to her eagerness to oppose issues, such as marriage and visiting the bathroom with other women. Her hypocrisy and tendency to invoke politics regardless of relevance, such as advocating for fictional gnomes' rights in Dungeons & Dragons, frequently frustrates both friends and strangers, to the point that others regularly refer to her as "the worst." The S2 episode "Critical Film Studies" heaped more humiliation on Britta when the owner of the crummy diner where she was an unsuccessful waitress made sure to let Annie and Shirley know that customers made a point of tipping Britta next to nothing (and Annie's response is to note with little sympathy "everyone hates Britta" to an agreeing Shirley), and he later makes a deal with Jeff to take less money after the group accidentally trashed the diner as long as Britta gets fired (which Jeff has no problem agreeing on).
Britta graduates from Greendale in season 4 and starts bartending, but she re-enrolls in classes in season 5 once Jeff becomes a professor. She joins the Save Greendale Committee and helps prevent the school from being sold to Subway. She moves in with Abed and Annie after Troy leaves them for a year-long trip to earn Pierce's inheritance.
Despite being seen as obnoxious by those around her, Britta regularly proves herself to be a caring friend. She is the first to show concern for Abed when he begins seeing the world in claymation, consoles Abed and attempts to help him when he is upset over Troy's brief stint in the A/C Repair school, and helps Buzz Hickey reconnect with his son over Dungeons & Dragons.
Abed Nadir
Abed Gubi Nadir ( Ābid al-Qūbī Nādir; played by Danny Pudi) is a young, emotionally reserved, Palestinian-Polish-American pop-culture enthusiast who aspires to become a director and is currently taking film directing classes at Greendale. Paste ranked him first in their list of the 20 Best Characters of 2011, describing him as "the show's emotional center" and saying "his pop-culture obsessions and antics with his buddy Troy have made for some of the show's finest moments."
Abed Nadir is an alumnus of Greendale Community College. Abed had a troublesome life growing up due to a limited extent to his parents. There was social disunity between them as Abed's father is a Palestinian Muslim from the Gaza Strip and his mother is a Polish American Catholic. Nevertheless, he enjoys observing both Muslim and Christian holidays and traditions. Abed is heavily implied to be neurodivergent, which makes it hard for him to understand and relate to people or display empathy in a normal way, although his condition is never specified.
Shirley Bennett
Shirley Anne Bennett, (née Edwards3x11, "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts"., played by Yvette Nicole Brown), (main cast seasons 1–5, guest season 6) is a recently divorced mother who attends Greendale Community College to pursue launching her own baked goods business. She carries herself in a friendly and motherly manner, but suffers from thinly veiled rage issues and is implied to have an alcoholic past. She admits in Season 2 that she deliberately makes other people feel guilty for not letting her have her way all the time, but makes it clear she's also not going to stop being either demanding or hypocritical.
A devout Christian, Shirley's intolerance for her friends' religions (or lack thereof) often puts her at odds with the rest of the study group. She attempts to baptize Annie (who is Jewish) at a pool party and suggests doing the same to Abed (who is Muslim) while he is in a catatonic state. Despite this, she is typically able to set aside religious differences in the interest of maintaining her friendships with the group.