BoJack Horseman is an American adult animated sitcom created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. The series stars Will Arnett as the title character, BoJack Horseman. The supporting cast includes Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. The series' first season premiered on August 22, 2014, on Netflix, with a Christmas special premiering on December 19. The show is designed by the cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt, who had previously worked with Bob-Waksberg on the webcomic Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out.

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Main characters Actor Character Appearances 1 2 3 4 5 6 Will Arnett BoJack Horseman colspan=7 Amy Sedaris Princess Carolyn colspan=7 Alison Brie Diane Nguyen colspan=7 Paul F. Tompkins Mr. Peanutbutter colspan=7 Aaron Paul Todd Chavez colspan=7

BoJack Horseman

BoJack F. Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett; born January 02, 1964, in San Francisco, California) is a self-loathing, alcoholic, anthropomorphic Thoroughbred horse currently in his 50s. His acting career peaked when he starred in a successful family sitcom called Horsin' Around in the 1990s. He went on to star in The BoJack Horseman Show, an edgier, less successful sitcom which was cancelled in 2007 after just one season. Though he began as a bright-eyed young actor, he has since grown bitter, deeply depressed, and jaded about Hollywood and who he has become post-fame. BoJack has been shown to be caring and insightful, but his insecurities, loneliness, and desperate need for approval often result in self-destructive actions that devastate those around him. Many of his issues stem from his alcoholism, drug abuse, poor career decisions, and trauma from his neglectful and unsupportive parents.

Princess Carolyn

Princess Carolyn (voiced by Amy Sedaris; born June 6, 1974, in Eden, North Carolina) is a pink Persian cat who is BoJack's agent in the first three seasons and former on-and-off girlfriend. Earnest and unflagging, Princess Carolyn was a top agent at Vigor agency through her dogged pursuit of new talent and large network of odd personal connections. Though she struggles to find a balance between work, her troubled personal life, and taking care of BoJack and her friends, she enjoys her fast-paced hectic lifestyle. She left Vigor to start a new agency with her then-boyfriend and coworker Rutabaga Rabitowitz. After recognizing his lack of trustworthiness and confronting her fear of being alone, she ultimately decides to leave him and run the new company named VIM by herself. After several setbacks, Princess Carolyn closes VIM in season 3, only to reopen it as a management agency. She struggles throughout the series with starting a family, but frequently suffers miscarriages. In season 5, after several failed attempts, she successfully adopts a baby porcupine from Sadie, a young woman from her hometown in North Carolina, who she subsequently names Ruthie in season 6. It is revealed in season 5 that she went to Los Angeles, California because she was accepted into UCLA. In season 6, she rehires her old assistant Judah to help her run VIM and is subsequently offered to run her own female-centered production company from Lenny Turteltaub called Girteltaub. As she prepares to make the transition, Judah confesses his love for her and a year later they are married. She ends the series in a good place and tells BoJack she wishes him well but also that they will not have any future professional relationship.

Diane Nguyen

Diane Nguyen (voiced by Alison Brie; born March 19, 1980, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a human ghostwriter; a nice, well-reasoned, misunderstood intellectual; and a Vietnamese-American third-wave feminist from Boston who used to live with her rich and famous ex-boyfriend (and later ex-husband), former sitcom star Mr. Peanutbutter. She is hired by BoJack's publisher to ghostwrite his memoir, having written a biography of BoJack's childhood hero, Secretariat. While writing BoJack's memoir, he and Diane initially develop a strong friendship that becomes increasingly awkward and strained after BoJack develops romantic feelings for her. She has struggled throughout her career to get recognition for her writing, and travels to the war-torn Republic of Cordovia to make a difference, but returns after discovering Sebastian St. Clair, the supposed humanitarian who invited her there to write about his work, is an egomaniac who does not actually care about helping people as much as he cares about his legacy. Ashamed of returning to Mr. Peanutbutter, she enters into a severe depression, during which she drinks heavily, smokes pot, and sleeps disheveled on BoJack's patio furniture. She is able to reconcile her feelings with Mr. Peanutbutter and gets a job at VIM ghostwriting tweets for celebrities. She is subsequently fired from VIM, and is hired to write for a feminist blog. During and after Mr. Peanutbutter's run for Governor of California their marriage begins to deteriorate and, at the beginning of season 5, they divorce. Diane moves into a run-down studio apartment upon separating from Mr. Peanutbutter. In season 6 Diane starts a relationship with her coworker, a Bison named Guy, and decides after returning to her studio apartment to move in with him in Chicago. She begins writing a new memoir that leads her back into her recurring depression. She combats this with antidepressants (which itself leads to a noticeable weight gain) but these stall her progress on her memoir, which she eventually abandons in favor of a teen fiction series called Ivy Tran: Food Court Detective. She eventually moves to Houston with Guy and is revealed in the series finale to have married him. She ends the series having what will seemingly be her last conversation with BoJack, telling him that she is grateful that she knew BoJack and for her life in LA, but that she is ready to move on.

Reception Diane has been praised as one of the strongest characters in the series, as it has shown her personal growth in addition to that of BoJack, the lead character. She has also been considered the "voice of reason" in the show, with her story arcs also shedding light on real-world issues. However, the show has also received criticism over its portrayal of Diane and appropriation of Asian American culture, especially in the fact that Alison Brie, a non-Asian actress, voices the Vietnamese-American Diane. Brie has since stated that she regrets voicing the character.

Mr. Peanutbutter

Mr. Peanutbutter (voiced by Paul F. Tompkins; born August 20, 1969) is an energetic and cheerful yellow Labrador Retriever who is BoJack's former sitcom rival and Diane's ex-boyfriend (and later ex-husband). Mr. Peanutbutter was the star of Mr. Peanutbutter's House, which, according to BoJack, "borrowed the premise" from Horsin' Around. He portrays many characteristics of an actual Labrador yet portrayed as a human-like character being sweet, loyal, kind, playful, and considerate. He had a stint at filming a celebrity reality show called Peanutbutter and Jelly. Despite their rivalry, Mr. Peanutbutter cares a great deal about BoJack's opinion and admires him for his work on Horsin' Around. He has an especially good relationship with Todd, and his positive attitude and financial resources combined with Todd's outlandish schemes and plans often result in the two starting questionable business ventures, such as a Halloween store that is exclusively open in January. In the episode "Let's Find Out", Mr. Peanutbutter starts hosting his own televised game show named Stars and Celebrities: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let's Find Out! after his film company enters bankruptcy due to his and Todd's extensive expenditures on useless products. In "Hank After Dark", it is revealed that Mr. Peanutbutter was formerly married to a woman named Katrina who was emotionally abusive. His second wife was famous actress Jessica Biel, who is portrayed as being obsessed with her celebrity status and people recognizing her. He grew up in the Labrador Peninsula, which is depicted as being populated entirely by Labrador Retrievers. "Mr." is his actual first name. He often shouts to an offscreen, but implicatively outlandish, presence only known as "Erica". He is a graduate of Northwestern University. After his divorce with Diane, he started dating a pug named Pickles who is much younger than him but shares a lot of the same characteristics. At the end of the season 5 finale, he proposes to her, though only out of guilt after cheating on her with Diane. He does eventually tell Pickles of his infidelity which leads to the joint decision that for them to be even she must sleep with other men and him be fine with the situation. He later becomes the face of depression on a tour around the US talking about the mental illness with pop star Joey Pogo. During this time, he encourages Pickles to sleep with Joey Pogo due to their similarities, however this eventually backfires when Pickles leaves Mr. Peanutbutter for Pogo. He ends the series as a star of a widely successful TV show Birthday Dad, and pays to restore the "D" in the Hollywood Sign (however he accidentally orders a "B", renaming it "Hollywoob" as referenced by Princess Carolyn). Mr. Peanutbutter also reveals to BoJack that he is happily single and in therapy working through his addiction to relationships and co-dependency.

Todd Chavez