You is an American psychological thriller novel series, written by Caroline Kepnes, and television series, developed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, following bookshop owner Joe Goldberg in a satire of romantic comedies, as he struggles to overcome his homicidal tendencies while searching for true love. For the latter's first season, it aired on Lifetime, moving to Netflix from its second season onward. The novel series consists of You (2013), Hidden Bodies (2016), You Love Me (2021), and For You and You Only (2023).
The following is a list of characters that have appeared in the novel and television series.
Overview Key
Main cast Actor Character Season 1 2 3 4 5 Penn Badgley Joe Goldberg colspan="5" Elizabeth Lail Guinevere Beck colspan="2" Luca Padovan Paco colspan="3" Zach Cherry Ethan Russell colspan="3" Shay Mitchell Peach Salinger colspan="4" Victoria Pedretti Love Quinn colspan="2" Jenna Ortega Ellie Alves colspan="3" James Scully Forty Quinn colspan="2" Ambyr Childers Candace Stone colspan="3" Carmela Zumbado Delilah Alves colspan="3" Saffron Burrows Dottie Quinn colspan="1" Tati Gabrielle Marienne Bellamy colspan="2" colspan="2" Shalita Grant Sherry Conrad colspan="2" colspan="1" Travis Van Winkle Cary Conrad colspan="2" colspan="1" Dylan Arnold Theo Engler colspan="2" colspan="2" Charlotte Ritchie Kate Galvin colspan="3" colspan="2" Tilly Keeper Lady Phoebe colspan="3" Amy-Leigh Hickman Nadia Farran colspan="3" Ed Speleers Rhys Montrose colspan="3" Lukas Gage Adam Pratt colspan="3" Griffin MatthewsTeddy Lockwood colspan="4" Anna CampReagan Lockwood rowspan="2" colspan="4" rowspan="2" Maddie LockwoodMadeline Brewer Louise Flannery colspan="4"
Recurring cast Actor Character Season 1 2 3 4 5 John Stamos Dr. Nicholas "Nicky" Angevine colspan="3" Nicole Kang Lynn Lieser colspan="4" Kathryn Gallagher Annika Atwater colspan="3" Mark Blum Mr. Mooney colspan="4" Daniel Cosgrove Ron colspan="4" Victoria Cartagena Claudia colspan="4" Lou Taylor Pucci Benji Ashby III colspan="4" Hari Nef Blythe colspan="4" Magda Apanowicz Sandy Goldberg colspan="2" Robin Lord Taylor Will Bettelheim colspan="2" Adwin Brown Calvin colspan="3" Chris D'Elia Joshua "Henderson" Bunter colspan="3" Charlie Barnett Gabe Miranda colspan="3" Marielle Scott Lucy Sprecher colspan="3" Melanie Field Sunrise Darshan Cummings colspan="3" Danny Vasquez David Fincher colspan="3" Dallas Skye Juliette Bellamy colspan="2" colspan="2" Ben Mehl Dante Ferguson colspan="2" colspan="2" Christopher O'Shea Andrew Tucker colspan="2" colspan="2" Bryan Safi Jackson Newhall colspan="2" colspan="2" Mackenzie Astin Gil Brigham colspan="2" colspan="2" Christopher Sean Brandon colspan="2" colspan="2" Shannon Chan-Kent Kiki colspan="2" colspan="2" Mauricio Lara Paulie colspan="2" colspan="2" Scott Speedman Matthew Engler colspan="2" colspan="2" Ayelet Zurer Dr. Chandra colspan="2" colspan="2" Scott Michael Foster Ryan Goodwin colspan="2" colspan="2" Kim Shaw Nurse Fiona colspan="2" colspan="2" Stephen Hagan Malcolm Harding colspan="3" Adam James Elliot Tannenberg colspan="3" Brad Alexander Edward colspan="3" Aidan Cheng Simon Soo colspan="3" Niccy Lin Sophie Soo colspan="3" Eve Austin Gemma Graham-Greene colspan="3" Ozioma Whenu Blessing Bosede colspan="3" Dario Coates Connie colspan="3" Sean Pertwee Vic colspan="3" Ben Wiggins Roald Walker-Burton colspan="3" Alison Pargeter Dawn Brown colspan="3" Greg Kinnear Tom Lockwood colspan="3" Frankie DeMaioHenry Quinn-Goldberg colspan="4" Natasha BehnamDominique colspan="4" Pete PloszekHarrison colspan="4" Tom FrancisClayton Angevine colspan="4" Bianca NorwoodPhoenix colspan="4"
Main characters Joe Goldberg
Joseph Gabriel Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is a bookstore manager at Mooney's who stalks and dates Guinevere Beck in the first season. In the second season, he goes by the name Will Bettelheim and works as a bookstore clerk at Anavrin, and stalks and dates Love Quinn. Joe then marries Love, has a son named Henry and moves to the San Francisco suburbs. However, his obsessive behavior still finds a way back into their lives, ruining his marriage. At the end of season 3, Joe kills Love and moves to London, where he is given the cover identity of Jonathan Moore, a college English professor. While in London, Joe undergoes a psychotic break that causes his personality to dissociate, leading him to unconsciously commit a string of murders. During this time, Joe enters a passionate relationship with heiress Kate Galvin. He and Kate eventually move back to New York, where Kate takes over her family business and rehabilitates Joe's public image. Joe is portrayed as a teenager by Gianni Ciardiello in season one, and as a child by Aidan Wallace and Jack Fisher in season two and season three respectively.
Guinevere Beck Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail; season 1, special guest seasons 2, 4 & 5) is a broke NYU graduate student and an aspiring writer with whom Joe falls in love. She is best friends with Peach and close friends with Lynn and Annika. She was also in an on-again, off-again relationship with her ex, Benji, but becomes the girlfriend of Joe Goldberg. She suffers the consequences of Joe's successful attempts to manipulate and control her life.
In the first season finale, Beck accidentally discovers the truth about Joe and his crimes, and he imprisons her in a glass cage in the bookstore’s basement. Due to her failed efforts to escape, Beck is ultimately killed by Joe in a fit of rage, who stages the scene to make it look like someone else was responsible for her death. Four months later, it is revealed that Joe submitted Beck's posthumously released book The Dark Face of Love, and framed Dr. Nicky for the murder.
Driven by the death of her close friend Beck, Louise Flannery spent years uncovering the truth behind Joe’s carefully hidden trail of violence. With the help of a network of online detectives, she begins to gather the evidence that could finally bring him down. As Louise closes in on the truth, Joe finds himself increasingly cornered. Desperate to regain control, he tries to manipulate her—but misjudges her determination. Their confrontation escalates into a brutal struggle, during which Joe seriously wounds Louise, though she ultimately survives. Refusing to be silenced, she emerges with irrefutable evidence of his crimes and makes it public. The revelations spark a media frenzy, culminating in Joe’s arrest and a sensational trial that lays bare the full extent of his violent history, including the murder of Beck. He is sentenced to life in prison, becoming a twisted cultural figure—reviled by many, yet disturbingly idolized by some as a dark antihero.
Meanwhile, Louise releases a redacted version of Beck’s unfinished manuscript, giving voice to the victims Joe tried to erase and ensuring their stories are finally heard.
Paco Paco (Luca Padovan; season 1; guest season 5) is Joe's young neighbor and Claudia’s son. He and Joe form a strong bond over their shared love of books. Paco also has a tumultuous relationship with his mother’s abusive boyfriend, Ron.
Later, angry after Ron hurt his mother again, Paco attempts to steal a gun from the bookstore to avenge his mother. He is caught and confronted by Joe. Instead, Paco drugs Ron and hits him with a bat. Ron wakes up to Joe who is trying to revive him and brutally beats him. Ron later returns looking for Paco, who hides from him. Joe arrives and kills Ron to protect Paco and Paco emerges from his hiding spot. Joe tells him that everything is going to be okay and Ron won't hurt him or his mom anymore. Joe takes care of the disposal of Ron and tells Paco not to ever tell anyone what happened.
When Paco later goes to the bookstore and finds Beck attempting to escape the basement, begging Paco to find the key and insisting that Joe is crazy and dangerous, Paco runs away leaving Beck to be murdered by Joe.
Paco and his mother Claudia moved away from New York to start fresh.
Six years later, Paco posted a video on TikTok in an attempt to defend Joe's reputation when he was accused of being a serial killer, but it only incriminates him further.
Ethan Russell Ethan Russell (Zach Cherry; season 1; guest season 5) is a bookstore clerk who worked with Joe.
Peach Salinger Peach Anaïs Salinger (Shay Mitchell; season 1) is a wealthy and influential socialite and Beck's best friend whom she met at Brown University. Peach is revealed to be secretly obsessed with Beck and has an adversarial relationship with Joe who later kills her.
Love Quinn Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti; season 2–3, special guest season 4) is an aspiring chef and health guru in Los Angeles. Love is the heiress to a self-care business started by her wealthy parents, who launched the grocery store Anavrin ("Nirvana" spelled backwards and based on the real-life grocery chain Erewhon) when Love and her brother Forty were teenagers. Love noticed Forty was being sexually abused by Sofia, the family's au pair, and murdered her after drugging Forty, allowing him to believe he blacked out and killed Sofia himself. Love's parents elected to cover up the death to protect Forty, who grew up with severe unresolved trauma and developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. Love made it her responsibility during adulthood to manage Forty's sobriety. She later went to culinary school and fell in love with a deaf man named James whom she married, but he ultimately died of a medical condition.
Love begins the series as an employee at Anavrin. She meets Joe – who also begins working at the store under the pseudonym Will Bettelheim – and quickly becomes attracted to him. She secretly discovers that Joe has been stalking her and keeps a glass cage inside his storage unit, which she takes as signs of his passion. She also deduces Beck as Joe's ex-girlfriend via her memoir and deems her undeserving of him. As she and Joe become closer, Love is visited by Candace (who was posing as Forty's girlfriend), who reveals that Joe is living under an alias and tried to murder Candace. Love feigns disbelief, but cuts ties with Joe, only to realize she still has feelings for him. Love learns that Joe was in a sexual relationship with his landlord Delilah and later discovers her being held hostage inside the glass cage. Love murders Delilah to tie up loose ends. Candace later discovers the storage unit herself and traps Joe inside the cage with Delilah's corpse, then calls Love to the unit to prove Joe's psychopathy to her. Love, however, murders Candace and reveals to Joe that she murdered Delilah and has been obsessed with him. Joe attempts to kill her, but she reveals she is pregnant with his child. Forty realizes Joe is a serial killer and calls Love and Joe to Anavrin. He warns Love to stay clear of Joe and prepares to execute him at gunpoint, but is shot dead by police officer David Fincher. Joe and Love move to a suburb outside San Francisco to raise their child, Henry.
Love and Joe will have to adjust to the life of parents. Love along with Joe meets Sherry Conrad in a cafeteria. Love and Joe go to Sherry's party. Love listens as Sherry and her friends gossip about her and then gets to know more about Natalie Engler (Michaela McManus), her neighbor, which makes Love decide to open her bakery. Love discovers Joe's box where she keeps belongings from her obsessions, there she finds something from Natalie discovering that she is Joe's new obsession. She calls Natalie to see her bakery location, and in a moment of jealousy, Love kills Natalie. She asks Joe to help her cover up the death of her neighbor. Love meets Theo who flirts with her. Later, Love and Joe tell the bakery about Natalie, and they put Joe's vault in the basement. Love discovers that Theo is the son of her neighbor, Matthew Engler and therefore Natalie's stepson.