Girls (TV series)

Synopsis

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Lena Dunham as Hannah Helene Horvath: an aspiring writer living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn originally from East Lansing, Michigan, known for her narcissism and immaturity, who struggles to support herself and find a direction in her life. In season two, she struggles with a relapse of the OCD symptoms she suffered from in her youth. In the final season, she becomes pregnant after a brief fling, and later leaves New York City to take a teaching job upstate and raise her baby.
• Allison Williams as Marnie Marie Michaels: Hannah's best friend and, at the start of season 1, roommate. Along with Jessa, Charlie and Elijah, Marnie was a classmate of Hannah's at Oberlin College. She worked as an art gallery assistant, but is later fired in Season 2 and is left to pursue her dream: a career in music. Domineering and arguably as self-centred and narcissistic as Hannah, Marnie struggles in her relationships with Charlie and Ray for much of the series, and eventually ends up marrying her musical partner, Desi Harperin. When both her career and her marriage collapse, she eventually moves upstate with Hannah to help raise her baby.
• Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson: One of Hannah's closest friends, Jessa is a global citizen of British origin, and is known for being bohemian, unpredictable, and brash. At the start of the series, Jessa has recently returned to New York from a stint abroad, and becomes roommates with her cousin, Shoshanna, in Nolita, Manhattan. Jessa navigates many life struggles and poor choices, including a short-lived marriage and a stint in rehab due to heroin and cocaine addiction. When she pursues a relationship with Hannah's ex-boyfriend, Adam, she and Hannah have an explosive falling out. In the final season, she struggles with the realization that her life is in tatters, and is abandoned by Shosh. Ultimately, she manages to make her peace with Hannah before she leaves New York.
• Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna Shapiro: Jessa's naive and innocent American cousin who's a Media, Culture, and Communications major at New York University. She is a fan of the TV series Sex and the City and is embarrassed to still be a virgin at the start of the series. The character is fast talking and her lack of enunciation gives her a mumbling, nervous persona. As the series progresses, Shoshanna graduates and struggles to find a career path that suits her. After a brief career stint in Japan, she comes to realize that her friendship with the other three has only ever held her back, and ultimately distances herself from them.
• Adam Driver as Adam Sackler: an aloof, passionate young man, Adam works as a part-time carpenter and actor. At the start of the series, he is in a casual relationship with Hannah, which becomes serious before ultimately falling apart as he gains success as an actor. He later enters a mercurial relationship with Jessa, which is implied to be ongoing as the series ends. Adam is an alcoholic who has been sober for years.
• Alex Karpovsky as Raymond "Ray" Ploshansky: Originally Charlie's friend, but later a friend of the others, and the group's straight man. Eventually, he has sexual and romantic relationships with both Shoshanna and Marnie. At the start of season 3, he is made manager of a spin-off of Grumpy's, called Ray's.
• Andrew Rannells as Elijah Krantz: Hannah's ex-boyfriend from college, who reveals that he is gay. Despite some initial hostility between the pair, they eventually become friends and later roommates on and off. The two grow much closer as roommates.
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Desi Harperin: Adam's co-star in Major Barbara and Marnie's bandmate. Despite having a girlfriend, Clementine, he and Marnie engage in a sexual relationship that he keeps secret, to Marnie's chagrin. Clementine eventually breaks up with him. He and Marnie have a public relationship. They become engaged, and later marry. Marnie eventually ends the relationship with him when she tires of his childishness and self-indulgence. In season 6, it is revealed that Desi is addicted to prescription pain killers after Marnie cheats on Ray with him.
• Jake Lacy as Fran Parker, a colleague of Hannah's whom she dates. In season 5, Fran moves in with Hannah and Elijah, but he and Hannah break up by the end of the season.

  Recurring cast

• Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari as Loreen and Tad Horvath : Hannah's parents. They are both college professors at Michigan State University who live in East Lansing, Michigan. Loreen and Tad cut off Hannah's financial support in the pilot episode so that Hannah will become independent and focus on her writing. Hannah then visits them for their 30th anniversary, but does not share her recent financial troubles. In the fourth season, the marriage breaks down when Tad comes out as gay, and after a year of struggling on his own, Tad moves to New York to pursue a relationship with his new boyfriend, while Loreen adjusts to life on her own, starts consuming cannabis and eventually fills the role of grandmother to Hannah's baby.
• Christopher Abbott as Charlie Dattolo : Marnie's ex-boyfriend, with whom she became increasingly bored. For a while they contemplate their relationship and try to make it work, but eventually this erodes and Charlie leaves the series. Upon Charlie's abrupt return in season 5, he and Marnie briefly decide to run away together until Marnie realizes Charlie isn't the person he used to be.
• Kathryn Hahn and James LeGros as Katherine and Jeff Lavoyt : The parents of two young girls that Jessa babysat. Katherine is a documentary filmmaker, and Jeff is unemployed. Jeff develops a romantic interest in Jessa, which she eventually stops. She is fired, but is later visited by Katherine who offers her job back. Despite deciding not to see each other again, they have a heart-to-heart over Jeff and Jessa's inability to grow up.
• Chris O'Dowd as Thomas-John : An affluent venture capitalist. After an earlier unpleasant encounter with Jessa and Marnie, he ends up marrying Jessa in a surprise ceremony at the end of the first season. They break up after an unpleasant dinner with his parents.
• Jon Glaser as Laird Schlesinger : Hannah's neighbor and a recovering drug addict.
• Colin Quinn as Hermie : Ray's boss at the coffee shop. He dies in "Painful Evacuation" from scleroderma.
• John Cameron Mitchell as David Pressler-Goings : Hannah's editor for her e-book. He is either bisexual or gay, as he downloaded the application Grindr in the episode "She Said OK". He is found dead in the episode "Dead Inside" with his funeral taking place at "Only Child" where it is revealed he had a wife named Annalise.
• Shiri Appleby as Natalia : Adam's ex-girlfriend. He abruptly breaks up with her after getting back together with Hannah.
• Gaby Hoffmann as Caroline Sackler : Adam's extremely troubled sister. She is very sarcastic towards Adam and Hannah until the latter kicks her out. She then lived with Laird, became pregnant by him and gave birth to their daughter before going AWOL in the fifth season.
• Richard E. Grant as Jasper : Jessa's friend from rehab. He comes to New York to find Jessa but later leaves her to be with his estranged daughter Dot.
• Gillian Jacobs as Mimi-Rose Howard, Adam's new girlfriend after Hannah moves away to Iowa.
• Aidy Bryant as Abigail : Shoshanna's former boss from when she worked in Japan. She later appears again meeting Shoshanna and Ray by chance and works with Ray to continue Hermie's project of documenting the effects of gentrification. Ray and Abigail get on well together leading to them sharing a kiss.
• Corey Stoll as Dill Harcourt : Elijah's love interest.

  Production

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Season 1

Season 2