The Berzattos are a fictional American family that live and work in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Their characters appear on the FX Networks/Hulu television series The Bear, launched in 2022. The family businesses include the semi-seedy Italian beef sandwich shop, the Original Beef of Chicagoland, later transformed into a high-end dinner destination (with a window on the side, for sandwiches) known as the Bear. Chosen family is a major theme of the series since main character Carmy Berzatto returned to Chicago generally disgusted by the alcoholism (mom) and abandonment (dad) that forged their "dysfunctional nightmare" of a family.[1] Over time Carmy began connecting with the employees of the Beef and the Bear in a way that replicated healthy familial attachments.[1] It is a truism of the series that "someone doesn't necessarily have to be a Berzatto to be a Bear."[2] Still, the Berzattos and their seemingly irresistible swag are the show's center of gravity: "The Berzattos are a difficult clan to belong to but magnetic nonetheless. Lifelong friends and ex-in-laws alike linger in their orbit, forming an amorphous, unofficial family that mystifies outsiders."[3]
As a Vulture writer put it in 2025, "If The Bear is about only one thing, it's family. Sure, it's about food and jokes and arguing and money and past trauma, but all of those things can be wrapped up into one big familial package. Carmy came back to take over his late brother's restaurant because of family. Richie and the Faks aren't technically related to Carmy and Nat, but they’re family all the same. Tina's motherly and Ebra's a bit of a kooky uncle. Remember: The reason the shiny new Bear exists at all is because of Mikey's 'family dinner' recipe that urged Carmy to open up the smaller cans of tomatoes. Everyone working—or even dining—at the Bear is family, whether they like it or not."[4] Carmy initially resisted Mikey's family-meal spaghetti, deeming it an underseasoned, oversauced mess, but later relented, which an anthropological examination of Italian-American food rituals suggested may be critical to the formation of the family: "Enjoying the 'taste' of the authentic sacred dishes is, therefore, a sign of cultural competence—of becoming fully integrated as an authentic group member."[5]
The known family members include a clutch of cousins who are roughly the same "generation" as siblings Carmy, Nat, and Mikey; a set of uncles who are the roughly the same generation as their mom and dad; some grandparent-tier matriarchs known only from references in dialogue; two restaurant families, now partially integrated; and a miscellaneous assortment of other family friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
Nuclear family
The core Berzatto family consists of the unnamed long-absent father "Pop," mom Donna, the kids Mikey, Sugar, and Bear (presumed to be full biological siblings), and Cousin Richie, a biologically unrelated neighborhood kid who grew up in the family as Mikey's best friend and a de facto foster sibling. None of the ages of the characters are clearly specified in the show, outside of vital dates printed on funeral cards, but the pilot script suggests that Richie has a decade or two on Carmy.[6]
Berzatto family tree (speculative relationships marked with *)
The youngest sibling by birth order, Carmen Anthony Berzatto left Chicago fairly young to train and work as a chef, eventually becoming a white-hot name on the American culinary scene, cooking at the best restaurants in America and collecting racks of awards. He moved back to Chicago following the death of his brother Mikey.[7] Carmy has so far dodged addiction to drugs and alcohol but has replaced disordered use of substances with a compulsion to pursue a "self-flagellating notion of perfection."[1] He grew up in the shadow of his idolized older brother but since returning home he has reluctantly, incrementally moved into Mikey's place as the acknowledged leader of the family.[8] Carmy is played by Jeremy Allen White.[7]
The middle sibling by birth order, Natalie Rose "Sugar" Berzatto Katinsky is emotionally attached to her baby brother Carmy. Originally opposed to Carmy's attempts to rehabilitate the Beef, she left her job at a bank when she was recruited by Carmy's partner Chef Sydney to serve as business manager for the forthcoming Bear restaurant. Nat is played by Abby Elliott.[7]
Pete
Pete Katinsky is Natalie's kind and loving husband. When Pete was is first introduced, he appeared to be "universally disliked by the family, [but] he turns out to be just a big softie—perhaps naive to the others' hardened ways, but charming because of his kind manner and willingness to look for the best in everyone."[9] He was bullied by the male Berzattos for many years after he married Sugar,[10] but Pete proved himself time and time again, demonstrating that "it takes a real man to face the Berzattos, let alone marry one."[11]
In season one, Carmy apologized in "Hands" for his part in some past injury to Pete, and Pete defended Carmy's career and bragged about his success to the cackling Uncle Frank in "Dogs," so by the time of "Sheridan," Carmy confessed sheepishly to Nat, "I do kinda like Pete now."[12] Carmy still keeps his brother-in-law's contact information under the original disrespectful designation "Sugar's boyfriend (Pete?)."[13] Richie and Cicero seem to still find Pete annoying.[11]
Pete works as a lawyer and helps the family with contracts for the restaurant.[14] Carmy volunteered Pete's United Airlines frequent flier miles to send Marcus to Copenhagen.[15] Pete's appearance in "Tonnato" revealed that his office has a skyline view of Chicago. Pete is played by Chris Witaske.[7]
Sophie Katinsky
Sophie is an infant, Natalie and Pete's first child, born in the summer of 2023. She was born in the episode "Ice Chips," and her name was revealed in the episode "Replicants" when she was introduced to the restaurant-dwelling Bears.[7] Generally speaking, Berzattos smell like onions, but baby Sophie smells like "raspberries that are chewed up."[4]
Mikey's family-meal sauce calls for two 28 oz cans of San Marzano tomatoes, 10 cloves of garlic, and basil steeped in olive oil
Michael Berzatto, called Mikey, was born November 15, 1979, and shot himself in the head on the State Street Bridge on February 22, 2022. The loud, lionized, charismatic, and larger-than-life oldest brother of the family, Mikey was first described by Uncle Jimmy in the second episode of the series: "No disrespect...your brother, he was an animal, surrounded by dickheads, and then he lost his mind, and now he put you in a real tough spot."[17]
Donna Berzatto
Donna, also known as Aunt DD, is the alcoholic, mentally ill mother of Carmy, Natalie, and Mikey. Donna is, for the most part, "an oppressive presence, spoken about in hushed tones, the Babadook of the Berzattos."[18] She was a terrible mother, but her convivial spirit seems to have assured her a central role within the larger community.[14] In her partying days she enjoyed a type of whiskey cocktail called a 7-7.[19] She got sober following Mikey's death and is in recovery.[20] Donna worked at the restaurant when Pop first bought it and seems to have later become a real estate agent.[21]
Donna is played by Jamie Lee Curtis.[7] When asked about Donna's hair design and nails, show runner Christopher Storer sent Curtis photos of Monica Vitti and the "desperate housewives of New York."[22] Curtis won a guest star Emmy Award for her debut appearance on the show in the Christmas episode "Fishes."[10]
"Pop" Berzatto
The father of the Berzatto children has been absent from the family for many years, probably since the 1990s.[23] He has been referenced in dialogue but not appeared onscreen outside of a photograph of him in company with Uncle Jimmy, as seen in the episode "Dogs."[24] The Berzatto dad's fate is ambiguous and fans speculate about whether or not he is alive or dead.[14][8]
According to Jimmy, he drank, did drugs, gambled, could not pick a career, and launched the Original Beef of Chicagoland restaurant on a whim after a visit to Ed Debevic's, a heavily marketed family-oriented diner that opened in River North in 1984.[24] The dad was mentioned in the pilot episode "System" when Carmy proposed a video game tournament to bring in customers, saying "Nerds come in from Rockford to play," to which Richie replied, "Yeah, like in 1987. You know, when you were still in that deadbeat's balls.[25] Mikey called him "Pop," and told Carmy that their dad was an unavailable asshole.[26] According to Donna, she and her husband argued frequently.[27][20] He asked for a sedative to relieve his anxiety while Donna was in labor with Carmy.[27]
The last time Jimmy talked to Mr. Berzatto was "about 20 years ago" (from 2022).[24] Carmy remembers that his dad always unhappy, and does not remember the last time he talked to him.[26] Carmy told Marcus (Lionel Boyce), who was also raised by a single mom, that he "used to" wonder about his dad but not anymore.[28]
Extended family: Cousins
In the absence of other context clues, Richie is the cousin of The Bear, as Carmy and Richie spent the better part of season one calling each other cousin at top volume, which became a central part of popular awareness of the show, and yelling "cousin!" remains a common reaction to seeing Ebon Moss-Bachrach on screen or in person.[29] He would not mind if people stopped yelling it at him on the street.[30]
Richard Lawrence Jerimovich is a de facto Berzatto sibling but not biological kin. He was Mikey's best friend, and told Chef Terry, "My best friend's ma was like my ma."[31] He ran the Original Beef with Mikey and works front of house at the Bear. He has a competitive, often-hostile relationship with Carmy, but when prompted, he told a friend of a friend, "I am indeed his cousin...I love him very much...but please don't tell him."[32] Richie "cosplays Italian," and beautifully, too, but he is probably of Polish-American heritage.[33] Richie has a daughter named Evie (Annabelle Toomey) with his ex-wife, Tiff. Richie is played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach.[7]
Tiff's job involves working with children; as of the season three episode "Apologies" she reported that "[the] kids are still kind of fucked up from COVID."[34] Tiffany and Richie divorced sometime prior to the beginning of the series; Richie was still paying divorce-related bills in season one. Tiffany told Richie in season two that she was engaged to be married to another man.[35] Tiff got remarried in the season four episode "Bears," which caused her to reveal her fears of being cut loose from the clan but at the wedding she and Carmy agreed that they remain "cousins," and Uncle Jimmy reassured her that she is a Bear forever. Tiff's biological family is just as messy as the Berzattos and she has little contact with them.[23] At the time of her wedding her biological mom is in Boulder, Colorado, with "a guy."[36] Tiff is played by Gillian Jacobs.[8]
Frank
Frank's parents were schoolteachers. His parents got divorced. Frank has a tech company, F-Tap, that markets a keyless entry product.[37] He is wealthy.[36] Evie decided to refer to Frank, now her stepfather, as Waldo.[38] Frank is played by Josh Hartnett.[38]
Michelle Berzatto
Believed to be a biological cousin to the Berzatto kids, Michelle Berzatto is an actress. Michelle is played by Sarah Paulson.[39]
Cousin Stevie
Michelle's husband/long-term partner is Stevie.[7][39] Michelle and Stevie let Carmy crash on their couch when he worked in New York.[40] Stevie played by John Mulaney.[2]
Cousin Spooky
There have been several mentions of Cousin Spooky in dialogue but the character has not been introduced onscreen.[7] According to Stevie, "Spooky's their cousin the way Michelle's their cousin," which implies paternal first cousins but the details are entirely hazy.[2]
Extended family: Uncles and aunts
The series is littered with uncles. With the exception of Lee Lane, it is unclear if any of them have a biological or a past or present legal relationship to anybody or what that relationship might be. Most seem to simply be avuncular patriarchs; others may have been granted the honorary title of "uncle" in haste.[40]
James "Cicero" Kalinowski was once best friends with the father of the Berzatto children and cared for the kids the best that he could after their dad abandoned the family. Jimmy has been married at least twice. His first wife was Aunt Gail, and he has a teenager with his current wife, Carol (Maura Kidwell). Unc is played by Oliver Platt.[7]
Aunt Gail was Jimmy's first wife. Auntie Gail was with Donna while she gave birth to Natalie, but the kids only really know her from stories and photos.[27][20]
Uncle Lee
Not biologically related, Lee Lane was in business with "Pop" Berzatto and Uncle Jimmy. They had a company called KBL Electric (Kalinowski–Berzatto–Lane). Lee later became Donna's on-again, off-again boyfriend. On separate occasions, when someone mentioned "Uncle Lee," both Mikey and Carmy immediately said, "That's not our uncle."[40] Cousin Stevie described Lee to Syd as "a man I've met nine times, and I still don't know who he is."[41] Lee has attempted to ingratiate himself with the clan but has "failed miserably."[8] Lee is played by Bob Odenkirk.[7]
Uncle Computer
The Computer, government name Nicholas Marshall, is called "Uncle Computer" by both Richie and Chuckie (Paulie James).[20] Marshall is a "math wizard who literally 'computes' where the restaurant is overspending."[42] Computer dresses in Las Vegas Raiders gear.[43] Sugar has known him her whole life. He coached Mikey's Little League team. He is nice to Pete. The Computer is played by Brian Koppelman.[23] BuzzFeed commented in 2025, that Computer is often "perfectly aggravating...[and] kind of makes you want to throw your phone at the screen, which means Koppelman did his job."[44]
The "Tonnato" jagoffs
In the season-four episode "Tonnato," Carmy visited his mother's house for the first time in years, and they looked at old pictures together. She pointed out Uncle Dan and Uncle John, but Carmy had no memory of them, and DD declared that they were "jagoffs."[20] There was also an Aunt Carrie ("also a jagoff"), who Carmy did vaguely recall, when prompted with a photo.[20]
Restaurant families
The restaurant as a source of various types of sustenance for blue-collar families is central to the value of The Bear as a piece of media, wrote chef Daniel Patterson after season one premiered in 2022.[45]
Restaurants hold a special place in our culture. For a lot of people in this country they are a path to a better life. Restaurants are kind of like the strainers with little holes that catch everything, except for humans. They take everyone. The really good jobs, the lawyers and bankers and doctors, those career paths are closed to many. Those who don’t have a college education, or who come from poor neighborhoods and don’t have the connections or who have learning disabilities or are new to the country, not to mention kids getting a first job or a second or third, or creatives supporting themselves while they wait for their big break, they often end up in restaurants. As fucked up as they are, restaurants have historically been a place where people from every background can support themselves and even own their own business. My first-gen Greek roommate when I was twenty was able to attend college because his parents opened a diner when they arrived here, worked hard, and used their savings to make sure their kids had a better life. Over fifty years later that diner's still in business. The country is full of those kinds of stories.[45]
One such case may be when, at the end of season one, Tina dragged her misbehaving teenage son Louie into the restaurant by the scruff of his neck and dropped him at Carmy and Sydney's feet, insisting that they do something with him: "You taught me, you can teach him."
When Mikey bequeathed the Beef to his brother, Carmy effectively inherited seven mouths to feed, all virtual strangers except for Richie. Richie, Sydney, Marcus, Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson), Sweeps (Corey Hendrix), Manny (Richard Esteras), Angel (José Cervantes), Chuckie, Chi-Chi (Christopher Zucchero), Neil Fak (Matty Matheson), and Ted Fak (Ricky Staffieri) all work at the Beef and/or the Bear at various times.[23] Liza Colón-Zayas and Edwin Lee Gibson have both spoken about how their characters are motivated by their love of the Berzattos and their workplace family.[46][47]
In "Bears," the episode where Tiff married Frank, Syd was Richie's date to the wedding, and he introduced her to his daughter as "Auntie Sydney."[19] Whatever the nature of their relationship, by season four, Carmy and Syd are broadly acknowledged as "the two main characters" and "we see...that Carmy trusts and cares for [Syd] like he does his own sister. Like Tiffany, she's a Bear forever if she wants to be."[37]
Carmy, Luca (Will Poulter), Rene (Rene Gube), Garrett (Andrew Lopez), and Jess (Sarah Ramos) all worked for Andrea Terry (Olivia Colman) at one time or another at a Michelin starred restaurant called Ever. Carmy and Luca's tattoos were designed by the same tattoo artist, Benny Shields.[48] BuzzFeed described Jessica in 2025 as a "wise and experienced kitchen staff member at Ever. Throughout the seasons, she has a great dynamic with Richie, and her composure perfectly balances out his wild side. Honestly, I kinda...ship it?"[44] After Chef Terry retired and closed her restaurant, Richie hired Rene, Garrett, and Chef Jess to work front of house, and Carmy brought in Chef Luca to stage and help pastry chef Marcus, whom he had helped train at Noma in Denmark.[23] These characters were introduced in season two but by season four, "if Luca and Jess felt like ancillary figures before, they're full-fledged cousins now."[4]
Sydney is an only child, little else about her upbringing has been revealed.[49] Her mother died of lupus when she was a preschooler; she was raised by her dad Emmanuel Adamu (Robert Townsend).[50] Her dad gives her a copy of Coach Mike Krzyzewski's book, Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life to help her with the process of launching the Bear.[51] Her mom was "like a Black southern belle,"[52] and was an actress, mostly in community theater productions.[53] In season two, Syd and her dad celebrated her late mom's birthday with dinner and cake.[54] Sydney's dad had a first-degree heart block cardiac incident in season four.[55] Her maternal grandfather was an automobile mechanic.[52]
Syd typically wears her hair in two-tone box braids, styled by her cousin Chantel (Danielle Deadwyler), who lives on the South Side of Chicago.[56] Chantel's husband/long-term partner is Christian and their kid together is T.J.[56] Sydney also has a cousin Monty who works at Boeing,[52] and an Auntie Marsha, whose house is "energetically musty." Sydney missed Auntie Marsha's most recent birthday party.[57] Syd's extended family is otherwise undescribed in-universe, and the show tends to focus closely on the Berzatto clan, who work and live on the north side.[58]
Matriarchs (?)
Nonna
In episode nine of season two, "Omelette," a scene in the restaurant office shows that a recipe for "Giardiniera by Nonna" has been written on several index cards taped to the bookshelf.[59]Giardiniera, from the Italian for "gardener," is a dish topped with chopped veg,[60] such as a "pickled condiment" often made with cauliflower, carrots, celery, and vinegar that tops Italian beef sandwiches.[61]Nonna means grandmother.[62]
Gina
Donna mentioned a character named Gina when telling Mikey's birth story in the episode "Ice Chips": "Was I excited? You bet. I couldn't...I wanted a baby so bad. You know? I wanted someone to love me the way I had seen. You know, all those smug mothers down at the Jewel, blocking the aisle with their strollers. Do you know what Gina said to me. Gina fucking said to me...she looked down at my stomach...she says to me, 'You know, Donna, there are lots of good Chinese babies, honey.' I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine she said that to me? The joke was on her, God rest her soul. I was two months gone with Michael at the time. Fucking bitch."[27]
Donna's mom
In "Ice Chips," Sugar said she did not remember her maternal grandmother, Donna's mother. Donna replied, "You don't want to."[27]
Sleeping lady at Seven Fishes
In the Feast of the Seven Fishes flashback episode in season two, an older woman was shown briefly, asleep on a couch. The yellow draft version of the "Fishes" teleplay mentioned "two sleeping grandparents [non-speaking character]" on the character list.[63]
Miscellaneous
David Fields
David Fields was executive chef at "the best restaurant in America," Empire in New York City. Carmy Berzatto was his chef de cuisine and Fields, an asshole, made his life hell. Fields has some past association with Ever, as he attended the restaurant's funeral. Fields is played by Joel McHale.[64][65]
Faks
The Berzatto and Fak families are related "through friendship."[66] There are nine Fak siblings in the current generation, including Neil and Ted (who work at the restaurant), Avery, Sammy (John Cena), and Francie (Brie Larson), with whom Sugar was once close.[67][68][69] In the telling of the New York Times, many of the childhood neighborhood friends of Carmy, Natalie, and Richie are "knuckleheads by nature and are frequently used for comic relief. This is the case particularly with the bickering, bantering Fak brothers...whom some Bear fans love and some find exhausting."[70]
Chester
Chester is Marcus' roommate; he may have a crush on Marcus. Chester is played by Carmen Christopher.[71]
Clairebear
Claire Dunlap (Molly Gordon), called Clairebear, is a medical resident and Carmy's girlfriend in season two, was introduced in "Pasta" and has become "one of the show's most divisive characters."[72] Richie told Claire's friend and roommate Kelly (Mitra Jouhari) at the soft launch of the restaurant that he and Claire "grew up together."[32] Richie and Mikey first tried to set up Carmy and Claire about five years ago, when Carmy came home from Copenhagen for Christmas.[73] After reconnecting and hooking up in season two, Claire overheard a Carmy rant intended for Tina (made from inside the accidentally locked walk-in fridge at the Bear), she said she was sorry to hear that, he ghosted her (never called or texted afterward), until an after-midnight apology in season four led to a rapprochement. Most recently, Carmy visited the suburbs seeking "some place of peace with his mom but also somehow finding a 15-year-old hoodie" that Claire had accidentally left at his house as a consequence a Donna-started fire that disrupted a birthday celebration.[74]
Following the release of season four, a Collider columnist wrote, "The Bear has been pushing Carmy and Claire's romance from her very first appearance, even though the relationship just doesn't have the spark that many of The Bear's other potential romantic pairings do. All that Carmy and Claire have going for them is off-camera history. On-camera, though, their conversations all feel surface-level, and the deeper moments of confession from Carmy don't feel earned...Carmy's relationship with Claire seems to represent the past, while his relationship with Sydney represents the future."[75]
Kelly
Introduced in the episode "Pop" as having been recently dumped by her boyfriend, Claire's friend and roommate Kelly met Ted Fak at the restaurant's Friends & Family night, and Ted and Kelly started dating.[42]
Adam Shapiro
Technically an Ever, Adam Shapiro (Adam Shapiro) seems to be a curious and perhaps unclassifiable outlier from the main restaurant family. In the season-two episode "Forks," while staging front of house at Ever, Richie witnessed Shapiro erupt "into a torrent of verbal abuse aimed at Garrett...Chef Adam's behavior [was] excessive and vicious."[76] In the season-three premiere "Forever," he appeared fleetingly in a flashback to the Ever kitchen, where younger Adam, Luca, and Carmy were doing prep for Andrea Terry, during which "Shapiro enviously peered over" at Carmy and Luca while all three are shelling peas, Luca twice as fast as Adam, and Carmy an order of magnitude faster than Luca.[77]
After losing his job as chef de cuisine due to chef Terry's retirement, Shapiro attempted to poach Syd from Carmy for his own place, a practice that was established in season two as being bad form in the Chicago restaurant world (when Syd pitched some cooks taking a smoke break in a back alley, she was "rightfully shut down and cursed out by their chef, who catches her red-handed").[78] Shapiro also has a habit of "talking some smack on Carmy."[79]
As Slate magazine writer Nadira Goffe wrote about the season-four episode "Worms," "There's no good way to describe Shapiro's whole deal. He talks at breakneck speed, like he's constantly coked out, and every notion, comment, or phrase he relays to Sydney has the air of a white man who wants to be cool and thinks that proximity to Black culture will get him there. Sydney is at the receiving end of his remarks, which range from annoying utterances to blithe microaggressions."[80] When Syd ultimately turned him down after a two-month courtship, "Shapiro [took] the news poorly and pathetically, sulking and stewing...Shapiro's seams were destined to burst; better for Syd that it happened now than while she was working for him."[81]
Albert Schnur
Albert Schnur is a business consultant recommended the South Side Business Academy who helps Ebra with a business plan for the beef window. Albert is played by Rob Reiner.[82]
Unclassified
"Big Phil" and "Estelle" and adopting "the second set of kids" is somehow relevant to understanding the family tree.[2]
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