Main characters
Eric Forman
Portrayed by Topher Grace : The protagonist; Eric is a nice guy, generally nerdy, clumsy, and accident-prone. He does, however, have a deadpan sense of humor that rivals that of his father, Red, and is far from afraid of asserting himself should he be pushed too far. Eric convinces his parents to let his best friend Steven Hyde move in with them, making Hyde like a brother. Red is always hard on him (as a way to toughen him to be a man). He is in a relationship with his longtime love and neighbor Donna Pinciotti. He decides to become a teacher after high school, and he leaves the series at the end of the seventh season to teach in Africa. Eric returns for the series finale, reuniting with Donna. In That '90s Show, it is revealed that Eric eventually married Donna and they had a daughter named Leia, named after Princess Leia. They moved to Chicago and he became an adjunct professor at an unnamed university, teaching "the religion of Star Wars ". Eric is based on the adolescence of show creator Mark Brazill. [1]
Donna Pinciotti
Portrayed by Laura Prepon : Eric's longtime girlfriend (and briefly fiancée). Donna is intelligent, good-looking, and a feminist tomboy. Although she does not agree with what Jackie represents in the beginning of the series, they become friends. Donna is in a relationship with Eric for seven seasons (despite their break-up during season 4). She has brief romances with Michael's brother Casey and with Randy during the final season before rekindling her relationship with Eric at the end of the show's finale. In the time in between the finale of That '70s Show and That '90s Show, Donna and Eric married, moved to Chicago, and had a daughter named Leia, after the Star Wars character Princess Leia. She became a professional author.
Steven Hyde
Portrayed by Danny Masterson : Eric's best friend and the anti-establishment member of the group. By the end of season one, Kitty Forman prevails on her husband to allow Hyde to move in after he was abandoned by his mother (played by Katey Sagal) and living in squalor. Hyde is promoted to brother to Eric as soon as he moves in. Hyde has a witty, blunt, and sarcastic sense of humor, and a rebellious personality. He is also the smartest and most practical friend in the group, and the other members often ask for his advice. Although Hyde dates Jackie for three seasons, they eventually part and in the final season he marries an exotic dancer/stripper named Samantha, who (unknown to Hyde) was still wed to her first husband, Larry (Sam McMurray), when she married him. As Donna points out in "My Fairy King", that means Hyde and Samantha are not legally married. In the seventh season, Hyde meets his biological father (William Barnett, played by Tim Reid), a wealthy African-American businessman. Hyde also has a strait-laced half-sister named Angie from this newfound relationship. Barnett, who owns a chain of record stores, makes Hyde the manager (and later the owner) of the Point Place store called Grooves. Hyde does not appear nor is he mentioned in That '90s Show.
Michael Kelso
Portrayed by Ashton Kutcher : The dim-witted, sex-obsessed pretty boy of the group who wants to coast through life on his good looks. He spends the first half of the series in a relationship with the equally vapid Jackie but their relationship comes to an end when Jackie finds out he's been cheating on her with Laurie. In the season 4 finale, Jackie wants to marry Michael but he isn't ready, so he runs away to California with Donna. His best friend is Fez. He fathers a baby girl named Betsy during the seventh season after getting a girl named Brooke pregnant. He becomes a police officer but gets kicked off the force because he does just about everything wrong. He gets a job as a security guard at a Playboy Club in Chicago, and leaves the series during the eighth and final season. He only appears in five episodes during season eight, including the series finale. [2] [3] In season 1 of That '90s Show, Kelso makes a guest appearance where it is revealed he and Jackie were on their "second re-marriage" and that he had become a father for (at least) a second time with a son named Jay.
Kelso was portrayed once again by Kutcher in a Robot Chicken sketch entitled "That '00s Show". Critics have noted striking similarities to the portrayal of Kutcher's character Walden Schmidt on Two and a Half Men to that of Kelso. Walden's personality, however, drastically changed since his initial appearances and by the series' end he was a completely changed man. Other similarities drawn are between that of his role as Jesse Montgomery III in the stoner film Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). [4]
Jacqueline "Jackie" Burkhart
Portrayed by Mila Kunis : The youngest member of the group, Jackie starts the series as being pretty, rich, stylish, spoiled, selfish, conceited, annoying, and immature. She makes thoughtless and superficial comments, which occasionally turn out to be correct. As the series progresses, her wealthy father is jailed and her mother (first played by Eve Plumb in an early episode, and later, permanently, by Brooke Shields) abandons Point Place. Jackie is forced to take a job and becomes less self-centered and needful of genuine love and affection. Partly as a result of these changes, she and Donna become better friends. By the end of the series, Jackie has dated three of the four men of the original group: Kelso, Hyde, and Fez. Jackie lives with Donna after her dad is put in jail and her mom runs away to Mexico. It is revealed in the That 90s Show that she continued an on and off relationship with Michael Kelso marrying him at least twice and had a son with him named Jay.
Fez
Portrayed by Wilmer Valderrama : [5] The foreign exchange student of the group, whose hormones seem to be out of control. His country of origin is one of the longest-running gags on the show. [6] He is sweet, friendly, perverted, gullible, and rather odd. He enjoys eating candy, drinking beer, and looking at pornography. His best friend is Michael Kelso, and he shares a "younger brother" type relationship with Hyde and Eric. He constantly flirts with Jackie and Donna and often makes romantic advances toward them. Initially, he has a lot of trouble getting attention from girls, but during the eighth season, he becomes a ladies' man. He is in love with Jackie throughout the series, but his love is not reciprocated until the eighth season when they become a couple. However, by the time That '90s Show begins, Fez and Jackie had broken up (a result of Jackie cheating on him with Kelso) and has begun a relationship with Sherri Runck. It is also revealed that Fez had opened up a successful chain of beauty salons in Point Place, and is the only one of Eric’s friends to have maintained a close relationship with the Formans - aside from Donna, who is now married into the family. The series' official web site explains the spelling "Fez", as opposed to "Fes" (short for Foreign Exchange Student), as "poetic license". [7] [8]
Red Forman
Portrayed by Kurtwood Smith : Kitty's husband, Eric's and Laurie's father, and Hyde's surrogate father. Red is a Navy combat veteran, having served in World War II and the Korean War. Impatient, short-tempered, often grouchy and constantly threatening to "put my foot in your ass", he occasionally displays a soft side. His hobbies include working with his power tools, watching television (especially Green Bay Packers games), reading the newspaper, hunting, and fishing. He shows no respect for Fez because he's a foreigner, sometimes he gives him offensive nicknames like "Tonto" and "Ali Baba". [9] In That '90s Show, Red plays a central role, as his granddaughter (and series protagonist) Leia spends the summer with him and Kitty. Much to Red's chagrin, Leia and her friends spend most of their time hanging out in his basement and, as such, acts curmudgeonly towards them.
Kitty Forman (née Sigurdson)
Portrayed by Debra Jo Rupp : Eric's and Laurie's mother and Red's wife, Kitty is a cheerful, doting, often oversolicitous mother, who can turn cold and assertive when pushed too far. A nurse and former alcoholic (though she begins again occasionally), her major mood swings are usually attributed to menopause. She is also an overly nurturing mother figure to Eric's friends, especially Fez and Hyde. In That '90s Show, Kitty continues her overbearing actions towards her granddaughter Leia and is overjoyed with happiness with the prospect of Leia and her friends spending time at their house. Kitty also reveals a semi-progressive side of herself, as she accepts Ozzie when he comes out as gay to her. In flashbacks, she was played by Ashley Peldon.
Bob Pinciotti
Portrayed by Don Stark : Midge's husband, Donna's father. Bob often brags about his service in the National Guard, which invariably irritates Red. Bob is also known for walking around his house with his robe wide open wearing no underwear. He eats constantly, even in bed. Bob is almost always in a good mood and is a ladies' man. His best friend is Red, even though Red sees him as a nuisance. He usually takes the brunt of Red's abuse in a jolly manner. Bob makes a guest appearance in Season 1 of That '90s Show. In this appearance, Bob remains cheerful, jolly, and silly. However, he shows a degree of jealousy towards Red and Kitty for having the ability to spend more time with their granddaughter Leia. Bob attempts to one up them by giving Leia more expensive gifts. In season 2, Bob is a recurring character, leaving his retirement home in Florida to live across the street from the Formans.
Midge Pinciotti
Portrayed by Tanya Roberts : Bob's wife and Donna's mother. Midge is the woman that Eric and his male friends fantasize about when coming of age. Although often dim-witted, she is also a kind-hearted woman who develops feminist ideals. She and Bob divorce when she is written out of the series after the third season. She later returns during the sixth and seventh seasons, in a recurring role where she and Bob almost reunite, but they then decide that they are better off apart.
Laurie Forman
Portrayed by Lisa Robin Kelly / Christina Moore : Eric's beautiful but mean and promiscuous older sister. She is also the foster sister of Steven Hyde. Laurie enjoys tormenting Eric and manipulating her father. She is often seen with various men, mainly Eric's friend Kelso (who cheats on his girlfriend Jackie). Eric, Hyde, and Donna often mock her promiscuity, including calling her "The Village Whore". Laurie has a strained relationship with her mother who, unlike her father, sees Laurie for what she really is. Red finally sees her real self in "Laurie Moves Out", but afterward, still doesn't try to help her become a productive member of society. Laurie leaves the series during the third season but returns in a recurring role during the fifth, somewhat chastened. At one point, she genuinely seeks out a loving relationship (rather than merely physical) with Kelso, who is dumbfounded. She also becomes attached to a baby for whom she is babysitting and feels quasi-maternal pangs, which soon disappear. In season five, she and Fez marry to prevent him from getting deported. In season six she regresses to her previous self, and at one point, Red and Kitty genuinely ponder whether she may have children they don't know about. She and Fez are shown to be unhappy in their marriage, with her constantly cheating, and eventually, with pressure from Red, divorce off-screen after Fez gets his green card. Due to Kelly's health issues, Laurie was portrayed by Moore in season six. She does not appear after the sixth season. In the seventh season, she is briefly mentioned to have moved to Canada. In the series finale, Kitty asks if anyone has seen her recently. In the first season of That 90s Show she is indirectly referenced when Red mentions that Eric is their second child. In the seventh episode of the second season, Kitty mentions that she has a lot of pregnancy tests left over from when Laurie was in high school, referring to her daughter as "social". In the thirteenth episode of this season, she is mentioned to have been arrested shoplifting with her youth pastor.
Leo Chingkwake
Portrayed by Tommy Chong : A hippie, and the owner of a Foto Hut at which Hyde once worked. Leo is an Army veteran who served in World War II, where he was awarded a Purple Heart. He would have had a promising medical career ahead of him after the war ended, but he became the stoner he is today after accepting a ride home with some jazz musicians that were smoking marijuana. Leo often puts play before work and maintains an easy-going attitude in most things, business included. Due to Chong's real-life legal issues at the time, he disappears from the series after season four but is later referenced in season five's "The Battle of Evermore", when the gang goes on an unsuccessful mission to find him, finding only a letter from him explaining that he remembered he has a wife and should probably go back to her. Following Chong's release from prison, he returns in season seven and remains on the series until the show's end. In season 8, he gets a new job working for Hyde at Grooves. Leo makes two appearances in Season 1 of That '90s Show, where it is revealed he has remained a stoner and has unsuccessfully auditioned for The Real World . He also returns in the second season finale, celebrating his "retirement party" at the Forman house.
Randy Pearson
Portrayed by Josh Meyers : The newest member of the group, Randy is introduced in the final season. Tall and handsome, he is laid back, polite, and forms a friendship with Red who is impressed at Randy's skill at fixing things. While Hyde, Jackie, Donna, and Kelso accept him as a new member of their group, Fez does not. Randy dates Donna for the majority of season eight, causing Kitty to be infuriated with both of them. Donna eventually breaks up with him, and reconciles with Eric when he returns in the last episode of the series.
Leia Forman
Portrayed by Callie Haverda. She's the teenage daughter of Eric and Donna Forman and granddaughter of Red and Kitty Forman and Bob Pinciotti, who moves in with them for the summer. She is named after Princess Leia, and while Eric wanted to add another Star Wars reference making her middle name Tatooine, Donna overrode him and made it Anne.
Gwen Runck
Portrayed by Ashley Aufderheide, Gwen is a rebellious Riot Grrrl with a loyal heart.
Jay Kelso
Jay is portrayed by Mace Coronel. He's a charming, flirty young videographer, Leia's love interest, and the son of Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis) from the original series.
Nate Runck
Portrayed by Maxwell Acee Donovan, Nate is Gwen's easygoing and fun-loving half-brother (as they have the same mother).
Ozzie Takada
Portrayed by Reyn Doi, Ozzie is an insightful and perceptive teen who is openly gay. However, his parents are not aware of his sexual orientation.
Nikki Velasco
Portrayed by Sam Morelos, Nikki is Nate's ambitious and intelligent girlfriend.
