The eldest of Nathaniel and Ruth’s three children, Nate moves back home to Los Angeles from Seattle after his father dies. Nate’s façade as a commitment-phobic, carefree heartthrob quickly crumbles when he steps up as half-owner of Fisher & Sons, falls in love with his airport hookup Brenda, and gets a scary diagnosis. He’s loyal, volatile, vulnerable, and deeply afraid of dying. 

Krause struck another emotional chord as Adam Braverman on Parenthood and now helps save lives on 9-1-1. 

The most buttoned-up of the Fisher siblings, he committed to working at Fisher & Sons long before his father’s death. Initially repressed, conflicted, and closeted, David becomes more comfortable with his emotions, his family, and his sexuality as the series progresses. 

Hall went on to play serial-killer-with-a-conscience Dexter Morgan in Dexter, portrayed JFK on a Season 3 episode of The Crown, and earned strong reviews on Broadway playing the title characters in Lazarus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The youngest Fisher child and the only one not involved in Fisher & Sons. She begins the series as a high school student overflowing with sarcasm, brains, and terrible taste in men. By Season 2, she is the promise of the series with sarcasm, brains, and incredible artistic talent.

Her on-screen characters have gotten mixed up in all sorts of drama, whether on Servant or Yellowjackets. On stage, Ambrose earned a Tony nomination for playing a powerful Eliza Doolittle in the 2018 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. 

Ruth goes through life somewhat frustrated and underappreciated, partially because society encouraged women of her generation to seek out fulfillment exclusively as mothers, and partially because she didn’t break free from those societal norms. After her husband dies, she tries to figure out where things went wrong in her life and how to create a better existence for herself, whether as a mother, florist, or lover who pays off mafia debts. 

Clearly not done with dark themes, she became a fixture on Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story anthology, earning Emmy nominations for her work in AHS: Murder House and AHS: Coven. 

Considering he dies in the first minutes of the series, everything we know about Nathaniel we learn from flashbacks. He wasn’t exceedingly available emotionally to his own children, though he was generous and paternal toward Rico. He had his secrets, but family was important to him, which is why he left Fisher & Sons 50/50 to Nate and David. 

Jenkins played another conflicted father, Lionel Dahmer, on DAHMER-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. 

The brilliant, complex, and sex-positive (or sex-addicted, depending on the season) massage therapist brings along plenty of childhood baggage into her relationship with Nate. For starters, the fictional novel Charlotte Light and Dark, in which a preternaturally intelligent young child is interrogated by therapists, is based on young Brenda. And then there’s her very close bond with her brother, Billy.

She starred as Sarah Walker in Brothers & Sisters from 2006-2011, and also appeared in films like Saving Mr. Banks and Hacksaw Ridge. She made her Broadway debut in 2011 with the play Other Desert Cities. 

Brenda’s younger brother is a talented artist who suffers from bipolar disorder. His unnaturally close bond to his sister (think: his-and-hers lower back tattoos!) can play out with him showing up unannounced or taking secret photos of Brenda in bed with Nate. He and Claire have a connection, much to Nate’s dismay, and Billy recognizes Claire’s artistic talent almost before she does. 

He played a single dad in Suburgatory and a special agent in three incarnations of Dick Wolf’s FBI franchise. 

An incredibly talented restorative artist (as in, he makes dead people look their best), Rico works alongside Nate and David, occasionally threatening to leave, and ultimately becoming a partner. He can be loving and warm, but can also be violently homophobic. 

He starred as in-house counsel Benny Colón in the legal drama Bull. 

Vanessa is Rico’s wife and she wants more of everything: more money, more of a house, and for Rico to have more ownership in Fisher & Sons. She’s a registered nurse, at first at a nursing home (until an incident involving a hot dog gets her fired) and later at a hospital. Things fall apart for her once her mother dies.

She’s had recurring roles on Jane the Virgin and Superstore, but she’s best known for playing Penelope Alvarez on One Day at a Time. 

Ruth’s younger sister is everything Ruth isn’t. She’s adventurous, untethered, and part of a hippie/artist community. She tells Claire she used to live with Allen Ginsberg in Berlin, and hosts parties in Topanga Canyon where her out-there friends eat hallucinogenic mushrooms. Like Billy, she sees promise in Claire’s art early on.

She starred in films like Easy A, Shutter Island, and the Maze Runner films, along with the miniseries Sharp Objects, and as Claire-ally Jane Davis on House of Cards. 

George is a geology professor who meets Ruth after attending a funeral at Fisher & Sons. He treats his depression by getting married over and over again.

The Oscar-nominated actor has appeared in everything from The Young Pope to Succession.

Initially a Los Angeles cop, Keith begins the series as the closeted David’s secret boyfriend, but he encourages David to come out to his family. He can be adoring to David and parental toward his niece, but he can also be cranky and cantankerous, and his violent streak gets him into professional trouble. 

He appeared on Sons of Anarchy and Hawaii Five-0. 

Claire describes her as “crunchy-granola backpacky” which feels spot-on for Nate’s ex-fling with whom he has a one-night stand while visiting Seattle. She moves to Los Angeles several months later to be a nutritionist for a rich client, runs into Nate at an upscale market, and reveals some life-changing information to him.

Taylor has appeared in various roles on all three seasons of American Crime, as well as on Perry Mason, and in the 2017 Broadway staging of Marvin’s Room.

A psychiatrist with no boundaries as far as messing up her own kids, Brenda and Billy, Margaret is self-absorbed, inappropriate, misguided, and at times funny. She met her husband Bernard (“Bern”) when she was his student, and they have an on-again-off-again relationship. 

Plenty, popping up on series including Everwood, Star Trek: Enterprise, Desperate Housewives, and NCIS: New Orleans.