Abbott Elementary is an American television series created by Quinta Brunson for ABC. It stars Brunson as a second grade teacher at Abbott Elementary, a fictional predominantly Black school in Philadelphia. The ensemble cast includes Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph and William Stanford Davis. The following is a list of characters, including the main cast and those who appear alongside the main cast in the series.
Cast overview
Key
Main cast (credited)
Recurring cast (3 or more episodes)
Guest cast (1–2 episodes)
Main characters
Janine Teagues
Janine Teagues is the plucky and optimistic lead of the series who works as a second-grade teacher at Abbott Elementary. Throughout the series she remains unjaded by all of the things the school lacks and strives to make sure her students have enough to learn and grow. While helping the students of Abbott, Janine also deals with challenges and relationships within her personal life.
During the events of the first season, Janine is looked over by the staff of Abbott, particularly Ava who bullies her numerous times. Throughout the season, she dates Tariq, whom she has been in a relationship with since eighth grade. She struggles with the thought of ending her relationship with Tariq; however, other Abbott staff believe the two should break up. At the end of the season, she breaks up with him when he decides to move to New York City to pursue his career as a professional rapper. In season 2, Janine struggles to get over Tariq and has trouble paying her rent, since she originally split the bill monthly with Tariq. When trying to rekindle Melissa's relationship with her sister, Janine describes her complicated family history, with a mother who never paid her any attention and a sister who lives in another state. She begins regularly hanging out with Jacob and Erika, an old mutual friend of Tariq, who supports Janine and invites her to parties to increase her social mobility. She dates Gregory's friend Maurice throughout the season, which prompts unspoken jealousy. After Janine breaks up with Maurice, she and Gregory confess their feelings for one another but agree to remain friends for personal growth. In the third season, Janine and Gregory move past their awkward conversations as she begins a job working for the Philadelphia school system. In the fourth season, Janine begins dating Gregory.
Relationship with Gregory
While hinted at in the pilot episode, Janine and Gregory have a will-they-won't-they dynamic that is apparent in almost every episode. They teach classes next to each other and have developed a special bond. They almost share a kiss during the Christmas episode, but they are interrupted by Amber. After Gregory breaks up with Amber, he shares a drunken kiss with Janine at a teacher conference but they vow to ignore it.
When asked by late-night host James Corden about the relationship between Gregory and Janine, Tyler James Williams said:
It depends how long they want us to go. I can confirm this—that Quinta has not made a decision about ‘will they or won’t they?’ I think everyone assumes that it’s a ‘will they?’, that they will eventually, but she is just like… ‘I’m not positive they’ll go that way.
Their relationship has been compared to that of Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly from The Office, which shares a similar mockumentary presentation style with Abbott Elementary.
They officially begin dating during the fourth season premiere. In the fifth season, Gregory moves into Janine's apartment; also in the fifth season, the characters briefly fall out with one another and then reconcile.
Gregory Eddie
Gregory Thompson Eddie is the co-lead of the series and a substitute, later a full-time first grade teacher at Abbott. Gregory moves to Philadelphia from Baltimore in the first episode. Gregory harbors a crush on Janine, however at first he hides it well. When he arrives at Abbott during the pilot episode, Gregory reveals that he originally applied to be the school's principal and is upset that Ava was hired over him, since she is unqualified.
In the first season, Gregory is hired as a substitute teacher for Tina. He immediately befriends Janine, who teaches a class beside his. Gregory receives a phone call from his unsupportive father (portrayed by Orlando Jones) who tells him that he should leave his career of teaching and pursue a more stable career with him as a gardener. He also meets Barbara's daughter Taylor, whom he begins dating. He applies to be a full-time teacher in the season finale, he ultimately gets the job because the school is unable to find another replacement for Tina. During the second season, Gregory begins his first year at Abbott as a full-time teacher and continues to date Taylor; however later, Taylor breaks up with him. Following his breakup with Taylor, Gregory begins dating Amber, the parent of a student in Janine's class much to her unspoken jealousy. After his breakup with Amber, Gregory confesses his feelings for Janine, who reciprocates them but argues that they should remain friends for the time being. In the following seasons, their relationship continues to develop. In season 4, after Ava is fired by the district, Gregory becomes the interim principal. However, Gregory struggles in this position due to his awkwardness in social interactions. In addition, Gregory also shows obsession with planning and does not likes many common food items like pizza. Creator Quinta Brunson has stated that Gregory's palate was modelled on the real-life scenario of one of their crew writers, Brian Rubenstein, who reportedly hated food itself, and from Tyler himself, who has confessed that he did not like chocolate. In season 5, Gregory moves into Janine's apartment as her live-in partner, but soon break up with one another due to disagreements over their plans for spending during the holidays. At the end of the season, however, they reconcile, and Gregory purchases an engagement ring. In the final episode of season 5, Ava promotes Gregory to the position of assistant principal.
Ava Coleman
Ava Eva Coleman is the school's chaotic, insensitive, grossly incompetent, careless, narcissistic, and tone-deaf principal. She also harbors a casual sexual attraction to Gregory, which she does not hide well; this makes him uncomfortable. She is also an avid user of social media and often focuses on it rather than her responsibilities as principal. Apart from being the school principal, she also runs a side business selling clothing online (initially through her website, but now through social media), hence keeps a cabinet filled with her wares in her office chamber.
The first season showcases Ava's carelessness and antics on full display. She spends her entire time doing livestreaming on Instagram, making TikTok videos, watching Love Island and bullying the staff, especially Janine. During the pilot episode, it is revealed that Ava obtained her job as principal after blackmailing the superintendent, whom she caught cheating on his wife. However, the superintendent later visits Abbott and tells Ava that he has divorced his wife and is now married to the woman he was caught with by Ava, and that she is at risk of losing her job. In the penultimate episode of the first season, Ava wins over the district and the superintendent, and keeps her job. Following her successful presentation to the district, Ava continues her normal antics in the second season, although as the season progresses, it becomes clear that she is engaging with the job more and that she is developing skills as a principal. She also becomes more compassionate towards children, giving them money for lunches and clothes and organizing a fundraising campaign for the school by arranging students to sell candy at the local mall, a sharp contrast from the first season, where she pilfered the funds sent by the district board instead of providing the staff with necessary items. However, she gets into an argument with Barbara after the latter is publicly berated by her fellow churchgoer (who also happened to be a district board member) who was overcharged by a student acting upon Ava's instructions. Ava defends her amoral advice by describing her own struggles with poverty and stating that the kid in question was in desperate need of money due to his family's financial strain. After substituting for Janine when she is out sick, and sitting in on Jacob's class to investigate allegations of racism against him, Ava realizes that she actually likes her job and learning and decides to start studying for the principal's certification she should have had to get the job in the first place. In season 3, she references having attended Harvard University. It is eventually revealed that she did not attend the university, but used their Wi-Fi to complete an online course in Master of Education. After the course, her personality is temporarily changed, focusing more on supervision and principal responsibilities; staff are relieved when she returns to her usual apathy. Ava also starts to show more care and compassion for her staff, and she starts supporting them in their activities and personal lives. In season 4, she blackmails Miles Nathaniel in order to procure computers for the impoverished school. At the end of the season, the district authorities find out about Ava's acceptance of the bribed computers and fire her, but the staff and students of Abbott, alongside the parents and the local community, rally behind her, resulting in her reinstatement as principal.
Ava maintains an intense rivalry with Crystal, her sorority sister from Grand Canyon University, who works as a principal in another similarly impoverished public school called Liberty Rings in Philadelphia. In the fourth season, when Ava is unexpectedly invited to a prestigious meeting of the district educators in recognition of her positive impacts (like increased student attendance and grades) to Abbott Elementary, she overhears Crystal, frustrated at Ava's success, bemoaning the loss of opportunity to obtain funding for her impoverished school. Ava, who manages to get a generous amount of aid sanctioned for Abbott Elementary, insists that the aid material be divide among themselves, but Crystal refuses.
A writer for the show is also named Ava Coleman, but this is a coincidence as Coleman started writing for the show in Season 2.
Melissa Schemmenti
Melissa Ann Schemmenti is a second-grade teacher at Abbott, who has a large Italian-American family with questionable connections. She has a close connection with Barbara, with both being veteran teachers at Abbott. Melissa's family is native to the local fire department, and is referenced in numerous episodes. However, she has a somewhat strained relationship with her family due to her status as a divorcée.
During the first season, much of the humor surrounding Melissa's character concerns her family's questionable connections to local municipal agencies and criminal elements. Although these connections generally worry her colleagues, they rarely question her connections since they often benefit the school. Melissa begins going out with the vending machine stocker, Gary, at the end of the first season; the relationship continues into the second and third seasons, until their ultimate breakup after Melissa tells Gary that she does not ever want to get remarried. In the second season, when classes get combined due to a teacher shortage, Melissa receives ten third-grade students in her second-grade class. This proves to be too difficult to keep up with on her own, and the school offers her an aide in the distracting and childish Ashley Garcia, who only causes more problems for Melissa. Melissa is revealed to have a sister, Kristen Marie, a teacher at Addington Elementary, a local charter school with which Abbott Elementary is in competition, with whom she has a rivalry. When Janine attempts to salvage their bond, Melissa reveals that Kristen Marie left her alone with the responsibilities of her sick grandmother, and disrespected her when the funeral came around. Beginning in the fourth season, Melissa becomes attached to her class' pet guinea pig, whom she names Sweet Cheeks. She includes the guinea pig in various events at the school, even dressing up as Sweet Cheeks for Halloween. In the fifth season, she is moved to teaching mathematics at sixth grade, facing new challenges on how to deal with adolescent children.
Jacob Hill
Jacob Hill is an awkward and occasionally pessimistic history teacher at Abbott who supports Janine and her mission. Being a white male teacher in a school that predominantly caters to black children, Jacob sometimes experiences reverse discrimination, especially from parents of Abbott students, with one parent even objecting to him teaching black history in Black History Month due to his race. However, Principal Ava defends him on that occasion.
In the first season, Jacob reveals that he is one of two teachers remaining from a large number of new teachers hired in the previous year; the other being Janine. He mentions his boyfriend Zach to Janine, which leads to Janine being upset that he never mentioned him prior. He introduces his boyfriend Zach to the staff to help stop the spread of a TikTok trend. In the second season, Jacob continues to support Janine after a grant is given to the school thanks to Barbara. When an educational dance troupe visits Abbott, Jacob reveals that he is a former member of the 'Story Samurai' that travels from school to school. In "Librarian" he and Melissa become roommates and then friends after Jacob and Zach break up.
Barbara Howard
Barbara Howard is an old-school and strictly religious kindergarten teacher whom Janine looks up to. Barbara is based upon Quinta Brunson's mother who was also a teacher. Having served for 20 years at Abbott Elementary, she and Melissa (her close friend) are the seniormost faculty in the school. Although vocal about her Christian faith (although her denomination isn't mentioned), it only rarely causes friction in her professional relationships.
During the first season, Barbara reveals that she is wary of new technology and prefers to teach the way she has for her entire career. Barbara cheats a new system provided by the school and is forced to come clean for her mistakes of not wanting to use the new program. Barbara has a husband named Gerald (portrayed by Richard Brooks) who visits her for lunch on occasion. For an open house, her daughter Taylor visits and she is displeased with her career choice. Taylor eventually begins dating Gregory. She blackmails school board member Delisha Sloss into giving the school a loan, while later pondering retirement while on the school field trip to the zoo during the season finale; ultimately she decides to stay with Abbott.
In the second season, Barbara is forced to be the middleman in the relationship of Taylor and Gregory and has to be the one to tell Gregory that their relationship is over. A former student of Barbara named Draemond Winding visits after his charter school attack ad negatively highlights Abbott. He later targets Abbott to become a charter school. In the aforementioned ad, all teachers are portrayed negatively apart from Barbara, whom Draemond wants to recruit for his own school, as gratitude for helping him in times of distress, but Barbara strictly refuses to leave Abbott. Her husband Gerald has a health scare later in the season, as she reveals to Melissa that he was tested for prostate cancer; however she reveals the test came back negative, but it still caused them to worry for his health. It is also shown that Barbara has been getting mistreated by her conservative choir group when she wants to sing a solo because they think she is too "modern" for them due to her friendship with Melissa, a divorcée, and Jacob, who is gay. The third season also shows that in addition to her morally uptight persona, she also has a completely different facet of personality, which is never shown on screen but which she refers to as 'Sea Barbara' (referencing its appearance when Barbara took a cruise to Jamaica over the summer). At the end of season 4, she briefly substitutes for the music class at Abbott, and in season 5, she takes over full-time.
A running gag of the show is Barbara confusing the names of Hollywood celebrities, which often ends up in her falsely believing that some white celebrities are black. This was reportedly inspired from Barbara's actress Sheryl herself.
Mr. Johnson
Mr. Johnson is the school's eccentric, but surprisingly talented, janitor. After being credited as a guest star during the first season, William Stanford Davis was upped to a series regular for the second season.
Not much is known about Mr. Johnson outside of Abbott, but he believes in conspiracy theories and shares them with the students despite the teachers being uncomfortable with his suspicions. He once convinced Jacob that the ghost of the former janitor lives in the basement. In one episode, he casually mentions being an ex-Mormon. In season 5, Mr. Johnson is romantically linked with a female janitor, Carol (played by Khandi Alexander), who was hired for the time the school had to shift out of its premises to an abandoned shopping mall.
Additional school staff
Introduced in season 1
Tina Schwartz
Portrayed by Kate Peterman
Tina Schwartz is an Abbott teacher who is fired for physically attacking a student during the pilot episode. She returns in "Delivery Day", revealing that she attended therapy and now works at a more affluent charter school, Addington Elementary. She is featured in the attack ad made against Abbott, orchestrated by Draemond.
Chanae and Devin
Portrayed by Nikea Gamby-Turner and Reggie Conquest
Chanae and Devin are underpaid cafeteria workers at Abbott, who find Janine overly pushy and mildly annoying. In "Art Teacher", Devin refuses to allow Jacob and Barbara to make new menu items for the cafeteria, as he and the rest of the cafeteria staff have no time to prepare extra food. He also disrespectfully dismisses Jacob and Barbara's attempts of extending help with the meals.
Sahar
Portrayed by Mitra Jouhari
Sahar is Janine's friend who briefly works at Abbott as a volunteer art teacher during the events of "Art Teacher". She and Melissa disagree over the latter's Peter Rabbit project, and though Janine agrees with Melissa, she finds it hard to turn down Sahar's ideas. When Sahar makes an impressive art piece using the books Melissa bought, Janine finally stands up to her. Her real name is revealed to be Sarah.
Denzel Collins
Portrayed by Reggie Hayes
Denzel Collins is the school's superintendent during the first season, who is blackmailed by Ava, resulting in her position as principal; after she caught him in a intimate condition with a deaconess at the church. However, he reveals to Ava that he had married the deaconess in question and divorced his wife in "Open House" which puts her in a tough position. He later allows Ava to keep her job as principal, but is still salty towards her and refuses to grant financial assistance to Abbott Elementary as long as Ava remains principal.
Alley Williams
Portrayed by Ambrit Millhouse
Alley Williams is a minor recurring teacher at Abbott who has been a teacher for nine years. She only makes an appearance in one episode during the first season, however she becomes a recurring character during the second season. She is mentioned in "Attack Ad", where Jacob and Gregory talk about a parent of Alley's student who was arrested for protesting at a strip club.
Delisha Sloss
Portrayed by Shirley Jordan
Delisha Sloss is a member of the school board and a member of Barbara's church. In "Ava vs. Superintendent", after the superintendent refuses to grant funding to Abbott Elementary, it is revealed that Barbara managed to obtain a decent amount of aid by threatening to reveal about Delisha's stealing from the church funds. Delisha reappears during the second season; being scammed by at the mall by a student (acting upon the instructions of Ava) participating in a fundraiser, for which she publicly berates Barbara.
Introduced in season 2
Ashley Garcia
Portrayed by Keyla Monterroso Mejia