This is a list of characters for the British sitcom My Family that has aired on BBC One since 19 September 2000.
My Family centres around the fictional Harper family, who live in Chiswick, West London. The family is led by parents Ben and Susan, played by Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker. They have three children, Nick (Kris Marshall), Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and Michael (Gabriel Thomson). Nick is a regular character until the 2003 Christmas special, and makes one appearance in 2004's fifth series before making his final My Family appearance in the 2005 Comic Relief short as Marshall wanted to do other projects and avoid being type-cast. Janey is a regular until the 2002 Christmas special and does not appear in Series Four (2003), while the character is at University. Janey returns as a main character in Series Five.

Abi Harper, played by Siobhan Hayes, first appears in Series Three as the daughter of Ben's cousin Richard (Anthony Head). Series Three also sees the first appearance of Roger Bailey, Jnr, played by Keiron Self. Roger, who becomes a main character in the fourth series, is a dentist and the son of Ben's former mentor. In the 2005 Christmas special Alfie Butts (Rhodri Meilir), a friend of Nick's, moves into the Harper household.

Main characters

Ben Harper

Ben Harper is a misanthropic dentist who is married to Susan Harper and has three children - Nick, Janey and Michael. He shows little compassion for his family, his patients or anyone else he encounters. In most episodes he can be found trying to come up with ingenious plans to annoy his wife, get rid of his kids and sit on the sofa with a beer and the paper. He enjoys watching football (shown supporting both Arsenal F.C. and QPR F.C.) and reading Tom Clancy, although it usually takes him the better part of a year to get through a single book. Ben and Susan have been married for twenty-nine years^{(as of when?)}.

His children each have their different problems (with the possible exception of Michael), possibly due to the chronic lack of attention from their dad who doesn't seem to care about anyone. This lack of caring is shown to others outside of his family too, mainly towards his dental practice partner Roger Bailey.

Deep down, Ben loves his wife and children very much, just seems reluctant to show it.

Susan Harper

Susan Beryl Harper (née Riggs), MBE, is a tour guide, and later works in an art gallery. According to her family she is a bad cook. Susan is married to Ben Harper and has three children, Nick, Janey and Michael. Susan shows love to her children and husband. In the earlier series Michael calls her a control freak, which she still is. She enjoys cooking certain dishes, but uses the wrong ingredients. Ben and Susan have been married for twenty-nine years.

Susan finds it hard to deal with the fact of her children moving out. In the same series, she had to deal with Janey moving to Manchester to go to university, and Nick flying the nest to live in his own flat. She also had to deal with Abi Harper moving into the Harper household in series 3 and Alfie in series 6.

Susan does not have a good relationship with her mother, Grace Riggs, but in the later series their relationship improved by the fact that Grace spent more time with her in the house while Ben was away. When the family appeared on Weakest Link, Grace revealed that Susan had a one-day marriage in 1973, after she married a wrestler called Troy the Punisher in Las Vegas while drunk.

In the Christmas Special 2008 Susan is awarded an MBE for charity work.

Nick Harper

Nick Harper (born 15 June 1980) is the oldest of three siblings in the Harper family, with Janey being his sister and Michael being his brother. It was after finding out that Susan was pregnant with him, that his parents got married. His idiotic and immature behaviour makes him irritating to his family, yet his laid back personality makes him fairly popular with women. Nick seems to get himself in awkward situations with other people, often getting confused as to what he is actually doing. Nick has attempted many jobs, such as a female impersonator, stunt-man, mime artist and magician; but was hopelessly unsuccessful at all of them. His birthday is 15 June. Kris Marshall left at the end of series 4 to pursue other projects, although he has appeared in two episodes of series 5 and a Comic Relief Special since.

Janey Harper

Jane Elizabeth Laura Harper (previously Rochester) is the only daughter of the family and is known to be rather shallow. She is a shopaholic and is very concerned with her clothes and physical appearance. She is sexually promiscuous and becomes pregnant at 19, becoming a single parent. She named the baby Kenzo although her original choice of name was "Prada-Handbag" according to Susan. She later married Ches Rochester, a man old enough to be her father, but asked for a divorce on her wedding day. She also develops a bad headache when she goes without intercourse for more than two weeks at a time: this causes her to become very aroused and to chase after any man she sees.

She temporarily left the cast in series 4 after going to the University of Manchester to study Communications in series 3, from where she drops out during the fifth series and returns to live near the rest of her family.

Kenzo Harper

Kenzo Harper is the grandson of the family and is the son of Janey Harper.

Michael Harper

Michael Harper is Ben and Susan's unplanned third and youngest child. At the start of the show Michael was a typical 'geek' who was highly intelligent if sometimes naive, and exhibited a strong sense of morality and integrity, attempting to win the election for student president by honest means. However as the show went on and he matured he became very interested in the opposite sex and developed something of a dark, cynical sense of humour. He has displayed Machiavellian tendencies in his dealing with others and has demonstrated excellent skill as a businessman. As a teenager he is usually well-dressed, differing from his more geeky persona at the start of the series. He is something of a black sheep of the Harper family, differing considerably from his relatives.

As the youngest member of the Harper family, he was at secondary school until series 6, then the sixth form. When the eighth series began, Michael had been at University for six months. He is also known for being a supporter of the Conservative Party (as opposed to his Labour Party father).

Abi Bailey

Abigail Therese Bernarde Bailey (née Harper) is Ben's first cousin once removed. Her father, Richard Harper, has been married and divorced five times. Her mother, Shelley, has been married and divorced many times, too.

Abi came into the Harper household in the third episode of the third series to stay with them while she was at college. Susan invited her to stay following Janey's departure to University.
Although good natured, Abi is very accident - prone, especially in the earlier series, where she puts her hand through a window, and hits Ben around the head with a cricket bat, thinking he was an intruder. She has tried a variety of jobs such as a salesperson and a car mechanic, which led her to dismantling Ben's car and leaving it in pieces on the kitchen table.
Abi had a few boyfriends, before finally falling in love with Roger Bailey and agreeing to marry him. They married in the seventh series, with Janey as bridesmaid and Ben as best man. She is a Catholic, and, in the final episode of series eight, she becomes a nun, and opts to stay with her order rather than to return home with Roger.

Roger Bailey

Dr. Roger Bailey, Jr. is the husband of Abi Harper. Roger, a dentist, first appears in "The Second Greatest Story Every Told" (2002), as the son of Ben's dental mentor, Roger Bailey, Snr. Roger's next appearance is in "Fitting Punishment" (2003), when much to Ben's annoyance, he buys the surgery below Ben's. Soon after he falls in love with Abi Harper, the daughter of Ben's cousin, and she eventually falls in love with him and he proposes in "The Art of Being Susan" (2006). They marry in "Abi Ever After" (2007), with Ben as best man and Janey as bridesmaid. By the start of Series Eight (2008), Roger has become a Special Constable.

Alfie Butts

Alfie Butts is a friend of Nick's who turns up at the house in the 2005 Christmas Special and moves in with the family. He is always slow when he moves or speaks. A Welsh starting musician, he is not very successful in the industry. In series 7, he was 26 years old. Alfie will leave during the 2009 Christmas Special.

Scott

Scott is a friend of Michael's who moves in with the Harpers' in the tenth series.

Recurring characters

My Family'' features several recurring characters. In the first series Ben's dental assistant is Brigitte, played by Daisy Donovan. In the second series Kevin Bishop appears as "Stupid" Brian, Janey's dim-witted boyfriend. Series two sees the first appearance of Susan's mother, who appears in later series until Series Seven.. Series Four features Rachel Harvey playing Fiona, Michael's girlfriend. That series also sees the introduction of Hubert (Alex Dawson), a geeky, posh friend of Michael's, who appears in subsequent series until Series Seven. In addition, Mr. Alexander Casey (Nickolas Grace), the Harpers' neighbour, appears in two episodes, "Driving Miss Crazy" (2001) and "Neighbour Wars" (2008). Andy Taylor appears (as a recurring joke) in five episodes across the different series' as a witty, ironic hotel receptionist with a dry sense of humor.