The Ultimate Guide to ‘Futurama’ Cast & Characters

Futurama, the beloved animated science fiction sitcom series from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and longtime Simpsons writer David X. Cohen, is back for Season 11. This will be the iconic show’s fourth season since it was revived by Hulu in 2023, a decade after its second run on Comedy Central ended.

For those unfamiliar with Futurama, it’s sort of like The Office in space, following the employees of Planet Express, a very dysfunctional interplanetary delivery service, on their many misadventures through the galaxy. The Planet Express crew — especially Fry, Bender and Leela, who carry out most of the delivery work — are the main characters of the show, but numerous other main and recurring Futurama characters have become legendary over the show’s run.

Here’s the ultimate guide on who’s who in the cast and characters of Futurama as you get ready to dig into Season 11.

Don’t forget: You can watch Futurama and other great adult animated shows on DIRECTV! Sign up today.

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‘Futurama’ Full Cast & Characters

Here are all of the major main and supporting characters on Futurama.

Main Characters

Philip J. Fry
Voiced by: Billy West

Fry is one of the three most prominent main characters on Futurama. While working as a pizza delivery boy in 1999, he accidentally ends up becoming cryogenically frozen and wakes up about 1,000 years later, in 31st century New New York City.

Thrust into a brand-new life with endless possibilities in a technologically advanced world, Fry… immediately takes another job as a delivery boy. But this time, he’ll be dropping off packages on other planets for Planet Express, which is owned by his very distant nephew, Professor Farnsworth.

The Professor repeatedly deploys Fry, most often accompanied by Bender and Leela, and occasionally other core cast members, on delivery missions that are almost always poorly thought out, extremely dangerous and very much underpaid, leading to a galaxy of offbeat adventures the team embarks upon throughout the series.

Fry also becomes best friends with Bender, though their pairing often leads to pure chaos, and falls in love with Leela, who initially views him as immature and dimwitted, but eventually begins to return his affection.

Turanga Leela
Voiced by: Katey Sagal

Leela is another member of the main trio on Futurama. She’s the highly capable captain of the Planet Express ship who finds herself constantly having to clean up the messes left by Fry and Bender’s disastrous behavior. When a voice of reason is needed, Leela is there. And when someone needs a beatdown, she’s also there. Without her, Fry and Bender would likely have been another dead crew to add to Farnsworth’s growing tally of deceased employees long ago.

Leela, a cyclops who grew up as an orphan, believing she was an alien from another planet and ashamed of her one-eyed appearance, is often at the center of some of the series’ most emotional arcs, which include her slow-burn love story with Fry and her discovery of her real parents, a pair of sewer mutants from Earth.

Bender Bending Rodriguez
Voiced by: John DiMaggio

Bender is one of the show’s most iconic characters. He’s a brash, booze-fueled, chain-smoking robot who has a penchant for thievery, gambling, being a pathological liar and just about every other vice or toxic trait you can think of.

Despite being Fry’s best friend, Bender is just as much of — if not more of — a liability to him and the other Planet Express employees. His biggest dream in life is to exterminate all human life, and he routinely betrays his friends or puts them in harm’s way out of pure selfishness.

No matter what happens, nothing seems to be able make Bender feel even a bit of shame or shake from his self-destructive (and others-destructive) path. At least, not at the surface level. There are many moments where it’s evident that Bender does feel emotion, especially jealously and loyalty, and especially concerning Fry. That makes him one of the show’s most complex characters, a top fan favorite and an instant pop culture icon.

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Voiced by: Billy West

Another cultural institution that came out of Futurama, Farnsworth is a catchphrase factory and owns some of the show’s most well-known lines. There’s his regular exclamations of “Good news, everyone!” which is almost always immediately followed by a very bad idea or particularly dangerous assignment, and his retorts when someone questions his latest crazy idea or invention (“Whaaaaa?” and “Quiet, you!”) and his statements of shock or disappointment: “I don’t want to live on this planet anymore…”

Fry’s great-nephew 30 times removed, Professor Farnsworth heads up Planet Express and is one of the first characters Fry encounters when he wakes up in the future. He’s over 160 years old and crotchety to match, with virtually no regard for the safety of his crew when he sends them on assignments.

Dr. John A. Zoidberg
Voiced by: Billy West

Dr. Zoidberg is Planet Express’s staff physician. He’s a Decapodian alien that resembles a humanoid combination of a lobster and a squid and has a penchant for eating trash and self-loathing.

Despite his role with the company, he’s actually a shockingly bad doctor when it comes to treating humans, which are his primary patients. He regularly mixes up body parts or misunderstands their core function, and he often reaches for unorthodox or outlandish medical solutions, many of which would almost certainly kill his patients. The only reason he has a job on Earth is because he’s friends with Professor Farnsworth, and his colleagues are well aware of this, often treating him with open contempt.

Zoidberg’s core dynamic is his loneliness, which has been at the core of some of the show’s most emotional storylines and made him a fan favorite.

Amy Wong
Voiced by: Lauren Tom

Amy starts out as Planet Express’s clumsy intern, who was kept on because her blood type made her a compatible donor for Professor Farnsworth’s failing organs. Even in her lowly role, she’s actually a brilliant scientist who studies at Mars University and the wealthy daughter of a pair of super-rich ranch owners on Mars. The latter relation means her initial character is spoiled, immature and sheltered, but she grows into her own as the series progresses and becomes a key contributor to the crew.

The most well-known storylines involving Amy also involve Kif Kroker, Zapp Brannigan’s shy alien lieutenant. Despite Kif’s general awkwardness, he and Amy fall in love and have one of the series’ most heartfelt relationships exploring themes around cultural compatibility and adoption.

Hermes Conrad
Voiced by: Phil LaMarr

Hermes is Planet Express’s uptight accountant and operations manager. He loves bureaucracy in all its forms, taking pleasure from filling out and filing forms and building organizational charts, and he’s constantly fretting over the costs incurred by the crew’s repeated ineptitude. Before he was Planet Express’s top pencil pusher, he was a competitive limbo athlete until injury derailed his career, and he’s ultimately responsible for Bender’s existence, having been a QC engineer who should have had the robot destroyed during assembly, but uncharacteristically bucked his by-the-books ways to save him.

Scruffy Scruffington
Voiced by: David Herman

Scruffy is Planet Express’s lovable custodian. The character was initially meant to be a recurring joke, but his deadpan delivery of iconic lines and frequent and completely calm handling of various crises with ease made him a cult classic character. At his core, Scruffy’s character is an homage to the rank-and-file workers who keep the world running despite being often overlooked, because it’s just their job.

Nibbler
Voiced by: Frank Welker

Nibbler is initially a cute little animal that Leela adopts as her pet during an assignment. Soon after, the team discovered Leela had brought home a pet that was far more than anyone had bargained for: his appetite is nearly insatiable, and he randomly discharges dark matter.

In one of the series’ most memorable twists, Nibbler is revealed to be royalty from an ancient, hyper-intelligent species called the Nibblonians, who are locked in mortal combat with an evil entity called the Brainspawn. Later, it’s revealed that Nibbler is actually chiefly responsible for all of the events in the series: He pushed Fry into the cryogenic chamber to ensure he would be in the future to help defeat the Brainspawn. This is actually alluded to with an Easter egg in the Season 1 pilot.

Cubert J. Farnsworth
Voiced by: Kath Soucie

A clone of Professor Farnsworth intended to be his successor, Cubert inherited all of the Professor’s genius, but none of his reckless abandon. This sets up a key storyline around generational differences and individual identity: Cubert is Professor Farnsworth’s son, but he’s not onboard with his dad’s worldview.

The Planet Express Ship (personality)
Voiced by: Sigourney Weaver

The Planet Express Ship accompanies the crew on every adventure. While not technically a character for most of the show, it does at one point gain a personality of its own when Professor Farnsworth equips it with artificial intelligence.

Voiced by Sigourney Weaver, the ship’s AI personality is not exactly the friendliest of virtual entities, channeling 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000 with her particularly extreme and dangerous responses to rejection and an infatuation with Bender that goes terribly wrong.

Recurring Characters

Zapp Brannigan
Voiced by: Billy West

Zapp Brannigan is the arrogant and brash captain of the Nimbus and one of the most spectacularly incompetent military commanders to ever hit the small screen. He’s convinced he’s generational strategic genius, irresistibly handsome and paragon courage, but to everyone else, he’s anything but. His “victories” generally result from sacrificing enormous numbers of subordinates until the enemy reaches a preset limit or simply gives up.

He’s famously obsessed with Leela and constantly attempts to woo her into a relationship while also refusing to accept that she is more competent than he is in almost every regard. His sidekick, Kip, falls in love with Amy Wong.

Lrrr, Ndnd and Jrrr
Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Tress MacNellie

Lrrr is the ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8. He’s an enormous alien conqueror whose repeated threats to destroy Earth are often inspired by petty slights, such as having his ancient Earth-produced television show, which he thinks is brand new and groundbreaking, interrupted.

Lrrr is constantly at odds with his wife, Ndnd, and son Jrr. The alien trio behave exactly like an extraterrestrial version of a typical, dysfunctional suburban family, which allows the show to explore themes of family life, domestic conflict, parenthood and the triviality of the things that frustrate people about modern life.

Morbo the Annihilator
Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche

Morbo the Annihilator is an alien television news anchor who makes no effort to conceal his hatred of humanity. Between conventional news stories, he openly discusses his own species’ plans to conquer Earth, threatens viewers and celebrates signs of human weakness. His cheerful co-anchor Linda usually responds with clueless laughter, as though his declarations of impending genocide were harmless banter.

Morbo and Linda are the show’s key avenues for poking fun at the modern news media. His broadcasts turn the often-menacing tone of broadcast news into literal menacing: Rather than merely sensationalizing the news and preying people’s fear, Morbo is actually calling for and preparing for an invasion, whether viewers realize it or not.

Officer Smitty and Officer URL
Voiced by: Billy West (Smitty), Kevin Michael Richardson 2023-Present, John DiMaggio on original runs (URL)

Smitty and URL are New New York police officers who patrol a city where time travel, robot crime and alien invasions are treated as routine municipal problems. Smitty is the human half of the partnership, while URL is a robot officer equipped with an integrated siren and a vocabulary built from exaggerated police-show slang. Their characters lean heavily into satire of police procedural shows and they rarely succeed in addressing incidents, but they give it their best shot.

Mayor C. Randall Poopenmeyer
Voiced by: David Herman

Mayor C. Randall Poopenmeyer is the perpetually frantic and overwhelmed mayor of New New York. He usually shows up when the city faces a disaster, like giant garbage balls, monsters, alien attacks or scientifically impossible emergencies that demand an official response — whether he’s competent to mount one or not.

Elzar
Voiced by: John DiMaggio

Elzar is a four-armed Neptunian chef, restaurateur and television personality whose aggressive cooking style parodies the celebrity-chef culture of the late 1990s and early 2000s, complete with its forceful catchphrases, heavy use of spices as though they were weapons and approach to cooking even routine meals as if it were high-stakes performance. Specifically, he’s modeled on Food Network star Emeril Lagasse. The Planet Express crew frequents his restaurant, even though his fame often causes him to treat his customers with arrogance and indifference.

Calculon
Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche

Where Elzar is a 31st-century parody of celebrity chef culture, Calculon is the same for daytime television and soap operas. He’s the most famous and universally beloved robot actor of the 31st century and the star of the long-running soap opera All My Circuits. Since he’s always in character, all of his lines are delivered as if it were the climax of a Shakespearean tragedy, even when Calculon is discussing breakfast, contract negotiations or a minor inconvenience.

Flexo
Voiced by: John DiMaggio

Flexo is another bending unit like Bender. He’s identical to Bender in every way except for a small goatee on his chin. Flexo’s appearances provide recurring “it was my evil twin!” jokes, even though the person he’s supposed to be the “evil” twin of is pretty darn evil himself. Even though he looks sinister, Flexo is actually a pretty nice guy, and is basically Bender’s moral opposite. Bender, naturally, doesn’t take well to this and their interactions stoke both his paranoia and his internal struggles with morality and honesty.

The Robot Devil
Voiced by: Dan Castellaneta

The Robot Devil—also known as Beelzebot—is the ruler of Robot Hell, where sinful machines face elaborate musical punishments for all eternity. He is theatrical and perpetually irritated by the incompetence of the robots he attempts to torture. Fry famously makes a literal deal with the Robot Devil, trading hands with him so that he can conduct an elaborate operatic performance to express his love to Leela.

Richard Nixon’s Head
Voiced by: Billy West

Richard Nixon’s preserved head is one of Futurama’s most ridiculous depictions of a real historical figure. Housed in a jar like other deceased celebrities, Nixon’s reanimated head eventually obtains Bender’s enormous robot body, runs for office and becomes President of Earth. His recurring appearances are used to repeatedly skewer political corruption, military intervention and the electoral system.

Robot Santa
Voiced by: John Goodman (original), John DiMaggio (current)

Futurama’s terrifying, homicidal holiday bot, Robot Santa Claus was created to determine who had been naughty or nice and distribute gifts accordingly. Unfortunately, an error in his programming set the standard for “nice” impossibly high, causing virtually every living being to fail his code as “naughty.” His response? He spends each Christmas Eve terrorizing Earth hunting people down with military-grade weapons.

Kwanzaa Bot
Voiced by: Coolio

Like Robot Santa, Kwanzaabot is the show’s robotic representative of Kwanzaa. Unlike Santa, however, Kwanzaabot is not entirely certain how his assigned celebration works. He travels with educational literature and raps about a holiday whose traditions he has spent centuries attempting to clarify for himself.

Chanukah Zombie
Voiced by: Mark Hamill

The Chanukah Zombie is the third member of Futurama’s dysfunctional holiday trio and the only of the three who is not a robot. He is intentionally kept mysterious with limited screen time. He travels in a TIE fighter from Star Wars, a nod to Hamill providing his voice, and uses Chanukah-themed weapons.

Hypnotoad
Voiced by: No voice actor, always accompanied by aggressive synth sound effects.

Hypnotoad is a large toad-like creature with oscillating eyes and the apparent ability to control virtually any living thing. He first gains attention by hypnotizing the competition, judges and audience at a pet show, ensuring his victory without performing anything resembling a conventional trick before going on to star in his own sitcom, Everybody Love Hypnotoad.

Hypnotoad is one of Futurama’s most recognizable characters, despite having zero lines, and has been featured in numerous internet memes.

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