The following is a list of fictional characters from the British drama Shameless, created by Paul Abbott, which began broadcasting on Channel 4 in 2004. The programme is set on the fictional Chatsworth Estate in suburban Manchester, and the surrounding area and primarily follows the lives of the Gallagher family and the neighbouring Maguire family, and their friends and neighbours in the town's shops and local pub the Jockey.
The first series focused on layabout Frank Gallagher and the lives of his six children, Fiona and boyfriend Steve, Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam, and next door neighbours, Kev and Veronica. When the second series began, the Maguire family were introduced, with certain episodes just focusing on their family, and both the Maguire family and Gallagher coming into contact and conflict, with marriage, teenage pregnancies and neighbourhood rivalry. Other characters have also taken major focus throughout the years after only starting of as minor characters, such as the Karib family. Since the series started, the Gallagher family has split hugely, with most of the Gallagher children departing the show, due to the actors moving onto bigger things and taking on other projects. Beginning with the latest series of the programme, Carl Gallagher is the only Gallagher sibling remaining in the show.
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(Series 1 - Present)
Vernon Francis "Frank"[1] Gallagher (born 26 January 1960), is a fictional character from the Channel 4 drama Shameless.
Frank's hallmarks are drunken rants on a wide variety of literary, historical and philosophical subjects, usually returning to how decent, hard-working people, among whom he erroneously seems to count himself, are discriminated against. Frank frequently quotes Shakespeare, the Bible, references international current events and uses poetry and soliloquy to express his feelings or view, as he does at the start of each episode. Thus, in spite of his drunken ramblings, sometimes he does come across as being well-educated owing to the issues he raises during his interactions with others.
Frank is an unemployed alcoholic, and the son of Neville and Sarah Elizabeth Gallagher (1935–1972). He was married to Monica, with whom he has six children (Fiona, Phillip, Carl, Debbie, Liam, Stella), and one, Ian, to whom he is de jure father. He also has two children with Sheila Jackson, Nigel and Delia, and is the father of Monica's half-sister, whom he fathered with Monica's mother at Monica's birthday party. He has two grandchildren, Katie and an unnamed child of Fiona's when she left in Series 2. During one of Frank's drunken rants, it is implied that he got many girls pregnant in school. Although this is never elaborated upon, it is unclear precisely how many children Frank has actually fathered.
Frank was apparently convicted and sentenced to imprisonment several times in his youth. He claimed to have been incarcerated in Strangeways Prison. It has not been mentioned what exactly were the reasons for his string of past convictions.
Frank became an alcoholic shortly after his first wife Monica left him for Norma Starkey. He then left the younger children in the care of Fiona, and moved in with agoraphobic Sheila Jackson. Often known to make a fool out of himself and shirk all responsibility, Frank nonetheless shows signs of loving his children. He can offer good advice, for example saving Liam from being taken into care when a parent was needed. When he is rendered completely sober by a new drug, Frank appears reflective and even quite intelligent, wondering why Sheila would add to her problems by marrying a mess like him. We also understand his character a bit better when Frank's father pays a visit and treats his son in a condescending and abrasive manner. Frank's father shows extreme sympathy towards Sheila and even takes care of the twins. It is also stated that his father did not always treat Frank kindly when Frank was growing up.
In early series Frank comes across as a drunken bully, even headbutting his son Ian on one occasion. Most of his children initially hate Frank for his drunken bullying ways. Lip and Ian are never scared to show their feelings towards him, and even physically attack him on a few occasions. However, his middle daughter Debbie shows sympathy throughout the series when her father is either in serious trouble or presumed dead, something which has happened three times to date. The family have generally warmed towards him more as the series has progressed, mostly because he isn't bothering them hugely on a daily basis. However, Debbie finally grew sick of taking care of the family, and cleaning up after Frank in particular, and left to join the army after series 6. Frank and Liam came into serious conflict in series 7, when Liam was forced by circumstances to take over Debbie's former burden as the de facto head of the family. At one point, Frank headbutted Liam, and a furious Carl had to be restrained from beating Frank to a pulp. Frank finally softened towards Liam when Liam threatened to commit suicide.
In series 7, Frank falls for a librarian named Libby Crocker. Libby believes Frank is a man of the arts and he encourages her to rise up against her library closing, which leads to a violent protest and her imprisonment. When Libby is released from prison, she tries to find him, but her upscale appearance causes various characters to warn Frank that the DSS is after him. Finally, they meet again, and although Libby is initially put off by his poor character and the frosty reception from Liam, she and her mother move into the Gallagher home. Frank and her mother soon set up a mutual loathing society, with Frank painting her bedroom a bright yellow just to keep her awake. In Series 8 Frank is kept hostage in a psychiatric hospital by former wife Monica's girlfriend, part of Monica's plan to snatch her family back from Libby Crocker and prevent the pair from getting married. On Frank's escape, the pair stay unmarried and he eventually loses Libby in Episode 13 after cheating on her with Letitia's head teacher.
In series 8, Frank is ready to get married to Libby Crocker and he goes missing on his stag night. Libby starts putting up posters because of his disappearance. Chesney Karib and Carl Gallagher find a video on the internet; it is Frank having sex in public. Libby walks in and sees the video. In the feature length 100th episode Frank is accused of beating an old lady who is well known on the estate for her scratch-card winnings. Frank suffers a blackout and throughout the episode has flashbacks of that evening. Not knowing if he actually carried out the attack he hands himself into the police. His son, Carl Gallagher is convinced Frank is innocent. He digs into the events of that night and finds that a local gangster's brother had actually carried out the attack. Frank, along with Kev devise a plan to work with the police and cut a deal with the gangster that sees Frank set free.
| Kelly Maguire | |||||||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Sally Carman | ||||||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2005–11 | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 1 March 2005 | ||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1983 (age 29) | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Prostitute | ||||||||||||||
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Kelly-Marie Maguire[1] (née Ball; born 1983) is Kev Ball's sister. A recovered heroin addict, she became a prostitute working in Lillian Tyler's brothel, and struck up a relationship with Shane Maguire, which ended under intimidation from Paddy Maguire. She returned a couple of episodes later, telling Shane she "decided not to take his father's offer". This resulted in Shane confronting Paddy, who beat him up in The Jockey. At the end of series 5 Kelly-Marie announces she is pregnant with Shane's child, and is welcomed into the family with open arms by Paddy and Mimi. In series 6 it is revealed by Kelly that she had had a "phantom pregnancy", and was comforted by Mimi and Shane.
During her early appearances on the show, Kelly had a hostile relationship with her sister-in-law Veronica, who was the one that eventually discovered her addiction to heroin, and helped Kelly get clean by locking her in the bathroom against her will.
In series 7, Kelly is chosen initially by Jamie and Karen to be the godmother of their newborn son, Connor Joseph Maguire. She and Shane have also actively dealt in personal side jobs in addition to the normal Maguire family business.[2]
In the fourth episode of Series 7, Kelly has sex with Paddy in exchange for money, after Paddy found it hard to "pull" on a night out with his sons. Paddy wanted to hurt Shane since he felt Shane had not been there for him. Paddy and Kelly kept their encounter a secret, but during a mass wedding scam, Shane proposed to Kelly. Kelly turned him down several times, even ending their relationship, because she could not marry him while living a lie. Shane told her he would forgive her sleeping with anyone, at which point she and a guilty Paddy made eye contact. Shane was devastated to learn the truth, but forgave Kelly, and they married in a civil ceremony at the Jockey.
Shane was deeply upset when he learned he was sterile. Jamie, Micky, and Paddy offered to be Kelly's sperm donors, but she refused, saying she'd already had Paddy in her once and wasn't going to do that ever again. As they would be unable to adopt a child, Liam convinced them to try to be parents to Shane's niece Katie. This plan was dashed when Katie's father Lip decided to take a more active role in her life. Kelly and Shane decided to give up on their plans and just be honorary parental figures for Liam, whom she has grown quite fond of.
Kelly was revealed in the thirteenth episode of series 7 to have a fifteen year old half-sister named Tonya, whose care she was briefly responsible for. Kelly and Tonya were both fathered by a man named Homer. It was implied that he abused them both sexually. Tonya had a baby-boy named Enrico, who was in foster-care. Micky Maguire, who pretended to be Shane during a visit from a social-care worker during his brother's absence, found out from Tonya that Enrico was actually born out of incest with her father, who raped her. She begged him not to tell Kelly. After finding out that Homer abused them both, Micky injected tranquilizer into Homer's blood-stream in The Jockey toilets, and dragged him with Shane's help to a slaughter-house to dispose of him, doing his sister-in-law a tremendous favour in the process.
| Avril Powell | |||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Karen Bryson | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2011— | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 10 January 2011 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1971 (age 41) | ||||||||||
| Home | 3 Windsor Gardens | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Receptionist (until 2011) | ||||||||||
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Avril Powell (nee Carson) [3] is a newcomer to the Chatsworth Estate and appears from Series 8 Episode 1.[4] Avril is show to be sexually ambiguous and tries to have sex with husband Jackson regularly, most of the time to keep hidden the fact that she is sending daughter Letitia to a private school, a secret that would devastate her husband. She also has a good friendship with Libby Croker and Mimi Maguire, regularly hanging out with them and drinking and smoking with them.Although she was briefly at a hospital on series 5 episode 1, yet we do not know whether or not that was actually Avril.
| Letitia Powell | |||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Kira Martin | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2011— | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 10 January 2011 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1996 (age 16) | ||||||||||
| Home | 3 Windsor Gardens | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Student | ||||||||||
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Letitia Powell[5] is a newcomer to the Chatsworth Estate and appears from Series 8 Episode 1. Letitia is for lack of a few words dumb, which is why her mother is sending her to an expensive private school behind her dads back, as her mother wants her to go to university and pass all her exams, and she also goes to Liam Gallagher for help with her studying.
| Jackson Powell | |||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Emmanuel Ighodaro | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2011— | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 10 January 2011 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1969 (age 43) | ||||||||||
| Home | 3 Windsor Gardens | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Teacher | ||||||||||
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Jackson Powell[6] is a newcomer to the Chatsworth Estate and appears from Series 8 Episode 1.[7]
| Marty Fisher | |||||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Jack Deam | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber (2004, 2011) | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 2004–07, 2011 | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | 13 January 2004 | ||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1978 | ||||||||||||
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Martin Andrew "Marty" Fisher (born 1978) is the son of Carol Fisher, and brother of Veronica. Marty has coprolalic Tourette's syndrome and is a pyromaniac. He was a guest character in the first series of Shameless, became a main character (along with his mother) in series two, and left along with Veronica and Kev in the first episode of season four. Marty was originally something of a burden to the other characters, setting things alight when he got angry, particularly whenever he found Carol with much younger men. At one point he burns Carol's house down when he finds her having sex in the shower with his best friend, as well as burning down the toilets of the Jockey when Veronica attempts to have him sent back to prison after he escaped to attend her wedding; incidents like this have landed him in prison several times. His tourette's syndrome often creates uncomfortable situations for him, causing him to reveal otherwise secret information or offend those who are not used to him by insulting/swearing. However, later in the series Debbie teaches Marty to use other words such as buttermilk and spongecake instead of swearing, and his pyromania seems to calm down when he starts a relationship with Sue Garland. The two live relatively happily in the Gallagher household for a time, until Marty accompanies Kev and Veronica in a scheme to buy a Romanian baby from an orphanage. Marty escapes back to the Chatsworth with the stolen orphan and suggests to Sue that they raise it as their own. Initially Sue is reluctant but later saves the baby from being sent back by the police. Sue reveals that she is pregnant with Marty's child and the two leave the estate (how they find the money to do this is unclear).
He returns in Series 8, Episode 17. Marty reveals that him and Sue lived happily for years in Spain with their kids, only for Sue to cheat on him with a rich local and kick him out of the house. Not knowing where else to go, Marty flees back to the Chatsworth and begins squatting in a flat once occupied by heroin addicts, and on the run from the CSA for not paying child maintenance. Presumably, he found his mother Carol (who left to go to Maguluf), as he returns with her urn. Shortly after returning Marty causes tension between Shane and Kelly Maguire by telling Kelly that he loves her.
It has been comfirmed that Marty will return for Series 9
| Aidan Croker | |||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Robbie Conway | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2011— | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 12 January 2011 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1998 (age 14) | ||||||||||
| Home | 2 Windsor Gardens | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Student | ||||||||||
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Aidan Croker[8] arrives to the Chatsworth estate in the eighth series, and fills the void left by Liam. His mother has gone to prison, and has been sent to live with his Aunt Patty and god-mother Libby. During his first episode, he has already been shown to be a trouble-maker; beating up neighbour Jackson, and buying internet porn with Libby's credit card.[9]
| Chesney Karib | |||||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Qasim Akhtar | ||||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2007— | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 27 February 2007 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 1991 (age 21) | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Businessman | ||||||||||
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Chesney Karib[10] (born 1992) Played by (Qasim Akhtar) is Yvonne and Kash's son and younger child. He was briefly the Young Mayor of Chatsworth and love interest of Debbie Gallagher, until she decided he was self-interested and using her. However, Chesney was using the campaign funds to help an elderly Pakistani woman to take her British Citizenship Test. Chesney is a smart but moody teenager who quietly resents his mother's bossy and abrupt demeanour.
In series 6, Chesney finds out that his mother had faked his father's death. Kash then attends the shop in order to speak with his son. In a moment of rage, Chesney knocks his father out cold, and seemed to be prepared to bludgeon him with a baseball bat when the fireworks that were stacked up in the shop's stockroom were ignited, due to the spreading flames of Chesney's insufficiently stamped out cigarette. Chesney flees the store, leaving his unconscious father to die for real from smoke inhalation which Chesney should have been arrested and should be spending time in prison for. Having discovered his parents duplicity, Chesney began to openly defy Yvonne by liberally taking money from the till and drinking in the house.
In series 7, Chesney helps his mother and Stan Waterman cheat Paddy Maguire out of the money they owed him. He continues to work at the Kash and Carry after Joe Pritchard purchases the shop from Yvonne. Things begin to go badly for Chesney a party thrown at his house takes an abrupt turn when a drunk girl is taken advantage of, and the boy that transpired the events gets battered to death by the girl's older brother. The act was filmed and spread via photographs over a mobile phone. Chesney and Carl Gallagher were witnesses to the assault. Their consciences soon got the better of them, which led them to grafittying the name of the killer close to the scene of the crime.[11]
The murderer, Jimmy, in turn prevented them from going forward to the police by threatening to kill Liam, and tells them to leave Chatsworth. After spending some time at a Welsh farm with a woman called Hazel, who has her own murky past which Chesney helped her resolve, both him and Carl decided to return to Chatsworth to clear their names. When entering a football competition for gays Chesney rows with Ian over his relationship with Kash. Towards the end of the penultimate episode, Chesney has a dream including Mickey and Ian, and it is assumed that he may actually have homosexual feelings himself. These feelings progress in the 8th series when along with Mickey, he starts up a gay sex line and begins to enjoy it far too much.
| Lillian Tyler | |||||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Alice Barry | ||||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||||
| Duration | 2004— | ||||||||
| First appearance | 23 December 2004 | ||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Date of birth | 1947 (age 65) | ||||||||
| Occupation | Brothel owner | ||||||||
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Lillian Tyler[12] (born 1947, but when The Jockey was to be blown up in series 7, Lilian's year of birth was shown as 1870), is a local busy-body. She had an affair with her friend Carol Fisher's husband in the 1970s. Her husband Brendan Tyler was accidentally shot dead by Carl Gallagher. As of series 5, Lillian has appeared much more in the show, even becoming narrator for episode 7. Lillian also runs a brothel at her home, a means to making easy money. Frank often makes reference to her resemblance to Mel B's caricature from the TV series Bo Selecta!. In series 6 it is revealed she has a son called Rodney,and she appears not to like him, and feels that he is a waste of space.
Lilian was revealed during series 2 to suffer Narcolepsy, when she was questioned by the police about medication she used, suspecting that her late husband Brendan Tyler may have been killed due to a gang-based turf war over drugs.
As of the fourth series, Lillan has become more involed in the dramas around Chatsworth, even featuring in some of them herself.
It is rumoured that Lillian will be killed of during the ninth series.
| Billy Tutton | |||||||
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| Shameless character | |||||||
| Portrayed by | Michael Taylor | ||||||
| Created by | Paul Abbott | ||||||
| Introduced by | George Faber | ||||||
| Duration | 2010, 2011— | ||||||
| First appearance | 16 February 2010 | ||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||
| Profile | |||||||
| Date of birth | 1995 | ||||||
| Home | 4 Windsor Gardens | ||||||
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William "Billy" Tutton, first appeared in Episode 4 of Series 7, when he was on The Jockey football team, lying about his age he started a sexual relationship with Mimi Maguire who then went on to have his baby Cilla. He returned in series 8, when he snatched Cilla without Mimi noticing. He and Mimi married on the last episode of Series 8.
(Michael Taylor previously co-starred alongside fellow Shameless Alumni Kelli Hollis and Qasim Ahktar in the 2005 film Mischief Night.)
| Character | Actor |
| Norman Owens | Paul Copley |
| Roxy Ball | Jill Halfpenny |
| Nick Anastasiou | Andrew Sheridan |
| Gaynor Pierce | Denise Kennedy |
| Shirley Lawson | Katy Cavanagh |
| Troy Lawson | Graeme Hawley |
| Emily Lawson | Emily Fleeshman |
| Janie Rattigan | Katie Wimpenny |
| Zoe Wyatt | Christine Bottomley |
| Jack Wyatt | Bryan Dick |
| Wendy Wagstaff | Yasmin Bamford |
| PC Danny Lowe | Danny Cunningham |
| Lena Marshall | Brana Bajic |
| Bernie Creme | Robert Pugh |
| Katrina Webb | Tara Moran |
| Joey Dawson | Ryan Pope |
| Maureen Hale | Daryl Fishwick |
| Cassie Western | Moya Brady |
| Lucy Connor | Maisie-Jo Stahl |
| Ollie Bibby | Gary Cargill |
| Eric Tatchell | Oliver Hudson |
| Marissa Platting | Karen Henthorn |
| Neville Gallagher | John Woodvine |
| Billy Wilson | Clive Russell |
| Eddie Jackson | Steve Pemberton |
| Bonnie Tyler | Rosamund Hanson |
| Jimmy Clifton | Danny Martelli |
| Umi Karib | Shireen Shah |
| Padraig Maguire | Steven Robertson |
| Noel Maguire | Neil Grades |
| Hazel | Niky Wardley |
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