What The Cast Of Family Guy Looks Like In Real Life

For an animated show like "Family Guy" to last over 25 years (and survive multiple cancellations), iconic voices are needed to bring the characters to life. The original pilot, hand-drawn by creator and star Seth MacFarlane, was pitched to Fox and greenlit almost exactly 26 years ago, assembling most of the cast of the Griffin family and friends that would remain for the next two decades. However, you might not recognize some of these actors beyond their characters' voices.

Some of the most frequent voice actors on "Family Guy" aren't movie or TV stars at all, but were assembled from the series' writing room over the years. Others have made notable appearances in MacFarlane's other animated shows, such as "American Dad" and "The Cleveland Show," while playing only bit roles in "Family Guy." 

These voice actors may have done a lot more than just "Family Guy" throughout their careers, but once you hear their voices, it's hard not associate them with their roles in the animated show. Some may argue every Seth MacFarlane animated series has the exact same problem, but one place they all excel is the cast. Here's what some of the "Family Guy" regulars look like in real life. 

Seth MacFarlane is not only the brains behind "Family Guy," but he also lends his voice to many of the characters who pop up throughout Quahog. MacFarlane has portrayed hundreds of characters in the series, but most notably he plays Griffin family patriarch Peter, their alcoholic family dog Brian, and supergenius toddler Stewie. While Brian Griffin shares the same tonality as MacFarlane's natural speaking voice, Peter and Stewie are based on a Rhode Island School of Design security guard and Rex Harrison, respectively.  

In an interview with Time, MacFarlane explained his recurrence on "Family Guy" started due to a lack of funds to hire voice actors, but also was his way of defining the show's comedic tone, saying, "There was ... a very specific vocal and delivery style that I was after. It was just easier to do it myself." Some of the other principal characters voiced by MacFarlane include Glenn Quagmire, Peter's sleazy neighbor and best friend, family physician Dr. Hartman, Peter's father-in-law Carter Pewterschmidt, and Quahog's local news anchor Tom Tucker. 

While MacFarlane is obviously best known for "Family Guy," from time to time he's also acted in live-action, most notably in his television series "The Orville," as well as films like "A Million Ways to Die in the West" and "Logan Lucky." Although working with Seth MacFarlane has changed over the years according to "Family Guy" executive producers, his voice is a constant throughout. 

Prior to voicing Peter's wife Lois Griffin — as well as Lois' mother Barbara and Quahog newswoman Tricia Takanawa — Alex Borstein was a cast member on the sketch series "MADtv." Speaking about how she got the part in "Family Guy," Borstein said in an interview with TV Guide, "One of the people who was developing 'Family Guy' said, 'Hey, can you help us out with this pilot presentation?' I said, 'Sure.' It was really sight unseen, because I hadn't met Seth [MacFarlane] or seen any artwork yet."

Not only did Borstein win a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding voice-over performance in the 16th season of "Family Guy," but the same year, Borstein won her first (but not her last) Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," in which she plays Suzie, the foul-mouthed manager of Rachel Brosnahan's titular comedienne. While her role in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" may have reintroduced Borstein to a whole new audience, you can certainly hear the inflections of Lois Griffin in certain scenes featuring Suzie. 

Borstein's Lois voice in "Family Guy" is a blend of Long Island and Hungary, according to the actress, but it's also not far off from Borstein's voiceover work in Dreamworks' "The Bad Guys," where she plays an overtly aggressive police chief. Whether it's live-action or animation, Borstein has a wily, gruff quality to her voice that's more than deserving of awards. 

Seth Green's voice for Chris Griffin on "Family Guy" is a lot different from what he normally sounds like. At a panel for "Family Guy" at PaleyFest in 2010, Green explained that after some experimentation, the voice he landed on was inspired by Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs," saying, "I was stunned when I got the part, really shocked to have that job and just so excited by it." However, Green's voiceover work hasn't stopped with "Family Guy," also providing the voice of Howard the Duck in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Joker in the "Mass Effect" video games. 

In terms of his live-action work, Green is probably most recognizable for his role in the "Austin Powers" film trilogy as Scott, the disobedient son of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers). Green also played Oz on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," initially a recurring character before being promoted to the main cast in seasons 3 and 4. Some of Green's other starring roles include the short-lived Fox sitcom "Dads," a recurring role on "That '70's Show," and a cameo in the final episode of "Community." 

Aside from "Family Guy" and other acting work, Green is also notable for being the co-creator and creative brain behind "Robot Chicken," a stop-motion animated series on Adult Swim that has run since 2005. Working on that show is partly why we don't hear from Seth Green anymore, though you might hear his voice pop up from time to time in various projects. 

Surprisingly, the biggest star on the cast of "Family Guy" is also the character who gets the most disrespect. Mila Kunis was not the original voice of Meg in the series' first season, which was instead Lacey Chabert, but Kunis landed an audition for "Family Guy" based on her performance as Jackie in "That '70's Show," which she had been starring in since she was 14. As Seth MacFarlane told PaleyFest, "Mila would kinda walk on stage and just sort of naturally take over a scene ... that kind of evolved into Meg sort of becoming this very resentful Jan Brady sort of character." 

Meg has been a major part of Mila Kunis' transformation from "That '70's Show" to now, despite only using her regular voice for the character. She has since lent voiceover work to shows like "Robot Chicken," as well as animated films like "Wonder Park" and "Hell and Back." While Mila's voice is certainly recognizable as Meg, the actress' face is recognizable for lots of other projects. 

Kunis has appeared in a number of films including "Black Swan," "Friends with Benefits," and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." She also reunited with MacFarlane for "Ted," and is set to star in "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" on Netflix in 2025.

Mike Henry met Seth MacFarlane in their college years, well before "Family Guy," and ended up being one of the first people called to not only voice act on "Family Guy," but join the writing staff. Henry has contributed many voices to the show including Herbert the Pervert, Bruce, and the Greased-Up Deaf Guy. However, his biggest contribution was creating and voicing Cleveland Brown, Peter's neighbor and drinking buddy, who later got his own spin-off show, "The Cleveland Show." 

As Henry told the University of Rochester's Campus Times in 2008 about the real-life inspiration behind Cleveland, "I based Cleveland off of a guy I met playing basketball who pronounced Maryland like 'Merlin.' He had a funny voice, and I started mimicking him." In 2020, Henry announced he would be stepping down from voicing Cleveland to allow the character to be played by a person-of-color, in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that had been taking place that year. 

Henry has remained a close collaborator of MacFarlane, voicing characters on all his shows and even making cameos in "Ted" and "A Million Ways to Die in the West." Henry also donned extensive prosthetics to play Lt. Dann, an alien on MacFarlane's live-action show "The Orville," appearing in 11 episodes. 

Patrick Warburton has one of the most iconic and recognizable voices in all of Hollywood, making him the perfect choice to play Joe Swanson on "Family Guy." As a live-action actor, he's best known for his recurring role as David Puddy on "Seinfeld," a frequent boyfriend of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine Benes, as well as the lead role in the cult sitcom "The Tick." However, it's his role on "Family Guy" that's most controversial to one pair of audience members: his own parents.

Because Warburton's mother was a part of the American Television Council, "She tried to get me to sign the petition [to cancel the show] ... I said, 'Mom, if you don't think I'm going to talk about this publicly, this is the greatest irony. You're laundering money, you're laundering it to yourself.' They hate it more today," Warburton said (via People). Surprisingly, Warburton himself has spoken out against some of the more "sacrilegious" moments on the show as a devout Christian himself, and there have even been "Family Guy" scenes Warburton refused to do.

Warburton has also lent his voice to more family-friendly projects, like "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Bee Movie." He also played the role of Lemony Snicket in Netflix's live-action "A Series of Unfortunate Events," and reunited with Seth MacFarlane for a supporting role in "Ted."

You may not know that the voice of Joe Swanson's wife Bonnie on "Family Guy" had quite the career prior to the show's start in 1999. Jennifer Tilly was notably a self-submitted Oscar nominee in 1995 for best supporting actress in "Bullets over Broadway," an award she lost to co-star Dianne Wiest. Some of her other major roles include "Bound," "Liar Liar," and originating the voice of Tiffany Valentine in "Bride of Chucky," which she still reprises decades later.

Despite being a proven voice actor, Tilly's only contribution to "Family Guy" is voicing Bonnie, who for the first seven seasons of the show was heavily pregnant. In terms of how her role on the show changed after finally giving birth in Season 7's "Ocean's Three and a Half," Tilly said, "I love it now that Bonnie had the baby, I'm getting to show my acting chops a little bit, she's dabbling in lesbianism, she's having affairs," (via YouTube). In celebration of the show's 25th anniversary at PaleyFest in 2024, Tilly also remarked how special it is to still be part of a show for over two decades. 

Some comedy fans may be familiar with Johnny Brennan's work as co-creator of "The Jerky Boys," a New York-based comedy troupe who specialized in prank phone calls. That's where Brennan originated the voice of his "Family Guy" character Mort Goldman, who back then was known as "Sol Rosenberg." However, even the voice from "The Jerky Boys" drew inspiration from Brennan's own mother. 

Where Sol and Mort really diverge, according to Brennan, is in their personalities, telling Joey B. vs. the World, "Mort, if you notice ... he's more fast, in your face, that's one side of my mom, and Sal on 'The Jerky Boys' is the other side of my mom ... She would always be like, 'Why don't you stop making fun of me?'" However, Mort's not the only character that Brennan voices on "Family Guy," as he also played Horace, the bartender of The Drunken Clam who is killed off in the show's 11th season. 

Outside of his voice work with "The Jerky Boys" and "Family Guy," Brennan also appeared in the 2005 film "Tara Road," co-starring Andie MacDowell, Iain Glen, and Olivia Williams. He also made a cameo alongside his fellow Jerky Boys in the music video for Mariah Carey's song "Honey," proving the troupe had some seriously famous fans.

Rachael MacFarlane may be the younger sister of "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, but don't let that fool you into thinking she's one of Hollywood's nepo babies. Rachael MacFarlane has done a lot of voice acting outside of "Family Guy," including roles on "Johnny Bravo," "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy," and "Codename: Kids Next Door." More notably in the MacFarlane universe, she voices Hayley Smith on "American Dad," as well as a super-computer on "The Orville." On "Family Guy," she's voiced over 100 characters throughout the series. 

Rachael MacFarlane's most notable role on "Family Guy" is as Olivia, a toddler who Stewie rivals and sometimes falls in love with. Her most recent appearance was in Season 15's "The Boys in the Band," competing against Stewie and Brian in a musical competition with her own partner Vinny (previously Brian's replacement after his death in Season 12). MacFarlane also voiced Meg Griffin in the original pilot pitch of "Family Guy" before she was recast for the series proper.

As expected, MacFarlane has her brother to thank for her career in voice-acting, telling Film Speak that she turned to working in animation after feeling directionless post-college, saying, "I was going to try doing some singer songwriter stuff, and he was the one who said, 'You have a really great voice, and you're a great actor. You should try voice acting. I think you'd be good at it.' I had never even thought of it."

Danny Smith's face might not be as recognizable as the other cast members on "Family Guy," but you would likely recognize his voice in over 200 characters throughout the series. Smith started out as a writer on "Family Guy" in the early days, though he's also written on shows like "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "Nurses." In addition to writing for "Family Guy," Smith has also served as an executive producer on the show since 2008. 

While Smith doesn't have any major roles on the series, you'll likely recognize him as the voice of several anthropomorphic characters, including Ernie the Giant Chicken, the Evil Monkey, and the Sadomasochistic Cow. As far as non-animal characters go, Smith's voice is probably most recognizable as Al Harrington, owner of Al Harrington's Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tubeman Emporium. 

Smith didn't have high expectations going into "Family Guy," telling a FOX reporter at SCAD TV Fest, "When I met Seth MacFarlane, he was 24 years old ... I was 38, and I thought, 'What is this? This is crazy that I'm being interviewed by this kid.' And I told my agent, 'Well, I'll take it and then maybe next year I'll get on another real show.' And I've been there ever since." 

Lori Alan used to have a big role on "Family Guy" as Diane Simmons, Quahog's co-anchor alongside Tom Tucker. However, the character's journey took a surprising turn in Season 9's premiere episode "And Then There Were Fewer," a parody of murder mysteries in which it's revealed that the culprit was Diane with the motive of framing Tom and becoming the sole anchor of the news. Although she nearly kills Lois to protect herself, she's sniped by Stewie, protecting Lois so that he can eventually be the one to kill her.

While Alan has also voiced a few other side characters in "Family Guy," she's perhaps better known for her voice work in shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants," where she plays Pearl, the daughter of Mr. Krabs. Her voice acting has also appeared in various Pixar movies, the Netflix animated series "Pokemon Concierge," as well as the "Metal Gear Solid" video games. As for live-action work, Alan guest-starred on "Shameless," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Friends." 

However, Alan's voice acting career is another that's all owed to "Family Guy," telling Verité Entertainment, "[Seth MacFarlane] was graduating from Rhode Island School of Design ... he won something where he could do a pilot at Hanna-Barbera, and so the lovely Kris Zimmerman ... brought me in to do some voices with him, so it was just Seth and I." 

Mike Henry gave up his long-time position as the voice of Cleveland Brown in 2020, opening the door for a person of color to take over the role. That job ended up going to Arif Zahir, though unlike most other actors on "Family Guy," Zahir had no personal or professional relationship with Seth MacFarlane. In fact, Zahir was more well-known for his YouTube channel, Azerrz, where he posted videos of him doing various impressions, including a pitch-perfect Cleveland. 

Zahir himself had a long relationship with the show just as a fan, saying, "Around high school, I fell in love with 'Family Guy,' and whenever the teacher left the classroom, every kid would look at me and go, 'Do the Family Guy voices,'" (via YouTube). After his impressions were discovered on YouTube, Zahir was invited to audition for the role of Cleveland, and has since appeared in over 40 episodes of "Family Guy," as well as episodes of "American Dad" and "Robot Chicken."

Hopefully, voicing Cleveland is just the start of a long and successful career for Zahir, who is especially grateful that he's been embraced by the "Family Guy" fanbase. For what it's worth, if you were just watching "Family Guy" without the knowledge of Henry's departure from the role, you'd probably never know the difference.