Weeds (TV Series) - Cast and Characters

Cast and Characters

The leading character is Nancy Price Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a housewife from southern California who becomes a pot dealer after her husband Judah (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) dies. Although her drug-dealing career only achieves mixed success, she eventually rises to the highest levels of an international drug-smuggling cartel. Nancy remarries three times during the series. First, she has an under-the-radar wedding with Peter Scottson (Martin Donovan), a DEA agent, who was later killed. In season five, she marries Esteban Reyes (Demián Bichir), the fictional mayor of Tijuana and leader of a cartel, who is murdered by the seventh season. While serving time in prison, Nancy also establishes a long-term relationship with Zoya, a woman convicted for murdering her boyfriend. In the series finale, which leaps forward seven years, viewers come to know that Nancy married Rabbi David Bloom, who later died in a car accident.

Throughout most of the show, Nancy shares her house with her brother-in-law Andy Botwin (Justin Kirk). When Andy arrives in Agrestic, he is little more than a fun-loving slacker without any direction in his life, and Nancy views him as a personal burden. He later, nonetheless, emerges as the primary father figure in the Botwin household. He falls in love with Nancy during the fourth season but eventually realizes that she will never return his feelings. Nancy tries to balance their relationship to keep him "in the family." When he is not helping the family, Andy engages in a laundry list of business ventures, ranging from marijuana dealer to bicycle salesman.

Nancy begins the series with two sons, and post-Judah's death, they are raised haphazardly. In the fifth season, she has a son, Stevie Ray Botwin (portrayed by uncredited babies and later by Ethan and Gavin Kent), with Esteban Reyes. Her first son, Silas (Hunter Parrish), who has been engaging in sex since the show's debut, later follows in his mother's footsteps: he becomes a cannabis dealer, grower, and dispensary operator.

Nancy's youngest son, Shane (Alexander Gould), is highly intelligent yet poorly socialized and vulgar; he is deeply affected by his father's death. In the first three seasons, he was bullied in his local public school. He begs for more attention from his mother than he receives. His psychological issues many times reach a critical level. Just before leaving Agrestic, Shane has conversations with his dead father. Upon moving to Ren Mar, Shane loses his virginity and becomes a temporary alcoholic. While his mother is having a hostile conversation with Esteban's scornful ex-wife Pilar, and after she threatened both his and his brother's lives, Shane abruptly kills Pilar with a croquet mallet. During season seven, Shane joins the police academy before receiving his criminal justice degree — working for the New York City Police Department in season eight.

Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) is Nancy's friend and principal antagonist. Obsessed with her personal image, she manipulates those around her who do not fit neatly into that image. She is unhappily married to Dean (Andy Milder), whom she regards as a "loser asshole"; they later divorce. Many characters also dislike her. Her older daughter, Quinn (Haley Hudson), kidnaps her as revenge for shipping her to a reform school in Mexico. Celia is demanding over her younger daughter Isabelle's (Allie Grant) "weight problem", and is displeased with her being a lesbian. At the end of season one, Celia is diagnosed with breast cancer and is cured with chemo therapy. After the fifth season, the actress left to pursue other projects.

Doug Wilson (Kevin Nealon) begins the series as an accountant and city councilman for the town of Agrestic. Doug is friends with many characters in the series including Andy, Dean and Sanjay Patel (Maulik Pancholy); all four aid Nancy's career as a marijuana retailer. Doug makes mistakes and loses his position; his wife Dana leaves him. He becomes a drifter who follows the Botwin family during seasons four through eight. Both the Botwin family and he move to New York City, where he becomes the chief accountant for a Ponzi scheme posing as a hedge fund.

The show has a changing cast of major supporting characters. Heylia James (Tonye Patano) and her family — Conrad and Vaneeta, portrayed by Romany Malco and Indigo, respectively — play key roles during the first three seasons. They are wholesalers who supply marijuana to Nancy, who in turn distributes to retail customers. Conrad later develops his own strain of marijuana, called MILF weed, which Nancy sells.

Season three features Sullivan Groff (Matthew Modine), an unethical, womanizing real estate developer with big plans for Agrestic. When Nancy moves to Ren Mar, the characters in Esteban's drug cartel take a leading role, primarily Cesar (Enrique Castillo), Ignacio (Hemky Madera), and Guillermo (Guillermo Díaz), the latter first appearing in the third season. Other key characters include Nancy's housekeeper Lupita (Renée Victor); rival drug dealers; countless law enforcement characters; the romantic interests of Andy, Silas, and Shane; and the residents of Agrestic and Ren Mar.

In the sixth season, Nancy is on the run, and most introduced characters have only minor roles and appear in one or two episodes. An exception to this is Warren Schiff (Richard Dreyfuss), who has an affectionate love for Nancy, having met her first as her math teacher in high school. When the Botwins and Doug settle in New York City, another set of supporting characters are introduced. The family later settle in Nancy's estranged sister Jill's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) house in Connecticut, who becomes a regular guest character in the eighth season.

Other guest recurring characters include Albert Brooks as Nancy's father-in-law Lenny, Carrie Fisher as a lawyer for Celia, Dave Thomas as a doctor, Martin Short as a lawyer for Nancy's custody battle, Alanis Morrissette as a doctor at an abortion clinic, Zooey Deschanel as Andy's estranged ex-girlfriend, Lee Majors as a border guard, Mary-Kate Olsen as an estranged girl who worships Jesus and sells pot, as well as Aidan Quinn and others.