What The Cast Of South Park Looks Like In Real Life

More than 30 years after University of Colorado students Trey Parker and Matt Stone developed a concept destined to become the first viral "South Park" video, the irreverent adult animation series that it birthed is still going strong. The series has won a handful of Emmy Awards over the years, winning for Outstanding Animated Program in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2013. Even in 2025, "South Park" consistently remains the top-rated series on Paramount Plus, a fact that turned its creators into billionaires this year.

During its handful of decades on television, the often unhinged Colorado community of South Park has greatly expanded its list of residents, piling on dozens of fascinating locals along with the show's ever-growing roster of poorly-impersonated celebrities. That's to say nothing of the real celebrity cameos (some of which are pretty obscure) that "South Park" has seen over the years.

Besides handling most of the show's scripts with the help of their central writing team, "South Park" co-creators Parker and Stone still take on a lion's share of work when it comes to voice acting. And as the town of South Park has expanded, a handful of voice actors have joined the team, with many of them taking on multiple roles as well. Here's what the talented and hardworking cast of "South Park" looks like in the real world.  

Trey Parker voices a long list of "South Park" characters, including South Park Elementary's mini edge-lord Eric Cartman. Initially inspired in part by Archie Bunker, Cartman has undergone a slow and deliberate transformation over the years, gradually evolving from an bullied, overweight kid to an evil genius with an indulgent mother and a penchant for bigotry. According to Parker and Stone, Cartman has more in common with both of them than Stan and Kyle, the self-insert characters they'd originally envisioned themselves as. 

Another of Parker's favorite characters to voice is Randy Marsh, the character he based on his own dad. When he was just starting out with the role, Parker found it easy because he was basically channeling the voice he grew up with. As the years pass, the "South Park" co-creator says it's only gotten easier as he ages, slowly becoming more like his father. It makes sense, then, that Parker also voices Randy's son, Stan Marsh, who was originally inspired by the childhood version of himself. Like the Broflovski parents, who are named for Matt Stone's own mom and dad, the Marsh parents are named for Parker's real-world parents, Randy and Sharon Parker. The "South Park" animator also voices Mr. Garrison, Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, Clyde Donovan, Timmy Burch, Jimmy Valmer, Stephen Stotch, Phillip of "Terrance and Phillip," and City Wok owner Tuong Lu Kim.

Like his co-creator buddy Trey, Matt Stone plays most of the central "South Park" characters. Besides Kyle (his self-insert) and the cartoon version of his dad, Gerald, Stone also plays Kenny McCormick — a character inspired by Stone's real orange voice-muffling coat-wearer childhood friend of the same name.  Much like his animated counterpart, the living Kenny grew up in poverty. Although he didn't have a habit of frequently dying like his "South Park" inspiration, he did have a habit of disappearing from time to time, leading to the fear that something may have happened to him. And yet, before long, Kenny would always eventually resurface, a phenomenon Stone says inspired the running gag that would plague their cartoon Kenny. 

Stone also voices Stuart McCormick, Kenny's dad, and he also plays Butters Stotch, the South Park Elementary kid inspired by "South Park" animation director and friend, Eric "Butters" Stough. Stone also voices Satan's two oddly similar boy toys, Saddam Hussein and Donald Trump. His other characters include Jimbo, Terrance of Terrance and Phillip, Tweek, and Jesus. 

Like his partner and co-creator, Stone still loves working on "South Park" all these years later. For the pair, working on the series feels like coming home, and the fact that they don't have to endure the stress of starting a new project from the ground up makes it better.

The fourth grade class of South Park Elementary wouldn't be the same without Wendy Testaburger, the better half of Stan's long-standing (and long-suffering) situationship. Although her personality has remained fairly consistent over the show's run, Wendy has actually been voiced by four different actors over the years. She was originally played by Mary Kay Bergman, who played the role from 1997 through 1999. Bergman considered Wendy one of her favorite characters, thanks to her sweetness, intelligence, and unpredictability. 

Schneider came on board in 1999 after Bergman's death. During her run, Schneider would also play Eric Cartman's mom, Liane; both Shelly and Sharon Marsh; Kenny's mom, Carol McCormick; Wendy's mom, Alexis Testaburger, and a handful of other female "South Park" characters. The voice actor, whose filmography includes an absolutely bonkers video game resume including "Kingdom Hearts II" and "Diablo III," remained on the series for a few seasons, ultimately leaving after the seventh over a contract dispute. 

When she's not lending her voice to beloved animation characters, Schneider stays busy with dialect coaching services. As the actor told VO Boss in an interview, "I've merged dialects, accents, language, music, and it is all sounds to me. And it's just a huge part of my identity. It's how I, It's how I interact with the world, and so um it's just kind of who I am. It's not really a choice." 

"South Park" actor Mona Marshall, who joined the team in 2000 in the role of Sheila Broflovski and several other roles, is a veteran voice actor with an impressive resume of animation, anime, and video game credits. Originally hired at the same time as Eliza Schneider to take on Mary Kay Bergman's roles after her death, Marshall also accepted the part of Wendy Testaburger when Schneider left the series. The actor found taking on the bus driver proved especially difficult, as her dog hated hearing the voice Marshall developed for the character. 

Marshall has taken on a long list of roles in her time on the series, including Butters' mom, Linda Stotch (formerly Carol); Tolkien's mom, Linda Black; Henrietta Biggle (one of the goths), and Wendy Testaburger. But the one part that resonates the most with the actor is Kyle's mom. A Jewish woman herself, Marshall appreciates that Sheila represents the polar opposite of Linda Stotch and finds the character familiar. As she told Cracked, "I have an aunt like that. God bless her. She's no longer alive, thank God. But, if you're Jewish, honey, you got one in the family somewhere. So, I have a blast doing her."

After Eliza Schneider left the series, April Stewart was also brought on to pick up some of the female "South Park" characters' roles. These days, she plays Stan's mom, Sharon, and his sister, Shelly. She also took up the roles of Liane Cartman, Wendy Testaburger, Mayor McDaniels, Carol McCormick, and Principal Victoria, among others. Stewart recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with the series. 

When the actor first auditioned for the show, she was fairly new to voice acting and hadn't fully understood what she was trying out for. Nonetheless, things seemed to work out well for Stewart, who eventually married the sound booth director who recorded her audition. Stewart loves playing Sharon and looks forward to Sharon-heavy episodes, telling Cracked they're "like therapy for me." She particularly loves the sarcastic banter between Randy and Sharon, noting that these personal dramas can seem familiar at times. Stewart also adores Wendy Testaburger, noting, "I love everything she stands for."

The actor's list of video game credits include "Fallout 4," "BioShock Infinite," and "Marvel Heroes," among many others. Stewart has also appeared in multiple other animated shows, including "The Legend of Korra," "The Loud House," "The Penguins of Madagascar," and "Regular Show." As the actor told Talking Voices, she loves the experience of video game creation, because it feels closer to theater than anything else in voiceover work. 

Although she doesn't play any other roles on the series, former "South Park" supervising producer Jennifer Howell, who later shifted into position as a producer for 20th Century Fox TV's toon unit, plays Wendy Testaburger's bestie Bebe Stevens. Howell's voice work is almost entirely limited to this character, a role she has played since 1997. Instead of acting, she has preferred to focus on the production and development side of things. However, her son, Jesse Howell, voiced Ike Broflovski when he was still a baby. Jennifer's husband Bruce Howell also works as a composer on the series, making "South Park" a family business. 

Howell has worked in development on a number of animated films and TV shows, including "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie," "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," "Boss Baby," and "Trolls." Howell has also served as head of production on "Trolls World Tour" and "Abominable." In addition to her animation work, she has contributed to a number of live action shows, including "Shooter" and "School of Rock." For the past few years, Howell has worked with Parker and Stone's deepfake AI production company Deep Voodoo.

Vernon Chatman, the voice of Towelie, got his start as a stand-up comic and comedy writer working on shows like "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show," "The Chris Rock Show," and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." He joined "South Park" as a writer in 2001, taking on the voice role of South Park's village stoner Towelie at the same time. A few years later in 2007, Chatman would also become a producer on the series. In addition to his work on "South Park," Chatman has created a handful of black comedy series, including "Wonder Showzen," "Xavier: Renegade Angel," and "The Heart, She Holler," among others.

According to Chatman, who brings more than two decades of voice training to the role, Towelie couldn't be further from his own personality. As he told Toonado, "It's funny because I've never been a big pothead."

Besides his role as Towelie, Chatman has played a handful of other characters on the series. He played a parody version of Leonardo DiCaprio's "Inception" role Dominic Cobb in the Season 14 episode "Insheeption." He also played a character with his own name as a member of the motivational edutainment music group Butt Out! in the episode of the same name. In the Season 14 episode "Sexual Healing," which saw South Park Elementary's boys playing a troubling version of the video game "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11," Chatman played the golfer himself. 

For the first nine seasons of "South Park," the children of South Park Elementary had a trusted mentor they could turn to in their school cafeteria cook, Chef (played by beloved soul musician Isaac Hayes). Chef was a favorite for many "South Park" fans, with the series bringing Hayes to a younger audience who might not have otherwise been familiar with his work. In a 2006 A.V. Club interview, Hayes recalled questioning Parker and Stone's judgment when they asked him to perform his now-famous Chef song "Chocolate Salty Balls," adding that he had been glad he went along for the ride.

However, all of that fell apart with Hayes' controversial departure from "South Park." Although Parker and Stone had made a cottage industry of satirizing everything under the sun — often ruthlessly — Hayes left the series after the pair took aim at Scientology, the church Hayes belonged to at the time. 

In 2025, Hayes' son Isaac Hayes III told The Hollywood Reporter that his father would never have left the show of his own accord. According to Hayes' son, his father had been a big fan of the show and had no personal issue with the creators' decision to lampoon Scientology. Hayes, he noted, had been recovering from a stroke at the time and was surrounded by Scientologists who made the decision on his behalf during a time of vulnerability. "He would never have quit that show," Hayes' son insisted.

Voiced by Trey Parker when he first appeared in "South Park" Season 3, the role of Tolkien Black was taken over by Adrien Beard. Once a talented art kid in his California high school, Beard went on to pursue his art school education at Pasadena's ArtCenter College of Design, but found it a bad fit. As an artist interested in film and comics who disliked the social pressures of fashion design, Beard shifted his focus from fashion illustration to animation, a transition that meant dropping out of school and living in his van for a time before transferring into the California Institute of the Arts.

Beard joined the "South Park" team as a storyboarder, where he says it's his job to bring Parker and Stone's wild visions to life. Speaking on the 2011 "South Park" documentary "6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park," Beard emphasized that most studios have separate departments for storyboarding, background, and character development. However, storyboarding at South Park Studios works a little differently, he noted, adding, "Everybody in here does all that." That includes, apparently, stepping up to the plate when a voice actor is needed. Like his colleague Jennifer Howell, Beard primarily voices one character. He has also voiced Tolkien's dad Steve Black, and played Squirrely the Squirrel in "imaginationland."

As the "South Park" disclaimer warns, the show's producers are fond of bad celebrity impersonations. It's something the series has done countless times throughout the years, from Stevie Nicks the Goat (played by Trey Parker) in Season 5 to the recurring character Al Gore (voiced both by Parker and Stone at various points). Other standouts among the show's very long list of crummy celebrity "homages" include Tom Cruise (Parker), Sally Struthers (April Stewart), Mecha Barbra Streisand (Mary Kay Bergman), and Michael Jackson (Parker). Jimmy Kimmel's brother Jonathan Kimmel, who spent six years on the "South Park" writing team, played a handful of characters, including "Family Guy" dad Peter Griffin and his own brother. And "SNL" star Bill Hader, who also worked on the writing team, popped in for a few voice roles, including as Alec Baldwin. 

But even among all of those impersonations, "South Park" has also managed to land some pretty outstanding real guest stars. Thanks in part to the Season 2 episode "Chef Aid," the long list of musicians and bands to appear on "South Park" includes Korn, Robert Smith, Radiohead, Rancid, Ozzy Osbourne, Ween, Primus, Elton John, Meat Loaf, DMX, Devo, and Rick James. On the other side of the arts, Jennifer Aniston, Cheech and Chong, Malcolm McDowell, George Clooney, and Henry Winkler are just a few of the big-name actors who have stopped by for a cameo. They're all just a bit of the real life work behind putting this now-classic series on the air.