What The Cast Of BoJack Horseman Looks Like In Real Life

The world of "BoJack Horseman" looks a lot like ours: It's set in Los Angeles, California, in the beating heart of the film and TV business, where a cavalcade of ego maniacs and narcissists jump headfirst into the meat grinder called Hollywood for a chance to become a superstar. The only real meaningful difference is that half the characters in "BoJack Horseman" are anthropomorphic animals who lack opposable thumbs. 

Across the series' six seasons, characters like BoJack make an absolute train wreck of their lives, careening in and out of wacky situations that test the audience's patience while also managing to cram more jokes into a single episode than clowns in a miniature clown car. Each one of these characters is more colorful and neurotic than the last, but some fans might not know the actors behind the scenes who are providing them with their voice and humanity. In this list, we'll break the fourth wall and take a look at what the cast of "BoJack Horseman" looks like in real life.

This might sound like hyperbole, but BoJack Horseman might be one of the most despicable human beings ever to be the center of a TV show. And that's really saying something, because he's not even human!

The list of horrible things BoJack has done is a mile long, but he's somehow able to sweet-talk his way back into viewers' hearts with the promise that maybe this time, he'll really get his act together. And the voice that puts those sweet words together is none other than Will Arnett's. Arnett's distinctive, gravely speaking voice gives BoJack a hardened edge that reflects his difficult upbringing, and that voice has landed the actor roles in everything from "The Sopranos" to "Twisted Metal."

Arnett recently starred as a reluctant comedian in the Bradley Cooper film "Is This Thing On?", but his work on "BoJack" remains one of the best utilizations of his unique cadence and barbed personality. In anyone else's hands, BoJack would not just be irredeemable — he'd be insufferable. But with Arnett giving BoJack his soul, you can't help but want to give him one more chance.

If BoJack is the Ego of the show, always overthinking his decisions and causing himself psychological distress, then Todd Chavez is the Id: a 20-something-year-old slacker whose instincts always create more problems than they solve. Todd enters the show cajoling BoJack into allowing him to crash on his couch, and the unwitting roommates slowly become friends, until BoJack's bad behavior threatens to blow up their relationship entirely. Along the way, Todd winds up in a variety of harebrained schemes and business plans, ends up going to prison, and then becomes the President of Ad Sales at WhatTimeIsItRightNow.com.

Todd's seemingly unlimited supply of optimism comes from a committed performance by Aaron Paul. Paul is most famous for playing a very different kind of sidekick: Jesse Pinkman in "Breaking Bad." What the two characters have in common is their toxic relationship with their older father figure, but where Jesse and Walt were never able to fully rekindle their friendship, the end of "BoJack Horseman" leaves us with the promise that maybe these two can figure out a way to be a positive force in each other's lives. While Paul has gone on to act in TV shows like "Black Mirror" and the indie video game hit "Dispatch," Todd remains one of Paul's most memorable roles, standing alongside his Emmy-winning work on "Breaking Bad."

Now that we've established our Ego and our Id, it's time to complete the trio with our Superego, Diane Nguyen, played by Alison Brie. Diane enters the series when she is hired to ghostwrite BoJack's tell-all memoir. On the surface, Diane seems like a normal, well-adjusted person who can help BoJack become a better person, and BoJack becomes smitten with her, despite (or perhaps even because) she is dating BoJack's archrival, Mr. Peanutbutter. Over the course of the series, Diane and BoJack's relationship becomes increasingly volatile, with the two bringing out both the best and the worst in each other. Their relationship explodes several times throughout the six seasons of the series, before ultimately ending on an ambiguous note.

Before playing Nguyen, Alison Brie's role on Mad Men put-together housewife Trudy Campbell was her first claim to fame. She then became a star of the NBC sitcom "Community" as the increasingly unhinged Annie Edison. Brie starred in another Netflix series, "GLOW," which she said changed her life; her career now involves making films like "Together" with her husband Dave Franco. 

As Diane, Brie imbues the character with both comedy and pathos, but in hindsight, Brie regrets taking the role. Diane's Vietnamese-American identity is central to her character, and Brie wrote on Instagram in 2020 that the role should have been an opportunity to cast a Vietnamese-American actor who could represent the character's experience authentically.

Don't let her cute name fool you: You do not want to cross Princess Carolyn. BoJack's high-powered talent agent and ex-girlfriend will go to the gates of Hell and back for her clients, using her steel will to accomplish her clients' dreams. Her career goes through ups and downs as she shepherds BoJack's career back into the spotlight, while at the same time she attempts to juggle her romantic relationships and desire to be a mother.

Played by veteran comedian Amy Sedaris, Carolyn is given some of the show's most tongue-twisting jokes, rattling off Hollywood jargon and puns with ease. That's because Sedaris is one of comedy's most undersung talents, with a lengthy resume that includes modern classics like "Elf," her cult-classic comedy "Strangers With Candy," and scene-stealing cameos as Peli Motto in "The Mandalorian." The crew behind "BoJack Horseman" knew exactly how capable Sedaris is, and Carolyn is perhaps the closest thing the series has to a fully empathetic character, as her one-sided relationship with BoJack is the central focus of the episode that changed everything.

Like BoJack, Mr. Peanutbutter starred in a hit sitcom in the 1990s, but he has been able to channel that success into a resilient career, which only makes BoJack resent him even more. Mr. Peanutbutter is totally oblivious to this one-sided rivalry, going out of his way to try and be friends with BoJack, but BoJack's resentment of his erstwhile rival only grows more passionate when he discovers Mr. Peanutbutter is dating Diane.

With his persistent upbeat attitude, Mr. Peanutbutter always finds a way to rub BoJack the wrong way, and his perky voice comes courtesy of comedian Paul F. Tompkins. You might know what Tompkins looks like from his appearances on comedy shows like HBO's "Mr. Show with Bob and David" or VH1's "Best Week Ever," but you more likely know what he sounds like from his guest appearances on every podcast you can think of. "Comedy Bang Bang" is home to some of his funniest characters, like his impression of German director and nihilist Werner Herzog, and he is also a main cast member of the "Superego" comedy podcast and one of the hosts of "Threedom" with podcast superstars Scott Aukerman and Lauren Lapkus.

You likely know Ryan Seacrest, even if you have never watched an episode of "American Idol." But Ryan Seacrest is expensive, and so when "BoJack Horseman" needs a TV announcer to speak directly into the camera with a chipper attitude and interview one of the characters, they bring in A Ryan Seacrest Type: someone who looks pretty much exactly like Ryan Seacrest without actually being Ryan Seacrest.

The host of knock-off talk shows "Excess Hollywoo" and "Morning Time Hollywoo," A Ryan Seacrest Type is played by another blonde-haired TV host: Adam Conover. Conover is best known for his TruTV series "Adam Ruins Everything," in which he laid out the truth behind everything from the funeral industry to capitalism, until the series was ironically ruined by... capitalism ("Adam Ruins Everything" was canceled after a network acquisition).

Conover was roommates with "BoJack Horseman" creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg after college, with the two performing in a comedy troupe called Olde English together. Conover was also the longtime partner of "BoJack" co-producer and production designer Lisa Hanawalt, a mutual friend of Bob-Waksberg. Conover and Hanawalt were together for 15 years, including throughout "BoJack," and Conover also voiced BoJack's former co-star Bradley Hitler-Smith and the Paparazzi Blue Jay.

No Hollywood agent would be able to function without an assistant by their side to keep them on schedule, and that is especially true of Judah Mannowdog, Princess Carolyn's loyal assistant. With long brown hair pulled up into a man bun and a long flowing beard, Judah looks like a hippie, but he's all business when it comes to supporting Princess Carolyn. No matter where her career leads her, Judah is right there by her side to remind her she has what it takes to take care of business.

Mannowdog has one of the most distinctive, baritone voices in the entire cast, which comes courtesy of Diedrich Bader, who has used that unique voice in both live-action comedies "Veep" and "Better Things" and cartoons like "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" and "Surf's Up." But his greatest claim to fame is holding the title as one of the best Batman voice actors of all time (other than Kevin Conroy, of course).

Being a child actor is not as glamorous as it might look on screen. There is a tragically long list of controversies involving child actors in TV history, and "BoJack Horseman" encapsulated them all into the character of Sarah Lynn. Sarah is a fellow alumnus of "Horsin' Around" who played one of BoJack's adopted children, and as she grew up, she became a pop star who used her fame and wealth to live a hard partying lifestyle.

Constantly under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Sarah Lynn makes BoJack look like a well-adjusted member of society, but the truth is that BoJack is at least partly to blame for enabling her self-destructive substance abuse issues. When the two reconnect as adults, with Sarah now nearly nine months sober, BoJack enables her drug relapse in one of the absolute worst moments of a series full of dark, harrowing incidents.

Sarah Lynn may be full of darkness, but her voice actor is one of the brightest comedians around: Kristen Schaal. With Schaal's upbeat attitude and high-pitched voice, Sarah Lynn is a very different kind of character than the actor usually plays. She's best known for her long-running role as agent of chaos Louise Belcher on "Bob's Burgers," and as the plucky Mabel Pines on "Gravity Falls." Schaal is also a gifted comedian and writer, appearing on comedies like "The Last Man on Earth" and "What We Do In The Shadows," and even writing for "South Park."

Filmmaking may be an art form, but Hollywood is a business, and no one understands that better than Lenny Turtletaub. A bespectacled turtle, Lenny has no patience for the creative whims of the films he's producing. But that doesn't make him a villain. He'll do whatever it takes to make sure his movies bring home cold, hard cash, and when he thinks BoJack starring in a biopic about the famed racing horse Secretariat will make him some money, he takes a chance on bringing BoJack back into the spotlight. And if making money means he needs to turn that movie into a cheesy, family-friendly affair, then he'll do that too.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons plays Lenny Turtletaub with all the authority that Simmons is famous for. A veteran character actor, Simmons' breakthrough role was an intimidating white supremacist in the HBO prison drama "Oz," which gave way to an iconic performance as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, along with appearances in films by the Coen Brothers, Jason Reitman, and more.

In 2014, he starred in Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash," playing the part of Terence Fletcher, a domineering jazz instructor who enforces his rigid and exacting standards on a young student. His commanding performance won him an Oscar for best supporting actor, and Simmons has gone on to be both a leading man and a crucial supporting player. He even got ripped to play Commissioner Gordon in Zach Snyder's "Justice League," and reprised his role as J. Jonah Jameson in the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe.

As the lead news anchor at MSNBSea, Tom Jumbo-Grumbo should be covering major news stories about international conflict and Heads of State, but he seems more focused on covering celebrity gossip about washed-up stars like BoJack. Unlike the rest of the cast of "BoJack Horseman," Tom Jumbo-Grumbo isn't played by an actor or comedian. Instead, this news anchor is played by a real news anchor: Keith Olbermann. 

Olbermann got his start as a sports journalist before moving to political commentary with his MSNBC program "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," in which he skewered right-wing and conservative politicians. Olbermann has played himself in small bit appearances on shows like "30 Rock" and "The Simpsons," but "BoJack" offered the rare opportunity to play an entirely fictional character, which Olbermann seems to have greatly enjoyed, considering how often he pops up throughout the series.

The only thing more endangered than our glaciers is the book publishing business, and for poor Pinky Penguin, the timid and anxious owner of Penguin Publishing, he's got to figure out how to get people to care about books again. Pinky commissions BoJack to write a memoir in the hopes that readers might be drawn in by the tawdry details of his rise and fall from grace, but the sheer stubbornness of BoJack's procrastination only leads to more anxiety for Pinky, and throughout the show, Pinky's desperate quest to keep the dying literature industry alive leads him to financial ruin.

Patton Oswalt brings the nebbish Pinky Penguin to life. Oswalt is one of stand-up comedy's elder statesmen now, but he got his start in acting with his first-ever gig on "Seinfeld," which then led to a co-starring role on "The King of Queens." He's now famous for voicing the rat chef Remy in Pixar's "Ratatouille," as well as being one of Hollywood's biggest nerds. He's made cameo appearances across every sitcom you can think of, including one memorable stint on "Parks and Recreation" in which he gave a lengthy filibuster detailing his plans for a mash-up of the Star Wars and Marvel Universes. After that, Oswalt himself became a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the part of Pip the Troll in "Eternals" in addition to voicing the villainous MODOK in the (non-canon) Hulu series M.O.D.O.K.

Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack may look a lot like BoJack, but the two couldn't be more different. She's kind, empathetic, and the product of a loving home with eight very supportive fathers, but her quest to discover her biological father leads her to BoJack's door at the end of season three. In the following season, the two realize how much they have in common, with Hollyhock speaking to the little voice in the back of her head feeding her negative thoughts about herself, much like BoJack has struggled throughout the show. While they do indeed turn out to be related, the truth is much darker than a simple mysterious pregnancy: Hollyhock is actually BoJack's half-sister, the product of their father Butterscotch's affair with a housemaid named Henrietta Platchkey.

Comedian Aparna Nancherla, who voices Hollyhock, infuses the character with a delightful sweetness, with her squirrely voice standing in stark contrast to BoJack's gruff demeanor. Before appearing in "BoJack," Nancherla was a writer for talk shows "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell." Her unique voice has also led her to being cast in "Steven Universe" and a lead role in Fox's "The Great North" as the idiosyncratic Moon Tobin. She's also a key cast member of the criminally underrated Comedy Central series "Corporate."