Seinfeld Actors Who Played More Than One Role On The Series
Dubbed "a show about nothing," "Seinfeld" was always more "a show about minutiae." Focusing on its four main characters — Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer — the series was known for poking fun at the random, seemingly minor anxieties of otherwise privileged New Yorkers, allowing us to laugh with people we might've found unbearable if stuck in one of their trademark dead-end social situations.
With the many exploits of its main crew — played by Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards — across the boroughs of New York and beyond, it might go without saying that the need for a cast of recurring guest stars, one-off actors, and extras was huge. With the sheer number of roles in the series, the fact that we occasionally saw an actor or two "double dip" and return for a second part isn't too surprising. Still, with some blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos at play, some of them might surprise even the most ardent "Seinfeld" fan.
Marty Rackham
In the Season 4 two-parter "The Trip," actor Marty Rackham made his first appearance in the inauspicious role of Officer #1. In Los Angeles, Kramer has been arrested under the belief that he's a serial killer, and Jerry and George attempt to help him clear his name. As is standard for them, they only seem to get in deeper trouble and eventually wind up in the backseat of a squad car next to the actual serial killer, all while Rackham's officer is up front.
Returning for a larger role as one of Elaine's boyfriends, we next saw Rackham as Jake Jarmel in Season 5's "The Sniffing Accountant," an author with a personality-defining dislike of exclamation points (despite ultimately using a few himself). He returned for "The Opposite," giving his relationship with Elaine another chance, only to break up with her again when he discovers she stopped to buy a box of Jujyfruits on her way to visit him in the hospital after a life-threatening car accident. The last we saw of Jarmel was in "The Scofflaw," where he refused to reveal where he got his distinctive glasses. Jarmel was kind of a high-strung guy if you ask us, but it sure wasn't helped by his exposure to the gang.
Mark Christopher Lawrence
Audiences might know Mark Christopher Lawrence best for his recurring role as Big Mike on another NBC sitcom, "Chuck," but he's appeared as a character actor and standup comedian in countless sitcoms and films over his long career. His roles on "Seinfeld" are brief but memorable. In "The Airport," the episode shows how extreme the difference between flying first-class and coach can be as Jerry has a smooth trip while Elaine has a nightmarish time on the same plane. However, one might argue that Elaine called poetic justice down on her own head when she objects to Jerry tipping Lawrence's Skycap, who then sends her luggage to Honolulu.
Meanwhile, in "The Race," Elaine discovers that her boyfriend Ned is a communist, which she finds to be delightful. However, when Ned gets Kramer interested in communism, it spirals out of control. Kramer and his friend, Mickey, get jobs as a mall Santa and his elf, respectively. Kramer uses his position to educate children about the potential of communism, which leads a small child to dub him a "commie." Here, Lawrence plays Kramer's boss, a mall security team member who's none too pleased about Kramer's political turn, tossing Comrade Kramer out of the mall.
Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald was the "MADtv" cast member with the longest run, joining with Season 4 and departing with Season 13. There he portrayed fan-favorite recurring characters like Stuart Larkin, Rusty Miller, and Bible Dude. Since then, he's directed a number of episodes of the sitcom "Scrubs," as well as making an appearance in the recent "Halloween Kills." However, Seinfeld fans might know him as Player #2 from "The Understudy." Jerry is dating the understudy of Bette Midler, so when George accidentally runs into Midler at a softball game and causes her to be hospitalized, the rest of her team is convinced that malice was at play. Player #2 leads the charge as he and his teammates rush after George and Jerry while Kramer sings "Wind Beneath My Wings" to Midler.
McDonald returned for the Season 7 episode "The Wig Master." Jerry and Elaine go to a department store where a cashier openly flirts with Elaine, causing Jerry to feel emasculated due to the man's blatant behavior regardless of his presence. Later, when having "champagne coolies" with his friend Ethan, a passerby named Jesse spots Ethan and comes to say "hello." All but ignoring Jerry, Jesse asks Ethan out, which adds insult to Jerry's injury as he's still upset about the similar situation from earlier. When Jesse apologizes, Jerry fumes, "Well, it's very emasculating."
Carol Leifer
Carol Leifer undeniably had a bigger presence behind-the-scenes than in front of the camera, having written six episodes and often being referred to as "the real Elaine" due to possibly serving as a major inspiration for the character. And her appearances on "Seinfeld" are a delight, even if small. In "The Kiss Hello," Elaine's friend Wendy is a physical therapist with her own practice. George gets charged at Wendy's clinic for a missed appointment due to the 24-hour cancelation policy despite it having been a family emergency. Leifer plays the unmoving receptionist who refuses to back down to George's insistence that missing his appointment was unavoidable.
Leifer returned for the episode "The Invitations," in which she plays the bank teller Barbara, who greets Kramer with a "how you doing?" Additionally, her voice can be heard dubbed in the episode "The Secret Code." These are small parts, but Leifer's trademark humor is all over the series due to her role as a staff writer across three seasons, making her among the most influential "double dippers" on the list.
Christa Miller
Christa Miller is sitcom royalty after her recurring roles on "The Drew Carey Show" and "Scrubs," but she also made a big impression on "Seinfeld" as Ms. De Granmont in "The Sniffing Accountant." When George nails a job interview and scores a position as a bra salesman, he's brimming with confidence. Going to exit the building, he feels bold enough to repeat a gesture that Elaine's new boyfriend pulled to win her over — touching her jacket. However, when he tries it out on a nearby woman, this person turns out to be his boss' boss, Ms. De Granmont, and she demands that George be immediately fired.
It's hard to top a classic episode like "The Sniffing Accountant," but Miller returned for another all-timer, playing George's girlfriend Paula in "The Doodle." George meets Paula through Elaine, who knows her from an art class they took together. George becomes concerned that she doesn't really like him or find him attractive when he finds a caricature drawing she did of him. When he presses Elaine to stealthily get more information on the subject, Paula notes that she likes George and that "looks aren't that important" to her, reaffirming George's suspicion that she finds him unattractive. Though this leads him to feel comfortable enough to embrace an unconventional life, he ultimately rejects Paula when she sucks on a discarded peach pit.
Phil Morris
Phil Morris has played a major recurring role in HBO Max's "Doom Patrol" as the morally ambiguous father of Cyborg, Silas Stone. However, "Seinfeld" fans will know him best as Jackie Chiles, the equally ethically questionable lawyer in the series. As for his other "Seinfeld" role, that's an interesting one because his first "appearance" never actually aired. The episode "The Non-Fat Yogurt" was set to air after the 1993 NYC mayoral election, in which incumbent mayor David Dinkins ran for reelection against Rudolph Giuliani. Two versions of the episode were filmed to react accordingly to the win, with Phil Morris set to appear as Dinkins' representative, Phillip Trout, if Dinkins won.
Dinkins didn't win, and so Phillip Trout never became a character, and the rest is both New York and Seinfeld history. Not long thereafter, Morris was cast as Jackie Chiles, who made his first of many appearance in the following season's "The Maestro." It's hard to imagine Seinfeld without the charismatic Morris in the role of the easily riled Chiles, so this might've been one potential career mishap that worked out very much for the best. Morris would appear in six episodes of the later seasons of the series, making a massive impact and becoming one of the show's most beloved recurring guests.
Thomas Dekker
Today in his 30s, Thomas Dekker is an actor, musician, director, and producer known for portraying John Connor in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," as well as Zach on "Heroes." Still, "Seinfeld" viewers might know him best for his roles as a young kid in "The Stand-In" and Bobby in "The Wink."
In "The Stand-In," Kramer and his friend Mickey snag parts as stand-ins on the soap opera "All My Children." Mickey is concerned his job is under threat due to the fact that the child actor he stands in for, played by Dekker, is going through a growth spurt and may soon be too tall for Mickey to accurately portray. This leads to Mickey briefly wearing lifts, though he's ultimately called out for it and ostracized by other little people, leading him to lash out at Kramer for suggesting lifts to begin with.
In "The Wink," George is collecting signatures from the New York Yankees for a birthday card to Mr. Steinbrenner, but Kramer sells it to a sports memorabilia shop. When they try to retrieve the card, they discover it's been gifted to a sick boy named Bobby. George and Kramer make increasingly elaborate promises to Bobby that his favorite player, Paul O'Neill, will hit two home runs, and when he does, Bobby will have to return the card. When Bobby keeps the card on a technicality, they tell him O'Neill will catch a ball in his hat, ultimately convincing him to part ways with the gift.
Reuven Bar-Yotam
In the episode "The Muffin Tops," Kramer is dismayed to discover that the majority of J. Peterman's stories in his autobiography are based on Kramer's life. He causes a ruckus at Peterman's book signing, only to be forced to leave, all before starting his own bus tour — the Peterman Reality Tour. Jerry and his girlfriend go along for the ride but are dismayed to find a bus packed full of trash bags filled with muffin bottoms and a frazzled Kramer serving "pizza bagels," using cinnamon raisin bagels and donuts as the base. Character actor Reuven Bar-Yotam is one of the disgruntled fellow passengers, demanding to know what this so-called pizza bagel even is.
Meanwhile, in "The Frogger," Bar-Yotam returns as Shlomo, the helper to electrician Slippery Pete. When George seeks to preserve his high score on "Frogger" at a pizza restaurant that's closing, he enlists the two handymen to help him keep it plugged in while moving it, knowing that losing power will cause the arcade game to reset, thus erasing his high score. As Shlomo watches, Slippery Pete plays the game until the battery is nearly dead, and then the mission turns into real-world "Frogger" as George attempts to move it across the street ... only to see the game smashed when hit by a oncoming truck.
Mario Joyner
Mario Joyner is a longtime collaborator of both Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, appearing on Rock's "The Chris Rock Show" and "Everybody Hates Chris," as well as Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." Before all that, he made a small appearance as himself in the "Seinfeld" episode "The Engagement." In this Season 7 installment, George proposes to his ex-girlfriend Susan, only to immediately regret it. This is driven home when Jerry and Mario walk out of a recent action film, excitedly talking about the killer explosions and fight scenes, while George is left to comfort a tearful Susan after watching a melodrama.
Joyner returned to appear in "The Puerto Rican Day," this time playing Lamar. When the gang leaves a baseball game early, only to immediately be stuck in a serious traffic jam, Lamar pulls up alongside their car, referring to Jerry as "black Saab" while Seinfeld grumbles "maroon Golf," due to their respective vehicles and the sense of animosity they've developed during the jam. When Jerry tries to escape the traffic, he shouts an insult out thinking he's home free ... only to get stuck again with Lamar grinning at him. The feud continues throughout the episode, granting Jerry a Newman-worthy adversary.
Suzanne Snyder
Suzanne Snyder appeared in a handful of B-movies across the '80s and '90s, including cult classics like "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" and "Weird Science." She also made an impression on "Seinfeld," playing two memorable roles. In Season 3's "The Limo," George's car breaks down while he's attempting to drive Jerry home from the airport, stranding them. They see a limo driver holding a sign that reads "O'Brien," and realizing O'Brien won't be arriving, George decides to pose as him so they can steal a ride home. Once in the limo, they meet two fervent neo-Nazis, one of which is Eva, played by Snyder. It becomes clear that O'Brien is an author of anti-Semitic books, and now a terrified Jerry and George are stuck with his supporters.
Two seasons later, Snyder returned for "The Pie," where she plays Jerry's girlfriend Audrey. Audrey refuses to try a bit of Jerry's apple pie and won't explain why, simply shaking her head as if traumatized by the mere suggestion. Later, when he sees a pizzamaker fail to wash his hands after a bathroom break, he responds similarly when Audrey offers him a slice, shaking his head at the mere suggestion he might try a bite. Needless to say, this relationship doesn't last beyond the episode.
David Dunard
David Dunard has a lengthy list of credits across comedies like "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "News Radio," as well as horror fare like "Tales from the Crypt" and "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare." The actor first offered his talents to "Seinfeld" in the early episode "The Parking Garage." When the gang is stuck in a parking garage for hours, unable to find their car, they quickly begin to lose hope and resort to criminal behavior. Unable to leave, Jerry opts to use a vacant corner as a bathroom, only to be stopped by Dunard's security guard.
Dunard returns for "The Apology," in which George has held a long-standing grudge against his friend Jason, who's now working through AA as a recovering alcoholic. Infuriated that he won't apologize for a minor social slight, George attempts to report him to Jason's sponsor, who then takes George to a meeting for rageaholics, telling George it will help him. George immediately erupts with anger when Dunard's character asks him to stop yelling, George calls him a pinhead, and Dunard angrily says, "Please do not call me a pinhead."
Tucker Smallwood
Tucker Smallwood has led a very interesting life, much of which can be read about in his "Return to Eden," a collection of 33 personal essays about his life in the military and as an actor in New York. He's a lifelong sci-fi fan who will be familiar to "Star Trek" fans for his recurring "Enterprise" role of Depac, as well as his turn in the "Voyager" episode "In the Flesh," not to mention a number of parts in films like "Deep Impact" and "Traffic." Alongside all of that, he has two blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameos on "Seinfeld," first as the photographer in "The Pen," followed up by the Mercedes driver in "The Parking Garage."
However, his biggest part on the show is that of Malcolm in "The Summer of George." When Jerry and Kramer go to the Tonys, Kramer mistakenly wins an award for a musical starring Raquel Welch, which he then uses to mingle with celebrities. The people behind the production, including Malcolm, tell him that he can keep the award if he's willing to fire Welch for them, as they're terrified of her. Malcolm tells Kramer that Welch doesn't move her arms when she tap dances, which is "very distracting!"
Annie Korzen
Primarily a theatrical actor and essayist, Annie Korzen has also done one-woman shows celebrating the legacy of Jewish women of the stage and even appeared on an episode of "Oprah" (not to mention recently going viral on TikTok). On "Seinfeld," she appears as Doris, the wife of Jack Klompus, in a handful of episodes, including "The Pen" and "The Raincoats." Jack and Doris are friends of Jerry's parents, and most of their recurring jokes are based around the apparent long-standing grudge Jack has towards Jerry's dad, despite being on overall sociable terms.
Korzen plays her second role in "The Airport," the episode where Elaine is stuck in coach on a flight while Jerry enjoys the luxuries of first class. First being blocked from making it to the bathroom, Elaine then loses her meal due to being out of her seat during the service. The flight attendant informs her that all that remains is a single kosher meal. When she exclaims that she has no idea what a kosher meal even is, Korzen's character begins explaining at length (incorrectly) that Orthodox Jewish people do eat pork if the slaughter has been overseen by a rabbi, all while Elaine continues to suffer.
Michael Mitz
While he only has a few lines in "Seinfeld," Michael Mitz is nonetheless memorable for fans, first playing the guy on the payphone in "The Chinese Restaurant." George is desperately trying to get in touch with his girlfriend after leaving things on a sour note the night before. While the gang waits to be seated at a Chinese restaurant where the wait time appears to be endless, he tries to use the payphone, but Mitz's character is currently ahead of him and refuses to acknowledge George, turning his back again and again. This nearly pushes George past the point of no return, but when Mitz's character politely apologizes for taking too long, George meekly responds that it's no trouble at all.
Mitz then returns for one of the most famous "Seinfeld" episodes – Season 5's "The Puffy Shirt." When George is discovered for his immaculately beautiful hands, he becomes a hand model, treated as a celebrity by those in the industry. Mitz plays a stylish photographer who glows George up, telling the room that he reminds him of the greatest hand model of all time — who tragically fell in love with his own hands.
Christine Dunford
In the episode "The Baby Shower," Elaine throws a shower for her friend Leslie, played by Christine Dunford, at Jerry's apartment while he's out of town, but George immediately recognizes Leslie as someone he went on a single date with years ago — a date he refers to as the worst of his life. Apparently, she poured syrup on one of his favorite shirts during a performance art piece, and he's still holding a grudge. Despite amping himself up to confront her about this, he instead finds himself charmed by her, even though she almost immediately drops a desert on his shirt.
In "The Pie," Dunford returns as Natasha, a sales clerk at an upscale department store. It's here we see that Elaine is perturbed by a mannequin that looks disturbingly similar to her. At the same time, George is trying on a jacket, and Natasha quickly appears at his side, speaking in an affected accent and telling him the suit would be perfect for him. When Elaine asks where the mannequin came from, Natasha claims that she has no idea, then snorts and rolls her eyes when Elaine rightly claims it is clearly looks exactly like her. Meanwhile, George is charmed by Natasha's flattery and waves Elaine off, chuckling, "Ah, what can you do."
Tracy Kolis
Tracy Kolis first appeared in the Season 2 kick-off "The Ex-Girlfriend," where she plays George's ex, Marlene. George left some books at her apartment that he refuses to let go and persuades Jerry to pick them up for him. Jerry begrudgingly agrees to help George out but then finds himself inexplicably attracted to Marlene. Though he struggles with the relationship and fears telling George, he finds himself unable to break things off with her. George gives his blessing, but Marlene quickly breaks up with Jerry after seeing his stand-up act, telling him she can't date someone she doesn't respect.
Kolis returns in "The Soup" as Kelly, a Monk's waitress who flirts with George and goes on a date with him, only to be quickly alienated by his conversation. With her formally flirtatious demeanor replaced by discomfort and alienation, she tells George that she now has a boyfriend and can't see him again. George discovers this is a lie and tries to get the group to eat with him at Reggie's, but they dislike the food there and leave him to eat alone. Probably shouldn't have brought up horse manure on a date, George.
Larry David
Show creator Larry David is definitely the king of the "Seinfeld" cameo. Perhaps most famously, he's the voice of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. But all of his guest spots are memorable, and there are too many to list here. However, some of his greatest moments include "The Chinese Woman," in which he appears in a clandestine meeting with Frank Costanza, sporting a regal-looking sunglasses-and-cape combo. Later in the episode, he convinces a woman not to jump off a bridge, quite literally introducing himself as "Frank Costanza's lawyer."
In "The Pilot," the head of NBC joins Greenpeace after Elaine breaks up with him, with David guesting as one of the activists on his lifeboat. In "The Gum," he plays the newsstand vendor who adamantly refuses to take George's $20 due to him having drawn red lips on Andrew Jackson's face. In "The Marine Biologist," Jerry tells an old college friend that George is now a marine biologist. This later blows up in his face when George is on a date with her and a man played by David attempts to help a beached whale, shouting, "Is anybody here a marine biologist?" Even when only playing a minor character, David is always a scene stealer, and he brought that energy with him to his next big TV project, HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."