List of Hey Arnold! Cast Members - Characters

Characters

Hey Arnold! stars nine-year-old Arnold and his neighborhood friends. Bartlett drew inspiration from people he grew up with when creating the characters for the show. Arnold's best friend is Gerald, a street-smart character who generally serves as the leader of the group. Many episodes detail Arnold's relationship with Helga Pataki, a girl who acts cruelly towards Arnold in order to cover up her secret crush on him. He lives with his eccentric but loving grandparents, who own a boarding house called Sunset Arms; several storylines involve Arnold's interactions with the house's tenants. Other characters include teachers at P.S. 118, parents, and citizens of the town.

• Arnold (voiced by Toran Caudell in season 1 and two episodes in season 2, Phillip Van Dyke in seasons 2 and 3, Spencer Klein in seasons 4 and 5, and Alex D. Linz in two episodes in season 5) – Arnold is a dreamer and an idealist who always tries to see the best in people and to do the right thing. Whenever he sees someone in trouble, Arnold goes out of his way to help them out, even if it is not sensible to do so (an example being when he tried to protect some of his classmates, who had mooned the school principal). Arnold often acts as the stable center to those around him, whether he is around his "family" in his paternal grandparents' boarding house the Sunset Arms, or around his friends at his school, P.S. 118. Despite hs kindness, no one necessarily thinks of Arnold actually having problems or lets him be a kid and thus, he doesn't necessarily have fun.

• Helga Pataki (voiced by Francesca Smith) – Helga is nine years old and in fourth grade. She is madly in love with Arnold because he was the first person to be nice to her and notice her when they were very little, but she struggles to keep her affections a secret. In her spare time she writes poetry (mostly about Arnold) and collects Arnold's used gum so that she can add it to her Arnold shrine. She is neglected by her parents and calls them "Bob" and "Miriam" because she does not believe they are worthy of being called "Mom" and "Dad". On the surface she resents her older sister Olga, an overachieving perfectionist, but Helga will occasionally show warmth toward her. Helga is emotionally insecure and puts on a mean, tomboyish front as the school bully.

• Gerald Johanssen (voiced by Jamil Walker Smith) – Gerald is Arnold's best friend and is usually present when Arnold's latest escapade happens. Gerald is the occasional voice of reason when Arnold needs it and the storyteller for the schoolyard legends. He has a crush on Phoebe, who shares the same feelings for him.

• Phoebe Heyerdahl (voiced by Anndi McAfee) – Phoebe is Helga's best friend and sidekick. She is very intelligent and is the most academic of the children; she always tries to be the first one with an answer and does not appreciate when someone does better than her in school. Like Gerald does for Arnold, Phoebe often acts as Helga's voice of reason and helps her out of various scrapes. She also has a crush on Gerald.

• Harold Berman (voiced by Justin Shenkarow) – Harold is the bully of the group, although his bark is usually worse than his bite. Harold is assumed to be 13, based on the traditional age one receives a Bar Mitzvah (his Hebrew name is Chaim), although the students seem to disregard his age while they point out Torvald still being a fourth grader (even though Harold is the same age as Torvald). Harold was in preschool at the same time as Arnold ("Eugene's Bike", "Helga On The Couch"), although he says in "Cool Party" that he was "held back". He is friends with Stinky, Sid, and Patty.

• Stinky Peterson (voiced by Christopher Walberg) – Stinky is best known for his Southern drawl. He has professed to have feelings for Helga, Gloria (both in "Helga's Boyfriend"), and Lila ("Ms. Perfect"). He lives with his father in a dilapidated shack with a country-like appearance. He once turned down the opportunity to make a million dollars as the Yahoo Soda "spokeskid" after he realized they only wanted him because people gawked at his "hick" ways. In addition to growing large pumpkins, he can play the Alpenhorn ("School Dance").

• Sidney "Sid" (voiced by Sam Gifaldi) – Sid is often seen as Gerald's "lead-in" man; when Gerald is about to tell another urban legend, Sid introduces him, usually mentioning how the story has been passed "from kid generation to kid generation". He is best recognized for his green baseball cap that he wears backward and his long nose.

• Rhonda Wellington Lloyd (voiced by Olivia Hack) – Rhonda is the self-proclaimed fashion queen of the school, despite the fact that she wears the same ensemble each day with few exceptions. Rhonda's greatest interest is fashion design and trends. She criticizes her classmates and friends regularly for not matching colors or rotating their daily choice of clothing, as parodied by Helga in "Helga's Show". She is quick to show off new fashion accessories or shoes she gets to her peers. She is also snooty, vain, and a bit of a queen bee.

• Eugene Horowitz (voiced by Christopher Castile and Jarrett Lennon in 1997, Benjamin Diskin in 1997-2000) – Eugene is a good friend of Arnold, and he is very kind hearted and outgoing and is willing to help others, and is known for being a jinx. His appearances usually involve him being the cause of or the effect of accidents, such as causing a parade to crash, dodgeballs hitting him in the face, etc. In the episodes starring Eugene, Arnold seems to actually cause most of Eugene's problems, such as killing his goldfish, ruining his birthday, and destroying his bike.

• Lila Sawyer (voiced by Ashley Buccille) was a new student at P.S. 118 and was in the same class as Arnold and Helga. She originally lived in a farming community before moving to the city with her father (her mother's absence is never explained). She is best known as being a very friendly and outgoing young girl who gets along with everyone she comes into contact with. She's also one of the few people who knows that Helga loves Arnold. Helga confessed to Lila so that she could get the lead role in the school play, Romeo and Juliet,so that she could kiss Arnold. However, Arnold has a crush on Lila and this bothers Helga tremendously.

• Grandpa/"Steely Phil"/Phil (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) – Arnold's good-natured and cheery grandfather (and Miles's father), Phil runs the Sunset Arms boarding house. Arnold often looks to his grandfather for advice. In the movie, he is shown to play the drums. Though he tends to respond frivolously to Arnold's problems, he does on occasion provide Arnold much-needed wisdom.

• Grandma Gertie/Pookie (voiced by Tress MacNeille) – Arnold's fun-loving and eccentric grandmother. She is often seen performing various nonsensical tasks around the boarding house. Like Arnold's grandpa, his grandma tends to be too silly to be of much help to him when he asks for it, but she does come through for him in other ways.

• "Big Bob" Pataki (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - Helga's father and a main villain of the show. He suffers from workaholism as he spends most of his time either working or promoting his beeper business. When he's not working he enjoys watching TV and being lazy like most cartoon dads. He can be quite cruel, such as turning a hose on Grandma during a protest, or criticizing Arnold because he's an orphan. Bob also focuses most of his attention on his eldest daughter, Olga, almost to the point of excluding Helga. He tends to ignore, as well as neglect, Helga. He never listens or acknowledges Helga except in a few rare instances. Overall, Bob is selfish. He primarily thinks about himself, his business, and what serves his purpose.

• Miriam Pataki (voiced by Kath Soucie) - As Olga and Helga's mother, she pretty much just mopes around the house all day, probably as a hint for having depression. In "Olga Comes Home", there's a huge hint of Miriam having depression, when Bob said that Olga can't mope around, being depressed, in her bed and Miriam said "Sure she can, I do". It is also obvious that she is an alcoholic: she passes out all the time, slurs her words, and frequently says "I need a smoothie." Miriam often is seen making smoothies, which probably is a hint at her alcoholism, and seems to be emotionally attached to her blender. On a few occasions, Miriam is knocking outside Helga's door, and the sound of ice clinking in a glass can be heard. Another hint to Miriam's alcoholism is that she often passes out on the couch and is sometimes seen waking up while on the couch, and makes up excuses like she's "looking for her keys".

• Olga Pataki (voiced by Nika Futterman) is the older sister of Helga Pataki. She is a college student and does not live at home. However, she does come home to visit the family during the holidays and school breaks. She suffers from Perfectionism (psychology) and always gets an A+ in all of her classes. Olga also tends to outshine Helga and receives all of their parent's attention. She has a tendency of condescending to Helga and she usually has good intentions. Olga is the only family member who gives Helga lots of attention. She has also told Helga that she would like to try to bond with her. However, Helga resents Olga and this puts a strain on the sibling relationship. Only once in awhile does Helga return Olga's sisterly affections.