Katie and Orbie - Main Characters

Main Characters

• Katie - A five-year-old girl who is, essentially, the main character of the show. She has blonde hair, and almost always wears a green and white striped t-shirt with blue overalls. Katie is imaginative, playful, curious and usually quite happy. She lives with her best friend Orbie and her parents in a suburb of an unnamed city. Her sound effects include a characteristic laugh, as well as occasional sighing, yelling and crying sounds. Those sound effects, as well as her "voice" during the Did You Know? segments, are made by Amanda Tripp.

• Orbie - A small and pink alien, he has red polka dots on his body (early episodes show him having the capacity to change the color of his dots, depending on how he feels), who is from an unknown planet which is "far away out past the moon". The book Katie and Orbie Pick Up the Garbage, one of the books on which the series is based, implies that he was sent away from his home planet because it was too polluted to sustain life, and the destiny of his native family or his species is unknown. While travelling in a small spaceship, he reached Earth and just happened to land in Katie's backyard, and immediately he and Katie became best friends, resulting in him being "adopted" by Katie's parents. He's apparently the same age as Katie. He speaks in a unique series of squeaks and chirps (often referred to as 'honks') that people appear to be able to understand despite that fact that he isn't speaking any known language. With the exception of I Don't Want to be Different (the last story of the first episode), people are shown to be oblivious to the fact that he's an alien, and treat him like a normal person (In that story a group of kids at a restaurant look surprised at Orbie, making him feel embarrassed). He doesn't wear clothes or appear to require them; however, he does wear clothing and boots if it's raining, cold or snowing. He is a natural acrobat, often breaking into leaps and flips out of sheer joy and has pads on his fingers and toes which enable him to climb walls and hang from the ceiling. He can also use these pads to help him climb other things, but they work best on flat surfaces. He sleeps in Katie's closet, hanging upside down from the bar like a bat. His sound effects are made by Chris Wightman.

• Wayne - Katie's father as well as Orbie's adoptive father. He is always referred to as "Dad", but his real name is mentioned in the episode The Thunderstorm. He works at an office building, but his actual job is unclear. He is very thoughtful towards Katie, Orbie, and his wife, Susan.

• Susan - Katie's mother and Orbie's adoptive mother. She is always referred to as "Mom", but her real name is mentioned in the episode Mrs. Parette's Picture.

The family's surname was never given. Also, both Wayne's parents (Katie's paternal grandparents) and Susan's parents (maternal grandparents) have appeared on the show. Wayne's parents live in an apartment building in the city, while Susan's parents live in an old house in the same suburb where the characters live.