List of Malcolm in the Middle characters

The following characters had significant roles in the American television comedy series Malcolm in the Middle, which was originally televised from 2000 to 2006 on the Fox Network. A reunion miniseries will air in 2025.
Originally, the series featured four brothers, although Malcolm's oldest brother attended a military school away from home, so Malcolm was still the middle sibling left at home. A fifth son named Jamie was introduced in the show's fourth season. The boys are, from eldest to youngest: Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, and Jamie. In the final episode, Lois discovered she was pregnant with a sixth child. In the third season, Francis travels home to celebrate his father's birthday bringing an Alaskan woman, Piama, and reveals that they are married.
During the show, the family's name was kept a secret. In the fifth-season episode "Reese Joins the Army (1)", Reese uses a fake ID by the name of "Jetson" to lie about his age. In the series finale, "Graduation", Francis' employee ID reads "Nolastname" (or "No Last Name", a joke referring to the fact that the family name was never spoken aloud). In the same episode, when Malcolm was introduced to give the graduation speech, the speaker announces Malcolm's name, but microphone feedback makes his surname inaudible, even though he does appear to mouth the phrase "No last name".
The DVD insert from series five shows the family surname as "Wilkerson" in the description of the episode "Block Party". While this last name is referenced via Easter eggs in "Pilot", "Dinner Out", and "Company Picnic Pt. 1", the characters' lack of a surname remains a running gag throughout the series.
Malcolm, played by actor Frankie Muniz (in a total of 150 episodes), is the main protagonist and occasional narrator of this series. He is approximately five years younger than his oldest brother Francis, one year younger than his older brother Reese, five years older than their younger brother Dewey, and about 15 years older than their youngest brother Jamie. In the first episode of the series, he is discovered to be a child prodigy and was immediately moved from his regular class into the "Krelboynes", a class for gifted students. Despite his high intelligence, he still gets into mischief either alongside or working against his brothers (in particular, his older brother Reese), although he becomes more self-centered and vain in the later seasons as he goes through puberty. Being a genius, Malcolm often serves as the ring leader in the brothers' juvenile schemes. According to Hal, in "Stock Car Races" (season 1), Malcolm was named after Hal's favorite Stock Car Racer, Rusty Malcolm, although he had previously argued with Lois about giving the name to Francis and Reese. Malcolm, like Reese, is very unpopular at school, yet he has had a number of girlfriends during the series run. Like Lois, he gets angry or frustrated very easily but he also has problems containing his opinion about himself. Malcolm also occasionally serves as the voice of reason, and does have a conscience. For instance, despite emotionally manipulating a grieving Hal to buy him a car in the episode "Hal Grieves," when the time comes to make the purchase, he feels guilty (but just as Hal begins to sign, Lois finally turns up and she, not Malcom, puts an end to it). In the series finale, it is revealed that Lois intended him to have a hard life, knowing that he is destined to assume the role of President of the United States. Lois wants him to remember where he came from to get there and help families like his own when he assumes the office. Malcolm eventually comes to terms with his future, after being unable to tell her that he can not do it. In the series finale, he begins taking classes at Harvard University. Throughout the series, Malcolm frequently breaks the fourth wall and talks to the viewer about either the current situation or provides exposition about past events.
Lois, played by Jane Kaczmarek (146 episodes), is Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, and Jamie's temperamental and overbearing mother. She is despised by the neighbors to the point that they refuse to invite her to their gatherings, revealed in "Mono". Unlike Malcolm, Lois is not bothered by it and tries her best to blend in with it. Lois is 38 years old as of Season 2, and had originally planned to attend music school and become a concert violinist before she married Hal ("Lois' Birthday"). She was revealed to be a charming and nurturing mother while Francis was little, but toughened up. When she became more overbearing and demanding, it did not help Francis or the other boys to behave, but she unknowingly made it worse. She also stubbornly believes she is always in the right, to the point of being unable to say that she was wrong. Lois's severe anger issues are very often caused by her sons' frequent bad behavior, and also from her miserable childhood. Her uncaring parents Ida and Victor favored her younger sister, Susan. Lois and Susan would later have a serious falling out after it is revealed that Hal was originally Susan's boyfriend. She is a pushy academic mother and in the series finale, it is revealed that she is trying to groom Malcolm to become President of the United States. The finale also reveals that she is pregnant again. Lois is usually seen driving the family's early 1990s Plymouth Grand Voyager.
Hal, played by Bryan Cranston (151 episodes), is the father of the family. Though relaxed in his parenting when compared to Lois, Hal has shown that he can slide into a disciplinarian when confronted by the boys' bad behavior. He was a rebel like his sons, especially Francis, until he married Lois and she nurtured him. He comes from a wealthy family who resent his choice to marry Lois over Susan (a sentiment also shared by Victor and Ida). Hal has a hard time making good decisions, which he often deferred to Lois. Hal blends in well with his neighbors despite many of the neighbors hating his boys and Lois. He loves Lois more than she loves him, never even thinking about other women. He is also very scared of her, even more than the boys are, which is why he bribes his sons to take the fall for his wrongdoings. He is very devoted to Lois and willing to give the boys punishment they deserve that Lois gives them. Lois is usually head of the household and Hal is second-in-command. He is very neurotic and has a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, and also enjoys unusual hobbies. Briefs are his underpants of choice. Hal also has a loving and highly active sex life with Lois, as revealed in the episode "Poker 2" when Hal tells his friends he has sex 14 times per week. It is mentioned again in the episode "Forbidden Girlfriend" when Hal and Lois struggle to cope when Lois takes a medication and is unable to have sex for an entire week. It was also revealed that Hal was a chain smoker before quitting the habit. Hal's best friend is Abe Kenarban. Hal works in a lower management job in a corporation that he always hated. He used to be an executive and got demoted when he mouthed off to his boss in the season 2 finale. Hal is usually seen driving a late 1980s to early 1990s Dodge Dynasty.
Francis, played by Christopher Kennedy Masterson (118 episodes), is the oldest of the brothers, whom Malcolm often looks up to. According to the season 1 episodes "Sleepover" and "The Bots and the Bees", Francis was a breech birth. The season 2 episode "Flashback" reveals that Lois was in labor with him during her and Hal's wedding. A rebel from birth, showing signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder, Francis was exiled to the Marlin Academy military school by Lois for his behavior. By season 3, he emancipates himself and runs away from the academy to work in Alaska, incurring his mother's wrath. Shortly after moving to Alaska, he marries a local woman about one year older than him named Piama, who had a previous brief marriage, though Lois disapproves. During the fourth and fifth season, Francis works at a dude ranch owned by Otto Mannkusser and his wife Gretchen. Francis is mostly absent for the last two seasons, but, in the series finale, Hal discovers that he has taken a job with Amerysis Industries, a large corporation where Francis works in a cubicle and inputs numbers into a computer, and is also still happily married to Piama. Although Francis enjoys the job, he refuses to tell Lois about it, as he enjoys torturing her by telling her that he is still unemployed.
Reese, played by Justin Berfield (151 episodes), is the second-oldest of the brothers. He is about three years younger than his brother Francis, one year older than his brother Malcolm, six years older than his brother Dewey, and about 16 years older than his youngest brother Jamie. It was revealed in the episode "Flashback", in season 2, that Reese has been vicious from the womb, so vicious in fact that when he kept kicking Lois during labor, she pushed him out by force. In Clip Show #2, he is revealed to have directly caused Lois' staph infection due to his uncontrollable kicking in her womb. Reese is the worst-behaved of the brothers and generally feels little to no empathy towards those he torments. Reese is the most frequently punished of his brothers to the point where he treats being grounded by Lois as an everyday occurrence. At the beginning of the series, Reese is the school’s top bully and is often inclined to beat up the Krelboynes, except Stevie who is in a wheelchair. Despite his infamous reputation as a bully, Reese has at times been shown to be intimidated by people who are stronger than him. Considered to be the least intelligent of his brothers, Reese often has the Krelboynes do his schoolwork for him. Despite this, Reese is actually a culinary prodigy, after finding that he has a talent and genuine love for cooking and baking to the point where he is put in charge of cooking for holidays and special events. He is also considered by others to be an evil genius when it comes to bullying, tormenting, blackmailing and beating up others for his own satisfaction. He is the favorite grandson of his grandmother Ida, who taught him the importance of having a patsies. In the series finale, Reese moves in with Craig Feldspar and is a janitor at his alma mater North High.
Dewey, played by Erik Per Sullivan (151 episodes) and Caleb Ellsworth-Clark (4 episodes), is portrayed as being quieter, more innocent brother but becomes just as spiteful and destructive as his older siblings as the series progressed. Initially the youngest brother, Dewey is regularly bullied by both Malcolm and Reese for years to the point where he becomes completely immune to their torture methods. He is also frequently underestimated by his brothers to the point where they sometimes find themselves at his mercy. Despite this, he partakes in many of the brothers' juvenile schemes and is just as spiteful and vindictive as they are. Dewey is more inclined to the arts than his brothers. He soon finds he is a musical prodigy, and as the series goes on he becomes more caring and thoughtful especially in regards to his younger brother Jamie, whom he decides not to bully like he was by Malcolm and Reese. Lois remarks at one point that unlike Malcolm, who would have to work hard to achieve success, Dewey would have success handed to him. Dewey joins the Buseys, a class for the emotionally disturbed, by mistake and ends up becoming their unofficial teacher. He ended up caring for his fellow students so much that, when the mistake was uncovered, he feigned severe emotional problems so he could remain. In the final few seasons, Dewey becomes increasingly bitter towards his parents due to them overlooking him throughout his childhood and neglecting his interests. Because of this, he forces them to give Jamie the childhood he never had. In the last episode, he and Jamie (the only other remaining brother living at home) continued the tradition of causing havoc all over the house.
Caroline Miller, played by Catherine Lloyd Burns (15 episodes), is the primary teacher of Malcolm's "Krelboyne" class in the first two seasons. She is shown to be overly-earnest as well as to adore Malcolm. In season 1, she is included as part of the main cast, but in season 2, is a recurring character. In season 2, she is shown to be pregnant until she gives birth to her baby in the parking lot. After her baby was born, she quit teaching. She was never seen or mentioned again after season 2.
Jamie, played by identical twin brothers James and Lukas Rodriguez (35 episodes) and Anthony Timpano (4 episodes), is the youngest child born to Hal and Lois. He is the only brother who beats Lois in her own game, bordering to attacking her (though Reese is mostly responsible for feeding him soda). Like Malcolm and Dewey, Jamie is intelligent, as evidenced when he tricks Reese into taking a marker after coloring part of a wall.