List of Reno 911! characters

This is a list of characters appearing on the television program Reno 911!.
Lieutenant James "Jim" Ronald Dangle (played by Thomas Lennon) is the flamboyant highest-ranking deputy in the department and is usually seen wearing his trademark short-shorts, which he claims that he wears for "mobility." In a season 6 episode where the officers watch a video of themselves in the late 1980s, Dangle is seen wearing full-length jeans. Unfortunately, his jeans caught fire, forcing Dangle to cut the bottom parts of his pants off, resulting in the hot-pants he currently wears.
Dangle is gay. In an interview, Lennon says, "There's always this question, 'When's Dangle coming out?' and I'm like, 'Have you seen the show?' On the first episode, he makes out with another man for about two minutes... I guess people think he's closeted because Trudy is in love with him, but that has more to do with the fact that she's severely brain-damaged."
Dangle openly harbors an attraction to Jones and occasionally flirts with suspects. In one episode, Jones apparently had sex with him out of sympathy ("I'll try anything once"), after which Dangle was hospitalized because, as Jones said it, "he can't fucking walk" (the incident occurs off-camera, with the actual events undisclosed). Dangle was briefly married to a woman named Debbie (see below) and he briefly believed that he fathered a son (a result of sex with what he thought was a drag queen), but DNA results proved otherwise. Dangle also felt attraction to a female Homeland Security officer in town to conduct counter-terrorism training, but the experience left him uncomfortable and confused. It was revealed later that the female officer was actually a very well-disguised man (and was part of a team of con artists, along with the other Homeland Security "trainer"), which caused sexual confusion among the heterosexual deputies who had also felt attracted to "her".
Prior to Trudy's brain damage, Dangle apparently had an affair with her while married to Deb in 1988. Despite her brain damage, he still engages Trudy romantically on occasion, most notably in Miami, where Trudy asks Dangle to have sex with her out of pity, which he tries but fails to do.
Dangle leads the briefings in the mornings, but often ditches work along with other officers, as one time Dangle spent an afternoon trying to destroy an old microwave instead of investigating a murder. He apparently keeps tabs on officers after or during work, as he is found by Johnson in her favorite salon, using her name for an appointment.
Dangle is favorable to Jones, and compares Jones to glue, saying he and the department are "A little birdhouse that Jones is keeping together." Dangle, along with the entire department, is extremely unqualified for his job, even to the point of sheer incompetence, as he is sometimes either seduced or misled by suspects to let them go. Dangle, alongside his fellow officers, engages in police brutality, as he once beat a suspect to tears after the suspect had insulted him. Dangle idolizes the FBI, as in an episode where a group of FBI agents come to investigate a murder, he makes his officers line up in perfect order to greet them, and takes on an "important" mission to get coffee for the agents happily, but resents them for taking charge of his case.
Dangle once worked as a maitre d' and served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve (stationed in Hawaii) but was discharged for undisclosed reasons (perhaps pertaining to his homosexuality). In Episode 102, his age is noted as 41.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Dangle's father abandoned his family when he was a child and his mother committed suicide, after which he was raised by his uncle Frederick, who was kicked out of the Jesuits. Meanwhile, Dangle's father moved to Chicago and started a new family.
Dangle's father had two more African-American children who appear in season 5 to visit Dangle after the death of their father to settle the will. The will turns out to be a bill for the funeral of more than $5,000, and a Banana Splits keychain that his half-sister gives to him.
Dangle is also the subject of a running gag in which his police bicycle is repeatedly stolen or vandalized. It is hinted that Junior is responsible for these incidents. Dangle carries a Desert Eagle Handgun while hunting for his bike.
Deputy Trudy Wiegel (played by Kerri Kenney-Silver) is a brain-damaged, emotionally unstable, heavily-medicated woman. She is a hypochondriac with multiple psychological disorders, occasional night terrors, and suicidal ideations. She is generally neurotic with low self-esteem and an intense love for cats. She claims to be of Irish and Native American descent.
Wiegel enjoys crafts and collecting baby clothes, and is infatuated with Dangle. Her favorite picnic location is her mother's grave. In season 2, she begins dating a man named Craig Pullin (Kyle Dunnigan), who is revealed to be the "Truckee River Killer". After his arrest and conviction, she continues their relationship via prison visits, both through a glass partition and conjugal visits; they marry on the day of his execution. Wiegel's father, mentioned in season 1 and appearing in season 5, is a Native American (The network censored a 30-second story about her father being lynched by a white mob reacting to news that a non-white man "raped" her mother).
The fourth season opens with Wiegel returning after six months of maternity leave; Kenney-Silver's pregnancy was written into the show.
In the sixth season episode "VHS Transfer Memory Lane", it is revealed that Wiegel's behavior and mental defects are the result of brain damage that occurred after an explosion at a drug raid in 1988. Wiegel was rendered unconscious by an explosion and was clinically dead for 14 minutes, causing severe damage. She was resuscitated by Dangle, who regrets saving her life. The doctor who treated her thereafter said he "should have let her go." Prior to the drug raid, she was a flirtatious sexpot.
There is some information that contradicts the timeline. In "Stoner Jesus", Jones mentions that he has worked with Wiegel for 15 years, yet in "VHS Transfer Memory Lane" earlier that season, he's shown in the police video tape from 1988 working alongside Wiegel, which would have been 21 years prior to that episode.
Wiegel usually adheres to the department's uniform code, except for when she requests and is granted a new Kevlar vest for women (soon revealed to be ineffective). She wears a looser maternity version of the uniform when pregnant, and makes reference to having worn maternity pants to work. A running gag indicates that Wiegel is ill-equipped to dress properly when performing undercover work that requires seductive clothing, such as an undercover prostitution sting. In such cases, Wiegel wears old-fashioned and over-sized underclothing which fits poorly with her skimpy undercover outfit. She can be spotted wearing a name tag on her uniform with her name misspelled as "Wiegle" (seen in Season 6, Episode 1: Training Day).
Deputy Sergeant Class II Sisyphus Cosman Jones (played by Cedric Yarbrough) is an emotionally detached African-American "smooth-talker" who frequently channels his need for attention into sexually promiscuous behavior. He is often called "Jonesy" by his co-workers.
Jones was raised in Mound, Minnesota (a suburb of the "Twin Cities" area of Minneapolis-St. Paul). He has been described by Dangle as "a big, hardworking, robust, sort of mocha-ish person." He is a horrible dancer, but a talented singer with a wide vocal range, singing in either a deep baritone or a high-pitched, R&B-style falsetto.
Jones is often partnered with Garcia and the two are close friends (until Garcia's death at the end of season 5), even getting jobs together as shopping mall security guards when they lose their jobs as deputies and both getting promoted to mounted patrol, where they are also assigned as partners. Their relationship is not without conflict, with Jones on one occasion punching Garcia for making a racist joke, causing him to be suspended. In season seven, after it is discovered that Garcia was born in Mexico and has been living as an illegal alien, he and Jones marry to keep him from being deported, after everyone else in the station refused to do so.
Despite Garcia's racism, he and Jones have an awkwardly healthy working relationship. As close as they are, however, they occasionally engage in childish physical altercations with each other. It is implied – typically, by Deputy Williams herself – that he is Raineesha's ex-boyfriend, although he seems to pursue every woman other than her.
Despite Williams' jealous attraction to him, he has an on-again/off-again, "booty call"-type relationship with Johnson. Jones is the only male deputy without a mustache. Jones' first name is left unknown for most of the series, only revealed as starting with "S". In Miami: The Lost Version, it is revealed that Jones' first name is Sven. However, in the season seven episode "Garcia Self Deports", Garcia refers to him as "Sisyphus Cosman Jones" during the vow exchange of their wedding ceremony.
In season 6, the department watch a tape from 1988. In this time, Jones is revealed to be more confident than his current self, and has a sexual attraction to Williams. Dangle then forwards the tape to November 10, 1988, involving a meth lab with armed dealers guarding it. After assorted mishaps, Jones starts to scream in an extremely high-pitched voice and flees. Afterwards, he loses all sexual attraction to Williams, and gains an attraction to Johnson.
Jones is third in command below Dangle and Garcia, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class III, and is followed by Deputy Sergeant Class I Johnson.
Deputy Sergeant Class III James Oswaldo Garcia (seasons 1–5, 7–8; played by Carlos Alazraqui) is an arrogant, racist, sexist, angry and depressed former Marine helicopter pilot. A running gag involves Garcia firing shots at people or objects without hitting them due to his comically terrible marksmanship, and giving suspects "a little of the old stick time", in which he beats them with his billy club. Garcia is the first character shown in the series, responding to a police call at a house. It is revealed that it is a surprise party, but Garcia, startled, shoots a fellow officer.
Garcia is known to be very rough when arresting suspects, perhaps as a result of his inferiority complex. Despite poor marksmanship, Garcia has shot multiple people. His personal life is often the subject of ridicule by his contemporaries, who mock his frequent bowel movements (Dangle once said that in the men's room, Garcia sounded like the Battle of Normandy), his excessive masturbation and his habit of drinking alone while watching Hill Street Blues reruns. He has a daughter whom he has not seen for several years, prompting Dangle to hire a stripper to pretend to be his daughter in order to elate him. He also has a younger sister, whose life the other deputies manage to wreck, because of their mistaken belief that she is his girlfriend and is cheating on Garcia with another man (who turns out to be her actual fiancé). Miami revealed that he had flown an AH-1 HueyCobra for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Garcia is usually partnered with Jones, leading to situational humor involving Garcia's racism and general ignorance of African American culture; despite this, the two are friends. He has had brief relationships with Johnson and Williams, and on more than one occasion, it is implied that he harbored a homoerotic attraction to Kenny Rogers. At the end of season 4, he elopes with Dangle's husband-to-be Leslie during their civil commitment ceremony, revealed in the season 5 premiere to be a bizarre practical joke, as Garcia arrests Dangle and his boyfriend on the grounds that same-sex marriage is illegal in Nevada.
Garcia is killed in an explosion at the end of season 5. In the season 6 episode "The Midnight Swingers", his ashes are fired from a cannon, as per his will; however, the deputies' attempt misfires and a squad car is destroyed in the process, for which Garcia is subsequently and posthumously blamed.
Garcia is second in command below Dangle, and is followed by Jones, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class II, and Johnson, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class I.
Alazraqui returned as Garcia on the November 13, 2014 episode of @midnight, where it is revealed he transferred to Carson City, and his death was a prank to mess with Wiegel.
Deputy Sergeant Class I Clementine "Clemmy" Johnson (seasons 1–5, 7–8; played by Wendi McLendon-Covey) is a promiscuous, trashy, drug-friendly blonde who always wears her uniform partially unbuttoned, exposing her ample cleavage. Johnson is absent in season 6 as she was seemingly killed in the explosion at the end of the fifth season; this was later revealed to be a prank and she is alive and well in season 7.
Before joining the Reno Sheriff's Department, Johnson was a magician's assistant in Branson, Missouri, an exotic dancer, a Wiccan and a Steely Dan groupie. Her comment at a wedding about performing the night before for the bachelor party clarified that she had an off-duty job. She has a tattoo on her back which once said "Steed" (a one-time boyfriend), later changed to "Steely Dan" after the relationship ended. Early in the first season, she had a relationship with Jones, but she also enjoyed a brief relationship with Garcia in season 2, a relationship she compared to "getting a flu shot" ("You do it once, and you never have to do it again!"). Despite this claim, she was shown silently mourning the end of that relationship. She had Garcia's face tattooed on her breast after a drunken incident when the sheriffs went to Miami, Florida. On one occasion, she married Steed and later discovered the marriage was unofficial because the couple had forgotten to obtain a marriage license. When she mistakenly believed herself to be pregnant, she approached first Jones and then Dangle about marrying her and acting as a father to her unborn child. She had a troubled relationship with her mother because they sometimes argued over men. In one episode, her mother was shown to be working as a prostitute.
When the officers were fired following an investigation by District Attorney Mike Powers (Mather Zickel), Johnson returned to touring with Steely Dan (whom she called "The Dan") for a short time before returning to the Reno Sheriff's Department with the others. Johnson was later promoted in Episode 506 when she confronted the Captain of the sheriff's department regarding objectification through the use of the new "Kevlar for Her" vests. She returned claiming she had been promoted, in which case she would be classified as a Sergeant Class I if everyone else (except Dangle and his second-in-command, Garcia, and third-in-command, Jones) is a Deputy.
Johnson is an admitted drunk driver and a user of marijuana, and is usually lenient toward fellow users.
Johnson is fourth in command below Dangle, and Garcia, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class III, and Jones, who holds the rank of Deputy Sergeant Class II.
Deputy Raineesha Williams (born Megan Linderman; played by Niecy Nash) is a boisterous woman who enjoys abusing the power over men that her police authority affords her.
Williams' proudest possession is her enormous posterior (a prosthetic that Nash wears under the uniform), which was featured in a pornographic magazine called "Strong Sistas". She often exclaims "...Haahhh?!?" for effect, after making a blunt statement. She is a single mother, and in one episode claimed she couldn't name the fathers of any of her three children, although in another episode, she says that "one of my babies' daddies, he can "read real good." In the pilot, she claims to have recently split up with Jones, but she's still willing to answer his booty calls. In season 5, Jones told a reporter that Williams' real name is Megan Linderman.
Jones has described Williams as a terrible police officer ("they don't even put bullets in her gun") and that she can't even read. She often looks for ways to abuse her authority for her personal benefit; she once converted to the Nation of Islam in an attempt to take the month of September (Ramadan on the Islamic calendar) off from work, so she could vacation at the Atlantis resort. She frequently uses Mace merely out of anger. As other deputies have their trademark personalizations on their uniforms, Raineesha always wears a patrol hat.
At the beginning of season 3, she worked as a real estate agent before returning to the Sheriff's Department.
Deputy Travis Junior (played by Robert Ben Garant) is a stereotypical redneck cop who loves beer, buffalo wings, NASCAR, guns, Ernest movies and—perhaps most of all—his moustache, which he confesses he feels makes him look gay when standing next to Dangle. His character provides much of the physical comedy, performing most of the major stunts.
Junior trains the police dogs for the department and is rarely seen without his trademark aviator sunglasses. He started wearing his Kevlar vest after he was shot and nearly blinded in a 1988 drug sting. Junior always wears his vest over his uniform shirt; he claimed that he forgets to put the vest under his shirt because he is always a little hung over in the morning. He wears his hair in a military "high and tight" haircut and is cross-eyed, which is why he usually wears sunglasses. Despite this, he claims to be the best shot in the department. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he is the only heterosexual male deputy in the Reno Sheriff's Department that Johnson hasn't slept with.
Junior spends his time stealing Dangle's bicycle, and likes utilizing police brutality. Junior is considered to be an idiot by most of his fellow officers, as one time, he ran after an invisible suspect in a robbery upon directions by a bystander who happened to have a gun and several bundles of cash from the store, even after the bystander said he had robbed the store after being "forced".
Junior has three brothers, who also wear sunglasses and have the same traits: Henry "Hank" Junior, Jr., from Panama City, Florida; Lance Corporal "Rooster" Junior, who serves in the U.S. Marine Corps, currently stationed in Tikrit, Iraq; and "Tater" Junior, from Sparks, Nevada. By season 7, he is married to a Korean woman, has a daughter, and his mother-in-law has moved into their house.
Junior has been reprimanded at least twice for his pornography addiction, and is somewhat in denial about his problem. He is revealed to be Kimball's cousin. At the beginning of season 3 (in which the characters are shown in jail) a swastika tattoo is seen on his chest (similar to the that worn by Edward Norton's character in American History X), but in the 2007 film, he is seen shirtless and the tattoo is absent. Before returning to the Reno Sheriff's Department, Junior worked at a carnival, something he claims is his "dream job".
There are several running gags concerning Junior. The first is the "traffic stop": Junior pulls over a driver and is rendered unconscious or otherwise by an opening door or something falling off from the vehicle. Another involves him stealing or tampering with Dangle's unattended bicycle, much to Dangle's annoyance. The other gags usually involve him being mauled by dogs, being electrocuted, catching on fire or falling, jumping or being thrown through or off of something, or otherwise incapacitated.
Deputy Cherisha Kimball (seasons 3–5, 7–8; played by Mary Birdsong) is a pious, tough, no-nonsense police officer, the polar opposite of Johnson. Kimball is absent in season 6, as she was seemingly killed in the explosion at the end of the season 5; this was later revealed to be a prank and she is alive and well in season 7.
Hailing from Shreveport, Louisiana, Kimball joins Reno Sheriff's Department early in season 3, winning a competition among top police academy graduates; however, she was only chosen after the two frontrunners withdrew for various reasons. She is perpetually accused of being a lesbian, despite her denials when asked, and when asked for dates by lesbians. She spends her off-duty time with her church group (composed of male, Christian virgins), singing karaoke of old gospel songs. In one instance, after Kimball states she would be making some major changes in her life after receiving a jet ski, Dangle asked, "You're finally coming out as a lesbian?" He was convinced even after she rejected the statement.
Kimball said that she joined law enforcement because her "past is filled with sin and small time crimes and misdemeanors. Enforcing the law is my way of righting all my wrongs, cleaning up my karma. Also, they give good benefits." When she is the first to arrive at the scene of Junior's "officer down" radio call, and thinking that his gunshot wound is near-fatal, she eventually admits to having had erotic fantasies of women. Junior then reveals he is not mortally wounded, and had organized the scenario in an attempt to deceive her into having sex with him. In the course of what she thinks is a conversation with someone about to die, the two exchange information on their family backgrounds; Kimball and Junior gradually realize that they share a common uncle in Louisiana. Despite realizing they share a family member, Kimball and Junior are seen being romantically involved. In "Kevlar for Her", Kimball and Junior are seen at a bar together seemingly on a date. At the end of that episode, Junior is seen secretly admiring a wedding ring, seemingly about to propose to Kimball before shooting her ineffective Kevlar vest.
Sergeant Jack Declan (seasons 6–8; played by Ian Roberts) joined the show in season 6. He is the new second in command after Dangle, to whom Declan is often seen sucking up; with the exception when the barely fluent office assistant Cindy mistakenly promotes everyone to Captain, and Declan tells Dangle to "suck my dick." He is sometimes called "Cap'n Jack" by Dangle and other deputies.
He appears confident of himself, when compared to most of the other deputies, but exhibits massive insecurities at other times, such as sobbing uncontrollably and talking to himself through a bathroom stall door, or exhibiting problems with anger management. On one occasion when confronting Cindy about some misplaced clothing he asked her to wash for him, it is alluded to that he may in fact cross-dress, as Junior received the clothing by accident and found extra extra large female undergarments with Jack's initials on them, mixed in with the other clothing. Despite his rage issues, he is still shown to be a very good cop. Declan also carries a bigger and more powerful weapon than the rest of his colleagues. While the other officers carry Beretta 92s, he carries a .44 Magnum revolver.
Deputy Frank Salvatore Rizzo (seasons 6–8; played by Joe Lo Truglio) joined the show in season 6. He is from Ozone Park, Queens (where Lo Truglio himself was born), where he has been banned from for undisclosed "reasons that [he takes] full responsibility for". He has a long history in law enforcement, working in many cities across the country and is infatuated with Wiegel (on one occasion, they engaged in sexual activities in a trailer being pulled by an unsuspecting perpetrator and were left across the Mexican border). Junior has said that despite his history in law enforcement, Rizzo did not have a single recommendation, which Dangle considers "breaks even". Rizzo is also fluent in Japanese. Rizzo has two children: Frank "Frankie" Salvatore Rizzo, Jr. and Isabella "Izzy" Salvatore Rizzo, and it is implied that he and his wife have divorced.
Like the other deputies, Rizzo behaves unprofessionally on numerous occasions, also insinuating he has a cocaine habit. On one occasion, he solicited prostitutes to perform oral sex on him and Jones during a narcotics sting, half-jokingly suggesting the two split the drug money impounded in the bust.
Reno 911! features many other notable comedians, some of whom appear on the show multiple times in different roles. In addition, the principal cast members frequently play recurring roles of criminals or otherwise dysfunctional characters (with pixelated or blurred faces).
At the end of Reno 911!: Miami, it is revealed that Terry is tremendously wealthy. Despite his flamboyant homosexuality, he vehemently denies being gay. At one point he introduces the deputies to his fiancee Seeeeemji (pronounced "see-me") who is completely oblivious to Terry's sexuality although, according to Terry, when they get naked together, he vomits and can't get hard. Terry is the most recurring side character and a fan favorite. He also starred in the short, "A Very Terry Christmas", included in the special features of Swardson's Seriously, Who Farted? DVD.