page_title: Glee (season 2)
section_title: Cast
hierarchical_section_title: Glee (season 2) / Cast
caption_attribution_description: Naya Rivera (left) and Heather Morris at the Paley Festival 2011 panel on Glee
context_page_description: The second season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired between September 21, 2010 and May 24, 2011 on Fox in the United States. The 22-episode season was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Television, with executive producers Dante Di Loreto and series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, with the other series co-creator, Ian Brennan, as co-executive producer.
  The series features the New Directions glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School in the town of Lima, Ohio. Season two follows the club competing on the show choir circuit, while its members and faculty deal with sex, religion, homophobia, financial difficulties, rumors, teenage drinking, death and other social issues. The central characters are glee club director Will Schuester, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury, and glee club members Artie Abrams, Brittany Pierce, Finn Hudson, Kurt Hummel, Mercedes Jones, Noah "Puck" Puckerman, Quinn Fabray, Rachel Berry, Santana Lopez and Tina Cohen-Chang. Will's ex-wife Terri and Kurt's father Burt round out the list of main characters.
context_section_description: The twelve main cast members from the first season returned for the second: Matthew Morrison as glee club director Will Schuester, Jane Lynch as cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, Jayma Mays as guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury, Jessalyn Gilsig as Will's former wife Terri Schuester and Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz as glee club members Quinn Fabray, Kurt Hummel, Artie Abrams, Rachel Berry, Finn Hudson, Mercedes Jones, Noah "Puck" Puckerman and Tina Cohen-Chang, respectively. Heather Morris and Naya Rivera, who portrayed the formerly recurring roles of Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez, were promoted to series regulars, as was Mike O'Malley as Kurt's father Burt Hummel.
  Supporting cast members Harry Shum, Jr. and Ashley Fink had increased roles as New Directions members Mike Chang and Lauren Zizes. Two recurring cast members from season one did not return: Dijon Talton's glee club member Matt Rutherford was written out as having transferred, and Patrick Gallagher's football coach Ken Tanaka was replaced by Dot-Marie Jones as Shannon Beiste. Returning secondary characters included Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins, Stephen Tobolowsky as former glee club director Sandy Ryerson, Romy Rosemont as Finn's mother Carole Hudson, Max Adler as school bully Dave Karofsky and James Earl as his fellow bully Azimio, Josh Sussman as school reporter Jacob Ben Israel, Lauren Potter as cheerleader Becky Jackson, Jonathan Groff as Rachel's ex-boyfriend Jesse St. James, and Kristin Chenoweth as former glee club star April Rhodes. The season introduced several new recurring characters: Chord Overstreet was cast as transfer student Sam Evans; Darren Criss appeared as Blaine Anderson, lead singer of rival glee club the Dalton Academy Warblers; Cheyenne Jackson played Dustin Goolsby, the coach of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline; Jake Zyrus appeared as Sunshine Corazon, a foreign exchange student from the Philippines and a rival to Rachel who ultimately joins Vocal Adrenaline; John Stamos played dentist Carl Howell, a love interest for Emma; and Gwyneth Paltrow appeared as substitute teacher Holly Holliday.
  Meat Loaf and Barry Bostwick, who both starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, appeared in Glee's Halloween Rocky Horror tribute episode, playing right-wing television station managers and colleagues of Sue. Adam Kolkin portrayed an eight-year-old Kurt in the third episode of the season, and in the seventh episode, child actors portraying preschool-aged versions of New Directions were featured. Sue's mother Doris Sylvester was also introduced this season, played by Carol Burnett. Journalist Katie Couric made a guest appearance as herself when she interviewed Sue during "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle".
  A reality series featuring open auditions for the show was intended to air on Fox in advance of the season, but was cancelled due to Murphy's desire to concentrate on the main series, and fear that the distraction of the reality show might damage Glee. The idea was picked up by Oxygen, and The Glee Project began airing in June 2011, after the end of season. The winner was to receive a multi-episode guest-starring role in Glee's third season; in the finale, all four finalists were given prizes: there were two winners of seven-episode arcs, and two runners-up who were given two episodes each.
caption: Naya Rivera (left) and Heather Morris (right) were both promoted to the main cast in the second season of the series.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T2i", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2011:03:16 23:20:23", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1090", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7257", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:03:16 20:07:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:03:16 20:07:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "74", "EXIF SubSecTime": "81", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "81", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "81", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3188", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "964", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}