Who is Charlie Kelly in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

Show

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Played by

Charlie Day

First episode

“The Gang Gets Racist”Season 1, Episode 1, aired August 4, 2005

Role

Main cast

Network

FX

Occupation

Paddy's Pub co-owner and janitor

Show run

2005 to presentMoved from FX to FXX in 2013.

Also known as

Charlie, Charles Kelly, Green Man

Charlie Kelly co-owns Paddy's Pub in South Philadelphia, though in practice he is the one stuck doing the grim chores the rest of the gang calls Charlie work. Played by Charlie Day since the very first episode, he is the gang's wild card: barely literate, oddly gifted, and the closest thing the bar has to an innocent.

On It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Charlie Kelly's story runs through Mac (Best Friend), Frank Reynolds (Roommate), The Waitress (Crush), Dennis Reynolds (Business Partner), and Dee Reynolds (Friend).

Who is Charlie Kelly?

Charlie is one of the three friends who bought Paddy's Pub, alongside his childhood pal Mac and their high school classmate Dennis. His share of the job is everything nobody else will touch: killing rats in the basement, unclogging toilets, and handling whatever has gone wrong in the back room. He lives in a filthy apartment, eats things that are not food, and has a long and enthusiastic relationship with inhalants.

From season two on, Charlie shares that apartment, and a single fold-out bed, with Frank Reynolds. For years the show hints that Frank might be his real father, since Frank has an on-and-off history with Charlie's mother, Bonnie. The two become an inseparable odd couple, plotting schemes, hoarding trash, and treating their squalor as a lifestyle choice.

Personality and comedy

Charlie's comedy runs on pure, unfiltered energy. When he cannot make the gang understand him he starts shouting, and his conspiracy boards, dream journal, and rat-bashing stick have become some of the show's most recognizable images. He cannot read English, though he claims otherwise, and his attempts to fake it produce some of the series' best jokes.

Under the chaos, Charlie has real talents. He plays piano, writes songs, and composed an entire rock musical. He is also, at times, the only member of the gang who cares about doing a job well. The show keeps him just as selfish as everyone else, but he is the one character viewers most often catch being sweet.

Key storylines

Charlie's longest-running story is his obsession with the Waitress, a woman who works at a nearby coffee shop and wants nothing to do with him. He follows her, plots grand gestures, and in season four stages "The Nightman Cometh," a musical built around his old Nightman song, as an elaborate marriage proposal. She turns him down. Years later, in season twelve, the two finally sleep together and briefly become a couple, a relationship that collapses almost as soon as it starts.

In "Flowers for Charlie," an experimental pill seems to make him a genius, and in "Charlie Work" he pulls off a dizzying plan to get the bar through a health inspection. Season fifteen takes the gang to Ireland, where Charlie learns that his longtime pen pal Shelley is his biological father, not Frank. Shelley dies soon after, and Charlie insists on honoring an Irish burial tradition that involves carrying the body up a mountain.

Behind the scenes and legacy

Charlie Day is one of the three friends behind the show, alongside Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, and he has written and produced it since FX picked it up in 2005. The character shares his first name, and Day's real-life wife, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, plays the Waitress, the woman Charlie spends the whole series chasing.

The Nightman Cometh became so popular that the cast took a live version on tour, and clips of Charlie in front of his corkboard of red string are still a go-to meme for anyone untangling a wild theory. Paste ranked Charlie eighth on its list of the best TV characters of 2011.

Charlie Kelly: frequently asked questions

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