Who is Dennis Reynolds in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

Show

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Played by

Glenn Howerton

First episode

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

Role

Main cast

Network

FX

Occupation

Co-owner and bartender, Paddy's Pub

Show run

2005 to presentMoved from FX to FXX in 2013.

Also known as

Dennis, The Golden God

Dennis Reynolds co-owns Paddy's Pub in Philadelphia with his friends Mac and Charlie, and eventually with Frank, the man he grew up calling Dad, while his twin sister Dee works the bar beside him. Played by Glenn Howerton, he presents himself as the smartest and best-looking member of the Gang, and the show steadily reveals how fragile that image is.

On It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dennis Reynolds's story runs through Dee Reynolds (Twin Sister), Frank Reynolds (Legal Father), Mac (Best Friend and Roommate), Charlie Kelly (Friend), and The Waitress (Old Fling).

Who is Dennis Reynolds?

Dennis is one of the original owners of Paddy's Pub, the struggling Irish bar at the center of the show, where he tends bar alongside his twin sister Dee. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and never lets anyone forget it, and he likes to cast himself as the composed, reasonable member of a deeply unreasonable group.

He grew up believing Frank Reynolds was his father, and in season two he and Dee learn that their biological father is actually Bruce Mathis, though Frank remains their legal father. His closest friend is Mac, whom he lives with for much of the series, and he has known Charlie since high school.

Personality and comedy

Dennis is vain, insecure, and obsessed with how others see him. He has a step-by-step seduction strategy he calls the D.E.N.N.I.S. System, he occasionally declares himself a golden god, and he can shift from smooth charm to a screaming meltdown in seconds when his ego is bruised.

The show enjoys playing with just how dark he might be. Running jokes hint that he is far more dangerous than he lets on, and in one episode he is even diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, a label the Gang handles about as well as you would expect. Usually he casts himself as the voice of reason, right up until someone makes him feel small.

Key storylines

Dennis walks the Gang through his seduction method, letter by letter, in "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System." In the season six premiere he impulsively marries his high school crush, Maureen Ponderosa, and divorces her almost immediately, and that marriage comes back to haunt him in "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer," a true crime parody in which he becomes the prime suspect in her death.

In the season twelve finale, "Dennis' Double Life," he learns he fathered a son with a woman he met during a North Dakota layover on the Gang's cross-country flight, and he leaves Paddy's to help raise the boy. His exit does not last: the season thirteen premiere finds the Gang trying to replace him, and Dennis is back in Philadelphia by the end of the episode.

Behind the scenes and legacy

Glenn Howerton co-developed It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with creator Rob McElhenney and is one of its writers, producers, and showrunners, so Dennis is shaped in part by the actor himself. Howerton has played him in every season since the 2005 premiere.

The show became the longest-running live-action American sitcom by number of seasons when its fifteenth season premiered in 2021. Dennis's moments, especially his unsettling explanation of "the implication" in "The Gang Buys a Boat," are among its most quoted scenes.

Dennis Reynolds: frequently asked questions

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