Gru wanted to be the greatest villain in the world. He had a lair under a suburban house, an army of small yellow henchmen and a plan to steal the Moon. What he didn't have was three orphan girls, and adopting them as part of a heist was the worst decision of his criminal career and the best decision of his life.
Illumination's Despicable Me (2010) turned that setup into one of the biggest animated franchises of its era: four main films, two Minions prequels and a third Minions film in 2026. This guide is about Gru and the people around him: his family, his colleagues at the Anti-Villain League, his rivals and the villain of every film. If you're mainly after Kevin, Stuart, Bob and the other henchmen, our dedicated Minions character guide covers them one by one.
- Studio
- Illumination, distributed by Universal Pictures
- First film
- Despicable Me (2010), directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
- Main films
- Despicable Me 1–4 (2010, 2013, 2017, 2024)
- Prequels
- Minions (2015), Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), plus a third Minions film (2026)
- Lead
- Gru, voiced by Steve Carell
- Minion voices
- Pierre Coffin
Gru and his family
The heart of the franchise is a family that assembled itself by accident. Use the chips to filter by film or group.
Gru
Former supervillain · Anti-Villain League agent · Dad
Gru is tall, bald, wrapped in a striped scarf and fond of freeze rays. He grew up starved of approval from his mother and decided that the way to be noticed was to do something enormous and terrible. Over the first film the girls wear down his defences, and by the end he cares more about a ballet recital than about the Moon. The sequels turn him into a reluctant secret agent and a husband, and Despicable Me 4 puts him in the position his mother once was in: trying to win over a child who doesn't seem to like him.
- Voice
- Steve Carell
Margo
Eldest daughter
Margo is the oldest of the three sisters, and she's the one who doesn't trust Gru at first. She has seen adopters return children before, so she's guarded and protective of Edith and Agnes. Her glasses and dry comebacks make her the most grown-up person in many scenes. In Despicable Me 2 she has her first crush, on Antonio, and Gru handles it about as calmly as you'd expect.
- Voice
- Miranda Cosgrove
Edith
Middle daughter
Edith wears a pink knit hat and has a taste for anything dangerous. She's the sister who wants to touch the weapons, explore the lab and see what happens if you push the red button. That makes her the one who bonds most easily with the Minions. Her mischief hides a lot of loyalty, and she's quick to fight for her sisters.
- Voice
- Dana Gaier
Agnes
Youngest daughter
Agnes is small, sincere and obsessed with unicorns. She believes completely in good things, and Gru finds that impossible to argue with. Many of the series' most heartfelt beats run through her: the bedtime story she makes Gru read, her wish for a mum in the second film, and her unicorn hunt in the third. She is the reason most people remember the first film as sweet rather than cynical.
- Voice
- Elsie Fisher (DM1–2), Nev Scharrel (DM3–4)
Lucy Wilde
Anti-Villain League agent · Gru's wife
Lucy is an energetic, gadget-happy spy who recruits Gru for the Anti-Villain League in Despicable Me 2, after first knocking him out with a lipstick taser. She's impulsive where Gru is stubborn, and the two end the film married. Despicable Me 3 gives her a quieter arc about learning to be a mother to three girls she didn't raise from birth.
- Voice
- Kristen Wiig
Gru Jr.
Gru and Lucy's baby son
Gru Jr. arrives in Despicable Me 4 as a baby who adores his mother and the Minions and refuses to give his father an inch. The running joke is that Gru, a man who once shrank the Moon, cannot get his own son to smile at him. Their slow truce is the emotional thread of the fourth film.
Dru
Gru's twin brother
Dru is Gru's long-lost twin, raised by their father in Freedonia on what looks like a pig farm. He's cheerful, wealthy and blessed with thick blond hair, and he desperately wants to carry on the family's villainous tradition, which he is terrible at. He gives Gru a mirror image to bounce off: what Gru might have been if he'd grown up loved but sheltered.
- Voice
- Steve Carell
Marlena Gru
Gru's mother
Marlena is a cool, unimpressed woman who met every one of young Gru's achievements with a shrug. Flashbacks to her reactions explain a lot about why her son decided to steal the Moon. She is still the same breezy, hard-to-impress mother whenever the films check in on her, and Gru still visibly wants her approval.
- Voice
- Julie Andrews
Kyle
Gru's pet
Kyle is Gru's "dog," a toothy, round creature of no clear species who growls at strangers and has to be coaxed off people's legs. He's a small gag in each film, but he sets the tone of Gru's house in the very first act: nothing in it is quite normal.
Allies, colleagues and the Minions
Gru has never managed a heist or a mission alone. These are the people, and creatures, who keep him going.
Dr. Nefario
Gru's elderly inventor
Nefario is the hard-of-hearing scientist who builds Gru's weapons and gadgets, and occasionally the wrong thing entirely after mishearing an order. He takes Gru's turn toward fatherhood personally in the first two films, since it means less villainy for him, and he briefly defects to El Macho in Despicable Me 2. The Rise of Gru shows him younger, working at a record shop before he signs up with his future boss.
- Voice
- Russell Brand (DM1, DM2, Rise of Gru)
The Minions
Gru's henchmen
Hundreds of yellow, goggle-wearing creatures who exist to serve the biggest villain they can find. They chose Gru as a child and never left. For the films, they're the slapstick engine and the family's babysitters, test subjects and backing band. Kevin, Stuart, Bob, Dave, Jerry, Mel and Otto get the most screen time; see the Minions guide for each one.
- Voice
- Pierre Coffin
The Mega Minions
Super-powered Minions
In Despicable Me 4 the Anti-Villain League turns five Minions into purple-suited superheroes with powers like flight, laser eyes and stretchy limbs. They're enthusiastic and mostly useless, which is the joke, but they have a part to play in the finale.
Silas Ramsbottom
Director of the Anti-Villain League
Silas is the stiff, very British head of the AVL who brings Gru in to help find a stolen chemical in Despicable Me 2. The Minions find his name hilarious every time they hear it. He turns up again in Despicable Me 4.
- Voice
- Steve Coogan
Valerie Da Vinci
New AVL director
Valerie takes over the AVL in Despicable Me 3 and, unimpressed after Gru and Lucy fail to catch Balthazar Bratt, fires them both. She's a minor character, but her decision sets the plot moving and sends Gru off to meet his twin.
- Voice
- Jenny Slate
Miss Hattie
Orphanage owner
Miss Hattie runs Miss Hattie's Home for Girls, where she treats Margo, Edith and Agnes as unpaid cookie-selling labour and punishes them with the "box of shame." Gru's eagerness to rescue the girls from her is an early sign he's softer than he lets on.
- Voice
- Kristen Wiig
Mr. Perkins
President of the Bank of Evil
Perkins runs the bank that funds supervillain schemes, and he won't lend Gru a penny until he's stolen the shrink ray. He's also Vector's father, and he clearly prefers his son's ambition to Gru's track record.
- Voice
- Will Arnett
Antonio
El Macho's son
Antonio is the smooth teenager who catches Margo's eye in Despicable Me 2. Gru finds him suspicious from the start, partly from instinct and partly from jealousy, and he isn't wrong about the family.
- Voice
- Moisés Arias
Floyd Eaglesan
Wig shop owner
Floyd runs Eagle Hair Club at the mall where Gru and Lucy go undercover, and he's Gru's first suspect in the PX-41 case. He's a red herring with a lot of hair products.
- Voice
- Ken Jeong
Poppy Prescott
Teenage neighbour · Aspiring villain
Poppy lives next door to the family's safe house in Despicable Me 4. She knows exactly who Gru is, and she blackmails him into helping with a heist at his old villain school so that she can prove herself. She is a funny inversion of Gru's own childhood: a kid who idolises the villain he no longer is.
- Voice
- Joey King
Villains in every film
Each main film pairs Gru with a rival who is more ridiculous than him, which lets him stay the hero without becoming bland. The Minions page covers Scarlet Overkill and the Vicious 6 from the prequels in more depth.
Vector
Rival villain · Despicable Me
Vector, real name Victor Perkins, is a nerdy young villain in an orange tracksuit who opens the film by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza. He has a squid launcher, a piranha gun and a fortress Gru can't break into, until the girls arrive selling cookies. He's the first film's proof that Gru's style of villainy is going out of fashion.
- Voice
- Jason Segel
El Macho
Supervillain · Despicable Me 2
El Macho, alias restaurant owner Eduardo Pérez, was a legendary villain who supposedly died riding a shark strapped with dynamite into a volcano. In fact he faked his death and plans to use a mutagen to turn Minions into purple, indestructible monsters. He tries hard to recruit Gru as a partner, which is what makes the film's ending land.
- Voice
- Benjamin Bratt
Balthazar Bratt
Former child star · Despicable Me 3
Bratt starred in a 1980s TV show as a kid villain, and when puberty got the show cancelled he decided to become his character for real. He fights with dance moves, bubblegum and a keytar, and he plans to get revenge on Hollywood. He's the series' broadest villain and a deliberate parody of 1980s pop culture.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Maxime Le Mal
Gru's school rival · Despicable Me 4
Maxime was Gru's classmate at their villain school, and he has never got over Gru humiliating him at a talent show. After Gru helps arrest him at a reunion, Maxime escapes prison to take revenge, and the family has to go into hiding. He has turned himself into part man, part cockroach, which gives the film its most memorable horror-comedy beats.
- Voice
- Will Ferrell
Valentina
Maxime's partner
Valentina is Maxime's glamorous girlfriend, and much of the time she's the more competent half of the pair. She is openly contemptuous of suburban life, which makes it funnier when she has to pass through it.
- Voice
- Sofía Vergara
Scarlet Overkill
First female supervillain · Minions
Scarlet is the 1968 villain whom Kevin, Stuart and Bob choose as their boss before they find Gru. She plans to steal the Crown of England, and she turns on the Minions when Bob accidentally gets the crown first. Gru appears only briefly at the end of this film, as a small boy.
- Voice
- Sandra Bullock
Belle Bottom
Leader of the Vicious 6 · The Rise of Gru
Belle takes over the Vicious 6 after the group throws out its founder, Wild Knuckles. When 11-year-old Gru applies to join and then steals their prized Zodiac Stone, she makes him a target. Her disco style matches the film's 1970s setting.
- Voice
- Taraji P. Henson
Wild Knuckles
Founder of the Vicious 6 · Gru's mentor
Wild Knuckles is Gru's childhood hero. After he's betrayed by his own gang, he kidnaps young Gru, but the two end up forming a real bond. It's Gru's first experience of being taken seriously by an adult, and it shapes the kind of villain, and later father, he becomes.
- Voice
- Alan Arkin
Despicable Me voice cast
Illumination has kept its main cast together for over a decade, with one notable change: the youngest daughter, Agnes, was recast as the original actor grew up.
| Character | Voice actor | Films |
|---|---|---|
| Gru | Steve Carell | All films |
| Dru | Steve Carell | DM3 |
| Lucy Wilde | Kristen Wiig | DM2, DM3, DM4 |
| Margo | Miranda Cosgrove | DM1–4 |
| Edith | Dana Gaier | DM1–4 |
| Agnes | Elsie Fisher / Nev Scharrel | DM1–2 / DM3–4 |
| Dr. Nefario | Russell Brand | DM1, DM2, Rise of Gru |
| Marlena Gru | Julie Andrews | DM1, DM3, Rise of Gru |
| The Minions | Pierre Coffin | All films |
| Vector | Jason Segel | DM1 |
| Mr. Perkins | Will Arnett | DM1 |
| Miss Hattie | Kristen Wiig | DM1 |
| El Macho | Benjamin Bratt | DM2 |
| Silas Ramsbottom | Steve Coogan | DM2, DM4 |
| Floyd Eaglesan | Ken Jeong | DM2 |
| Antonio | Moisés Arias | DM2 |
| Balthazar Bratt | Trey Parker | DM3 |
| Valerie Da Vinci | Jenny Slate | DM3 |
| Maxime Le Mal | Will Ferrell | DM4 |
| Valentina | Sofía Vergara | DM4 |
| Poppy Prescott | Joey King | DM4 |
| Scarlet Overkill | Sandra Bullock | Minions |
| Herb Overkill | Jon Hamm | Minions |
| Belle Bottom | Taraji P. Henson | Rise of Gru |
| Wild Knuckles | Alan Arkin | Rise of Gru |
| Master Chow | Michelle Yeoh | Rise of Gru |
Steve Carell playing both twins in the third film is one of several double roles in the series; Kristen Wiig, for instance, voiced the orphanage owner Miss Hattie years before she was cast as Lucy. Our voice actors directory tracks more animation cast overlaps like these.
Film by film: who appears where
Each film adds a few characters to Gru's household and sends one villain packing. Here's what each entry contributes.
- 2010 Despicable Me — Gru plans to shrink and steal the Moon, adopts Margo, Edith and Agnes to get inside Vector's fortress, and finds he'd rather keep the girls. Introduces Nefario, Marlena, Miss Hattie, Mr. Perkins and Kyle.
- 2013 Despicable Me 2 — Gru has gone straight. Lucy Wilde recruits him into the Anti-Villain League to find a stolen mutagen, leading to El Macho and a wave of purple Minions. Ends with Gru and Lucy's wedding.
- 2015 Minions — a prequel set mostly in 1968. Kevin, Stuart and Bob search for a new master and land with Scarlet Overkill. Gru appears only as a child at the end.
- 2017 Despicable Me 3 — Gru and Lucy lose their AVL jobs, Gru discovers his twin Dru, and the family travels to Freedonia while Balthazar Bratt plots revenge. Agnes goes looking for a real unicorn.
- 2022 Minions: The Rise of Gru — 1976. Eleven-year-old Gru tries to join the Vicious 6, steals the Zodiac Stone and gets kidnapped by Wild Knuckles. Otto, Master Chow and young Nefario join the story.
- 2024 Despicable Me 4 — Maxime Le Mal escapes prison, the family hides out under new identities in a quiet town, and Gru tries to bond with baby Gru Jr. Introduces Poppy and the Mega Minions.
- 2026 A third Minions film — the latest entry in the series. This guide sticks to the six films above.
Gru and the Minions: how the partnership works
People often search for "Gru and the Minions" as if they're a double act, and in a way they are. The Minions picked Gru, not the other way round. The Rise of Gru shows them signing up with a child who has a lair in his mother's basement, years before he's any kind of threat. They stay because they love him, and he treats them less like staff than like a big, chaotic workforce he's proud of. He knows many of them by name, throws them parties and sends them on missions with complete confidence and very little planning.
That loyalty gets tested in each film. In Despicable Me 2 many of them are kidnapped and mutated. In Despicable Me 3 they quit when Gru refuses to return to crime and end up in prison, which they treat as a holiday. They always come back. In a series about a man becoming a better father, the Minions stay exactly the same, and that gives the films a fixed point.
Themes: a villain who becomes a dad
Under the gadgets, the franchise tells one story over and over: a person learning to be a parent by doing it badly first. Gru was raised by a mother who never praised him, so he hungered for approval and chose crime to get it. The girls give him something more valuable, unconditional affection, and they don't care whether he steals the Moon. That turn is why Gru shows up on lists of animation's best redemption arcs.
- Found family. Gru, three orphans, a spy, an elderly scientist and hundreds of Minions are a textbook found family. Lucy's arc in the third film is about earning a place in it.
- Villainy as a career. The series treats being evil as a job with banks, schools, trade fairs and reunions. Gru's rivals are mostly more successful villains, which keeps him sympathetic. Our guide to villain types shows how each rival fits a familiar mould.
- Parents and children. Marlena and Gru, Gru and the girls, Gru and Gru Jr., Gru and his absent father: nearly every relationship in the series is a parent trying to reach a child.
Illumination's light, slapstick-first approach also makes a useful contrast with the more melancholy casts at Pixar and the fairy-tale parodies at DreamWorks.
All Despicable Me character names A–Z
A–B
- Agnes — youngest daughter
- Antonio — El Macho's son (DM2)
- Balthazar Bratt — villain (DM3)
- Belle Bottom — Vicious 6 leader (Rise of Gru)
- Bob — Minion
D–E
- Dr. Nefario — Gru's inventor
- Dru — Gru's twin (DM3)
- Edith — middle daughter
- El Macho — villain (DM2)
F–H
- Floyd Eaglesan — wig shop owner (DM2)
- Gru — lead
- Gru Jr. — Gru's son (DM4)
- Herb Overkill — Scarlet's husband (Minions)
K–L
- Kevin — Minion
- Kyle — Gru's pet
- Lucy Wilde — AVL agent, Gru's wife
M
- Margo — eldest daughter
- Marlena Gru — Gru's mother
- Master Chow — kung fu teacher (Rise of Gru)
- Maxime Le Mal — villain (DM4)
- Mega Minions — super-powered Minions (DM4)
- Miss Hattie — orphanage owner (DM1)
- Mr. Perkins — Bank of Evil (DM1)
O–P
- Otto — Minion (Rise of Gru)
- Poppy Prescott — neighbour (DM4)
S
- Scarlet Overkill — villain (Minions)
- Silas Ramsbottom — AVL director
- Stuart — Minion
V–W
- Valentina — Maxime's partner (DM4)
- Valerie Da Vinci — AVL director (DM3)
- Vector — villain (DM1)
- Wild Knuckles — Vicious 6 founder (Rise of Gru)
Frequently asked questions
Who are the main Despicable Me characters?
The core cast is Gru, the supervillain turned dad; his adopted daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes; his wife Lucy Wilde, an Anti-Villain League agent; his inventor Dr. Nefario; and the Minions, led on screen by Kevin, Stuart and Bob. Gru Jr., Gru and Lucy's baby son, joins in Despicable Me 4.
What are the names of Gru's three girls?
Margo is the oldest and the most sensible, Edith is the middle child who loves danger and pranks, and Agnes is the youngest, famous for her love of unicorns. Gru adopts all three from Miss Hattie's orphanage in the first film.
Are Gru and the Minions in the same movies?
Yes. The Minions work for Gru in all four Despicable Me films. The two Minions prequels are set before he became a famous villain: in Minions (2015) he appears only briefly as a boy, and in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) an 11-year-old Gru is a lead alongside Kevin, Stuart, Bob and Otto.
Who voices Gru?
Steve Carell has voiced Gru in every film, using an accent he has described as a mix of Eastern European influences. He also voices Gru's twin brother Dru in Despicable Me 3.
Who is Gru's brother?
Dru, his long-lost twin, introduced in Despicable Me 3. The brothers were separated as babies when their parents divorced, with Dru raised by their father in the country of Freedonia. Dru has a full head of blond hair and a lot of money, and he wants Gru to teach him how to be a villain.
What order should I watch the Despicable Me movies in?
Release order works best: Despicable Me (2010), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Minions (2015), Despicable Me 3 (2017), Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) and Despicable Me 4 (2024). For story order, watch the two Minions prequels first, since they're set in 1968 and 1976.