Shrek is an ogre who wants to be left alone in his swamp. When a tiny tyrant called Lord Farquaad dumps every fairy-tale creature in the kingdom on his doorstep, Shrek strikes a deal to get his swamp back: he'll rescue a princess from a dragon-guarded tower. A donkey who won't stop talking comes along for the ride, and the princess has a secret of her own.
DreamWorks Animation's Shrek (2001), loosely based on William Steig's picture book, won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and grew into four main films and two Puss in Boots spin-offs. Its cast is a running parody of fairy tales and of Disney in particular. This guide covers the main four, the fairy-tale creatures, the royals of Far Far Away, each film's villain and the Puss in Boots films. For the studio's other casts, see our DreamWorks characters hub.
- Studio
- DreamWorks Animation
- Based on
- Shrek! by William Steig (1990)
- Main films
- Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010)
- Spin-offs
- Puss in Boots (2011), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
- Leads
- Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas
- Next
- Shrek 5, announced, with Zendaya joining the cast
Main characters
Four characters carry the series. Use the chips to filter the whole cast by film or by group.
Shrek
Ogre · Reluctant hero
Shrek is big, green, bad-tempered and perfectly happy alone in his swamp, or so he tells himself. He has spent his life being chased by villagers with torches and has decided to scare people before they can reject him. The first film is about letting Donkey and Fiona past his layers; the sequels test his marriage, his fear of fatherhood and, in Shrek Forever After, his nostalgia for being a feared ogre.
- Voice
- Mike Myers
Donkey
Shrek's best friend
Donkey is a talking donkey who escapes Farquaad's guards and attaches himself to Shrek, mostly because Shrek is the first person who doesn't want to sell him. He never stops talking, singing or asking if they're there yet, and he's far more perceptive about feelings than Shrek. His romance with Dragon is one of the series' best running jokes.
- Voice
- Eddie Murphy
Princess Fiona
Princess of Far Far Away · Shrek's wife
Fiona has spent years in a tower waiting for a fairy-tale rescue, and she's dismayed when her rescuer turns out to be an ogre. She's also a skilled martial artist with a curse: by night she turns into an ogre herself. The first film ends with her choosing that form for good. In later films she leads her fellow princesses in a jailbreak and, in an alternate world, an ogre resistance army.
- Voice
- Cameron Diaz
Puss in Boots
Swashbuckling outlaw cat
Puss is a Spanish-accented cat with a feathered hat, a rapier and a dramatic opinion of himself. King Harold hires him to kill Shrek in Shrek 2, but he switches sides almost immediately. His secret weapon is an enormous, pleading eyes routine that disarms anyone. He's popular enough to lead two films of his own.
- Voice
- Antonio Banderas
Dragon
Fiona's former guard · Donkey's partner
Dragon is the huge, fire-breathing guardian of Fiona's castle, who falls for Donkey when he flatters her to save his life. She doesn't speak, but she switches sides in the finale and eats Lord Farquaad. She and Donkey later have a family of flying hybrid babies.
Farkle, Fergus and Felicia
Shrek and Fiona's triplets
The ogre triplets are born at the end of Shrek the Third, after a film-long nightmare about fatherhood for Shrek. In Shrek Forever After their constant demands help push him into his bad bargain. Felicia is set to appear as a teenager in Shrek 5.
Fairy-tale creatures
These are the evicted creatures who first invade Shrek's swamp, and they keep showing up to help ever since. Most of them are parodies of a single nursery rhyme or story.
Gingy
The Gingerbread Man
Gingy is a small, feisty cookie whom Farquaad tortures for information in the first film. He's tougher than he looks and he gets some of the series' sharpest lines. In Shrek 2 he's part of the plan that bakes a giant gingerbread man called Mongo to storm the castle.
- Voice
- Conrad Vernon
Pinocchio
Wooden puppet
Pinocchio is the nose-growing puppet, and the others regularly use his nose as a tool. In Shrek the Third he twists his words to avoid lying to Prince Charming, which becomes a standout scene.
- Voice
- Cody Cameron
The Three Little Pigs
Brothers with German accents
The three pigs are a small, tough trio who speak with German accents and fight together as a unit. They're usually somewhere near the Big Bad Wolf, with whom they've made an uneasy peace.
- Voice
- Cody Cameron
The Big Bad Wolf
Wolf in Grandma's nightgown
The Wolf moves into Shrek's bed in the first film still wearing Grandma's nightgown, and he never takes it off. He's laid-back, not threatening, and part of every rescue squad.
- Voice
- Aron Warner
The Three Blind Mice
Sightless trio
The mice wear dark glasses and constantly crash into things. Their slapstick is the first sign that the film isn't going to treat nursery rhymes gently.
Magic Mirror
Talking mirror
The mirror presents Farquaad with a dating-show line-up of princesses in the first film and later works for the gang as a sort of television.
- Voice
- Chris Miller
Doris
Ugly stepsister · Bartender
Doris runs the bar at the Poison Apple tavern in Far Far Away and becomes one of Fiona's friends. She's a gentle parody of Cinderella's stepsisters.
- Voice
- Larry King (US), Jonathan Ross (UK)
The royals of Far Far Away
Shrek 2 takes the newlyweds to meet Fiona's parents in a kingdom that's a send-up of Hollywood glamour. Shrek the Third adds a search for an heir and a group of Fiona's princess friends.
King Harold
Fiona's father
Harold is horrified to find his daughter married to an ogre, and he's under the Fairy Godmother's thumb because of an old deal. Shrek 2 reveals that he was once a frog, transformed by her magic, and he comes around to his son-in-law.
- Voice
- John Cleese
Queen Lillian
Fiona's mother
Lillian is calm, gracious and accepting of Shrek from the start. In Shrek the Third she reveals a surprising skill at breaking down walls, literally.
- Voice
- Julie Andrews
Artie
Arthur Pendragon · Heir to the throne
Artie is a picked-on teenager at a medieval boarding school who turns out to be next in line for Far Far Away's throne. Shrek sees a lot of his own self-doubt in him, and their relationship is a practice run for fatherhood.
- Voice
- Justin Timberlake
Merlin
Retired wizard
Merlin is Artie's eccentric former teacher, now living alone in the woods. His spells mostly go wrong, including one that swaps Puss and Donkey's bodies.
- Voice
- Eric Idle
The princesses
Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel
Fiona's friends in Shrek the Third are spoofs of classic fairy-tale heroines. They start out helpless and end up taking back the castle together, all except Rapunzel, who sides with Prince Charming.
- Voice
- Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, Cheri Oteri, Maya Rudolph
Villains in every film
Lord Farquaad
Ruler of Duloc · Shrek
Farquaad is a short, insecure ruler who has built a spotless, theme-park-style kingdom by banishing everything magical. He wants to marry a princess so he can become king, but he won't risk the rescue himself, so he sends Shrek. His fate in the first film is a single gulp from Dragon.
- Voice
- John Lithgow
Fairy Godmother
Magic-potion tycoon · Shrek 2
The Fairy Godmother runs a business making dreams come true, as long as it serves her. She expects Fiona to marry her son, Prince Charming, as Harold once promised, and she'll use potions, threats and a show-stopping song to make it happen. She's a sharp parody of Disney's kindly godmothers.
- Voice
- Jennifer Saunders
Prince Charming
Fairy Godmother's son
Charming is the vain prince who arrived at Fiona's tower too late and blames Shrek for stealing his happy ending. In Shrek 2 he poses as Shrek to win Fiona. In Shrek the Third he's a struggling dinner-theatre actor who rallies the kingdom's forgotten villains to seize Far Far Away.
- Voice
- Rupert Everett
Captain Hook
Pirate villain
Hook is the best known of the fairy-tale villains who join Charming's coup in Shrek the Third. Like the rest of Charming's army, he's a storybook baddie who is tired of always losing and wants a story where the villains win.
- Voice
- Ian McShane
Rumpelstiltskin
Deal-maker · Shrek Forever After
Rumpelstiltskin is a small, wig-wearing con artist who nearly got Far Far Away from Harold and Lillian in a magic contract. Shrek's rescue of Fiona ruined that. When a frustrated Shrek wishes for one day as a real ogre again, Rumpel's contract erases the day Shrek was born, leaving Rumpel in charge of a ruined kingdom.
- Voice
- Walt Dohrn
Cookie and Brogan
Ogre resistance · Shrek Forever After
In the alternate world, Fiona leads a band of ogres hiding from Rumpel's witches. Cookie is the resistance's chef and Brogan is one of its fighters, and both treat Shrek with suspicion at first.
- Voice
- Craig Robinson (Cookie), Jon Hamm (Brogan)
Puss in Boots films
Puss got his own prequel in 2011 and a sequel in 2022. Both are set before he met Shrek and introduce a separate cast drawn from other nursery rhymes and folk tales.
Kitty Softpaws
Cat burglar
Kitty is a declawed thief who can outfight Puss and outsteal everyone. She's his partner and rival in the first film and returns as an uneasy ally in The Last Wish, where the two have to decide whether they can trust each other.
- Voice
- Salma Hayek
Humpty Dumpty
Puss's childhood friend
Humpty grew up with Puss in an orphanage and resents that Puss became a hero while he became a crook. He brings Puss back for a heist involving magic beans and a golden goose.
- Voice
- Zach Galifianakis
The Wolf
Death · The Last Wish
The Wolf is a hooded bounty hunter with twin sickles, who turns out to be Death himself. Puss has carelessly burned through eight of his nine lives, and the Wolf has come to collect the last one. He's one of DreamWorks' most frightening villains.
- Voice
- Wagner Moura
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Crime family
Goldi and the bears are a loving crime family who want the Wishing Star for themselves. Goldi's arc is about realising she already has the family she's wishing for.
- Voice
- Florence Pugh (Goldi), Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo
Big Jack Horner
Magic-hoarding pastry baron
Jack Horner is a grown-up nursery-rhyme boy who collects magical artefacts and wants every bit of magic in the world. He's played for dark comedy: the one character with no redeeming qualities.
- Voice
- John Mulaney
Perrito
Optimistic dog
Perrito is a scruffy little dog disguised as a cat, whose relentless good nature survives a sad past. He becomes Puss's unexpected friend and the emotional heart of The Last Wish.
- Voice
- Harvey Guillén
Shrek voice cast
| Character | Voice actor | Films |
|---|---|---|
| Shrek | Mike Myers | Shrek 1–4 |
| Donkey | Eddie Murphy | Shrek 1–4 |
| Princess Fiona | Cameron Diaz | Shrek 1–4 |
| Puss in Boots | Antonio Banderas | Shrek 2–4, both Puss films |
| Lord Farquaad | John Lithgow | Shrek |
| Gingy | Conrad Vernon | Shrek 1–4 |
| King Harold | John Cleese | Shrek 2, Shrek the Third |
| Queen Lillian | Julie Andrews | Shrek 2–4 |
| Fairy Godmother | Jennifer Saunders | Shrek 2 |
| Prince Charming | Rupert Everett | Shrek 2, Shrek the Third |
| Artie | Justin Timberlake | Shrek the Third |
| Merlin | Eric Idle | Shrek the Third |
| Rumpelstiltskin | Walt Dohrn | Shrek Forever After |
| Kitty Softpaws | Salma Hayek | Puss in Boots, The Last Wish |
| Humpty Dumpty | Zach Galifianakis | Puss in Boots |
| The Wolf | Wagner Moura | The Last Wish |
| Goldilocks | Florence Pugh | The Last Wish |
| Big Jack Horner | John Mulaney | The Last Wish |
| Perrito | Harvey Guillén | The Last Wish |
Mike Myers originally recorded Shrek with his normal voice and then asked to re-record the role in a Scottish accent, which is the version everyone knows. Julie Andrews, who plays Queen Lillian, also voices Gru's mother in our Despicable Me guide, and you can find more animation cast crossovers in the voice actors directory.
Watch order
Release order is the simplest way to watch. Both Puss in Boots films are prequels, set before Puss meets Shrek, so you can also watch them first for story order.
- 2001 Shrek — Shrek and Donkey rescue Fiona for Lord Farquaad and find she's not what anyone expected.
- 2004 Shrek 2 — the newlyweds visit Far Far Away, meet Fiona's parents and Puss, and take on the Fairy Godmother.
- 2007 Shrek the Third — Shrek goes looking for Artie, the heir to the throne, while Charming takes over the kingdom.
- 2010 Shrek Forever After — a deal with Rumpelstiltskin sends Shrek into a world where he never existed.
- 2011 Puss in Boots — a prequel heist with Kitty Softpaws and Humpty Dumpty.
- 2022 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish — Puss, on his final life, races rivals to the Wishing Star.
- Upcoming Shrek 5 — announced with the original leads and Zendaya.
What Shrek is about
Shrek arrived as a deliberate jab at fairy-tale conventions, and Disney's in particular. Duloc is a parody of a theme park, the princess knows kung fu, and the ogre is the hero. But the films have lasted because the jokes sit on top of a simple, sincere message: people aren't what they look like, and true love doesn't require anyone to change.
- Shrek and Fiona reverse the usual transformation. Instead of the beast becoming beautiful, the princess stays an ogre, and that's the happy ending.
- Shrek and Donkey form one of animation's great mismatched friendships: a loner and someone who can't stop talking. Compare them with other iconic pairings that start in irritation.
- The villains are fairy-tale figures who did badly out of their stories: the prince who missed his rescue, the godmother whose business depends on happy endings, the dealmaker who almost won. Our guide to villain types breaks down how each fits a pattern.
- The Last Wish took the series somewhere new by making a cartoon cat face his own mortality and learn to value one life over nine.
For a contrast with the fairy-tale casts Shrek parodies, browse our Disney characters guide.
All Shrek character names A–Z
A–B
- Artie — heir to the throne (Shrek 3)
- Big Bad Wolf — fairy-tale creature
- Big Jack Horner — villain (The Last Wish)
- Brogan — ogre resistance (Shrek 4)
C–D
- Captain Hook — villain (Shrek 3)
- Cookie — ogre chef (Shrek 4)
- Donkey — Shrek's best friend
- Doris — ugly stepsister
- Dragon — Donkey's partner
- Dronkeys — Donkey and Dragon's children
F
- Fairy Godmother — villain (Shrek 2)
- Farkle, Fergus and Felicia — ogre triplets
- Fiona — princess, Shrek's wife
G–H
- Gingy — Gingerbread Man
- Goldilocks — crime boss (The Last Wish)
- Humpty Dumpty — villain (Puss in Boots)
K–L
- King Harold — Fiona's father
- Kitty Softpaws — cat burglar (Puss films)
- Lord Farquaad — villain (Shrek)
M–P
- Magic Mirror — talking mirror
- Merlin — wizard (Shrek 3)
- Mongo — giant gingerbread man (Shrek 2)
- Perrito — dog (The Last Wish)
- Pinocchio — wooden puppet
- Prince Charming — villain (Shrek 2–3)
- Puss in Boots — outlaw cat
Q–S
- Queen Lillian — Fiona's mother
- Rapunzel — princess turned traitor (Shrek 3)
- Rumpelstiltskin — villain (Shrek 4)
- Shrek — ogre
T–W
- Three Blind Mice — fairy-tale creatures
- Three Little Pigs — fairy-tale creatures
- The Wolf — Death (The Last Wish)
Frequently asked questions
What are the names of the main Shrek characters?
The four leads are Shrek, the ogre; Donkey, his talkative best friend; Princess Fiona, who becomes Shrek's wife; and Puss in Boots, the swashbuckling cat who joins in Shrek 2. Dragon, Gingy, Pinocchio and the Three Little Pigs are the best-known supporting characters.
Who voices Shrek and Donkey?
Mike Myers voices Shrek, using a Scottish accent, and Eddie Murphy voices Donkey. Cameron Diaz voices Fiona and Antonio Banderas voices Puss in Boots. The four have played the roles throughout the main films.
Who is the villain in each Shrek movie?
Lord Farquaad in Shrek (2001); the Fairy Godmother and her son Prince Charming in Shrek 2 (2004); Prince Charming again, leading a gang of fairy-tale villains, in Shrek the Third (2007); and Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After (2010). In the spin-offs, Humpty Dumpty betrays Puss in Puss in Boots (2011), and Big Jack Horner, Goldilocks's gang and the Wolf all hunt him in The Last Wish (2022).
What is the dragon's name in Shrek?
She's simply called Dragon. She guards Fiona's tower in the first film, falls for Donkey, and later has a brood of flying donkey-dragon hybrids with him, usually called the Dronkeys.
What are the names of Shrek's kids?
Shrek and Fiona's ogre triplets are Farkle, Fergus and Felicia. They're born at the end of Shrek the Third and appear as toddlers in Shrek Forever After. Zendaya has been announced as the voice of a grown-up Felicia in the fifth film.
Is there going to be a Shrek 5?
Yes. DreamWorks has confirmed Shrek 5 with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz returning, and Zendaya joining. Its release date has moved more than once, and it hadn't been released as of this guide's last update, so check current listings.