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All the Major Characters on House, from Seasons 1-8
Dr. House may have been a genius, but he didn't do any of it on his own.
The medical mystery House (streaming now on Peacock) was pitched by creator David Shore as a medical whodunit, loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character. It follows the titular Dr. Gregory House and his team of diagnosticians at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. They work in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, where unsolved medical mysteries go to get solved.
The similarities to Holmes aren’t always immediately clear, despite House living at number 221 for a stretch, but they do see the world in a similar way. Holmes is famous for saying, by way of his author, “once you eliminate the impossible whatever remains no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” And that’s a pretty good way of describing House’s diagnostic strategy of eliminating possible diagnoses until only one, no matter how strange, remains.
RELATED: Remembering the Wild, Twisty Series Finale of House
If House is the Holmes of this eight-season medical drama, then you might be wondering who fills the role of Watson. It’s a good question and the answer isn’t totally clear, but it’s a good bet it’s someone (or many people) on this list.
Who's Who in the Cast of House
Dr. Gregory House
His name is on the title card and it's his POV which dominates the course of the show. House, played by Hugh Laurie, runs the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He’s a bit of a jerk (maybe more than a bit), a narcissist, and just generally unpleasant to be around. But he’s also brilliant, and that buys him more leeway than he deserves.
House is known for unconventional, even illegal or immoral, treatments which recover patients from the brink of death more often than not. He’s an archetype for the tortured genius with an emphasis on tortured. Years before the show begins, House suffers a leg injury which kills the muscle in his thigh and leaves him with chronic pain. Consequently, he struggles throughout the show with an addiction to Vicodin and a sometimes-life-threatening desire to fix himself.
Dr. James Wilson
While some might argue that the combined efforts of the diagnostic team serve as House’s Watson, the leading contender might be his colleague and best friend, Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). In fact, throughout the series, Wilson is House’s only consistent friend, despite Wilson having more reason than anyone to abandon him.
When the show begins, Wilson is the head of the oncology department, but he and House met in jail. Wilson had been going through a painful divorce, lost his cool in a bar, and broke a mirror. House bailed him out and the two of them have been inseparable ever since, for better or worse. Wilson is endlessly loyal to House, to the detriment of his other personal relationships. He’s often the only voice of reason House will listen to, and he tempers some of House’s worst demons.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is the Dean of Medicine and Hospital Administrator at Princeton-Plainsboro. As the ultimate authority figure in the hospital, she is one of House’s biggest rivals, but she’s also the only reason he has a department at all. Cuddy understands House in a way other authority figures (investors, the board, the police) don’t, and she helps to shield him from the consequences of his unorthodox actions.
RELATED: Hugh Laurie: I still love Gregory House, and I always will
Throughout the series, Cuddy struggles to maintain balance between giving House room to operate and staying on the right side of ethics and the law. On multiple occasions, she puts her job on the line to protect patients, even if that usually just means protecting House. In later seasons, Cuddy makes efforts to build a family life outside of the hospital, resulting in a temporary and tumultuous relationship with House. It is perhaps the only period during which House allows himself an attempt at happiness.
Dr. Eric Foreman
Neurological specialist, Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), was introduced in the pilot episode as one of the original three members of House’s diagnostic team. He was hired, at least in part, because of his own misspent youth breaking into houses and stealing cars. House suggests that Foreman’s criminal past is an asset, helping him get into the minds of ill-behaved patients. It’s also something House can hang over his head.
Foreman struggles throughout the series with a growing concern that he is becoming more like House, losing his humanity piece by piece. The truth is, he is like House and there’s a big part of him that likes that. Despite career troubles throughout the series which have him bouncing in and out of House’s orbit, Foreman eventually finds his place as the Dean of Medicine.
Dr. Allison Cameron
An immunology specialist and one of the original trio, Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) was the heart and soul of the diagnostic department. Throughout her tenure in House’s employ, Cameron was often the only one who considered the feelings or desires of the patients. She was also often the only one willing to stand up to House when he stepped too far outside the path of morality.
She carries some baggage from a previous marriage which ended in death, and that baggage prevents her from having lasting relationships with anyone else. Despite that, she and Dr. Chase (more on him in a minute) had a long-term relationship and even got married. It worked out for a while, until Cameron left Princeton-Plainsboro and Chase after finding out just how flexible his moral compass is.
Dr. Robert Chase
Rounding out House’s original team is Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), the heartthrob from Australia. In the beginning, Chase agrees with House nearly by default, displaying an almost giddy enthusiasm for House’s more questionable practices. Despite all that, Chase is fired at the end of Season 3, but stays on as a surgeon at the hospital, allowing him to make the occasional appearance.
RELATED: Hugh Laurie Got His Start in Acting with Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry
Chase later returns to the team in Season 6, and this time he and House butt heads a little more often. That might be because the two of them are more similar than they want to admit. In the episode “The Tyrant,” the team treats a dictator named Dibala (James Earl Jones) who is planning a genocide in his home country. Faced with the looming deaths of millions, Chase intentionally falsified a test, resulting in the patient’s death.
Dr. Remy Hadley
At the beginning of Season 4, all three of the original team have been fired or left of their own accord. Leaving House to his own devices isn’t an option so he auditions a new team and eventually lands himself with a collection of doctors including Dr. Remy Hadley (Olivia Wilde).
She is affectionately(?) known as Thirteen throughout the series. That was her number during the auditions and House never bothered to stop reducing her to digits. Hadley is secretive about her personal life and her past, in part because of her medical history. Her mother died of Huntington’s and her own diagnosis plays an outsized role in her actions and character development.
During and after her tenure on the team, Thirteen struggles with drug abuse and other dangerous behaviors as she deals with the reality of a slow death. She and House maintain a tenuous relationship, even after she leaves the hospital, probably because they are both broken by the things the world has taken from them.
Dr. Chris Taub
Another of the new crew, Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobsen) is a former plastic surgeon turned diagnostician. He is chosen in part for his willingness to stand up to House, a quality Dr. Cuddy favors. Taub enjoyed early success in his career which was stifled by missteps in his personal life. He has a history of cheating on his wife, which cost him his plastic surgery practice and nearly his marriage.
Taub’s dalliances are a consistent boulder in his own path and his dalliances eventually do lead to divorce, though he and his wife maintain an unconventional kinship. When Taub accidentally gets a nurse at the hospital pregnant, he decides to have a go at being a good partner and parent, but not before his old life and old relationships catch up with him.
Dr. Lawrence Kutner
Kal Penn made his first appearance as Dr. Lawrence Kutner in the Season 4 episode “The Right Stuff,” when House was looking for a new team. He gets off to a rocky start; after ratting on another applicant, House fires him, but he isn’t deterred. Instead of leaving, he flips his number 6 into a 9, sticks around, and just keeps working. When he comes up with a good idea, House decides to let him stay, for now.
Of the new crew, Kutner is probably the doctor who most aligns with House’s philosophy of breaking rules and apologizing never. He seems to enjoy working for House more than the rest, but he’s harboring a secret pain. In the episode “Simple Explanation,” Kutner is found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. In reality, the character was written off because Penn accepted a real-life role as a liaison at the White House.
Deduce the identity of Watson for yourself on House, streaming now on Peacock!
