This article provides a list of characters from the American television sitcom Drake & Josh along with a brief synopsis of the time each of them spent on the show. Airing on Nickelodeon from January 11, 2004, to September 16, 2007, Drake & Josh was created by Dan Schneider, who also served as executive producer.

Drake Parker (Drake Bell) is Josh's stepbrother, Megan's older biological brother, Audrey's biological son and Walter's stepson. Drake is depicted as an immature womanizing teenage slacker. Although he often appears unintelligent, his under-achievement seems to be caused by apathy, which leads him to make frequent impulsive decisions. The character Drake has a great interest in music and plays electric guitar in a band. He likes all genres of music including rock and country as seen in "Dance Contest" while he and Josh are seen in cowboy hats. He can also play drums and bongos. He can easily manipulate Josh in order to get what he wants. He has a lot of success with girls, and much of the comedy is his effortless ability to get dates. He often shrugs off the consequences of his actions, acts bitter towards others, plays dirty, lacks respect for them, slacks off at school, and uses other people, which can get him into trouble. Drake feels embarrassed about his new stepbrother at first but grew to accept Josh. Despite his desire to not spend time with Josh, Drake and Josh eventually become close friends and brothers. His character is similar to characters like Jesse Katsopolis from Full House, Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World, Joey Tribbiani from Friends, and Logan Reese from Zoey 101 due to his girl-crazy behavior.

Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) is Drake and Megan's stepbrother, Walter's biological son and Audrey's stepson. Unlike Drake, Josh is knowledgeable, diligent, caring, responsible, a good hard-working student and socially awkward. In the pilot episode, he had a job for the school newspaper in which he wrote advice for students under the name Miss Nancy. He begins working for Helen at the fictional Premiere movie theater in the second season. Unlike Drake, Josh often tries his best in challenging situations, takes things seriously, feels resourceful if he makes mistakes, and uses his common sense, often repeating things for emphasis when anxious. Despite his logical mind and hard-working nature, Josh is prone to bad luck in the first seasons, especially with girls. However, later in the series he begins to date Mindy Crenshaw, his academic rival and later got ahead of her in their graduating class. His hobbies include cooking and performing magic tricks. Later in the series, Josh becomes popular and has better luck as he loses weight and is also Drake's band manager. He is obsessed with Oprah Winfrey and accidentally runs her over with his car in "Josh Runs into Oprah", leading her to get a brief restraining order against him. Peck described his character as having a Jackie Gleason quality, and said, "Not only can Josh do the physical comedy and the pratfalls, but he can also sell a sophisticated joke and a touching moment." His characters are comparable to that of Joey Gladstone from Full House due to his goofiness and sometimes Danny Tanner due to his responsible behavior as well as Michael Barret from Zoey 101 due to his clumsiness and bad luck. He also has similarities to Friends characters like Chandler Bing for his goofiness and Ross Geller for clumsiness.

Audrey Parker-Nichols (Nancy Sullivan) is Drake and Megan's biological mother, Josh's stepmother and Walter's wife. Her first name is never mentioned in the series, although a deleted scene from the series finale would have revealed Audrey. The scene would also specify her profession as a caterer.

She often tells the boys to be more mature. She upsets her husband, Walter, because of her preference for Bruce Winchill, his rival weatherman. Because Walter lacks respect from Megan and Drake, she usually has to punish them, although these punishments are usually unfair because most of the boys' wrongdoings are Megan's fault. As stepmother and stepson, Audrey and Josh have a very close relationship and he affectionately calls her "Mom" or "Mama." She is a nurturing and supportive mother. However, she is a bit gullible when it comes to her daughter Megan, especially when it is Megan's word against Drake and Josh.

Walter Nichols (Jonathan Goldstein) is Josh's biological father, Drake and Megan's stepfather and Audrey's husband. He is a meteorologist for a local TV news program in San Diego, but he is often wrong about the weather. Walter is often slow-witted, awkward, out-of-touch, and old-fashioned. As a result, he lacks the respect of his stepchildren combined with their arrogances, who refer to him by his first name, although they still do call him "dad" at times. When Megan calls him by his first name, he always asks when she started calling me Walter and Audrey replies, "I don't know." He is also oblivious and cynical regarding Megan's pranks, which have caused the boys many punishments. However, starting in the episode "The Demonator," Walter slowly begins to notice Megan's evil ways. A running gag involves a rivalry between him and Bruce Winchill, an unseen weatherman from another station. He hates that Winchill is so popular, as he is always right with his predictions. He even forbids the use of Winchill's name in the family home. His character is comparable to that of Danny Tanner from Full House due to his responsible parenting.

Megan Parker (Miranda Cosgrove) is the younger biological sister of Drake, stepsister of Josh, biological daughter of Audrey and stepdaughter of Walter. Megan often references a best friend named Janie and often refers to her older brothers as "boobs." She is essentially the main antagonist of the series, usually bullies her brothers, although sometimes Megan helps them in episodes like "The Gary Grill", "Honor Council", "The Drake and Josh Inn" and "Drake and Josh: Go Hollywood". It has also been shown that she is very wise and intelligent; she can play very severe, torturous and sometimes complicated (or even potentially dangerous) pranks on her brothers, all while ensuring that her parents think of her as being a sweet, angelic, harmless, and innocent little girl. However, in numerous episodes like “The Bet” and “The Affair,” Megan had made rude remarks to Drake and Josh in front of her mother, who does not intervene, and also in "Really Big Shrimp" when she sassed off to Lula when she rudely demanded Megan guacamole, with Walter intervening instead of her mother. Another episode shows that she has a hidden computerized monitor in her room, giving her surveillance of the house to aid in her pranks against Drake and Josh. Most of the time throughout the series, Megan is very mean-spirited and cruel to her brothers. However, despite her mistreatment of them, Megan loves her brothers deep down. She had shown them genuine love and support when they uncovered that her boyfriend Corey (Christian Vandal) had been cheating on her with another girl named Monica. Although she does get in trouble at times such as in "Treehouse" when she's forced to help rebuild their neighbor's treehouse as a result of her helping Drake and Josh when they asked her for it. Her character is similar to characters like Sam Puckett due to her sassy and violent behavior and Chuck Chambers due to her prankster ways, from Miranda Cosgrove's latter show iCarly as well as Jade West from Victorious both shows of which were created by Dan Schneider as well as Angelica Pickles from Rugrats, D.W. Read from Arthur and Caillou due to her sassy and spoiled bratty behavior.

Helen Ophelia Dubois (Yvette Nicole Brown) is the manager of the Premiere Theater, connected to the Premiere Galleria mall. She is Josh's boss at the theater and is known for her intimidating demeanor, loud voice, and demanding attitude towards employees. She adores Drake but dislikes Josh despite the hard work he puts in at the theater. She starred in the hit 1970's TV series called Happy Times, which is intended to reference the real-life series called 'Good Times'. She married Buzz Baxter in "Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp" but divorced him sometime before Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh after five weeks and starts finally treating Josh with respect. Yvette Nicole Brown played Helen for most of the series, except the Season 2 episode "Little Diva," in which Frances Callier took over the role.