List of Raising Hope characters

This is a list of fictional characters in the television series Raising Hope. The article deals with the series' main, recurring and guest stars.

James Bon Jovi Chance, commonly known as Jimmy, played by Lucas Neff, Hope's father. A good-natured, wide-eyed 23-year-old who is clueless about raising a child and everything else. He met and had a one-night stand with Lucy Carlyle, resulting in her pregnancy and the birth of Hope. He did not know Carlyle was a serial killer until the next morning and had no idea she was pregnant with Hope until seven months later when Lucy contacted him. He works for his father's landscaping and pool cleaning business, and later gets a second job as a bagger at Howdy's, an Old West themed grocery store, where he meets his future wife, Sabrina Collins. Jimmy is harmless and kindhearted, but dimwitted, which is implied to be a result of his parents' inept care. He is a talented artist and in Season 2 Episode 1, it was revealed that he used to have musical talent when he was young (Teen singer Greyson Chance played 13-year old Jimmy in the episodes "Prodigy" and "Inside Probe") . When he was a teenager, he went through a phase where he dressed like a goth, and it is revealed that Sabrina was attracted to his "Drakar Noire" personality. In Season 3, he marries Sabrina and moves in with her. Five-year old Jimmy is played by Trace Garcia, Greg Garcia's son.

Virginia Slims Chance (née Thompson) played by Martha Plimpton. Hope's paternal grandmother, Jimmy's mother, and Burt's wife. She is sarcastic and frequently utters malaprops. When she was younger, she had a scoliosis and had to wear a back brace, but she claims that having sex with Burt cured her of it. Virginia conceived Jimmy when she was fifteen (he was born on prom night). Her mother wanted to be a swinger and left her when she was two years old, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother, Maw Maw, who told Virginia that her mother had died when she'd fallen and hit her head on a lawn ornament in the form of a duck. In the pilot, she is shown chainsmoking, but she quits in the second episode and gives Jimmy her cigarette money to pay for Hope's daycare. Virginia works as a housecleaner in upper middle/upper-class houses. For her performance as Virginia in the first season, Martha Plimpton was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Teenage Virginia is played by Kelly Heyer.

Engelburt Jebbidiah "Burt" Chance played by Garret Dillahunt. Hope's paternal grandfather, Jimmy's father, and Virginia's husband. Burt conceived Jimmy with Virginia when he was seventeen. He is dimwitted, with flights of fancy and delusions of grandeur, but very kindhearted. He is a recovered gambling-addict and he runs a lawn care/pool cleaning business with Jimmy as his assistant, working shirtless to get more tips from the bored middle-aged housewives watching. As a teenager, he wanted to be a rockstar, and he is often shown playing his guitar, performing several songs throughout the series and fulfilling a lifelong dream by playing alongside washed up rock star Smokey Floyd in the episode "Burt Rocks", later bashing Floyd over the head for verbally abusing his granddaughter (becoming a minor celebrity in the process).

Played by identical twins Baylie and Rylie Cregut, Hope Chance (born Princess Beyonce Carlyle), Jimmy and Lucy's daughter, Virginia and Burt's granddaughter and Maw Maw's great-great-granddaughter. Hope was conceived in Jimmy's van when he went out to get bubblegum ice cream and met a distressed Lucy Carlyle with whom he had a one-night stand. Hope is shown to be very intelligent, which she likely gets from her mother, as she was able to figure out a shape-sorter toy when she was two (Jimmy wasn't able to do it even when he was four) and pass a GED test by randomly filling in the dots. At one point, she scared her family by showing violent tendencies that made them think she was going to become a serial killer like her biological mother; but they realized that Lucy was a serial killer because she suppressed her anger and let it out drastically by killing. They subsequently decide that if they let Hope release her anger normally, she'd be just fine.

Sabrina Marie Chance (née Collins) played by Shannon Woodward, Jimmy's co-worker at Howdy's despite coming from a rich family. She spends most of her time drawing on cantaloupes and mixing up the cereals and soup cans. In Season 1, Sabrina immediately catches Jimmy's attention, but she has a boyfriend, Wyatt, who is studying Finance in New York. In the season two episode, Jimmy's Fake Girlfriend, she breaks up with Wyatt after realizing how selfish he is, and starts dating Jimmy. In season three, she marries Jimmy and they move into her grandmother's old house. In Squeak means Squeak, she reveals that she is worried about her ability to be a parent to Hope, but after Hope calls her "mommy", she becomes more confident in herself. After acting as her mother for close to a year, Sabrina legally adopts Hope in the season four episode, Adoption. She is extremely nearsighted but usually wears contact lenses.

Barbara June "Maw Maw" Thompson played by Cloris Leachman. Virginia's 84-year-old grandmother, Jimmy's great-grandmother, and Hope's great-great-grandmother, who owns the American Craftsman house at 3300 Bradley Avenue where the Chances all live. Maw Maw appears to have dementia and has only short-lived moments of lucidity in which she can be very helpful or very angry about the entire family living in her house. Her moments of lucidity are random, and each member of the household has revolving "dibs" on a task they would like her to accomplish during these times. A "Special Guest Star" in Season 1, in subsequent seasons her billing read, "And Introducing Cloris Leachman as Maw Maw," joking about Leachman's decades-long career in comedy. Leachman also played the character of Norma June, Maw Maw's long-estranged, presumed deceased (even Norma June believes she is dead) 104-year-old mother, in the Season 3 finale, "Mother's Day", in which both women argue, then reconcile, after which Norma June passes away peacefully in the bathroom. For the first season, Leachman was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

Barney Hughes (Gregg Binkley) is the manager of Howdy's, the store where Jimmy and Sabrina work. He used to be grossly overweight but he had gastric bypass surgery. He is divorced and his distress over it resurfaces in several episodes. He was raised by a lesbian couple, their unorthodox parenting style also contributing to his quirky personality. He likes to collect dolls and pig figurines, among other eccentricities. He had a brief relationship with Sabrina's Aunt Maxine. Like Burt, he is a recovered gambling addict, with the former convincing him to give in to his old vice. He was a recurring character for the first season and got promoted to main cast for the rest of the series.