Walter White is fifty, overqualified for his job teaching chemistry, and quietly humiliated by almost everything in his life. Then a doctor tells him he has inoperable lung cancer. Worried about leaving his pregnant wife and teenage son with nothing, he teams up with a former student, a small-time dealer called Jesse Pinkman, and starts cooking the purest methamphetamine Albuquerque has ever seen.
Vince Gilligan famously pitched the show as turning "Mr. Chips into Scarface," and the cast is built around that slow transformation. Every major character either enables Walt, gets damaged by him, or tries to stop him. This guide sorts them into the circles the show draws: Walt and Jesse at the centre, the family, the law, and the criminal organisations Walt collides with.
- Creator
- Vince Gilligan
- Network
- AMC
- Run
- January 2008 – September 2013
- Episodes
- 62 across five seasons
- Setting
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Follow-ups
- Better Call Saul (prequel), El Camino (film)
Walter White and Jesse Pinkman
The whole show rests on this partnership: a teacher and a dropout who need each other, resent each other and, in their own damaged way, care about each other.
Walter White (Heisenberg)
Chemistry teacher · Meth cook · Drug lord
Walt starts the series as a mild man who washes cars after school to make ends meet and once walked away from a company that went on to make other people rich. The cancer diagnosis gives him permission to stop being polite. He insists, for years, that everything he does is for his family, while the show steadily shows us the pride and resentment underneath. Watching his alter ego Heisenberg take over, in a pork-pie hat and sunglasses, is the point of the series.
- Actor
- Bryan Cranston
Jesse Pinkman
Walt's former student · Partner
Jesse is a slacker from a comfortable family who has drifted into dealing and cooking. He looks like comic relief at first, all slang and bravado, but he turns out to be the person in the story with a working conscience. He's hurt again and again by the violence he's dragged into and by Walt's manipulation, and he feels guilt in a way Walt never does. For many viewers Jesse, not Walt, is the heart of Breaking Bad.
- Actor
- Aaron Paul
The White and Schrader families
Walt's double life plays out at the dinner table. His wife's sister is married to a DEA agent, which means the man hunting Heisenberg comes round for barbecues.
Skyler White
Walt's wife
Skyler is pregnant with their second child when the show begins, and she's the first person to notice that Walt's story doesn't add up. She goes from suspicion to confrontation to, in a hard-headed way, taking control of laundering his money through a car wash. She was disliked by a vocal part of the audience at the time; on rewatch she's usually right about everything, and her fear of Walt is entirely justified.
- Actor
- Anna Gunn
Walter White Jr. (Flynn)
Walt and Skyler's son
Walt Jr. is a cheerful teenager who has cerebral palsy, loves breakfast and adores his father. For a stretch he insists on being called Flynn. He's kept in the dark about almost everything, which makes him the clearest measure of what Walt's lies cost the people he says he's protecting.
- Actor
- RJ Mitte
Hank Schrader
DEA agent · Walt's brother-in-law
Hank is loud, macho and fond of crude jokes, and for the first seasons he seems like an easy target for the show's comedy. Then he turns out to be very good at his job. A violent encounter in season three leaves him with injuries and anxiety he hides behind his mineral collection, and his patient pursuit of Heisenberg becomes one of the show's main threads. He's the character who grows most in the audience's estimation.
- Actor
- Dean Norris
Marie Schrader
Skyler's sister · Hank's wife
Marie is a radiology technician who dresses almost entirely in purple and has a habit of shoplifting. She's self-absorbed in a way that gets laughs, but she's fiercely loyal to Hank when he's at his lowest, nursing him through recovery while he pushes everyone away.
- Actor
- Betsy Brandt
Saul Goodman and Walt's associates
As the business grows, Walt and Jesse pick up a crooked lawyer, a team of street dealers and, eventually, people they never should have hired.
Saul Goodman
Criminal lawyer
"Better call Saul!" Saul works out of a strip-mall office with a fake Constitution on the wall and advertises on late-night TV. He's funny, shameless and a lot sharper than his suits suggest: he knows how to launder money, who to call for a new identity and how to keep clients out of court. His real name is Jimmy McGill, and how he became Saul is the subject of the prequel Better Call Saul.
- Actor
- Bob Odenkirk
Badger and Skinny Pete
Jesse's friends · Street dealers
Badger (Brandon Mayhew) and Skinny Pete are Jesse's loyal, perpetually stoned friends. They drift between comic scenes, like a long debate about Star Trek, and genuine danger when the business gets serious. They're also two of the few people who stand by Jesse when he has nothing.
- Actors
- Matt Jones and Charles Baker
Combo
Jesse's dealer friend
Combo is the third member of Jesse's crew in season two. His fate is an early sign of how fast the business can turn deadly for people at the bottom of it.
- Actor
- Rodney Rush
Huell and Kuby
Saul's fixers
Huell is Saul's huge, quiet bodyguard and a skilled pickpocket; Kuby is a fast-talking associate who handles odd jobs. Together they run some of the show's most memorable errands, including one involving a mountain of cash.
- Actors
- Lavell Crawford and Bill Burr
Jane Margolis
Jesse's landlord and girlfriend · Season two
Jane is a tattoo artist and recovering addict who rents Jesse the apartment next door. She's smart and funny and briefly gives Jesse a sense of a future. Their relationship pulls both of them toward relapse, and its end leads to one of Walt's darkest choices and consequences that ripple far beyond Albuquerque.
- Actor
- Krysten Ritter
Andrea and Brock Cantillo
Jesse's girlfriend and her son
Andrea is a single mother Jesse meets in a support group, and her young son Brock becomes very important to him. They represent the normal life Jesse wants, and they're used as leverage by more dangerous people.
- Actor (Andrea)
- Emily Rios
The law: the DEA and others
Steven Gomez
DEA agent · Hank's partner
Gomez is Hank's steady, good-humoured partner. He backs Hank's instincts even when the rest of the office doesn't, and he's there in the field when the hunt for Heisenberg comes to a head.
- Actor
- Steven Michael Quezada
George Merkert
Hank's boss at the Albuquerque DEA
Merkert is the head of the office, and his long friendship with someone he never suspected costs him his job.
- Actor
- Michael Shamus Wiles
Gus Fring and his organisation
Seasons three and four belong largely to Gus, the businessman whose operation is everything Walt's isn't: patient, disciplined and invisible.
Gustavo "Gus" Fring
Owner of Los Pollos Hermanos · Meth distributor
Gus is a soft-spoken, impeccably polite restaurant owner and civic donor who also runs the biggest meth distribution network in the Southwest. He never raises his voice and never makes a careless move. His calm makes the rare moments when he shows his capacity for violence all the more frightening. He's driven by an old grudge against the cartel, and his chess match with Walt is the core of season four.
- Actor
- Giancarlo Esposito
Mike Ehrmantraut
Fixer · Former Philadelphia police officer
Mike is Gus's head of security, a tired, methodical professional who cleans up messes and doesn't like surprises. He has rules and keeps them, which makes him one of the few genuinely principled people in the criminal world. His devotion to his granddaughter Kaylee explains why he's still working. He has no patience at all for Walt's ego.
- Actor
- Jonathan Banks
Gale Boetticher
Gus's chemist
Gale is a gentle, nerdy chemist with a fondness for karaoke, coffee and libertarian poetry. Gus hires him as Walt's lab assistant, partly to learn Walt's process. He admires Walt sincerely, and that's what puts him in danger.
- Actor
- David Costabile
Victor and Tyrus
Gus's enforcers
Victor and Tyrus are Gus's quiet, watchful muscle, posted at the lab and on surveillance. They exist to remind Walt and Jesse that they are employees, not partners.
Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
Executive at Madrigal Electromotive
Lydia is a nervous, high-strung logistics executive who supplies methylamine to Gus's operation through the German conglomerate that secretly funds it. She's terrified of everyone and ruthless anyway, and she becomes a key business partner in the final season.
- Actor
- Laura Fraser
The cartel and other criminals
Tuco Salamanca
Cartel-connected distributor · Season one and two
Tuco is the first big dealer Walt sells to, and he's terrifyingly unpredictable, swinging from hospitality to violence in a heartbeat. Walt's first meeting with him, where he shows up with a bag of what looks like crystal, is the moment Heisenberg is born. Tuco's family, the Salamancas, haunt the rest of the story.
- Actor
- Raymond Cruz
Hector Salamanca
Former cartel enforcer · Tuco's uncle
Hector is an elderly man left unable to speak or walk after a stroke. He communicates by ringing a bell attached to his wheelchair. He's a living reminder of the cartel's old violence, and his hatred of Gus Fring is one of the most important forces in the show.
- Actor
- Mark Margolis
The Cousins (Leonel and Marco)
Cartel assassins · Season three
Silent twin hitmen in silver-skulled boots who come north looking for revenge. They barely speak, and their scenes play like a horror film.
- Actors
- Daniel and Luis Moncada
Krazy-8 and Emilio
Street dealers · Season one
Two dealers Jesse brings into Walt's orbit in the first episodes. What happens to them forces Walt into his first terrible decisions.
Todd Alquist
Pest-control worker · Meth cook
Todd is polite, eager to please and completely without a moral compass. He joins Walt's crew through a fumigation company that fronts the cook, wants badly to be taught, and does something unforgivable with the same blank courtesy he uses to say thank you. He's one of the most disturbing characters in the show because he never seems to know he's doing anything wrong.
- Actor
- Jesse Plemons
Jack Welker
Todd's uncle · Neo-Nazi gang leader
Jack runs a white-supremacist prison gang that Walt hires for a job in the final season. Walt thinks he's still in control. Jack and his men are the people who prove he isn't.
- Actor
- Michael Bowen
Other notable characters
- Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz (Jessica Hecht and Adam Godley) — Walt's former friends and the founders of Gray Matter Technologies, the company Walt left. Their wealth is the root of his bitterness.
- Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins) — Skyler's boss, whose tax problems drag her deeper into the money side.
- Donald Margolis (John de Lancie) — Jane's father, an air-traffic controller whose grief has consequences no one expects.
- Gonzo and No-Doze — Tuco's henchmen in season one and two.
- The Pinkman parents — Jesse's exasperated, well-off mum and dad, who have long since given up on him.
Breaking Bad cast list
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Walter White | Bryan Cranston |
| Jesse Pinkman | Aaron Paul |
| Skyler White | Anna Gunn |
| Hank Schrader | Dean Norris |
| Marie Schrader | Betsy Brandt |
| Walter White Jr. | RJ Mitte |
| Saul Goodman | Bob Odenkirk |
| Gus Fring | Giancarlo Esposito |
| Mike Ehrmantraut | Jonathan Banks |
| Lydia Rodarte-Quayle | Laura Fraser |
| Todd Alquist | Jesse Plemons |
| Jane Margolis | Krysten Ritter |
| Tuco Salamanca | Raymond Cruz |
| Hector Salamanca | Mark Margolis |
| Gale Boetticher | David Costabile |
| Steven Gomez | Steven Michael Quezada |
| Badger | Matt Jones |
| Skinny Pete | Charles Baker |
| Jack Welker | Michael Bowen |
Major deaths and endings (spoilers)
- Jane dies of an overdose in season two while Walt watches and does nothing. Her father's grief later contributes to a mid-air collision over Albuquerque.
- Gale is shot by Jesse at the end of season three, on Walt's orders, to keep Gus from replacing Walt.
- Gus is killed in the season four finale by a bomb on Hector's wheelchair, which Walt arranged.
- Mike is shot by Walt in season five, in a burst of anger after Mike refuses to give up the names of his men.
- Hank and Gomez are killed by Jack's gang in the desert, despite Walt begging for Hank's life.
- Walt dies in the finale in the meth lab at Jack's compound, after freeing Jesse and wiping out the gang. Before that, he finally admits to Skyler that he did it all because he liked it.
- Jesse escapes, and the film El Camino follows what happens next.
What the characters are really about
Breaking Bad is a story about change, but the opposite kind from most TV. Instead of a flawed person becoming better, it follows a decent-seeming person discovering how much he enjoys power. Every other character is a mirror for that:
- Jesse starts out as the "bad" one and becomes the moral centre.
- Gus is what Walt wants to be, and shows how much discipline that would really take.
- Hank is what Walt thinks he despises: a loud, ordinary man who turns out to be braver and more honest than him.
- Skyler is the person who sees Walt most clearly, and suffers for it.
Walt is the textbook case in our anti-hero guide and a reverse example in character development: a fall rather than a rise. Gus and Todd are two very different entries in villain types. And Better Call Saul is often cited in sequels and spin-offs as the rare prequel that holds its own.
Where to start and what to watch next
- Breaking Bad (seasons 1–5) — start here. The first season is short, and the show picks up speed from season two.
- El Camino (2019) — a film epilogue for Jesse, best watched straight after the finale.
- Better Call Saul (2015–2022) — the prequel about Jimmy McGill, Mike and Gus. It's slower and just as good, and its final seasons overlap with and continue past Breaking Bad's timeline.
If you liked the moral collapse at the centre of Breaking Bad, the power struggles in Game of Thrones and the corporate rot of The Boys hit some of the same notes.
All Breaking Bad character names A–Z
A–C
- Andrea Cantillo — Jesse's girlfriend
- Badger — Jesse's friend
- Brock Cantillo — Andrea's son
- Combo — Dealer
- The Cousins — Cartel
D–G
- Donald Margolis — Jane's father
- Elliott Schwartz — Gray Matter
- Emilio Koyama — Dealer
- Gale Boetticher — Chemist
- George Merkert — DEA
- Gretchen Schwartz — Gray Matter
- Gus Fring — Los Pollos Hermanos
H–J
- Hank Schrader — DEA
- Hector Salamanca — Cartel
- Huell Babineaux — Saul's bodyguard
- Jack Welker — Neo-Nazi gang
- Jane Margolis — Jesse's girlfriend
- Jesse Pinkman — Walt's partner
K–M
- Krazy-8 — Dealer
- Kuby — Saul's associate
- Lydia Rodarte-Quayle — Madrigal
- Marie Schrader — Hank's wife
- Mike Ehrmantraut — Fixer
S–T
- Saul Goodman — Lawyer
- Skinny Pete — Jesse's friend
- Skyler White — Walt's wife
- Steven Gomez — DEA
- Ted Beneke — Skyler's boss
- Todd Alquist — Meth cook
- Tuco Salamanca — Cartel
- Tyrus — Gus's enforcer
V–W
- Victor — Gus's enforcer
- Walter White — Heisenberg
- Walter White Jr. — Walt's son
Frequently asked questions
Who is the main character of Breaking Bad?
Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque who starts cooking methamphetamine after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Over five seasons he becomes the drug lord known as Heisenberg. Jesse Pinkman, his former student and partner, is the second lead.
Who plays Walter White?
Bryan Cranston. Before Breaking Bad he was best known as the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, which made his casting as Walt a surprise. He won four Emmys for Lead Actor in a Drama for the role.
Why is Walter White called Heisenberg?
Walt picks the alias himself, after the physicist Werner Heisenberg, known for the uncertainty principle. It starts as a street name to keep his identity hidden and becomes the name of the persona he grows into: confident, ruthless and proud.
Is Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad?
Yes. Saul first appears in season two as Walt and Jesse's crooked lawyer. His backstory, as Jimmy McGill, is told in the prequel Better Call Saul (2015–2022), which also features Mike, Gus and several other Breaking Bad characters.
Who is the villain of Breaking Bad?
It depends on the season. Tuco Salamanca, Gus Fring and Jack Welker's gang all serve as the main threat at different points. But the show's real argument is that Walter White himself becomes the villain of his own story.
How many seasons of Breaking Bad are there?
Five seasons and 62 episodes, aired on AMC from January 2008 to September 2013. The fifth season was split into two halves. The film El Camino (2019) continues Jesse's story after the finale.