This list is of fictional characters in the ABC Family television series The Fosters. This article features the main, recurring and minor characters who have all appeared in more than one episode.
| Portrayed By | Character | The Fosters | Good Trouble | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | ||
| Teri Polo | Stephanie "Stef" Adams Foster | colspan="5" | |||||||||
| Sherri Saum | Lena Adams Foster | colspan="5" | |||||||||
| Jake T. Austin | Jesus Adams Foster | ||||||||||
| Noah Centineo | |||||||||||
| Hayden Byerly | Jude Adams Foster | colspan="5" | |||||||||
| David Lambert | Brandon Foster | colspan="1" | |||||||||
| Maia Mitchell | Callie Adams Foster | ||||||||||
| Danny Nucci | Mike Foster | ||||||||||
| Cierra Ramirez | Mariana Adams Foster | colspan="10" | |||||||||
| Zuri Adele | Malika Williams | colspan=5 | |||||||||
| Sherry Cola | Alice Kwan | colspan=5 | |||||||||
| Tommy Martinez | Gael Martinez | colspan=5 | |||||||||
| Roger Bart | Curtis Wilson | colspan=2 | |||||||||
| Emma Hunton | Davia Moss | colspan=4 | |||||||||
| Josh Pence | Dennis Cooper | colspan=4 | |||||||||
| Beau Mirchoff | Jamie Hunter | ||||||||||
| Bryan Craig | Joaquin Peréz | colspan=2 | |||||||||
| Priscilla Quintana | Isabella Tavez | colspan=1 | |||||||||
| Booboo Stewart | Luca Ryusaki | ||||||||||
Portrayed by Teri Polo[1] [2] Stefanie "Stef" Marie Adams Foster (seasons 1–5) is a police officer. She and Mike Foster, her partner at work, are Brandon's biological parents. They divorced shortly after Stef met Lena and realized she's a lesbian and wanted to be with her. In a flashback in episode 9, when she first met the twins, it is shown that she has a very caring nature despite her tough appearance. At the end of episode 1x10, Stef and Lena are officially married, legally cementing their long-term union of ten years. Stef is very strong and tough, but is also very funny and loving. Callie initially doesn't feel comfortable around her due to her position as a cop, but gradually forms a close bond with her. While Stef likes to act tough around everyone, especially Lena, it is shown that she cares a great deal about her wife and family, although she won't hesitate to discipline her kids if need be.
Portrayed by Sherri Saum[2] [3] Lena Elizabeth Adams Foster (seasons 1–5) is the biracial vice principal of the charter school the kids attend. She's Stef's wife, Brandon's stepmother, and the other children's adoptive/foster mother. She is good with kids, and often tries to reason with her kids more so than punish them, in contrast to Stef's often "quick to act" nature. It was Lena who decided to take Callie in after she was released from the juvenile detention center. Lena is very aware of the people around her. At the end of season 1, she is artificially inseminated with co-worker Timothy's sperm desiring to have a biological child of her own, and finds out she is pregnant shortly afterwards in the season 1 finale. However, in season 2, she is diagnosed with life-threatening pre-eclampsia and, consequently, loses the baby.
Portrayed by David Lambert[2] Brandon Foster (seasons 1–5) is the 16-year-old son of Stef and her ex-husband, Mike. He is one of Callie's love interests. He is very talented musically, specifically with the piano, and writes piano pieces which he presents for chances at scholarships. He has been shown to have an unsteady relationship with his father, Mike, due to the fact that Mike is a struggling alcoholic and has disappointed him many times through his childhood and teen years. At the start of Season 1, Brandon has a girlfriend named Talya, but breaks up with her because of his growing feelings for Callie and his annoyance and anger at her harassment and jealousy directed at Callie. For most of the first season, Brandon continues to pursue Callie romantically, even though she warned him that she could be kicked out of the house if they got involved. Brandon continues to make reckless decisions, included violating a restraining order, in order to be with Callie. Ultimately, he accepts that Callie needs a family more than a relationship, and eventually agrees to a mutual break up. He eventually joins a band and begins a relationship with bandmate Lou.Brandon spent his summer is going to Idyllwild Music Program, where he faced with serious competition and backstabbing. For the competition Brandon takes a huge risk and decides to play his own piece. He wins the competition and feeling good about himself catches up with Callie who was assuming she will not be adopted so they have sex. Brandon performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall and he writes a Shakespeare Musical for his final year project. When Callie upsets her donors they seek revenge, trolling her web site with nasty rumours but in this case were true. The failout of the tryst between Brandon and Callie continues. Avoiding the roth of his mothers Brandon moves in with a single mom but finds parenthood a struggle. He goes to desperate measures in order to secure his place in Juilliard, which eventually backfires on him bigtime. Find parenthood too hard he returns home to help with Jesus's TBI recovery. Brandon goes through misery and heartache when his new girlfriend Grace gets sick with leukaemia and eventually dies. Grace teaches Brandon valuable lessons on not wasting time and trying something new every day.
Portrayed by Jake T. Austin (1–2)
Portrayed by Noah Centineo (3–5)Jesus Adams Foster (born Jesus Gutierrez) is the biological son of Ana Gutierrez and Gabriel Duncroft, as well as, the adoptive son of Stef and Lena Adams Foster. He is the fraternal twin brother of Mariana and the adoptive brother of Brandon, Callie, and Jude. He is the more laid-back of the twins. He had ADHD, for which he took medication. After a fainting spell caused by his pills in "House and Home", he decided to join the wrestling team to cope with negative effects of ADHD. He is overly protective with his sister but their differences in personalities and values cause many arguments.
He becomes sexually active mainly with his sister's friends. He falls out with his sister in "Quinceanera" when she finds out he's been secretly dating her childhood friend Lexi. When Lexi moved to Honduras, he moves on to create a love triangle between wrestling mate Emma and popular girl Hayley. after winning a wrestling scholarship to a school in the mid west, he abandons it when he reveals that half of the team are using steroids. The use of steroids mess with his other medication.
With encouragement from his new friend at school Nick, Jesus searches for and locates his biological father. Jesus tries to befriend him but it doesn't go well. His father is on the sex offenders list because he had underage sex with Ana that resulted in her pregnancy with the twins.
Jesus and Emma begin a strictly sexual relationship, and are considering getting back together. Jesus suffers from two BTI, first by a nail gun then later being assaulted. Jesus need full time care and Lena takes time off to care for him. He gets upset with both Emma and Brandon when he finds out that Brandon drove Emma to an abortion clinic. He takes a baseball bat to Brandon's room and was only stopped be Gabe overpowering him.
Jesus continues his rehab and finally returns to his studies. His on again, off again relationship with Emma has some highs and lows. He later helps out with the local roller derby girls team. His girlfriend Emma successfully tries out for the team.
Jesus eventually graduates and goes to a local community college and becomes a contractor.
Portrayed by Cierra Ramirez[2] Mariana Adams Foster (seasons 1–5) was one of the twins that Lena and Stef fostered as children and eventually adopted. She was fostered as a young child, and eventually adopted, by Lena and Stef around the age of three. She is very smart and girly, and cares about her appearance very much. She is popular and social, likes to gossip, and speaks Spanish fluently. Callie thinks she is a compulsory liar and often warns her about the consequences. She is naive when it comes to certain topics - especially her birth mother, but she smartens up about her when finally realizing she was using her for money. She changes herself for guys and friends like in "The Morning After" when she sees that an old friend, Garrett is cute now and writes poetry, she goes to a Poetry Slam with him, and pierces her nose herself for him since he was hanging out with a girl who was dressed much edgier than Mariana. Also, in season 2, she dyes her hair blonde to fit in when making it on a dance team only to overhear the other girls say she only did because she is Latina. However, she eventually gains the confidence in herself to not give in to what other people say and make her feel. Mariana has a thing for the bad boys later on in the seasons and she gets caught up into some trouble. Her ex-boyfriend Nick gets put into a mental hospital because he was hearing voices.When Brandon writes a high school musical, Mariana gets the lead.Mariana struggles to let go of Nick after the incident at school. Mariana also struggles with the fact that Ana is now sober and is a caring mother to her baby sister. Her ex-boyfriend Nick gets put into a mental hospital because he was hearing voices.When developers want to take over the school Mariana and Jude rally the students to their cause. A power struggle over the control of Anchor Beach leads to the school being saved and Lena as the principal. Mariana has several boys interested in being her boyfriend, she must make a hard choice in the end. She takes roller derby and later has Jesus manage the team
Portrayed by Maia Mitchell[2] Callie Adams Foster (seasons 1–5), is the oldest girl in the Adams Foster family. She was adopted when she was 16. She was placed with the Fosters after being released from Juvie, She was sent to Juvie for destroying a car in order to protect her younger brother (Jude) from their foster father's abuse. Callie and Jude had been in six foster homes in six years before being placed in Stef and Lena's care. As her brother Jude would say, " We'd just get settled then Callie would do something!"
During season four, Callie received her file from the state, the state had diagnosed her as a sociopath. Callie displayed symptoms of this condition by acting impulsively, lying, breaking laws, and no regard for her own safety. She is however very protective for her younger brother Jude, so much so she tends to mother him much to his regret when he gets older. She can be irrational and prone to be reactive, resulting in Fight-or-flight response.
Callie has had a troubled life — her mother died in a car accident in which her father was jailed because he was drunk driving. The result of which made her and her brother placed in the foster care system. She initially has trouble opening herself up to her new family, but she slowly comes to love and accept them as her "forever" family. Initially, Callie opens up mainly to Brandon, and the two develop a romantic relationship, although it is forbidden by the rules of the foster system, which soon meets a heartbreaking end. Callie also develops a strong bond with her sister Mariana with whom she shares a bedroom. Initially bitchy towards each other they start bonding as they both mature. She holds an on-again, off-again relationship with a classmate named Wyatt. Unfortunately, after the Fosters decide to adopt Callie and Jude, Callie learns that the man she thought was her father (Donald Jacob) is not. She then pursues to meet her biological father, as well as her half-sister who looks as if she could be her identical twin. In the episode "Lucky" from season 3, she is officially adopted and an "Adams Foster." She is also the step-daughter of Donald Jacob and the adoptive daughter of Stef and Lena Adams Foster. She is the maternal half-sister of Jude, the paternal half-sister of Sophia, and the adoptive sister of Mariana, Jesus, and Brandon.
Portrayed by Hayden ByerlyJude Adams Foster (seasons 1–5) is Callie's younger half brother by 3 and a half years, who Callie and Brandon rescue from an abusive foster home. He is a quiet child with somewhat more optimistic views on foster homes than Callie, though he has been moved from foster home to foster home along with his sister and been abused as well. Once he is moved into the Fosters' home, he quickly begins to adjust to the new lifestyle and becomes more talkative and energetic. He is seen to be Callie's emotional rock, while Callie tries to mother him but in reality he is the one that grounds Callie. At school, he develops a close friendship with a handsome and kind-hearted boy named Connor, a growing relationship which prompts Jude to begin questioning his sexuality.[4] [5] As the series progresses, Jude turns 13 and is subsequently adopted by Lena and Stef, although a technicality regarding Callie's birth certificate prevents her from being adopted along with him. He deals with the emotional impact of Callie becoming close to her biological family, but realizes that she will always be his sister no matter what. He later develops a romance with his best friend, Connor, and the two begin dating in the season 2 finale. In the mid-season 3 finale the two admit they love each other for the first time after Connor considers moving to Los Angeles to live with his more accepting mother. After breaking up with Connor, Jude starts spending more time with Noah (Kalama Epstein), an avid gay churchgoing Christian who has a wild side. Noah introduces Jude to drugs. Jude decides to clean up his act in season five by not consuming medicinal marijuana he was getting off his boyfriend,Noah. With the help Mariana he participates in protests over Anchor Beach Charter's privatization. He starts a webcast with his friend Taylor and it leads to online gaming and royalties. His parents put a stop to it when what he thought was playful banter could be considered softcore.
Portrayed by Danny Nucci[2] [6] Michael "Mike" Foster (seasons 1–5) is a San Diego police sergeant, Brandon's father, and Stef's ex-husband and ex-police patrol partner. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Mike has a drinking problem due to the break up of his marriage, but joins AA to cope with it. A frequent visitor to the Foster household, Mike is familiar with his son's family. Toward the end of the first season, he started dating Dani, who helped him to keep his sobriety. However, he soon discovers that Dani had sex with a drunken Brandon one night and arrests her for statutory rape. Since then, Mike helps Ana (Jesus and Mariana's birth mother) come to terms with her addiction and live a clean life. Mike later becomes a foster parent to AJ. In season five, Mike proposes to Ana and later marry. She is unable to attend Brandon's wedding because she is eight months pregnant. Mike arrives early at Brandon's wedding and tell Brandon to grow a spine and stand up for himself because if he allows himself to be bullied by his in-laws then he will never be happy.
| Actor | Character | Seasons | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
| Recurring and Guest cast | |||||||
| Alexandra Barreto | Ana Gutierrez | colspan="5" | |||||
| Daffany Clark | Daphne Keene | colspan="2" | |||||
| Gavin MacIntosh | Connor Stevens | ||||||
| Amanda Leighton | Emma Kurtzman | colspan="2" | |||||
| Alex Saxon | Wyatt | ||||||
| Jay Ali | M. Timothy | colspan="2" | |||||
| Marla Sokoloff | Danielle "Dani" Kirkland | colspan="3" | |||||
| Rosie O'Donnell | Rita Hendricks | colspan="2" | |||||
| Tom Phelan | Cole | ||||||
| Cherinda Kincherlow | Kiara | colspan="2" | |||||
| Alicia Sixtos | Carmen Cruz | colspan="2" | |||||
| Annamarie Kenoyer | Becka | colspan="2" | |||||
| Reiley McClendon | Vico Cerar | colspan="3" | |||||
| Madisen Beaty | Talya Banks | colspan="3" | |||||
| Bianca A. Santos | Lexi Rivera | colspan="2" | |||||
| April Parker-Jones | Captain Roberts | ||||||
| Anne Winters | Kelsey | colspan="4" | |||||
| Julian de la Celle | Zachary Rogers | colspan="4" | |||||
| Lorraine Toussaint | Dana Adams | colspan="5" | |||||
| Annie Potts | Sharon Elkin | colspan="5" | |||||
| Sam McMurray | Frank Cooper | ||||||
| Adam Kang | Aiden | colspan="2" | |||||
| Michael Traynor | Craig | colspan="2" | |||||
| Brandon W. Jones | Liam Olmstead | colspan="3" | |||||
| Michael Patrick McGill | Coach Spears | colspan="3" | |||||
| Annika Marks | Monte Porter | colspan="4" | |||||
| Jordan Rodrigues | Mat Tan | ||||||
| Kerr Smith | Robert Quinn | colspan="3" | |||||
| Ashley Argota | Lucy "Lou" Chan | ||||||
| Bailee Madison | Sophia Quinn | ||||||
| Jack DePew | Jasper Landry | ||||||
| Caitlin Carver | Hayley Heinz | colspan="2" | |||||
| Valerie Dillman | Jill Quinn | colspan="2" | |||||
| Chris Bruno | Adam Stevens | colspan="2" | |||||
| Hannah Kasulka | Kaitlyn Reihl | colspan="3" | |||||
| Samantha Logan | Tia Stephens | colspan="3" | |||||
| Izabela Vidovic | Taylor Shaw | colspan="2" | |||||
| Marlene Forte | Elena Gutierrez | colspan="4" | |||||
| Madison Pettis | Daria | ||||||
| Tony Plana | Victor Gutierrez | ||||||
| Judy Kain | Lauren | colspan="2" | |||||
| Alberto De Diego | Rafael | colspan="2" | |||||
| Tom Williamson | AJ Hensdale | colspan="3" | |||||
| Brandon Quinn | Gabriel "Gabe" Duncroft | colspan="3" | |||||
| Denyse Tontz | Cortney Strathmore | ||||||
| Louis Hunter | Nick Stratos | ||||||
| Chris Warren | Ty Hensdale | ||||||
| Tanner Buchanan | Jack Downey | ||||||
| Keean Johnson | Tony | colspan="2" | |||||
| Kelli Williams | Justina Marks | colspan="2" | |||||
| Pepi Sonuga | Sally Benton | colspan="2" | |||||
| Benjamin and Alexander Freitas | Mason Strathmore | ||||||
| Mark Totty | Craig Stratos | ||||||
| Various babies | Isabella Gutierrez | colspan="3" | |||||
| Anna Grace Barlow | Zoey | colspan="3" | |||||
| Elliot Fletcher | Aaron Baker | colspan="2" | |||||
| Kalama Epstein | Noah | colspan="2" | |||||
| Alex Skuby | Joe Gray | ||||||
| Meg DeLacy | Grace Mullen | ||||||
| Jared Ward | Drew Turner | ||||||
| Adam Irigoyen | Kyle Snow | colspan="2" | |||||
| Mercedes Colon | Margo Velasquez | colspan="2" | |||||
| Lisseth Chavez | Ximena Sinfuego | ||||||
| Reggie Austin | Dean Bayfield | ||||||
| Kristen Ariza | Teresa "Tess" Bayfield | ||||||
| Christopher Meyer | Logan Bayfield | ||||||
| Nandy Martin | Poppy Sinfuego | ||||||
| Nick Fink | Shawn | ||||||
| Nia Peeples | Susan Mullen | ||||||
| Abigail Cowen | Eliza | ||||||
| Dallas Young | Corey | ||||||