Philip J. Fry

Fry is characterized as sweet-natured, immature, gullible, and lacking in intelligence. Fry regards Bender as his closest friend despite the latter’s mean-spirited, selfish nature. He also has strong feelings for Leela, although he lacks the relationship skills required for properly articulating his emotions; thus, for most of the series his love remains (sometimes coldly) unrequited, though not entirely without hope. She does occasionally return his interest throughout the series and in the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder she admits to loving him back. At the end of that film, they are seen sharing a kiss as they enter a wormhole, and subsequently begin dating. Despite his below-average intelligence, Fry is very kind-hearted, as he often goes out of his way to help his friends, even if he is sometimes oblivious to their problems. He tolerates all of his friends' quirks and is notable as the only staff member who accepts the ship's doctor, Zoidberg. Although at times lacking in self-awareness, Fry always tries to do the right thing and fix his mistakes. Fry has shown remarkable skill playing video games, (even mastering the 31st-century's version on the Internet), and in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV" is seen successfully playing a game despite not looking at the screen. This skill carries over to using Planet Express Ship's laser gun. Fry has also exhibited remarkable bravery and self-sacrifice on occasion and has even displayed flashes of stagnant intelligence. Also, despite his laziness and clumsiness, Fry has proved to be a competent fighter in "Law and Oracle" and "Fun on a Bun", the latter episode showing that Fry is skilled enough to hold his own against Leela in direct physical combat. He has also survived a heart attack intentionally caused by Bender.

In the episode "The Why of Fry", Leela's seemingly oblivious pet Nibbler reveals himself as the reason for Fry's freezing. Due to a time-travel incident in "Roswell That Ends Well", Fry became his own grandfather, but this genetic quirk also means that Fry lacks the Delta brainwave that enables conscious thought, his mind instead consisting of an apparently random assortment of other waves that function as a working mind (Leela compared it to a dress made out of carpet remnants). As a result of this defect, Fry can withstand the intellect-draining onslaught of the evil Brainspawn and is immune to the Dark One's mind-reading in Into the Wild Green Yonder as well as the mind-controlling power of the Hypnotoad. Due to this quirk, Nibbler's race, the Nibblonians, dub him "The Mighty One". Through prediction (on the eve of 1999, as the Nibblonians lack the ability to travel through time), they guessed that Fry would be the one to save the world from the evil Brainspawn. Because his natural lifespan would not extend to the right millennium, however, Nibbler is sent to make the aforementioned delivery call to push an unsuspecting Fry into the cryogenic tube, to re-emerge December 31, 2999. When Fry learned of this, he briefly allowed the Brainspawn to send him back in time to stop Nibbler from sending him to the future, but after confirming that Nibbler hadn't come back in time and was acting only to protect the future, Fry chose to let his past self fall into the tube to preserve the timeline.

In several episodes, he feels nostalgic for the 20th century and tries to convince his coworkers how good it was back then.

Leela is Fry's main love interest and, later, wife, and his love for her provides a major plotline throughout the series. Fry first begins to show a serious interest in her from the second season onwards, although she constantly turns him down for other dates due to his immaturity, though she says that she loves his boyish charm. Leela initially sees Fry as a friend and nothing more, but deeper affection for him appears occasionally, such as on the numerous occasions when he risks his life for hers ("Love and Rocket", "The Sting", "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences").

Fry's feelings for Leela are openly displayed throughout the series. In "The Sting", Fry throws himself in front of a baby Queen Bee to protect Leela, resulting in the bee's stinger completely penetrating his torso. In "Love and Rocket", upon noticing that Leela's oxygen tank was running on 'critical', he attaches her oxygen tube to his tank, giving her his oxygen and almost asphyxiating himself. In "Parasites Lost", Fry becomes infected with symbiotic "parasites" which enhance his muscles and intelligence, allowing him to attract Leela's romantic attention. However, fearing that Leela was attracted to him only for his worms, he rids himself of them in a failed bid to begin a genuine relationship. In "Time Keeps on Slippin'", Fry moves the stars to write a love note to Leela, but the message is blown up before she can read it. In the final episode of the initial run, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry trades hands with the Robot Devil in order to compose an opera about Leela in which they fall in love. When Fry returns the Robot Devil's hands to prevent him from forcing Leela to marry him, the opera deteriorates, causing the audience to leave. Fry sadly walks off the stage. Leela is the only one who remains behind, asking Fry not to stop because she wants to hear how it ends. He picks up his holophonor and composes a crude ending in which the stage-Fry and stage-Leela share a single kiss.

In the film Futurama: Bender's Big Score Leela falls in love with a seemingly perfect man, Lars, and they soon become engaged. However, Lars leaves Leela on her wedding day explaining later that as a time paradox he is doomed, and that he wouldn't marry her only to have her lose him soon after. Through this, he then reveals that he is in fact the time paradox of Fry, who had undergone physical changes due to an explosion and become more mature through 12 years of age and experience.

At the end of the film Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, Leela openly admits to loving Fry, and they commence an openly romantic relationship from the episode "Rebirth" onwards. In "The Prisoner of Benda" they have "sex", albeit in differing bodies. The on-again, off-again nature of their relationship causes Leela to leave Planet Express and Fry in "Overclockwise", however by the end of the episode, Leela returns to Planet Express and seemingly reunites with Fry. Bender reveals to both Fry and Leela their "ultimate fate" that he learned while he was overclocked. The audience is never shown the contents, but through their facial expressions, it is clear that while the journey for them may be bumpy, Fry and Leela will ultimately end up happy.

In later episodes, such as "The Butterjunk Effect" and "Fun on a Bun", Fry and Leela are shown to be in a relationship, though the events of the series precipitate frequent arguments and breakups. These issues are usually resolved within the episode, leaving Fry and Leela still together at the end.

During the series finale "Meanwhile", Fry decides that it is time for him to propose to Leela. Wanting the moment of his proposal to last longer, he steals Professor Farnsworth's time machine remote that turns back time every 10 seconds. When Leela is late, he thinks she has rejected him and attempts suicide by jumping off the building; he sees her arriving just in time, however, and presses the reset button over and over again to keep from hitting the ground. He accidentally breaks the remote and freezes time, leaving himself and Leela as the only unfrozen beings in the universe. Leela accepts Fry's proposal, and they have a happy marriage (but not long). The Professor shows up during one of their anniversaries and repairs the time machine but informs them it will reset their lives to the moment before he invented the machine, leaving them with no memory of the life they spent together. Fry asks Leela if she wants to go around again with him, and she replies that she does.

Michelle (voiced by Kath Soucie in the first appearance, Sarah Silverman in the second appearance) is Fry's on-and-off girlfriend from the 20th century. Shortly before Fry is frozen, she dumps him for a man named Constantine (called Charles in "The Cryonic Woman"), whom she later marries. They eventually split up, and she decides to freeze herself to try again in the distant future. She wakes up in 3002, meets Fry again, and restarts her relationship with him. However, she fails to fit into the 31st-century life to which Fry has become so accustomed, and so asks him to freeze himself with her for another thousand years. This plan fails, as does the rekindled relationship, so Fry leaves her. She later is shown in a limousine with the recently unfrozen Pauly Shore. In the episode "Proposition Infinity", she is again shown with Pauly Shore, and the implication is that they are now married.

During a trip on the luxury starliner Titanic, Amy Wong passes Fry off as her boyfriend to avoid being set up by her parents with an unattractive potential husband. Unfortunately, Leela was also passing Fry off as her fake fiancé to ward off the attentions of Zapp Brannigan. Potential embarrassment is averted by catastrophic damage to the ship, and Amy wins the battle of the bogus boyfriends.

In "Put Your Head on My Shoulders", Fry and Amy are trapped together in a desert on Mercury and realize they have a lot in common. While being towed to the nearest gas station to refuel, they have sex in the car. They continue the relationship back home, but Fry intends to end it the day before Valentine's Day because he feels that they are spending too much time together. An accident ends with Fry's head being temporarily attached to Amy's body, causing much tension due to Fry's decision to break up and Amy's subsequent date, forcing Leela to step in and distract Amy's date to save Fry from an awkward situation. Despite their break-up, they remain good friends.

After an accident with a microwave caused the crew and the professor to be thrown back into time, Fry meets his grandparents in the year 1947 on the Roswell, New Mexico air force base. After realizing that his existence depends on his grandparents having children, Fry tries to protect his grandfather by locking him into an abandoned house in the desert. Unfortunately, the house was a test site for a nuclear bomb which killed his grandfather. After realizing he was still alive after his grandfather died, he decided that Mildred couldn't be his grandmother and slept with her after she seduces him. But the professor and Leela then point out the he was still alive because Fry had become his own grandfather by sleeping with Mildred.

Professor Hubert Farnsworth is the distant nephew of Phillip J. Fry and his only living family member in the 31st century aside from Cubert and Igner. He runs a small delivery service to fund his scientific research and gives Fry, Leela, and Bender jobs. Although the professor is an accomplished scientist, he is often cruel and senile. He is 179 years old.

Cubert is the young clone of the professor and is often portrayed as his son. He was created as an heir to all of the professors research, but was kept in the tube too long resulting in a pressed in nose. He often gets into trouble and makes fun of Fry for being dumb. He is also good friends with Dwight Conrad, the son of Hermes.

Igner is the son of the professor and Mom. He was raised by Mom and neither him or the professor knew who the father was. His father wasn't revealed until Bender's Game.

Mildred was the grandmother of Fry. During his time in the past, due to an incident with the microwave, Fry accidentally kills his grandfather with a nuclear explosion and returns to Mildred who seduces him after Fry decides that she couldn't possibly be his real grandmother because he was still alive. The professor and Leela then find Fry in bed with Mildred and point out that because Fry was still alive after his grandfathers death, he had become his own grandfather and that he had still slept with his own grandmother.

Yancy Senior is the father of Yancy Fry Jr. and Phillip J. Fry. He is a large man who is often seen in flashbacks preparing against the "commie invasion" or the Y2K apocalypse. He and his wife often express how much they miss Fry after his disappearance despite numerous flashbacks were they are seen making light of it or suggesting that they made little effort to find him.

Fry's mother. Fry and his mother seemed to have had a better relationship. Although she often joins in on the jokes about his disappearance, she has expressed sadness over his loss and is able to tell him how much she loved him when Nibbler allows Fry to enter into her dreams and say goodbye.

Yancy Jr. is Fry's older brother. Yancy and Fry had an intense sibling rivalry over basketball, dancing, and various other activities. During this time Fry found a lucky seven-leaf clover that seems to bring him an incredible amount of raw talent at whatever he does. Yancy and Fry are constantly fighting over the clover until Fry decides to hide it in an old record vault. After fry's disappearance, Yancy breaks into the vault to find music he can use at his wedding reception and finds the clover. Yancy ends up giving the clover to his son Phillip who he named after his uncle. Fry eventually sees a picture of his nephew, who was the first person on Mars, in the future and believes that he is his Yancy Jr. who had stolen his name and his dream of going into space (which the gang points out Fry does every day now). Fry eventually finds Phillips's grave and decides to rob it in an effort to take back the clover. He has a horrible realization that the grave was robbing was that of his nephew and not his brother when he clears the headstone and it reads "Here lies Phillip J. Fry. Named for his uncle to carry on his spirit.". Fry them places the clover back into the grave and leaves his nephews grave realizing how much his brother loved and missed him.