Characters
Dilbert
Occupation: Engineer
Played by: Daniel Stern
Dilbert is the main character in the comic strip. He graduated from MIT and works in engineering. Although his ideas are typically sensible and revolutionary, they are seldom carried out because of his powerlessness. Dilbert often has no visible mouth or eyes, and in all but the early strips his tie usually points upward. While Scott Adams has offered no definitive explanation for this, he has explained the tie at least as a further example of Dilbert's lack of power over his environment. In more recent strips the mouth has been drawn on occasion when Dilbert is eating, surprised, or nervous. Many of the other -berts look very much like he does, with glasses and no mouth (with the exception of Ratbert).
Dogbert
Occupation: Entrepreneur/CEO/Businessman
Played by: Chris Elliott
Although he is Dilbert's dog, Dogbert rarely acts like a pet. One of his dreams is to conquer the world and enslave all humans, and he has achieved this status several times through methods like hypnosis. However, he often quickly relinquishes his post due to boredom or his conviction that people do not deserve to have him as leader.
Dogbert has made many ventures into the business world, often as a consultant who hypes new trends to the Pointy-Haired Boss. In these positions, he typically takes advantage of stupidity and gullibility.
- Originally called Dildog but was changed by the publishers request
Wally
Occupation: Engineer
Played by: Gordon Hunt
Inspired by a co-worker of Adams' at Pacific Bell, Wally is a lazy employee always trying to work the system, although he is very capable at his occupation. His idea of "work" is simply carrying around a coffee cup due to his obsession with the beverage, which he drinks hundreds of cups of a day. He also has a notable lack of hygiene.
Alice
Occupation: Engineer
Played by: Kathy Griffin
Alice is a constantly on-edge coworker of Dilbert's who is well known for her "fist of death." She highly resents gender discrimination in the workplace. Performance reviews often make Alice nervous and irritable, and she has been known to throw the boss great distances out of the office during the review cycle.
Asok
Occupation: Intern
Played by: Tom Kenny
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Pointy-Haired Boss
Occupation: Manager/Boss
Played by: Larry Miller
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- Name is often abreviated to PHB
Loud Howard
Occupation: -
Played by: Jim Wise
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- Only appeared in one comic strip but is a regular on the TV show
Dilmom
Occupation: -
Played by: Jackie Hoffman
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Ratbert
Occupation: Ex-lab rat, intern
Played by: Tom Kenny
Ratbert was not originally intended to be a regular, instead being part of a series of strips featuring a lab scientist's cruel experiments. Ratbert soon realized that he was the subject of a hideous macaroni-and-cheese experiment (the scientist made him eat huge amounts of it; he writes in his notebook that it causes paranoia in rats) and escaped, eventually finding a refuge in Dilbert's house. He was not initially accepted by the residents, especially Dilbert, who was highly prejudiced against rats. However, he finally allowed Ratbert to become a permanent member of the household.
As a simple rat, Ratbert is very gullible and innocent. Sometimes, his actions can become quite annoying. Like Dogbert, he has made inroads into business, once working as an intern and applying for a position in marketing.
Catbert
Occupation: Director of Human Resources
Played by: Jason Alexander
As with Ratbert, Catbert was not a planned regular. In this case, he was introduced for a series involving an attack on Ratbert, who was acting as an optimist. When the two got home, Catbert rebooted Dilbert's computer. Dogbert eventually forced him to leave.
Readers of Dilbert enjoyed the character so much that they spontaneously named him "Catbert," encouraging Adams to bring him back. He was reintroduced as the human resources manager, and in a parody of typical cat behavior he "plays" with his "prey", coming up with sadistic and illogical policies to enforce on the employees. He often works in tandem with the PHB.
The World's Smartest Garbageman
Occupation: Garbageman
Played by: Maurice LaMarche
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Carol
Occupation: Secretary
Played by: Tress MacNeille
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Elbonians
Occupation: Factory workers
Played by: Various
The Elbonians are the residents of a fictional fourth-world country that appears in the comic strip, named Elbonia. Most of the nation is covered with waist-deep mud, although the coloration occasionally leads people to believe that it is snow. Adams created the country in order to allow for a "foreign" aspect in Dilbert without using any specific location, in order to avoid a backlash by readers who may be from that region.
Many of the Elbonians have beards (even the females), tall hats, and left-handedness. Their technology is very outdated, which includes phones that are actually cans attached to the ends of strings. Elbonians are commonly portrayed as idiotic and backward.