Family Guy is an American animated comedy multimedia franchise originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company, primarily based on the animated series Family Guy (1999–present), its spin-off series The Cleveland Show (2009–2013), and the film Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005), based on his 1995–1997 thesis films The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve.

Set in the fictional towns of Quahog, Rhode Island, and Stoolbend, Virginia, the show exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags often lampooning American culture. The following is an abridged list of characters consisting of the starring families (Griffin; Brown/Tubbs) and supporting characters from all three. Characters are only listed once, normally under the first applicable subsection in the list; very minor characters are listed with a more regular character with whom they are associated.