Sex and the City

Characters

Main characters

• Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) writes a weekly sex column titled "Sex and the City" for the fictitious New York Star. She provides the show's narration, which is structured around her train of thought while writing the column. Her columns are eventually turned into a book, and she is also a contributing writer for Vogue beginning at the end of season four. Despite her apparently modest income, she always dons the latest fashions - in one episode she spends over a thousand dollars on one pair of shoes. Her main addictions are her Manolo Blahnik shoes and cigarettes (which she occasionally tries to give up). Carrie has a morbid fear of rodents and small critters (as in, a squirrel is "just a rat with a cuter outfit"). At one point, she tells boyfriend Aiden, "I'm just not a country girl". She lives in a small one-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment in the Upper East Side, which she eventually buys with money lent by Charlotte after estimating that, over the years, she has spent $40,000 on shoes - money which could have been used as a down payment for the loan towards her apartment. Carrie's blemishes include having had an abortion after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand and smoking "pot" in her youth.
• Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) is an art dealer with a blue-blooded upbringing. She is the most conservative and traditional of the group, the one who places the most emphasis on emotional love in a relationship as opposed to sex, and is always searching for her "knight in shining armor". She often scoffs at the lewd sexual remarks of Samantha or other vulgarities. She gives up her successful career as art dealer shortly after her marriage to Dr. Trey MacDougal and resides in a posh apartment on Park Avenue. She eventually divorces Trey due to their problems centered around child bearing and in part to Trey's unhealthy, Norman Bates-type relationship with his mother. Charlotte ends up marrying a homely but saintly Jewish divorce attorney. She is the only one of the four girls that marries twice. She is also a graduate of Smith College.
• Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a career-minded lawyer, who lives on the West Side, with extremely cynical views on relationships and men. She is Carrie's best friend, confidante and voice of reason. In the early seasons, she is portrayed as masculine and borderline misandric, but this image softens over the years. She participated in an on-again, off-again relationship with a bartender named Steve Brady, with whom she accidentally becomes pregnant through a "mercy fuck". After debating getting an abortion behind Steve's back, she eventually decides to have the baby, and in the final season, marry Steve and relocate to Brooklyn to support a growing family. She is a graduate of Harvard University.
• Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), the oldest and most promiscuous of the group, is an independent publicist whose relationship pattern could be considered stereotypically masculine. She is a seductress who primarily engages in relationships purely for sex, avoiding emotional involvement at all costs. Her conquests are all purely superficial. To pair with Samantha's promiscuous nature it is revealed that she has had 2 abortions, occasionally used drugs, yet is the last out of the four to undergo an AIDS test. She moves to the meatpacking district before it becomes a fashionable area. She only has a handful of long lasting relationships throughout the entire series.

Recurring characters

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Friends

• Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson), a gay fashionista, is Carrie's best friend outside the group and often attends parties with her. He is a talent agent. He is partnered to Marcus, a Broadway dancer.
• Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) is Charlotte's wedding planner who becomes a close friend. He often tries to cheer her up and encourage her to continue dating after her failed marriage.
• Magda (Lynn Cohen), Miranda's housekeeper that criticizes, but supports Miranda throughout the series and on to the end. Her first criticism, while being introduced, being that she switched Miranda's vibrator with a statuette of the virgin Mary.

Boyfriends

All the boyfriends listed below were the focus of a significant story arc spanning multiple episodes. Additionally, the four main characters all went on dates or had sex when they were single---often with male characters (and in Samantha's case, one female character) who appeared in only one, two, or at most three episodes of the program.

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Carrie's boyfriends

• Mr. Big (Chris Noth) both excites and eludes Carrie through the run of the show, as she always believes he is the man for her, but many times, he's not able to fulfill her emotional needs. He is a wealthy financier (Samantha calls him "the next Donald Trump" in the first episode) who is several years older than Carrie and who never forgets to joke about their age difference. They meet in the first episode and soon begin a serious relationship. Carrie breaks up with Big at the end of season one because he refuses to open up his life for her. After they reunite, the intensity of their feelings is the same again with more romance, but eventually, old patterns repeat themselves, and even when they try to resolve them, Big still is not ready to give Carrie the kind of love that she needs. They break up again toward the end of season two before he goes to Paris, where his company has temporarily assigned him. To Carrie's shock, Big, who had commitment issues with her, soon after becomes engaged to Natasha, a modelesque woman in her twenties whom Carrie refers to as "the idiot stick figure with no soul." They had a whirlwind romance in Paris, and she is the "simple" kind of woman he seems to want; they do not have the kind of intensity and drama that he and Carrie had. He stays in Carrie's life as a close friend until he realizes that he had made a mistake in getting married, feels that his new life is dull, and tells Carrie that he wants to be with her and he loves her. At first, Carrie is enraged at him but gives into her feelings for him that won't go away. Emotionally torn between him and Aidan, she has a short love affair with Big. The effects are devastating to everyone involved, and Carrie finds herself alone again. She and Big remain close friends, but Carrie says to him that their love is "a good idea in theory but doesn't work," and he bemusedly agrees. Their feelings linger below the surface though, so they remain flirtatious friends during the times when Carrie is between relationships. Eventually, he moves to California, but returns to New York for an angioplasty and "opens his heart" to her as well, but soon closes his emotions again. Finally, at the very end of the series, Big flew to Paris to tell Carrie she was "the one." Throughout the show, Big's name is never used, with the girls referring to him only as Big or Mr. Big. It is not until the last episode that his name is revealed to be John.
• Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) is one of Carrie's few long-term boyfriends. He is a furniture designer, and he met Carrie when Stanford and Carrie went to his furniture store. They break up after her affair with Big, but rekindle the relationship. He eventually proposes to her, but later, she realizes that she is not ready to commit to him on the same level that he needs. She wants to maintain their relationship and says she will be ready to marry him in time, but he ends it, assuming that she will never want to marry him. She loves Aidan, but perhaps not like she has always loved Big – not in that same "big" way. Aidan was the comfort and romance that she needed after tumultuous times and nurtured; he showed her the gentle, giving side of love. He cherished her in a way that Big was not able to most of the time. When Carrie ran into Aidan at the beginning of the last season (6), he is married and is a father to a baby boy, Tate.
• Jack Berger (Ron Livingston), a writer whom Carrie dates in season six, is Carrie's intellectual counterpart. At first, they seem like the perfect couple, but their relationship came to a screeching halt when Carrie's career heated up just as Berger's cooled down, something he was never able to deal with. He snuck out in the middle of the night and broke up with her on a Post-it note.
• Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) is a famous Russian artist who becomes Carrie's lover in season six. He sweeps her off of her feet, but eventually, she wants the relationship to be deeper than a storybook romance. She accepts Petrovsky's invitation to move to Paris with him, as she needs a lasting love in her life and irrationally fears that past a certain age, love could be hard to find again. But after spending some time there, she realizes that he will never reciprocate the level of emotional involvement that she wants because his career will always come first, and she cannot keep her mind off Mr. Big.

Charlotte's boyfriends

• Trey MacDougal (Kyle MacLachlan) fits Charlotte's knight in shining armor archetype to a tee, and eventually, she marries him (after she incidentally proposes to him at dinner, and he says, "all righty"). They have marital problems from the beginning, mostly centered around his erectile dysfunction, and things escalate when Charlotte finds out it would be very difficult for her to have a baby, which she deeply desires. Eventually, they separate and divorce.
• Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) is Charlotte's divorce lawyer. Although he is not even in the ballpark of Charlotte's ideal man in that he is short, bald, hairy, and often somewhat crude, they fall in love. Harry refuses to marry a non-Jew, so Charlotte, the Episcopalian Princess, converts to Judaism. After this, they have a falling out and break up. Eventually, Harry returns and proposes to Charlotte, and they marry. After that, they adopt a Chinese baby girl (after Charlotte becomes pregnant and has a miscarriage).

Miranda's boyfriends

• Skipper Johnson (Ben Weber) is a geeky, sensitive twentysomething who is a friend of Carrie, then becomes Miranda's boyfriend in season one. The relationship doesn't last because Miranda does not want the same level of commitment.
• Robert Leeds (Blair Underwood), a physician who moves into her building during the season six, is the seemingly perfect man: successful, sexy, and utterly devoted to her. Robert and Miranda have lots of fun and great chemistry, but when he leaves her a giant chocolate chip cookie that says, "I Love You," Miranda panics, devours the entire thing, then tries to ignore it. She realizes that, despite all the idyllic aspects of her relationship with Robert and all the flaws in her relationship with Steve (below), it's Steve whom she loves. She breaks up with Robert.
• Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) is a bartender Miranda has what appears to be a one-night stand with after being stood up by Carrie, who is at Big's home cooking veal (to which she responds, "You ditched me for a piece of politically incorrect meat?"). He falls for Miranda despite her initial resistance, and the one-night stand morphs into a relationship. The difference in income, aspirations, and status between the two becomes a serious issue, and they break up twice during the series. In season four, he is diagnosed with testicular cancer and must have one testicle removed. He and Miranda have sex in what Samantha calls "a mercy fuck," and Miranda gets pregnant. She gives birth to a boy named Brady. They decide to raise the baby together, but separated. In season six, they get back together, then marry in an small, intimate ceremony.

Samantha's lovers

• Maria (Sonia Braga) is a sensual artist that Samantha meets at an exhibit while admiring her work. Samantha is drawn to Maria's strong aura but quickly steps back when she realizes Maria wants to more than just friends. The chemistry is too strong, and it isn't too long before Samantha is introducing her lesbian lover to her stunned friends. This is Samantha's first step toward commitment, and while she greatly admires and respects Maria, they part ways a few episodes later because Samantha can't stand the monogamy and misses the 'penis.'
• Richard Wright (James Remar) is an extremely wealthy hotel magnate who meets his match in bed in Samantha. He seduces her, and they have a no-strings-attached sexual relationship. Their relationship eventually escalates, and both parties struggle to keep their emotional distance. Eventually, both profess their love for each other, and they try to have a monogamous relationship. Samantha's heart is broken when she catches him having an affair.
• Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis) is a young waiter Samantha seduces in a trendy restaurant. She finds out he is an actor and becomes his publicist. Her first advice is to change the awkward name "Jerry Jerrod" to "Smith Jerrod." After Samantha takes control of his publicity and gets him a gig posing nude for an Absolut ad, his career takes off. Ironically, Smith is an alcoholic and attends AA meetings. When Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer, Smith sticks by her side, shaving his signature long hair as a sign of solidarity. At the end of the series, Samantha and Smith are still together and in love.

Cameos

As Sex and the City gained popularity, a number of celebrities had cameos on the show, some playing themselves and some playing characters. These include the following:

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• Nathan Lane - Bobby Fine, "I Love A Charade"
• Amy Sedaris - Courteney Masterson, "Cover Girl" etc.
• Donald Trump - Himself, "The Man, The Myth, The Viagra"
• Jon Bon Jovi - Seth, "Games People Play"
• Alanis Morissette - Dawn, "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl..."
• Matthew McConaughey - Himself, "Escape from New York"
• Vince Vaughn - Keith Travers, "Sex and Another City"
• Sarah Michelle Gellar - Debbie, "Escape from New York"
• Carrie Fisher - Herself, "Sex and Another City"
• Hugh Hefner - Himself, "Sex and Another City"
• Margaret Cho - Lynn Cameron, "The Real Me"
• Alan Cumming - O, "The Real Me"
• Heidi Klum - Herself, "The Real Me"
• Ed Koch - Himself, "The Real Me"
• Molly Shannon - Lily Martin, "Cover Girl" etc.
• Lucy Liu - Herself, "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"
• Candice Bergen - Enid Mead, "A 'Vogue' Idea"
• Heather Graham - Herself, "Critical Condition"
• Jennifer Coolidge - Victoria, "The Perfect Present"
• Tatum O'Neal - Kyra, "A Woman's Right to Shoes"
• David Duchovny - Jeremy, "Boy, Interrupted"
• Geri Halliwell - Phoebe, "Boy, Interrupted"
• Carole Bouquet - Juliette, "American Girl In Paris; Part Deux"
• Valerie Harper - Wallis, "Shortcomings"