List of Nip/Tuck characters

This is a list of characters in the American television medical drama series Nip/Tuck. For full character details and histories, see the articles for each character.

Main characters

Character	Actor	Seasons	Information
Sean McNamara	Dylan Walsh	1–6	A plastic surgeon nearing middle age and trying to come to terms with his formerly 'perfect' life falling apart. He constantly deals with a mid-life crisis of his youth slowly fading away. Sean and his wife Julia, who reconciled after a brief separation, have three children-Matt, Annie, and Connor, who is physically handicapped. Runs the McNamara/Troy plastic surgery practice with his best friend, Christian Troy, who is the biological father of Sean's son Matt. Sean fathers a third child, Connor, with Julia after their reconciliation. After Julia leaves him, Sean re-evaluates his life and sells his portion of the practice to Christian and Michelle Landau. The move to L.A. did not bring McNamara/Troy very much business. Sean and Christian were offered medical consultancies on the show Hearts and Scalpels; they also become actors on the show. Christian quit the show, leaving Sean with most of the attention and Christian angry, saying the show is good for his ego. Sean brought in a lot more customers because of the move to the show. He meets Kate, a woman who stars on the show with Sean and they date for a while until she mentions her fantasy would be having sex with a black man. Later on, he gets seduced by Olivia's daughter Eden but Sean nearly has a heart attack having sex with her while on ecstasy. After a taping of Hearts and Scalpels Sean meets an agent that would like to have Sean as a client. She then becomes obsessed with Sean and wants nobody to come in the way of their unreal friendship. Sean finds out that Colleen is not really a talent agent at all but instead an obsessed fan who just sells teddy bears she makes. Colleen becomes crazier and tries to commit suicide by slitting her wrists at Sean's apartment. Sean gets a restraining order against her but that does not keep her away. While Sean is working on his daughter after a car accident Colleen comes into the surgical room and stabs Sean numerous times leaving him bleeding. Sean has enough strength to stab and kill her. Sean is now uses a wheelchair and cannot perform surgery. However, Sean is pretending to be disabled because he's tired of working. Julia then everyone else finds this out. Sean meets Teddy (a short replacement for Liz) and they begin to hit it off. She asks Sean to marry her, he says yes. She is a black widow who kills her husbands just to inherit money. Teddy suggests Sean and the kids go camping so she could kill them all in an apparent accident. After locking their camper and releasing the accelerator she runs off but is murdered by a serial killer. Later Sean tries to commit suicide by swimming out too far. He is sent to a psychiatric ward. Sean later has sex with Kimber. Sean and Christian later bury another person who died on their operating table and this almost ends McNamara/Troy's partnership for good. At end of the series, Sean quits McNamara/Troy to work solo.
Christian Troy	Julian McMahon	1–6	An egotistical and womanizing plastic surgeon also approaching middle age, Christian serves as a foil to the more family-minded Sean McNamara, his best friend and business partner. He is the biological father of Matt McNamara with whom he has a tempestuous relationship. Sean begins to take on the Carver victims, undoing his works and this makes him the Carver's next victim. He is warned that if he is to help another Carver victim, the Carver will kill him, which Sean does. However, the Carver instead targets Christian in the Season 2 finale. Kimber Henry is his on-again/off-again girlfriend, and actually his fiancee for some point during Season 3. However, their relationship ends when the Carver kidnaps Kimber. Christian's hope that selling ownership of the practice would lead to fewer stresses has proved to be unfounded. He begins a romantic relationship with married Michelle Landau, which becomes an engagement following the death of her husband. Buys out Sean's part of the practice only to sell his own stake in the practice to Michelle when he decides to leave her. In the fifth season, Christian becomes quite jealous of Sean who becomes an actor on the show "Hearts N' Scalpels" when Christian doesn't. He tries several different ways to get the recognition he believes he deserves, such as doing a naked photo shoot which attracts gay men to the office. He also works briefly as a male prostitute, when he is mistaken for an actual prostitute. Christian begins dating Julia, but cheats on her several times, most memorably with Gina, who accidentally falls of a roof seducing him. In the "Season 5 Part II" premiere, it is discovered that Christian has developed second stage breast cancer after revealing he had found a lump on his chest while accompanying Liz who had just had a mammogram. At the end of the episode he underwent a mastectomy with Sean promising to perform the reconstruction. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, Christian becomes very ill and Liz decides to stay with him while he recovers. The two have sex and briefly become a couple until Christian returns to his health enough to return to his womanizing ways. This hurts Liz, and she leaves McNamara/Troy, returning to Miami. Although he believes he is getting better, it's revealed his cancer has become terminal and he only has six months left. This inspires him to propose to Liz. At the end of the season, Christian is informed he is in remission, but after he has already married Liz. Christian then tell Liz he wants a divorce, causing her to sue for half of his assets. After a change of heart she drops the lawsuit, much to Christian's relief. Later, Kimber starts dating Dr. Mike Hamoui causing Christian to want Kimber back in his life. She eventually leaves Mike for Christian and they get married. Soon after though, after an incident where Christian attempts autoerotic asphyxiation he tells Kimber that he can't be with her anymore. This causes Kimber to commit suicide, which sends Christian into a depression. When Julia comes to Los Angeles to tell Sean that she and the kids are moving to England, she tells Christian that he steals people's souls and the best thing for him to do is let Sean go. He has a dream that night where Kimber tells him the only way to get away from him was to kill herself and that if Sean stayed he would end up a dead man as well. This causes Christian to dissolve the McNamara/Troy partnership and tells Sean to go to Bucharest. At the airport after Sean and Christian say their goodbyes, Christian uses his "I'm a doctor" technique into gaining the interest of a woman at a bar, proving that he will never change his ways.

Major characters

Character	Actor	Seasons	Information
Julia McNamara	Joely Richardson	1–6	Sean McNamara's wife of 18 years, mother to Matt, Annie and Connor. Dropped out of medical school to raise her children and became extremely bitter about being a full-time stay-at-home-mom, which led to the tension that ultimately resulted in the end of her first marriage to Sean. They remarried. Former co-owner of De La Mer, a day spa for surgery patients in recovery. Recently gave birth to a third child — her second with Sean — who has ectrodactyly. Julia leaves Sean after his revelations about the affair with Monica Wilder, as well as her own affair with Marlowe Sawyer and her resolution to raise Connor and Annie away from the turbulence of her old life. As the series ends, she is marrying a wealthy British man and taking the kids with her to England, but she and Sean have mended fences and they part on civil terms.
Matt McNamara	John Hensley	1–6	Sean and Julia's extremely troubled and amoral teenage son. His vast list of crimes include running over and disfiguring a classmate in Season 1, assaulting a transgender woman in Season 3, and frequently abusing drugs and alcohol. Later during Season 2, Matt finds out Christian is his biological father. He was also involved with Ava, a post-op trans woman, and fell in love with her before discovering that she was trans. During Seasons 4 and 5 he was in a quasi-romantic relationship with Kimber Henry, who had been involved with both Sean and Christian and who has introduced him to Scientology, which he has enthusiastically embraced. Since his conversion, and possibly partially because of his involvement with Kimber, he has cut Christian out of his life for the time being, labeling him as an "SP", or suppressive personality. He has since left the religion and Kimber. In Season 6, he briefly turned to armed robbery in order to support himself, and he was eventually caught and did time in California state prison, but has since been released. He gets engaged to a young woman named Ramona but leaves her at the altar to be with Ava. He later tells Christian he and Ramona have reconciled but in truth, she wants nothing to do with him. He ends up leaving with Ava to raise his daughter in South America.
Liz Cruz	Roma Maffia	1–6	Anesthesiologist for McNamara/Troy, and former general practitioner at De La Mer. Often the "voice of reason" at McNamara/Troy, Liz is a 40-something lesbian and feminist who serves as a sarcastic foil for Christian Troy, though she occasionally shows concern and even admiration for Christian. She seems to have a proclivity towards physical injury, once being shot in the leg by Escobar Gallardo, and, later, having one of her kidneys stolen by organ thieves after being seduced and drugged by an attractive young woman. She was also married to Christian for a short time. She finishes the series as a partner in the newly incorporated Troy/Cruz practice.
Kimber Henry	Kelly Carlson	1–6	Christian's on-and-off girlfriend whom he met in the pilot episode. A former model, porn actress and producer and drug addict, she is extremely narcissistic and self-conscious about her looks and has severe low self-esteem. Christian's general apathy towards Kimber's feelings - which was expressed most notably in Season 1, when he attempted to "trade" Kimber to a rival plastic surgeon who was in love with her in exchange for the rival's new sports car - has contributed to her poor self-image. She was a victim of the Carver, a crazed plastic surgeon, and former partner at McNamara/Troy. She also had a brief sexual relationship with Sean McNamara when he split from Julia. In Season 4, she is an enthusiastic Scientologist who helps Matt deal with his problems through counseling. She seduced and married Matt as revenge against Christian, became pregnant with Matt's child, and eventually leaves him for Ram Peters, a former boss of hers when she was a porn star. After her relationship with Ram falls apart, Kimber gets involved with plastic surgeon Mike Hamoui, before leaving him to marry Christian. Their marriage quickly crumbles due to infidelity on both parts, Kimber engaging in an affair with Sean. In Season 6, after Christian ends their marriage following the sudden realization of his treatment of her, Kimber is driven to suicide, jumping from the bow of Mike's boat to her death.
Gina Russo	Jessalyn Gilsig	1–5	An extremely troubled, angry, bitter, HIV-positive sex addict in her mid-30s who has a very adversarial and volatile relationship with Christian Troy, who she often refers to as "asshole" as opposed to using his actual name. She is also the mother of Christian's "son" Wilber, aka Gabriel, but lost any custody of him after her entire sordid history was discovered by the authorities. Became the full owner of De La Mer surgical recovery spa when Julia sold her share of the business to help raise her new son. In the fifth season, she is hired as the new receptionist at McNamara/Troy. Gina was killed after falling from the roof of an apartment building while trying to seduce Christian during this same season.
Quentin Costa	Bruno Campos	2–3	An openly bisexual plastic surgeon originally from Atlanta, who flew down to Miami to perform surgery on Sean McNamara after being attacked by the Carver. Briefly a limited partner at McNamara/Troy and dated Julia McNamara when she and Sean were going through their divorce. Quentin was revealed to be the Carver at the end of season 3.
Grace Santiago	Valerie Cruz	1	Staff psychologist at McNamara/Troy

Primary antagonists (villains)

Character	Actor	Seasons	Information
Escobar Gallardo	Robert LaSardo	1 & 4	A ruthless, violent, and somewhat Tony Montana Scarface-esque drug lord from South America who the doctors become entangled with during season one. Has a thing for 1980s music. He first appears in the pilot episode when after one of his chief lieutenants gave Sean and Christian a $300,000 cash bribe to make him a new face, Escobar murders the man in Sean and Christian's office after revealing that the man is a pedophile who sexually molested Escobar's six-year-old daughter, and he forces Sean and Christian to dispose of the body. He further blackmails Sean and Christian into performing surgeries to remove liquid heroin smuggled from Colombia in the silicone breast implants of Colombian prostitutes on his payroll. After Sean balks at being pushed around, Escobar pays an unexpected visit to his home and physically threatens Julia, Matt and Annie. Escobar lies to Julia by claiming that Sean is having an affair with his much younger wife before leaving without physically harming her or Matt or Annie. Julia actually believes Escobar's lies (due to in part of Sean having a sexual weakness for younger woman), and Sean's refusal to confide in her to who Escobar is only reinforces her belief. Enraged that Escobar threatened his family and turned Julia against him, Sean buys a gun and goes to Escobar's house to kill him, despite objections from Christian. Sean confronts Escobar when he is alone, but the drug lord, being a psychopath and devoid of any fear, dares Sean to kill him by playing on his morals using the "kill-me-and-you-become-me" approach. Predictably, Sean cannot go through with it, leading to Escobar to disarm Sean, beat him up and throw him out of his house after making another threat to rape and kill Sean's whole family and forcing Sean to watch it all (like Escobar apparently does to all of his rivals) if Sean ever physically threatens him again. Later in the Season 1 final, Escobar blackmails Sean and Christian into giving him a new face so he could leave the drug business behind and start over again in Colombia. Instead, Sean and Christian take advantage of this to finally turn the tables on their blackmailer when they gave him the face of another wanted criminal and Escobar is arrested at the Miami airport while attempting to flee the country. Escobar appears briefly in a dream sequence in the Season 2 finale, encouraging Sean to kill the Carver. He also appeared in Season 4 as a hallucination of Sean's, encouraging him to repeat his sexual exploits with a young teenage babysitter. Apparently has taken on the symbolic role of Sean's inner voice for aggressive behavior. Later, Escobar convinces Christian and Sean to restore his original face. He then breaks out of security while in the clinic, and kills his accomplice to remove a threat to Sean and Christian. It is revealed later in the season that James LeBeau has been working for him. In the fourth-season finale, he is killed by his greedy and long-abused wife, Gala Gallardo, so she could take over his drug dealing business all for herself. (deceased)
Ava Moore	Famke Janssen	2–3 & 6	A life coach who routinely manipulates and uses her clients for her own twisted amusement. Hired by Sean to fix his marriage to Julia, Ava only targeted and seduced their son Matt. Ava then revealed the secret of Christian as Matt's biological father (a result of Julia's one night stand with Christian while she was engaged to Sean and still attending medical school). At the end of Season 2, Ava was revealed to be transsexual. She had left her husband/doctor before completing genital surgery; Ava was able to barter with Sean and Christian to perform one last surgery to complete her medical transition in exchange for her ending her relationship with Matt. Stepmother to Adrian Moore and was married to Dr. Barrett Moore. Also known as Avery Tanner. Fled to Paris, France to avoid being implicated in her adopted son's murder. Ava appears in Season 6 for a surprise visit in the final two episodes when she came back to McNamara/Troy after a long hiatus, having a little deformed baby boy with her that she adopted when she was living in Paris. She needs Dr. Troy & Dr. McNamara to do an immediate cosmetic surgery on her newly adopted baby because he was not perfect, all this made the past begin to reform. Sean and Christian refused to do the surgery. Ava, frustrated with their decision, decided to ask how Matt has been. Sean tells Ava he's fine and is getting married, seeing Matt's wedding invitation on the table as she leaves McNamara/Troy, Ava takes the invitation so she could make a surprising visit to Matt and his fiancee. Ava surprises Matt at the carpet store he works at and Matt introduces his fiancée to her. Ava notices Jenna and immediately becomes wide eyed saying she is the most perfect and most beautiful girl she has ever seen. Later on, Sean says he will do the surgery for Ava's baby, amazed with excitement Ava thanks Sean. Once the surgery is done, Ava says she does not want the baby when she learns some of his scars will remain permanently, making him an outcast just as Ava used to be. In the final episode, we see Matt, Jenna, and Ava headed on a plane together to start a new life together.
The Carver	Bruno Campos	3	A mysterious psychopath, masked serial rapist/killer known as The Carver, who disfigures his victims by cutting a deep slash on either side of their mouths, resembling a smile. Sean McNamara, Christian Troy, Kit McGraw, Kimber Henry and Quentin Costa were the principal characters who fell victim to the Carver attacks during Seasons 2 and 3. The identity of the Carver was revealed during the Season 3 finale. Currently living somewhere in Europe under a new identity.
Kit McGraw	Rhona Mitra	3	A British Interpol detective brought in to solve The Carver case. It was later discovered that she was the sister of The Carver/Quentin Costa and on more than one occasion donned the Carver mask and committed a few attacks herself to throw off suspicion from Quentin. She helped Quentin escape from the country by faking his death, by shooting him whilst he was wearing a bullet proof vest and then fled to Spain with him.
James LeBeau	Jacqueline Bisset	4	A ruthless businesswoman and extortionist who knows Michelle Landau, the trophy wife of Sean and Christian's new boss. She apparently seems to have some kind of sexual relationship with her. Michelle Landau worked under her as an escort to pay her way through medical school. James is also the mastermind of an organ theft ring that targeted Liz, and she uses Michelle as a decoy for this purpose. It is revealed that James herself has been working for Escobar Gallardo. James later kills herself in front of Michelle, rather than turn Wilber's kidneys over to Escobar. (deceased)
Eden Lord	AnnaLynne McCord	5	An 18-year-old high school student who is the daughter of Julia's girlfriend, Olivia Lord. She is quickly revealed to be a brutal sociopath and master manipulator who uses her looks and charms to get what she wants. She first appears when she walks into Sean's office, requesting to get her hymen repaired claiming that it is for a boy that she is current dating who still thinks that she's a virgin. When she noticed Sean squirming, she realizes that Sean is attracted to underage girls and tries to seduce him, but he rejects her and she leaves. She later shows up at Sean's house and he finds out she's Olivia's daughter. Eden then sets out on an evil and twisted ploy to get back at Sean for refusing her advances by becoming friends with Sean's daughter, Annie. Eden tries to corrupt Annie by telling her that she's fat and convinces her to become bulimic. Eden further tries to destroy Annie's life by getting her a boyfriend and she indirectly gets Annie expelled from school for encouraging her to give her boy-crush a blowjob in a bathroom stall and letting her get caught. Sean finds out Eden was behind this and confronts her, but Eden play-acts as the innocent individual and claims that she had nothing to do with Annie's expulsion. Eden later blackmails Christian to give her gay friend an operation by threatening to reveal to Sean his affair with Julia. However, Christian proves to be a match for Eden's skilled manipulation when he gives her "speed" pills and then tells Olivia and Julia that Eden stole them from the practice. Julia and Olivia decide to send Eden to rehab. When Eden comes back from rehab, she follows through with her threat and tells Sean about Christian's affair with Julia, but Sean doesn't believe her. Eden later tells Sean that she lied and kisses Sean and admits she likes him. She later has sex with Sean as "a get it out of our system screw". Sean later enlists the help of his co-star, Aidan to get Eden back. Aidan tells Sean to just ignore her and it works. Eden agrees to have sex with Sean again, but during sex, Sean has a bad reaction from consuming ecstasy. Sean then tells Julia and Christian about his affair with Eden and breaks up with her. Afterwards, Eden gets Aidan fired from the show by having sex with him in front of a camera, then shows the sex tape to the crew. She later drops out of school and enters the adult film industry and stars in a movie with Kimber. During the lovemaking scene, Eden tells Kimber to hit her, but instead, Kimber get overactive punches her in the face. Eden comes to Sean, hoping that he'd help her. Sean fixes her bruised eye and Eden tells him that she doesn't want to do another movie but she has a contract. She asks Sean to help her get out of her contract. Eden later admits to Sean she loves him and wants to get back together with him but Sean rejects her due to their age difference. Sean later confronts Ram Peters about how to get Eden out of her contract. Ram tells him that if he does some surgery on some of his older clients, then Eden will be free. After Julia breaks up with Olivia, Eden then attempts to kill Julia by putting liquid mercury in a fruitcake and other foods that she gives to Julia. Julia gets sick, and has tests done to figure out what's wrong with her. When the test results get back, she finds out Eden has been slowly poisoning her. Eden decides to kill Julia and shoots her in the head with her own gun. She later tells everyone that Julia committed suicide. Julia survives but doesn't remember that Eden shot her, and Eden gets away again with her crime. When Eden's mother, Olivia, later dies during a botched surgery, Eden tosses her ashes on Sean and Julia. Sean does the surgeries to get Eden out of her contract, but Eden revealed that she never wanted out of her porn contract and was only using him to get free surgery. Eden then leaves town with her new lover, Ram Peters, to become a porn star.
Colleen Rose	Sharon Gless	5	A hyper-tempered, psychopath talent agent working with Sean due to his role in Hearts & Scalpels. The legitimacy of her practice is brought into question by her lack of familiarity with CAA and her false claims of representing various actors. When a CAA agent meets her at her apartment and sees through her scam, she murders him by filling him with cotton and turning his features into a teddy bear. It's revealed that she runs a teddy bear kiosk at a mall and is confirmed to be an unlicensed agent. When Sean discovers the truth and fires her, she shows up at his apartment with her wrists slit. Later, after being rejected again, she leaves the dead body of the agent in Sean's apartment. Later, in disguise, she sneaks into the practice and stabs Sean in the back while he is operating on Annie, only to get stabbed and killed by Sean despite being gravely wounded. Every time Colleen Rose appears on camera, the sinister theme music from the movie The Exorcist can be heard in the background. Tim Stack describes her as an "obsessed teddy-bear enthusiast." According to some viewers, Colleen's unappealing and unattractive appearance which includes her dark clothing, her short, slicked-back white hair, pale complexion, arthritis hands and feet, and her oversized eyeglasses give her the appearance of a demon.[1] (deceased)
Dr. Theodora 'Teddy' Rowe	Katee Sackhoff (Season 5) & Rose McGowan (Season 6)	5–6	A new anesthesiologist hired by Sean and Christian at their new L.A. practice. Romantically involved with Sean, she soon convinces him to marry her in the season 6 premiere. However, Sean has no idea that Teddy is in fact a "Black Widow," (a female serial killer who marries men and later kills them) and is living a double life. As revealed in the Season 5 finale, Teddy was going by the alias "Dixie" in a small Las Vegas plastic surgery firm. She married the owner, Harlan, but soon killed him... presumably for his money. Teddy then focused on Sean and proving to stop at nothing to get at his health insurance money, going as far as to murder a patient who recognizes her while Teddy was working in Vegas under her "Dixie" alias. During a camping trip with Sean, Annie and Connor, Teddy tries to kill all three of them by drugging them with sleeping pills and flooding the camper with carbon monoxide. However, Annie wakes up (having not eaten the drugged smores) and manages to wake her father up who manages to break the door down and get them out. Teddy walked off and encountered a nearby camper who turned out to be another serial killer (a man who kills women). Teddy was attacked by him and runs back to Sean to find the trailer empty and her attacker behind her. Sean is later called by the police, who find a human heart in the forest nearby, DNA from which matches blood from Teddy's hair. The attacker is later pulled over for a routine traffic violation and is arrested when he is found with bloodied hands... and Teddy's severed head in his car trunk. Sean later learns that Teddy intentionally tried to kill him and his children, and had preyed on and murdered at least four other doctors in the past as well. Before attempting to commit suicide, Sean dumps Teddy's ashes into a trash can and throws his wedding ring in after it. (deceased)

Other characters

Character	Actor	Seasons	Information
Nurse Linda	Linda Klein	1–6	Nurse at McNamara/Troy. Moved to L.A. with them.
Annie McNamara	Kelsey Batelaan	1–6	Julia and Sean's sensitive and often neglected daughter. Her internal struggles often manifest through her troubling behavior throughout her adolescence. Annie innocently manipulates her dolls hands to mimic Connor's handicap. She naively uses a tampon and accidentally causes herself toxic shock syndrome. Once older, she endures cosmetic surgery due to an unfortunate car accident. She also develops trichotillomania, an OCD related disorder which causes sufferers to eat their own hair. Annie, once again, has surgery to remove the large hair wad accumulating in her stomach. Fortunately, Annie's defiance eventually saves her and her family. She wakes up during a carbon monoxide leak and alerts her family after she refuses to eat laced s'mores given to her by Teddy.
Vanessa	Kate Mara	1	Matt's cheerleader girlfriend in the first season. He initially wants to become circumcised for her, but it is soon discovered that she is an in-the-closet lesbian. She coerces Matt into having a threesome with her and her lover Ridley.
Bliss Berger	Leslie Grossman	1, 5	A client and former obese woman who first appeared in the first season to have a waddle of excess skin on her arms removed. She now works at Fiona McNeil's publicist agency in Los Angeles, thanks to Christian's help, and offered them to do a reality show which was a failure.
Dr. Merrill Bobolit	Joey Slotnick	1–2, 4	Former classmate and competitor of Sean and Christian. Bottom of his class in med school, shady, and jealous of Christian and Sean. Once tried to cut off his face in order to attach Troy's handsome features to himself. Became Escobar Gallardo's "prison wife" while incarcerated. Attempted to kill the once drug lord while on the operating table.
Suzanne Epstein	Nancy Cassaro	1–2	Julia's self-absorbed friend. Her daughter is Annie McNamara's friend.
Mrs. Hedda Grubman	Ruth Williamson	1–2, 4	A wealthy client of McNamara/Troy with a plastic surgery addiction. She is extremely clever and manipulative and uses that to her advantage to get whatever she wants. Mrs. Grubman also appeared in Season 4 where she died of complications brought on by lung cancer. (deceased)
Sophia Lopez	Jonathan Del Arco	1	A transgender woman who developed a romantic relationship with Liz. Is absent in second season but is mentioned.
Jude Sawyer	Phillip Rhys	1–3	A college student who befriended Julia when she went back to school as an undergrad. He is deceptive, selfish, and cheats to get ahead in school. He briefly worked as an intern at McNamara/Troy. Appears earlier in the series speaking with a British accent, but later confessed to have faked it to impress women.
Megan O'Hara	Julie Warner	1–2, 4	A chiropractor who had cancer and a mastectomy and came to McNamara/Troy for breast reconstruction. Had a brief affair with Sean. Eventually committed suicide when her cancer came back. Appears in tandem with Escobar when Sean is faced with the choice of whether to continue his affair with a young babysitter, encouraging Sean to restrain himself. Apparently has taken on the symbolic role of Sean's inner voice for compassionate behavior. (deceased)
Henry Shapiro	Andrew Leeds	1–2	Matt's equally troubled and evil friend from high school. Ended up in jail after raping a girl he had developed an obsession on after he had a hit-and-run on her with Matt.
Wilber Troy	Josiah & Joshua Henry	2, 4–6	Adopted son of Christian Troy, biological son of Gina Russo.
Erica Noughton	Vanessa Redgrave	2, 3, 6	Julia's crafty and controlling mother and a practicing doctor of clinical psychology in New York City. Believes Julia has wasted her potential by choosing not to becoming a medical doctor, instead spending her time at home as the primary caretaker. In Season 6, she tried to get custody of Annie and Connor because she thought Sean and Julia could not handle it and were not worthy of being parents (which is more than a little true). Found out her new young boyfriend/boy-toy was a phedophile by him spending so much time with Annie and having a pair of her underwear in his possession. Erica later says Julia and Sean can have custody and that she is never coming back again, during that time Julia decides to make her ungrateful and troublesome mother go away for good when she maliciously plants a kilogram of cocaine into Erica's bag. On her way to get searched before going on the plane, the airport security finds the cocaine and Erica is arrested and sent to prison for drug smuggling.
Adrian Moore	Seth Gabel	2	The teenage sociopath adopted son of Ava Moore and biological son of Dr. Barrett Moore. He was briefly involved with his stepmother. Committed suicide. (deceased)
Natasha Charles	Rebecca Gayheart	2, 4	A blind patient who had a brief relationship with Christian. Returns as a fantasy to haunt Christian in Season 4.
James Sutherland	Georg Stanford Brown	2	The elderly biological father of Wilber, the baby Christian thought he had with Gina. (deceased)
Ariel Alderman	Brittany Snow	3	A racist and bigot teenage girl from Matt's high school. Was brought up a racist by her equally racist parents. She was briefly and romantically involved with Matt.
Cherry Peck	Willam Belli	3	A transgender woman who the homophobic Matt attacks after finding out she is pre-op. Matt later befriends Cherry and saves her life in the third-season finale when Ariel's bigoted father attempts to kill her.
Abby Mays	Rebecca Metz	3–4	A patient of Christian's. Undergoes liposuction and then meets Christian for a date, where she consents to having sex with him while wearing a bag on her head. Later tells Christian she's a masochist and wants to do it again, he agrees. Returns as a fantasy to haunt Christian in Season 4.
Burt Landau	Larry Hagman	4	A wealthy venture capitalist who purchases McNamara/Troy with his much younger wife Michelle. He has prostate cancer, and can no longer satisfy her, and following the discovery of Michelle's affair with Christian, requests that he watch them have sex together. He is left to die by his wife so she and James LeBeau can harvest his organs for James's organ smuggling ring. (deceased)
Michelle Landau	Sanaa Lathan	4	An attractive thirty-something woman married to the wealthy and much older Burt Landau. They purchase McNamara/Troy, and she and Christian start an affair. Following Burt's death, they become engaged and plans are made for Michelle to adopt Christian's son Wilber. However, when secrets from Michelle's past are revealed (she paid for her medical tuition by working as a prostitute and kidney thief) and both Wilber and Christian's lives are put in danger, they end their engagement. Eventually, she buys out both Sean and Christian, ending the Miami-based practice of both surgeons which makes them move to California while Michelle remains in Miami.
Dr. Faith Wolper	Brooke Shields	4	Christian's former psychiatrist. She suggests that Christian is in love with Sean. Desperate to prove his heterosexuality, Christian has sex with her on her desk. Faith has an addictive personality, and requests removal surgery on a tattoo displaying the name of a former lover. Following its removal, she gets Christian's name tattooed in its place. Later, Sean and Christian confront her over her beliefs about their relationship, and Christian breaks up with her after deciding that he no longer needs her services.
Monica Wilder	Jennifer Hall	4	An unstable young woman who applies for the nanny position for Conor McNamara. She and Sean had a brief affair, until she revealed her true insanity and possessiveness. She tried to blackmail Sean into returning his affection, threatening to inform Julia of the affair. Before being able to tell, she is hit by a bus and killed instantly. (deceased)
Marlowe Sawyer	Peter Dinklage	4	A former nanny for Conor McNamara. He has dwarfism and is opposed to performing surgery on Conor, and as such is frequently at odds with Sean. He and Julia find a kindred bond, and they begin a brief affair. Asked Sean to give him leg enhancement surgery so he could be tall enough for Julia. Left during a hurricane in Miami to have a nice long vacation in Italy.
Dr. Mike Hamoui	Mario López	4, 6	A surgeon whom Christian is jealous of because of his good physical shape. He performs liposuction on Christian and they become friends. He later buys Christian's apartment when he moves out and reveals that he admires him for his countless conquests. Joined McNamara/Troy in LA in order to boost profits. Dressed up in lingerie for Kimber under Christian's tense that she liked it. Was engaged to Kimber for a while.
Dawn Budge	Rosie O'Donnell	4–5	A white trash woman who lived in a trailer until she won millions of dollars in a statewide lottery. Requests plastic surgery for herself and her family, and pays Christian for sex. She bonds with Liz, and donates a kidney to her. Returns to McNamara/Troy after having her ear cut off in an earring theft and has it replaced. Returns again after being attacked by an eagle while hang-gliding, and briefly dates the closeted executive producer Freddy Prune. Requests additional surgery when a motorbike is driven into her face at a gay and lesbian pride parade.
Poppy	Alanis Morissette	4	Liz's former girlfriend. A fitness addict, she was dumped by Liz after trying to change her body image through plastic surgery.
Fiona McNeil	Lauren Hutton	5	A powerful Hollywood publicist and Sean's and Christian's agent. She encourages one of her top female clients to have plastic surgery to help her career, and later hires her assistant Bliss Berger to help Sean and Christian in business deals.
Olivia Lord	Portia de Rossi	5	An expert in Eastern medicine and Julia's one-time lesbian lover. Mother to Eden Lord, Olivia is loyal and supportive to her daughter despite knowing of her crimes. Died during a facelift Sean was performing only to find out later that she was taking antidepressants which killed her during the surgery. (deceased)
Freddy Prune	Oliver Platt	5	The creator of the television drama "Hearts 'n Scalpels." He briefly dated Dawn Budge, until anal stimulation from a notorious sex predator forced him out of the closet.
Aidan Stone	Bradley Cooper	5	Lead actor on the television drama "Hearts 'n Scalpels." He is quite immature and often has sex with young teenage girls. He also advises the insecure Sean on how to stay young without plastic surgery by living a carefree life of recreational drugs and sex. Fired from the series and ordered into rehab after a sex tape is leaked featuring him and Eden Lord (who made and deliberately leaked the tape for her own deranged enjoyment), which also featured him using anti-Semitic remarks. Later breaks his neck and ends up in a halo brace in an attempt to commit self-fellatio.
Kate Tinsley	Paula Marshall	5	Lead actress on the television drama "Hearts 'n Scalpels". Briefly dated Sean. Kate has body dysmorphic disorder, stemming from jibes about her weight throughout her career.
Ram Peters	John Schneider	5	A legendary porn entrepreneur. Formerly Kimber's boss, he reluctantly allows her to return to the business. He is briefly seen to be married to a porn star named Busty. Later, he and Kimber start an affair and marry, with Ram legally adopting Kimber's daughter Jenna. He is won over by the seductive charms of Eden Lord and invites her to move into their house... and into their marriage bed. He later throws Kimber out after deciding to keep Eden all for himself.
Dr. Raj Paresh	Adhir Kalyan	5	One of Sean's students where he currently teaches, an extremely gifted surgeon with a degree in Medicine from Harvard. Raj's spirit slowly crumbles after he is visited by his father, an esteemed cardiothoracic surgeon living in India. Realizing he can no longer go through life disappointing his demanding father, Raj provokes Matt into crushing his hand in a car door, ending his chances of a successful surgical career.
Ramona Perez	Melonie Diaz	6	Matt's fiance, who appears in the final three episodes of the series. He ultimately abandons her on their wedding day and leaves town with Ava Moore. Later, in a brief flashback, he attempts to reconcile with her, but to no avail as she spits in his face for making her look like a fool.

References

1. Tim Stack, "Must Watch of the Week: Nip/Tuck," Entertainment Weekly 1029 (January 9, 2009), 58.