When Arrested Development came out in 2003, it didn’t constitute as a commercial success that you might associate with sitcoms like Friends or Fraisier or [insert another comedy that starts with F…is there a sitcom called Fuck? No? Anyway].
Its initial run only ran for three seasons, but received 26 Emmy Award nominations, and six wins, including two for Best Comedy Series.
Featuring a writing staff that went on to create iconic shows of their own, and regular appearances from legends such as Ron Howard, Eliza Minnelli and Henry Winkler, the show also featured one of the best ensemble casts of all time, most of which went on to even brighter careers.
So we decided to take the nine primary characters of Arrested Development and rank them based on their post-AD careers.
9: Jeffrey Tambor (George Bluth Senior)
The imprisoned patriarch of the Bluth family, George Bluth is responsible for the overarching plot of the show, as well as many of the most memorable lines. Look at this image and don’t hear the exact tenor of “There’s always money in the banana stand!” We dare you.
He received two Emmy award nominations for the show, though…well we’ll get to that later.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
Tambor had a storied career in the entertainment industry, but his most celebrated performance was his four-time Emmy-nominated as Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
Playing a transitioning trans woman in Transparent, Tambor was praised for his nuanced performance in a critically-acclaimed show.
Awards and Successes
Tambor was nominated for three Emmys in his role in Transparent, winning twice, bringing his career nominations up to nine. He also was a one-time winner and three-time Golden Globe nominee for the same show.
Reason for Ranking
Tambor is a talented actor, but his career has essentially fizzled since Transparent, and he gets a ding for suffering from a terminal case of “apparently being a really hateful asshole on set” and, um, welp, sexual harassment stuff. While he has more hardware than many on this list, we are forced to keep him at the bottom of our rankings.
8: Portia De Rossie (Lindsay Bluth Fünke)
The narcissistic “charitable for show” daughter married to a clearly closeted man, Lindsay Bluth was both a foil to comment on Southern California spoiled housewives while occasionally offering moments of sibling poignancy with her brother, Michael.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
She was probably best known for being one of the leads in Ally McBeal, appearing in 89 episodes.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
While she was in over 40 episodes of Scandal, her best work was as a Veronica Palmer in the criminally underrated ABC sitcom Better Off Ted.
But she’s probably most known for being Mrs. Ellen DeGeneres.
Awards and Successes
None of note, particularly. She received nominations for Arrested, but mostly for ensemble awards.
Reason for Ranking
While she had a decent handful of roles after the initial run of the show ended, she hasn’t appeared in anything since the last Netflix reboot. It seems like she’s focusing on other projects outside of acting currently.
7: David Cross (Tobias Fünke)
While aspects of his character might not have aged particularly well, David Cross as Tobias was always game for anything. The constantly speaking in accidental sexual misspeaks and therapist served as an oblivious jovial clown, providing easy jokes that somehow were way funnier than they had any right to be.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
Before his Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad days, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross created and starred in the sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David that featured such comedy stars as Paul F. Thompkins, Sarah Silverman and *checks notes* *oh no* *OH NO* notable January 6 rioter Jay Johnson.
Um.
But yeah. It aired for thirty episodes and received four Emmy nominations.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
He’s had various roles in dozens of films and tv series, including doing voice work for major franchises such as Rick and Morty, Kung-Fu Panda and Megamind. And he stays busy on the podcast and stand up comedy circuit.
Awards and Successes
He’s received two Grammy nominations for his stand up work, though no major awards for individual acting.
Reason for Ranking
He’s been busy, and has a lot of credits to his name, but has never broken out as a major character in any of his post-AD work.
6: Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth)
The matriarch of the Bluths, the hilariously out of touch Lucille is responsible for some best one-liners in the entire show, if not in television history. R.I.P.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
How to put this delicately…Jessica Walter was a smoke show. That didn’t define her, but it’s at least a definition that can be applied. She won an Emmy award in 1975 for playing the lead in the limited series Amy Prentis, and had two more nominations before finally getting nominated for Arrested.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
It’s Archer, obviously. She had 163 different acting credits, but after AD she largely kept herself busy with smaller roles. But her voice work in Archer, with 127 episodes to her credit, is by far the most episodes of any show she ever appeared in (for comparison sake, she did 83 episodes of Arrested Development).
Awards and Successes
Walter was nominated for two more Emmys for voice acting in Archer, and still managed dozens of credits before she sadly passed in 2021.
Reason for Ranking
There’s no denying she had an incredible career, so the only reason she’s basically around the midpoint of this list is that her biggest work, outside of Arrested Development and Archer came over decades of, well. Being a smoke show.
(And a wildly talented comic talent.)
5: Will Arnett (Gob Bluth)
The over-confident oblivious magician fail-son of the family, Will Arnett chews scenery with the best of them as Gob (George Oscar Bluth), the illusionist (he doesn’t do tricks, that’s a thing a whore does for money. Or candy).
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
Apart from doing voice work, which he still does to this day (we swear, 65% of all commercials with voice overs seem to be Will Arnett’s voice) Arrested Development was really his big break. He had small roles before, but nothing nearly as major. The best we can find is a two-episode run on The Sopranos in a role where, if you have seen The Sopranos your response to this sentence was “wait he was in two episodes of The Sopranos?“
Most Notable Post-AD Role
We actually had to bump him above Jessica Waters while writing this article because it’s easy to forget that Arnett has actually had some crazy big roles since the show.
Yes, every Ford truck commercial is scored by his enticing baritone, but he went from Devin Banks in 30 Rock to the reboot (the bad one, not the good most recent one) of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, to Popstar, the best comedy of the last 15 years, And let’s not forget him as Batman in the Lego Movies, which was so good it warranted the first (and best) Lego Movie spinoff. Oh and he made you cry like 47 times at least during Bojack Horseman.
Awards and Successes
He got one nomination for Arrested Development, but since then has two for Bojack (but that’s more a producer role) and four for best guest actor in 30 Rock. He also just has been, well let’s just say, he clearly has a very busy agent.
Reason for Ranking
Bojack Horseman is an all-time sad-boy comedy (we mean that as a deep compliment) but he’s mostly known for his guest appearances on NBC sitcoms and while he’s been in some legitimate blockbusters, its for voice work more than live-action.
3: (Tied): Michael Cera (George-Michael Bluth) / Alia Shawkat (Maeby Fünke)
The cousins-but-not-cousins-but-listen-it-was-2003-and-maybe-incest-jokes-were-novel-in-a-pre-Game-of-Thrones-world are hard to separate in this list, partly because their careers both more-or-less started with the show where they were such strong partners, and also because they’ve each had successful careers, just in notably different ways. So screw it, they’re tied.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role(s)
Cera had a lot of credits, but nothing particularly notable, before starting AD. He voiced a bear in the Berenstain Bears for 13 episodes. Or was it the Berenstein Bears????
Shawkat also had her first credit in 1999, but the most noticeable film was a role as a random Iraqi pre-teen in Three Kings before she got her big break with Arrested.
Most Notable Post-AD Role(s)
For a while, Shawkat had a career that, while steady, probably would have been closer to the bottom of the list. She made features like the roller derby comedy Whip It and Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, but has also anchored several acclaimed shows with lead roles in Search Party and The Old Man. In the former, she’s the perfect satirical Millennial archetype in a series that earned five seasons that ranged from dark detective comedy to *checks notes* um zombie show? Wait, what?
In the latter, she plays a badass CIA analyst/agent in a strong but decidedly dramatic role.
She teamed up with her on-stage AD grandfather for eight episodes of Transparent and has dozens of credits, with guest roles in some of the best comedies of the last decade.
Meanwhile, Mikey Cera (seriously, watch that video, we’ll wait) would also be lower on this list except for his latest re-emergence. Immediately. After Hollywood tried to make him a “thing” with, admittedly, solid results (sure the movies didn’t perform at A-list levels, but no one can deny that any actor who can pull off Juno, Superbad, and Nick and Nora Make a Playlist in a two-year span and follow that up with Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has a Capital C Career behind them).
For a while he was in a lot of movies that you might not even have clocked him in it, like The Batman Lego Movie and Sausage Party but he’s been steadily working while also pursuing a music career. But he’s had a renaissance in the last few years, with the obvious reason he jumped up in the rankings being his role in Barbie.
Awards and Successes
Neither have many major awards, but Cera has a BAFTA nomination for “Rising Star” from his post-AD career, and both have been major pieces in wildly successful shows and movies.
Reason for Ranking
Michael Cera has probably had the higher-profile roles, but Alia Shawkat has proven success in comedy, dark comedy, drama and action. After brief “quiet” periods both seem likely to only see their star rise even further.
2: Tony Hale (Buster Bluth)
If Gob is the fail-son, Buster is the…God, how to describe it without saying something to get us cancelled? He’s the fail-man-baby? Coddled…oh that’s a much better term, mama’s boy! That’s his thing! Anyway, typical sitcom character. Has a degree in cartography. Joined the military only to have his hand eaten by a seal to live the rest of his life with a prosthetic hook as a left hand. Not allowed to go in the sun. A classic character.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
He didn’t really nab any roles until his mid 20s, with small single-episode roles on shows like Dawson’s Creek and, like Arnett, an episode of The Sopranos.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
After AD, his career definitely lifted off. He’s had billion dollar movie roles thanks to the Inside Out Toy Story franchises. He’s been in films and TV directed by the likes of Soderbergh and Jordan Peele. And, of course, he won multiple awards for his role as the bagman in Veep.
Awards and Successes
For Veep alone, Hale won two Emmy awards with six nominations.
Reason for Ranking
Frankly, Veep. He’s tied with Tambor for most post-Arrested Emmy wins, while so far not being known for berating his cast to tears. Also, being in two of the top three Pixar movies (each of which earned over $1 billion) doesn’t hurt.
1: Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth)
The lynch-pin of the entire series, the only competent member of an incompetent family, Michael Blooth is the focus and star of the show. The straight man in an absurd world who still can be seen singing about maritime law.
Most Notable Pre-AD Role
He was best known as one of the child actors that seemed to have grown up to not be a cautionary tale, with Silver Spoons being one of his most popular shows.
Most Notable Post-AD Role
Like a lot of cast members of AD, he had his big box office hit doing voice work, in his case, Zootopia. And he was a scene stealer in Dodgeball. He also teamed up with Michael Cera again (though never in the same scene) with Juno. And of course, there’s Ozark. He’s directed multiple films and TV series while essentially rejuvenating his career thanks to Arrested Development. He claims it literally saved his life.
Awards and Successes
While nominated twice for Arrested, he has since been nominated 12 times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Most were for Ozark, where he was nominated three times for directing and four times for Lead Actor, eventually coming away with an Emmy win for directing the episode “Reparations.”
Reason for Ranking
Ozark is obviously the most successful of his post AD works, but he’s built a solid career from both in front of, and behind, the camera (Bad Words, for example, is an underappreciated light-R film that is a lot of fun). But at the end of the day, he was able to have a cultural phenomenon where he was a director, actor and producer.
At the end of the day, almost every actor in Arrested Development were able to have it help their careers, and there are a lot of amazing actors and creative minds we would not be talking about if not for its show. Not bad for a the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.
America Fun Fact of the Day 