The Characters

Here is a list of the characters in The Adventures of Pete & Pete with a brief description of each character and a paragraph about where else you might have seen the actor. It hasn’t really been maintained since 2010, so the information is not up to date and may talk about very old events in the present tense.

Title Characters

Pete

Played by Michael Maronna

Older Pete narrates each story, giving us essential background information. This Pete is fairly average and normal. Pete’s best friend is Ellen Hickle.

Older Pete is played by Mike Maronna. He has appeared in both Home Alone and Home Alone 2. He was some episodes of All My Children the Summer of 1997 as well as the 1997 season premiere of Law & Order.

Pete

Played by Danny Tamberelli

Younger Pete’s view on life is rather bitter, and he has a twisted disposition. But he still has his charm. Pete’s personal super-hero is Artie, the Strongest Man in the World.

Younger Pete is played by Danny Tamberelli. Danny appeared on All That, another Nickelodeon show. He has done several commercials and has been spotted in an episode of Law & Order. He was also in The Babysitter’s Club (the tv series, not the movie), The Mighty Ducks, and The Adventues of Huck Finn. Danny was the voice of Arnold on The Animated Magic Schoolbus and appeared several times on Figure It Out (a game show on Nickelodeon) and at least once on Space Cases (another Nickelodeon original).

Ellen

Played by Alison Fanelli

Ellen Josephine Hickle is older Pete’s best friend. (Her middle name is mentioned in “Apocalypse Pete”.) She lives just a couple blocks away and goes to Pete’s school. She plays the French Horn and is an excellent student. All of this, plus her cheery disposition, serves as an interesting contrast to both younger and older Pete.

Ellen is played by Alison Fanelli.

Mom

Played by Judy Grafe

Mom’s name is Joyce, although there’s rarely cause to call her anything but “Mom”. Mom does not seem to have a job except keeping her odd family in line. (We all know who the backbone of this family is.)

Mom is played by Judy Grafe. Her movie credits include *batteries not included, Frankenhooker (!!) and Basket Case 2 as some form of a news caster in each movie. More recently, she’s also been on Kablam!, another show on Nickelodeon.

Mom’s plate

Since mom’s plate has its own listing in the opening credits, we do the same here. Mom had an accident as a child which meant a metal plate had to be put in her head. In fact, this is how Mom and Dad met each other: Dad was using his metal detector at the beach and detected the plate. The rest is history. Mom’s plate can serve as a radio antenna (which has its pros and cons) and as a lightning rod (which also has its pros and cons).

Mom’s plate has never appeared in any movie to date.

Dad

Played by Hardy Rawls

Dad is just simply Dad. He’s a bit of a bumbling fool, but his heart is in the right place. He owns and operates a driving range. Dad’s name is Don Wrigley.

Dad is played by Hardy Rawls. He has been in several commercials and a couple movies. He has also appeared in commedy bits on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Artie, the Strongest Man in the World

Played by Toby Huss

Suffice it to say here: Artie is the strongest man in the world. We have put together some rampant speculation about him.

Toby Huss plays Artie, the Strongest Man in the World. He has been spotted doing commercials for MTV, Nike (as a bellboy), and Butterfingers. He has provided voices for Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. He was also in an episode of Seinfeld as Jack “the Wiz”.

Nona Mecklenberg

Played by Michelle Trachtenberg

Nona is a neighbor of Pete and Pete who wears a cast all the time because she likes the itchy feeling it gives her. She was an addition to the supporting cast in the second season, but was promoted to full cast member in the third season (taking Artie’s place).

Nona is played by Michelle Trachtenberg. She was also an autistic child on All My Children. She does not appear in all of the third season episodes so that she could star in Harriet the Spy. She joined the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a later season as Buffy’s sister.