The following are characters whose portrayer received "Starring" billing at any point of the series. They are sorted in the order in which they were introduced to the main cast, and not by episode count, screen time, or popularity.
Zachary "Zach" Young (Cody Kasch) is the son (non-legal) of Paul and Mary Alice. Zach's birth parents are Deirdre Taylor and Mike Delfino; however, this, along with his original name of Dana Taylor, is not revealed until "One Wonderful Day".
In season one, Zach is depressed by the sudden suicide of Mary Alice, so Paul puts him in a mental institution. During his stay, Julie sneaks in his room to speak with him but is asked to leave by a nurse. Zach later runs away and is found hiding in Julie's room by Susan and Mike who take him home. He and Julie then start dating. Susan speaks to Paul about Julie and Zach's relationship and is irritated when she thinks he is laughing at her but he insists it will not be a problem as he and Zach will soon be moving away. Zach, however, has other ideas and blackmails him to make sure they stay in Wisteria Lane as the police are asking questions about an old toy box that Zach once had as a similar one has been found with the body of a young woman inside. Whilst at the institution, Zach was diagnosed with clinical depression and a borderline personality disorder which makes his behavior unpredictable at best so when Susan asks Zach not to see Julie for a while as she is concerned about how fast the relationship is progressing, Zach loses his temper so Susan promptly forbids him to see her ever again and throws him out. Julie initially rebels against this but after Zach scares her at his pool party, she doesn't see him again. In revenge, Zach blows her kitchen up before holding Susan hostage in the first-season finale. Zach then goes into hiding and reappears in the second season when Mike and Susan are looking for him. Susan tells him that she wants to help until he says he hopes he and Julie would reconcile. Susan, visibly shaken by this, suggests he go to Utah and find Paul and gives him money for the bus fare. Months later, after Felicia Tilman frames Paul for her murder, Paul begs Zach to ask his grandfather, Noah Taylor, for money to pay a lawyer, claiming it is for a car. Noah refuses, telling Zach that he would not inherit his fortune because of Zach's supposed lack of bravery. Wanting to prove him wrong, Zach turns off Noah's respirator and finds that he has inherited a vast fortune and no longer wants anything to do with Paul. Zach moves to his grandfather's mansion.[citation needed]
Zach reappears in season three as Gabrielle's secret admirer. Zach unsuccessfully tries to impress Gabrielle with luxurious gifts and his wealth. After getting her drunk, Zach lets her believe that they had sex, which she cannot remember. Gabrielle then asks Carlos to scare Zach off, but before Carlos can confront Zach while at the urinal together, he accidentally sees that Zach has an extremely large penis. Carlos assures Gabrielle that if she had slept with Zach, she would remember. Zach proposes at Scavo's Pizzeria but Gabrielle declines as she does not want a relationship with him.[citation needed]
Zach returns in season seven, shooting Paul at the end of the episode "Down the Block There's a Riot". He first appears as a delivery guy delivering flowers to Bree. Later in the episode, a gun matching the one used to shoot Paul is found on Bree's couch after Zach planted it there. It's revealed that Zach is now addicted to drugs and gambling and has lost his entire fortune on both. Paul and Mike both momentarily put their differences aside to help Zach by placing him in a rehab clinic for treatment, where he remains for the rest of the series.[citation needed]
Ana Solis (Maiara Walsh) is the granddaughter of Carlos' Aunt Connie. Ana arrives to Wisteria Lane in the fifth-season finale to live with Carlos and his family, as her grandmother had stated she was dying and could not take care of Ana anymore. Gabrielle soon realizes Ana is a very superficial, scheming young girl who uses her good looks to get what she wants. In the sixth season, Carlos wants Gabrielle to sign the legal papers that would define them as Ana's legal guardians, but Gabrielle is not willing to. Ana overhears their conversation and starts acting out even more on purpose to get back at her. When Gabrielle learns this, she immediately signs the papers to keep Ana at ease, 24/7.[citation needed]
Ana reveals she has a thing for Danny Bolen, and when Julie is strangled and sent to the hospital, he asks her to make up an alibi for him. Later, Ana gets a job working for John Rowland, Gabrielle's ex-lover, and develops a crush on him, but John leads Ana on only to get to Gabrielle. When Gabrielle confronts him, he kisses her, and Ana witnesses the kiss. Ana runs home, infuriated, and prepares to tell Carlos, but Gabrielle reassures her that Carlos knows about her past affair with John, and that she is so happy with Carlos right now. She begs Ana not to do anything that would ruin their happiness. Ana keeps quiet, and quits her job.[citation needed]
Ana and Danny begin to date, but Gabrielle sends Ana to New York for a while after hearing Angie and Nick argue about their cover. Danny tracks down Ana to tell her the real reason her aunt sent her away because Gabrielle did not want them to be together. By the end of season 6, Ana remains in New York City, and Danny leaves to be with her.
Bob Hunter (Tuc Watkins) and Lee McDermott (Kevin Rahm) are the first gay couple to live on the fictitious Wisteria Lane.[1][2] They first appeared in the season four episode "If There's Anything I Can't Stand" on October 21, 2007.[3] Within the series, Bob is an attorney,[4] and Lee is a real estate agent.[5]
Prior to the fourth season of Desperate Housewives, the series' sole leading gay character was Andrew Van de Kamp, whom critics noted as having a minimal role in season three.[1] In July 2007, two months before the premiere of season four, series creator Marc Cherry announced that a gay couple would be moving to Wisteria Lane around the fifth episode of the new season.[1][2] Cherry named the characters after ABC journalist Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee,[1][6] and based them on his own experiences and interactions with neighbors as a gay man.[1] Cherry decided not to make the new characters "issue-oriented" and treat them like the heterosexual couples on the series.[6] Actor Tuc Watkins was cast in the recurring role of Bob in August 2007,[2] having previously auditioned for the role of Adam Mayfair for the series only a few weeks earlier.[7] Kevin Rahm, who was cast as Bob's partner Lee, originally auditioned for Bob.[8]
Both Watkins and Rahm were promoted from recurring guest stars to series regulars for the seventh season.[9][10] However, for the eighth and final season of the series, both of them were demoted to "Also starring".
Chuck Vance (Jonathan Cake) is introduced in the seventh season as the investigator in charge of keeping an eye on Felicia Tilman who has moved back onto the lane. When Juanita Solis calls the police and tells them Bree is trying to kill her and Celia (after Carlos tells her Bree's involvement in her grandmother's death), Chuck responds to the call at Bree's home. After the misunderstanding, Chuck gives Bree his number twice, and Bree agrees to go out on a date with him. When Bree tells this to Renee, Renee runs a background check on Chuck and reveals to Bree he is still married, though he had filed for divorce a year ago. At dinner, Bree confronts Chuck with this information but Chuck retaliates by telling her he had also run a background check on her. Offended, Bree abruptly ends their date. As Chuck drives her home, Chuck catches a hooker in the street and tells that she can turn her life around, pretending to reveal Bree once was a prostitute and she had turned over a new leaf by going to school and starting a massive catering company. Moved by Chuck's whole-heartedly words, Bree gives Chuck a second chance. In the seventh season finale, Lee tells Bree he recognizes Chuck as a gay man he has seen in local gay bars. Bree drops in on him at the police station, and her suspicions deepen, leading her to believe Chuck's marriage has broken down because he is gay. After a dinner date, Bree insists Chuck take her to a gay bar, where several patrons and a waiter recognize him. Chuck tells her he had worked undercover in the bar, and discloses his marriage broke down because his wife had been having an affair with his police partner. Chuck is one of the attendees to the progressive party that takes place during the night in which Alejandro Perez is accidentally killed by Carlos. Bree and the other housewives helped hide Alejandro's body.[citation needed]
In the eighth season, Bree continues her relation with Chuck but she fears that he might discover what happened with Alejandro, so she dumps him the same night in which Chuck planned to propose to her. Later, at his office, Chuck is given a missing person report for Alejandro. Chuck starts an investigation and recalls seeing Alejandro at Wisteria Lane the night of the progressive party, so he guesses that Bree is involved in the case. Chuck harasses Bree as well as her friends, in an attempt to get revenge and make Bree suffer. Chuck is close to discover the truth until he is run over and killed by Orson. Chuck appeared amongst other deceased characters in the series finale.[citation needed]
Ben Faulkner (Charles Mesure) is an Australian real estate developer who moves to Wisteria Lane in the final season. He attracts Renee's attention, but initially he rejects her. Ben hires Mike as a plumber in his project, so Renee pumps Mike for information about Ben and he reveals that he helps out old people. Renee goes and acts nice to Karen in front of Ben in hopes that he will ask her out, which he does. For their date, he takes her to a homeless shelter and once she figures out that he is mocking her, she is furious, but they bond over the fact that they were both poor as small children. Bree comes to volunteer at Ben's soup kitchen, and helps him get the right to build his houses for the poor in the woods, but she later finds out that it is the same place that the girls buried Alejandro. Bree first tries to prevent Ben from building the houses there, but after Ben finds the corpse, Bree decides to reveal the secret to him, and asks Mike to bury it under the concrete foundations at the site. Ben clashes with Chuck when he sees the detective harassing Bree, while Renee gets suspicious of Ben and Bree's friendship. Chuck purposely plants the idea on Renee that Ben is having an affair with Bree, but this soon ends when Renee discovers that Bree is about to commit suicide, and when Chuck is killed.[citation needed]
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