Willis Family

The Willis Family

Queen of the Willis family
Type	Cartoon family
Created by	Ava Zinn
Origin	The Life of Larry Larry & Steve
Original run	August 12, 2006 (2006-08-12) – present (present)
First appearance	"Death Has a Shadow"
Address	6328 West Evansville Road, Quillsville, Indiana

Main family

Ava Willis

Aeverine "Ava" Melanie Florence Willis, (formerly Frank Michael Willis), voiced by Ava Zinn. Ava is the father of the Willis family, protagonist who proudly sold "retail gifts and retail accessories" as the assistant manager (later manager) at Craven Gifts, and throughout the entire series always makes a big deal about the job when everybody around Ava finds her occupation boring. A few episodes show Ava escaping from her troubled home life by working on her home and garden when times are tough. In early episodes, Ava resembles—in both voice and appearance—the Claudia character from Amanda & Elisa, a character also voiced by Zinn. Ava is usually a well-meaning parent, but is often confused and anxious towards modern trends and the antics of her friends and family members. She transitioned to from male to female on November 1, 1999 and has an enlarged clitoris, which made concieving children with Angie difficult. Ava is uncomfortable with public displays of intimacy with her wife and children. She has a very difficult time saying "I love you" to any member of her family, as she thinks it is unmanly. Ava's trademark exclamation when surprised or angered or in times of discomfort (sounding like "Aahhh!") and "Dammit") are running gags on the series. Ava is a byproduct of a bygone era - always faithful, friendly, firm, reasonable, well-read and hard-working. Much of the series revolves around Ava's desire to do the right thing compared to much of the rest of the people around her who would rather cheat, lie or exploit. Ava is a proud Hoosier, having grown up there. She was, however, born a boy in a ladies room at Cleveland Municpal Stadium, and spent the first three days of her life in Cleveland, Ohio.

In an interview with News Setinel Zinn described her as "Hank Hill as a woman with the knowledge of what she's doing. She has the mind of a transgendered man, basically, and a source of big laughs is when she does realize she's doing something right."

Angie Willis

Angela "Angie" Anne Willis (née Donaldson and formerly Shanks), voiced by Holly Everman from 2006-2011, Karly Jameson since 2019. Angie is the mother of the Willis family works as a substitute accountant. Angie was born in Utah and was adopted by Ned and Lisa Shanks. Her strained relationship with her stepfather is a source of drama for her.

Angie is the Head of the Willis family and bespectacled woman who is just a big child. She has other roots beside her Irish ones, including African-American, Spanish, Scottish and German. She is incredibly jealous of other attractions Ava has in her life, an attitude that tends to get out of hand in most cases. In one episode, Angie and Ava split up because of Angie's jealousy only to discover that Ava has the same character flaw and the two decide to live with their mutually jealous nature. Angie has a very short attention span and frequently ends up in bizarre situations, as Deanna points out in one episode, after Angie's bird dies "She will get over it pretty quickly and then move on to another crazy-ass thing".

The Willis Sextuplets

The Willis Sextuplets (Stuart, Ron, Brian, Luanne, Emilie, and Hillary) are the youngest of of the Willis family children, born in 2008 in "And Then there were 13". Because they were so young, the sextuplets didn't play a large role in the series' initial run. The sextuplets will not appear in the premiere episode of Season 6.

Ava's Family

• Albert Willis (voiced by Ava Zinn) - Ava's younger brother, whose physical appearance is very similar to Ava's. He met Julie Crawford in 1989, and they had their first kiss at age of fourteen. Later in her life, Albert and Julie marry and eventually divorce. They have a son Austen and a transgendered female dog, Bianca. Albert drowned in the series premiere and in Quillsville Cold Case he was murdered by Julie. It is also revealed in that episode, he had been unaccepting of Ava's gender transition.
• Amazing Ava Amanda "A.A." Willis - Ava's half-sister who was born in "Ava and Angela Willis: Celebrating 20 Years". A.A. is Peggy's and Charlie's infant daughter, and the younger of Ava's two half-brothers. A.A. is an abbreviation for "Amazing Ava," implying that the original Ava was unsatisfactory to her mother. Peggy treats A.A. much better than Ava presumably because Peggy sees her as being her second chance of being a better mother than she was for Ava and Albert. A.A. was key at a time when Ava had to convince Peggy not to end her life as well as to permit Ava to give her mother money for the baby's sake (and as payback for the years Peggy raised her and Albert).
• Margaret "Peggy" Willis (nee Zinn and formerly Willis) (voiced by Ava Zinn) - Ava's cantankerous mother she has a hair-trigger temper. Despite her many shortcomings, she occasionally showed a softer side, for example in the episode "Cotton's Plot" where he helped Peggy learn to walk again after her parachuting accident. Her neck was slashed by bullies at Quillsville Central High School (now Babyface High School) and her head was reattached to spinal cord , resulting in a short height and stilted gait. Despite her disability, she eventually reached the rank of Master Teacher. After Peggy and her first husband Harry, Ava's father, divorced, she married a much younger, soft-spoken, hunky doctor named Charlie who conceived and Peggy gave birth to a daughter "A.A." ("Amanda Ava"). She was immensely proud of her teaching service. Instead of addressing Angie by her name she calls her "Ava's wife".
• Charlie Belcher (voiced by George Gray) - Charlie is Peggy's second husband and Ava's stepfather. He's a doctor after he retired from being an Chippendales dancer. He has muscular implants and suffers from depression following the birth of Peggy's daughetr "A.A." He is generally depicted as docile and unintelligent, although he is a certified medical assistant. Charlie was in Kindergarten when Ava was already an adult (indicating she is older than him).
• Harrison "Harry" Elroy Claussen (formerly Willis) (voiced by David Caruso) – Harry is Peggy's first husband, and Ava's father. He divorced Peggy after suffering years of verbal abuse. Harry is a kind man who collects knickknacks because they made him happy during Peggy's abuse. Ava is often over-protective of him, fearing he is too old and fragile to go out and do things on his own. Harry lives in Iowa with her Japanese transgendered husband Clyde Claussen (voiced by Leonard Lai). Harry's legal name varies during the series. He is listed as "Harry" on Ava's and Albert's birth certificates, but is addressed as Harrison by the clergyman during his wedding to Clyde.
• Vladamir (voiced by Ted Shields) – Vladamir is Ava's and Albert's elder half-Russian transgendered half-brother who has lived in Russia all his life. Ava and Vladamir have the same mother, due to Peggy's affair with a Russian doctor during her war days, and share many similarities in appearance and mannerisms (this in spite of the fact that Ava actually shares more of her father's features); one of these is that when he is shocked, like Ava, he yells "GAAH!" Like Ava, Vladamir also has an enlarged penis after his transition from female to male and is an assistant manager at the company for which he works, making robots and robot accessories.
• Diane Willis (herself) – The main anchorwoman for Fox 11 Quillsville with Bob Donaldson and Ava's cousin. In the episode "Ava Gets Dianed," Peggy gives her prized Mercedes to Diane without allowing Ava a chance to buy it. Diane enters the car for husband Clyde Lee (himself) in a demolition derby in which it is badly damaged. Ava and Diane make their peace after Diane has the car repaired and installed at the Mercedes Ranch.

Angie's Family

• Bob Donaldson (himself) – The main anchorman for Fox 11 Quillsville with Diane Willis, the biological father of Angie, Lisa's first boyfriend. In the episode "Revenge of the Male Anchors 2," it was discovered that Bob is the biological father of Angie.
• Laura Donaldson (herself) - Laura is Angie's half-sister. Laura makes her first appearance when Ava and Deanna are watching news from Fort Wayne, when it was revealed Laura and Angie are sisters.
• Skye Donaldson (voiced by Karly Ryder) - Skye is Bob's husband and Angie's stepmother.
• Ned Shanks (voiced by Garfield Everman) – Ned Shanks is Angie's step-father. Ned lived in Marion, Indiana with his wife Lisa until Lisa divorces him in "Sexist Father." Ned hates Ava because she is no longer living as a male, and often calls her a "Methodist transgendered whore", disapproves of her daughter's family's lifestyle, and frequently attempts to force his religious views on them. To a lesser extent he disapproves of Ava due to her heritage, and is angry with Angela for not marrying an "Irish seed". When Ava (then Frank) and Angie got married, Ned taped the sign "To a Methodist Bastard" underneath the "Just Married" sign on the limousine. Despite all of this, he truly did love and care for Angie, and showed on multiple occasions to care for his grandchildren. Ned used to have a job at a metal fabrication plant. Ned dies in a hospital after uttering "Angie... you're a slutty stinking drunk!" as his last words.
• Lisa Shanks (voiced by ) - Ex-wife to Ned, Ex-boyfriend to Bob Donaldson and mother of Angie. She has gray hair and noticeable wrinkles below her eyes, and wears pink earrings and a purple bead necklace. She also wears glasses and is a heavy smoker. Unlike Ned, she is generally friendly and personable, and gets along well with Ava. Before Ned's death, she divorced him because she had "needs he didn't fill" and dated a younger man for a while. She often appears with news inconvenient or troubling to Angie and her family. Her brief partnership with Angie's biological father, Bob Donaldson, is established in the episode "Revenge of the Male Anchors".

Deanna's Family

• Brandi Willis