House would have been just another medical drama without its fascinating cast led by Hugh Laurie’s Gregory House. Although House‘s titular character was the driving force of the show, his team and the rest of the supporting characters were just as important.

A character like House only works when they have other people around them that can challenge them in different ways. Each doctor on House’s team mirrored some of the best and worst things about their boss. And that’s not to mention Cuddy and Wilson. That is why ranking the best House characters is not easy, even more so because we learned to love all of them.

10

Amber Volakis

Played By Anne Dudek

Amber was only in House for one season – two, if you consider House’s visions – yet she changed the trajectory of the show forever. How differently House season 4 would have been had the 2007 writer’s strike not happened is impossible to say, but the fact is that Amber stole the show.

It’s always great when a character can stand up to House and fight back, whatever the reason may be. Amber wanted to impress House to get the job, but the fact that she was too much like him ended up playing against her.

Of course, we can’t discuss Amber without addressing her fate at the end of season 4. Amber was at the center of two of House‘s best episodes – “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart,” and her impact on Hugh Laurie’s character was such that she even returned in the form of visions.

9

Lawrence Kutner

Played By Kal Penn

Similar to Amber, Kutner didn’t need to be on the show for too long to leave a lasting mark on House. Kutner’s childish behavior may have hidden the fact that he was quite similar to House in a lot of ways. He didn’t have much of a life outside of work, and his guesses were always creative.

Kutner would come up with some of the most out-of-the-box diagnoses during the differential and knew how to improvise. I would have loved to see House and Kutner’s dynamic evolve throughout the show, which became impossible once Kal Penn left House.

Kutner’s death in House was shocking and, in some ways, frustrating, especially after we had already lost Amber, but it worked in the context of the show. House was never a show about happy endings, and the way they handled Kutner’s death was very emotional while also bringing attention to mental health.

8

Chris Taub

Played By Peter Jacobson

Paraphrasing Rachel, Taub is not a great husband, but he is a great character. One thing I always enjoyed about Taub is how he was one of the most grounded doctors on the show. House had a lot of larger-than-life characters who stood out for different reasons, yet Taub was just a solid doctor who wanted to work for House.

Taub was also the only character from the second team who remained on the show until the very end. We got to see Taub’s marriage fall apart as the show progressed, and it was nice to follow a character outside of work like that when most of the show happened inside the hospital.

7

Robert Chase

Played By Jesse Spencer

House‘s original trio will always have a special place in the hearts of fans, and it is almost impossible to say which of them is the best or most important character. That being said, Chase was essential for House as a show to work. He was similar to House in many ways, but he could also be confrontational and wanted to be his own person.

Chase became the new head of the Diagnostics department at the end of House.

Chase was part of some of House‘s most bizarre moments, but he was also involved in some of the show’s most powerful storylines. From the death of his dad and how it affected him to the Dibala case to his divorce, Chase was a very complex character who changed a lot as the series progressed.

There is an argument to be made that Chase was House’s favorite pupil. I do think that House firing Chase at the end of season 3 was the highest compliment House has given someone – it may have been House’s twisted way of saying that there was nothing else left for him to teach Chase.

6

Remy “Thirteen” Hadley

Played By Olivia Wilde

House can read most people pretty quickly, so the fact that he had nothing about Thirteen for a while summarizes how interesting she was. Thirteen was a puzzle that House struggled to solve, which made for a very fun dynamic. Even after we learned more about Thirteen, she and House also maintained that special dynamic.

The scene in which House tells Thirteen that he will kill her when the time comes is one of my favorites of the whole show, and it only works because we were all invested in her story by that point. Thirteen was given a lot of focus from the moment she arrived to the end of the show, but it was absolutely deserved.

5

Eric Foreman

Played By Omar Epps

Apart from Wilson and Cuddy, no one else at that hospital understood House better than Foreman. That may be because, at the end of the day, Foreman was more similar to House than he would like to admit. Foreman earned House’s respect and was usually the second in command, but that didn’t come without a few sacrifices.

None of the many iterations of House’s team would have worked without Foreman. He was the right balance between Cameron’s questioning nature and Chase’s “ride or die” approach, and he later became the link between House’s unusual modus operandi and the new recruits.

I was frustrated with how little Foreman was given to do after season 3, though. On the one hand, he became the second most important doctor at the Diagonis Department after House. On the other hand, it seemed like his stories were an afterthought while the new characters were getting the more interesting arcs.

4

Alison Cameron

Played By Jennifer Morrison

Cameron is one of the most fascinating House characters. Although I was never a fan of the potential relationship between her and House, that was one of many examples of how complex and unpredictable she could be. Cameron was a good person who thought she could fix the world, a trait that affected both her professional and personal lives.

Cameron was quite complicated, but the more we learned about her and her past, the more we understood her actions. I was disappointed with how little we saw of Cameron after season 3, even though I knew that House needed to shake things up to make sure the show would remain exciting.

Cameron was just not given enough to do after she moved to the ER. Chase was always more directly involved with whichever case House was working on, as he was everyone’s go-to surgeon for some reason. Yet Cameron would often just point House to a new case that came from the ER and disappear for the rest of the episode.

However, that doesn’t change how important she was to the show. House would have been a far less interesting series without Cameron.

3

Lisa Cuddy

Played By Lisa Edelstein

In earlier seasons of House, Cuddy was limited to being the person who would tell House he couldn’t do something before he did it anyway. While that continued to be part of her role until she was written out of the show, Cuddy became a far more complex character in later seasons.

We got to see Cuddy as a doctor, boss, friend, and mother during House, and she was never a one-note character or a parody of herself like others did. I was not the biggest fan of House and Cuddy’s relationship, but this was also a period where we got to see other sides of her character that were also interesting.

The fact that House went downhill once Cuddy left speaks volumes about how important she was to the series. There was no House without Cuddy, which is probably why season 8 wasn’t as great as its predecessors.

One of my favorite House episodes, “5 to 9,” showed what an average day at the hospital looks like from Cuddy’s perspective. It was a fascinating reminder that characters had their own worlds outside of whatever was happening to Gregory House and his team.

2

James Wilson

Played By Robert Sean Leonard

We only saw James Wilson through House’s perspective, which is why many of us might not have realized how fascinating a character he really was. Wilson was as flawed as House, albeit in different ways. They were drawn to each other for several reasons, especially how similar they were.

From his numerous divorces to how easily he would fall in love, there was never a dull moment with Wilson. He was House’s Watson, the loyal sidekick who would always come back regardless of what happened. But Wilson was also a complicated, paradoxical character full of contradictions himself.

Wilson was always going through something, yet he would hide his pain much better than House.

Wilson was also quite tragic of a tragic character when we think about it, even before season 8. While his divorce stories were often played for laughs, the fact that all of his relationships except the one with House fell apart tells everything we need to know about Wilson.

When he finally found someone who seemed right for him, Amber, she died tragically. To make things even more complicated, House had a role in Amber’s death, even though it was not his fault. Wilson was always going through something, yet he would hide his pain much better than House.

1

Gregory House

Played By Hugh Laurie

Gregory House is not just the best character of the show; he is also one of the greatest characters in television history. I don’t think House would have been that great of a protagonist had he been played by anyone other than Hugh Laurie, whose comic background added another layer to a character that could have come off as a two-dimensional Sherlock Holmes ripoff.

House was a walking contradiction, to the point that no one could ever anticipate what would come out of his mouth. He used humor both to defend himself and attack others, and only a couple of characters ever got to see the true House.

Over a decade after House ended, it is safe to say there will never be another character like him. David Shore, Hugh Laurie, and all the writers who worked on House created a character that arguably became bigger than the show itself and will always be remembered as one of television’s greatest.