Donald "Jared" Dunn

Jared arrives at Pied Piper as a defector from Hooli, trading a cushy executive role for a folding chair in a cramped house because he believes, with unnerving sincerity, in Richard's compression algorithm. He is eager, formal, and slightly too willing to sacrifice his own comfort — and dignity — for the good of the company.

Zach Woods plays devotion as something almost alarming: Jared's politeness and self-erasure are so total they curdle into comedy, then back into something oddly moving. The writing keeps finding new humiliations for him to absorb without complaint, and Woods never lets you see the seams — he's the show's gentlest, strangest true believer.