Lily Aldrin

Lily is a kindergarten teacher engaged to Marshall, the steady anchor of the friend group orbiting around Ted's search for love. Warm, blunt, and a little controlling, she loves gossip, loves her friends fiercely, and has strong opinions about everyone's love life — especially when it involves meddling for their own good.

Alyson Hannigan gives Lily a sweetness that keeps her manipulations charming instead of grating, and the writing lets her be both the most stable person in the group and quietly capable of upending her own life. She's funny in a grounded, teacherly way — equal parts nurturer and schemer.