Moishe Maisel

Moishe Maisel is Joel's father, a self-made coat manufacturer who built his fortune from nothing and never lets anyone forget it. Loud, proud, and endlessly opinionated, he holds court at every family gathering, dispensing unsolicited advice with total confidence. Underneath the bluster is a man devoted to his family, even when his bark threatens to drown out everyone else's voice.

Kevin Pollak plays him at full volume without ever making him a cartoon — the comic timing is sharp, but there's real feeling underneath every tirade. Moishe's certainty is the joke, yet the show lets him be surprisingly tender when it counts, which keeps his bluster from curdling into mere noise.