Any show that proves successful is graced with increasingly impressive guest stars. Some use guest stars to attract extra viewers, perhaps even new viewers who will stick around. But It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia isn’t one of those shows. When it brings in a guest star it’s not one you expect, and far more often than not that guest is used exceedingly well. Those are the Sunny guests that follow. The qualification here was that they were in at most three episodes. Just missing the cut were Tom Sizemore, Cleo King, Dax Shepard, Jason Sudeikis, Nora Dunn, and Kerri Kenney.
Some guest appearances are better than others, with a handful of the guest stars clearly understanding the show’s wavelength. Here are the 10 best guest stars on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, ranked.
10) Faizon Love as Coach
One of the best It’s Always Sunny Season 3 episodes, “The Gang Gets Invincible” is a blast from front to back. It also features an example of how Sunny is at its best when a character surrounding the Gang is growing increasingly sick of their nonsense.
Enter Don’t Be a Menace and Friday‘s Faizon Love, who delivers all of his lines with either charming sarcasm or understandable exasperation. Love’s Coach is the type of person who just isn’t taking the Gang’s neediness or unwarranted overconfidence, and it’s hilarious to watch him throw those things in their faces.
9) Josh Groban as Himself
Rob Thomas, Sinbad, Wade Boggs, Jason Kelce, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Richard Grieco, and Scott Bakula. These are all people who played themselves on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and almost never in a straightforward way.
But Josh Groban wins. Groban is Dee’s dream guy. Trying to get to his concert is essentially her entire plotline in Season 6’s “Mac’s Mom Burns Her House Down.” And, in Dee’s fantasy sequence in Season 9’s “The Gang Saves the Day,” she does in fact meet him. More specifically, they fall in love, with Groban loving her even more than she loves him. We know this because he writes and sings a song about her. Admittedly, she seems like she loves him too…right up until about four minutes later when she meets Brad Pitt and drops Groban like old cabbage.
8) Guillermo del Toro as Pappy McPoyle
Five years into Sunny‘s run, Charlie Day became the show’s breakout movie star. First was the greatly underrated Going the Distance, then a bigger role in Horrible Bosses, followed by two of the higher-profile releases of 2013’s summer movie season: Pixar’s Monsters University and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim.
The latter project ended up clearly establishing some bonds. For one, that film’s Burn Gorman appeared in Season 9’s “Flowers for Charlie” in a pretty standard scientist role. But the role for Pacific Rim‘s director was perfect and an all-timer. Specifically, del Toro plays Pappy McPoyle, patriarch of the horribly inbred McPoyle family. The first time was in Season 8’s “The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre,” where he screamed a little bit but that was about it. Then he was brought back for Season 11’s “McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century,” where it’s revealed he keeps a little birdie under his big hat at all times.
7) Judy Greer as Ingrid ‘Fatty Magoo’ Nelson
One of the most versatile performers of her generation, Judy Greer was and remains underappreciated. She excels in dramas like The Descendants just as she knocks comedies like Arrested Development out of the park.
Her role in It’s Always Sunny, Ingrid Nelson AKA “Fatty Magoo,” isn’t a funny one in the traditional sense, but her utter disinterest in the Gang’s hijinks and unrequited interest in reconnecting with Dee is. Nelson’s big episode was Season 3’s “The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty Magoo” but she was also put to good use in Season 7’s “The High School Reunion, Part 2: The Gang’s Revenge,” where her disapproving look in response to the Gang’s dance routine is classic.
6) Dolph Lundgren as John Thundergun
Ever since Season 7’s “Thunder Gun Express” introduced the Die Hard-like Thunder Gun movies to the Sunny universe, fans were curious just what one of those movies might look like. We didn’t see a frame of one in that aforementioned Season 7 episode just as we didn’t see a frame in Season 9’s “The Gang Squashes Their Beefs.”
But we do in Season 14’s “Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool,” it’s just that the Gang doesn’t like this newest installment. But at least we learn who plays Thunder Gun. None other than Dolph Lundgren, who approaches the material with his traditional stoic tough guy-ness with a mixture of self-awareness.
5) Fisher Stevens as Lyle Korman
Actor, writer, director, producer Fisher Stevens is a Jack of many trades. And, in front of the camera, he’s excelled in everything from a handful of Wes Anderson movies to HBO’s smash hit Succession.
But his work as restaurant critic Lyle Korman ranks mighty high. Stevens knew exactly how to play someone who starts out fed up with the Gang’s exploit and only grows increasingly exhausted by them. He’ll do anything to get out of Paddy’s and get on with his life. Stevens makes us believe that with all our hearts.
4) Seann William Scott as Country Mac
Season 9’s “Mac Day” may be the definitive Ronald “Mac” McDonald episode, but he isn’t really the star of the show (much to his increasing and increasingly hilarious dismay). Instead, the one getting the Gang’s attention is his cousin, Country Mac.
Seann William Scott perfectly underplays the character, he “just lets the wind blow through his hair.” Country Mac is so lovable, cool as a breeze, and Scott was the perfect choice to bring him to life this one and only time.
3) Jessica Collins as Jackie Denardo
“‘Til now, I always got by on my own! I never really cared until I met you!” These are lyrics from the Heart song “Alone,” and they play every time we (and Dennis Reynolds) see Jackie Denardo, It’s Always Sunny‘s local reporter.
We first meet Jackie in Season 7’s “The Storm of the Century,” where Dennis claims he “might be in love with this woman. Not for the right reasons, mind you.” What are his reasons? Both of them are attached to her. We then meet Jackie again in Dennis’ fantasy in Season 9’s “The Gang Saves the Day” before we see her in her most recent appearance in Season 14’s “Paddy’s Has a Jumper,” where she shares her scenes with Danny DeVito’s Frank. It’s not the meatiest role on the planet, but Jessica Collins gives Denardo a lot of believable reporter tenacity and, well, Heart.
2) Alanna Ubach as Roxy
Alanna Ubach is a scene-stealer in every project that’s smart enough to cast her. For instance, Waiting…, a movie that isn’t particularly funny but is hysterical whenever she’s on screen.
She’s also incredibly ranged as a comedic performer. We believer her in her roles. For instance, as Roxy, the drug-addled sex worker who gets paid tons of money to have a fake Tiger Woods play with her feet. She’s not classy (“Help me get this crack rock outta my ass”) but she is endearing, and Ubach makes her that way.
1) Roddy Piper as Da’ Maniac
The late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper was a highly underappreciated actor. The WWF performer got his big break as an actor in John Carpenter’s They Live, and instead of that minor classic leading to consistent on-screen work, Piper’s acting career kind of petered out.
As the Always Sunny cast has said in interviews and on their now-deceased podcast, Piper was a method actor. He took his role as Da’ Maniac very seriously. He arrived in character. It shows, because there are a few moments where he rivals the talent shown by Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. This applies to his debut in the wrestling-focused “The Gang Wrestles for the Troopers” just as much as it applies to the character’s later appearance in “Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare.” The Gang’s reactions to Da’ Maniac are far funnier than Da’ Maniac himself, but it’s because of Piper’s work that we believe the Gang’s (hilarious) fear.
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