Ray Romano went from being an accountant living in his parent’s basement to pursuing his passion of comedy and finding himself on David Letterman’s Late Show, according to PBS. Following his appearance on Letterman, CBS called Ray to discuss the upcoming sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which made its debut in 1996 and aired until 2005.

Ray met his wife Anna Romano in 1983 when they were working together as bank tellers in Queens, NY. Ray didn’t ask Anna out until he left the job to pursue stand-up, to avoid potential awkwardness at work. The couple began dating in 1985 and celebrated their wedding two years later. 

"I always tell her she took a gamble because she went out with a guy who lived at home and rode a bike to work," Ray said.

The couple share four children. They welcomed their first child, Alexandra Romano, in 1990, and were expecting twins two years later.

"Anna called me after a sonogram and said, 'Well, we're having twins.' I was like, 'Come on!' She said, 'Yes. Twin girls,'” Ray told PEOPLE in an interview, confessing he had hoped for a  boy the second time around. “I tried to sound happy, going, 'Oh. Good. Good.' Finally she told me, 'They're boys, you jerk!' That's when I knew I loved her."

Their twins Matthew and Gregory Romano were born in 1993; they welcomed their youngest, Joseph Romano, in 1998.

Ray revealed to TIME in 2019 that Anna's disinterest in fame has been the secret to their success: "The reason [our marriage] works is because she is a person who (a) doesn't need attention and (b) can understand how I feel about her, even though it's hard for me to outwardly express that. She's the hero here."

Patricia Heaton played the role of Raymond Barone’s wife Debra, for which she received several nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and won in 2000 and 2001.

Heaton, 67, and her husband David Hunt have a marriage running three decades long. The Middle actress met her director husband when he sublet his N.Y.C. apartment to her while he was performing in a play, Yahoo reports. They also worked at restaurants within close proximity to each other, but didn’t meet prior to the sublet. 

The couple married in 1990 and began building their family, welcoming sons Samuel, John, Joseph and Daniel into the world. 

"Motherhood brings out all the superpowers- you discover reservoirs of strength you didn’t believe were possible! Loved every minute," Heaton captioned a throwback photo of her children in May 2024.

As for Hunt, the English actor appeared in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when he played Ray’s nemesis neighbor Bill Parker.

Brad Garrett is famously known for playing Ray’s older (and often overshadowed) brother Robert. The stand-up comedian, 65, appeared on all nine seasons of the sitcom and won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Garrett married his longtime girlfriend of seven years, IsaBeall Quella, 40, in Montecito, California in November 2021. Garrett planned a romantic proposal for Quella at the Winston Churchill suite at New York's Waldorf Astoria in 2015. 

Marc Cohn played Garrett and Quella’s favorite song on the piano, Garrett's rep said in a statement.

The pair met in 2008, when Quella was working at Vose Galleries in Boston. They attempted to marry four times since their engagement in 2015, but kept being interrupted by wildfires, mudslides and twice because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They now live together in Malibu with their two dogs, Ivy and Chester.

Doris Roberts was best known for her role as Marie Barone, the mother of Raymond and Robert, on Everybody Loves Raymond. Roberts’ acting career spanned six decades including   National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as well as appearances on Full House and Murder, She Wrote. 

Roberts married twice during her life. She married Michael Cannata in 1956 before divorcing in 1962; their son, Michael, went on to produce “Call Me Mrs. Miracle” in 2010 and cast his mother as Mrs. Miracle.

In 1963, Roberts remarried to American novelist William Goyen. The pair remained together until his death in 1983. Roberts died at 90 years old in her sleep from natural causes in April 2016.

Peter Boyle played the patriarch of the Barone family as Frank Barone and received several nominations for his role. He won the 2003 SAG Award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series with the rest of the Raymond cast.

Boyle met his wife, Loraine Alterman, on the set of Young Frankenstein. Boyle played the Monster in the now-legendary Mel Brooks film. Alterman was a Rolling Stone journalist visiting the set for work. It was widely reported that Boyle was still wearing his monster makeup when he asked her out, but Alterman told The New York Times in 2001 that Boyle had exaggerated the truth. ''He actually was out of makeup when we met, but let him have it his way,” she told the outlet.

Alterman worked widely as a music writer and was friends with Yoko Ono. Through her, Boyle became friends with John Lennon. In 1977, Boyle and Alterman married with Ono and Lennon by their sides.

“My wife and I had a very low-key wedding,” Boyle told Philadelphia magazine in 2005. “At the last minute, I asked John to stand in as my best man. And he said yes. The rest is history.” He noted Lennon didn’t sing, but added, “He is John Lennon. And everything he does is memorable.”

Boyle died at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2006 after battling heart disease and multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer. He was 71 years old.

Monica Horan played Robert’s on-and-off again girlfriend Amy McDougall, whom he eventually married late in the series. Horan appeared in 66 episodes of the CBS sitcom.

Horan, 62, met her husband Philip Rosenthal, 65, while she was studying at Hofstra University in Long Island NY. She converted to Judaism prior to their marriage in 1990. Rosenthal was the executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond. 

The couple now lives in LA with their two children, Lily and Ben.

Madylin played Raymond and Debra's daughter Alexandra "Ally" Barone, along with her younger brothers Sawyer and Sullivan, who played the couple's twins Geoffrey and Michael. (Sawyer died by suicide in 2015, while Sullivan lives a very private life now.)

Madylin, now 33, wed actor Sean Durrie in 2018, and the two welcomed their first child together in April 2025. She celebrated their five year anniversary on Instagram, writing, "Happy 5 years to my love @seandurrie Every day is a gift."