Roger (American Dad!)

Roger Smith is a fictional character in the adult animated sitcom American Dad!, created, voiced, and designed by Seth MacFarlane. Roger is a anthropomorphic grey space alien living with the Smith family. Having lived on Earth since crashing in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, Roger came to live with the Smiths after rescuing main character Stan Smith at Area 51 four years prior to the beginning of the series. The character has also made cameo appearances in episodes of Family Guy.

Roger is usually insensitive and careless; he often takes advantage of, cheats, and ridicules people. Over time, the character has also exhibited increasingly sociopathic, cruel, selfish, devious, and depraved behaviours. Due to that, Roger has a love-hate relationship with the Smith family, who care about him despite being his most frequent victims. His most important relationships are with Stan, his best friend, as Stan is annoyed by Roger's antics despite the fact that he saved his life and is the least tolerant of them; Klaus, who is Roger's frenemy; and Steve, who is Roger's partner in many of his misadventures. In early episodes of the show, Roger was disallowed from leaving the Smith house in order to conceal his being an alien. This restriction was soon abandoned and Roger begins adopting disguises and fictitious personas in order to have a life outside the house.

Roger's personas have become a major plot device, with his myriad of alter egos frequently being the subject or facilitator of an episode's main story or subplot. This also helps to amplify his pansexuality and androgynous nature, which varies depending on the plot situation and persona he has adopted. Aside from catalyzing the plot or subplot with his various personas, and despite his increasingly evident self-interest, he often serves to counsel the show's main characters, by humorously affirming or bluntly disregarding their opinions.

When voicing the character, MacFarlane speaks in a swish accent intended to resemble that of Paul Lynde. In April 2014, Roger was voted "Gayest Cartoon Character of All Time" in a first-ever March Madness style competition held by Logo TV.