| General | Trivia | Gallery | Quotes |
| “ | Don't you think, that there's more to our future than jelly? | ” |
— Dr. Nefario speaking to Gru
|
| Dr. Nefario | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Full name | Joseph Albert Nefario[1] |
| Species | Human |
| Ethnicity | Australian |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 39 (Minions) 44 (Minions: The Rise of Gru) |
| Status | Alive |
| Eye color | Unknown (Always wears goggles) |
| Hair color | Grey (formerly Brown) |
| Occupation |
Gru's gadget man |
| Allies |
Felonius Gru |
| Enemies |
Vicious 6 |
| Appearances |
Despicable Me |
| Voiced by |
Russell Brand (2010-2022, 2025-present) |
Joseph Albert Nefario, most commonly referred to as Dr. Nefario (born August 12, 1928) is Gru's gadgeteer, residing in his underground lair and laboratories. He builds and designs most of Gru's machines. Gru and Dr. Nefario seem to have been trying to shock the world with "The True Crime of the Century" for several years.
Although Dr. Nefario has doubts about Gru's plans due to lack of funds, and his newfound love for his adopted daughters, Dr. Nefario still considers him to be "one of the greats" in the supervillain world. Dr. Nefario also has terrible hearing, mistaking Gru's orders for "dart gun" and "cookie robots" as "fart gun" and "boogie robots", respectively in the first film. Dr. Nefario is briefly El Macho's right-hand man and main henchman. In Despicable Me 3, Dr. Nefario is frozen in carbonite probably due to a Minion accident. In Minions: The Rise of Gru, he is portrayed as the owner of a record store that Gru goes to called Criminal Records, where he crafts gadgets as a side-gig. In Despicable Me 4, Dr. Nefario is seen at the end turning Gru. Jr back to normal before going back to his lab.
Appearance
Dr. Nefario resembles a stereotypical mad scientist who is mildly overweight. He is always seen with his lab coat, gloves, and trademark goggles, and he wears either pants or pajama bottoms with a plaid pattern. Dr. Nefario's hair, what little there is of it, is longish and faintly unruly.
History
Not much is known about Dr. Nefario's history. In Minions, Felonius Gru met him at Villain-Con, with the latter displaying his creations in a booth, attracting Gru's attention. In Minions: The Rise of Gru, it is seen that Dr. Nefario owns a record store, and he makes gadgets in his spare time. In the mid-credit scene of Minions: The Rise of Gru, it is shown that Dr. Nefario enters Gru's employment after the Minions beg him when he was about to retire from villainy after the Vicious 6 have gotten captured by AVL.
Personality
Dr. Nefario is Gru's closest and most loyal friend who always comes to his rescue. Dr. Nefario has a very high respect for Gru and even believes he is the greatest villain in the world, but he often doubts his abilities and motives. Dr. Nefario is also quite eccentric with rather bad hearing due to his age, but although he seemed a little odd at times, he did not seem to be going senile.
Dr. Nefario does not like to be unproductive, as he has constantly been seen working on projects to aid in Gru's crimes and even decides to work for Eduardo Perez after Gru renounces his former life of villainy.
Dr. Nefario's accent suggests a British family lineage. He seems to enjoy disco dancing and is even briefly shown doing so alongside Marlena Gru, and in the Boogie Robot scene.
Plot
Minions
Dr. Nefario showing his new Freeze Ray to his future partner, Felonius Gru.
Dr. Nefario makes a small cameo appearance as a young man and is seen at Villain-Con while Stuart is exploring the convention. At his stall, Dr. Nefario shows his new invention, the Freeze Ray, to the crowd including his future partner Felonius Gru (who was then a child with his mother), and he accidentally freezes his own hand by mistake. When Dr. Nefario finally notices, he hides his frozen hand behind his back.
Minions: The Rise of Gru
Set in 1976, Dr. Nefario owned a record shop called Criminal Records, and also makes gadgets in his spare time. he is first seen letting Belle Bottom inside the shop, which is on lockdown, and then bringing down a steel roll door, right before a group of AVL vans came by, who are pursuing Belle Bottom. A few days later, when a young Gru went inside the shop, since he knew that the lair of the Vicious 6 is located there, he meets the scientist as he was trying out one of his inventions which he called "Sticky Fingers". When Gru reads the scientist's name tag, he corrects by saying that it is "Dr. Nefario". Just as Gru was about to take the secret elevator, Nefario gave the sticky fingers to him, and reminds him that it was he who gave him his first gadget, if Gru ever becomes famous. When Gru ineffectively attempts to use the record player in order to make the elevator work, Nefario helps him out by instructing him to spin the device in reverse.
Later, when Gru triggered the alarm after stealing the zodiac stone from the Vicious 6, he bumps into Nefario, who was carrying a wooden box of recordings and other devices. Not happy that Gru had stolen something from the Vicious 6 and knowing that their coming after the former, Nefario immediately tells Gru to 'just keep walking' motioning to the exit. Gru obeys the scientist's instructions and fled from the Criminal Records shop with the Minions. Nefario remained absent throughout most of the film. He is later present at Wild Knuckles' funeral, though he was unaware that the latter was still alive and had faked his death.
In the post credits scene, when Gru attempts to recruit Nefario, the scientist, while closing the Criminal Records shop, declined, saying that he is done with villainy and that he is gonna move on, packing Freeze Ray in the boxes along. When he bids Gru goodbye, the latter and the Minions began giving him puppy-eyes which made Nefario change his mind. He then gives Gru and the minions a ride on an airship, which Gru would later use in the future. This marks the beginning of a new relationship that leads to the 21st century.
Despicable Me
When Gru returns home, Dr. Nefario informs the supervillain that someone else stole the Pyramid of Giza. Nefario also attends to the plan of stealing the Moon by making gadgets like Cookie Robots, to aid in Gru's plan of stealing the Shrink Ray from Vector. He later calls Miss Hattie to return the girls to the orphanage due to them becoming a obstruction to their plan in stealing the moon. Gru continues the plan and Nefario notices that the effect of the Shrink Ray will lose its effect. He warns Gru about this, naming it the Nefario Principle.
At the end, Dr. Nefario videotapes the girls' dance recital at Gru's house and is later seen dancing with Gru's mother.
Despicable Me 2
At the beginning of the film, Dr. Nefario makes a jelly that is a combination of many flavors, but it turns out to have a horrible taste. Dr. Nefario informs Gru that he misses being evil and that he has a new work. Later, as a farewell for Dr. Nefario, the Minions do a 21 Fart Gun salute, and Dr. Nefario slowly rides away on his motor scooter to start his new life, making two minions cry (possibly Jerry and Phil).
Later that same night, a silhouette (presumably Dr. Nefario's) arrives at Gru's house. Phil opens the door and greets the visitor, but gets kidnapped, and the door is left opened. Soon, the Cinco de Mayo party is about to start at Eduardo's mansion. Now that he actually worked for El Macho, he has some of the Minions trapped in a fake paradise called Minion Beach, and he captures the Minions two by two, injecting the PX-41 serum to the Minions which mutated them into a Evil Minion.
Dr. Nefario makes a full reappearance after Gru enters El Macho's secret lair and explains their plan to Gru. Gru was not pleased with El Macho's ambitions and the abduction of his minions, so he turns down and leaves. El Macho retaliates by releasing a mutated Kevin to hunt down Gru, which distresses Dr. Nefario, who fears Kevin will most certainly harm Margo, Edith and Agnes, even if he doesn't get to Gru. He presumably sneaks away and witnesses Lucy Wilde being abducted by El Macho, much to his horror. Shortly afterwards, he tips off Gru and proceeds to develop the PX-49, then arrives in time to reverse Kevin's mutation and dumps it into their jelly stockpile, before taking the girls and a few Minions to aid Gru in the airship, arriving just as Gru is surrounded by mutated minions. After El Macho is paralyzed by Gru's Zapp Lipstick Taser, Nefario knocks him out with a Fart Gun blast.
At the end of the film, Dr. Nefario appears in the wedding as a guest, dances with Gru's mother while the Minions are singing the Y.M.C.A. song, and appears in the family picture.
Despicable Me 3
Since Russell Brand was unavailable to reprise his role of Dr. Nefario in Despicable Me 3, the character makes a brief appearance in the movie. Stuart, and Mel, next he was seen in the rain with Kevin Stuart Tom and Carl, he was next seen when everyone was hungry, he also appears in the Papa Mama Loca Pipa song. he was in a room in jail when the minions were sitting down and snapping When Jerry trowed a ball most of the minions went, Next he was seen buliding the airplane and acting goofy, he was in the ending in the pillow fight, and finally sleeping. He, Kevin, Jerry, Otto, Stuart, & Dave are the only minions that don’t go with Dru
It is possible that Doctor Nefario fell into a vat of liquid carbonite and he tried to get out, similar to how the Jelly Jar Minion got a jar of jelly stuck on his head.
Saturday Morning Minions
After being unfrozen, Dr. Nefario makes some cameos during the show like Gru, albeit only making sounds and not speaking.
Mooned
During the recap at the beginning of the short, it is revealed that Dr. Nefario decided to sell his anti-gravity serium.
Despicable Me 4
Dr. Nefario Gru returns home to Lucy, the girls – Margo, Edith, and Agnes and Gru and Lucy’s new baby, Gru Jr. Compared to Lucy, the baby is not too fond of his father. Silas Ramsbottom shows up at the house to let Gru know that Maxime has escaped from prison and is on his way to get his revenge, and the family is forced to relocate as a result, with everyone being given new identities.
A few days later, Lucy starts her new job as a hair stylist in an affluent neighborhood. Her first client is a lady named Melora, who wants Lucy to dye her hair pink. An inexperienced Lucy fumbles it and accidentally burns Melora’s hair. In her panic, Lucy tosses the burning brush, which hits a lightbulb, causing all others to short circuit, triggering the fire alarm in the ensuing chaos, which allows her to slip away.
When Lucy takes the Agnes and Edith to the supermarket, she sees Melora there. Her attempt to avoid Melora fails, and a vengeful Melora gives chase. Lucy attempts to stall her to no avail, but does manage to delay her by tearing up a stick of butter's wrappings with her teeth before throwing it on the ground, launching Melora in a freezer. While Melora manages to catch up shortly after, Lucy and the girls manage to get through the doors and escape in their car.
Gru and Lucy later join Perry and his wife Patsy at a country club while the girls stay at home with Junior. Ubelschlecht shows up at the house for Lenny, but her asking for Gru is enough to tip the girls off that something is wrong. After Margo texts them, Gru and Lucy run back home just as Ubelschlecht uses her super-wheelchair to try and attack. The family fights her and Lucy manages to briefly disable the wheelchair, but Maxime and Valentina arrive in time to kidnap Junior while the family is distracted.
Lucy stays to handle Ubelschlecht while Gru goes after Maxime with help from Poppy in her mini ship. The villain uses his tools to turn Junior into a human/cockroach hybrid to turn against Gru. While trying to go after Gru in the roach ship, Valentina falls through the roof of the building due to the ship’s weight. Maxime tries to use Junior to finally finish Gru, but his inner love for his father kicks in and overpowers his roach self, allowing Junior to help Gru defeat Maxime. The villain falls to the ground (after hitting several things on the way down), while the Mega Minions arrive with help after Silas decided to send them to help Gru. After bringing Junior home, he finally calls Gru “dada”. Gru also thanks Poppy for her help.
The family returns home, with Dr. Nefario turning Junior back to normal, and Agnes reuniting with Lucky. Gru then says he has one more thing to take care of. He goes to the AVL’s prison to visit Maxime and admit he did steal his victory at the talent show, but he is there to make it up for him. Gru and Maxime then put on a performance of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, which is watched by all the previous villains (Vector, Mr. Perkins, El Macho, Scarlet and Herb Overkill, Balthazar Bratt, Belle Bottom, Nun-Chucked, Jean-Clawed, Svengeance, and Stronghold), who join in a dance. makes a minor physical appearance near the end of the film, managing to revert Gru Jr.'s insectoid mutation caused by Maxime Le Mal and is later seen celebrating in Gru's backyard.
Dr. Nefario also appears in a portrait with Principal Übelschlecht. It is unknown how he got himself out of the carbonite. It is possible that one of the minions (or possibly even Gru himself) could have invented a way to get him out. It is also unknown how he managed to survive that long in the carbonite.