RICHARD CASTLE: THE WRITTER

Richard Castle is the father of Alexis Castle and the son of Martha Rodgers (who lives with him). Castle's birth name is Richard Alexander Rodgers, but he changed it to Richard Edgar Castle when he became a writer (Edgar in honor of Edgar Allan Poe). Fillion describes the family dynamic as unconventional because Castle is "mothered by his... daughter, [then]... turns around and mothers his own mother". As a child, he never knew who his father was—reasoning that he never missed having a father as he never had anything to miss, and it allowed him to imagine that his father could be anyone he wished—and was looked after by a nanny who spent most of her time watching daytime television, with One Life to Live as the inspiration to write his first novel. He also claims to have been kicked out of all of New York's finer academic institutions at least once, and to have picked up speed reading while spending his days as a child in the New York Public Library.

Castle has been married and divorced twice. His first wife was Alexis' mother, Meredith, an impulsive, free-spirited actress. She and Richard occasionally meet for a sexual liaison, causing Richard to refer to her metaphorically as a "deep-fried twinkie" (something that is a treat on occasion, but to have it every day would kill you) when she contemplated moving back to New York. His second wife was Gina Cowell, his publisher, a role she continues after their divorce. Castle and Gina became involved again, briefly, when she spent a summer with him in the Hamptons supervising his second Nikki Heat novel, but they soon ended their relationship.

Castle has sole custody of his daughter, Alexis. As a result of his own experiences being raised by a nanny, he insisted on raising her himself, made easier by the fact that he works from his large loft apartment. Alexis is quite mature and responsible compared to her father and in some sense parents him and herself. Richard takes great care to look after her well-being, but also behaves like a surrogate sibling in some ways.