Pratt summarized Andy Dwyer as "dim-witted and guileless and a real idiot, but lovable." At the start of the series, Andy Dwyer is dating Ann Perkins. Ann matured faster than Andy did; while Ann entered into a career in nursing, Andy was lazy and unmotivated. After being dumped by Ann, Andy begins living in the pit adjacent to Ann's house.
Andy remained unemployed after school but was the lead singer and guitarist for his rock band, which underwent numerous name changes.
Andy later gets work shining shoes at city hall, where he becomes friends with April Ludgate, whom he later marries after one month of dating. Though absentminded and possessing an extremely short attention span, Andy is shown to have a savant-like memory. For instance, he received the highest grade the police academy had ever seen on the written entrance test, has an uncanny ability to remember movies word for word, and is able to memorize a long list of facts for his feminist college class in the episode, "Smallest Park." Andy also had perfect SAT scores, but mentioned it was probably due to broken Scantron machines. Andy's father is deceased, as mentioned in the episode Emergency Response upon being asked a hypothetical question during a personality test about potentially encountering his father. Andy responds, "First, I would be like, ‘Dad, you’re alive? What the hell?'"
