Felonious Gru

"Next, we are going to steal... pause for effect... the MOON! And once the moon is mine, the world will give me whatever I want to get it back, and I will be the greatest villain of all time! That's what I'm talking about."

- Gru announcing his plans to the minions.

Felonious Gru is the main protagonist of the Despicable Me franchise and appears near the end of the 2015 prequel film Minions.

History
Ever since Gru was young, he tried to impress his mother with his inventions, to no avail. It's because of this fact that led him to become a villain in the first place.

Minions
In the prequel, Gru appears near the very end as a young kid of freezing Scarlet Overkill and Herb Overkill with his Freeze Ray. With that, he takes the crown from Scarlet and refuses to give it back to her. Kevin discovers that he has found a new master, so he and the rest of the Minions followed him, leaving Scarlet and Herb in the iceberg; from that point forward on, the Minions follow Gru as their new master.

Despicable Me
With the minions, Gru became the number-one greatest villain of all time before being replaced by Vector Perkins, who managed to steal the Great Pyramid of Giza. In order to get his pride back and impress his mother, Gru plans to steal the moon by using a shrink ray he stole from a East Asian facility. He has the minions who assist him in his deeds, as well as a elderly partner named Dr. Nefario, who helps supplies weapons for him.

He later adopts three girls named Margo, Edith, and Agnes, using them to retrieve the shrink ray Vector stole from him, so he can use it to shrink the moon. However, when he goes to the carnival with the girls, he soon decided to change his ways and becomes a loving father to them.

Just as Gru finally completed his goal in shrinking the moon, he attempts to attend the girls' ballet recital, only to find out that Vector has kidnapped them and held them hostage in his lair, demanding for the moon in exchange for them, since Vector planned to claim the moon for himself and remain the number-one villain that he is. Deciding that being with the girls is more important than his career as a villain, Gru instantly commits to the exchange, but Vector reneges on the deal, taking both the moon and the girls for himself in his ship. Infuriated by this, Gru arranges himself, Dr. Nefario, and the minions to launch a rescue for the girls, and at the same time, Dr. Nefario reveals that the effects of the shrink ray are temporary, meaning that the moon will revert back to its normal size, much to Gru's shock.

Gru and his minions manage to save the girls while the moon starts to grow, causing Vector's ship to go into hyperjump, where it reverts back to its normal size on its orbit, destroying Vector's ship and leaving Vector stranded on its surface with a space helmet. Having defeated Vector for good, Gru gave up his villain ways and he, his mother, Dr. Nefario, and the Minions celebrate as the girls perform their recital for them. During the celebration, Gru's mother finally acknowledge her son of his success, declaring him to be a better parent than she is, much to his delight.

Home Makeover
Gru makes a short cameo in the DVD released short Home Makeover where he was out of the house and the orphanage sent an inspector to examine how suitable Gru's house is for children. Margo, Edith and Agnes completely redecorate the interior of the house by disguising Gru's sharp thorned/needle pricked weapons and other violent themed objects to look like harmless props for young children. One minion standing on top of Margo was disguised as Gru while the inspector observes Gru's house. When the inspector was about to leave, Gru saw Margo and the minion disguised as him, then the minion runs away screaming which scares the inspector so much that he faints into Gru's arms. Gru sees the inspector's clipboard say "Suitable for children" and he is delighted, but when looking only a few seconds at his redecorated house, he faints as well. Agnes however mistakes this as him fainting from liking it.

Despicable Me 2
In the sequel, Gru is now a hero who is recruited to the Anti-Villain League to help them fight a new villain who turns out to be El Macho due to his knowledge on villains. After finding El Macho out, El Macho suggests that he and Gru form the ultimate villain team by mutating Gru's minions into evil purple minions. Gru refuses and El Macho sends the mutated minions after Gru. Eventually through the help of an old friend Gru finds a cure to the mutation and stops El Macho.

Trivia

 * Gru has some similarities to Megamind. Both are the main protagonist in their films, but an antagonist to the citizens of their home city. (Metro City & Albuquerque) They have henchmen named Minion. They wind up as great relatives to the leading ladies. (Roxanne and Margo) Their archenemies (Vector & Tighten) end up becoming the real antagonists. And both become the heroes of their stories in the end.
 * Although never specified, his accent and dressing style implies he is either of Russian or German origins, and for many years, Germans and Russians were portrayed as antagonists in many forms of media during WWI, WWII and the Cold War.