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 titular main protagonist of the Despicable Me franchise.

He is voiced by Steve Carell.

History
Ever since Gru was young, he tried to impress his mother with his inventions to no avail (even after building a highly successful rocket, his mother is still not impressed). This neglectful treatment from his mother is what led him to become a villain in the first place and fly to the moon so that he could take it for himself.

Minions
In the 2015 prequel, Gru first appeared as a young kid attending the 1968's Villain Con with his mother, observing Dr. Nefario's Freeze Ray. He appears again near the very end freezing Scarlet Overkill and Herb Overkill with the Freeze Ray. With that, he takes the crown from Scarlet and refuses to give it back to her. Kevin (the leader of the Minions) 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. During the credits, Gru becomes a little annoyed with the Minions, but starts to accept them as his friends.

He reappears in the after-credits scene where he dance with the rest of the characters until they are scared off by an arriving Tyrannosaurus. Gru didn't notice until the tyrannosaur roared at him and tried to use his freeze ray to stop it. However, the freeze rays shortens out on power, leaving Gru to chuckle nervously as he is now at the mercy of the tyrannosaur. It is unknown what happened to him afterwards.

Despicable Me
With the assistance from the Minions and an elderly Nefario (who supplies weapons for him), 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 that he stole from a East Asian facility in order to receive a bank loan to build a rocket.

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. Despite getting the shrink ray in his possession, Gru is upset to learn that his bank manager Mr. Perkins won't fund a loan for a rocket, as Mr. Perkins wants his son (who turns out to be Vector) to do the job of stealing the moon himself. Despite the setback, Gru was cheered up by the girls and Minions (who gave him their allowances to fund for the plan), and they all pitched up to help Gru successfully create a rocket out of parts from Gru's lair.

Just as Gru finally completed his goal in shrinking and stealing 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 the girls are 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 escape pod. 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 and that the object will instantly return back to its original size based on its mass. Gru then realizes in shock that the moon will revert back to its normal size anytime now.

Taking action, Gru, Nefario, and the Minions manage to save the girls while the moon starts to grow, causing Vector's ship to go into hyper-jump, 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 acknowledges 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 running a jelly business with the help from the Minions, but is saddened to see Nefario leaving because of the latter's desire to do evil despite their previous success. Eventually, Gru is recruited to the Anti-Villain League (or AVL for short) to help them fight a new villain named El Macho due to his knowledge on villains. Teaming up with AVL agent Lucy Wilde, Gru helps set up a cupcake bakery at local mall to find clues while developing a relationship with Lucy.

During the Cinco de Mayo celebration, Gru finds out that the local Mexican restaraunt owner Eduardo Perez is actually El Macho and that Nefario is currently working for him. Gru is even horrified to learn that El Macho and Nefario have kidnapped many of the Minions and mutated them with a stolen mutagen called PX-41, turning them into purple savage hairy monsters, and that El Macho plans to send numerous rockets containing the mutated Minions to major cities around the world to achieve world domination.

Having learned about Gru's previous success of stealing the moon, El Macho offers Gru a team-up, but Gru politiely refuses and leaves, prompting El Macho send a mutated Minion named Kevin to go after him. Gru is even horrified to learn that Margo has been dumped by her boyfriend Antonio Perez, who is El Macho's son and ends up being encased in ice by Gru for breaking Margo's heart.

When Lucy arrives to attend the Cinco de Mayo celebration, El Macho (being aware that she's work for the AVL) kidnaps her and take her hostage. Witnessing this and realizing his mistake, Nefario quits El Macho's employ and secretly informs Gru that El Macho's on to him and that Lucy has been taken hostage. As Gru heads off to El Macho's lair to rescue Lucy, Nefario creates a antidote for the PX-41 and mixes it with Gru's jelly to help turn all the mutated Minions (including Kevin) back to normal. Gru and El Macho (who mutates himself into a huge furry monster after drinking the mutagen) engage into a fight, which ends when Gru uses Lucy's Lipstick-Taser to defeat him. He then rescues Lucy from being sent into a volcano on a rocket (fired by El Macho's pet chicken El Pollito) before successfully asking her out on a date.

Following 147 dates, Gru marries Lucy and the girls are happy to have a mother. The Minions close with a rendition of "I Swear" and "Y.M.C.A." as the whole family celebrates.

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. Also, both their films came out in 2010.
 * Also, what causes them to stop their villainy is love. (Megamind's love to Roxanne and Gru's love to his adopted daughters)
 * 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.