History Main / TheProfiler

* Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore play this in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', making liberal use of the PenseiveFlashback to build a profile of Tom Riddle/Voldemort. This allows them to start figuring out what his [[SoulJar horcruxes]] are and where they're hidden so they can then destroy them.

* [[SmugSnake Weyoun]] from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' claims to be this - except he sucks at it, especially when it comes to [[TheCaptain The Sisko]]. Highlights include failing to pick up on Sisko's hatred for him and his AffablyEvil act and acting like Sisko would accept an offer to be installed as absolute ruler of TheFederation, even though this is the same man who months earlier saved President Jaresh-Inyo from a coup-d'état by an InsaneAdmiral. And it's not just Sisko that he screws up with - he also fails to predict that Cardassia's PuppetKing Damar would get fed up with the Dominion and form LaResistance.

* From the sequel series ''Series/AshesToAshes'', Alex Drake herself is this and she's adamant about using her skills in investigations, to [[OldFashionedCopper Hunt]]'s dismay.

* Pathologist Ducky Mallard in ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' adds profiling to his extensive list of other talents in later seasons.

** Hannibal Lecter offers his services as a profiler in exchange for a LuxuryPrisonSuite in ''TheSilenceOfTheLambs''. However, Lecter subverts the trope: He is able to offer an extremely accurate profile of Buffalo Bill because he'd met him and knew his personal history, not because of his own insight.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Monk}}'', where a group of investigators use advanced technology to profile a killer and come up with a completely incorrect solution (the killer knew their methods and was playing them).

** One episode has the rare case of noting how profiling can be wrong. When a TV producer is stalked, she argues about a suspect and is told he doesn't "fit the profile." She fires back by noting how the Washington State Snipers were supposed to be one middle-aged angry white man when it was a pair of young black men or how the BTK Killer was a quiet, reserved loner when he was actually a happily married family man.

* Paul Giamatti's character in ''Film/ShootEmUp'' is a Profiler. Criminal retired pussy with a gun profiler, but still a profiler.

* Variant from the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse: the ever-popular [[TheStrategist Grand Admiral Thrawn]] is able to profile a [[PlanetOfHats given species']] psychological makeup (and from there, [[AwesomenessByAnalysis their tactical vulnerabilities]]) by looking at, of all things, their ''[[WickedCultured art]]''. He's also seen using the technique on individuals, including his rival Garm bel Iblis, from time to time. While not infallible (he once referred to a NoodleIncident where he was unable to read a particular species, and had to [[CuttingTheKnot wipe them out by brute force]]), it was highly reliable and absolutely unique; no other character, past or present, Chiss or otherwise, not even Jedi, has displayed such a knack for understanding their enemies from so little.

* [[SmugSnake Weyoun]] from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' claims to be this - except he sucks at it, especially when it comes to [[TheCaptain the Sisko]]. Highlights include failing to pick up on Sisko's hatred for him and his AffablyEvil act and acting like Sisko would accept an offer to be installed as absolute ruler of TheFederation, even though this is the same man who months earlier saved President Jaresh-Inyo from a coup-d'état by an InsaneAdmiral.

* [[SmugSnake Weyoun]] from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine]] claims to be this - except he sucks at it, especially when it comes to [[TheCaptain the Sisko]]. Highlights include failing to pick up on Sisko's hatred for him and his AffablyEvil act and acting like Sisko would accept an offer to be installed as absolute ruler of TheFederation, even though this is the same man who months earlier saved President Jaresh-Inyo from a coup-d'état by an InsaneAdmiral.

** Wildly infamous in Canada for persuading a jury to convict the ''wrong man'' for the rape/murder of a child only because the accused was a nerd. When DNA evidence showed the accused to have been wrongly convicted it came out that he'd also persuaded the police to dismiss the accused's iron-clad alibi because "he's a weirdo, we got the right guy, don't overthink things". After the accused was freed, he doubled down by claiming that he'd still murdered the child; he just hadn’t left DNA, and that the child had been raped by someone else. He permanently tainted the profession in Canada by his antics.

** Wildly infamous in Canada for persuading a jury to convict the ''wrong man'' for the murder of a child only because the accused was a nerd. When DNA showed the accused to have been wrongly convicted it came out that he'd also persuaded the police to dismiss the accused's iron-clad alibi because "he's a weirdo, we got the right guy, don't overthink things".

* Both played straight and [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'' - every person on the island is a profiler, and the murderer seems to know his victims quite well, enabling some particularly karmic deaths for the flawed criminologists.

* One of these does quite well during his first and last appearance in ''Webcomic/TheUnspeakableVaultOfDoom''. He determines that a SerialKiller is old, but physically strong and mentally sharp, a [[ImAHumanitarian habitual cannibal]] and [[AGodAmI self-considered god]], and wants his victims to worship him. However, he believes the killer forces his victims to write out a particular phrase, and fails to realize that this phrase ''[[SpeakOfTheDevil summons]]'' the killer (who is, in fact, [[CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]].)

* [[Literature/{{Dexter}} Dexter Morgan]] is pretty good at understanding the minds of serial killers, mainly because he ''is'' one, but also because his "Dark Passenger" (a spirit with whom he shares his body) clues him in when he's on the right track.

* Outlaw PrivateDetective {{Burke}} has this ability, based on his studying such people while he was an inmate in prison.

* Several appear in the Creator/MichaelConnelly universe, most notably FBI Agents Terry [=McCaleb=] and Rachel Walling.

* AmateurSleuth example: [[Creator/AgathaChristie Hercule Poirot's]] personal favourite method of solving murders is the use of "the psychology". Even more so than order, method and the little grey cells. ''Cards on the Table'' provides a good example of this.
* SherlockHolmes is always profiling both clients and adversaries, usually based on tiny details he observes with the SherlockScan.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheWire'', Detectives [=McNulty=] and Greggs consult the FBI's profiling unit at Quantico to try and catch "The Red-Ribbon Killer", who has been preying on the homeless of Baltimore. [[spoiler: Since the "killer" is in fact an invention of [=McNulty=], who has been taking the bodies of non-homicide homeless and dressing them up to look like they had been killed by a serial killer, in a scheme he had cooked up to get funding for a major drugs/corruption investigation]], the profile ends up describing ''him'' perfectly:

* In one episode of ''Series/TheWire'', the detectives consult the FBI's profiling unit at Quantico to try and catch "The Red-Ribbon Killer", who has been preying on the homeless of Baltimore. [[spoiler: Since the "killer" is in fact an invention of one of the detectives, cooked up to get funding for another case]], the profile ends up describing ''him'' perfectly: