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The Gardner Family
Sam Gardner
Sam Gardner
Played By: Keir Gilchrist
The main protagonist, an 18 year-old boy on the autism spectrum.
- Artists Are Attractive: When Bailey sees Sam's drawings, she begins to realise he's not as lame as she thought he was. They kiss, but it doesn't go much further than that.
- Brutal Honesty: Sam definitely has no problem saying exactly what's on his mind, and he's not good at lying, so he definitely is this.
- Bullying the Disabled: His classmates in high school resorted to this a lot, but for those who didn't, he ended up being a pretty good friend
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Often is this, especially when he's talking about Antarctica or anything to do with it.
- Disabled Snarker: Though nowhere near Casey's level, his monotone delivery and tendency to be 100% honest often make him come across as such.
- Hates Being Touched: Has sensory issues that make anything other than firm touching uncomfortable for him.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Zahid.
- Hollywood Autism: Zigzagged. Sam's characteristics and personality show that the writers attempted to research the condition, but they are exaggerated immensely for both Drama and Comedy.
- It's All About Me: His sister accuses him of this mentality. Whether she's right is debatable.
- Literal-Minded: As a symptom of his autism.
- Nice Guy: Sam is sensitive, artistic and an all-around good kid. This is probably part of what attracts Go-Getter Girl Paige to him.
- Precocious Crush: His crush on his therapist Julia drives much of the plot of the first season.
- Replacement Goldfish: Sam has the tendency to do this (asking Paige to be his "practice girlfriend" for Julia and asking Casey's boyfriend to be his new best friend after Zahid "friend-dumped" him), though it's more out of social difficulty than out of disrespect. He gets better.
- No Social Skills: Due to being on the autism spectrum, he often has trouble with social situations. Case in point, loudly announcing that Paige gave him a handjob in the season 1 finale.
- Stalker with a Crush: In Season 1, he breaks into Julia's house with chocolate-covered strawberries, although this is more of a case of social ineptitude than actual stalking.
- Survival Mantra: When stressed or on the verge of melting down, Sam has a habit of repeating the names of the Penguin species native to Antarctica.note
- Trademark Favorite Food: Has a fondness for buttered noodles, though he raves about the chicken fingers at Denton University.
- Tragically Disabled Love Interest: He alternates between being Paige's girlfriend and Bailey's make-out buddy over the course of the series. This is probably an aversion of the stereotype that autistic people can't find love in relationships.
- Paige herself might also qualify for this, if you interpret her as autistic.
- Virgin-Shaming: His best friend Zahid delivers a heap of this, although it's mostly said as a joke. Mostly.
Casey Gardner
Casey Gardner
Played By: Brigette Lundy Paine
Sam's sarcastic but ultimately kindhearted and protective sister. Wants to protect Sam as much as she wants to bug him.
- Academic Athlete: She's not an academic genius, but when the prospect of going to UCLA enters her head she starts working hard (both in the classroom and on the field) in order to be able to attend.
- Affectionate Nickname: Though it doesn't start out as one, Izzie referring to her as "Newton" eventually becomes this.
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: She worries about Izzie seeing her as this after Izzie refuses to date her publicly.
- Ambiguously Bi: Though she was in a relationship with Evan, she was obviously attracted to Izzie as well, which created some conflict between the couple. In Season 3, Izzie and her share a passionate kiss and Casey breaks up with Evan. Later, Casey admits that kissing Izzie was a pleasurable experience and that she'd do it again.
- Annoying Younger Siblings: She tends to mess around with Sam the way younger siblings do. But she will fuck you up if you hurt him.
- Boyish Short Hair: In Season 3, Casey's haircut reflects her masculine personality.
- Bruiser with a Soft Centre: She's a tough girl who's not afraid to call you out on your shit, but she does care deeply for her family and friends, even if she has an odd way of showing it.
- Cool Big Sis: Inverted as she's younger than Sam, but she often serves as this for him.
- Daddy's Girl: It's downplayed, but she does seem to be significantly closer to her dad than her mom.
- Deadpan Snarker: Barely a scene goes by where she doesn't make some kind of witty remark.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming:Sam: My sister doesn't let anyone beat me up... except herself.
- Naïve Newcomer: Casey begins attending a prestigious private school on a track scholarship, and is very confused about some of the coursework and rules set in place.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The outgoing, productive Red to Sam's creative and introverted Blue. She's also the Red to Izzie's more charming, demure Blue.
- Only Sane Woman: Casey sees herself as this in her family, considering her offbeat dad, smothering mom and awkward brother.
- The Lad-ette: She's athletic, courageous and able to hold her own against both boys and girls in competitions. She's also hardly seen wearing a dress.
- Like Parent, Like Child: She's repulsed by it, but Doug points out that she does have a few similarities to Elsa - for one, an obsession with lists.
- The Rival: Initially with Izzie, who's less than kind to her upon meeting. It gets better.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: With popular, feminine Izzie.
- Tough Love: Though she often picks on him and snarks about his unusual behavior, at the end of the day she cares deeply about Sam.
Elsa Gardner
Elsa Gardner
Played By: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Sam and Casey's overbearing mother.
- Ambiguously Bi: Mentions to Casey that she had had a girlfriend in college.
- Compulsive Liar: Has shown to lie to herself about being a good mother, even when she flashes back to having sex with Nick.
- Establishing Character Moment: Shown to be overprotective about Sam after he shoots down a suggestion that he could donate his brain to science.
- Parents as People: While she cares deeply about her children, she still coddles Sam at every turn for the first two seasons and tries to sabotage him seeing a psychiatrist or going to college. We also see her at the support group with other mothers of autistic children.
- My Beloved Smother: Fits the "Autism Mom" stereotype to a T, coddling her son despite his best interests. She slowly learns to let go more, however.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: In the first season, she has an affair with the bartender Nick. While she is portrayed sympathetically for the time being, it's still portrayed as wrong and it drives a wedge between her and Doug.
Doug Gardner
Doug Gardner
Played By: Michael Rapaport
Sam and Casey's father.
- Bruiser with a Soft Centre: Like father, like daughter. He's a pretty burly and muscular guy (he is an EMT, after all) who understandably punches Nick out for shagging his wife. But he does care a lot about his family and becomes less afraid to show it over the course of the series.
- Disappeared Dad: Before the series' events, he left the family for eight months because he was ashamed of Sam's autism.
- Foil: To Elsa. While Elsa is overbearing and wants to micromanage every aspect of Sam's life, Doug encourages Sam to be more independent, and wants him to have as normal of a life as possible.
- Henpecked Husband: Has his moments. Particularly when he feels Elsa is being too protective of Sam.
- Not So Above It All: Though his emotional affair with Megan is certainly not as bad as Elsa’s full on sexual affair with Nick, it’s still pretty deceitful and damaging. Elsa calls him out on this.
Supporting Characters
Julia Sasaki
Julia Sasaki
Played By: Amy Okuda
Sam's therapist in the first season, and his main confidant. She helps him navigate many of his issues.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed with Sam. She doesn't think he's repulsive (she considers him a sweet boy and wants to try being his friend after she can't be his therapist anymore), but she's 30 and he's 18, and she definitely doesn't share his feelings.
- Asian and Nerdy: Is of Japanese descent, and has an M.D.
- Chocolate of Romance: Precisely why she worries when she sees chocolate-covered strawberries on her apartment floor - she thinks it implies her boyfriend is cheating on her. He isn't.
- Demoted to Extra: Is considerably less important to the plot in Seasons 2 and 3. In Season 4, she only makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance.
- Hot Teacher: Hot therapist in this case, at least from Sam's perspective.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Went to Harvard.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After she finds out about Sam's crush on her, Julia gives him one of these. She regrets doing this after it directly leads to Sam's first on-screen meltdown.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She was a good therapist (and one of the few people who treats him like a person) to Sam, and when they make up she gives him one of these about how much he has improved at the start of Season 2.
Zahid Raja
Zahid Raja
Played By: Nik Dodani
Sam's closest friend and co-worker at Techtropolis.
- Casanova Wannabe: Thinks of himself as a ladies' man. Whether this is true is ambiguous, but quite unlikely, though he has pulled more women than Sam.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Though not at Sam's level, he has quite a few quirks.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Sam. Exaggerated in the Season 3 finale where Sam and Zahid have a casino wedding to affirm their friendship.
- Likes Older Women: He's definitely attracted to women his age, but he does seem to have a thing for Elsa Gardner as well.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Not exactly maniac, but he's a bit of a pervert when talking to women he finds attractive.
- Love Makes You Dumb: He falls in love with Gretchen, a clearly unstable girl whom he allows to intimidate his best friend and steal from the store he works for. When Sam reports this to their boss, who then scolds Zahid for what he allowed to happen, the latter gets angry with the former and declares their friendship is over. Later, he almost marries Gretchen, saving himself only because she leaves him for her old boyfriend.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Is convinced by Gretchen to ditch his loud, colorful attire in favor of monochromatic and muted colors during the middle of the third season until its finale. Despite Gretchen's brief return in the fourth season, he does not change his clothing style for her again.
- The Topic of Cancer: Gets testicular cancer in the final season, and loses one of them as a result. Oddly enough this isn't Played for Drama, as while Zahid is understandably scared, he is informed that the type of cancer he has is very treatable and he seems to be fine once he has his surgery.
- The Unreveal: To his credit, Zahid barely flinches when Sam mentions he's autistic. In fact, he's relieved: he thought their boss said he was Australian, and Zahid really hates those guys.
Paige Hardaway
Paige Hardaway
Played By: Jenna Boyd
A classmate of Sam's who becomes his main love interest.
- Badass Adorable: Paige has no qualms over standing up for herself (or Sam, when she's not cross with him), but no matter how angry she gets, she's still a lovable nerd like always.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Bailey's Veronica in Season 2.
- Beware the Nice Ones: For somebody so straight-laced and kind, she went absolutely ballistic when Sam "wronged" her. And when people bullied Sam.
- Broken Ace: She's beautiful, caring, smart and incredibly enthusiastic but she becomes this after she drops out of college in Season 3.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Paige is dramatic and sometimes over-the-top, but she's very intelligent nonetheless.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Paige is this whenever Sam is interested in Julia more than herself, or kisses another girl.
- Fingore: Accidentally cuts off her finger while making crafts after Sam lies to her about having another sex partner. While she's recovering from the reattachment, Sam gets a stylus for her to use.
- Geeky Turn-On: It's Sam's wit, nerdiness, and, specifically, his autism, that initially drew Paige to him.
- Go-Getter Girl: Paige is academically-oriented, overachieving and involved in numerous projects around the school. It's no surprise that she becomes Valedictorian at the end of the year. This is Deconstructed in Season 3 as the strain from trying to maintain this through college eventually leads to her dropping out.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Paige's got golden curls, and she remains a wholesome Ingenue for the entire show.
- Insufferable Genius: She's a rambling, nervous intellectual who doesn't know when to start or stop talking. This is probably why she and Sam are such a good match.
- Motor Mouth: She's prone to going on emotional rants at times.
- Nice Girl: Inhumanly patient with some of Sam's unintentionally rude behaviour but she does draw the line at points. She is generally sweet and sensitive.
- Teen Genius: Paige is incredibly intelligent and she hasn't even graduated high school.
Izzie Taylor
Izzie Taylor
Played By: Fivel Stewart
A member of the Track Team at Clayton Prep. Though initially cold towards Casey, she eventually warms up towards her, and they become close friends.
- Ambiguously Bi: After breaking up with her boyfriend Nate, she falls in love with Casey. As of Season 3, they're an Official Couple
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She suddenly breaks down when Elsa tells her a childhood story about Casey because she wishes she had a normal childhood.
- Just Friends: She wants to pretend to be this with Casey, but changes her mind later on and kisses her in public.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Her attitude to Casey when we first see her gives us the impression that she's not exactly... nice to everybody at first sight. But she definitely has her sweet moments.
- Stepford Smiler: She deliberately shapes the image of a vapid popular girl in order to hide what she's going through at home.
Gretchen
Gretchen
A girl Zahid meets in Season 3. Once they start dating, she turns out not to be the most pleasant person.
- Ambiguously Bi: She's the first person to identify Izzie and Casey as a gay couple, and she greets Paige with a "good to see your legs" in the final episode.
- Domestic Abuse: Sam sees her as this, as she's a rather unpleasant person (at least morally so) and Zahid doesn't seem to notice.
- This is confirmed in her Season 4 reappearance after she blows off Zahid's cancer surgery in favor of a hair appointment.
- Boy Of The Week: She uses Zahid as this in favor of her ex.
- False Soulmate: She appears to be in love with Zahid to the point that they get married. That being said, she ditches him for her ex on the night of the wedding.
- Jerkass: A toxic, manipulative and obnoxious girl who is all take and no give.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Deconstructed. She turns out to be an extremely toxic person, and the way she changes Zahid strains his friendship with Sam.
- Straw Feminist: "Zippers are so misogynist... I'm shocked you don't know that!"
- The Bus Came Back: In Season 4, after finding out he has testicular cancer, Zahid comes back to her out of desperation, even disinviting Sam from coming to his surgery, after Sam voices his disapproval for him coming back to her. Zahid comes back to his senses after Gretchen blows off coming to his surgery in favor of a hair appointment.
Evan Chapin
Evan Chapin
Played By: Graham Rogers
Casey's boyfriend beginning in Season 1.
- Book Dumb: He's not the brightest student, which is one of the reasons why Casey has a somewhat rocky relationship with him.
- Hidden Depths: Both he and his sister are excellent chefs.
- Troubled, but Cute: He has a very strained relationship with his estranged and divorced father. But, all things considered, he's a good guy.
Beth Chapin
Beth Chapin
Played By: Rachel Redleaf
Evan's sister and a classmate of Sam's.
- Berserk Button: Does not take Casey's breakup with Evan well, and by the fourth season she is sending angry videos to Casey of herself making delectable pastries before pounding them with a hammer and running over another with a lawnmower. It is only when Beth realizes how much she has upset the latter and discovering that Casey and Sam have located and returned Dewey that she decides that they are besties again.
- Beware the Nice Ones: After finally coming to terms with how horribly her father has treated both her and Evan, she has her revenge by stealing back their dog and telling him to eat sugarnote
- Hidden Depths: Is an extraordinary pastry chef. Her brother openly admires her baking skills, and Casey digs them as well. She's also won three bake-offs.
- Large Ham: See Berserk Button above.
- Naïve Everygirl: She's picked on for her weight, and she often comes across as innocently unaware of what goes on around her. In fact, her bouts of Comically Missing the Point are often played for laughs.
- Nice Girl: A very kind and sweet-natured girl, even with her neglectful father (until the end of their respective episode - see above).
- You Are Fat: Her weight is mocked by classmate Bailey in the pilot. Casey violently stands up for her.
Bailey Benett
Bailey Benett
Played By: Ariela Barer
- Alpha Bitch: In Season 1. Zigzagged in Season 2. She shows genuine admiration for Sam's artistic ability and even kisses him. But then she rudely insists that he keep it secret.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Paige's Betty.
- Romantic False Lead: For Sam in Season 2. They make out a few times, but ultimately their relationship never goes anywhere.
Arlo
Arlo
Played By: Major Curda
A fellow student who bullies Sam.
- Dumb Jock: Mentioned to be failing several classes.
- Jerk Jock: Downplayed. He's a dumb, insensitive jerk and star baseball player, but does not have a very muscular build - in fact, Major Curda played nerdy good guy Dilton Doiley in Riverdale around the same time he was on Atypical.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Popular despite his bullying.
Miss Whitaker
Miss Whitaker
Played By: Casey Wilson
Sam's high school guidance counselor, also his peer group coordinator in Season Two
- No Name Given: Her first name is never mentioned on the show.
- Put on a Bus: She's only given a brief mention in Season 3. Justified in that she was Sam's high school guidance counselor, and Sam is now a college freshman.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She's probably the most sensible adult on the whole show, though Julia isn't too far behind.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She gives Sam this kind of speech, and some much needed hope about his college prospects, after seeing his artwork. She pushes for him to have a shot at applying to colleges such as Denton University and the Rhode Island School of Design, even after the cut-off date. She succeeds, as Sam gets into both (and attends Denton).
