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The Wright family
Nate Wright
Voiced by: Ben Giroux
The title character. Nate is a sixth grade straight-C student, self-proclaimed ladies' man and Renaissance Man, and quite short (4'6" to be exact). Currently going out with Daphne, and has sworn enemies in Gina and Mrs. Godfrey.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Believes that he and Jenny are destined together and uses every possible opportunity to pursue her. Jenny, for her part, does not like him back, but she does tolerate him to some extent.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the novels and animated ventures, his more jerkish personality traits are toned down or even gone entirely and he has many more Pet the Dog moments towards others. Though this can probably be attributed to a difference in medium from a four-panel gag comic with not much space to show consequences or any real story aside, to actual narratives that need to make Nate a protagonist the audience would want to root for.
- Aesop Amnesia: Throughout various comics centered around tests, one of the situations that can occur is him encountering a test where the answers have some sort of pattern. Nate is always convinced that he got the wrong answers because of some supposed "unwritten rule" where the test answers are not supposed to be patterns, and always ends up failing when he tries to avert this, never learning.
- Anime Hair: Has very spiky hair. At one point, his friends try to make fun of him by making an ice cream cone with ice cream that looks like his hair. Nate admits that while he's not happy with it, it is a creative use of "Hershey's Kisses".
- Anti-Role Model: While Nate has his good points, he’s not someone students should take advice from or grow up to be.
- Arch-Enemy: No less than three of them, each one for different reasons:
- Gina: Him being The Slacker who is Brilliant, but Lazy and her a kiss-up straight-A student, they clash very frequently. Nate's friends see it as a Love-Hate Relationship though. They do have a bit of enjoyment in arguing with the other and can get along if circumstances demand they work together.
- Mrs. Godfrey: His social studies teacher. Mostly one-sided, he does not like her at all and they clash the most frequently. It is mainly from Nate's side, but we do sometimes see Mrs. Godfrey does have a legitimate beef with him at times. Her preferring his older sister when she was in class may play a part in it.
- Randy Betancourt: One of the school bullies and arguably Nate's Shadow Archetype. The two butt heads alot and he's often the antagonist in stories. This is mainly because Randy is a Jerkass who often messes with the other kids for kicks. Nate, being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, usually steps in to stop him and both of them are unafraid to retaliate against the other when it escalates. Heck, Randy was the one first person Nate ever got in a physical fight with.
- Berserk Button:
- Notably, mentioning school during the summer or bringing up the possibility that he can be outdone.
- Also messing with his friends. Despite not being on speaking terms (due to a fight) with Francis, when Randy bullies him, Nate proceeds to go berserk and proceeds to tackle him in beginning a fight, even mentioning it's the first time he ever got into a fight with someone.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Nate is amazing with random trivia (basketball, Peanuts, etc.), yet earns horrible grades because he lacks the motivation to study properly. He's also a chess prodigy (even going to the occasional state tournament), and only earns horrible grades in Mrs. Godfrey's Social Studies class. Every other class hovers around a grade of C. He is also shown to be a master prankster and creating some of the largest pranks pulled on Prank Day. From letting a flying squirrel and a moose into the school (Rocky and Bullwinkle theme) to setting up a dating profile with Mrs. Godfrey and setting her up on a date with a desperate rodeo clown (evening showing up to school with flowers), Nate shows off a commendable amount of planning and logistics for these pranks.
- In one arc, he's dared by Gina to get a perfect 100% on a Social Studies exam. He proceeds to cram with Peter, learning as much as possible. On the day of the exam, he comments that there's no excitement since he knows all the answers, and decided that studying takes all the fun out of it. (He ended up getting a 99%, since he was so focused on the questions he forgot to write his name at the top).
- Another arc had him doing a book report with the top two students in the class. The grade for the book report would have been a combined effort between the three. The two students lay it on Nate that they were serious about their grades and his normal grade of a C wouldn't cut it. The next day, Nate comes back with a perfect report that gets all three of them an A. The two students said to Nate why he would reduce himself to a C when he could get As easy. Nate retorts that getting an A all the time is boring and makes people expect more of him, where if he gets Cs people don't notice as much and he gets bigger rewards for when he gets As.
- In one episode ("Ghostly Coven of Man Witches") of the Big Nate TV series, he quickly bakes a perfect cake for the Teachers to enter the competition against the Jeffersons. Mr. Galvin even lampside this.
- Butt-Monkey: Gets scared by cats, hurt in sports, fails to impress Jenny... few things go right for this kid.
- Cannot Talk to Women: Doesn't normally have this problem, but when he gets the chance to talk to Ruby, all that comes out is "Blorf".
- Casanova Wannabe: Downplayed. While Nate considers himself a Kidanova, he usually ends up looking like a fool to girls when he tries to flirt. However, he did have a few girlfriends:
- He had a girlfriend named Angie in the summer of 1997, who he met at summer school. She broke up with him six months later, on Valentines' Day.
- During the summer of 2001, he got a girlfriend named Kelly. Unfortunately, he broke up with her the following year, (they met in soccer camp and was seldom seen, going to Jefferson).
- In 2015, he found another girl named Trudy, a seventh-grader whom he met on a carnival ride. However, he broke up with her the following year as he was often forced to be around her friend group of seventh-graders while she never wanted to be around his friends.
- In 2023, Nate became lab partners with a quiet girl named Daphne, when he and Gina switched lab partners in an attempt for Gina to get closer to Chad. The two befriended each other, and eventually started dating. As of today, Daphne is still Nate’s girlfriend.
- Catchphrase: "Spitsy, you idiot" and "Oh, how I hate her".
- Cosmic Plaything: Oh so much. While he may deserve his misfortune from time to time, usually, the fates are just flatout mean to the kid. Especially when he tries to do something nice for Jenny.
- Deadpan Snarker: What'd you expect from the Yo Mama King/Nickname Czar/King of the Trash Talk?
- Dirty Kid: He's somewhat obsessed with a racy Superheroine called "Femme Fatality", which got him in trouble when he lend one of her comics to his 1st grade reading buddy, Peter.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More mean than evil, but Nate can't understand why everyone like Artur so much for being a nice guy or why Jenny does not want to go out with him.
- Everyone Has Standards: In the strip in which Jenny asks Artur out, she gives Nate the fateful note. He considers disposing it, before realizing that would be a sleazeball move... and then goes to deliver it to Artur, chastising himself for not being a sleazeball.
- Forced Dance Partner: Nate mentions among his worst days that he was stuck dancing with Kim Cressley (in the first book).
- Follow Your Nose: Nate's sense of smell is so keen that at several points he identifies several things to crazy specifics (blindfolded) just by smelling them.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Teddy and Francis put up with him more than they hang out him. Lampshaded in one strip, where Nate loudly wonders why one would hang out with people they don't like, and, in the next panel, Francis and Teddy are gone.
- Genius Ditz: Is able to plan out complex pranks with precision, but is unable to name a Chinese emperor.
- Hopeless Suitor: Continuously tries to win Jenny's affection despite the fact that she and Artur are Sickeningly Sweethearts. However, as of the novel Big Nate Blasts Off, he has moved on from her. He has also moved on from her in the comic strips it seems since she moved back.
- Intentional Weight Gain: One storyline involves Nate trying to "bulk up" to become more threatening on the basketball court, though his idea of bulking up involves eating a lot rather than exercise. Needless to say, it doesn't work out as planned.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nate is very self-absorbed and sometimes treats others in ways that aren't always acceptable. However, Nate will do the right thing when it counts, such as sticking up for others who need it (in his own way). Nate is often seen sticking up for those needing it (such as when a student is dealing with someone annoying or that's a jerk, Nate lures them to his locker and opens it, blasting them away with the crammed junk). It's implied that the main reason he is a jerk (outside of ego) is from frustrations caused by being a Cosmic Plaything.
- The best example of Nate's true character is in one story when Nate finally finds himself in the cool kids' clique... until the Big Man on Campus Marcus starts bullying Artur, whom Nate is secretly jealous of, both because Artur is dating Jenny and because Artur is his better in chess. Instead of allowing the bullying to continue, Nate decides to tell Marcus off and help Artur up (despite there being nothing in it for him), because he feels Artur is his friend. It's what sets Nate apart from other Middle School story protagonists like Greg Heffley.
- Loving a Shadow: Tends to do this; he at one point considers dating a girl he hardly knows (Daisy) simply because she might like him. It's even shown that he likes Jenny this way, he really doesn't know much about her as a person and, as his dad puts it, "idealizes" her.
- Luminescent Blush: Whenever he gets embarrassed or angry. Extends to his ears. The fifth book has him mention this as a bit of trivia about him.
- Moral Myopia: He gladly makes drawings and comics insulting and mocking people and hates when he gets punished for it, but when people make drawings and comics mocking him he dislikes them for it and views them horribly for it.
- Missing Mom: His mother divorced his father when he was young, and he doesn't really know her all that well.
- The Napoleon: Originally mentioned to be "the shortest kid in school" (before people like Chad came along) and definitely bigheaded enough. Heck, he even mentioned once that Napoleon would make a good middle name.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Nate's depictions have the novels (nice), the comic (mean), and the animated series (in-between).
- The Nicknamer: He's a master nicknamer who has come up with at least a dozen of insulting nick names for the teachers (especially Mrs. Godfrey).
- The Nose Knows: He's able to pinpoint exactly what something is based on its scent, though he has been fooled on occasion — for example, he assumes that a smell of rose-scented soap is coming from a female teacher, when the source is actually his (male) math teacher.Mr. Staples might want to consider using soap that's a bit more macho.
- The Pig-Pen: He's a slob who practically keeps a junkyard in his locker, and the homework he submitted is always in a mess (crumpled up, stained with various food scraps, etc)
- The Prankster: The best prankster in school, and had always pulled the craziest stunts during Prank Day.
- Prince Charming Wannabe: His attempts to court Jenny frequently involves writing her (lame) poetry, calling her "m'lady", and generally trying and failing to be chivalrous around her.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: His basic outlook on life.
- Selective Obliviousness: No matter how many times, ways, or just flat-out statements of hate for him he gets, Nate still believes that deep down, Jenny likes him.
- The chapter novel Big Nate Blasts Off actually has him move on from this and realizes she never really liked him (romantically, anyway). It also seems to have happened in the strip after his breakup with Trudy.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Frequently boasts of his own greatness, even though he rarely achieves anything.
- Smelly Feet Gag: Nate is shown to have horrible foot odor. It was able to knock out flies at one point, and Chad had to wear a gas mask in order not to get affected at one point.
- Stalker with a Crush: It is mentioned that he once played a "Love You Like a Love Song"-esque song in order to impress Jenny.
- Stubborn Hair: In one strip, it's shown he needs an entire tube of hair gel to keep it down, only for it to pop back again.
- Teacher's Unfavorite Student: While Mrs. Godfrey may have a point to dislike Nate's inability to apply himself and general disrespect towards her, she can be quite harsh towards him (though she does have moments where she does something on his behalf). She is shown to be quite happy when he's assigned to another teacher during their temporary visit to Jefferson Middle School. This particular trait of hers was flanderized in the cartoon.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Cheez Doodles, which he uses as his #1 subject for poetry writing (when he's not trying to write stupid love poems for Jenny, of course).
- So much so that he once dressed up as one for Halloween. He got teased briefly only before Angie (his girlfriend at the time) also came in dressed as one.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Often becomes one, such as when he treats Jenny's breakups with a smile and basically grinds her feelings to powder. Despite this, Nate has a moral center despite his moral flaws and self-absorbed attitude, which sets him apart from other Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists, as Nate does ocassionally display traits that will make you want to root for him.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: To Artur. Interesting example of being a romantic version and nonromantic version. Nate's dislike of Artur stems from Artur being with Jenny, being better at chess and him being Born Lucky compared to Nate's Butt-Monkey status. Despite this, he can't bring himself to hate him. He's actually pretty good friends with him when the chips are down. As he once put it:Nate: I like Artur okay, but I find it kinda annoying nothing bad ever happens to him.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Nate has a fear of cats. Often Played for Laughs.
Ellen Wright
Voiced by: Dove Cameron
Nate's older sister, who drives Nate crazy. While originally one of the main characters, she has grown less significant as the strip goes on.
- The Ace: In contrast to her younger brother, Ellen's a straight-A student and fairly popular.
- All Women Love Shoes: While visiting the mall, Ellen spends the entire time Nate and his dad take to buy clothes to decide what shoes she wants to buy...at the current store. She then happily states that she still has eight stores left to visit.
- Art Evolution: Goes from this to this.
- Big Sister Bully: At times. One of the books showed a photo of her and Nate as toddlers, and Ellen is dragging the screaming Nate by the foot.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Is Marty's daughter and a jerk to Nate.
- Ditzy Genius: She may be absentminded, but she was an amazing student to Mrs. Godfrey.
- Dumb Blonde: Inverted. Nate considers her dumb and annoying, but she's very smart and was a Teacher's Pet of Mrs. Godfrey, Nate's current Social Studies teacher.
- Drama Queen: She is sometimes prone to overreacting over simple things (her favorite comic strip getting canceled, seeing a contestant get disqualified from a figure skating show, etc.), making her the second biggest drama queen in the strip alongside Dee Dee.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Nate's Foolish.
- Out of Focus: Became this when the strip started shifting to focus more on Nate's school life.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: To Nate. She is a Ditzy Genius and Crazy Cat Lady to Nate's lazy intelligence and love of dogs.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Although it is not shown very often, she can get very lovey-dovey with her boyfriend Gordie.
Martin Wright
Voiced by: Rob Delaney
Nate's dad. The epitome of a Bumbling Dad, who is divorced, sucks at sports, and on the occasions that Nate is not the Butt-Monkey, expect Dad to be.- Berserk Button: It's not a good idea to mention college money to him. He's also rather volatile while working his taxes.
- Bumbling Dad: Hits pretty much every single note and seems to have "Epic Fail" written on his attempts to do anything.
- Butt-Monkey: If Nate isn't the one getting the Butt-Monkey treatment, it's usually his father who takes up the role.
- Dirty Old Man: Enjoys Nate's Femme Fatality comics and has an Anna Kournikova screen saver.
- Fan Disservice: He's a balding, middle-aged guy with a pot belly and has the tendency to walk around shirtless or in shorts.
- Generation Xerox: Big Nate in the Zone reveals that as a sixth grader he was actually a lot like Nate, making jokes and goofing off instead of doing his homework.
- Hollywood Genetics: Guy with ambiguous (probably brown) hair color gets a raven-haired kid and a blonde kid.
- It seems that his hair is black like Nate's, and Ellen probably got her hair from her mother.
- Hypocritical Humor: Quite a bit. Examples include: Confiscating Femme Fatality when he's a Dirty Old Man himself, telling Nate to eat healthy when in fact he has a rather decent-sized sweet stash, etc.
- Parental Favoritism: Clearly favors Ellen over Nate. Nate lampshaded it once with a Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue" comic about a "witty prince" (Nate), "evil and hideous princess" (Ellen), and "absent-minded king" (Nate's dad), where in arguments the king would always take the princess' side.
- Parental Obliviousness: Doesn't seem to notice how much Ellen bullies Nate, and if he does, never is seen doing anything about it. There's even a time where he sees Ellen forcibly noogieing Nate while sitting on top of him...and walks right past, saying to Nate "You're on your own".
- The Talk: Had one with Nate once and was so nervous and mixed up that Nate found it amusing and invited Francis and Teddy to come listen.
- They Just Dont Get It: No matter how many times Nate tries to warn him, and the neighborhood kids vandalize the house in retaliation, he will never wrap his head around the idea that trick-or-treaters just don't want the healthy treats he gives out on Halloween.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Is perpetually unemployed in the show, but he's able to support two kids who he has primary custody of. So either he gets semi regular work off-screen, or he gets really good alimony.
Ted Wright
Nate's lazy uncle who still lives with Nate's grandparents.
- Basement-Dweller: He lives with his parents and spends most of his time watching Battlestar Galactica.
- Casanova Wannabe: Has shades of this, such as when he tried to flirt with one of Nate's neighbors when she was visiting. She didn't really catch on, and Uncle Ted was disappointed when it turned out she was married.
- I Need to Iron My Dog: He's the king of lame excuses and managed to completely get out of helping Nate paint his grandparents' house with such excuses as "I feel a touch of malaria coming on" and "I probably wouldn't even know what to do with a paintbrush".
- Lazy Bum: Hoo boy. As if "still lives with his parents" wasn't enough of a hint.
Students of P.S. 38
Francis Butthurst Pope
Voiced by: Daniel MK Cohen
Nate's best friend, a bookish, school-loving, at times borderline butt-kisser. He's, among other things, a Neat Freak, Nice Guy, and Deadpan Snarker.- Afraid of Blood: Francis notes that when he sees blood, he gets light-headed and can even faint. Nate, naturally, makes fun of him for this until Nate himself gets dizzy and passes out when he catches sight of egg salad.
- Berserk Button: He does not take nicely to having his Book of Facts taken away. Don't use bad grammar around him, either.
- Compressed Vice: His Book of Facts. Whenever he has it, he just can't be separated from it for a minute. At one point, Nate's friends take note of this and even give him an intervention.
- Deadpan Snarker: Does this frequently to Nate.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: His middle name is Butthurst.
- Foil: He is well behaved, has good grades, and is very clean, while Nate is extremely messy, has poor grades, and often gets in trouble.
- Grammar Nazi: He can't help but correct other people's grammar, which Nate and Teddy often find annoying.
- Insufferable Genius: He's smarter than his peers and doesn't hesitate to show it off, leading to several Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist moments.
- Momma's Boy: Is definitely the wussiest of the group, having My Beloved Smother tendencies at times, using a roller backpack, and being Jimmylike at times.
- Neat Freak: Makes a good Foil to Nate being such a mess.
- Nice Guy: He is definitely the nicest of the trio, although his know-it-all tendencies can get annoying.
- Official Couple: With Sheila.
- Only Sane Man: Whenever it's just him and Nate. Otherwise Teddy is usually the only sane man.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: It is mentioned that he has Mrs. Godfrey's birthday in his planner. Also, in the Jefferson saga, upon learning that they're going to Jefferson, Francis shows up in Jefferson garb.
- Running Gag: His obsession with The Book of Facts.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Nate's manly man.
- The Smart Guy: Definitely the smartest of Nate's friends.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Francis wears glasses and plays the role of The Smart Guy in Nate's group, as he enjoys reading Trivia books, studies for leisure and is excited about school.
- Teacher's Pet: Is definitely in far better graces with teachers than Teddy and Nate.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Frequently acts as a know-it-all spoilsport, which earned him wedgies from his peers.
Teddy √ Ortiz
Voiced by: Arnie Pantoja
Nate's other best friend, who matches Nate in prankster tendencies. On the rare occasions that anyone agrees with Nate, it will most likely be Teddy. His parents are mathematicians, as evidenced by his middle name being the square root symbol.- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: The fact that his parents are math teachers doesn't mean that he enjoys math any more than Nate does.
- Deadpan Snarker: He enjoys making wisecracks.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: The square root symbol (it's mentioned that his parents are math teachers).
- Nightmare Fetishist: He can be rather gross, as Nate first opened up to him when he played around with a squid's leg to pretend they were boogers during a science class. He has also more than once disgusted his friends when he started to discuss about his eating habits, such as when he ate so many gummy bears that he threw up.Teddy: One bear came out my nose.
- Only Sane Man: He's the most normal of the trio — he's not as wacky or stupidly reckless as Nate, but is far more socially adept then Francis.
- The Prankster: Which is one of the reasons why Nate got along with him so quickly.
Dee Dee Dorcas Holloway
Voiced by: Bryce Charles
A Canon Immigrant from the books who eventually became a character in the comic strip. She's a member of the drama club and a fellow cartoonist.- Adaptational Sexuality: In the books, she has a boyfriend named Jim. In the animated series, it is revealed she is lesbian and has a crush on a girl named Amy.
- Ambiguously Brown: She's somewhere between Nate and Teddy in terms of skin tone, but her ethnicity hasn't been confirmed. She is black in the Animated Adaptation.
- Ascended Extra: She did not have any major appearances in the chapter books until the fourth book, where she becomes part of Nate's group of friends. She was used as a "President of the Drama Club" joke before then. Eventually, she joined the comic strip and is now one of the more recognizable characters.
- Canon Immigrant: She appeared only in the books for a while before becoming one of Nate's friends in the comic strip as well.
- Catchphrase: In the books: "Fabulous!"
- Cute, but Cacophonic: She may be an adorable girl, but in the TV show, when she screams, it's incredibly loud.
- Drama Queen: Part of the drama club, so it is a given.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Her middle name is Dorcas, though she seems to have crossed over into Never Heard That One Before territory by the time she mentions it to Nate.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Became more popular throughout the years. Most fans who first see the TV show would be confused as to why she's not in the earlier strips.
- Large Ham: Deliberately, as she take her drama club activities very seriously.
- Mistaken for Romance: Subverted. In the fourth chapter book she thinks Nate is asking her to the dance when he tries to recruit her to the cartoonist club (and then shouts it out for the whole room) but as Nate tries to think of a way to gently tell her (and anyone else in earshot) he just sees her as a friend (at best) it turns out that Dee Dee feels the same way, and says so when Randy taunts them.
- Nice Girl: One of Nate's best friends, and for good reasons.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The nice to Gina's mean and Jenny's in between.
- No Indoor Voice: According to Nate, Dee Dee has a very loud voice that he says sounds like "a jackhammer on steroids" and could "blow a hole in a battleship".
- Only Sane Man: Is the best one of Nate's friends to talk to if you need to resolve something, and she's good at figuring out relationships. Also sees herself as this — she's the one who rolls her eyes the most in response to the other characters.
- Race Lift: She was originally white in the books, but got a darker skin tone when she made her comic strip debut.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In-Universe. She loves the spotlight a bit too much. In "Big Nate Lives It Up", the others have to pry her away from the camera. She even mentions stealing the spotlight as one of her traits in the TV series.
- Super-Scream: In the TV series, she is able to let out a super-sonic scream when she's upset about something or in times of a crisis, as shown in "The Pimple" and "Wilderness Warriors".
Chad Applewhite
Voiced by: Charlie Schlatter
A Tiny Schoolboy who is amazingly cute and friendly, so he gets the attention of all the girls without even trying. Is a member of Nate's modern group of friends.Note that there have been a lot of one-time characters named Chad over the years; this is the first one to be a major part of the cast.
- Ascended Extra: In the books, his first appearance was at the cafeteria in the first book (Nate mistakes him for "Todd"). He eventually becomes part of Nate's group of friends by the fourth book.
- All-Loving Hero: He can't really hate anyone unless they specifically bully him.
- All There in the Manual: Chad's last name, Applewhite, is only mentioned on a chart in Big Nate Flips Out.
- Berserk Button: The only real way to tick him off is to comment on his height or weight.
- Big Eater: He loves food, especially sweets. Hey, that chub has to come from somewhere.
- Black Bead Eyes: One of the few characters to have them.
- Chick Magnet: Really, just about every girl in the school thinks Chad's adorable. Even Gina.
- Cloudcuckoo Lander: He occasionally drops in just to deliver a line on his train of thought.Nate: (after being told that his outstanding detentions have been removed from records) I like to think of all my detentions as outstanding.Chad: I like to think of chocolate donuts!
- The Cutie: Definitely! There's a reason why he can easily get any girl to pay attention to him. Though he drops this if you push his Berserk Button.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Well, in a non-gay way. When Chad describes how he gets a girl's signature in his yearbook (by going up to them and saying in his cute way "Will you sign my yearbook?"), Nate notes that even he wants to hug Chad.
- Hidden Depths: Owns a Peruvian snake venom extruder, which Nate finds in his locker once. Nate even lampshades it, saying, "There's more to Chad than meets the eye".
- Nice Guy: He's awfully humble and nice for being the Chick Magnet that he is, and really doesn't dislike anyone unless they are mean to him specifically. Nate even references this when Chad asks Nate to make him a super-villain in his comic.Nate: Chad, no offense, but... I don't think you're the super-villain type. (gives Chad a noogie) You're too nice!
- Running Gag: He has a tendency to appear out of nowhere when someone mentions food (mostly some kind of sweet or dessert).
- Tagalong Kid: To Nate's group of friends.
- Youthful Freckles: Adds to his "cute" appearance.
Artur Pashkov
Voiced by: Todd Haberkorn
A transfer student from Belarus, who is Nate's Foil. While he is probably the nicest character in the strip, he has a one-sided rivalry with Nate (from Nate's point of view). Very blind to sarcasm.
- Always Someone Better: He is better at drawing and chess than Nate, two skills that Nate values the most about himself. Artur's superiority in chess bothers Nate to no end. Subverted with the drawing, likely given the subjectivity of art.
- Black Bead Eyes: Has these instead of lines like the other characters.
- Born Lucky: One of his traits that bothers Nate's, contrasting with his Butt-Monkey status.
- Foil: To Nate. While Nate is a Casanova Wannabe, Butt-Monkey, and Deadpan Snarker, Artur is probably the nicest person in the strip, a Chick Magnet, Born Lucky, and seriously Sarcasm-Blind.
- Foreign Exchange Student: He's an exchange student from Belarus.
- Funny Foreigner: He is from Belarus.
- Innocently Insensitive: Due to his somewhat poor English skills, he occasionally says offensive stuff without actually understanding what they mean.Nate: ...Did you just call me your "chump," Artur?Artur: You betcha!Francis: I think I meant "chum."
- He thought Nate was into Gina at one point in the books after being tricked and told her about it out of belief that he's being kind to Nate, leading to Nate being teased for it for a while.
- Literal-Minded:
- When asked if he wants to play table football, he jumps on a table.
- When asked if he had ever played soccer, Artur responded that no, he hadn't... because he isn't from America, and it was called football there.
- Metaphorgotten: See Literal-Minded.
- Nice Guy: Negative emotions are practically nonexistent to Artur, though Nate annoyed him once or twice.
- Odd Friendship: With Nate. Despite Nate's one-sided rivalry, Nate means a great deal to Artur. In fact, when Artur was upset (accidentally due to Nate and known only by Nate, Teddy and Francis), Jenny says she went to Nate because of how much Artur trusts him. Of course, Nate does care about Artur the same as well.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Partly due to being a foreign student and serves as a good Foil to Deadpan Snarker Nate.
- Unknown Rival: Nate is sorta of this to Artur when it comes to chess. The fact he's modest about it also basically adds into it.
Jenny Jenkins
Voiced by: Chandni Parekh
Nate's long-running crush who is often annoyed and angered by him. Despite this, she manages to have something of a friendship with him. Is currently dating Artur. Moved to Seattle for awhile in 2013, but ended up returning. Nate also seems to have gotten over her after his breakup with Trudy.
- Adaptational Badass: Exaggerated and Parodied in the TV series, which by season 2 reveals her to be such a huge Child Prodigy and Parody Sue that she not only teaches at university but also frequently has to save the world, probably to emphasize just how absurdly out of Nate's league she is.
- Alliterative Name: Jenny Jenkins.
- Berserk Button: Can get rather violent when Nate makes advancements or accidentally messes her up when trying to do something.
- Deadpan Snarker: When dealing with Nate.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: She's blonde, popular and is Nate's biggest crush.
- First Love: Nate's first crush, dating all the way back to first grade.
- The Leader: She was the one who took charge in planning Mrs. Godfrey's birthday party.
- Lysistrata Gambit: Uses a (toned down) version of this technique to beat Nate at Monopoly.
- Nice Girl: When not being bugged by Nate, she can be nice. After Nate got over her, she's now more comfortable with being around him.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The in between to Dee Dee's nice and Gina's mean.
- Nightmare Face: She pulls one off very well in this strip combined with a Passive-Aggressive Kombat tone. It is justified though.
- Odd Friendship: Although Jenny frequently shoots down Nate's advances with either violence or harsh words, she still frequently hangs out with him and the rest of his friends for swimming or Monopoly. She also appeared more often early in the strip as just one of Nate's friends whom he had a crush on.
- Nate's Odd Friendship with her boyfriend Artur may be a reason. In a chapter book, she goes to Nate when Artur is an uncharacteristically bad mood (inadvertently caused by Nate, though only he knows that) and when he asks why she came to him, she mentions that Artur trusts and respects Nate.
- Official Couple: Artur is her best-known boyfriend, but she's also had several other boyfriends before him.
- Satellite Love Interest: She doesn't really have much prominence in the strip outside of being Nate's crush and Artur's girlfriend; predictably, she got Demoted to Extra for the most part after the former got over her.
Sheila
A popular girl who is Francis' girlfriend. She doesn't appear much nowadays.
- Flat Character: She really only exists in the strip as Francis' girlfriend and as an extra, without much character.
- Give Geeks a Chance: She goes out with Francis, The Smart Guy.
- Intrepid Reporter: Sometimes shown as a reporter for the school newspaper.
- Nice Girl: Her main character trait. She never really got much character development other than that, which is probably what led to her being Out of Focus.
- Only One Name: Her last name is never revealed, though one comic referred to a character named "Sheila Stapleton", which may or may not be her.
- Out of Focus: Sheila was most common early in the strip, but hasn't been in many strips as of late.
Gina Hemphill-Toms
Voiced by: Lisa Kay Jennings
Nate's other arch-enemy, Gina is the polar opposite of Nate, getting straight A's and never letting him forget it. Basically, she's Ellen all over again, just a whole lot less ditzy.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Has a rather predatory crush on Chad that he does not reciprocate at all. It goes so far that Chad gets hypnotized to be a jerk so Gina won't like him anymore.
- Academic Alpha Bitch: Takes pride in her academic achievements, and generally treats other people like shit.
- Flanderization: In her first appearances, Gina was simply a good student who liked to challenge herself, and got on Nate's nerves simply by being as smart as she is. But nowadays, she's an Insufferable Genius and Academic Alpha Bitch.
- I Have Brothers: She apparently has some knowledge of hockey thanks to having four (unseen) older brothers.
- Insufferable Genius: She likes to show off her knowledge by trying to answer any and every question Mrs. Godfrey asks in class. She once had a knowledge show-down with Francis to determine which of them is smarter.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all that she did in the second book (such as naming NATE'S team "Cuddle Kittens"), she gets detention for yelling in the library.
- After Nate flings her shoe (see above) which hits Ms. Godfrey, Ms Godfrey gives her FIVE detentions for the whole ordeal (she gives Nate two).
- Kick the Dog: Nate's not a nice person, but tattling on Nate for the way he breathes is just weird.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The mean to Dee Dee's nice and Jenny's in between.
- Not So Above It All: One strip has Gina annoyed by Nate's weird habit of hitting his head with a plastic bottle as stress relief. He then has the moxie to hit her head with it... which prompts her to feel relaxed herself.
- The Smart Guy: One of the smartest kids in the school.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: She wears glasses and, along with Francis, is one of the smartest students in Nate's year.
- Teacher's Pet: She's one of Mrs. Godfrey's favorite students (the other being Ellen) and appears to enjoy being in her company. Once, an unusually friendly Gina meets Nate & co. in the beach and asks if she can hang around with them. Nate drove her away by pointing out that Mrs. Godfrey is also at the beach, and wouldn't Gina want to be with her instead? It worked.
Randy Betancourt
Voiced by: Nik Dodani
The main bully of P.S. 38, not counting Chester. Nate and his friends are often targets of his antics and thus, he and Nate butt heads alot. He's stopped being a bully by the end of Big Nate Blasts Off, at least in the books.
- Arch-Enemy: He's an unofficial third one to Nate though unlike the sitcom-esque bickering between Nate and Gina or the mostly one-sided antagonism with Mrs. Godfrey, the two are never really acknowledged as proper enemies to one another. However, Nate clashes with Randy a lot. Nate is unafraid to call Randy out on his rotten behavior and both of them are unafraid to retaliate against the other.
- The Bully: Not in the physical sort of way, but he's got a mean streak who does stuff for kicks. It's why he and Nate clash a lot.
- Evil Counterpart: He can be viewed as one for Nate. They're both trickster-like characters, but Randy has less scruples and thus his actions are more mean-spirited and petty. He also doesn't have much consideration for others while Nate cares for his friends and knows his limits. They also both come from differing homes (Nate lives with his dad and sister while Randy alternates between his parents). Furthermore, while Nate gets his comeuppance, Randy usually doesn't get his. As such, it's unsurprising that the two would come to butt heads a lot, usually by Nate calling out Randy.
- Freudian Excuse: As revealed in Big Nate Blasts Off, his parents don't live together and by the time he tells Nate this, they're getting divorced. Randy says that every week he moves "from [his] mom's house to [his] dad's. And back again". As such, it's implied part of his antagonistic attitude is him lashing out from his dysfunctional family situation. Averted in the cartoon where it appears if anything his mother seems to spoil him too much.
- Heel–Face Turn: Becomes Nate's friend at the very end of Big Nate Blasts Off after winning the Mud Bowl. Unfortunately, we've yet to see this happen in the comics.
- Jerkass: Does alot of mean-spirited stuff to his peers for fun, like stealing Nate's clothes during a dance in Big Nate Goes For Broke. Little wonder why he's often an antagonist to Nate.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Usually, he rarely, if ever, gets punished for his actions. But in Big Nate Strikes Again, he suffers again and again for his misdeeds. First Nate tricks him into opening his locker (which is stuffed with trash), covering Randy with garbage which the principal then forces him to clean up due to thinking that it was his messy locker. Then Randy accidentally gets a bloody (or even broken) nose by running into a table Nate was moving while he'd been running away with something he stole from Chad, and when Randy tries to claim Nate broke his nose on purpose, he gets called out as a liar by a teacher who saw the whole thing and is given a detention slip. And finally, he loses the fleeceball championship to Nate's team (despite some nasty cheating) due to Gina hitting the final home run, which couldn't have done much for his ego.
- Signature Laugh: "Nya ha ha!"
- Swirlie: Apparently, this is one of his favorite methods of payback.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Often shown to play this trope during clashes with Nate, especially in the book "Big Nate Flips Out".
Kim Cressly
Voiced by: Betsy Sodaro
A stout, stoic girl who has a thing for Nate (though Nate doesn't like her). Nowadays she's going out with Chad.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Had a rather strong crush on Nate for a while, and forced him to go out with her, even though it was pretty clear Nate had no interest in Kim and only went out with her because he was afraid of what she might do if he refused.
- Always Identical Twins: The TV series reveals that Kim has a twin sister who looks just like her.
- Ascended Extra: She has been making more appearances in the recent comics.
- Fat Bastard: Downplayed, she's not a total jerk but casually puts Nate in danger for being beaten up by Chester and could get violent when Nate showed hints that he didn't want to be her boyfriend.
- The Gadfly: Casually talks to Nate after starting to go out with Chester, despite Chester threatening to beat up any guy she talks to.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Tiny Girl to Chester's Huge Guy.
- It's All About Me: She clearly doesn't care if Nate doesn't return her feelings for him and doesn't seem to care about Nate's displeasure about being around her, yet she tries to force herself on him to the point where she'll strangle him if he doesn't go along with what she wants.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Funnily enough, Kim is happy for Nate when he ends up in a relationship with Daphne, though she promises to "snap (Daphne's) neck like a toothpick" if she doesn't treat him well.
- Jerkass: She frequently manhandles Nate and forces him to be her boyfriend to the point of physically assaulting him, she's pretty much apathetic to everyone around her, and is only concerned with what she wants while uncaring for others.
- Karma Houdini: She has never once faced consequences for the way she mistreats Nate and pretty much everyone she's mistreats. It especially doesn't help that Mr. Rosa once witnessed Kim beat up Nate, and yet he doesn't write her up and lets her get away with it.
- The Stoic: Constantly keeps a completely deadpan expression and tends to say things very bluntly. However, she is seen showing a bit more emotion in the TV series.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Talks like this, much like her boyfriend. Given her perpetually blank expression, this is probably for the better.Kim: My Secret Santa gave me a box of lug nuts. Suddenly I am blinded by rage.
Chester Budrick
Another bully who clearly has some... issues. He's described to be six and a half feet tall, three hundred pounds, and has five o' clock shadow. He has a extremely short temper, so beware of pushing his Berserk Button.
- Ax-Crazy: His extreme Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency to violently assault anyone who pisses him off makes him this. Nate mentions that Chester has even beaten up his anger management counselor!
- Barbaric Bully: Has given Nate huge wedgies, stuffed him into garbage cans, and just plain beat him up multiple times.
- Berserk Button: Really, just about anything can offend Chester, but his most persistent button is any boy getting involved with his girlfriend Kim, regardless of if they approached her first or not.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Over Kim, which she casually mentions to Nate. Chester doesn't want Kim even talking with other guys (and is hinted to beat up boys that she talks to), though Kim goes ahead and chats with Nate anyway.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: To the point that Nate mentioned in one of the books that he beat up his anger management counselor. One kid got a hot dog shoved up his nose for refusing to share his lunch with him.
- Held Back in School: Implied to have been held back for at least an extra year due to his violent temper, which would explain his large size and facial hair.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Kim, but mostly would just look this way due to his massive size.
- Pet the Dog: One series of Halloween strips had him help Nate get his candy back from a pair of bullies, no strings attached. The worst he does is threaten Nate after the latter calls him out for a hypocritical remark, but other than that, it's a surprisingly whole-hearted moment.
- Shout-Out: Chester's method of speech and his size can remind a reader of The Hulk.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Occasionally speaks like this.Chester: You called me a beast. That makes me want to hit you.Nate: No, I... (coughs) I said beets! I'm pro-vegetable!
- The Voice: Chester's almost always shown completely off-panel; if we do ever see him, it's generally his fists. The most we've ever seen of him is his body from the neck down, in Big Nate On a Roll.
- Younger Than They Look: As mentioned above, he's over six feet tall and has five o' clock shadow, and yet he's still in sixth grade. Though he might be older than Nate and his friends, given the hints that he's been to summer school and might have been held back several years for anger issues.
Angie
Nate's first girlfriend. Nate met Angie when he was going to summer school; she had moved into town late in the school year and had to go to summer school to catch up. She shares some of Nate's interests, like art, soccer, and Cheez Doodles. Angie broke up with Nate after she just lost interest in their relationship, leaving Nate crushed.
- Birds of a Feather: Angie has plenty of things in common with Nate; she loves drawing cartoons and Cheez Doodles seem to be her favorite food as well. She also likes soccer, though she seems to be a lot better than Nate.
- The Bus Came Back: After dumping Nate, Angie made two other appearances in the comic strip: one where Nate helps her resolve an argument with her boyfriend, and one where she runs for school president against Nate (and wins).
- Official Couple: With Nate until they broke up.
- Second Love: Nate's second major crush after Jenny, and he fares a lot better with Angie than Jenny.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: During Halloween, Nate was dressed up as a Cheez Doodle and planned to meet Angie during the night to go trick-or-treating. Francis figured that Angie will dump Nate on the spot when she sees the ridiculous costume, but it turns out that Angie's wearing the same costume.
Gertrude
Nate's third girlfriend, nicknamed Trudy. Nate met her at a summer fair and instantly developed a crush on her. It took some time to discover that she was a new student and also a seventh grader. Nate broke up with her when she refused to hang out with his friends.
- Embarrassing First Name: Her name—Gertrude—seems a little old-fashioned and out of place. Therefore she goes by her nickname, Trudy.
- It's All About Me: Shares this attitude with her boyfriend. She forced Nate to go to her party and skate with her instead of going to events he wanted, and later made Nate sit with the seventh graders even when she refused to sit with the sixth graders. Nate ultimately dumped her over this.
- Official Couple: With Nate, until they broke up.
Daphne
Nate's fourth girlfriend; he met her after switching lab partners with Gina so she could try and hook up with Chad. While that didn't pan out for her, Daphne and Nate ended up hitting it off.
- Birds of a Feather: She and Nate have a lot in common; they both like Cheez Doodles and hate egg salad, and her revealing that she's allergic to cats and that she's never watched figure skating meshes well with the fact that he dislikes both.
- Cute Bookworm: She's fairly book smart, one arc saw her take Nate to a book store, and Nate considers her attractive.
- Official Couple: The fourth girl to officially hook up with Nate.
- The Quiet One: Nate claims her to be this when Gina first proposes switching lab partners, though this comes off as an Informed Attribute.
Breckenridge Puffington III
A new kid introduced in Big Nate Lives It Up. Is obsessed with botany.
- The Bully: Used to be this when he and Nate were toddlers.
- Demoted to Extra: After being a major character in Big Nate Lives It Up, Breckenridge only gets a minor cameo in the next book, in an Imagine Spot, no less.
- Karma Houdini: Breckenridge was a bully to Nate as a toddler, but he always got away with it. Later, though, Nate forgives him and they remain friends.
- Nature Lover: His extensive knowledge about plants and flowers makes him annoying at times, but remains a positive person.
- Nice Guy: He is like this now, but as a toddler, on the other hand...
- The Smart Guy: He knows everything about flowers.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: He knows lots about botany, and wears glasses.
- Unfortunate Names: It's clear that Breckenridge isn't a big fan of his name, considering the many cruel nicknames that stem from it.
Ruby Dinsmore
A new student and Nate's crush in Big Nate Blasts Off.
- Commonality Connection: The TV Series has her first introduce herself to Nate by complementing his cartoon drawing of himself, and she admits that she does some of this herself but mainly dabbles in sculpture art and experiments with different mediums including cheesy snacks.
- Dude Magnet: She attracts both Nate's and Randy's attention.
- Nice Girl: One of the first things Nate mentions about her.
- Satellite Love Interest: Doesn't get much characterization besides being a pretty nice person. This changes when she’s introduced in the TV Series and is stated to be an aspiring sculptor who is experimenting with different materials.
Amanda Kornblatt
A student obsessed with ponies, much to the displeasure of some.
- Ascended Extra: After being mentioned in the first and third book and having a one-shot appearance in the fifth, the 7th book gives her more screentime.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Sweet and cheerful, but can annoy the students unintentionally.
- Innocently Insensitive: She's oblivious to the fact that everybody gets bored by her fascination of ponies in book 7. The librarian even fell asleep listening to her.
- The Leader: Of "Amanda's Pony Poisee" in "Big Nate Flips Out".
Eric Fleury
A martial arts obsessed boy.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Busting out karate moves in front of the school doesn't make him any saner.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Inverted. Eric breaks his arm, but not on purpose. This led to him being given sympathies by his classmates.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He refused to share his lunch with Chester. To no one's surprise, Chester stuffs a hot dog up his nose.
- Insufferable Genius: Is very prideful of his skills.
Faculty of P.S. 38
Clara Godfrey
Voiced by: Carolyn Hennesy
Nate's social studies teacher and Arch-Enemy. While not as evil as Nate often describes her (because only Umbridge could be that evil), often shows blatant favoritism.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the comics and books, her Sadist Teacher tendencies are mostly confined to how Nate views her, while in reality she's fairly normal most of the time and simply has little patience for his disruptive antics. The show plays these traits completely straight for her to the point of being a Card-Carrying Villain.
- Arch-Enemy: She is one of Nate's least favorite teachers (after Coach John). Mrs. Godfrey, on her part, detests Nate for his lack of effort and disrespectfulness, and is shown to be very pleased when Nate is assigned to another teacher during the school's temporary "visit" to Jefferson.
- Does Not Like Spam: As stated below, she hates jelly beans.
- Evil Smells Bad: According to Nate, her breath stinks of dead fish.
- Everyone Has Standards: She might favor Gina as a teacher's pet, but there are times when Mrs. Godfrey puts her foot down.
- Expresses disappointment when Gina neglects to provide proper visual aids for the Ben Franklin project, instead electing to print them off of the web.
- When Gina tries to correct Nate's test score, Mrs. Godfrey is appalled by the spitefulness of the gesture, insinuating that Nate shouldn't be punished for a mistake she made and gives Gina a detention instead.
- She was also appalled that Gina made Nate tie her shoes after winning a bet that they made (Nate had to be nice to her for a week). Godfrey even tells Gina that she should have been nicer to Nate as well, giving her FIVE detentions as opposed to Nate's two for accidentally hitting her with Gina's shoes.
- On a different note, Mrs. Godfrey saves Nate from choking on a mint in one strip.
- Fat Bastard: She's a Sadist Teacher who is fat.
- Hidden Depths: As it turns out, Mrs. Godfrey loves Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- Historical Ugliness Update: In-Universe, as Nate's comics often depict her as fat and hideous, when she's actually seems to be just average looking.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: In-Universe, as Nate would often depict Godfrey in his comics as an evil monster or an authoritarian dictator, when the worst she actually does is give Nate detention and yell at him for misbehaving. Justified Trope, as she seems to go after Nate and get mad at him the most so Nate has a reason to dislike her.
- I Was Quite a Looker: In an old yearbook she is shown to be quite attractive. Nate and Teddy don't initially know that it's her since she's labeled as "Ms. Lessard" (her maiden name), and fawn over her until Francis tells them who the attractive teacher really is.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Her favoring of Gina and clear dislike of Nate may seem unfair, but Gina's obviously a very good student, while Nate is lazy and clearly doesn't care about school at all.
- Parental Favoritism: Quite blatantly favors Gina over Nate — as long as the conflict happens during class. A recurring gag is that Mrs. Godfrey will let Gina answer a question without raising her hand and usually with a loud "OOH!", but when Nate does the same thing, she shoots him down.
- This is justified in that Gina is a serious student who has established herself as someone who cares about learning, while Nate looks for any excuse to goof off. It's not so much that Mrs. Godfrey favors Gina; she is simply trying to keep her class focused on the lesson plan. The trope gets inverted when a Nate vs. Gina dispute happens outside of class, as Mrs. Godfrey will usually take Nate's side against Gina because she sees Gina's behavior as being needlessly cruel to him. When she's not trying to teach, she's more than willing to listen; when she is, don't interrupt her if you know what's good for you.
- Pet the Dog:
- When Nate tells her he's unable to do his homework due to a family emergency, she immediately shows concern for him and excuses him from said homework, even advising him to find someone compassionate to talk about his problems with. It's likely that her calling Nate's dad on the phone was as much out of genuine concern as it was to confirm whether Nate was being truthful. Too bad said family emergency was a lie.
- In Big Nate Strikes Again, Mrs. Godfrey accepts Nate's Ben Franklin comics as visual aids for his group project with Gina, deeming them "delightful" and appropriate due to Ben Franklin's history as a cartoonist.
- In one strip, she sees Nate taking art commissions in the park and commissions him to draw a portrait of her dog, indicating that she genuinely respects his artistic talent when it's not being used at inopportune times such as in class, or at her expense.
- Is genuinely moved when she catches Nate drawing a tribute to the 9/11 firefighters in class and for once, encourages him to continue doodling in class.
- After Nate hits her with Gina's shoe (which he was tying), she only gave him two detentions after Nate explained why he flung the shoe.
- Despite their animosity, she appreciates Nate enough to want to sign his yearbook. That is, until she sees the doodles on her photo.
- Sadist Teacher: In the comic strip, Nate considers Mrs. Godfrey to be unfair to him, even though he brings most of it on himself. For example, when Gina complains about Nate's loud breathing, Mrs. Godfrey immediately ordered Nate to stop breathing, even though he's not really doing anything wrong. Also, in the first episode of the animated adaptation, she takes a sadistic glee in handing out detentions to Nate and is disappointed when she can’t give him one.
- That said, Mrs. Godfrey has taken Nate's side several times and is actually more likely to take Nate's side over Gina's when she's not trying to teach during their conflict. This fits with Mrs. Godfrey as more of a Stern Teacher rather than a sadistic one; as long as her social studies lesson isn't interrupted, she's a perfectly pleasant person.
- Skewed Priorities: At one point, Nate sneaks into her desk to see if he can find his research paper topic. Mrs. Godfrey catches him, but the first thing she notices is that Nate ate her Skittles.
- Sweet Tooth: Loves candy (but can't stand jelly beans), and has been mentioned to have Skittles and Junior Mints hidden in her desk.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: At one point, Mrs. Godfrey gets sick and Coach John becomes the substitute for the social studies class. Nate is happy at first that Mrs. Godfrey is gone, but quickly realizes that Coach John is even worse as a teacher. As such, Nate is ecstatic when Mrs. Godfrey returns.
Ken Rosa
Voiced by: Ryan W. Garcia
Nate's art teacher (and favorite teacher). Often regrets his choice of job.
- Berserk Button: Do not tell Mr. Rosa that it's easy to be a teacher, or he'll probably start laughing maniacally.
- Cool Teacher: As a guy who teaches Nate's favorite subject, manages and motivates the chess team, and even helps Nate with his personal issues, he's a pretty cool guy. Heck, he even nicknames teachers (read: his colleagues)!
- Deadpan Snarker: Falls into this occasionally, especially when stressed from his job.Nate: You [teachers] get to use an electric pencil sharpener while we [students] get this crank model! This thing is a total dinosaur! I mean, you might as well make us whittle our pencils!Mr. Rosa: Great idea. Students with knives.
- Jerkass Ball: Assuming Nate's account of the incident is true, Mr. Rosa gave him a detention over a ladder accident that was actually Artur's (not deliberately) fault, without giving either of them a chance to explain what actually happened.
- Meaningful Name: "Rosa" is another word for the color pink, and Mr. Rosa is an art teacher.
- Nice Guy: He's one of the nicest people in the school to Nate, even as an overworked teacher.
- Not So Above It All: He secretly nicknames the other teachers, as shown when he slips and calls the (unseen) teacher Mr. Granger "Granger the Stranger". He also thinks of Mrs. Godfrey as a "tyrant".
Miss Clarke
Nate's English teacher. She's supportive of Nate and generally nice to all the students, and also one of Nate's favorite teachers.
- Cool Teacher: One of the few teachers at school that Nate likes.
- Hot Teacher: In an early comic that had Nate rap about school, he described Miss Clarke as "hot", suggesting that he thinks of her this way.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Occasionally uses phrasing like this, but that's mostly for teaching.Miss Clarke: For a nonrestrictive clause or phrase, but not for independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions...Nate: Say what?
Mr. Staples
Nate's math teacher. He has a passion for math and bad jokes.
- Pungeon Master: He loves telling puns, especially if they're math-based.
- Totally Radical: Some of Mr. Staples' interests seem a bit out of date.
Mr. Galvin
Voiced by: Michael Rivkin
Nate's science teacher. He's pretty old and very boring, so his class isn't the most exciting.
- The Bore: There's not a lot of action in his classes. Mr. Galvin is boring to listen to, makes the kids do lame experiments, and has earned the nickname "Fossil Face" for having almost no sense of humor.
- Collector of the Strange: He collects potatoes shaped like presidents' faces.
- Dirty Old Man: Believe it or not, Mr. Galvin is one. Nate once bribed him into not giving him detention by giving him a swimsuit photo of Greta Van Susteren.
- Named by the Adaptation: The TV series gives him the first name "Fontaine".
- Opaque Lenses: You can't see through his glasses.
- Vague Age: He's old, but we're not sure just how old. When Nate asks Mr. Galvin how old he is, Mr. Galvin replies "I was born in the Holocene epoch", though that isn't any help, considering that it's the time period we currently live in and began millions of years ago.
Coach Calhoun
Nate's gym teacher, coach, and health teacher, except when Coach John fills in for him.
- Foil: To Coach John. They're both gym teachers, but Calhoun is rather friendly to his students and congratulates them for trying their best, while John is Drill Sergeant Nasty to the students and only cares that they win games.
- Nice Guy: Like Mr. Rosa, he sometimes takes the time to help Nate with his personal problems.
- The Pollyanna: He's pretty positive, seeing the best of everyone and preferring to stay on the bright side even during a hopeless baseball game.
Coach John
Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
The other gym teacher and coach in P.S. 38. He's a bit old-fashioned with his coaching tactics, and prefers to yell at kids and make them run wind sprints.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: He treats kids like they're in a boot camp. "Training" for sports mostly involves lots of wind sprints and push ups. Nate even says that if you take away the uniform from a stereotypical drill sergeant, you'll end up with Coach John.
- Fat Bastard: He's cruel to the students, and so fat he can't see his own feet.
- Foil: To Coach Calhoun, given that one is kind and positive and the other is mean and demanding.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: When he's not being a harsh gym coach, Coach John does other jobs. He's been a substitute school nurse, lifesaving instructor, substitute teacher for Mrs. Godfrey's class, and yoga teacher.
- No Indoor Voice: He tends to raise his voice quite a bit.Coach John: LET'S GO, LADIES! STRAP 'EM ON!
Mrs. Czerwicki
The detention monitor at P.S. 38. Naturally, she and Nate interact a lot.
- Awful Wedded Life: A Running Gag; she never has a kind word to say about the unseen Mr. Czerwicki.
- Deadpan Snarker: She's often snarky when it comes to Nate's escapades, especially the ones that land him under her watch.
- Like a Son to Me: Played for Laughs. She writes in Nate's yearbook that he's just like her son. The kicker: her son's in prison.
- Odd Friendship: While she's often exasperated by his antics, she's one of the teachers at P.S. 38 Nate's on friendly terms with.
- Soap Within a Show: She's borderline addicted to trashy romance novels, partly due to her own negative relationship with her husband.
Principal Nichols
Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
The principal of P.S. 38. He tries to be a 'friend' to his students, though he usually just comes off as an adult who tries too hard to look cool.
- Big Fun: He tries to be this.
- Butt-Monkey: He doesn't get a lot of respect from his students, especially Nate.
- Hidden Depths: One arc revealed he had an interest in comics, joining the Cartooning Club when they need a substiute faculty advisor and earning Nate's respect by picking Betty over Veronica.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He does his best to help the students under his care, though his efforts tend to go awry. Somewhat less so in the animated series, where he can do some sketchy things to keep the school afloat.
- Sweet Tooth: Nate tends to catch him eating junk food in his office.
Mrs. Shipulski
Principal Nichols' secretary.
- Deadpan Snarker: Tends to snark at the antics of both Nate and her boss.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: A few strips show her being this to Nichols.
- Only Sane Man: Generally tends to balance out the eccentricities of both Nate and the principal.
School Picture Guy
The, well, school picture guy at P.S. 38, among numerous other jobs.
- Basement-Dweller: He's got some stereotypical nerdy traits and still lives with his mother, though he has various jobs to keep him afloat.
- Camera Fiend: He has a bad habit of photographing Nate at exactly the wrong time.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Nate.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: He's worked many an odd job, with Nate running into him everywhere from the fair to the beach.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He's only ever called "School Picture Guy".
Students of Jefferson
Nolan
Voiced by: Nik Dodani
The main bully of Jefferson that harasses P.S. 38 students.
- The Bully: Picks on anyone from his rival school.
- Canon Foreigner: He has yet to appear in the comic strips.
- Irrational Hatred: To everyone from P. S. 38.
- Jerkass: Just like nearly every other Jefferson student, he bullies P. S. 38 kids for no good reason other than they're from P. S. 38. The animated show gives him a personal grudge against Nate that extends to the other kids.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He's beaten spectacularly in the Ultimate Snowdown by the P. S. 38 kids.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the TV series, he is given the last name "Vaughn".
Kelly
One of Nate's former girlfriends whom he met at a summer soccer camp. She's a little more on the tomboyish side, liking soccer and football. She's notable in that she's the only named student we've seen from Jefferson that doesn't show Irrational Hatred to any P. S. 38 kid. Nate ended up breaking up with her through a note that he delivered to her house. Unfortunately, Kelly saw him as a jerk for not breaking up with her face-to-face, dumping him.
- Betty and Veronica: Nate's the Archie to Kelly's Betty and Jenny's Veronica. In fact, the whole reason Nate tried to break up with Kelly is that Jenny dumped her own boyfriend, Ronnie, and Nate hoped to hook up with Jenny instead. Predictably, it doesn't work; Kelly ends up hating him and Jenny gets a new boyfriend before Nate can do anything.
- Commuting on a Bus: She makes the least amount of appearances as Nate's girlfriend due to her going to a different school. Perhaps it's one of the other reasons why they don't last as a couple.
- Irrational Hatred: Notable in that she averts this to P. S. 38 students; Kelly goes to Jefferson Middle School, but she isn't prejudiced against their rival school.
- Official Couple: With Nate, at least for a while.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: She's a bit of a tomboy, and always wears a ponytail.
Other Characters
Gordie
A teenager who works at Klassic Komix.
- Intergenerational Friendship: He and Nate bond over their shared love of comics.
- Official Couple: Was this with Ellen for a while, much to Nate's bewilderment.
Peter
A young boy that Nate tries to mentor with limited success.
- Child Prodigy: He's around eight, and his preferred reading material includes the works of Gustave Flaubert.
- Dirty Kid: The only way Nate manages to capture his interest during their "book buddy" time is by bringing out Femme Fatality comics, and one strip shows him anticipating meeting a female babysitter before his mother reveals she hired Nate.
- Geek Physiques: His relative skinniness and lack of athletic ability can at least be excused by the fact that he's a child; his glasses, buck teeth, and lisp are very much this trope.
Wink Summers
The weatherman at the local news station, who Nate often calls to complain about his forecast being wrong.
- Compliment Backfire: At one point, when he gets replaced as the regular weatherman, Nate calls him, telling him that his replacement has none of his "clumsy, overweight, average Joe charm". This, unsurprisingly, ends with Wink hanging up the phone on him.
- The Ghost: Was this until the animated series.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Implied to be this as a result of how several of Nate's phone calls with him end.
- Unfortunate Names: It is revealed that his real name is actually Dick Shipp, and he uses the name Wink Summers because, as the man himself notes, using the name Dick Shipp on live television is "playing with fire".
- Unseen No Longer: Finally makes an in-person appearance in the animated series.
Animals
Spitsy
Voiced by: Mitch Watson
A dog belonging to Nate's neighbor and is probably the closest thing to a pet Nate could ever have.
- Big Friendly Dog: Often greets Nate by glomping and licking him. Nate regards this gesture as either touching or annoying (usually the latter, though).
- Cone of Shame: Spitsy is never actually seen without his collar, and it enhances his goofy appearance. Fitting, for a dumb dog like him.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Nate constantly calls him an idiot for getting beat up by squirrels and going out for parties with Francis's cat.
- The Glomp: His preferred way of greeting people, especially Nate.
- Interspecies Romance: Is dating Francis's cat, Pickles. Don't think on that one too hard.
Pickles
Francis' cat. As cats go, she's basically a prodigy (especially compared to Spitsy).
- Cats Are Superior: She's ridiculously smart and talented, which makes Spitsy's lack of knowledge look even worse. The greatest feat she's performed in the strips is tap dancing, singing, and juggling at the snap of Francis' finger.Francis: Wait! She's about to ride her unicycle!
- Interspecies Romance: She's apparently engaged to Spitsy.
Sherman
Nate's class gerbil who spends his days snarking at the class' (especially Nate's) antics.
- Deadpan Snarker: His only "lines" consist of him making snide commentaries about Nate and his classmates, especially when they start fussing about him. Here's one of his gems:Nate: Quite the adventure, huh, buddy? You have something to tell your grandchildren about.
Sherman: Unless my living situation changes significantly, grandchildren are a remote possibility. - The Faceless: Sort of. He's too small to have a visible expression, and most of the time he's half buried in wood shavings so the audience can only see a vague lump in his tank.
- Sapient Pet: The only animal in the series that's capable of human-like thoughts, which he expresses through his Thought Bubble Speech.
- Silent Snarker: Since he can't verbalize his thoughts, but the more observant characters notice his expressions of derision and distaste whenever he's thinking of snide remarks.Chad: Is it just me, or is he making a sarcastic face?
- Team Pet: He's the class pet and is considered their unofficial mascot.
- Thought Bubble Speech: Being a gerbil, Sherman lacks any distinctive facial expression and/or visible body language, but he is able to "talk" using thought bubbles for the reader's convenience.
