Characters / CHERUB Series

Characters who appear in Robert Muchamore's CHERUB Series.

CHERUB

CHERUBs (Charles Henderson's Espionage Research Unit B) are a group of highly-trained intelligence agents (child spies essentially) who are recruited by the British Government to go undercover in dangerous operations and pose as regular children in order to gain access to remote areas of the operations. These missions can include gang infiltrations, befriending the children of big time drug lord or crime boss or simply posing as orphans in homes to recruit new members.Agents

In General

• Child Soldiers: CHERUB agents can be any age up to 18 years old, and certainly do some dangerous missions that can involve class A drugs, guns and explosives. They're also trained in advanced combat, modern weaponry and survival tactics, all under military-like training.
• I Have Many Names: They change their name upon joining CHERUB, and all of them have different cover names for every mission.
• Pressure Point: They get taught it in the Dojo.
• Teen Genius: They're all very highly intelligent, one of the criteria for being a CHERUB agent. For example, James is a child prodigy at maths.

James Adams

James Robert Anthony Adams (ne James Choke)

The protagonist of the first series. A brash, impulsive boy who eventually matures.

• Babies Ever After: Kerry announces she's pregnant at the end of the series.
• Big Brother Instinct: He loves his sister very much and freaks out when he thinks he could lose her.
• Brother–Sister Team: Quite a few times.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Technically, all his relationships, given that he's a teenager in most of the books, but especially Kerry.
• Disappeared Dad: He initially doesn't know who his father is, but they do eventually meet.
• Expy: A hard-drinking, womanising British spy named James? Where have we heard that one before....
• Good with Numbers: James doesn't like school work, but he's really good at maths, having something like a calculator in his head.
• Hero Protagonist: The protagonist and a heroic guy, though he does have his anti-heroic moments.
• First Girl Wins: Gets back together with Kerry at the end of the series.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lauren is usually the responsible one, because she's not as impulsive as James. Not always, though.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a serial cheater with a violent temper and a criminal streak who occasionally crosses into Politically Incorrect Hero status, but he's also a very loyal friend and fiercely protective of his little sister.
• Missing Mom: She dies at the start of the first book.
• Relationship Revolving Door: With Kerry.
• Serial Romeo: He has quite a few girlfriends, and is known to cheat.

Lauren Adams

Lauren Zoe Adams (nee Lauren Onions)

James little sister, also a CHERUB agent.

• Abusive Parents: Lauren's father is at the very least neglectful, and hit her at least once.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: James often treats her as such, but it's clear that they actually love each other very much.
• Attempted Rape: In The Fall. She stabs the guy instead, but is quite horrified by the experience.
• Brother–Sister Team: Quite a few times.
• Don't Split Us Up: How she ends up at CHERUB: she wanted to be with James, so when he wasn't at the orphanage she was send to after her abusive father lost custody she raised hell until she was brought to CHERUB.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lauren is usually the responsible one, because she's not as impulsive as James. Not always, though.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's mostly a nice person, but she's definitely inherited some of James's anger issues and has a scheming Manipulative Bitch side that even James isn't always safe from.
• Missing Mom: She dies at the start of the first book.
• Morality Pet: She's usually the person to bring out James's more caring side.
• Polyglot: She's fluent in Spanish and Russian and knows some Greek.

Kerry Chang

Kerry Chang (nee Ling Chang)

A fellow CHERUB agent, James' partner in basic training.

• All Asians Know Martial Arts: Kerry's Asian and awesome at karate. Justified, though, given that every child at CHERUB is taught martial arts so that they can defend themselves should a situation ever require it.
• Babies Ever After: Kerry announces she's pregnant at the end of the series.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Technically, all her relationships, given that she's a teenager in most of the books, but especially James.
• First Girl Wins: Gets back together with James at the end of the series.
• Relationship Revolving Door: With James.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: She goes through basic training with James because she'd attempted it several times before, but kept getting injured badly enough that she had to withdraw.

Kyle Blueman

Kyle Blueman

A fellow CHERUB agent who recruited James.

• Big Brother Mentor: To younger CHERU Bs, who are seen to go to him for advice.
• Gay Best Friend: He's James' best friend, and he's gay. James is a bit freaked out by the latter at first, but gets over it.
• Neat Freak
• Parental Abandonment: He was abandoned at birth and grew up in a number of foster families before joining CHERUB.

Bruce Norris

Bruce Norris (nee Aled Thomas)

A fellow CHERUB agent, goes through basic training with James and Kerry.

• Blood Knight: He very much enjoys fighting.
• Kiddie Kid: Even as a preteen, he has the maturity of a younger child. He still sleeps with a Teddy Bear and according to Kyle once even threw a tantrum because the younger CHERUB kids were having an easter egg hunt and he wasn't allowed to go.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's small, but very strong and agile.

Greg "Rat" Rathbone

Greg "Rat" Rathbone (nee Rathbone Regan)

A fellow CHERUB agent, joins after the cult he grew up in is infiltrated by Lauren and James.

• All of the Other Reindeer: He grew up in a cult. As one of the children of the cult's founder, he was considered royalty, but because he didn't actually believe in the cult's teachings- and was vocal about it-, he was alienated by the majority of the cult.
• Badass Bookworm: Loves to read.
• Embarrassing First Name: He chose the name Greg because it's an actual first name, but everybody still calls him Rat.
• Troll: When James first meets him, Rat shows him a peephole he found in the Cult's compoud which allows them to peep on the female cultists in the showers. He allows James a minute to enjoy himself...and then promptly outs him.
• Unfortunate Names: Rathbone. And he knows how bad it is.

Dana Smith

Dana Smith

A fellow CHERUB agent.

• All of the Other Reindeer: She didn't have many friends before going on missions with James and later dating him.
• Badass Bookworm: Likes reading.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: She went on a lot of missions, but they all were either minor or failed. She took a lot longer to get her navy shirt than most agents, and was afraid that she might never get one.

Amy Collins

Amy Collins (nee Jennifer Amy Pegg)

A fellow CHERUB agent.

• And Then What?: After she leaves CHERUB she has a hard time initially to figure out what to do with her life now.
• Big Sister Instinct: She's not actually James' sister, she just pretends to be for the mission, but she still treats him as her little brother.
• Nice Girl: She is kind and patient with James when teaching him to swim and mentoring him on his first mission.
• Ms. Fanservice: James develops a Precocious Crush on her, and states that there are very few people in CHERUB who don't find her attractive.

Staff

Terence "Mac" McAfferty

Terence "Mac" McAfferty (nee Terence Henderson)

The chairman of CHERUB in the early books.

• Big Good: As the head of CHERUB, he's responsible for all of the children and approves their missions.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's usually stern but fair with the kids under his care.

Zara Asker

Zara Asker

A CHERUB mission controller who later replaces Mac as chairman.

• Big Good: Takes on the role of chairman after Mac's retirement.
• Iconic Sequel Character: She isn't introduced until the second book, but later becomes the Big Good.

Norman Large

Norman Large (nee Eric Norman)

The former head training instructor at Cherub. A large tough man, and a nasty piece of work.

• Drill Sergeant Nasty: A former soldier, he still has this persona when training young children.
• Jerkass: There is nothing pleasant about Mr Large. He actually enjoys watching children suffer.