Characters / Faking It

The TV series

Hester High Students

Amy Raudenfeld

Portrayed by: Rita Volk

• Ambiguously Bi: She shows a passing attraction to a Brazilian male visitor and does sleep with Liam, although that was firmly with beer goggles in place and with an intent to hurt Karma, although she mostly shows signs of being romantically drawn to women.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: To Karma, in the season one finale.
• Butch Lesbian: Subverted. She is easily labeled this by others in her "relationship" with Karma, though in reality she's just somewhat Tomboy-ish and less concerned with overall appearance, falling more into the 'Chapstick' category.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Leads to an extremely regrettable hookup at the end of season one. But then, this one's justified as canonically she's fifteen at the time...
• Chick Magnet: Although she sometimes gets the Hollywood Homely treatment at Hester, when she and Shane go to the lesbian bar the girls are very easily drawn to her advances (though she always shoots herself in the foot before any connection is made) and Reagan wastes no time checking her out during their first meeting in "Lying Kings and Drama Queens".
• Closet Key: Karma is unknowingly this to her, with what she thought was just a fake kiss to "prove" their fake romantic relationship to the rest of the school.

• Deadpan Snarker: She can be this at times, especially towards her mother and stepsister.
• Erotic Dream: She has one about Karma during the second episode.
• First Kiss: With Karma.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic.
• Friendly Enemies: In the second season her relationship with Lauren develops into this.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has her What the Hell, Hero? moments and can be quite the snark queen, but when all's said and done she is a caring individual that can see the nuances and positives in everyone's character.
• Gayngst: Despite being more stoic about her Karma dilemma than most this definitely comes out at times, especially during the season one finale where she deserves her sympathetic Woobie status.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She gives Karma her blessing to see Liam.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Amy zigzags with this trope, as her entire plotline revolves around her discovering her sexual orientation and experimenting with gender performance. She starts out with long hair and also often favors feminine attire. Upon realizing she's into her friend Karma though and after dating another girl (who's a Butch Lesbian), Amy gets a bit more tomboyish in her dress style, getting into chapstick territory.

• Single-Target Sexuality: Through season one, which is even lampshaded by Shane when discussing her sexuality by declaring that she's firmly "Karma-sexual". That changes in season two as she shows signs of attraction to different people and gets her first actual girlfriend.

• Wham Shot: When she shares her first kiss with Karma, realizing her feelings for Karma are much more than just-friends...

Karma Ashcroft

Portrayed by: Katie Stevens

• Ambiguously Bi: During season 1 and the first part of 2, she has repeated Ship Tease moments with Amy that could suggest she isn't as straight as she seems. In the season 2A finale, she dreams of herself and Amy making out, in their underwear. It's a very neat parallel to Amy's reaction when the two kissed in the first ever episode when the camera focuses on her shocked reaction when she wakes up from the dream.
• Attention Whore: The whole story arc is driven by he scheming to become popular.
• The Cast Showoff: She has sung in a couple of episodes, demonstrating, to quote Faking It Fridays "the voice of an angel."
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: It leads to a very regrettable kiss with Amy in the next-to-last episode of Season 2.
• Coming Straight Story: She has this during drama auditions when she reveals she isn't a lesbian and just went along with the ruse in an effort to gain popularity. She has to do the same thing a season later at her mother's PFLAG group, because her mother neglected to tell them her daughter was straight.
• Fiery Redhead: Averted. More a mild case of Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
• Flanderization: By season two her drama queen tendancies and It's All About Me traits tend to get exaggerated to their extremes.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
• Generation Xerox: Subverted to an extent. She definitely seems to have her parents sunny optimism but little interest in their mother-earth hippie routine, instead more concerned about the prosaic dilemmas of being a teenager (i.e, climbing the school's social ladder).
• Hidden Depths: Shown to be quite the singer and multi-lingual (perhaps an obvious Actor Allusion).
• Incompatible Orientation: She bittersweetly invokes this trope, when she says she wishes she felt the same way about Amy as Amy feels about her... but just doesn't.
• It's All About Me: Mildly, but definitely present at times, especially in season two when it involves Amy's new love and relationship drama with Liam.
• Oblivious to Love: She seems unaware of Amy's attraction to her, until Amy's not so subtle speech at her mother's wedding rehearsal which leads to Amy's Anguished Declaration of Love.

• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Her pursuit of Liam certainly qualifies.
• Three-Way Sex: She coaxes Liam into a planned threesome with her and Amy so he won't feel like they're cheating... it doesn't end well. And then she does the same thing to Wade, hoping to win him over Shane. That one also doesn't end well.

• The Unfavorite: She thinks her parents prefer her adopted brother Zen over her.

Shane Harvey

Portrayed by: Michael J Willett

• All Gays are Promiscuous: Definitely promiscuous, and even Lampshaded when telling Amy that while most gay men just wanna hook up, lesbians prefer to grow bonds and nest.
• Camp Gay
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Constantly giving and breaking his "Gay Scouts Honor" promises.
• The Casanova: A queer inversion of the classic Casanova type.
• Deadpan Snarker: His specialty.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
• Friendly Enemies: With Lauren
• Gay Best Friend: To Liam and Amy, respectively. And after the summer Time Skip between Seasons 2 and 3, to Karma as well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being extremely manipulative, breaking his "Gay Scouts Honor" almost constantly and often using others to his own ends, he does prove to be very loyal to his best friends and even willing to help the not-so-great friends with their various dilemmas.
• Younger Than They Look: Always seems to be mistaken for a college student. This also lampshades Dawson Casting.

Liam Booker

Portrayed by: Gregg Sulkin

• Cannot Keep a Secret: So. Much. Mainly because he Cannot Tell a Lie, because he hates lying.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Eclectic.
• Guilt Complex: Seems to show it frequently, especially relating to Karma and his hook-up with Amy.
• No Bisexuals: Even when Karma is blatantly flirting and seducing him, he still refers to her as a lesbian, when clearly she wouldn't strictly be a lesbian if she wanted to hook up with him.
• Satellite Character: Early on, but grew a bigger role and became a more multidimensional character as he got greater focus.
• White Sheep: Wants as little to do with his family (especially his father) as possible.

Lauren Cooper

Portrayed by: Bailey De Young^note Credited as Bailey Buntain in the first season before her marriage.

• Alpha Bitch: Subverted. She has all the personality traits associated with the trope but doesn't get a chance to flaunt it as the school looks down on traditional popularity tropes and social order. More hidden depths than most characters of this trope, too.
• Blond Republican Sex Kitten
• Expy: Seems to be a teenage one of Amy's mother, which is probably why she gets along with her much better than Amy does.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric.
• Friendly Enemies: With Shane and, in the second season, with Amy
• Gay Best Friend: Sort-of with Pablo though their relationship beyond their dance partnership is unclear.
• Genre Blind: Her Alpha Bitch tactics are a dismal failure at Hester and does not realize that her intersexness would be her doorway to popularity. When it is revealed she is elected student body president.
• Hidden Depths: Revealed she's intersexed and can be surprisingly comforting to Amy during her angst over Karma.
• Manipulative Bastard: Despite being quite deft in this area it rarely works in her favor at the end.
• Morality Pet: Surprisingly protective of Pablo.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Her speech to the school board:
  "When I first came to Hester, I thought, 'What the f*ck is wrong with this place?' Drama club is cooler than football? The most popular kid in school is an obnoxious gay guy and his best friend is a straight man-whore and it's not even a little weird. Two girls pretended to be lesbians. Why? Because at Hester, being different makes you cool. I had a hard time with that. The one thing that makes me different is the one thing I've always tried to hide. I'm intersex. I never said that out loud before I came here. Turner wants Hester to be more like other schools, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think more schools should be like Hester. Because this is a school that accepts you. Even if you don't accept yourself."
• Pet the Dog: Has a couple, mostly in regard to Amy.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Gives one to a seemingly meek Theo at the gym, leading to him awkwardly rushing out the door.
• Town Girls: the Neither to Karma's Femme and Amy's Butch.
• With Friends Like These......: To everyone...
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Pretty much her entire interpretation of Hester High's values.

Theo

Portrayed by: Keith T. Powers

• Beta Couple: Becomes this briefly with Lauren.
• I Lied: Was actually an undercover narcotics officer rather than a new transfer student...though he didn't lie about his feelings for Lauren.
• Only Sane Man: Tends to be very level-headed and even-tempered when compared to the many neuroses and hang-ups of the rest of the main clique.

Oliver

Portrayed by: August Roads

• The Noodle Incident: What led to his tearful breakdown at the drama auditions?
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Gets one from Amy, unaware it has some ulterior motives.

Felix Turner

Portrayed by: Parker Mack

• The Alcoholic: Revealed in the 2B finale.
• New Transfer Student: For the back half of Season 2. He transferred with his father, Principal Turner.

Wade

Portrayed by: Cameron Moulène

• Three-Way Sex: Goes on a "thruple date" with Shane and Karma...and then participates in a threesome with them. But he bails out because he realizes he's just using them to try and get over his ex-girlfriend...whom he hooks back up with next episode.

Adults And Other Characters

Reagan

Portrayed by: Yvette Monreal

Principal Penelope

Portrayed by: Senta Moses^note Senta Moses Mikan from Season 3 on

• First-Name Basis: Her last name isn't even revealed until Turner calls her "Vice Principal Beaver". It's actually Bevier.
• Granola Girl: This might be what happens when one of these grows up and is given a position of power.
• Quirky Curls: Lauren even threw a hair-straightening joke her way.

Pablo

Portrayed by: Anthony Palacios

Duke Lewis, Jr.

Portrayed by: Skyler Maxon

• Manly Gay: Doesn't get much manlier than an MMA fighter.

Farrah Raudenfeld-Cooper and Bruce Cooper

Portrayed by: Rebecca McFarland and Dan Gauthier

Amy's mom and Lauren's dad. Married at the end of Season 1. Divorced at the end of Season 2.

Karma's Parents

Portrayed by: Amy Farrington and Lance Barber.

The Booker Family

Max, Liam's grandfather, played by Bruce Thomas

Robin, Liam's sister actually his mother, played by Courtney Hengeller

Principal George Turner

Played by: Bernard Curry

• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Brought in to clean up Hester after the drug bust. Anybody runs a tighter ship than Penelope, but he runs with an iron fist and zero tolerance.