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East High Students
Nina "Nini" Salazar-Roberts
Nina "Nini" Salazar-Roberts
Ready to risk it all
Played by: Olivia Rodrigo
Role in High School Musical: Gabriella Montez
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Ensemble (formerly the Rose)
A music and theatre-loving junior who breaks up with Ricky just as the series begins, she's ecstatic when she gets cast as Gabriela - and a little less so when she realizes Ricky's scheme and he gets cast as her co-lead.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Gina's Veronica and Ricky's Archie. She breaks up with Ricky in Season 2.
- Career Versus Man: A teen version in season 2, where she is strained between her desire to pursue her dreams of being a musician, and her on-again relationship with Ricky. Ricky makes the decision for her when he realizes he can't hold her back.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Nini and Ricky have known each other since they were in, at least, kindergarten. They didn't start dating until sophomore year of high school.
- First Love: She and Ricky were each other's first loves.
- Nice Girl: For the most part.
- Long Bus Trip: At the beginning of season three she goes on vacation with her moms instead of joining her friends at camp, and at the end of the series decides to stay in California with her moms and biological dad to further her musical career. This was a given as Olivia's music career made a major breakthrough between seasons two and three, and as a result her character was dropped to recurring/guest and she wasn't available to film with the rest of cast outside of Kate Reinders and Dara Reneé. Showrunner Tim Federele has stated that the door is always open
, but there are no plans for her to return for future seasons. - Only Known by Their Nickname: It turns out that "Nini" is actually a nickname that Ricky gave her when they were young and he couldn't pronounce the latter "a". Her full first name, which isn't even mentioned until halfway through the series, is Nina.
- Playing a Tree: Nini had always done roles like this or the back of a cow, so she's extremely excited for Gabriella to be her first starring role. In Season 2 she is cast as a personified version of the rose, and later demoted to a fork - the same role she had when she did the play in freshmen year.
Richard "Ricky" Bowen
Richard "Ricky" Bowen
Ready to prove it
Played by: Joshua Bassett
Role in High School Musical: Troy Bolton
Role in Beauty and the Beast: The Beast
Role in Frozen: Kristoff
Role in High School Musical 3: Troy Bolton
A high school junior and skate rat who gets dumped by Nini after suggesting the two of them take a break over the summer. Realizing he still has feelings for her, he auditions for the play to stay close to her - and soon finds himself cast as the lead.
- Aborted Declaration of Love: Channing had caught him admitting he has a crush on Gina on camera. Ricky didn't want Gina to find out through the documentary and prepared himself to confess during the night of camp prom. But upon hearing from her that she and E.J. had broken up that night, he decided not to tell her.
- Aside Glance: Of all the characters, he's the one who tends to look at the camera the most.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to EJ's Betty and Gina's Archie. He ends up being Gina's one true love.
- Also, in Season 1, he's the Archie to Nini's Betty and Gina's Veronica.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He has the potential to be a great performer, but the fact that he only ever auditioned for the musical in the first season to win Nini back means it takes him a while to take things seriously. Big Red has to point out to him that his slacker attitude is not only sabotaging his own plan, but making things harder for way more people than he realized, in order to wake him up.
- Character Development: At the start of the series, the one thing Ricky was afraid of was change. His parents were splitting up, the childhood friend he's known his whole life broke up with him because he couldn't say "I love you," and his mom was moving to Chicago permanently with a new boyfriend. While he was eventually able to get back with Nini and say "I love you", that didn't stop his surroundings from changing. But as the series goes on, Ricky slowly begins to embrace change and accept it. He lets Nini go for the better, he learns to accept the fact that his parents are divorced, and he learns to let himself have feelings for someone who wasn't his first love: Gina.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Ricky and Nini have known each other since they were in, at least, kindergarten. They didn't start dating until their sophomore year of high school.
- Commonality Connection: With Gina. Both are "outsiders" in the Drama Club because he just joined and she just moved to Salt Lake, and both have unstable home lives.
- Deadpan Snarker: He makes snappy remarks practically every episode. His most brutal comments are usually made at E.J.
- First Love: He and Nini were each other's first loves.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even after admitting to himself that he has feelings for Gina, he goes out of his way to help her set up a prom-posal for E.J. to aid their failing relationship. He also doesn't confess his feelings to her when he finds out she broke up with E.J., or any time in the month after, because he knows it's a raw time for her.
- Longing Look: Whether it's Nini or Gina, if there's one thing Ricky's gonna do with a girl he has feelings for it's gaze at her from a distance.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Nini writing a song about how she loves him and posting it online is what prompts Ricky to want to take a break. His reaction is clearly a result of seeing his parents' dysfunctional marriage slowly falling apart at home.
- Love Confessor: Ricky admits to Carlos that he had a crush on Gina in episode 5 of season three.
Ricky: It's possible I wasn't completely acting today. When I was "pretending" to crush on Gina.
- Loving a Shadow: Has a few shades of this in season 2 in regard to his feelings for Nini, as pointed out in "The Rose Song".
- Missing Mom: Ricky's mom travels for work a lot as a way to get away from her loveless marriage. She was gone both in the six weeks ago flashback and in the present, and it is unknown if she returned home between them. Ricky's comments about his father's cooking abilities indicates that this may be a more recent development, however.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After he deletes a comment from Nini's new instagram that could help her further her music career, he immediately realizes he messed up and doesn't know how to rectify the situation. Ultimately, the act leads to his and Nini's second break-up.
- Not So Above It All: E.J.'s first move of real assholery we get shown in the series was deleting a voicemail from Ricky off of Nini's phone out of jealousy. Ricky, being E.J.'s love rival for Nini's affection, quite obviously calls him out on this. But in the second season, Ricky is given Nini's phone and deletes comments from her Instagram out of jealousy that she's becoming her own person. Bit ironic, isn't it?
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Went by his birth name of Richard until first grade, when Nini started calling him "Ricky", insisting that nobody under the age of 50 goes by "Richard". Basically everyone calls him that in the present unless Nini is trying to be serious.
- Opposites Attract: At least on the surface, Ricky and Gina couldn't be more different. Ricky's a skater who's lived in Salt Lake City his whole life, while Gina's an ambitious theatre kid who never stays in one place for too long. He hates change; she has never known stability. And yet, they share this connection, which is, as creator Tim Federle puts it, outsiders.
- The Protagonist: While he and Nini were clearly meant to share the spotlight during the first season, Nini's arc taking her away from him over the following season and her diminished appearances in the third make it clear that Ricky is the focal point of the show.
- Rookie Red Ranger: He has no theatre experience whatsoever and isn't even interested in watching it when the show starts. But when his scheme to win Nini back lands him the lead role, he soon finds he needs to step it up.
- Second Love: Ricky develops feelings for Gina after they share a moment in his car after homecoming. While he tries to make it work with Nini he clearly holds a torch for Gina for the rest of the show. After multiple trials, tribulations, and will-they-won't-they moments throughout the show, Ricky and Gina finally kiss in the season 3 finale.
- Serenade Your Lover: In season 1, Ricky serenades Gina with an acoustic rendition of "When There Was Me and You" at her request.
- Sort of in the season 3 finale. When Ricky performs "Kristoff's Lullaby" during the play, he looks at Gina as he sings the line "Everything I thought I did, you've gone and changed it, kid."
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: He insists that he and Gina are just acting when Channing tries to start something.
Channing *pointing camera at Ricky and Gina*: The ex shows up to swing his sword. Yes!
Ricky: Dude. She and I were just faking it in rehearsal. Okay? We're friends. So get lost.
- Troubled, but Cute: Ricky was already a bit of his slacker, but getting dumped by his longtime girlfriend and going through his parents' divorce in the first season prompted him to act out and not take things seriously. It wasn't until he put the effort in to show others that he cared about the production that he started pulling himself together.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: In season 2, Gina was pining after Ricky, but in season 3, Ricky is the one pining after Gina.
- Wrong Girl First: He spent the first season trying to win Nini back, and the second season realizing that even though they're back together they're still growing apart. However, he's been slowly growing closer to Gina after their moment after Homecoming. In the third season he admits that he has feelings for her, and in the finale they get together.
"E.J." Caswell
Elton John "E.J." Caswell
Ready to take it to the next level
Played by: Matt Cornett
Role in High School Musical: Chad Danforth/understudy for Troy Bolton
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Gaston
Role in Frozen: Sven and Director
Role in High School Musical 3: understudy for Coach Bolton
A senior and self-proclaimed theatre jock who began dating Nini after they played leads across from each other at summer theatre camp. He's none too pleased when Ricky steals the role of Troy (in his eyes) and his attempts to scare him off end up straining his relationship with Nini.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Ricky's Veronica and Gina's Archie in Season 3. Gina and EJ break up.
- Big Brother Instinct: He's two years older than Ashlyn, and isn't afraid to proudly admit that she's his cousin. In "New Years Eve" he even comments how much younger she looks to him. He treats her a lot better than his other classmates.
- Big Man on Campus: Downplayed in that he doesn't have too many fawning admirers and we don't see him hanging around much with his jock friends after the pilot, but he is still a lettered senior (the only senior in the main cast, in fact), co-captain of the water polo team, and class treasurer.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Seems like a nice guy, but was willing to steal Nini's phone to make sure she wasn't talking to another boy and give a girl food poisoning to ensure Nini got to go on-stage.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Goes through a period of this when he starts defrosting in the back half of season one - after realizing the damage his lies have done, he becomes confessing every bad thing he's ever done, from cheating at water polo to sampling lobster dip.
- Career Versus Woman: A downplayed variant. In the third season his father pressures E.J. to attend a finishing school instead of taking a gap year to better his college prospects, but E.J. believes he can convince his dad to let him stay in Salt Lake (and with Gina) by putting on a perfect show. However, he focuses on Frozen so much that he neglects his relationship with Gina. They break-up in the penultimate episode.
- Defrosting Ice King: By the Season 1 finale, E.J. has shed his Jerkass qualities, even letting Ricky take over the role of Troy for the final musical number. He's also revealed to have paid for Gina's plane ticket so she could be a part of the play.
- Graduated From The Story: He graduates between seasons 2 and 3, and is at university by the time of season 4. Ricky still stops in to get a pep talk from him, and he later returns to help with the production of HSM 3.
- Lovable Jock: After defrosting in season one he's a lot more considerate of his friends.
- Named After Somebody Famous: His full name is Elton John Caswell, after the famous musician.
- Only Known by Initials: E.J. goes by his initials instead of his real name. In "The Real Campers of Shallow Lake", it was revealed by his cousin Ashlyn that E.J.'s full name is Elton John Caswell.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He's a theatre jock. While he may be captain of the water polo team, he's also very openly passionate about acting and musicals.
- Romantic False Lead: A rare example of a main character being this - not to mention twice.
- Although promotional material heavily teased the Ricky/Nini/E.J. Love Triangle (with the cast gleefully playing along), it's obvious pretty much from the get-go that Nini still has strong feelings for Ricky and is On the Rebound with E.J. She dumps him early on after she discovers he stole her phone. Though E.J. briefly attempts to win her back, he soon realizes it's going nowhere because Nini and Ricky still have feelings for each other.
- In season two, E.J. develops feelings for Gina and they started dating in the finale of that same season. However, in the show's third season, their relationship slowly crumbles apart as he has less and less time for Gina and rejects her efforts to make the relationship work. This makes Gina realize that they're on different roads in life and she breaks up with him. Then a month later in the finale she realizes her feelings for Ricky are mutual and the two get together.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He stresses about whether or not he's going to get into Duke, since he's a legacy. When he finds out he got rejected, he's notably worried about breaking the news to his father - and even moreso when his father pulls some string to get him in anyway and E.J. realizes he doesn't want to go after all.
- Part of his arc in season three is trying to get his father's approval by doing a good job directing the Frozen production to prove he's serious about his theatre work. On the night of the show his father doesn't show, and when E.J. calls him to tell him he's only ever wanted to hear that he's proud of him, his dad hangs up on him without a word.
Gina Porter
Gina Porter
Ready to make her mark
Played by: Sofia Wylie
Role in High School Musical: Taylor McKessie/understudy for Gabriella Montez
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Babette and co-choreographer
Role in Frozen: Anna
Role in High School Musical 3: Gabriella Montez
A sophomore who transfers to East High at the beginning of the series, Gina's a textbook triple threat - especially when it comes to dance. When Nini gets the lead instead of her, she schemes to get the competition to drop out.
- Alpha Bitch: She gives off this front in season 1 She goes out of her way to intimidate people (mainly Nini) she feels are obstacles to her success, she makes E.J. ask her to Homecoming to make Nini and Ricky jealous, and at her old schools she regularly started trouble to keep others at arm's length. After she starts opening up to others, she starts referring to this persona as "Gina 1.0".
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Nini's Betty and Ricky's Archie. She ends up becoming Ricky's true love.
- Catchphrase: Invoked - since she's terrible at improv, Carlos tells her that her role in "The Real Campers of Shallow Lake" is "girl with a catchphrase", and whenever she can't think of something to say to just go "Don't get me started". She ends up using it honestly a few times during the season anyway.
- Character Development: Gina is introduced to the audience as a "mean girl" who's good at everything. She has a cold exterior and can be quite mean at times, particularly to Nini. But during Homecoming it becomes clear that her "schemes" to get the lead role are basically improvised and she's actually not that great at getting close to people because she rarely gets a chance to. After Ricky encourages her to open up she starts trying to make meaningful relationships with the other members of the drama club. In season 2 this is demonstrated by her joining Kourtney and Ashlyn in a group audition rather than "show off" the way Lily encourages her to. She also finally gets to fulfill her romantic dreams and manages to come out with a relationship with E.J. But then in season three she realizes that the relationship is more about her desire for one than a strong core, and she ends up breaking things off with E.J. when she realizes she wasn't the guy who showed up she was hoping for - Ricky was.
- Commonality Connection: With Ricky. Both are "outsiders" in the Drama Club because he just joined and she just moved to Salt Lake, and both have unstable home lives with a single parent.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Once she and Ricky bond over their similarities, she immediately begins to warm to him. The second season sees her bring her walls down with the rest of the drama club as well.
- First Kiss: In "Spring Break", Gina tells Jack that she hasn't had her first kiss yet because she's waiting for the right guy. In "Second Chances" she asks E.J. to be hers, and they share one (offscreen) in the parking lot of Salt Lake Slices.
- Foil: Gina is Nini's foil. They have contrasting personalities with Nini being the sweet girl next door who has never gotten the lead before and Gina being the ambitious new girl who has always gotten the lead before.
- Friendless Background: Due to her always moving around, she rarely has the chance to make friends and has to start fresh everywhere she goes.
- Love at First Sight: Gina first met Ricky when he auditioned for Troy in High School Musical at the auditorium. She was intrigued by him and his performance and developed a small crush on him that grew when they got closer after Homecoming in season 1.
- Love Confession: Two cases of this with the same person.
- On opening night of High School Musical, Gina and Ricky both thought she was moving away and they would never see each other again, so she admits her feelings to him not realizing that he just got back together with Nini, or that Ashlyn was about to offer her a chance to stay in Salt Lake after all.
Gina: I wouldn't quit on us if I wasn't moving away.
- Then in the third season finale after the documentary puts Ricky's feelings out for all to see.
Gina: God, Ricky Bowen. You have been a surprise since the day we met. You weren't the plan. You were never the plan. Plans change. And if you want me to sut up, I'll shut up, but I don't have "maybe" feelings about you. You aren't a maybe. You're a yes.
- New Transfer Student: Gina's a perpetual one, since her mom works for FEMA and they move around a lot. She always rolls in, gets the lead in the school play, and then quickly disappears. It's implied that her sticking around for longer than a single semester for season 2 is the first time in a while she's been able to do so.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: In season 2 Gina was pining after Ricky, but in season 3 she's busy trying to hold on to E.J. and doesn't see Ricky pining for her.
- Unresolved Romantic Tension: She has this with Ricky during season two until she sets her sights on E.J. instead, and again in season three when Ricky is free and her and E.J. are on the rocks.
Big Red
Big Red
Ready to show a new side
Played by: Larry Saperstein
Role in High School Musical: Stagehand/lighting and effects technician
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Lefou
Ricky's best friend who basically gets dragged into the play by accident when he shows up to support him. Despite his misgivings about theatre, he ends up become the main techie for High School Musical.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Red wears a Hanukkah-themed sweater during the holiday-themed "Something in the Air" number, and actor Larry Saperstein is Jewish himself, but no mention of his actual faith is made on the show.
- Back for the Finale: After being bust working during the summer camp in season 3, he comes to support Ashlyn and his friends perform Frozen.
- Closet Key: He turns out to have been one for Antoine - or rather, Andy.
- Hidden Depths: In the first season finale, it turns out he is able to learn how to operate a lighting switchboard in one session. And during the credits, he shows off his tap dancing skills.
- Ironic Allergy: He comes from a long line of pizza chefs, and is lactose intolerant - though whenever he's the one eating pizza he says it's made with soy cheese.
- LGBT Awakening: He spontaneously comes out at bisexual in the documentary trailer shown in the third season finale, much to Ashlyn and Ricky's surprise and approval. It later turns out that his awakening was when he and Seb, commiserating over missing their partners, spontaneously kissed each other.
- Morality Pet: Creator Tim Federle describes him as such, saying Ricky looks more appealing as a character with someone as sweet as Big Red hanging around him all the time.
- Nice Guy: Big Red is probably the kindest, least confrontational character in the series, never raising his voice or saying a harsh word to anyone.
- Put on a Bus: In season three he's working during the two weeks his friends and girlfriend are at summer camp, though Ashlyn's dialogue makes it clear they're still going strong and he comes to visit her in the finale.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Although Big Red himself doesn't even think of it as one. He even comments once that he wishes he had a nickname. We do eventually learn his last name is "Redonovich", which is a real (if very rare) surname.
- Sickly Neurotic Geek: Downplayed. He's a skater like Ricky, but he also visits an allergist frequently enough to have ostensibly memorized High School Musical just from watching it in the waiting room, and he also has sleep apnea and needs to use a CPAP machine. On top of that, he may also be lactose intolerant (pizza has "too much lactose", although he seems to have no problem finishing off the lobster dip).
- Satellite Character: To Ricky, initially. Big Red did not appear in a scene without Ricky being present until episode 7. In addition, supplemental material tells us Big Red was this to Ricky and Nini when they were a couple, though Big Red refuses to call himself a third wheel, instead describing himself as a perfectly balanced unicycle with Ricky and Nini as two extra wheels.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: As far as anyone can tell, Big Red is his legal name. His last name is Redonovich and apparently he's actually Big Red III, which means his father and grandfather are also "Big Red".
Ashlyn Moon Caswell
Ashlyn Moon Caswell
Ready to turn heads
Played by: Julia Lester
Role in High School Musical: Ms. Darbus
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Belle
Role in Frozen: Ensemble
Role in High School Musical 3: Kelsi Nielsen
E.J.'s unassuming but excitable sophomore cousin, who's also an aspiring songwriter. She's just happy to be involved in the play, but gets dragged into the drama thanks to her cousin.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Big Red certainly thinks so. This comes to the fore in season 2 when she is cast as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and she has to come to terms with her body image issues.
- LGBT Awakening: Ashlyn realizes she is into girls after acting Tsundere-ish towards Val, a female counselor throughout the summer. She's stressed about telling her boyfriend about this discovery, only for him to come out as bi in the documentary after his own summer of discovery.
- Morality Pet: To E.J. She seems to be one of the only people able to reason with him.
- Nice Girl: Especially compared to her cousin E.J. - at least in season one.
- Satellite Character: In universe she's known around East High solely for being E.J.'s cousin, but although the two share many scenes together she is often seen interacting with other characters, and part of her arc is establishing herself as her own person.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: In season 4, she denies having feelings for Maddox to anyone who tries to point them out.
- Transparent Closet: Maddox sees Ashlyn's constant snapping and rudeness towards Val for what it was - that Ashlyn was attracted to her.
Kourtney Greene
Kourtney Greene
Ready to step into the spotlight
Played by: Dara Reneé
Role in High School Musical: Makeup/costuming and emergency understudy for Taylor McKessie
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Mrs. Potts
Role in Frozen: Elsa
Role in High School Musical 3: Sharpay Evans
Nini's best friend, a fashion and makeup youtuber who joins the musical's costume department to support her.
- Ascended Extra: The character of Kourtney was written to have three lines and appear in the pilot only, but as creator Tim Federle explained, "Hurricane Dara arrived and we couldn't not write her into the entire series".
- The Fashionista: Works on costuming for the school musical. Background information tells us she's also known around East High for her YouTube makeup tutorials (though these are on hiatus while she works on the musical).
- Performance Anxiety: While she's bold and outgoing most of the time, she's not used to being on stage and extended periods of time there cause her already existing anxiety issues to flair up. She has occasional doubts about her abilities as Mrs. Potts during Beauty and the Beast in season two, but it really comes to a head when she's cast as Elsa in Frozen for season three and the pressure of carrying the show gives her rolling panic attacks.
- Satellite Character: To Nini, initially. Doesn't appear in any scenes without her until episode 8 of the first season. This is a side effect of the character being added in at the last minute, after the creators were impressed with Dara Reneé's portrayal of a three-line, one-episode character in the pilot, and that character happened to be Nini's friend. Several episodes in, Kourtney develops her own storyline about an ongoing feud with the lead costume designer and also starts participating more actively in the musical numbers, taking advantage of her strong singing voice. She finally breaks out of this fully with a showcase acapella singing scene in episode 8.
- Completely breaks out of this in season three, as Nini is absent for most of it. She also gets one of the two lead roles in Frozen, playing Elsa.
- Soapbox Sadie: Downplayed, but it's there. In her first conversation with a male character she says "I'm dismantling the patriarchy and I'm not afraid to start with you") and she is later shown making a vision board featuring prominent progressive politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Crops up every so often, as when she first arrives she's not a performer. She manages alright with Mrs. Potts, but when cast as Elsa during the summer (along with knowing that her performance will be shown to the world when the documentary is released) she starts getting severe anxiety attacks. A conversation with her mom implies that this has always been an issue for her but she was usually able to power through them or had them off-screen.
- Survival Mantra: She chants "you're not alone" to herself as a sort of prayer when she has a bad anxiety attacks. It ends up playing into one of her songs, "Here I Come".
- Token Black Friend: To Nini. She was initially a one-off friend before her actress impressed the writers.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Her first attempt at singing outside of church blows the minds of everyone listening, since until now she was just makeup and costuming - but she also blows out the old sound system the crew was forced to use at the time. During the second season when she's in the play intentionally, she mentions her concern that she might do the same, and the third episode ends with her slowly growing more comfortable with singing Beauty and the Beast's title song.
Carlos Rodriguez
Carlos Rodriguez
Ready to bring it on
Played by: Frankie Rodriguez
Role in High School Musical: Choreographer and emergency understudy for Chad Danforth
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Lumiere and co-choreographer
Role in Frozen: Olaf
Role in High School Musical 3: Ryan Evans
The sassy choreographer for High School Musical and Miss Jenn's second-in-command. He enjoys lording over the rest of the cast, when not falling for Seb.
- Camp Gay: He's established as gay from the outset (when he notes that Big Man on Campus E.J. doesn't know he exists), occupies a stereotypically gay role (choreographer), speaks with a soft, high-pitched voice (and is capable of a girly scream), loves to dance, loves musicals and campy productions, and has a very close relationship with an older woman.
- Control Freak: He has very specific ideas for his staging and choreography, and doesn't take criticism or suggestions well.
-
The Danza: A last-name variation. - Friendless Background: Carlos has difficulty relating to people his own age.
- Gay Guy Seeks Popular Jock: A throwaway line in the pilot makes clear he's noticed Big Man on Campus E.J. for some time, which has not been reciprocated at all. Subverted when he starts dating Seb, who is a fellow drama geek whose only "jock" quality is he lives on a farm.
- Innocently Insensitive: One reason Carlos doesn't make friends easily - he is utterly tactless, and his blunt manner is sometimes perceived as rude by others.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Miss Jenn.
- Number Two: Functions as this to Miss Jenn, he's always in charge of rehearsals when she isn't present.
- Performance Artist: He's very camp and loves to be involved with the musicals, even planning on continuing his theatre work after high school.
- Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Saw High School Musical thirty-seven times... and the first 15 minutes of both sequels.
- Twofer Token Minority: Carlos is gay and Mexican (and has no inside voice).
- Uptown Girl: Carlos comes from money, which creates a wedge between him and his working-class boyfriend Seb.
Sebastian "Seb" Matthew-Smith
Sebastian "Seb" Matthew-Smith
Ready to live out loud
Played by: Joe Serafini
Role in High School Musical: Sharpay Evans
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Chip
A soft-spoken sophomore farm boy who begins coming out of his shell when he auditions for Sharpay.
- Ascended Extra: Planned to appear in just two episodes, and notice he doesn't actually have any lines in the pilot. Eventually he appeared in 9 out of the 10 episodes of season 1 and even booked himself a Promotion to Opening Titles for season 2.
- Affectionate Nickname: Carlos often calls him "Honey".
- Camp Gay: Though not as much as Carlos, he still seeks out and is cast in the role of Sharpay, enjoys fashion, and loves "power ballads originally sung by iconic women".
- Cannot Tell a Lie: He was never taught how to lie, so his solution when trying to hide a surprise party from Carlos is to say nothing and leave as soon as he can.
- Closet Key: He served as one for Big Red after they accidentally kissed.
- Cross-Cast Role: He specifically auditions for Sharpay in High School Musical.
- The Ditz: Downplayed, but Seb isn't terribly bright and sometimes says some pretty silly things.
- Farm Boy: Lives (and works) on a dairy farm.
- Last Het Romance: Everyone is shocked when Seb reveals that not only was Carlos not his first long-term relationship, but that before him he was dating a woman. It was Natalie Bagley.
- Phrase Catcher: "No Seb" whenever he says something ditzy.
- Put on a Bus: He's helping at the farm during the two weeks his friends and boyfriend are at summer camp, though Carlos' dialogue makes it clear they're still together.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Carlos finds it endearing.
- Satellite Love Interest: Even after becoming a regular in the second season he has shades of this, since all of his storylines involve his relationship with Carlos. The only times he gets one-on-one scenes with other characters are a few scattered moments with Kourtney.
- Transparent Closet: In the final season, he reveals that the only person in his family who doesn't know he's gay yet is his father. He's worried that he won't approve of his relationship with Carlos. Carlos is flabbergasted by this.Carlos: You played Sharpay in soft drag.Seb: Staying oblivious to things we don't wanna think about is a Smith family gift.
- That being said, it later turns out that he had figured it out a long time ago and was waiting for Seb to finally come out to him.
Natalie Bagley
Natalie Bagley
Played by: Alexis Nelis
Role in High School Musical: Stage manager
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Stage manager
The stage manager at East High.
- Deadpan Snarker: She can be pretty dry with her humour when she wants to.Natalie: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a 15-minute intermission. If you don't buy at least $20 worth of concessions, you do not support the arts.
- Put on a Bus: She returns in a flashback in season four when it's revealed that she was dating Seb in season one. Seb then tells the other kids that she's since transferred to North High, and is trying to "make it less evil".
- Spear Carrier: Natalie has little relevance to the plot, and indeed contributes more in her (frequent) absences because she forces other characters (primarily Big Red) to step up and take her place. This gets better in the second season.
Jet
Jet
Played by: Adrian Lyles
Role in Frozen: Prince Hans
Role in High School Musical 3: Chad Danforth
A mysterious new kid at Camp Shallow Lake who doesn't seem interested in participating in anything - at first.
- The Atoner: Becomes this in the back half of season three as he realizes that he needs to make up for hurting Maddox the previous year.
- Defrosting Ice King: He's very aloof and uninterested in anything that has to do with Camp Shallow Lake at first, which makes sense when we find out he was essentially forced to go by his parents. But as he befriends Ricky and tries to make amends with his sister he starts to open up.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Maddox' responsible.
- The Quiet One: He stays pretty silent in his initial appearances, more likely to brood or just leave than anything.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He tried to hitchhike away from Camp Shallow Lake early in the summer, but he was caught and sent back.
Maddox
Maddox
Played by: Saylor Curda
Role in Frozen: Stage crew
Role in High School Musical 3: Stage crew
A techie at Camp Shallow Lake who's trying to bond with the East High kids while getting over a break-up the previous year.
- Coax Them Out of the Closet: After clocking that Ashlyn has a crush on Val, Maddox tells her about her own crushes in an attempt to help her realize she's not straight.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible to Jet's foolish.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Jet inadvertently did this to Maddox when he showed her texts to another girl to his and Maddox's parents - he had no idea that Maddox was speaking to a girl.
- Socially Awkward Hero: She comes on pretty strong, which can sometimes scare new people off. Not to mention her attempts at taking on a leadership role during the summer bombing hard.
Emmy
Emmy
Played by: Liamani Segura
Role in Frozen: Young Anna
Role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year: Taylor Mc Kessie
TBAOther Characters
Other High Schoolers
Lily
Played by: Olivia Rose Keegan
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Belle (North High)
A chipper but cold girl who auditions for Beauty and the Beast at East High. But after losing out on a lead role, she transfers to North High and aims to defeat the Wildcats at the Alan Menken Awards.
- Alpha Bitch: Takes over this role from Gina in season 2. It's almost lampshaded when Lily suggests the two of them are the most talented people there, and Gina rebuffs her and stands up for her friends.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She puts on a sweet and insecure act when first meeting the main cast, but soon reveals her competitive nature and insults them during auditions.
- Teens Are Monsters: The closest thing the second season has to a villain is this tiny, mean, teenage girl.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She's a pretty blonde who's also very mean and rude, down to sabotaging East High over a high school drama competition.
Antoine/Andy
Played by: Andrew Barth Feldmen
Role in Beauty and the Beast: Lumiere (North High)
A French foreign-exchange student at North High.
- Back for the Finale: He crashes the performance of High School Musical 3 in the final two episodes of the series.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this with Big Red with all their arguing and rivalryAntoine/Andy: (when asked if he has a ticket to HSM 3) Ticket? No, no ticket. I do have these fingers, though. (he flips Big Red the bird)
- The Dragon: To Lily. He's introduced helping her spy on East High.
- Fauxreigner: In season 4, his real name turns out to be Andy and he was only pretending to be French for method acting purposes.
- French Jerk: He flirts with Ashlyn even after learning she has a boyfriend, and insults Big Red when he finds out he's said boyfriend. He turns out to not actually be French, though.
- Foreign Exchange Student: From France. Or so he makes everyone think.
- Gratuitous French: He peppers French words in whenever he feels like it.
- Loving Bully: He spends his appearances in season 2 mocking Big Red and flirting with Ashlyn, but in season 4 he declares that everything he's actually been in love with Big Red the whole time.
- The Rival: To Big Red.
Howie
Played by: Roman Banks
Role in Beauty and the Beast: The Beast (North High)
A delivery boy who works at Salt Lake Slices alongside Kourtney and Big Red in season two. Though he and Kourtney initially butt heads, they soon grow to care about each other.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this with Kourtney when they first meet, since she has specific plans for making the resaraunt better and he doesn't think she'll last. When she does end up sticking around he realizes she's more than he realized.
- Dating Catwoman: When it's revealed that he's The Beast in North High's production of Beauty and the Beast. Though Kourtney briefly breaks things off, they eventually reconcile.
Mack Alana
Played by: Matthew Sato
Role in High School Musical 4: The Reunion: Sam
A former child star and sitcom actor who comes to East High School for his comeback role.- Former Child Star: Mack is known for playing Mark in Mark and Spark when he was young.
Dani
Played by: Kylie Cantrall
Role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year: Tiara Gold and ensemble
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Dani was first introduced as a classic "Mean Girl" who caused problems with some of the wildcats but over time by the series finale she has become more nicer and has developed a friendship with Emmy.
Campers
Alex
Played by: Aria Brooks
Role in Frozen: Young Elsa
TBAVal
Played by: Meg Donnelly
Role in Frozen: Choreographer
A college freshman and Camp Shallow Lake Counsellor, who also choreographs and assists E.J. during the production of Frozen.
- Childhood Friend: Val is E.J. Caswell's childhood friend who he met at camp when he was young.
- Closet Key: For Ashlyn, who realizes she's Queer after spending the summer trying to impress her.
- Satellite Character: Exists solely to be E.J.'s sounding board and Ashlyn’s Closet Key (it’s never even established whether Val herself is queer). Her only mention in the fourth season is from E.J. saying that he still talks to her and that she is helping him through a lot.
Adults
Miss Jenn
Ready to go for the gold
Played by: Kate Reinders
Role in High School Musical 3: Ms. Darbus
East High's new drama teacher, and a featured dancer in the original High School Musical. Allegedly.
- Ascended Fangirl: In-universe, Miss Jenn was a background dancer in the original movie and is now directing the musical at the real East High.
- Becoming the Mask: By pretending to be a qualified drama teacher, she finds that she actually starts becoming one.
- Berserk Button: Insulting/bullying her students. Mr. Mazzara and Lily find this out firsthand.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Usually, Miss Jenn is a perpetually chipper person. But after Mr. Mazzara mocks Carlos for supposedly not having friends his own age, she sends Carlos away before sternly telling Mazzara not to talk to her students like that again.
- She has a similar moment in Season 2, admonishing Lily for laughing at Big Red during his audition.
- Competition Freak: She gets this way during production of Beauty and the Beast and East High's attempts to win the Menkies. As time goes on she becomes more and more unhinged, to her students' concern.
- Informed Ability: For an experienced stage dancer, we never see her dance (although she does sing quite a bit), and she leaves all the choreography to Carlos, something an actual dancer-director (like Jerome Robbins or Bob Fosse) would surely bristle at. This is intentional - Miss Jenn was an extra in High School Musical, not a dancer.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Has something between this and a more traditional The Mentor relationship with student choreographer Carlos.
- Jaded Washout: As a student at North High she was cast as the lead in every production, but to say she hasn't had as much success in her professional life is a drastic understatement.
- Put on a Bus: After appearing the the third season premier, she goes on vacation with Ricky's dad while her students are at summer camp.
- Stage Names: She has one, as an actress. We don't know if "Jennifer" is this or her real name. Her high school boyfriend calls her "Jenny", so it's probably her real name.
- Waiting for a Break: Miss Jenn, an SLC native, left home several years ago to pursue a career on Broadway, but never made it and seems to be teaching at East High at least in part because she has no money to do anything else. She comments the closest she's ever come to getting a big break was being runner-up for a role in a gum commercial. It's no wonder she inflated her role as an extra on High School Musical into a "featured dancer".
- We eventually learn her actual role in High School Musical was as a bit player with one line: "Is that the last apple?" Unfortunately for her it was cut from the final edit, but she didn't find this out until the movie had already been released.
Mr. Benjamin Mazzara
Ready to join the club
Played by: Mark St. Cyr
Role in High School Musical 3: Coach Bolton/stage crew
East High's STEM teacher. Likes robots more than humans, especially humans who are fans of High School Musical.
- Black and Nerdy: Mr. Mazzara is the STEM teacher, and his passion is the Robotics Club. When complimented on a pulley system he designed, in response to it being called "beautiful", he replies "Math often is."
- The Bus Came Back: Returns as the guidance counsellor for East High in season 4 after the Cal Tech job didn't work out.
- Defrosting Ice King: Season 1 has him slowly losing his disdain for Ms. Jenn and the theater kids.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While initially brusque and rude to Ms. Jenn and even Carlos, Mr. Mazzara shows his softer side over the course of Season 1. He forms a tentative friendship with Ms. Jenn, gives advice to Carlos at the Homecoming dance, and praises Big Red in the Season 1 finale for how quickly he picks up on the sound effects equipment (even suggesting he join his Robotics Club).
- Old Shame: Was once part of a boy band
popular in Poland until he was kicked out. - Put on a Bus: He tells Miss Jenn at the end of the second season that he got a job at Cal Tech, but is willing to stay if she gives their romance a chance. The fact that she's dating Ricky's father the next season instead implies that he left after all.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: On a show where one-liners are abundant, he still gets most of the best ones.
Zack "Zacky" Roy
Played by: Derek Hough
North High's drama teacher, and Miss Jenn's ex-boyfriend.
- The One That Got Away: He and Miss Jenn were high-school sweethearts, but after graduation he got a full-ride scholarship to Julliard and ende dup on Broadway, where she had to struggle in New York for years before returning to Salt Lake.
Mike Bowen
Played by: Alex Quijano
Ricky's father. Going through a drawn-out and painful divorce, he's been thrust into the position of Ricky's primary caregiver.
Lynne Bowen
Played by: Beth Lacke
Ricky's mother. After divorcing his father, she moved to Chicago.
Corbin Bleu
Played by: Corbin Bleu
The original Chad from the first High School Musical, who arrives at Camp Shallow Lake to direct a documentary about the kids' production of Frozen.
- Adam Westing: He's much more arrogant and haughty than the real actor, encouraging behind-the-scenes drama in the hopes that it'll make the documentary better. Subverted in the finale when he sees how good the kids are and stops Channing from sabotaging them worse, and spends the night celebrating with the cast.
- Commuting on a Bus: In-universe. He was initially expected to direct the production himself, but since he's a busy guy he left that for the camp to figure out. He arrives the first night of camp, a week later, and then for the last few days to oversee Colour Wars and the performance night.
Channing
Played by: Ben Stillwell
The cameraman, editor, and producer of Frozen: The Musical: The Documentary.
- Genre Savvy: He says he's been in the reality tv business for a while, so he knows how to get the people he's filming to create conflict - and that if they don't, the show isn't as popular.
- Manipulative Editing: He goes out of this way to get footage for this, ending with him cutting a trailer for the documentary that makes it look like Ricky was always pursing Gina, Carlos was cheating on Seb, Kourtney and Gina were rivals, and exposes Maddox' crush on Ashlyn.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Channing doesn't care how the production goes or whether the kids in it are okay; in fact, he prefers if things go wrong because he thinks it'll make the show more dramatic and therefore more popular.
- Spanner in the Works: He goes out of his way to mess things up for the kids, up to and including sabotaging the show and airing all their secrets in the documentary.
