Characters / The Proud Family - Friends & Neighbors

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The Boulavardezes

LaCienega Boulavardez

Voiced by: Alisa Reyes, Karrie Martin (Louder and Prouder, as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

Penny's frenemy, and the daughter of Felix and Sunset Boulevardez.

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• Academic Alpha Bitch: Downplayed. LaCienega is the typical popular mean girl and not openly bookish, but she still manages to perform academically well and get straight A's. The way she insults Penny carries a certain level of cleverness and wit, showing she is well-read to a degree. Of course, she doesn't seem to fare well in P.E., and Coach Collins implies LaCienega has given half-assed excuses before.
• Alpha Bitch: Minus the girl posse.
• Attention Whore: Sometimes LaCienega can do the most for attention.
• Beauty Is Bad: Is considered pretty and she knows it, but has a catty and mean personality, especially towards Penny. When Penny is calling her out on going along with her winning the rigged singing contest over the more talented but homely Agatha Ordinario, she tells her that her actions make her the ugliest person she’s ever seen (which is what gets her to have a Heel-Face Turn).
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted in the first episode of the reboot, where "seeing the light" makes her friends glowup overnight, LaCieniga is hit with acne, bushy eyebrows, and a thin mustache. Michael manages to remedy it for her by the end.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's the picture of sweetness around adults. Not so much with everyone else. Penny is the only one who sees her for what she truly is. In later episodes, she seems to have dropped it, and is more upfront with her behavior.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: How could two decent parents end up with her is beyond anyone's guess. Though we later find out in the revival that the dysfunction within her mother’s side of the family might have permeated into her, so she definitely gets it from her mother.
• Break the Haughty: In the episode when she is made fun of for her big feet.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: As revealed in "A Perfect 10," she's a natural gymnast due to her feet giving her enough flexibility (and Flight), but she abhors training since she is a natural and doesn't need training.
  • In general, she's actually very academically skilled, but mostly apathetic about it and hates the idea of needing to work a lot, mostly because she's more focused on her looks than anything else.
• Characterization Marches On: LaCienaga was originally a full-fledged Alpha Bitch and antagonized Penny, but they eventually become friends (of a sort), and she rounds out the Four-Girl Ensemble.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not to the same extent as Dijonay, but still willing to abandon her friends when it suits her.
• Commander Contrarian: In the revival, LaCienaga always tries to find a reason complain about Penny's ideas and schemes, not that she has better ideas.
• Compliment Backfire: Due to her snooty and condescending nature, even the rare moments she tries to compliment someone, she still comes off as rather insulting.
• Costume Evolution: Wears longer light blue jeans, a magenta flower, and red and white heeled ankle boots in Louder and Prouder. Similar to Penny her shirt is also now cropped and her sweater is shorter.
• Cranky Neighbor: LaCienega is a teenage version of this. She is Penny’s neighbor and is intensely antagonistic towards towards her.
• Everyone Has Standards: She's bitchy and nasty toward Penny and others a lot of times even going into the series' revival, but she still shoots Dijonay a look of disapproval when she lies about selling out Ms. Hill then gets exposed for it right after in "Home School". It's not so much Ms. Hill getting fired that disturbed her, since she hated Ms, Hill along with everyone else, as it is that Dijonay snitched on someone for financial benefit. But the biggest example by far is in "Juneteenth" where she is vocally disgusted at knowing Smithville's founder was a slave owner, joining in the protest to have the city's name changed and the first to refuse leaving jail.
• Evil Counterpart: While not actually evil by any means, she's basically a meaner and richer version of Penny. Both of them are smart, pretty, confident and naturally charismatic girls who are fairly popular with boys and they both can be very stubborn. But Penny is usually nice unless pushed too far and LaCi, well, isn't, although she does show a kinder side from time to time. They also have similar face designs and their families mirror each other as well. Essentially, she's the Wizard Kelly to Penny's Oscar, the main difference being that Penny usually gets the upper hand on LaCi for the most part, whereas poor Oscar almost NEVER wins against Wizard Kelly.
• Flanderization: In Louder and Prouder, LaCienaga is portrayed more of as a heckler towards Penny, much like her Papi is. As well, she doesn't appear to have any of the redeeming qualities or excuses that made her at least somewhat sympathetic in the original series. Even then, she still shies away from doing anything as crass as snitching for financial benefit, or attempting murder or pulling really mean pranks. On top of that, she still cares for her family as much as she did in the original series.
• Foil: Her intelligence, grumpiness, and pessimism make her just about the closest you can get to an anti-Penny.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic. She's ill-tempered, tends to be overly critical, and is insecure at times.
• Freudian Excuse: She's a bully because of her cousin LaBrea being nasty towards her since they were little kids...well, not really. LaCienega was just mean even before then, but it’s clearly part of a vicious cycle perpetuated by the toxic rivalry between her mom and aunt.
• Friendship Denial: If it's ever brought up, LaCienega usually denies being Penny's friend. She outright said to Penny "We're not even friends".
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Though calling her a 'friend' would be a serious stretch, she's this even more than Dijonay, being mean, spiteful, selfish, prideful, and two-faced. Yet she still hangs out with Penny and her friends.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: LaCienega is the Grumpy to Penny’s Gleeful. Penny is cheerful and optimistic, and despite their frenemy status still considers LaCienega to be her close friend. LaCienega is grumpy and cynical, and often claims to hate Penny with a passion.
• Hidden Depths: "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" reveals she's a really good singer.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Hers is mainly shown in "Thelma and Luis". That episode shows that she loves her grandfather Papi in a very sweet way, in the same vein that Penny does with her grandmother Suga Mama.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Beneath her catty exterior lies crippling self-confidence issues, particularly dealing with her abnormally large feet. It's also revealed that she envies Penny partially because Dijonay (despite generally not being the most reliable friend) tends to favor Penny over Lacienega. Considering how hard she took Penny cancelling her in "Bad Influence(r)" compared to others, it seems those insecurities have only gotten worse.
• Ink-Suit Actor: She resembles her voice actress Alisa Reyes. Even in Louder and Prouder, she looks like a younger version of her actress.
• It's All About Me: LaCienega never helps anyone with anything unless she'll get something out of it.
• Jerkass: She's selfish, vain and obnoxious. She can also be needlessly rude to other characters.
• Jerkass to One: LaCienega is rude to other characters, but Penny is the one she antagonizes the most. Of course, she hates her cousin LaBrea even more than Penny.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At the very least, LaCienega has a soft spot for her family. To begin with, she does love her Papi even though he’s a bit crazy. And her aunt Melrose is always a sight for sore eyes even though the rivalry between her and her mom can get toxic.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: "Love Thy Neighbor" ends with LaCienega thanking Penny in her acceptance speech, only for her to later reveal that it was a sham for the cameras and that she still hates her. Basically, any form of kindness she shows is usually either to look good in front of others or done after she gets a dose of Karma dumped on her.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: She is often comedically humiliated and her plans backfire on her a lot, but she often brings it onto herself for being a snobby bully to Penny and the others. Even when she seems to have the upper hand on Penny, the latter will usually come out on top in the end.
• The Killjoy: LaCienega often grumpily scoffs at Penny’s idealism. Sometimes it's because she’s getting in her way, but other times she's just that crabby.
• Lean and Mean: She's quite slender, but she's often unpleasant.
• Like Parent, Like Child:
  • LaCienega insults and heckles Penny much like how her Papi does towards Suga Mama.
  • "Raging Bully" shows even her mother can act just as spoiled and arrogant as she is.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: On her good days, which don't come very often. Especially in the revival series, though she’s more of a Commander Contrarian than a straight-up Alpha Bitch.
• Malicious Misnaming: In "Rumors", she calls Suga Mama "Honeydew" (albeit not to her face) and BeBe and CeCe "Happy and "Nappy". This doesn't quite line up with how she is later, where she, for all her faults, actually appears to like BeBe and CeCe, and has the same respect for Suga Mama that the other kids do. That was also the only time she ever said anything outright racist, apart from "Culture Shock", which was a Very Special Episode about discrimination.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Mean to Zoey's nice and Dijonay's in-between. She's often bossy and stuck-up and wants things done the way they want, though she shows her soft side when needed.
• Only Sane by Comparison: LaCienega is selfish, rude, lazy, hot-tempered, snobbish and extremely egotistical. However, she has more common sense than those around her.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Or out-of-character episode for the entirety of "It All Started with an Orange Basketball" where she tries to steal away Kareem from Penny after Penny begins to neglect him for basketball. In the original series, Lacienega was a strong follower of the girl code in spite of dislike for Penny and was supportive of Penny getting with her various love interests, making this the first instance in which she tried to do something like this.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In "Wedding Bell Blues", when Suga Mama marries her boyfriend Clarence, it appears that LaCienega is genuinely happy for Penny and her family. When Suga Mama and Clarence announce their engagement, she happily cheers for them, agrees to be a bridesmaid in the wedding, and when Suga Mama asks her to, invite Papi Boulavardez to the wedding, she agrees (also keeping Suga Mama in the dark that Papi is dating other women).
  • The one person she can get along with more decently than Penny is Michael.
  • In the revival series she's a little nicer to Zoey, as she cheers her on when Zoey says she got promoted to drum major. She also attempts to save her life when she mistakes Zoey dancing for her having a seizure.
• Punny Name: With her mother, both named after the famous LaCienega and Sunset Boulevards in Los Angeles.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In "Culture Shock", LaCienega constantly makes very bitchy microaggressions about the Zamin Family.
• Popular Is Dumb: Averted in the original series, where she was actually just as smart, if not smarter then Penny, but just didn't show it much. Sadly played alright as an arrow in the revival, where she doesn't know ow what BLM is and holds books upside-down.
• Rise of Zitgirl: In the first episode of Louder and Prouder, she has loads of acne, facial hair, and sideburns.
• Shared Family Quirks: LaCienega chronically heckles people, just like Papi.
• Shoe Size Angst: The episode "Love Thy Neighbor" centers around LaCienega feeling ashamed about her large and unusually-shaped feet, but she manages to overcome this by the end after discovering they make her a better swimmer.
• Spicy Latina: She's impossibly vain and cocky, though it's primarily an act.
• Spoiled Brat: Her parents spoil her rotten and she always gloats about it.
• Ship Tease: Twice with Michael of all people in the original. She apparently likes him for his fashion sense.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Takes after her mother in terms of her looks. Her college aged self has long wavy hair styled almost exactly like Sunset’s.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Downplayed, but she seems to have this attitude towards Penny. Normally, LaCienega is nothing but cranky and irritable to her, but sometimes, she shows that she is pretty fond of her in spite of herself. Of course, LaCienega shows a warmer, more compassionate side towards her family.
• Surrounded by Idiots: LaCienega believes everyone's an idiot except for her, and she thinks her own friends are the biggest idiots she's ever known.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Lacienega thinks she's much prettier and more popular than she actually is.
• The Snark Knight: Always making snarky comments on the screwed-up world around her.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: The spoiled and self-centered foul femininity to Dijonay's tender tomboyishness.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Downplayed in the original show. In seasons 2 and 3, she was still a jerk to Penny and the others, but was much less malicious about it, and was more likely to simply say mean things but not actually act on them (Watch "Rumors" and "Tween Town" back to back and you'll notice quite the difference). She was also allowed to have many more Pet the Dog moments (even to Penny) than she did in early on, making her more of a mean but mostly harmless and ultimately caring Jerk with a Heart of Gold than the almost completely unsympathetic Hate Sink she was in early season 1.
  • Unfortunately, the revival seemed to bring her right back to square one. Then it got Zig-Zagged and how mean she is was just completely random depending on which episode you watch.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If Dijonay's account can be believed, LaCienega was a lot nicer as a little kid than she currently is as a teenager. Although her past treatment of LaBrea says otherwise. Then again, Dijonay wouldn’t have known that at the time.
• Valley Girl: In Louder and Prouder, she seems to sound and act more like one.
• Vocal Evolution: As noted above, her voice sounds more valley girl like in Louder and Prouder, being more high pitched and slightly more nasally.
• With Friends Like These...: Again she tends to be much worse than Dijonay in this regard, badmouthing and ditching Penny any chance she gets. In Louder and Prouder Dijonay of all people calls her out on her behavior at times.
• Your Size May Vary: Despite it being established in "Love Thy Neighbor” that she has large feet, LaCienega’s feet in previous and subsequent episodes are either small or normal-sized, even when she wears sandals or is barefoot (although she does wear pool shoes in "Twins to Tweens"). Louder and Prouder rectifies this. Not only does one episode remind everyone of the time she was made fun of for her feet, the episode "Raging Bully" sees her get launched from her heels, once again revealing her feet to be unusually large. Her large feet are once again a major plot point in the episode "A Perfect 10", which gives her an edge in gymnastics.

Sunset Boulavardez

Voiced by: Maria Canals Barrera

Felix's wife and Trudy's best friend. She is the mother of LaCienega, the wife of Felix and is a police officer.

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• Control Freak: When she learns her daughter is a natural gymnast in "A Perfect 10," Sunset begins to project herself into her daughter because Sunset couldn't make it as a gymnast in her youth. It's so bad that she often forgets it's her daughter (not her) being praised.
• Cool Aunt: Unlike her sister, Sunset doesn't hold high standards for LaCienega or her niece, [LaBrea] and treats them equally. The latter wishes that Sunset would be her mother.
• Doting Parent: One of the contributors to LaCienega's spoiled personality. For reference, she used her profession to threaten to arrest judges so that they would vote for her daughter. It's implied she's like that because her parents put pressure on her as a kid and this is her way of Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting. On the other hand, it seems she spends money on her daughter to satisfy her own ego as far her sister is concerned.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Her method of courting Felix definitely wouldn't fly if the genders were reversed.
• Fair Cop: Resembling her actress more than a little bit. Oscar commented on how hot she was when she and her family first moved to the neighborhood.
• Freudian Excuse: Her doting over LaCienega and going overboard in planning the Quinceañera can be attributed to Sunset and her sister, Melrose having grown up with parents who held high standards for their daughters and therefore made the sisters competitive and tense. That being said, LaCienega ended up inheriting that behavior in the process.
• Friend on the Force: She's a policer officer who also happens to be BFFs with Trudy.
• It's All About Me: "Raging Bully" shows Sunset spending more money on renovating the house (she took out five loans), and on her daughter's Quinceañera is clearly to satisfy her own ego more than it is for her own daughter, all because of her sister.
• Not So Above It All: The fact she uses her police work to get her way and how she spends out of control on LaCienega's quinceanera to compete with her sister places her in this trope.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: It is implied in "Love Thy Neighbor" that her mother doesn't like Felix.
• Police Brutality: Played for Laughs of course, but she has mentioned off-hand that she pretty much threatened Felix into marrying her while on the job and is more than willing to physically strong-arm her husband into doing what she says using her policeman's training. At one point, she mentioned that she threatened to arrest judges so they would vote for her daughter.
• Spicy Latina: Even more so than LaCienega, as Sunset does tend to get feisty and trigger-happy with her emotions.
• Spoiled Brat: Sunset herself tends to act very spoiled and immature. This is amped up in Louder and Prouder. That would certainly explain where LaCienega gets her behavior from.
• Stage Mom: She has traits of this, such as throwing lavish parties for Lacienega and pushing her hard in the Olympics episode. She does these things to live vicariously though Lacienega.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: She's significantly taller than Felix.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Sunset is a very beautiful woman. And while her husband is not ugly, he's short, fat, and not conventionally attractive.
• Women Are Wiser: Like Trudy, Sunset is wiser than her husband...most of the time at least.

Felix Boulavardez

Voiced by: Carlos Mencia

Oscar's neighbor and best friend. He is the father of LaCienega and the husband of Sunset.

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• Big Fun: He's fat and a very friendly, fun guy to be around.
• Butt-Monkey: Sometimes. When he shares scenes with Oscar, he can be a victim of slapstick and he and Oscar are both dominated by their wives.
• Bumbling Dad: Even more so than Oscar, probably explaining how someone so good-natured ended up with a daughter like LaCienega. And, for someone who works at a construction company, he couldn’t tell the difference between a fumigation truck and a helium truck.
• Doting Parent: He has a tendency to indulge LaCienega, which is why she ended up such a Spoiled Brat. In the revival, he does it way less than his wife does, who does it to satisfy her own ego against her sister.
• Grew a Spine: In the original show, he willingly went along with whatever crazy scheme Oscar had going. But in the revival, he's a lot more stern to Oscar and often puts his foot down, refusing to loan him money for his amusement park in "Father Figures" and generally becoming more fed up with him when he’s about to do something stupid.
• Henpecked Husband: To Sunset. He's the more submissive one in the relationship. She even threatened him to marry her or be arrested. But in Louder and Prouder, he's a lot more assertive.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Despite their financial differences, Oscar and Felix are best buddies till the end. Although they have become more like frenemies in the revival, their friendship isn't totally gone.
• Fat and Skinny: The fat to Oscar's skinny.
• Manchild: To a lesser degree than Oscar, but he can still have moments of reckless immaturity - more so in the original series, but occasionally in the revival (most notably in "Puff Daddy").
• Nice Guy: Despite some flaws, he is an overall easygoing and friendly guy. He also grows to be the most level-headed and most decent member of his family within time.
• Only Sane Man: Moreso in Louder and Prouder. Within his family, Felix is far more rational and conscious, while his father is a heckling, cackling lunatic and his wife is always trying to spend more money than usual on LaCienega partly to keep one-upping her sister Melrose.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: He's significantly shorter than Sunset.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: He's not ugly, but he's short, fat, and not conventionally attractive. While Sunset is a very beautiful woman.

Papi Boulavardez

Voiced by: Alvaro Gutierrez, Kevin Michael Richardson (Papi's Signature Laugh)

Suga Mama's Love Interest who's also Felix's father, Sunset's father-in-law and LaCienega's paternal grandfather.

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• A Day in the Limelight: The episode "Thelma & Luis" focuses on him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Towards Suga Mama but it's in Spanish, so she never understands.
• Depending on the Writer: Whether or not his family can understand him varies.
• Does Not Speak Common: He clearly understands English perfectly well, yet all of his dialogue is in Spanish, as he never really participates in conversations, just heckles people.
• Funny Foreigner: He speaks only Spanish and it's always hilarious.
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Much of what he says to, and about, Suga Mama are blatant insults, but between his deep, smooth voice and her not speaking Spanish, she assumes he's a romantic soul whispering sweet nothings to her.
• The Hyena: 50% of his dialogue is a shrill, cackling laugh. In one episode, he instead cries, twice. First, tears of joy when Suga Mama is marrying someone else, but she thinks he's sad. Second, he's sad when she's single again and back to her old self, and she thinks they're tears of joy.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Seems to have been a ladies' man especially when he was younger.
• Jerkass to One: Suga Mama is the only character in the show that he dislikes. He also needlessly insults Suga Mama in Spanish despite knowing her obvious and genuine affection for him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shown mainly in "Thelma and Luis". In this episode, he does sincerely thank Suga Mama for rescuing him from the prison. This episode also shows he loves his granddaughter in a very sweet way, in the same vein that Suga Mama does with Penny.
• Keep It Foreign: In the Castilian Spanish dub, he speaks Italian for some reason. Averted in the dub for Louder and Prouder, where he falls under Same Language Dub instead and keeps his Latino accent.
• Large Ham: Papi's maniacal laughing is always stealing the show.
• Latin Lover: Parodied—he insults Suga Mama to her face, but since she doesn't understand Spanish she thinks he's saying something romantic.
• Love at First Punch: More like "Love at First Insult." In The Proud Family Movie, Papi starts courting Suga Mama's clone (not realizing it isn't the real Suga Mama) when she insults him back (as unlike the real Suga Mama, the clone actually understands Spanish).
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Especially by Suga Mama. Inverted in The Proud Family Movie though, wherein Suga Mama's clone (who can actually speak and understand Spanish) starts throwing insults back at him—Papi immediately starts flirting her, but to no avail (although the rejections seem to make him all the more persistent).
• Practically Joker: Looks like an elderly version of Cesar Romero as The Joker sans the makeup^note In his debut, Suga Mama even directly compares them with a color scheme similar to Jack Nicholson's Joker. While he's no criminal he loves laughing maniacally after every sentence. His laugh is done by Kevin Michael Richardson, who has voiced the Joker before.
• Signature Laugh: A very shrill cackle. In fact, this laugh is used to Spot the Impostor pretending to be Papi when he can't laugh the same.

The Leibowitz-Jenkins family

Barry Leibowitz-Jenkins

Voiced by: Zachary Quinto

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• Big Guy, Little Guy: Barry is the big guy to Randall's little guy, as he is a big, strong cop.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: He's so ridiculously strong, that he accidentally injures Oscar twice both times while greeting him. Not hard to see why he was hired into the police force.
• Happily Married: To Randall.
• Honorary Uncle: LaCienega refers to him as "Tio Barry" (tio being the Spanish word for "uncle") in "Father Figures".
• Love at First Sight: In "A Perfect 10," he was a paramedic. When Randall had injured himself in his gymnastics competition, the two met, and the rest is history.
• Papa Wolf: Maya did warn The Gross Sisters that it would be a stupid mistake to bully her with Barry as one of her dads since he’s a cop. When they refuse to listen, Barry suddenly drives up and asks Maya if anything is wrong. She states there isn’t, but’s it’s clear that he would have arrested his daughter’s bullies if she had given the word.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Barry strongly looks a lot like his ancestor, Christian A. Smith.
• Token White: Alongside Penny's friend, Zoey, he's the only primary white character in the cast—he's also the only white member of his family, since his husband and both their adopted children are black.

Randall “Randy” Leibowitz-Jenkins

Voiced by: Billy Porter

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• Acrofatic: Downplayed on the fat part. He's very nimble and athletic, and he was portly during his teenage years while he was almost on the way to being accepted into the Olympics for it.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Randall is the little guy to Barry's big guy, being a short, intellectual loan officer.
• Control Freak: Upon learning that LaCienega is a prodigious gymnast due to her large feet, he tries so hard to get her to embrace her potential but is mostly brushed off by her (which is not surprising, since it is LaCienega), though he realizes by the end that he was being too controlling.
• Happily Married: To Barry.
• Hypocrite: Randy vocally expresses disapproval at Oscar for his food, when he himself isn’t any better of a cook.
• Love at First Sight: In "A Perfect 10," injuring himself during his gymnastics competition was what led to meeting Barry and falling for him (Barry was the paramedic who went to check on him).
• My Greatest Failure: He was set on being allowed into the Olympics through gymnastics, but he couldn't do a handstand and hit his head on the bar. On the other hand, he met Barry, who was a paramedic at the time, who fell in love with him at first sight.
• Twofer Token Minority: He is black and gay.

Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins

Voiced by: Keke Palmer, Lena Waithe (as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

A new kid in town who is a young activist.

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• Beneath the Mask: Maya presents herself as severe and unyielding, but underneath she is a sensitive person. Considering all the crap she and her brother have been given for having two dads and being adopted, she’s had to spend most of her life soldiering on even if it hurts her.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Maya isn’t as much of a conversationalist as Penny’s other friends, but when she feels strongly about something, she is quite passionately driven.
• Black-and-White Morality: Maya definitely has this mindset. The moment anyone shows any selfishness she’s quick to write them off as bad people. It also goes for any social issue she addresses, like trying to rescue the panda when he didn’t want to.
• Brother–Sister Team: Maya and her brother are quite inseparable.
• The Comically Serious: Maya is almost always stone-faced, that her deadpan reactions whenever Penny and her friends get involved in any antics are quite comical.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: She is, or was, this to LaCienega. They both start off as antagonists but later become flawed good guys. Both are the new kids in town who show up in the first episode (of the original show and the reboot respectively), and they both immediately dislike Penny, even after she tries to be nice to them. They both act cold and condescending to others, but have kinder sides deep down. But aside from that, they're as different as night and day. LaCienega is a catty, but charming Alpha Bitch who loves being the center of attention, while Maya is a quiet, antisocial, and tomboyish Soapbox Sadie who mostly just keeps to herself. LaCienega initially acted kindly to Penny's friends while being mean to Penny herself, while Maya judged Penny and her friends for being "superficial." LaCienega is a Manipulative Bitch while Maya is honest to a fault. Penny spends the first episode of the original show trying to avoid LaCienega at all costs, while she spends most of the first episode if the revival trying and failing to be Maya's friend. Both of them accept Penny as a friend after she helps them with being bullied (LaCienega for having huge feet and Maya for having two dads), but in different ways. LaCienega still acted rude to Penny and stated that she still doesn't accept Penny as a friend, but her less horrible behavior in episodes proceeding it suggest that she may have been lying. Maya, on the other hand, openly thanked Penny for her help and accepted her as a friend ever since.
• Convenient Replacement Character: Moves into Sticky's old house right as he leaves in Louder and Prouder.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Soapbox Sadie. The show deconstructs teen activists like Maya by showing that, while they may be more aware of serious social issues than their peers and are right to bring light to them, many times they don't know as much about the issues as they think they do, their immaturity causes them to fall into a Black-and-White Insanity mindset and fail to recognize the morally grey areas of society, and a lot of their activism is done more for the sake of satisfying their egos rather than true altruism.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She was very cold towards Penny (though she was more civil to her friends and even LaCienega, who was even worse than Penny). It's not until Penny manages to stand up for her gay parents in "Father Figures" that Maya completely defrosts and welcomes Penny as a true friend. Later episodes show that the friction between them is completely gone.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Inverted. She's the new kid in town, and it is she who dislikes Penny and her companions.
• Flanderization: An In-Universe case of this happens in "When You Wish Upon A Roker", where as a result of the wish-induced college reality, Maya becomes slightly flanderized to a walking woke joke who constantly protests. Maya even lampshades it by noticing it's become a habit of her to constantly talk in a megaphone.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the responsible to KG's foolish. Maya is more aware of her surroundings while KG is often aloof, has a short attention span at times, and distracted by his gaming console. However, the trope is ultimately Played With, as Maya is far more hostile towards others than her brother, not to mention incredibly overzealous and self-righteous regarding her various social crusades.
• Freudian Excuse: KG explains that her trust issues come both from being an adopted child with no knowledge of who her biological parents are and the discrimination her dads have gotten for being a gay married couple.
• Hates Everyone Equally: By everyone, we mean everyone who's not her brother. Girl's clearly got trust issues.
• Humans Are Bastards: According to KG, Maya has it out for all humans, believing they’re just selfish and superficial. That said, she feels the only thing she can do is look out for number one. Additionally, it’s implied she singles out Penny to project her issues onto her. But, after seeing Penny stand up for her when being victim to prejudice, Maya decides to try giving her, and by extension other people, a chance.
• Hypocrite: She hates Penny for being superficial, yet she teamed up with the most superficial girl (LaCienega) to take down Penny. To add to it, there isn’t anything that the two have in common besides their mutual dislike for Penny (then again, Maya does get annoyed with how Book Dumb LaCienega is).
• I See Dead People: In "Juneteenth," the ghost of Emily can only be seen by her, guiding Maya to uncover the dark truth behind Christian A. Smith being a slave owner. Though at the end of the episode, her whole family can see her ghost, who turns into an elderly person before vanishing into petals.
• It's All About Me: Penny calls her Soapbox Sadie attitude out as an example of this, as she seems to be more concerned with satisfying her own ego than actually doing good.
• I Work Alone: Maya just doesn't work with social cliques, and she's against anything that resembles herd mentality. The only person she more or less trusts is her brother KG.
• Jerkass to One: She's surly with everyone as part of her Hates Everyone Equally deal, but she only really goes out of her way to antagonize Penny, despite KG claiming that Penny is not the reason Maya acts that way towards her. This isn't really the case after "Father Figures", as she becomes friendlier towards Penny, presumably because Penny stuck up for her two dads in that episode.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Maya thinks she has a lot to teach Penny, but she clearly fails to see the nuances in the world. In the very first episode, she attempts to liberate a panda from the zoo (which is a federal crime) who plainly doesn't want to leave because of how comfortable his life is.
• Psychological Projection: It’s implied all the things she accused Penny of are traits she can’t seem to admit about herself.
• The Sixth Ranger: Becomes this to Penny's group of friends, though she's more recurring than Michael.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Her activist acts are this. Trying to liberate a panda from a zoo became about satisfying her own activist ego rather than understanding the fact that the panda liked his environment (free rent, free food, and a flatscreen TV). Even Penny calls her out on this.
• Pet the Dog: She sincerely thanks Penny and invites her over to her house for gumbo after Penny attempts to stick up for her in Father Figures.
• Soapbox Sadie: She's a very passionate and unfortunately judgmental social crusader who looks down on those she believes aren't doing enough to help the world, which is to say, literally everyone else.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Maya doesn’t say it outright, but in her first appearances she clearly thinks Penny and co are idiots. The way Maya sees it, Dijonay is a given, Penny's an idealistic moron, and LaCienega can’t even bother herself to look educated and ends up disrespecting the works Maya is passionate about by holding her books upside down.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Maya doesn't look like someone who'd wear makeup, but in "Bad Influence(r)", Penny finds herself mistaken. She explains she wears lipstick that's a shade of brown.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the episodes after "Father Figures", she's notably a lot more friendly towards Penny, presumably because she helped her out in that episode. A rare and welcome display of continuity.
• Troll: She seems to get her kicks from insulting so-called "regular" people like Penny.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She is fully aware of the world's ills and thinks that Penny and her friends are immature. Ultimately Played With in that while she has greater awareness of the problems with the world, her tendency to immediately write people off the moment they display a single act of selfishness and sometimes short-sighted attempts at activism show that she's actually just as immature as the other teens she derides.

Francis "KG" Leibowitz-Jenkins

Voiced by: Artist "A Boogie" Dubose, Daniel "Desus Nice" Baker (as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

Maya’s apathetic gamer brother.

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• Ambiguously Gay: More like "Ambiguously Asexual". Despite several girls and Michael being attracted to him, he doesn't seem interested in anyone himself.
  Penny: Guess he's not into girls, huh?
  Michael: That's what's up!
  LaCienega: Or you, Michael.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: KG is a tech genius, but there are days he just can't be bothered to use his brain especially when others egg him on.
• Brutal Honesty: KG won't hold back telling you off for being insensitive or ignorant.
• Character Catchphrase: A very high-pitched "Sheeeesh!", usually said when Dijonay shows interest in him. However, he doesn't say this at all in season two.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Dijonay, LaCienega and Michael all immediately express interest in him. For his part, KG seems more interested in video games. In fact, by season two Dijonay has moved on to Darrius.
• Deadpan Snarker: KG is always snarking at his sister, especially with regard to her attitude.
• Hidden Depths: "Father Figures" has him display quite a bit of emotional intelligence, like gently explaining to Penny and the others that Maya deals not only from discrimination due to her parents but also that their jokes about some people not even having parents are tactless since they're orphans and adopted.
• Mr. Exposition: In his first appearances, he would serve to explain Maya's character to Penny and why she thinks a certain way, especially since Maya is the kind who would keep to herself.
• Nice Guy: He quickly proves himself to be the most reliable member of Penny's updated friend circle and doesn't often ask for anything in return for helping her, though he hesitates at outlandish requests such as subscription services.
• Out of Focus: He gets the least amount of lines and screen time of the core friend group. In fact, he gets only a couple appearances in season two.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: A variant where he's focused on his gaming console as opposed to his phone.
• The Slacker: Considering his apathetic nature, he doesn't really do much beyond what his sister tells him.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Sticky. So much that Dijonay briefly mistakes KG for him going through puberty and becomes her rebound crush after Sticky and his family move to Japan. And, he’s also tech-savvy like Sticky.

Other Friends and Neighbors

Dijonay Jones

Voiced by: Karen Malina White, Bresha Webb (Louder and Prouder, as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker"), Lola St. Vil (Louder and Prouder, Creole dialogue)

Penny's selfish, funny, caring, and enthusiastic best friend(?).

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Sticky. She is usually unaware of how much he finds her annoying. She's also completely unaware that she's the reason he willingly got Put on a Bus in Louder and Prouder. And then Dijonay becomes this to KG, Maya's brother.
• Aesop Amnesia: All the freakin' time. Watch and lose count of how many times she's learned not to take her family for granted, to be a better friend to Penny, not to be so shallow, etc. By Louder and Prouder, she at least has the first one down, and goes out of her way to make sure her family is taken care of, and is very defensive of her siblings.
• Ambiguously Bi: It's no secret at all that she's attracted to boys (just ask Sticky), but she shows some possible attraction to girls as well. Aside from some Les Yay moments with Penny, her reaction to seeing Kwok's arranged wife in "Romeo Must Wed" seemed like more than just admiration. In the revival, her reaction to seeing LaCienega's more developed body was, "Who is that snack?" before seeing her temporarily hairy face. Interestingly this is also the exact same line she uses when seeing her official new Love Interest and boyfriend Darius for the first time.
• Balloon Belly: In "Tween Town", when she drinks a large amount of soda with Penny while the adults are gone.
• Berserk Button: Especially in Louder and Prouder, don't diss her family.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Dijonay can't be trusted when told any sort of private information, even when it's her from her own friends. She's just that much of a gossip. She is honest about this aspect of her.
  Penny: Dijonay, can you keep a secret?
  Dijonay: [cheerfully] You know I can't!
• Cerebus Retcon: Dijonay's many siblings have usually been a humorous plot point in the original series, but in the revival, her living situation with them is taking a serious toll on her. It's gotten to the point where they've racked up heavy lunch debt and have to obtain free food wherever and whenever she can. Di Jonay also implies in "Raging Bully" that she doesn’t have her own bed to sleep in/has to share one.
• Character Catchphrase: STICKAYYY!!!!!!! Dropped in the revival for obvious reasons.
• Characterization Marches On: The original series portrays Dijonay as a backstabbing friend who takes advantage of Penny. In Louder and Prouder, Dijonay is portrayed more as being between selfish and incompetent. While she will still backstab Penny and others at times, it's far less frequent than in the original series.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Penny can't trust her for anything. It's a wonder the two are still friends.
• Costume Evolution: Very minor in Louder and Prouder as her top is now a V-neck shirt and covers her whole stomach as opposed to the cropped collared blouse she wore in the original. She also has a different hair tie.
• The Ditz: Dijonay by far is just not the brightest of Penny's companions. This aspect of her character becomes more prominent in the revival.
• Expy: Of Kim from Moesha and The Parkers.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even Dijonay doesn't think too highly of Oscar's brother, Bobby. She once referred to him as "Mr. Ain't-Too-Proud-To-Beg". It's rather telling that even in Louder and Prouder that she votes against Bobby kicking Penny out of their band.
  • In Louder and Prouder, she was disgusted with LaCienga when the latter tried to steal Kareem from Penny on her watch in It All Started With An Orange Basketball. Considering her past obsession with Sticky, and how she told him she'd never cheat on him, she’s surely not a hypocrite in saying this. Additionally, she goes out of her way to attempt to warn Penny if she thinks LaCienega is trying to make a move on him.
  • Also in the revival, even she thinks LaBrea attempting murder on LaCienga was messed up beyond belief.
• False Friend: To Penny, often derailing their friendship for her own benefit. A bit less so in Louder and Prouder, where she stood up for Penny more than once, heck even saving Penny from being trapped in Al Roker's college reality that Penny wished for.
• Forgetful Jones: Quite literally, seeing that it's her last name. Dijonay is quite dense that she tends to forget things in seconds. In the Louder and Prouder episode "New Kids on The Block" when Penny informs Dijonay that she won't be at the dance, Dijonay acknowledges, but then forgets and asks Penny to explain to her again.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Her backstabbing tendencies don't do her any favors with the gang, who don’t trust her.
• Genki Girl: She's plenty energetic. Too bad all of that energy comes with a truckload of vices.
• Gossipy Hens: To the extent that she runs a pseudo-news broadcast dedicated to spreading rumors.
• Hidden Depths:
  • She turns out to have a talent for poetry.
  • She possesses a very advanced form of photogenic memory, which helps her debate team a lot when she was forced to join them and couldn't bother to study her talking points until one glance at her papers was all she needed to lay down the beatdown. She explains that she has such good memory because she always needs to remember the names of her many, many siblings.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: On the other hand, while auditioning for "Tween Idol", she sings "Frankie and Johnny" somewhat badly.
• Idiot Houdini: Aside from having Karma Houdini, Dijonay also gets away with her bad decisions caused by her being a nitwit and it's others who have to suffer as a result of it. A most notable example of this is when she worked as Penny’s assistant in “Get In”, and caused the company’s demise with her inept judgment letting an obviously disguised monkey drive for them. Oscar ends up getting the short end of the stick while all Dijonay gets out relatively unscathed.
• Innocently Insensitive: To the chagrin of her friends, she really can't tell her gossip-spreading and lack of tact hurts people.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Dijonay is selfish and insensitive, as well as dimwitted, impulsive, and incompetent. This gets toned down in Louder and Prouder, usually to the point where she’s simply imbecilic.
• It's All About Me: Unlike LaCienega, most of the time she's not trying to be selfish. But she can never seem to concern herself with anything other than her own satisfaction. This is given more nuance in Louder and Prouder. Dijonay is constantly struggling to put food on the table for her siblings as it is, that she will take any quick opportunity to do so, even take food that's for the needy or violate Penny's trust. While she does care for her siblings far more seriously in the revival, Dijonay just doesn't think about how the lengths she goes to help her siblings come at the expense of others. Still, it is a stark contrast to how she'd try to find an opportunity to ditch her siblings and even dump them on Penny in the original series.
• Jerkass: Not exactly the best friend to have. She's also self-centered, selfish, and very fickle towards Penny.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Louder and Prouder due to her backstabbing being generally downplayed. She is still likely to make selfish decisions at worst, and stupid decisions at best, sometimes a combination of both but she's a lot more willing to apologize for them and actually sticks up for Penny on occasion. She's also shown to take her siblings' needs more seriously than in the original series, and a portion of her questionable decisions are made specifically to support them.
• Karma Houdini: She usually gets away with her backstabbing antics, though not always. The ultimate escape from karma for her is the fact that she's still a core part of Penny's friend group in the revival.
• Kick the Dog: In "The Adventures of Bebe-Sitting" when she leaves Penny with her siblings to attend a concert and then lies about it.
• Lack of Empathy: Dijonay has issues taking other people's feelings into consideration when she does bad things to them. A good example is Louder and Prouder episode "Father Figures" when she doesn't care that Maya and KG are being bullied because of her.
• Lazy Bum: In contrast to Penny's hard-working attitude, Dijonay tends to goof off 80% of the time and is generally irresponsible.
• Lethally Stupid: Even when Dijonay is not being a jerk, she'll cause problems for others with sheer stupidity. In "Get In", Dijonay fails to see how obvious it was that a monkey trying to drive for them, and it causes the company to tank.
• Loony Fan: To Sticky.
• Loose Lips: Penny's gotten into a lot of trouble by thinking Dijonay can keep a secret, but you did not hear that from her.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: According to her, she has 9 brothers and sisters, with Louder and Prouder implying her parents recently had another.
• Nice Mean And In Between: In-between to Zoey's nice and LaCienega's mean. She's a Sassy Black Woman who has more of an attitude than Zoey but is friendlier than LaCienega.
• Official Couple: She finally gets a stable relationship with Darrius becoming her boyfriend in season two of Louder and Prouder, though it was shaky at first with his attempt to use her notes against her.
• Parental Neglect: Raising her nine wild siblings all by herself has given her a serious case of Middle Child Syndrome. She's not used to having her own things, her own space, or any attention at all, so once she gets the opportunity, she seizes it without question.
• Pet the Dog: In "When You Wish Upon a Roker" when she sends Oscar Al Roker's contract link so that he can convince Penny to come back to their childhoods with them, something she’s been unable to do. While it's a small thing, it was sound thinking that Dijonay likely knew better than anyone else that Oscar would be the only one that could bring her back. On top of that, Dijonay didn't owe Penny anything since Penny did bring her to the wish without her consent, but Dijonay still chose to do this out of her own free will.
• Photographic Memory: In the revival episode "Curved", it's revealed she actually has one, though it's very selective based on what she cares about at the moment.
• Sassy Black Woman: Dijonay can't go a whole episode without being sassy.
• Selective Obliviousness: She doesn't seem remotely aware that Sticky isn't her boyfriend, much less in love with her. Even the note he left behind in Louder and Prouder which was meant for her had another envelope inside to be given to Penny doesn't give it the slightest idea he wanted to make that clear. Penny almost read her name out loud as the girl he wanted to get away from but saying just enough that it was clearly Dijonay. Dijonay still didn't get it.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: She's under the impression that Sticky is "her man", and not someone who can't stand her.
• Shipper on Deck: Dijonay is super supportive of Penny's and Kareem's relationship. She treats it as Serious Business that she wouldn't dream of sabotaging them in any way.
• The Slacker: Dijonay is a chronic slacker, and she isn't known to do well in school that she tends to fall asleep in class.
• Suddenly Bilingual: In "One in a Million", Dijonay is shown to be fluent in Italian...except she didn't know she was speaking Italian.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: The sassy and loudmouthed tender tomboyishness to LaCienega's foul femininity.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Dijonay had always embarrassed herself by chasing after Sticky, a guy that doesn’t want her. She eventually ends up dating guys that actually like her. The first was Duke in the original series. The second was Darius in the revival series.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Dijonay was never really the brightest tool in the shed, but by Louder and Prouder, Dijonay has had several moments characterized by sheer stupidity even compared to the original series, that she tends to take things literally, is Sarcasm-Blind, and lacks the common sense that it doesn't occur to her to not touch machinery designed by Oscar of all people. Additionally, Dijonay is even more gullible that she believes an obviously disguised monkey was a human driver, whereas in the original series, even Dijonay wasn't foolish enough to believe the Gross Sisters are trustworthy in any way.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She takes a downplayed one in Louder and Prouder. She's still prone to making selfish decisions, but she's also more willing to stick up for Penny when she's being wronged and actually apologizes to her on occasion without having to be pushed into doing so. Notably, Dijonay refused to leave Penny's soul in danger, and she saw to it that Penny is rescued from Al Roker's college reality by sending in Oscar.
• True Blue Femininity: Her normal outfit is mostly colored blue.
• With Friends Like These...: Penny knows full well she can't trust Dijonay with anything. How they are still friends is a mystery to everyone involved. Suga Mama even lampshades this, as she really doesn't like Dijonay and has told Penny at least twice that she needs to drop her as a friend.

Sticky Webb

Voiced by: Orlando Brown

Penny's other best friend and a cool tech nerd.

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• Black and Nerdy: He's very tech-savvy.
• Butt-Monkey: Has a tendency to rival Oscar in this regard, depending on the episode.
• Cool Shades: They also come with a built-in camera.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He becomes this when Dijonay goes out with Duke in "Surf and Turf".
• Nice Guy: Heck, he's probably one of the few characters who doesn't do outright jerkass things.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: He generally flees screaming from Dijonay. And yet, when she loses interest, he immediately wants her.
• Only Sane Man: In a show that desperately needs one.
• Punny Name: Sticky Web if his last name had one "B".
• Put on a Bus: In Louder and Prouder, Sticky leaves because his father got a job in Japan. He was actually allowed to stay with his cousins but decided that he needed to get away from Dijonay.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Sticky wears a cool pair of rectangular-shaped glasses and is quite tech-savvy. His glasses are even high tech that they can take x-rays.
• The Smart Guy: Of the original friend group. KG replaces him as this in the revival, though to a much lesser degree.

Zoey Howser

Voiced by: Soleil Moon Frye, Holly Winter (Louder and Prouder, as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

Penny's shy, geeky friend. She's a sweet, agreeable and helpful girl.

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• Bespectacled Cutie: Zoey's large glasses compliments her shy personality and makes her look cuter.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She's not as horrible as Dijonay and LaCienega, but even Zoey can abandon Penny when she caves into peer pressure.
• The Corruptible: Zoey is that susceptible into doing something wrong, and not because she prefers to follow Dijonay and LaCienega who would ditch Penny. She has gone along with even Penny's schemes that involved deceiving her parents, and Zoey has caved into even worse peer pressure in "Hip-Hop Helicopter" when she enjoyed the attention she was getting from boys, and it's not the good kind. And then there's the time Zoey was dejected that she was tempted by Sista Spice into becoming her apprentice-Zoey finally becoming "special", but at the expense of others.
• Costume Evolution: Her clothes are now light green and she wears a jean jacket and green platform sandals in Louder and Prouder.
• A Day in the Limelight: Especially in "Makeover", "Penny Potter" and "Election".
• Dirty Coward: While not as much of a Fair-Weather Friend as Dijonay is, she will at times cave into peer pressure and abandon Penny in her time of need.
• Even Nerds Have Standards: She's just as repulsed as Penny when the bottle points at Myron.^note Though her opinion changes by the time Louder and Prouder's second season rolls around. She even thinks Agatha Ordinaro is geeky (mostly for being... homely). Though she wouldn't mind if she was voted "Most Nerdiest" in the yearbook.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted. Zoey has orange hair but is quite shy and passive in comparison to her friends.
• Geek Physiques: She's tall and very skinny, likely to accentuate her nerdiness.
• Genki Girl: She's always cheerful and excitable.
• Give Geeks a Chance: In "Innocence Lost", she finds a Valentine in Myron and a later episode implies that they're officially dating.
• Hidden Buxom: She's noticeably curvier while wearing a swimsuit in 'Love Thy Neighbor'.
• Hidden Depths: As shown in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", she can sing operatically.
• Huge Schoolgirl: In Louder and Prouder, after "seeing the light" that made her other friends hit puberty, Zoey has become at least six feet tall. She’s somewhat disappointed that’s all that happened.
• I Just Want to Be Special: She wants to be noticed.
• Nerd Glasses: She's a nerdy girl and she has glasses.
• Nice Girl: One of the nicest, if not, the nicest character on the whole show.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Nice to LaCienega's mean and Dijonay's in-between. She's the klutzy Nervous Wreck who's often positive about everything.
• Noodle People: She's very lanky, especially in Louder and Prouder.
• Not So Above It All: She sometimes ditches Penny along with LaXienega and Dijonay, and there are times she does insult Penny herself, but this doesn't last that long.
• Only Sane Woman: She is this when Penny's other friends ditch her at times.
• The Pollyanna: Except if something's bothering her, she's almost always optimistic.
• Pubescent Braces: She has prominent braces, which fits with her awkward teenage behavior.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Zoey is a redhead, but she is very geeky and is shown to have geeky obsessions in the Spelling Bee episode.
• She Is All Grown Up: Zoey's glowup when she becomes college-age in "When You Wish Upon a Roker" is the most notable out of everyone, becoming a Statuesque Stunner who looks almost unrecognizable from her current geeky tween self.
• Shrinking Violet: The least confident of her group of friends.
• Token White: The only one in the show (besides her mother, who only appears in "Tiger Whisperer"). Becomes a plot point in "The End of Innocence" where she is dated by a superstar teenager who only likes white girls (but she refuses to believe so instead of who she is, until she learns the hard way it was because of her skin color).
• Vocal Dissonance: College Zoey's voice in the episode "When You Wish Upon a Roker" is done by the musical artist Holly Winter, who has a very deep bass voice that is striking coming from Zoey's weedy body, especially when she sings.
• Vocal Evolution: In earlier episodes, her voice was deep and more melancholy. However, from the fourth episode onwards, her voice becomes more cheerful and optimistic. In the revival, however, her voice is even lower and raspier.
• Youthful Freckles: She has some freckles on her face.

Michael Collins

^{Click to see Michael in Louder and Prouder.}

Voiced by: Phil LaMarr (Original Series), E.J. Johnson (Louder and Prouder), Jeremy O. Harris (Louder and Prouder, as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

Penny's flamboyant friend.

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• Adaptational Sexuality: In the original series he was Camp Straight. In the revival, he's allowed to be Camp Gay. However, the writers reveal that he was always gay. They just weren't allowed to put a label on him at the time of the original series.
• All of the Other Reindeer: "Who You Callin' a Sissy?" explores how he's often bullied because of his effeminate nature.
• Art Evolution: Michael went through two different design changes throughout the franchise. His biggest design change by far was in Louder and Prouder.
• Ascended Extra: Has been elevated to the core group of friends in the revival, as opposed to being the friend who merely provided comic relief.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's generally easy-going and friendly, but one episode focused on him constantly getting picked on until he couldn't take it anymore and became The Dreaded for the latter half of said episode.
• Bully Magnet: The show deconstructs this with Michael being a target of bullying. He becomes fed up and rages at his tormentors.
• Butt-Monkey: Michael is constantly bullied by the football players when he's the water boy. Even his own father is embarrassed by him to the point that his father wants him to refer to him as "coach" in public.
  • While Michael is not the primary target of ridicule in the revival series, he still experiences slapstick humor. Throughout almost every episode, Michael experiences at least one minor stroke of bad luck.
• Camp Straight: Possibly in the original series—a couple episodes teased something going on between him and Lacienega, to the point that the last straw for him in the episode mentioned in Beware the Nice Ones was her making fun of him, implying that he genuinely liked her.
  • Likely averted in the revival, while he and Lacienega are still friends he’s shown dancing with a boy at the dance.
• The Dandy: To the point that he was voted most fashionable in their yearbook.
• Deadpan Snarker: He is prone to throwing shade towards everyone, even his friends, especially in the revival.
• Elephant in the Living Room: Despite how prejudiced the school shows itself to be in "Father Figures" towards Maya and KG for having gay fathers, Michael is surprisingly never harassed for being gay, not even by Penny's homophobic dad, especially considering he danced with a boy in plain sight.
• He Is All Grown Up: Went from the awkward short kid to a tall and flamboyantly stylish teen by the revival, as Penny notes upon seeing him.
• Hidden Depths: While most of his interests are effeminate and he's terrified of playing contact sports like football, "Who You Callin' a Sissy?" shows he actually enjoys basketball and is pretty good at it. By the revival, he's gotten a lot better at it.
• I Got Bigger: Michael definitely got taller by the revival, surpassing Penny, LaCienega, and only barely matching about Zoey's height. Penny clearly noticed.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: While not nerdy, Michael does have nerd-like personality traits and his father is a coach.
• Morality Pet: When he’s around, he does bring out the best in characters like Dijonay or even LaCienega, who constantly backstab Penny.
• Nice Guy: Michael is a nice, polite guy. So much that he doesn’t need anyone’s gratitude.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: In "Louder and Prouder", his tips are dyed pink, showing how he's open about being Camp Gay; it's also likely done in response to his father, who Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child.
• The One Guy: In ''Louder and Prouder' he's the only male character in Penny's core friend group after Sticky left, as while KG does show up sometimes, he doesn't get nearly as much screen time as the other characters and isn't treated as much as part of the group as his sister Maya is.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Michael and LaCienega's on-screen chemistry is so notable that some viewers may mistakenly believe that they are in a romantic relationship, particularly after watching them dance together in an episode of the revival series called "The End Of Innocence." Nevertheless, it is plausible that they only danced together because they were not with a date like their other friends and because they share a close bond with one another.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Out of Penny's friends, he's quite goofy and comical, that every moment with him is pure humor.
• Rage Breaking Point: In "Who You Callin' a Sissy?", he tolerated the bullying he dealt with until he finally raged at his tormentors at the near end of the episode.
• Ship Tease: Twice with Lacienega of all people in the original series (albeit in an extremely ambiguous way). Not so much in the revival, where he's gay.
• Stepford Smiler: He feigns confidence when he is bullied in "Who You Callin' a Sissy?". The near end of the episode shows how badly affected his is after all the hate and teasing.
• Twofer Token Minority: Three actually. Louder and Prouder reveals he's black, part Powhatan, and a gender-nonconforming gay.
• Trash Talk: He's the master of this, throwing insults whenever he can. Michael's trash talk has a bit more style and sophistication in Louder and Prouder.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Unlike most characters, Michael averts Limited Wardrobe in Louder and Prouder, seen wearing different outfits and hairstyles in "It All Started With An Orange Basketball", Snackland", and "Get In". The page images is his most common attire however.
• Verbal Tic: Michael usually calls the girls “boo” as an Affectionate Nickname.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Not him, but his dad. His father makes him call him “coach” in public due to his embarrassment of his son’s feminine traits. Continues in "Louder & Prouder", where he has the same idea as Oscar to make Michael wear military clothes as a punishment.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His dad, the school football coach, makes his son call him "Coach" in public (or at least when they're at school) and it's implied this is due to Michael’s camp nature.
• You Don't Look Like You: Out of all the characters who return in Louder and Prouder, Michael has been radically redesigned such that his trademark Childish Tooth Gap is gone and is given a new style to reflect he’s gender-nonconforming such that he’s embraced his flamboyant side.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In "The End of Innocence," he dresses up as Pocahontas. He pulls off the look very convincingly.
• Would Hit a Girl: When Michael hulked out in "Who You Callin’ a Sissy", some of his victims were the Gross Sisters and Lacienga.

Myron

Voiced by: Marcus T. Paulk, Jaden Smith (Louder and Prouder, as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

A classmate who has a crush on Penny, and later, Zoey.

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• Black and Nerdy: He's black and is known as a geek at his and Penny's school.
• Chick Magnet: Temporarily becomes one in "Rumors" when his and Penny's classmates think something more went on between the two of them during Penny's party.
• Everyone Has Standards: He's briefly offended when Zoey asked if he likes her because of her race, saying that he likes her as herself. It's the moment where she truly reciprocates his feelings.
• Dark Horse Victory: In the election episode, he ends up winning since he didn’t resort to trickery (Penny on the Gross Sisters’ behalf) nor bribery (Wizard Jr.).
• Expy: He's the spitting image of Steve Urkel, minus the signature high-pitched voice. Suga Mama even calls him "Urkel" in "The Party", which doubles as an Actor Allusion given her voice actor.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: If he's ever with Penny and her companions, expect them to point out how weird he is at least once. Penny is the one who usually treats him more horribly than the others.
• Nerd Glasses: He wears big, square-rimmed glasses that serve to show more of his nerdy nature.
• No Social Skills: Myron just doesn't know when to stop dragging on about a subject that's not relevant. Maya points out this is part of the reason why he doesn't have friends.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In "Rumors" and "Election" when he's shown to be briefly popular. He also becomes Zoey's Valentine in "Innocence Lost", with a later episode implying that they're an item.

Omar Phillips

Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson

A jock and one of Penny's friends.

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• Adapted Out: Subverted. While he didn't appear in Season 1 of the revival series, he does return in the second season.
• Chick Magnet: Most of the girls in his school have a crush on him.
• The Ditz: He is a dimwitted guy. Sometimes, he is unable to remember Penny’s name, as seen in “Puff’s Magic Adventure.”
• Dumb Jock: He's a quarterback and as mentioned, is not entirely smart.
• Jerkass Ball: Sometimes he will openly mock someone else when surrounded by bad influence.
• Lovable Jock: Despite being a Dumb Jock, Omar is usually nice.
• Satellite Love Interest: He spends most of the show being Penny’s arm candy, but he does have a few exceptions.

The Chang Triplets

^{Click here to see their Glow-Ups in Louder and Prouder.}

Voiced by: Lydia Look (all three in The Proud Family; Julie only in Louder and Prouder), Miyachi (Billy in Louder and Prouder), Haley Tju (Debbie in Louder and Prouder)

Fraternal triplets who are the smartest kids in Penny's class.

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• Adapted Out: They are neither seen nor mentioned several episodes into the revival series. Subverted as of Season 2, where they finally make a reappearance.
• Academic Athlete: They also practice karate. In the revival, Julie mentions that she's on the soccer team.
• All Asians Know Martial Arts: They are Chinese, but they are trained in the Okinawan art of karate.
• Asian and Nerdy: They are Asian straight-A students who enjoy academic challenges and showing people up as they have talents in many subjects.
• Asian Buck Teeth: Downplayed. They are typically designed with fairly normal mouths, but in several instances when they open their mouths, their most commonly shown teeth are two upper incisors, giving off the impression of this trope. By Louder and Prouder, this along with any stereotypical characteristics they previously had were removed.
• Butt-Monkey: They get bullied by the Gross Sisters and sometimes get kicked out of events.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: In "Spelling Bee", Debbie is declared the winner of the titular competition after Timothy and Penny were disqualified.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the original series they were pretty much identical in both personality and design. In Louder and Prouder they have much less stereotypical appearances and hairstyles, have three different voice actors, and more or less have distinct personalities and hobbies, like Billy being more laid back and having some sort of relationship with Maya, Julie being into soccer and Debbie being into DJ'ing.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: To help them diverge from the stereotypical images they were created with, Louder and Prouder gives each triplet their own unique hairstyle. Billy and Julie are even shown to have dyed their hair.
• Given Name Reveal: It took a while for this. In the original series, only one of them was ever given a name; the girl in the red dress is Debbie. Wikipedia did claim that the other two's names are Billy and Julie; a list in "The Legend of Johnny Lovely" gave them these names. These were all eventually confirmed in the second season of Louder and Prouder.
• Hidden Depths: Debbie is a rising disk jockey in the revival series.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: They know karate, an Okinawan martial art, despite being of Chinese descent.
• Nice Guy: And girls. The Chang Triplets are always polite and friendly.
• Same-Sex Triplets: Averted, one is male and two are girls.
• Secretly Wealthy: Or rather, that their family secretly has enough money to live comfortably because of their connections. "Hip-Hop Helicopter" reveals their dad is the director of the show, and their mom is the landlord of Dijonay's rich cousin’s friend Gary, who is a high-paying client.
• Single-Minded Twins: More of "single-minded triplets". They're all treated as a single character and rarely appear without the other. By Louder and Prouder, they're less of this and are individualized.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: In Season 2 of Louder and Prouder, Debbie refuses to be part of Penny's debate team on the grounds of wanting to avoid the "model minority myth".
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In the revival, they seem to lack the Butt-Monkey status their predecessors had. Debbie also has a DJ gig and Billy is implied to be in a relationship with Maya.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: And daughters. They all strive to live up to their father's expectations, although the revival implied they stopped being this and focused more on what makes them happy.

Duke Anoi

Voiced by: Brandon Baker

Penny's surfer friend who resided from Hawaii before moving to California.

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• Charles Atlas Superpower: He's stronger than he looks considering the Tug-O-War event in his debut.
• Nice Guy: He’s a pretty friendly and laid-back person.
• Operation: Jealousy: After getting spurned by Sticky, Dijonay decides to get back at him by dating Duke and so Sticky pretends to date Penny in response. After all that, he breaks up with Dijonay and becomes friends with Sticky.

Peabo

Voiced by: Cree Summer

The Prouds' 9-year-old neighbor.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: He's nine, but acts more mature than Oscar, who is a grown man. He seems to see everything that goes on and knows the things that go wrong.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: He is the only one to genuinely like Proud Snacks.
• The Cassandra: Peabo can easily predict when something wrong will happen to Oscar, but Oscar doesn’t believe him. But, some of the accidents Oscar gets himself into could’ve been avoided if he had just exercised common sense.
• Character Catchphrase: "Remember what happened last time?", usually followed by an I Told You So after said event happens.
• Food as Bribe: Peabo does like money, but he likes Proud Snacks even more as payment.
• Has a Type: Peabo seems to only be interested in girls older than him.
• Ignored Expert: Peabo knows when Oscar isn't performing a task correctly, and Oscar just doesn't listen, despite Peabo having allegedly witnessed Oscar do those same tasks before. Oscar treats him as a backseat driver who criticizes his ability to perform "grown up" work.
• Invisible Parents: His parents are constantly mentioned, but are never seen on screen.
• Nice Guy: He is consistently polite and friendly.
• Likes Older Women: Implied. He has Precocious Crushes on tweens Penny and Zoey, and later becomes boyfriend and girlfriend with one of Dijonay's sisters who may be older than him. And in the revival, he hits on LaCienega.
• Noodle Incident: There was one incident where Oscar asked Peabo to spy on Penny. When Peabo reminds Oscar of it, all that's known is that charges were pressed on Oscar, but they were dropped.
• Only One Who Likes Spam: He's the only character in the show who genuinely likes Proud Snacks.
• Only One Name: His last name is never revealed.
• Only Sane Man: He usually warns Oscar about his antics.
• Precocious Crush: Peabo develops crushes on Penny and Zoey, even though they are tweens and he's a child.

Dr. Payne

Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson

The Proud Family's doctor who loves the whole family (minus Oscar). He also tends to charge outrageous prices for even the most minimum of treatments.

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• Bald Head of Toughness: He's balding in Louder and Prouder but he hasn't lost an ounce of his tough demeanor.
• Character Catchphrase: He likes to tell Oscar, "Quiet, fool!!!"
• Dr. Jerk: Only to Oscar—and to be fair, Oscar usually brings it on himself.
• Eyes Always Shut: He's always drawn with closed eyelids.
• Expy: Of Mr. T, especially in regards to his speaking style and constant use of the word "fool".
• Genius Bruiser: He's a doctor and a former professional boxer, bragging about knocking out his opponents and reviving them. That said, he’s also a fitness trainer and a massage therapist.
• Gentle Giant: Despite his imposing appearance and demeanor, he's a good doctor and a generally nice person. Until Oscar pisses him off.
• Jerkass to One: He's nice to everyone except Oscar, who provokes him more often than not. Although in the Louder and Prouder episode "Grandma's Hands", he also starts insulting Bobby in a similar way due to being overly dependent on his mother.
• Miserable Massage: Gives one to Oscar and Felix in the subplot of "Forbidden Date" that involves clumping them up into balls and bouncing them around.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Penny "Itty bitty", Suga Mama "Suga Bear", and Oscar (and Bobby at one point) "Fool".
• Punny Name: Payne (pronounced "pain"). Being a doctor, this would also count as an Ironic Name.
• Scary Black Man: Only when someone (by whom we mean Oscar) makes him mad, and keep in mind this guy was a boxer once. He once hit Oscar so hard, he turned into paste, as Mr. Gross had done beforehand.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brown

Voiced by: Asante Blackk, Ashton Sanders (as an adult in "When You Wish Upon a Roker")

Penny's boyfriend in Louder and Prouder.

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• Deliberate Under-Performance: When Oscar tries to have Kareem play basketball for his team (because he's tall), Kareem misses all his shots. It's later revealed that he does have basketball talents, but was deliberately missing his throws so that Oscar wouldn't force him to play.
• Gentle Giant: He's a very tall but very nice young man.
• Mellow Fellow: He's pretty calm, and never actually gets mad at Penny when she blows him off, instead being disappointed in her.
• Named After Someone Famous: He is indeed named after the legendary NBA basketball player.
• Nice Guy: Kareem is a good guy. He is understanding with Penny, is calm and never gets mad, is gentle, sensitive, and very polite.
• Official Couple: He's Penny's boyfriend.
• Out of Focus: Despite being in a relationship with Penny, his actual appearances in the show are spotty after his debut and he's not treated as a core member of the group. However, he does still pop up at several different episodes to show that he and Penny are still dating and it was not just a one-episode situation.

Darrius Saint Vil

Voiced by: Chance the Rapper

A preppy student of Haitian descent who is introduced in season two of Louder and Prouder. He becomes Dijonay's new boyfriend, even transferring to Willy T. Ribbs Middle School after the events of his debut episode.

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• Cheaters Never Prosper: He hooked up with Dijonay to get access to her copy of the Willie T. Ribbs Middle School debate team's strategy book. It fails when she and the team flip the script on him and do a stellar spoken word performance that gives them the win.
• Easily Forgiven: While he did use Dijonay to try to cheat, his and her body language after her win show that he does regret his actions, but she forgives him, and they both agree to continue their relationship.
• Official Couple: He stays Dijonay's boyfriend after his debut.

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