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Shrinking Violet / Live-Action TV

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  • 7 Yüz: Pınar, the shy and introverted protagonist of "Hayatın Musikisi", who clams up when put on the spot. It doesn't help that she's an anomaly in an office filled with social butterflies.
  • Ally Dawson from Austin & Ally has major stage fright.
  • Betty: Honeybear is shy and reserved (though ironically she also dresses in a very revealing way).
  • Black Mirror: Yorkie, one of the two protagonists in "San Junipero", is a painfully shy and quiet young woman. Justified - being comatose for the past 40 years doesn't give you many chances for social interaction with other people.
  • On Boy Meets World when Eric goes to hollywood to be an actor on a Self-Parody Show Within a Show the actor who plays the Shawn expy is one of these, in contrast to the more confident character he plays.
  • Julianne Simms from Breakout Kings has pretty severe social anxiety, so it suits her well to be a Voice with an Internet Connection. Her love interest Lloyd is often shown trying to coach her on interacting with others.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • One episode had a girl who acted this way; nobody in the school noticed her, or for that matter even knew she existed. Through a combination of quantum physics Techno Babble and the nature of the Hellmouth, she became invisible and snapped, taking revenge on the popular girls. The end of the episode revealed that she apparently wasn't the first girl this had happened to.
    • Tara also fits this trope, especially in her early appearances (in season 4 and early season 5). She gets killed, though.
    • Willow began the show as a painfully shy and innocent Shrinking Violet, but as her self-confidence and magical abilities improved, she evolved into more of a live-action Cute Witch. Her biggest insecurity was that she still remembered her stammering pushover phase and based too much of her self-esteem on magic (complete with a temporary transformation into a Dark Magical Girl).
  • Conversations with Friends: Frances is pretty quiet and shy, often thinking but not saying things like her friend Bobbi points out, who says it makes her seem enigmatic. She gets embarrassed easily by Bobbi, who's more outspoken by far, revealing personal information of hers to others (such as that she's a communist or a bisexual).
  • Dates: Erica is a shy, studiously polite young woman who's a closeted lesbian hiding her sexuality to please her family at first. Her character arc involves defying them to be herself and come out.
  • Firefly: Simon. He's meek, polite and has a hard time admitting he loves Kaylee.
  • Game of Thrones: Melara Hetherspoon is very deferential to Cersei and is afraid of Tywin. Wisely so.
  • Glee's Tina Cohen-Chang is so painfully shy she faked a stutter so that she wouldn't have to interact with people.
  • Good Trouble: Alice is the true epitome of a B-type personality whose arc mainly consists of her learning to assert herself.
    • In one episode, she becomes distressed with paying for toilet paper for the whole building but is too timid to ask the residents to provide for themselves. Once she brings it up they agree and consider it no big deal.
    • Part of her second season arc is gaining the confidence to go for a program that one of her stand-up comedy peers is also going for. They both get in.
    • In the third season Mariana takes her out to try to get her to take a more assertive role in her romantic relationships.
  • Homicide: Life on the Street: Brodie is a shy, gentle man prone to stammering over himself, which doesn't exactly help his status as a No-Respect Guy.
  • The Letter People: Mr. X is a rare male example of this, being very shy around the other letter people due to his X causing everything to go all wrong. He comes out of his shell a bit once Mr. K and Mr. S let him borrow their sounds, which cancels his "all wrong" effect.
  • Merlin: Guinevere is shy, but she can get ticked off, though. She originally had a crush on Merlin, but got over it and got a crush on Arthur, and became the High Queen of Camelot.
  • Yuri Kazune from Mr. Brain is shy, although she does have a few moments of assertiveness. Not that anybody listens to her when she does, though.
  • From Noah's Arc, Noah briefly became painfully shy after being gay bashed.
  • Odd Squad: Flashbacks in "Training Day" show that Olive was very shy as a young agent-in-training, which wasn't helped by Todd consistently abusing her, both verbally and emotionally, as they eventually became partners. She had no self-confidence either, and often let Todd take the lead on cases. Once he is fired, becomes a villain, and unleashes a pienado into Headquarters that injures several of her co-workers, she gains newfound confidence.
  • Young Ned from Pushing Daisies. His shyness, albeit to a lesser degree, extends into adulthood.
  • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: Kotoha Hanori is shy, except when she is around one of her common shipping partners (Chiaki or Takeru, sometimes Genta) or her Friend/Big sis figure Mako.
  • Keith Dudemeister from Scrubs, at least in his debut episode. "My Intern's Eyes" is mostly shown from his perspective (hence the title), and he spends the bulk of the episode trying and failing to work up the courage to say something to his superior, JD. Later episodes alter his characterization into a more confident Ace, however.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Lt. Reginald "Reg" Barclay is painfully shy, especially in his earlier appearances. In his debut episode, "Hollow Pursuits", he talks to Geordi about how difficult it is for him.
      Barclay: I am the guy who writes down things to remember to say when there's a party. And then, when he finally gets there, he winds up alone, in the corner, trying to look comfortable examining a potted plant.
      Geordi: You're just shy, Barclay.
      Barclay: "Just shy." Sounds like nothing serious, doesn't it? You can't know.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Tobin, one of the previous hosts of Dax, was prone to biting his fingernails and apologizing for everything. Also, according to Ezri, he could never bring himself to discipline his children.
    • Star Trek: Enterprise: Malcolm Reed is very shy and quiet.
  • Lilian from The Trouble With You Lilian is shy and insecure, painfully so, brought on by living with someone as demanding and domineering as Madge.

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