History Characters / TheGoodPlace

'''WARNING! Only spoilers for season 3 are marked! Beware of major spoilers!'''

* [[Characters/TheGoodPlaceNeighborhood Neighborhood 12358W/Team Cockroach/The Soul Squad]]

* [[Charatcers/TheGoodPlaceEarth Earth]]

[[foldercontrol]]

!Neighborhood 12358W
!!!Main Human Characters

[[folder:Eleanor]]
!!Eleanor Shellstrop
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shellstrop_eleanor.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I wasn't freaking Gandhi, but I was okay. I was a medium person. I should get to spend eternity in a medium place! Like Cincinnati."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/KristenBell, Noelle E. Parker, Avery Hayes (young)

--> "''What are you talking about? It is so easy to live with a lie. I once pretended to have a terminal illness to meet Scott Wolf at a Sunglass Hut. Victimless crime."''

[[TheHero Our Hero]], relatively speaking. Initially believed to be an activist lawyer who got innocent people off of death row and one of the best people accepted into the Good Place, she is quickly revealed to be not who she says she is. Actually a saleswoman from Arizona who sold fake medicine to the sick and elderly and self-professed "medium" person, Eleanor attempts to hide her secret and become someone worthy of staying in the Good Place.
----
* AbusiveParents: The lousy example set by her parents undoubtedly set Eleanor on a path to the Bad Place pretty early on.
* AnythingThatMoves: There doesn't seem to be any person Eleanor would not be willing to sleep with for any reason.
* AppropriatedAppellation: After Michael says he thinks of humans as "cockroaches, or dung beetles, any little thing that crawls around in its own filth," she dubs the group Team Cockroach.
* BerserkButton:
** She lashes out at someone for asking, "Why are you like this?"
** People taking the moral high ground. As in, not trying to take the high ground over her specifically, but in general, since it hits her insecurities and makes her lash out, as shown with one of her boyfriends in life.
* BiTheWay: Eleanor has dated men and her official love interest is Chidi, but she's also shown interest in several women, such as Tahani, Vicky as Real Eleanor, Simone, Music/{{Rihanna}}, and Janet. In a discussion with Janet, they refer to Eleanor's past lovers as "exes". It's not treated as a big deal.
* ABirthdayNotABreak: The season two finale reveals she died on her birthday.
* BrilliantButLazy: Eleanor is/was this, especially in her adult life. She was determined enough as a teen to work two jobs while attending high school and appears to have put herself through college. She even got a full-time job offer at a successful company, but she blew it off in favor of a commitment-free, morally dubious sales job and appears to have had zero ambitions before she died. In the afterlife, she's smart enough to get a B+ on a college-level essay on moral particularism (only slightly lower than the highly educated Tahani's grade) but she's so committed to being a self-absorbed slacker most of the time, she's almost on the same level as [[TheDitz Jason]].
* CharacterDevelopment: She actually starts to change under Chidi's tutelage, [[SpannerInTheWorks thereby ruining Michael's plan]] for an innovative Bad Place, which depended on her being a StaticCharacter forever. In season 2 she's matured from a selfish person who cares about no one but herself to being the only one who passed Gen's test of character...and then lies about it when she found out everyone else failed.
* TheCynic: When she was living, she believed that the world was so full of bad things and people that even trying to do anything good was pointless. Although under Chidi's influence she softens into the KnightInSourArmour, her basic cynicism enables her to see through the {{Masquerade}}. Repeatedly.
* EmancipatedChild: She legally emancipated herself from Doug and Donna when she was only fourteen years old. They didn't put up a fight, and seemed happy to be rid of their responsibility towards her.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** She briefly hesitated over blowing off house-sitting for a friend because she didn't want to leave her friend's dog to starve. Her solution was to leave all the food out, which led to said dog getting morbidly obese but still alive.
** No matter how she mistreats or insults Chidi, she insists that he is a good person with no ulterior motives. [[spoiler:She asks outright why Chidi was sent to the Bad Place, since compared to her he never did anything wrong.]]
* EvilCanNotComprehendGood: When she was alive, she couldn't fathom people being genuinely nice and altruistic and always assumed they had some ulterior motive.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Doug and Donna were incredibly self-absorbed (to the point that they forgot Eleanor's birthday, blew her college fund, and she was forced to provide for them financially at the age of 14) and immature people who were not at all fit to be parents. Moreover, they divorced when she was a child and let her emancipate herself from them without a single fuss. This left Eleanor with a very dim view of people that didn't get any better over the years. However, she eventually admits that it was wrong of her to use this to justify her crappy behavior.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: In life, she was this with the co-workers she drank with. She didn't really like ''them'', either; she was only tagging along for the drinking, not the friendship. Even among her social circle she was either too much of a jerk for some and too nice for others.
* GoodFeelsGood: Eleanor is very excited when she realizes that she's started doing good things because she wants to, not just as a ploy to get to stay in the Good Place. When she gets a second chance at life, it starts out this way but [[InSpiteOfANail starts falling apart after about half a year, until Michael secretly guides her toward Chidi.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: A little when it comes to Chidi.
* HasAType: Eleanor has a thing for mailmen, particularly if she can get them to take their shirt off in front of her.
* HateAtFirstSight: A key part of Michael's plan is that Eleanor will hate Tahani the minute they meet, for no real reason. This part is mentioned to consistently work during their stay in the Bad Place. [[spoiler:While initially averted when they meet in series 3, where their first meeting goes much better, Eleanor still takes joy in taunting and mocking Tahani when she can.]]
* HeelRealization: Eleanor was so self-absorbed that she never realized just how much of a jerk she was and thought of herself as a mildly good person. When she is confronted with her past actions, she finally realizes just how nasty and selfish she was.
* ItsAllAboutMe: When she was alive, this was her defining personality trait.
* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Invoked. While an unrepentant jerk while alive, Eleanor attempts to become a better person in order to become deserving of the Good Place. Also the plot of "Somewhere Else," where she gets saved from death at the last minute and she tries to become a better person.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Eleanor is quick to point out everyone's flaws, suggesting that everyone is not as good as they seem - especially Tahani. She adds how it makes no sense to only pick the "best" people rather than have a place for "people who weren't terrible but not perfect."
--->'''Eleanor''': What, one in a million gets to live in paradise and everyone else is tortured for eternity?
** When Chidi is down after being told his 3600 page book on ethics is a mess, Eleanor points out how "I get bored halfway through a text message" so even being able to ''write'' something so thick is an achievement to be proud of.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Eleanor is shown to be a flagrantly selfish and hedonistic person, but she does eventually admit to having felt some guilt for shirking her trash duties, and she's the only one who finds it wrong that people who weren't perfect but weren't utterly terrible are sent to a place of eternal torment after they die. Deep down, she is capable of great selflessness and compassion. Her confessing to not belonging in the Good Place to protect Chidi is her most heroic act yet.
* TheLadette: In many ways, she's written like a stereotypical uncouth man. She's also fond of women's MMA.
* LazyBum: As part of the "brilliant, but lazy" thing noted above. Michael notes that in life, if the going got tough for Eleanor, she gave up, to the extent she just abandoned her car the minute the low gas light came on, or in another instance frequenting a coffee shop owned and operated by a pervert simply because it was closer to her apartment.
* LonersAreFreaks: From what "Someone Like Me as a Member" reveals, when she was alive, she disliked making any emotional or social connections with others to the point she quit a high paying job for the con job she had before she died because it was required she play games with her coworkers to form bonds. She also announced at a high school she transferred to when she was younger she didn't want to be friends with anyone and refused praise from another loner who respected her actions.
* LyingToProtectYourFeelings: Just as Gen tries to tell that Eleanor was the only one to pass her test and earn the right to the Good Place, Eleanor steps in and lies about her failure, so nobody would feel guilty about sending her to the Bad Place.
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Eleanor's the Masculine Girl and Chidi's Feminine Boy. Chidi is a nerdy, polite, well-mannered and slightly timid and neurotic intellectual who loves French poetry while Eleanor is a hyper-sexual, alcoholic, foul-mouthed, strong-willed and uncouth {{Ladette}} who says "man" a lot. These two care and support each other despite their obvious differences. Funny thing is that when they shared a house together in Episode 5, they acted like a stereotypical husband and wife but with the stereotypical gender role expectations reversed, where Chidi complains that he has to do all the chores while Eleanor is a slob.
* MeaningfulName: One possible etymology for the name Eleanor comes from the life of [[UsefulNotes/EleanorofAquitaine Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine]], who was christened "Aenor" after her mother and then dubbed "alia Aenor," "the other Aenor" in her native Occitan. Eleanor is also [[OneSteveLimit "the other Eleanor."]] She also shares her medieval counterpart's political savvy, flair for the dramatic, and talent for survival. Less historically, the name "Eleanor" contains all the letters required for "learn", which [[CharacterDevelopment she most definitely does]].
* MessianicArchetype: [[spoiler: As insane as it sounds, she essentially served as this. She was the being that managed to convince Michael of the capacity for goodness in every humans, which led to the team finguring out and attempting to fix the rules that had doomed every human soul for over half a century to The Bad Place, essentially making her the savior of the souls of humanity.]]
* MinorLivingAlone: She got herself emancipated at the age of fourteen, and from then on lived by herself. It's not clear if she continued going to school or had to drop out, but she mentions having to pretend to be older to get a job. The sad part is, she probably ''was'' better off this way than she was with her parents.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: After time is reset so that none of the main characters ever died in the first place to see if they would change their ways without the goal of a reward, Eleanor does indeed start to make an effort to be a better person after surviving the incident at the supermarket. However, her honest persona starts to have negative consequences, such as confessing to her roommate that she was the one responsible for tearing her dress and the "dress bitch" shirts resulting in the loss of her friendship and leaving an apology note on a car she ran into resulting in her receiving a lawsuit from the owner.
* NotSoDifferent: In "The Trolley Problem", she notices that she and Michael have a disturbing amount in common. This is ''after'' she realizes that Micheal is actually a demon.
* OneSteveLimit: Played with. The pretense of her being in Neighborhood 12358W is that she died alongside another woman named Eleanor Shellstrop in the same accident, and when Vicky shows up they start referring to her and our Eleanor as "Real" and "Fake" Eleanor, respectively. In the end, though, Eleanor is the one and only.
* TheParanoiac: Her cynical personality leads her to mistrust people, thinking they're silently judging her when they are (probably) doing no such thing, such as thinking various Rite-Aid employees were judging her purchases, or that Tahani is out to get her.
* ParentalNeglect: Much of her behavior is explained by a flashback revealing that Eleanor's parents were truly horrible people, total deadbeats who didn't even know her birthday and blew her college savings on bail money and various idiotic schemes.
* PerverseSexualLust: In Season 3, a review of Attempt #445 shows that Michael knows that she has frequent sex dreams about Sam The Eagle from ''Franchise/TheMuppets'', which Eleanor simply responds that she finds his authority reassuring.
* PintsizePowerhouse: It is frequently noted that Eleanor is quite short and petite. However, in the third season BarBrawl she effortlessly knocks out the demon Vicky with one punch, and this is after Vicky had taken multiple blows from Janet with much less effect. Evidently Eleanor knows a thing or two about bar fights.
* ProudBeauty: Eleanor will occasionally comment about how attractive she is, even when not appropriate.
%%* RedOniBlueOni: Eleanor's Red Oni and Chidi's Blue Oni.
%%* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Energetic Girl to Chidi's Savvy Guy
* SirSwearsALot: Played it, Eleanor certainly has a colorful vocabulary. However, since the supernaturally enforced rules of the neighborhood forbid profanity, she just constantly talks about "forking benches" and such.
* SnakeOilSalesman: Eleanor worked as a telemarketer selling fake medicines to sick seniors.
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** Eleanor, to the shock of everyone (including herself), genuinely reformed under Chidi's tutelage. This completely ruined Michael's plans and forced him to bring in Shawn to try and get things back under control. She also always figures out that she, Chidi, Tahani and Jason are all actually in The Bad Place, being used to torture each other.
** In the second season, it doesn't matter what new tricks Michael comes up with to make the four humans think they're in the Good Place, most of the time it's Eleanor who figures out where they are. After it happens more than ''eight hundred'' times, Michael is forced to team up with them as the only way to break the eternal stalemate.
* StepfordSnarker: At one point, she is called out for constantly mocking others as a way to distract herself from the emptiness inside her. She admits this is a fair observation.
* StreetSmart: Eleanor doesn't fall easy for traps and has shown an ease to figure out when people are lying to her or plotting against her, she's a very good judge of character and capable of detecting small things that can be used as hints to figure out something when others are talking.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Will often turn to a convoluted and very specific example from her own life when emphasizing a point, and will then proceed to deny that it's based on a true story. Eventually she starts admitting when they're based on actual events.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The Tomboy to Tahani's Girly Girl. Tahani is warm-hearted, has a feminine fashion sense, and a social butterfly while Eleanor is a more blunt {{Ladette}}.
* TookALevelInKindness: [[InvokedTrope Eleanor doing this deliberately]], in the hopes of becoming the kind of person who deserves to be in The Good Place, is half the premise of the show. She succeeds to the point that she's willing to go to The Bad Place to spare those she feels are genuinely more deserving of paradise.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: She really loves shrimp for some reason. Her ApologyGift from Michael is even an Infinite Shrimp Dispenser (a soda machine with shrimp in place of ice, with various dipping sauces).
* {{Tsundere}}: Towards Chidi, no matter what iteration, as Mindy lampshades.
* UndignifiedDeath: Eleanor's memory of her own death was erased because it was "traumatic and embarrassing". She bent over to pick up a bottle of "Lonely Gal" margarita mix in a parking lot, and a long column of shopping carts plowed into her. She was carried into the street and struck by a billboard truck advertising an erectile dysfunction pill. Funnily enough, the first EMT to arrive was an ex-boyfriend of hers...
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: She's selfish, angry, spiteful... but it's not entirely unjustified and she does start trying to be better.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Chidi]]
!!Chidi Anagonye
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anagonye_chidi.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"You know the sound that a fork makes in a garbage disposal? That's the sound that my brain makes all the time."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' William Jackson Harper, AJ Hudson (young)

--> "''Okay, sure, but philosophy is about questioning things that you take for granted, and I, I just don't think that you're doing that.''"

A moral philosophy professor from Senegal and Eleanor's soulmate. Well, for the Eleanor who is supposed to be there. Roped into keeping her secret, Chidi becomes the mentor to this not awful (but definitely not great) person by teaching her how to be good.
----
* {{Adorkable}}: He definitely has these moments. Chidi is more awkward than smooth, especially once his indecisiveness comes to light. Doesn't stop him from being a CluelessChickMagnet.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Unnecessarily stresses over decision making all the time, to the point it has negative effects on his relationships with other people, making it likely he suffers from some sort of anxiety disorder.
* BlackAndNerdy: A moral philosophy professor from Senegal who is neurotic, bookish, not good with confrontation, and considers rowing out to the middle of a lake while reading French poetry to be his idea of a good time in paradise.
* BrickJoke: A running gag is Chidi's obsessive concern with the unethical production of several foods. He is particularly convinced that the reason he was sent to the Bad Place was because ''he used almond milk even though he knew it's bad for the environment''. [[spoiler: As it turns out, small innocent actions with negative consequences just like those are exactly the reason no one has made it to the Good Place in centuries.]]
* ButtMonkey: Bad things often happen to him for the sake of comedy.
* CatchPhrase:
** "I have / am getting a stomach ache."
** "I am vexed, [addressee]! ''Vexed!''"
** A drawn out "what?"
* CharacterDevelopment: More than anyone else on the show, Chidi's development is of a "three steps forward, two steps back" type thanks to his indecisive nature. Time and again he tries to become more decisive, and he even has long stretches where he succeeds... but then, when one of his decisions turns out to be wrong or have negative consequences, he tends to lapse back into indecisiveness for fear that he'll make another wrong choice. [[spoiler:His development comes to a head in the Season 3 finale, as he makes the decision to willingly give up memories in order to ensure the success of the experiment, a choice that is no doubt the most decisive decision he's made in his entire life.]]
* CharacterFilibuster: Once had an online lecture on Kantian philosophy that lasted three hours.
* ClarkKentOutfit: Chidi is a nerdy professor and dresses like one most of the time, but Eleanor mentions that he is "surprisingly jacked". This is confirmed in Season 3 when he rips off his shirt during a breakdown and is shown to be quite well-built, more than characters of his archetype in fiction usually are anyways.
* CluelessChickMagnet: Amusingly enough, he has had several different women vying for him at some point in the story (Vicky was faking it as part of her act, though her fixation on torturing him definitely raised some eyebrows), and he doesn't usually realize it until they spell it out for him. Notable because this doesn't tend to happen to characters of his archetype.
* TheConscience: To Eleanor, since he is the one teaching her about ethics and how to be a better person. Eleanor even asks herself [[WhatWouldXDo "What would Chidi do"]].
* CunningLinguist: Chidi speaks half a dozen languages in addition to his native French, including Latin, "[[CrazyPrepared just in case it comes back]]."
* TheDitherer: Chidi is the "can't see the forest for the trees" variant of this trope and this flaw is what got him sent to the Bad Place, due to how miserable it made everyone around him.
** He possesses an immense amount of knowledge but it is all in constant conflict in his head, leading him to be unable to make even the simplest of decisions (such as choosing between a dry-erase board and marker or paper and pen).
** His indecision is actually what killed him; [[DeathFromAbove he was hit by a falling AC unit]] while he was too busy making a decision.
** This is such a defining part of his character that Gen, the all-powerful judge, tests him by telling him to choose between two hats. He spends ''80'' minutes preoccupied with deciding which choice is the right one, failing because he didn't realize that the point of the test was to make a simple choice.
* {{Doorstopper}}: Chidi's life's work is a 3600 page monstrosity that attempted to encompass the entirety of human morality and ethics. Unfortunately, he contradicts himself so much that not even Michael, a near-omniscient supernatural being, can make sense of it.
* FatalFlaw: He is an extremely nice guy but his obsession with always doing the most ethical thing has ruined his life and poisoned his relationships with other people. He also spends so much time debating the rights and wrongs of a situation that he never makes any decisions, so he either lets the decision time out or he lets others decide for him, and even then he can't make it concrete.
* HeelRealization: Chidi realizes how much his obsession and indecisiveness over doing the right thing led to him hurting everyone in his life and got him sent to the Bad Place.
* HeroesLoveDogs: He's shown to be fond of dogs on multiple occasions, and mentions having had one as a kid that he really loved. [[spoiler:When breaking up with Simone, he seriously considers giving her a dog as he does so just to lighten the blow, and in a flashback, we see him unable to choose between two adorable puppies.]]
* HeroicBSOD: In season 3, after he learns that [[spoiler:he had died and been sent to the Bad Place]], he loses morale entirely and embraces nihilism for the rest of the day.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: For Chidi, the road to He... er, The Bad Place, was literally paved with good intentions. He cared about the people around him and only wanted to live a moral life, but his tendency to overthink and obsess about taking the right path led to him being so indecisive that he hurt everyone around him.
* IronicName:
** His given name means "God Lives". On one hand it's fitting for a moral philosophy professor that finds that the afterlife is real. However, in a show about what happens to you after you die, God is non-existent as a character. In fact, it's implied in-universe that there is ''no'' God, at least not as understood in modern Abrahamic religions, or any other religion for that matter (the closest thing so far would be [[spoiler: Gen]], referred to only as "The Judge").
** And in Season 3, when [[spoiler:a resurrected Team Cockroach accidentally find out about the afterlife and are automatically disqualified from their last shot at getting into the Good Place]], Chidi, taking it the worst out of everyone, ends up reciting everyone's favorite [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche Nietzsche quote]]:
--->'''Dealer''': Hey, do you wanna talk to God?\\
'''Chidi''': "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Who will wipe this blood off us? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to ''invent''?" Creator/FriedrichNietzsche, 1882.\\
'''Dealer''': I just try'na sell you some drugs, and you made it weird! *runs off*
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Chidi is a variation. While he knows a lot about morality and ethics, he is unable to present a concise, decisive view about his knowledge, having learned so much that he can't keep his thoughts straight. His 3,600 page book is a total mess where Chidi repeats himself, goes off on tangents and quite often contradicts what he just said. Chidi is naturally thrown to realize his life's work is worthless.
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Chidi's the Feminine Boy to Eleanor's Masculine Girl. Chidi is a nerdy, polite, well-mannered and slightly timid and neurotic intellectual who loves French poetry while Eleanor is a hyper-sexual, alcoholic, foul-mouthed, strong-willed and uncouth {{Ladette}} who says "man" a lot. These two care and support each other despite their obvious differences. Funny thing is that when they shared a house together in Episode 5, they acted like a stereotypical husband and wife but with the stereotypical gender role expectations reversed, where Chidi complains that he has to do all the chores while Eleanor is a slob.
* MeaningfulName:
** 'Chidi' means 'God lives' in Igbo, a language spoken in Nigeria, where Chidi was born before he moved to Senegal. This is even directly stated in the show. Fitting for a show set in the afterlife.
** 'Anagonye' comes from three separate Igbo words that combine to mean 'to build from the ground up,' which Chidi does by giving Eleanor and later all of Team Cockroach entry-level ethics lessons to help improve her non-existent morals. Also, though pronounced differently, it has the word 'agony' in it, which handily describes his secret-keeper situation.
* MoralityPet: He helps Eleanor change for the better no matter the circumstance. Eleanor, who will otherwise insult him and other people, keeps emphasizing that Chidi is a good person and he deserves better than what he got. Taken UpToEleven when he gets Michael, a literal demon, to pull a HeelFaceTurn through his ethics lessons.
* MrFanservice: Very rarely the case due to his personality, but apparent when he takes off his shirt, due to his rather impressive figure underneath.
* NerdGlasses: Thick black rectangular ones, just to mark that he's the resident professor. Also possibly counts as PurelyAestheticGlasses, since he can't possibly be in need of them in the afterlife.
* NervousWreck: Doing anything immoral, no matter how slight, turns Chidi into a wreck. He obsessed over a white lie he told his coworker for ''three years.''
* NiceGuy: Like many of those in the Good Place, Chidi is kind and morally upstanding. Though initially conflicted about whether or not he should help Eleanor stay, he decides go through with it even though it puts himself in extreme danger as well. Michael even notes that he was the closest of the main four to getting into the real Good Place. Not actually ''close'', but closer than the other three.
* NoSenseOfDirection: He claims to have what doctors call "directional insanity". Apparently he once got lost on an ''escalator.''
* NonActionGuy: Despite being surprisingly jacked, he's not good at physical fighting. [[spoiler:In the season 3 fight scene he spends his time getting dragged around, while the others get hits in on the demons]].
* ObliviouslyEvil: In life, Chidi really tried to be a good person, but as Michael pointed out, his rigidity and indecisiveness made everyone around him suffer.
* RedOniBlueOni: Chidi (blue) is level-headed and an ethics professor, while his soulmate Eleanor (red) is feisty and all over the place.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Savvy Guy to Eleanor's Energetic Girl. She's generally perkier and more adventurous, while he's more straight-laced and frustrated.
* SecretKeeper: He's the first person Eleanor confesses to that she's not the person everyone else thinks she is. Since she made him promise not to betray her, he can't tell anyone else, so he tries to help her learn how to be a good person worthy of staying in the Good Place.
* ShirtlessScene: Gets shirtless in "Jeremy Bearimy" after embracing nihilism.
* SkewedPriorities: His inability to make a decision sometimes leads him to prioritize the trivial over the important. He missed his mother's back surgery because he was already committed to helping his landlord's nephew set up a new phone.
* TheSmartGuy: Chidi is the one who uses his knowledge about ethics to guide Eleanor during her quests.
* SpannerInTheWorks: No one expected Chidi to be as good of a teacher as he turns out to be. Eleanor genuinely turns over a new leaf and consequently completely screws up Michael's evil plan and forces him to bring in Shawn to try and salvage the situation.
* StrawNihilist: Chidi starts talking like this after he has a breakdown due to [[spoiler:having learned about the afterlife]]. This includes quoting Creator/FriedrichNietzsche's "God is dead" speech, and telling all his students to become nihilists.
* TokenGoodTeammate: He's the most unambiguously nice of the main four, has no corrupt and selfish motives, and his indecision was rooted in good intentions. On the other hand, Chidi ''saw'' what his obsessive indecisiveness did to the people around him yet made no effort to change.
* TomatoInTheMirror: Like Tahani. By the standards of the CelestialBureaucracy, he's a bad person, and therefore in the Bad Place. He had accepted the idea that they were in the Good Place because it validated his concept of himself as a good person.
* UnderstandingBoyfriend: He's this with [[spoiler:Eleanor]] after they actually fall for each other. A shining example is when she has a breakdown because their relationship seems too perfect, and he sits by her and gently assures her not to worry about the future too much.
* UptightLovesWild:
** Chidi is a sophisticated and pragmatic ethics professor with a sense of perfectionism when it comes to morals who wants a stable life and dreams of meeting his soulmate but in the "Good Place", he ends up with the wilder and more impulsive Eleanor but despite her many flaws, he is very caring and loyal towards her.
** He also plays the Uptight to the more relaxed Simone.
* WillNotTellALie: He wants to be unrelentingly honest because it's the ethical thing to do, which causes problems when the team has to lie their way through a Bad Place event.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tahani]]
!!Tahani Al-Jamil
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/al_jamil_tahani.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I would say I outdid myself, but I'm always this good. So I simply did myself."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Jameela Jamil, [=GraceAnne=] Pullappally (young)

-->''"You know, this really reminds me of my time in Vietnam, picking up mortar shells with my godmother, Diana. Doesn't really matter what she's a princess of. It's not really important."''

A wealthy British socialite and Eleanor's next-door neighbor.
----
* AbusiveParents: Her parents heaped praise on her sister, while barely acknowledging any of her accomplishments, and belittling those they do. And they topped it all off by misspelling her name as "Tahini" ("like the sauce") in their will.
* TheAce: During her life, she raised $60 billion for non-profit groups and also worked as a museum curator, a fashion model, an "It Girl" and was Baz Luhrmann's muse. She frequently name-drops extremely famous celebrities as friends or people she's influenced, and when she does so in front of a truth-testing device, it confirms it as true.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: In spite of seeming to be almost insufferably perfect, she developed a deep inferiority complex because her sister Kamilah was even ''more'' successful and multi-talented, and her parents very openly played favorites.
* AmbiguouslyBi: She dates Jason in season two, but she sometimes gets quite affectionate with Eleanor, as well, and doesn't seem to mind the fact that Eleanor openly has a thing for her. The two were even made soulmates in at least one of the reboots, and from what little we saw, Tahani didn't seem averse to the idea of a female soulmate.
-->'''Eleanor:''' ''(translating Tahani's name)'' "Congratulations, beautiful."\\
'''Tahani:''' ''(smiling)'' Thanks, Eleanor. You big flirt.
* AttentionWhore: Tahani's many accomplishments were born from her insatiable desire for praise and recognition. She falls victim to this even when she ''knows'' the demons are using it to try and torture her.
* TheBeautifulElite: Born into a wealthy English family, Tahani had access to the finest fashions and regularly mingled with high-name celebrities; to the point her diary includes a foreword by Music/KylieMinogue and Malala Yousafzai.
* BritishStuffiness: Her plummy British demeanor is often PlayedForLaughs.
--> '''Tahani''': As us Brits are fond of saying: try your best to hide your sadness!
* BrokenAce: Tahani is a mess of self-esteem issues and is unable to handle being anything less than the best. She also hides her disappointment in being unable to connect with her soulmate Jianyu. And then there's her family...
* ButtMonkey: A Downplayed example. While lauded by most everyone in the Good Place, Michael (who's consistently nice to everyone) often is frustrated by her narcissism and puts her down a lot.
* CallingTheOldManOut: She calls out a hypothetical version of her mother and father in "Burrito," pointing out what lousy parents they were to her, and how doing everything they'd ''never'' approve of is what's finally made her happy.
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:When dragged into a brawl with demons, all of whom are skilled fighters, and many of whom are much bigger than Tahani (making physically overpowering them nearly impossible), she grabs a pool cue, boasting twelve years of fencing experience... and promptly beans a demon over the head with the stick, forgoing any flashy display of her skills in favor of just hitting him as hard as she possibly can.]]
-->'''Tahani:''' Obviously, I'd never do that during a competition. That'd be a three-tenths deduction!
* ConspicuousConsumption: She apparently wears bras made of gold.
--> '''Tahani:''' Darling, do you remember all the rules about what can and cannot be worn inside an MRI? More specifically, what if one's brassiere is very thin, but also very pure gold?
* DCupDistress: Lampshaded by Tahani herself.
-->'''Tahani:''' Couture just doesn't fit my body. I'm cursed with ample bosom.\\
'''Eleanor:''' [[DeadpanSnarker And yet you soldier on.]]
* DesperatelyCravesAffection: Tahani is always fishing for compliments and praise from people due to being denied from her parents.
* TheFashionista: Tahani is always seen wearing elegant semiformal outfits and cares about designer fashion, and when the neighborhood in emergency mode magically puts everyone in bright blue-yellow striped outfits her clothes is the first thing that reasserts itself as things go back to normal, in an apparent act of pure will on her part. That's right, Tahani's fashion sense is strong enough to warp reality.
-->'''Tahani:''' That was my first time as a Fashion Don't, and I did ''not'' care for it!
* FirstWorldProblems: Because she's a wealthy Brit she's rather out-of-touch. In the first season, she mentions her Bad Place torture would be being forced to wear a knockoff handbag and drink tap water. In the second season, she thinks her version of the Bad Place would be an eternity spent in the Swiss Alps during the off season, emphasizing "off season" as if she was disgusted. Chidi (in the first instance) and Eleanor (in the second) react with disbelief.
-->'''Chidi:''' ''That'''s what you think Hell is?
* FreudianExcuse: Growing up with parents who refused to show affection or praise for anything while lavishing it on her sister, who was always the center of attention and actively contributed to Tahani's feelings of inferiority, would leave anyone with a serious complex.
* HeelRealization: She eventually realizes that all the good acts she's performed were rendered meaningless, because she only did them for praise and recognition, rather than because they were good deeds. Happens again a season later when the Bad Place is torturing her by making her throw unsuccessful parties, and she realizes that it's working, which makes her realize that she's a frivolous, prideful person.
* HistoryWithCelebrity: Exaggerated to the point of parody. Tahani namedrops her famous friends and acquaintances constantly. To start with, she can apparently count Princess Diana, Music/PaulMcCartney, and Creator/MaggieSmith among her godparents.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: In Michael's second attempt, Tahani gets a unique punishment fitting for the Bad Place: She must live the humble life she claims she always wanted, living in a crappy shack of a home, eating bad food and dressing in cargo pants. Her every attempted protest is cut off by Michael saying this is meant to be the humble and caring woman Tahani claimed to be so she has to bear it.
* HumiliationConga: The events leading up to her death were pretty bad, even by the standards of this show. First, she got an interview about an upcoming relief trip to Haiti she was taking... except all the interviewer wanted to talk about was Kamilah, even referring to Kamilah as an only child ''to Tahani's face''. We then find out Kamilah was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (they decided to just waive the 25-year waiting period, because, [[ParodySue naturally]], Kamilah's album was ''that'' good), and Kamilah didn't even invite Tahani to the party. So, Tahani decided to dress up as a waitress and confront Kamilah. Kamilah mocked Tahani in front of all her friends, and said Tahani was just embarrassing herself, as always. When asked if that was really how she thought of Tahani, Kamilah simply said that she doesn't think of Tahani, period. Then Tahani turned around and saw a ''gold statue of Kamilah''. This proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back, and Tahani had a FreakOut and began to try and tear the statue down, in full view of the crowd, and succeeded... by bringing it down onto herself. To make matters worse, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint she died in Cleveland]].
* IAmVeryBritish: She keeps her posh British accent in the afterlife, and Eleanor mocks it a few times.
* IJustWantToBeLoved: Ultimately, this is the crux of her problems. Even though she had many friends and admirers, lived an incredibly exciting life, and has a list of accomplishments that most people could never dream of achieving a ''fraction'' of, Tahani wasn't ever really happy. All she wanted was to gain the same level of recognition and appreciation that Kamilah got, especially from their parents. It's hard not to wonder if Tahani would've turned out this way if her mother and father had raised her with love and affection. Towards the end of season two, Tahani begins to make steps towards growing out of this issue. She breaks up with Jason so she can learn to stand on her own two feet, and finally accepts that her parents would ''never'' treat her well, no matter what she did -- and that's ''their'' problem, not hers.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Tahani is always praising herself, to the point of annoying Eleanor and Michael. She is thrown for a loop when she discovers she's second-to-last in the rankings of everyone in the Good Place and puts herself in danger by abandoning the curfew Michael set up to fix the sinkhole to help them out. The fact that all her charitable works were done in the name of self-aggrandizement rather than altruism got her sent to the Bad Place.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Has a habit of doing this, talking to Eleanor about "belonging" in the Good Place while unaware she doesn't, and throwing a happy retirement party for Michael before learning that retirement for Architects is [[AndIMustScream not pleasant]] and that the pinata she made of him happens to be in extremely poor taste.
* IronicDeath: It's finally revealed in "Team Cockroach" she died crushed under a massive gold statue of her sister. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint She's more upset over the fact that of anywhere in the world, she died in ''Cleveland.'']]
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Downplayed. Most of her warm philanthropic appearance is a front and she greatly values surface gloss and receiving praise, but she is capable of acknowledging other peoples' feelings (even if it takes her a bit of a run-up).
** A recurring problem for Eleanor and Chidi in season 1 is Tahani trying to force "Jianyu" to break his vow of silence, not caring about his apparent view on the matter. When it looks like he has started speaking, Tahani leaps to the assumption that Eleanor and Chidi did this as a surprise for her. After that, she assumes she and Chidi are soul-mates, declares her love for him, and never once considers he doesn't return the feelings (as Eleanor points out, her declaration is more ''telling'' him he loves her than anything else).
* JerkassHasAPoint: The way everyone ignores her in order to gush about her sister Kamilah would give most people a serious complex. And despite her selfish motives, Tahani did accomplish some truly remarkable things through hard work and dedication yet everyone was always fixated on Kamilah. Plus Kamilah is a very callous and self-centered person as well.
* JerkassRealization:
** In the first season finale, it finally hits her that she's in the Bad Place because all her "charity work" was just for attention and her own ego rather than helping others.
** In "Team Cockroach", Michael shows Tahani that she died by accidentally crushing herself beneath her sister's statue, in a juvenile attempt to deal with her envy, rather than going to Haiti to help with the relief efforts like she planned. It makes Tahani truly realize that all the good things she did while she was alive were just for the attention and an attempt to measure up to Kamilah. Breaking down at the fact she wasted her life, she now wants to learn to be the woman she always believed she was.
* LonelyRichKid: She grew up very wealthy but with parents and a sister who showed her zero affection or kindness.
* MeaningfulName: Lampshaded by her. In Arabic, Tahani means 'congratulations' and Al-Jamil is 'beautiful', so her full name means 'congratulations, beautiful'.
* MsViceGirl: As condescending, arrogant, and shallow as she is, Tahani's too kindhearted to really qualify as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and she did do a whole lot of good. Yes, her motivations were corrupt, but she still helped a ''lot'' of people when she was alive.
* NiceGirl: Played with. One has to be one by default to get into the Good Place, and Tahani raised millions for charity on top of that. Eleanor initially suspects this to be a front, but finds that while Tahani is [[InnocentlyInsensitive obliviously condescending and self-absorbed]], she is genuinely well-meaning, compassionate and sweet. However, she is still a bit too snobbish and SecretlySelfish to be a truly straight example.
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Early on, aside from the many innocently insensitive comments she makes, Tahani has a habit of "booping" Eleanor on the nose, which Eleanor really doesn't like.
* NotSoDifferent: Both she and Eleanor just wanted to be loved by their parents and the actions they took because of that lack of love drove them to the behavior that sent them to the Bad Place.
* OppositesAttract: With Jason in season 2.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: While considered one of the most talented and sophisticated people in the Good Place, Tahani all through her life was constantly outdone by her sister Kamilah. It got so bad that a reporter interviewing Tahani about her accomplishments starts asking questions about Kamilah instead and completely forgets about Tahani, to the point where she mistakenly identifies Kamilah as an only child! It's indicated the only reason her death is memorable at all is because she was crushed by a gold statue of her sister. In Cleveland.
* ParodySue: Tahani is initially presented as one when her many achievements are first detailed, but it's subverted when it is revealed that she is ''incredibly'' spoiled and self-centered. All her efforts were just a way to show to her parents that she was just as good as her younger sister Kamilah, who is the ''real'' Parody Sue and who outdoes Tahani in every possible area.
* PungeonMaster: Enjoys naming her baked goods and desserts with themed puns. For example, at Michael's retiring party she had on display 'Retire-Mint' chocolate cake and 'Flan Voyage', and made donut holes when Michael and Janet were attempting to fix the giant sinkhole.
* RightlySelfRighteous: Much to Eleanor's chagrin, Tahani is a genuinely nice and caring person even if she can be a little condescending and boastful.
* RunningGag: Tahani drops names at least thrice per episode, mentioning places she visit, things she did and how she is related to several celebrities.
* SecretlySelfish: The many good deeds she performed in her life were negated by the fact that she only did them to gain attention and try to outdo her sister.
* SheepInSheepsClothing: Tahani is more than a little self-righteous and obliviously condescending, but otherwise every bit as kind as she appears, despite Eleanor's suspicions.
* ShipperOnDeck: [[spoiler:In Season Three, she encourages Eleanor to confess her feelings for Chidi.]]
* SitcomArchnemesis: As Eleanor's plummy, seemingly perfect, upper class neighbor who is more than a little boastful and self-righteous, Tahani ''really'' gets on Eleanor's nerves. Turns out to have been invoked, as Michael expected that they'd grate on each other.
* SkewedPriorities: Tahani has a tendency to latch on to pointless details. For example, when Eleanor explains what's going on with the Good Place, Tahani's only response is when Eleanor states Chidi doesn't love her.
* SlaveToPR: Ultimately, Tahani's philanthropy and good deeds were all to look good and outdo her younger sister.
-->'''Tahani''': I was ''supposed'' to be in Haiti being photographed helping people...
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Played for laughs. Tahani mourns not being able to wear haute couture because of her large cup size, and her pores are ''so'' miniscule that that leave-on face masks don't stick to her skin.
* {{Socialite}}: She was this in life; she spent her days mingling with the upper class and raising money for charity.
* SpoiledSweet: Zigzagged. Though Eleanor believed her to be a rich BitchInSheepsClothing, Tahani reveals herself to be kind and generous who used to her wealth to benefit the needy and all sorts of charity groups. Though it turns out that Eleanor wasn't entirely wrong; Tahani did those things to inflate her own ego, which is why she's in The Bad Place.
* StatuesqueStunner: Is acknowledged by everyone--including Eleanor, who calls her a "sexy skyscraper" despite herself--to be very attractive, and at one point Eleanor acknowledges that Tahani "has legs for days." Jameela Jamil was a former model and is the second tallest member of the main cast; Tahani is taller than Jason and Chidi.
-->'''Tahani''': I'm just a girl, towering over a boy, asking him to admit he loves me.
* StepfordSmiler: Her flashbacks make it clear that, for all her wealth, sophistication, and fame, she was ''not'' a happy person. Of course, looking at her family and the way everyone treated her in comparison to Kamilah, it's not hard to see why. It gets better in the afterlife, when she meets the others.
* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Suffers from this due to living her entire life in her sister Kamilah's shadow.
* TomatoInTheMirror: By the standards of the CelestialBureaucracy, she's a bad person, and therefore in the Bad Place. She had accepted the idea that they were in the Good Place because it validated her concept of herself as a good person.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The Girly Girl to Eleanor's Tomboy. Tahani is warm-hearted, has a feminine fashion sense, and a social butterfly while Eleanor is a more blunt {{Ladette}}.
* TheUnfavourite: All but outright stated to be the case. Her parents had unrealistic expectations for Tahani, unfavourably comparing her to Kamilah. When they died, they even misspelled her name in the will, calling her Tahini ("Like the sauce.").
* UpperClassTwit: A spoiled but good-natured and intelligent version, but on occasion Tahani shows it, such as her idea of Hell, or considering marrying a duke "dallying below my station", or showing disdainful or dismissive attitudes towards working class type occupations ("I'm not a factory worker.").
* UptightLovesWild: In Season 2, she's the "uptight" to Jason's "wild".
* WealthyPhilanthropist: Born into an uppercrust British Pakistani family, she seemingly got into The Good Place by raising plenty of money for humanitarian causes.
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Ultimately all her issues stem from never winning her parents' approval. In "The Burrito", she faces off against her parents one last time during her test, and finally gets closure, realizing she will never gain their approval over Kamilah, and she is better off not trying.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jason/Jianyu]]
!!Jason Mendoza/Jianyu Li
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mendoza_jason.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I'm ranking my favorite ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' movies. You said you wanted to know who I am, and this is the best way to get to know me."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Manny Jacinto

-->''"Yo, you should listen to me! I came up with hundreds of plans in my life and only one of them got me killed."''

A Buddhist monk and Tahani's soulmate who took a vow of silence during his time on Earth, and continues to do so in the Good Place. Or so the other characters believe. In actuality, he's a "pre-successful" DJ and small-time criminal from Florida. Also quite possibly one of the stupidest people who has ever lived.
----
* AchievementInIgnorance: [[spoiler:During "Janets", Jason figures out how to use his temporary Janet powers with ease, while Eleanor has repeated problems with them.]]
* AffablyEvil: Not "evil" exactly, but he's a lot more outwardly friendly than his criminal past would suggest.
* AsianAirhead: A rare male example. Jason is so very dumb. For starters, he thinks the Good Place might be an alien zoo or a highly elaborate prank show. Also mispronounces ethics as "ethnics." He only avoided giving himself away immediately by pretending to be silent, and as soon as he starts speaking again he almost ruins his and Eleanor's chances of staying in the Good Place. He also thinks penguins aren't real.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Jason has the attention span of a goldfish, which is not helped by his lack of intelligence. At one point, Eleanor gets him to stop hindering their discussion by having Janet give him a sparkler to play with.
* BerserkButton: Although Jason is normally too goofy and self-absorbed to get truly upset or angry, he does get very irritated when Tahani keeps calling him Jianyu long after he's stopped hiding his real identity.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: He sees no problem with committing robbery and other serious crimes, but he has an extremely strong moral objection to lying or pretending to be someone else, to the point that he still struggles with it even if it's the only way to avoid eternal damnation.
* BrainlessBeauty: Jason is definitely not the brightest of people, but [[StupidSexyFriend as Eleanor notes]] multiple times, he's pretty easy on the eyes. In fact, his combination of good looks and earnest innocence eventually gets him caught in the center of the show's first legitimate LoveTriangle.
* CallingParentsByTheirName: As part of their carefree Floridian nature, Jason refers to his dad by his name Donkey Doug. He tries calling him Donkey Dad during a father-son bonding moment but the two of them decide it doesn't sound as nice.
* CallingYourAttacks: Played for laughs. Yells out "BORTLES!" (referencing Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles) when he throws a Molotov in both his flashback and in "Mindy St. Claire". Gets a CallBack in "Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent" when posing as "Jake Jortles" -- he yells "JORTLES" instead.
* CatchPhrase: "Aw, dip", used in moments of realization. "The Ballad of Donkey Doug" suggests he got it, and "BORTLES", from Donkey Doug.
* CelebCrush: Apparently thinks Music/ArianaGrande is the sexiest woman alive. He also wishes they were related.
* ChekhovsSkill: MolotovCocktail-making. Introduced in the fourth episode of Season One, used to stall a room full of demons chasing Team Cockroach in the eleventh episode of Season Two. Also used as a FailedAttemptAtDrama at the end of 'Mindy St. Claire.'
* CloudCuckoolander: Has only the vaguest idea what's going on around him at any given time.
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:When the going gets tough, Jason doesn't waste any time before starting to chuck pool balls at his opponents' heads.]]
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Though he's usually spouting nonsense, Jason has occasional moments where something he says becomes relevant later in the episode or season.
* CultureEqualsCostume: He's a Buddhist monk, and thus wears their traditional robes around the Good Place. Justified (since they're not supposed to really have worldly possessions). Once the truth about him comes to light he starts dressing like a bro, although he does put on the robes when fooling the demons.
* TheDitz: Jason is really, really stupid. After several weeks in the Good Place, he thinks they might have been abducted by aliens, he doesn't see why he should make an effort to avoid going to the Bad Place even after having it explained to him multiple times, and once he ''does'' understand, he assumes that Chidi's "ethnics" class works like regular school, complete with football and a prom. He got really, really lucky that he didn't say anything before Michael asked him if he wanted to continue his vow of silence. That gave him an excuse to just hunker down and hide for a few weeks. (In hindsight, since Michael knew who he really was, this was Jason falling for a BatmanGambit).
* DumbassHasAPoint:
** In Chapter 13, when they're arguing about who should go to The Bad Place, Jason points out that he's the only one who hasn't been causing problems for anyone since they all came to The Good Place.
** Every once in a while he comes up with a helpful insight, but these moments are buried deep within rambling stories about the stupid things he got up to when he was still alive.
--->'''Jason''': ...I framed one innocent gator dealer to save a 60-person dance crew.\\
'''Chidi''': Shockingly, that is a relevant example of the Utilitarian dilemma. Well done.
** In Season 3's Chapter 11, he manages to explain to the judge how difficult it can be for humans to make good decisions while also juggling the problems of normal life.
* EveryoneHasStandards: When trying to [[spoiler: save him from damnation]], Jason rather bluntly explains that giving Donkey Doug money wouldn't help his situation, as he'd just spend it all.
* FailOSuckyname: His stage name was "DJ Mr. Music." DJ Music for short.
* {{Fanboy}}: Of the ''Transformers'' movies, or at least the first one (since it's the only one he references). Also, Pokémon. Michael's idea of a gift for him is a Pikachu balloon, which he's overjoyed to see.
* AFoolForAClient: He would represent himself in court, against the advice of the judge... and get immediately convicted.
* GoodIsDumb: Played with. While super-friendly, Jason is a very childish petty criminal ruled by his impulses and inability to think through the consequences of his actions; he can also be incredibly selfish. All things considered though, Jason is the nicest of the four, if only because his dumbness gives him a sort of innocence, as Eleanor notes, calling him the nice one of the group.
* HanlonsRazor: He's an illustrative example; he's a career criminal, but not with any malice or disregard towards anyone, he's just too dumb to know any better.
* TheHeart: The most sincere and heartfelt of the Good Place crew, in spite of his impulse control and general stupidity. Before his death, he managed to use this ability to command and encourage a forty person dance crew/petty criminals through sheer charisma.
* TheHedonist: Jason is primarily concerned with his own instant gratification and amusement. Exploited by Michael as part of the IronicHell -- he could theoretically have everything he wanted at his fingertips in the Good Place, but has to keep up the facade of being a humble Buddhist monk with no earthly desires or possessions.
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Is believed to be Taiwanese, when actually he's a Filipino-American from Florida.
--> '''Jason''': [[LampshadeHanging That's racist. Heaven is so racist]].
* InsistentTerminology: He prefers to call himself a "pre-successful" DJ rather than a "failed" DJ.
* InterspeciesRomance: Jason, a human in the afterlife, with Janet, a... ''something''. She's definitely not human, in any case.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While he was a robber, drug dealer and serial vandal who tried to cheat his way through life, once he ends up in the afterlife, Jason does become a slightly better person and his negative actions are limited mostly to his general stupidity.
* KindheartedSimpleton: Played with. Jason is [[TheDitz extremely dumb]] and definitely the nicest of the four, but he is still categorically not a good person -- not only did he commit several crimes in life, but he is also ruled by his impulses and can't often see when he's being selfish.
* LoserSonOfLoserDad: As it turns out, Jason's father is a dim-witted criminal, and in a more horrifying twist, ''Jason'' is the more intelligent of the two.
* MagicalAsian: Being a wise Buddhist monk, he dispenses powerful truths and sage advice without saying a word. Except not.
* {{Manchild}}: When he shows Eleanor and Chidi his "Budhole," Eleanor comments the decor -- the game consoles, the posters of cars and bikini-clad models -- is like "12-year-old boy meets... 13-year-old boy." Jason generally has an immature and child-like mind. It's revealed that he and Jianyu have the same IQ, only Jianyu stopped learning at age eight.
* MeaningfulName: His fake name, "Jianyu", has multiple possible meanings. "Build the universe" or "build the world" could just be a reference to Michael constructing the Good Place, or even a hint about the "Jianyu" identity being fabricated. Another, even more interesting, translation is "prison", hinting both at Jason feeling imprisoned by pretending to be Jianyu and at the real nature of The Good Place.
* MistakenForProfound: All of his "wisdom" is actually just him staying completely silent and letting people come up with their own answers. He's actually a complete idiot who's bluffing his way through the whole thing. Ironically, when he does try to give advice after his cover is blown, it often ends up being helpful in spite of being ridiculous nonsense.
* NotQuiteDead: The real Jianyu isn't dead, he just achieved such a deep level of meditation that he was mistaken for dead, leading to Jason being mistaken for him. Though given TheReveal of Chapter 13, it's unlikely there even ''is'' an actual Jianyu.
* OnlyInFlorida: He's from Florida, and does a lot of weird things. When just hearing he's from Florida, Shawn says he must belong to the Bad Place.
* OppositesAttract: With Tahani in season 2. Tahani was a cultured, educated, wealthy philanthropist in life while Jason was an unintelligent, uncouth petty criminal.
* PatrioticFervor: A city-specific example. He ''loves'' his home city of Jacksonville, for reasons no one else can figure out.
* ThePollyanna: As Tahani points out, so many aspects of his pre-death life are deeply disturbing; his father was a ludicrously idiotic criminal, his mother was a criminal, his "school" was a bunch of tugboats, where lessons consisted of selling porn mags, and one of the teachers was arrested for having sex with Jason... and yet Jason never seems to be bothered by any of these things.
* TheQuietOne: He's a Buddhist monk who is continuing his vow of silence. Somehow, he is able to make his feelings known anyway. It turns out this is just how he maintains his bluff. When he finally breaks his silence, he reveals he's actually a Filipino DJ who, like Eleanor, was sent to the Good Place in someone else's place.
* SeeminglyProfoundFool: Subverted. Things like his calming touch on Michael appear genuinely wise, until we learn Jason's true nature. Then, when we learn who Jason is, it looks like this is what's happening when, for example, he pricks his finger on a cactus and Michael manages to convert that into a parable. Then, when we learn the true nature of the Good Place, it becomes clear that everyone except maybe Chidi, Eleanor and Tahani already knew he had nothing to offer in the wisdom department and the poetic reinterpretations of his semi-random actions were just a way of keeping the charade going.
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** Jason is so dumb that not even Michael could anticipate that he would fall in love with Janet and cause the interface to genuinely fall in love with him in return.
** In Michael's second attempt, he blows his cover within a single day, throwing Michael's plans off and forcing him to start from scratch again.
* StupidCrooks: Part of his backstory is committing TONS of ill-conceived and/or impulsive crimes, one of them resulting in his death. The guy is basically the "Florida Man" meme if it genuinely was all done by one person.
* TooDumbToFool: In the second iteration, he ruins Michael's plans within a single day because, separated from the others, he's too stupid to realize he's supposed to be hiding the fact that he doesn't belong.
* TooDumbToLive: He died during the execution of a badly-planned robbery that involved him being locked in a safe. He forgot to put in air holes, thinking just wearing a snorkel inside would help him breathe, and suffocated after doing a number of whippets inside.
-->'''Jason:''' I'm just a dope who died in a safe with a snorkel...[{{beat}}] who's only ''now'' realizing why that didn't work!
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Jalapeno poppers.
* UptightLovesWild: In season 2, he's the "wild" to Tahani's "uptight".
* WalkingSpoiler: It's hard to talk about Jianyu when he's actually an amateur DJ named Jason and, like Eleanor, is also unworthy of being in the Good Place.
[[/folder]]

!!!Administration

[[folder:Michael]]
!!Michael
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michael_40.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"You humans have so many emotions! You only need two: anger and confusion!"'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/TedDanson

-->''"There's something so human about taking something great, and ruining it a little, so you can have more of it."''

The architect of neighborhood 12358W and an otherworldly being who loves humans. When the first neighborhood he ever created is thrown into chaos by Eleanor's presence, he attempts to maintain morale and good cheer despite the ever-growing list of problems that threaten his perfectly designed harmony of the Good Place.
----
* ActorAllusion: In the Season 2 finale, Michael goes undercover as [[Series/{{Cheers}} a bartender]].
* {{Adorkable}}: Is giddy at the prospect of trying out suspenders and excitedly throws Eleanor a "paperclip shower."
* AffablyEvil: When it is revealed that he is actually a demon (or whatever Bad Place employees are). His polite and fun-loving mannerisms are the only elements of his true personality that shine through.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: He's some kind of higher entity who is not quite used to having a human body.
* ArcVillain: For season 1. Michael is a Bad Place architect posing as one from the Good Place, and has designed his neighborhood to look like the Good Place, but is really a Bad Place neighborhood designed to force Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason to psychologically torture each other for all eternity.
* AscendedDemon: By the end of season two, he's genuinely become a noble, kinder person who's willing to sacrifice himself for the safety and happiness of his new friends. Considering it goes against a demon's very nature to be good, that says a lot about how far he's come.
* AuthorAvatar: Is one for showrunner Michael Shur, someone who devising awkward and dramatic scenarios for the only few characters that matter (team Cockroach) while rendering everyone else (the other Good Place citizens who turned out to be other demons) and everything else (Janet and the "Fake Good Place") to plot devices to drive the story (to cause team Cockroach to torture each other).
* BadassFingersnap: Clicks his fingers to use his powers in various ways.
* BadLiar: [[spoiler:It turns out his inherent ability to lie well was part of his demon powers. The second he sets foot on Earth, he starts to lose it -- after spending a year down there, his lies are comically transparent.]]
* BecomingTheMask: He is a demon who decided to pose as a Good Place Architect that cares about the souls so he could witness the torture firsthand. He didn't account for Chidi truly reforming Eleanor, or for all of them to rally around him as their friend before Eleanor figured out they were in the bad place. By Season Two, Chidi kicking him out of ethics class for torturing him has some emotional impact, and Michael realizes that he truly wants to save them.
* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Works himself into a frenzy trying to keep control of all the chaos that Eleanor accidentally causes. The majority of his efforts outright fail to help the problem, which just makes him more panicky. At the end of the first season, this is revealed to have been an act, but the second season opens with him scrambling to prevent Eleanor and her friends from figuring out his secret and ruining his ''real'' plan.
* BenevolentBoss: For a demon, he's actually quite benevolent to his subordinates as long as they're not incompetent.
* BigGood: He's the designer and in charge of maintaining the neighborhood, so he initially comes across as this. Subverted, since he's actually a demon. Double Subverted after he TookALevelInKindness in Season 2. By the midpoint of Season 3, [[spoiler: he's the only member of the entire CelestialBureaucracy who cares enough about humanity to do something about how horribly broken the system for judging people has become.]]
* BloodyHilarious: In "The Trolley Problem", Michael decides to take Chidi's thought experiment, The Trolley Problem--about whether to run over one person with a trolley or five--and do it for real. Chidi gets covered in blood and gore as he runs people over. Repeatedly.
* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:After escaping to Earth in Season Three, he loses all his powers. While it's unclear if he's mortal now, or if he can get hurt, he can't just fix things with the snap of a finger anymore, either.]]
* BuffySpeak: Resorts to this to describe concepts he's unfamiliar with, such as as 'presents' ("Opposite-tortures") and 'guilt' ("after-sad").
* CharacterDevelopment: From a malicious demon unquestioning of his role as a torturer in season one, to a frustrated and conflicted ethics student in early season two, to his current role as a devoted advocate and protector to the four humans.
* TheChessmaster: In season 1, he knew exactly what he was doing in order to screw with the humans' heads under pretense of being nice. In Season 2, after his reformation he rigs up a plan to fool Shawn and the rest of the demons despite having zero time to prepare, banking on his knowledge and familiarity with the demons and humans alike. And it works perfectly despite being somewhat complicated and relying on the everyone involved to do fairly specific actions. Does a much more subtle repeat in "Somewhere Else" where with about two sentences he is able to get a pre-CharacterDevelopment Eleanor who has lapsed back heavily into her bad ways to fly to St. John's University to find Chidi.
* CompleteImmortality: He was born at the very beginning of time, and retirement will consist of spending eternity being tortured after having every ounce of his body split and individually placed upon a single sun. Despite this, he'll still be alive and conscious through all that.
* ComplexityAddiction: All of his ideas involve an intricate sequence of steps where every single moment ''must'' go according to plan over the course of eternity. Unfortunately, the universe doesn't work like that and he's frequently forced to do damage control.
* ConsummateLiar: Michael is a fantastic liar and manipulator, able to lie and fake emotion more or less flawlessly.
* TheDandy: His wardrobe consists almost entirely of colorful suits. You might assume this is just part of his persona, but he appears genuinely insulted when Vicky claims he can't pull off his bow ties.
* DidntSeeThatComing: What ultimately threw a wrench in his initial plan for his experiment of an 'innovative' Bad Place is that he didn't expect that Chidi could succeed in actually getting Eleanor to change for the better.
* DimensionLord: Of the neighborhood, Michael built it and can alter it as he sees fit. Such as creating thousands of new frozen yogurt flavors, several of which embody concepts (like "mother's love" and "full cell phone battery"). He definitely has his limits, as seen when things start to spiral out of control. He also has the ability to wipe memories and reboot the neighborhood.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In Season 2, he realizes that he can't go through with destroying Janet, as he genuinely considers her his friend. Later in Season 2, he actually breaks down when confessing that he wasn't sure if the humans were safe or not. By Season 3 he openly states that the four humans are the only thing he cares about in the entire universe.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: It's implied in Season 3 that he was fine with being a demon and torturing people because that's how the universe dispenses justice in the afterlife to people who deserve it. The other humans admit that he may have a point when they learn that their flaws landed them in the Bad Place. [[spoiler:Post HeelFaceTurn, doesn't react well on realizing that no one has entered the Good Place for 521 years due to the system being rigged unfairly, and it's implied that if he had learned this while evil it would have broken him]].
* EveryoneHasStandards: He's a very nice dude, but even he has limits.
** He's very annoyed by Tahani's condescending attitude and will take pot shots when it gets too much.
** Chidi's dithering gets on his nerves very quickly, to the point he openly chews him out of it.
* EvilAllAlong: It turns out he's been the chessmaster of the main cast's personal hell since the start, engineering many of the crazy happenstances as torture for Eleanor, Jason, Chidi and Tahani as entertainment for the cosmic entities running the Bad Place they're actually in.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The one flaw in his master plan to torment the main four was that he never imagined that Eleanor could learn to be good. Her confession threw a wrench in the whole setup. Later in Season 2, he starts taking ethics lessons from Chidi, which is a struggle because, well, as a demon he's not naturally good; when Chidi has him read "Les Miserables" he concludes everyone in the book deserves to go to the Bad Place.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: In "The Trolley Problem", he thinks it's funny to force Chidi into {{Sadistic Choice}}s where multiple people are in mortal danger and he has to choose to let at least one die in order to save the others.
* EvilLaugh: Lets out a horrifying laugh after Eleanor figures out his game.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: In "Dance Dance Resolution", the heroes kept figuring out that they were actually in the Bad Place (minus that one time when Michael accidentally sat on the reset button).
* FallenAngel: As of Season 3, [[spoiler: he appears to be turning into an [[AscendedDemon inversion]]. He goes from a demon that tortures humans to a supernatural being that saved the lives of four humans so they get another shot at ascending to the Good Place, and then descended to Earth to help save their souls himself. When that falls through, he instead helps those humans save the souls of other people instead. He could be seen as rising from Hell, behaving increasingly less like a demon and more like an actual angel.]]
* FatalFlaw: His perfectionist nature -- he doesn't deal well with unexpected events in his plans.
* ForTheEvulz: Why he decided to "innovate" with a true IronicHell; he and his fellow Bad Place demons were getting ''really bored'' with the typical FireAndBrimstoneHell and wanted to try something new and more personal.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: He's a demon who wears thick black glasses.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
** After a few ''hundred'' reboots, all his fellow demons in the fake Good Place have gotten pretty sick of his shit. (The other demons in the rest of the Bad Place don't know about the reboots yet, though, so they like him fine.) By the end of the second episode of the second season, they're threatening mutiny.
** When he first joins Team Cockroach, they don't like or trust him at ''all'', and only ally with him because there are no other options. They start off keeping him at arm's length, and are quick to assume the worst of him (which, to be fair, is reasonable considering he ''tortured them for three hundred years''). This slowly changes, however, and by the end of the season he's part of the family.
* TheGadfly: Many of his goofy conversations and ObliviousGuiltSlinging with the residents seem, in retrospect, to be his subtle way of mocking and harassing them.
* GrumpyOldMan: He dislikes his "millennial" co-workers (they've only been torturing people for a thousand years) claiming they have no work ethic.
* HeelFaceTurn: After the humans keep figuring out that they're actually in the Bad Place, he teams up with them in the hopes of covering his ass. The influence of Eleanor and Chidi then sows the first seeds of genuine morality, and he finds himself growing genuinely fond of Janet and his former victims.
* HeroAntagonist: His investigation into what's causing the disruptions in the Good Place leads straight to Eleanor. But then he decides to fight to keep her in. Ultimately subverted. He isn't and never was a hero.
* HeroicSacrifice: Sacrifices himself, letting himself be captured by Shawn to let Eleanor get to the Judge.
* HiddenVillain: Again, that season one finale reveal. It's not just a surprise that he's the bad guy, it's a surprise that this show even ''has'' bad guys!
* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: Parodied. In "Existential Crisis", Michael developed a fast one after Eleanor told him to ignore his existential dread by pretending to be fine. It included even a MidlifeCrisisCar, getting a tattoo ("It's 'Japan' in Chinese!"), and Janet posing as his TrophyWife.
* HumanityIsInfectious: After he teams up with the human cast, Eleanor remarks several times upon his increasingly human-like attitude and behavior. Eventually, they collectively him an "honorary human", much to his delight.
* HumiliationConga: Is subjected to one in "Dance Dance Resolution", when the humans are able to realize they're in the Bad Place... ''for over 800 attempts.''
* IHatePastMe: [[spoiler:By season three, Michael is ''not'' proud of his past actions. He avoids showing Eleanor too much of the past reboots because he hates the way he acted.]]
* ImmortalsFearDeath: Chidi tries to give him perspective on mortality by asking him to seriously think about what it would be like to die, or "be retired". He utterly freaks out at the notion.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: ''Especially'' after the first time he has to reset everything. Shawn has absolutely zero faith in him, all the other demons at his command question his plans (especially Vicky), and he doesn't even make it one day before Jason blows his cover and Eleanor realizes they aren't in the Good Place. He's much more competent when he allies with the humans.
* InsistentTerminology: He's actually not a demon (and the Bad Place workers actually consider it racist), but since there's no other term that comes close he lets it slide.
* IntriguedByHumanity: In season one, he says he is endlessly fascinated with human culture, which is why he went against the rule that architects are not supposed to live in the neighbourhoods they design. He also kept a collection of mundane human objects (a tape dispenser, a slingshot, wax lips, a cheese grater, an eraser and a paper football.) This turns out not to have been part of the act; he admits in season two that he's always wanted to know what it's like to be human, and [[spoiler:he geeks out over activities such as riding a bus and buying a gumball while visiting Earth during season three]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He evolves into this over the course of season two. He's still got an edge to him, and is essentially the TokenEvilTeammate, but he truly cares for the rest of Team Cockroach, and shows a lot more vulnerability and moments of kindness. And compared to the rest of the Bad Place, he's practically a saint.
* KickTheDog: Michael literally kicks a dog [[HurlItIntoTheSun into the sun]], thinking it was AGlitchInTheMatrix. Moments later, a woman asks if anyone's seen her dog. Michael brings it back good as new, [[InnocentlyInsensitive thoughtlessly telling her owner that it's basically just a simulation of a dog and doesn't really feel pain, or love.]]
* LargeAndInCharge: He's the head of the neighborhood and played by 6'3 Ted Danson.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Team Cockroach as a whole, including Janet (so much as she can be called "living"), functions as this for him. They're the only true friends he's ever had, and the only things he cares about in the universe. By the end of Season Two, he is absolutely dedicated to getting them into the Good Place for real -- and perfectly willing to risk the wrath of Gen to do so.
* ManipulativeBastard: Subverted. He tries to be a Manipulative Bastard, but the unpredictability of the humans in his experiment is such a SpannerInTheWorks that ultimately FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
* MeaningfulName:
** It's appropriate a higher being in charge of a place that appears to essentially be Heaven shares his name with the Christian Archangel.
** Becomes an IronicName following the reveal. His "Heaven" is nothing of the kind and he's closer to TheDevil than any archangel.
** Michael is also the name of the showrunner, Michael Schur, which is essentially the character Michael's role within the show. This takes on greater resonance with TheReveal, which shows that [[WatsonianVersusDoylist both Michael the character and Michael the show runner have tricked their respective audiences about the true nature of The Good Place.]]
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he likes torturing humans and messing with the main four just for kicks. But his personality is vastly different from his co-workers, and he seems aghast that they don't respect his seniority or authority:
-->'''Vicky''': Yeah but, I don't think ''you'' can pull it off. You can't even pull off those bow ties.\\
'''Michael''': [''touches bow tie''] That was very mean. But I'm gonna move past that, in the name of unit cohesion.
* NiceGuy: His initial persona as an angelic emissary trying to make the afterlife perfect. Turns out he's actually AffablyEvil. Even after he's revealed to be a demon working for the Bad Place, he still manages to come across as fairly likable.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: As a new and original form of torture, he brings together four souls whose personalities are so perfectly out of sync that they'll torment each other for all eternity...and they proceed to make each other into better people.
* NobodyPoops: He doesn't need to excrete any waste and often forgets that its something that humans have to do, such as when he forgets to include bathrooms in an architectural blueprint he was working on.
* NoSocialSkills: No ''human'' social skills, at any rate. Initially, Michael is perfectly charming, if a bit bumbling and insensitive, when dealing with humans -- but that's an act. If he's not torturing them, lying to them, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs lying to them in order to torture them]], he absolutely flounders. He gets somewhat better with Team Cockroach, though he still thinks it's appropriate to propose killing them all as a solution to a problem.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: While a cosmic being capable of building an entire dimension, Michael admits that this is his first real assignment and often implies that he's actually quite low on the celestial hierarchy.
* NotSoDifferent: From Eleanor. She correctly deduces his behavior is him lashing out because he's insecure.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: A Good Place architect seems to be, more or less, an equivalent of an angel, and he certainly seems to style his role of one as such, putting on a gentle, naive facade.
** Come season 3, however, [[spoiler: and you have him rescuing humans from death to give them a second chance at life, constantly intervening in their lives to try and nudge them toward the good path, and then helping said humans help as many people as possible cross into the Good Place: He's essentially an angel in everything but name.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: In season 3 he becomes a father figure to Eleanor, which is lampshaded.
* ThePerfectionist: Michael is such a perfectionist that the very thought of something messing up the perfect afterlife that he created drives him crazy. An attitude later validated after Shawn threatens Michael with "retirement" or similar punishment if the second attempt at his innovative torture town fails. And after he gets in way too deep with his 800 subsequent tries.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight:
** In Season One, he tells Trevor to fork off -- even if Eleanor doesn't belong in the Good Place, she's his friend and he's keeping her. Subverted, as this was part of the act.
** Later played straight, when he starts working with Team Cockroach to try and get them into the real Good Place. At first it's to save his own hide, since he knows Shawn will ''not'' be happy if he finds out about the resets, but over time, he grows to care for the group. By the midpoint of Season Two, he's fully changed sides and is now actively working against his boss to help the humans.
** [[spoiler:In total defiance of Gen, he pops down to Earth multiple times to guide Team Cockroach into becoming better people. To say the results vary is a ''massive'' understatement.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: He gradually comes to root for Chidi/Eleanor.
* SurroundedByIdiots: Most of the demons he has to work with are morons, {{Attention Whore}}s, completely impossible to work with, or some combo thereof. The audience may find themselves feeling a bit bad for Michael!
* TimeAbyss: He appears to be literally as old as the time itself, given that he lists his birthdate as "0". He also mentions that he's "been around for some time... all of it, actually."
* TokenEvilTeammate: Throughout the first half of season two.
* TookALevelInKindness: In Season 2, he only sides with the four main characters out of convenience, due to being blackmailed by Vicky, but after a while he starts to care about them and do some genuinely good actions in order to help out, despite still mocking their human limitations sometimes.
* {{Troll}}: Many of the tortures he inflicts seem to be inspired purely by a desire to mess with people.
* UnreliableExpositor: The audience has been trusting him as completely as the cast, and everything we think we know about this world and how it works comes from him. As the "architect" of this "neighborhood," it means even things we saw that he ''didn't'' tell us were arranged by him as part of his experiment. Even more than this being The Bad Place, knowing that ''Michael is the villain'' [[TheEndingChangesEverything changes absolutely everything. Almost everything you ever thought you knew about the show's universe - big or small, comedic or serious - was said or arranged by him to torture just these four!]] [[RewatchBonus Now watch it all again with that in mind.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: All the humans concede that he was right about why Tahani and Chidi ended up in the Bad Place. And while torturing Chidi during "The Trolley Problem," he makes the point that it's not so easy to sacrifice a life when you're actually at the controls and have to make the choice.
* WalkingSpoiler: Episode 13 makes talking about him at all basically impossible without spoiling TheReveal.
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Has difficulty understanding and expressing the odd, human emotions he's starting to feel, such as concern for others, or guilt.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: He's a demon with hair as white as snow. Subverted as he learns more about ethics and becomes a somewhat more moral individual.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Janet]]
!!Janet
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janet.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Hi! I'm Janet!"'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' D'Arcy Carden

-->''"I mean, it does matter if I know things, because I'm an informational delivery system, and I don't have a heart. But thanks!"''

A walking talking user interface for the celestial mainframe, providing the neighborhood's residents with information about the afterlife and indulging their various requests as long as they are allowed by the neighborhood's rules.
----
* ActionGirl[[note]][[RunningGag not a girl.]][[/note]]: Beats up Shawn and throws him into a wall to help Michael escape from the Bad Place. [[spoiler:Even when she's depowered on Earth she can still take out half a dozen demons by herself, and then she gets her powers back and starts telekinetically throwing them across the room.]]
* {{Adorkable}}: At times. Her open-mouthed glee at being able to pat her own head and rub her stomach at the same time come to mind.
* AIIsACrapshoot:
** Played for laughs. She gets rather glitchy after she's rebooted.
** Later when she helps Jason and Tahani as relationship therapist, since she subconsciously remembers being married to Jason and she glitches whenever she attempts to lie about being happy. Then promptly subverted when she willingly offers herself up to be turned off and replaced before her lie glitches hurt people.
* AintTooProudToBeg: She's programmed to beg for her life if anyone presses her kill switch. As soon as someone balks, she reassures them that she feels no pain.
* AlienCatnip: Magnets cause her to act drunk. She even gets a hangover afterward.
* BenevolentAI: A being with most, if not all the knowledge of the universe, Janet just wants to be as helpful as possible.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[spoiler:When Trevor tries interfering with the humans, Janet tries summoning various items to see if they can injure and / or kill him. Only the fact she lacks her powers prevents anything happening.]]
* BigRedButton: In order to reboot her, one must push a big red button on an isolated beach.
* BizarreAlienBiology: [[RunningGag Not an alien.]] Janets are sexless, genderless, human-shaped vessels of knowledge. They can summon anything they imagine or are asked for into existence, have a body temperature measured upward of several million degrees, don't experience the passage of time but do use it as a lotion for their skin, don't need to eat, get drunk near magnets, and aren't supposed to have blood (having blood is a sign a Janet is glitching). Also, shining a light in one ear causes it to come out the other refracted.
* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:Along with Michael, being on Earth removes her powers. She's still ''insanely'' smart and apparently still has the capacity to remember ''everything'' she learns, but she can't just instantly absorb new knowledge anymore, nor can she summon things... much to her frustration. Like Michael, it's unclear if she's effectively mortal now, though.]]
* BroughtDownToBadass: [[spoiler:Being on earth negates her powers, but she still has complete knowledge of (and seemingly perfect memory of) the entire universe up to the point she entered Earth, which she's able to use to put together incredibly advanced sci-fi devices. She also retains all her knowledge of how to fight, allowing her to easily beat up a room full of angry demons.]]
* BrutalHonesty: When Michael announces he's leaving the Good Place, Janet bluntly says it will not affect her in any way. Which is true, since she's an anthropomorphized construct with no real emotions.
* CameBackWrong: Every reboot she goes through adds another layer to her programming. In one reboot, she somehow bonded with Jianyu in a way no one could have anticipated and the two of them end up getting married. Michael finds this development to be so abhorrent that he decides to go reboot Janet again to try and fix things. And as of "The Trolley Problem", she's accidentally developed the ability to willfully lie (due to being rebooted 802 times) which causes potentially-catastrophic glitches throughout the neighborhood as lying fundamentally goes against her programming.
* CloudCuckooLander: Her attempts to act human can come across as this.
* TheCutie: Always friendly and glad to help. Every time she is updated, which is compared to a birthday, she likes to take a piece of birthday cake and smash it around where her mouth is.
* DeathIsCheap: Though she is accidentally "killed" by Chidi when he presses her deactivation button, she comes back to life a few hours later as an updated version. Though as Eleanor, and Janet herself points out she is an anthropomorphic construction of information who wasn't born to begin with so therefore she can't technically die.
** In "Dance Dance Resolution", each neighbourhood reset requires Michael to reboot Janet, thus resulting in (at least) 801 more iterations of this trope.
* DissonantSerenity: She always speaks in a friendly, upbeat tone, even when giving bad news or noting unpleasant facts.
* EasilyForgiven: Justified in that she's a construct and technically not human, but Janet gets along well with Michael, considering that [[spoiler:he kidnapped her from the Good Place and has rebooted her eight hundred times]].
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: She's the neighborhood's interface with the celestial mainframe. That said, she's not entirely a non-sentient construct in human form in the sense that she does have some sense of 'selfness' and even emotion at times, same as a sentient being.
* GreatBigBookOfEverything: She can access information about everything in the universe.
* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: Given the above-mentioned growth with each reboot, she ponders that she might be the most advanced of her kind to ever exist after it's happened more than 800 times, and indeed comes off as far more human-like. The biggest change is that she is now able to feel emotions, and develop genuine attachments and affection for others. She even figures out a LoopholeAbuse in her own programming.
* {{Hammerspace}}: She either has access to one or is at least partially made of one, considering [[ItMakesSenseInContext she pulls her user manual out of her nose]] and seems to be able to create objects out of thin air.
* HaveYouTriedRebooting: If Janet glitches, or needs to be taken offline for a while, you can simply turn her off and back on again. It then takes her a few days to fully reboot.
* InsistentTerminology: Whenever someone refers to her as virtually anything, she'll quickly counter that she's not one, such as a robot or a girl.
* LogicBomb: Parodied. She is often compared to a robot, and becomes extremely confused that Chidi decided to come alone to the couples' spa, even saying "DOES NOT COMPUTE" over and over. Though she was just joking.
--> '''Janet''': (''in a robotic voice'') DOES NOT COMPUTE! DOES NOT COMPUTE! (''laughs'') I'm just kidding. I mean it doesn't compute, but I'm not gonna explode or anything.
* LoopholeAbuse:
** She can side with the humans and Michael when they team up, because she was made to make humans' lives easier and tend to their needs. Eleanor, Jason, Chidi and Tahani are the only real humans in the "Good Place", so she can help them instead of everyone else.
** While she technically CannotTellALie, her primary directive is to ensure the happiness of the humans under her control. Since there are actually only four humans residing in the Neighborhood, she is allowed to deceive the non-humans if it helps the humans.
* MeaningfulName: 'Janet' comes from 'Jeanette'/'Jeanne', which means 'God is gracious.' Makes sense for a being designed by [[{{Main/Heaven}} the Good Place]] to be forever courteous and all-providing for those in the afterlife.
* MsFanservice: She usually leans more towards pretty and modest, but Janet occasionally indulges in this via some of her outfits.
* NiceGirl: Er, [[RunningGag not a girl]]. (Nice Sort-of-a-Person?) Semantics aside, Janet is extremely kind, bubbly, and always ready to help out, to the point that even ''trying'' to be rude is against her very nature.
* NoBiologicalSex: Janet is confirmed to be sexless and genderless. She physically resembles a human woman, but will always politely chime in with "Not a girl!" if someone calls her one. Given that she's a physical manifestation of all the knowledge in the universe, and the body is probably [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith to make things more convenient for the humans she helps]], it makes sense that Janets don't really have or need genders. She's fine with people using "she/her" pronouns to refer to her, though.
* NoSocialSkills: Janet's very nice and polite, but tact is apparently not part of her programming, and she often drops some pretty harsh truth-bombs without any sort of attempt to take the edge off. [[spoiler:While on Earth, she sees no problem with cheerfully informing a total stranger that the woman he thinks is his aunt is really his mother, leading Michael to quickly drag her away.]]
* OffscreenTeleportation: Both in-universe and out-of-universe. She always appears and disappears via jump cut, usually appearing directly behind whoever called her.
* TheOmniscient: She's designed to know ''literally'' everything, right down to the smallest detail. A person cannot pick up a sandwich without Janet knowing about it instantly.
* OnlyFriend: To Michael, after god-knows-how-long working together on their fake Good Place.
* PerpetualSmiler: Always has a smile on her face, which often crosses into DissonantSerenity territory when she spouts horrific facts about the Bad Place (such as Columbus being there because of the raping, pillaging and genocide he committed) or when she tells Eleanor how she can be killed.
* PhysicalGod: Janet knows everything and can create anything at any time. Seemingly her only limitation is not being able to lie, though the latest version has found a way around that.
* ResurrectionSickness: After being killed and subsequently rebooted, she spends a few days having to relearn all the knowledge of the universe. Initially she can only say her name and "hello", and spontaneously generates cacti.
* RobotGirl: Subverted/defied. While she ''is'' like a walking, talking, infinitely more helpful version of intelligent personal assistant programs like Siri or Alexa (even lampshaded as Eleanor calls her "Busty Alexa" at one point), she's neither a robot nor a girl (rather, a genderless interface for the celestial mainframe). Jason or the other characters repeatedly refer to her as one and/or the other, and Janet always has to correct them.
-->'''Janet''': Not a robot.(...) Not a girl.
* RunningGag: Interjecting to deny whatever label or emotion is ascribed to her in casual conversation.
* ShipperOnDeck: Seems to approve of Chidi and Simone, having determined their hypothetical offspring would be incredibly attractive.
* SingleTargetSexuality: After marrying Jason once, she retains this toward him through all subsequent reboots, even though neither of them remember it.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Eleanor stuffed a letter to herself in her mouth, knowing it wouldn't go anywhere. She was right.
* StepfordSmiler: Despite not remembering her romance with Jason, she's still subconsciously attracted to him and her conflicting feelings about seeing him with Tahani start having dire effects on the whole neighborhood.
* SuperStrength: She is capable of lifting and throwing Shawn across the room with a single hand.
* ThreeLawsCompliant: While she is not a robot, she still follows her own version of the Three Laws. She will try to preserve her own existence but this is trumped by her having to follow the instructions of the residents of the Neighborhood. However, her primary objective is to ensure the happiness of the humans under her care so she is allowed to deceive the non-humans running the Neighborhood.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She is actually the only genuinely good part of Neighborhood 12358W, having been kidnapped by Michael from the real Good Place to sell the illusion that the residents are not in the Bad Place.
* UnlimitedWardrobe: After each reboot, she shows up with a different attire and hairstyle, though this is {{downplayed}} since they all usually consist of an uniform-like blouse, vest and skirt combo. The trope is particularly present in "Dance Dance Resolution", where hundreds of resets imply hundreds of styles, of which a handful are shown on-screen.

[[/folder]]

!The Bad Place

[[folder:Shawn]]
!!Shawn
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shawn_2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I'm Shawn. You are very scared of me."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MarcEvanJackson

-->"''Well, I was going to try to get the humans back by going through the proper channels, but then I remembered, I'm a naughty bitch.''"

Michael's boss, Shawn initially poses as the immortal all-knowing judge of the Universe before being revealed as the head of the Bad Place. He was the one who approved Michael's experimental neighborhood but also believes that Michael will fail in the second attempt after the reboot. Shawn makes it clear that Michael's failure in this regard will result in Michael's retirement, and that only one more chance will be given. Shawn later buys Michael's report of the second experiment being a success and promotes him to oversee an entire universe of neighborhoods, but when the truth is discovered he becomes set on punishing Michael and the humans.
----
* BadBoss:
** To Michael, to whom he makes it clear he'll be "retired" if his experiment fails. He never believed in it in the first place, and one gets the impression he only approved it out of morbid curiosity. However, he does involve himself directly in an attempt to help Michael, even improvising when Eleanor correctly deduces the reality of her situation. When the experiment appears to work, Shawn is overjoyed and sincerely congratulates Michael. He even agrees to a send-off party as reward for everyone having done such a good job of torturing people.
** After being humiliated by Team Cockroach, he embraces the trope in the season three premiere, trapping ''all'' of his subordinates in cocoons for no other reason than just to be a prick. At one point he cocoons Todd for ''saying something supportive''.
* BigBad: Of Seasons 2 and 3. He's the higher-up at the Bad Place whom everyone reports to (although his talk of a High Council makes it clear that even he has his superiors) and everyone wants to avoid his deadpan wrath. Much of Season 2 revolves around trying to avoid his attention, and in Season 3 he's actively hunting Team Cockroach.
* BizarreAlienBiology: He covers himself in a human-sized cocoon whenever he detects emotions in his vicinity. It's later revealed that emotion is not the cause, it's just one of his many demonic powers and seems to be a personal favorite.
* TheComicallySerious: Even when the truth is out about him and Michael, he remains almost comically put-together and calm. He even manages to put himself inside of a cocoon and talk about "living in goo" with a straight face. He also texts using emojis.
-->'''Michael:''' You're really happy?\\
'''Shawn:''' ''[deadpan]'' Can't you tell? I'm basically squealing like a birthday girl.
* DeadpanSnarker: ''Very'' deadpan. Since every word out of his mouth while masquerading as a goo-dwelling judge of eternity is a filthy lie, it means every serious remark is an inside joke on his part.
* TheDeterminator: In Season 3, he's determined to ruin Michael's experiment and send the four humans into the Bad Place.
* TheDevil: Fills something of this role as an Overseer of the Bad Place.
* DimensionLord: He's seemingly in charge of the Bad Place, with other demons like Todd and Trevor being subordinate to him. However, it's implied that even Shawn has masters to answer to, since he fears the discovery of the experiment's failure.
* TheDreaded: Both Trevor and Michael are reluctant to get him involved in anything. Michael is outright terrified of him getting involved, even. Subverted, as they are really working together and it was all an act. Double-subverted, as Michael really is terrified of him, especially as Shawn is threatening to subject him to an AndIMustScream fate if he fails again. As more is revealed of the Bad Place, it becomes clear that all his underlings fear him to a certain degree.
* EvilIsPetty: Even after he's revealed to be a demon, Shawn seems like he's slightly more high-minded than the likes of Trevor when it comes to evil, largely due to the stoic way he carries himself. However, he's as tremendously petty as any other demon, and gets plenty of opportunity to prove it.
** Upon realizing the extent of Michael's treachery, Shawn decides to lock him up in a room with a subscription to ''Magazine/TheNewYorker''. The magazines will never be read, but they'll just keep coming and pile up as a niggle at the back of Michael's mind as an unmet obligation.
** [[spoiler:When Michael starts up the Good Place experiment again, Shawn has Vicki disguise herself as Michael, with the idea that she'll torture the humans disguised as him, should the experiment fail. And he steals one of Michael's sarcastic suggestions and claims it was his idea.]]
-->'''Michael:''' [[SarcasmMode Why don't you at least switch it up once in a while? Try using teeth-flatteners and bees with penises.]]
-->'''Shawn:''' ''(discreetly writing it down}'' First of all, that's stupid.
* FeetFirstIntroduction: The first shot we see of him is his black shoes and judges robes before we pan up to the rest of his body.
* GuardianOfTheMultiverse: Shawn is the high adjudicator of all conflicts involving both the Good place and the Bad, as well as being the highest possible authority. Subverted, as he's really only the overseer of the Bad Place, and thus akin to TheDevil.
* GoodOldWays: He's an old-school guy. Shawn believes in torturing condemned souls the old fashioned way--physically --and the whole point of approving Michael's experiment was to prove the old ways are the best.
* ItAmusedMe: His given reason for cocooning an underling who'd done nothing wrong? "I'm a demon. It's fun."
* ItsPersonal: He initially viewed Eleanor, Tahani, Chidi and Jason as just another batch of souls to torment. Then they formed Team Cockroach with Michael and Janet, escaping his clutches and humiliating him in the process. As a result, he's become obsessed with re-capturing them.
* JerkassHasAPoint: He's correct that Michael's plan is doomed to eventually fall apart because there are too many variables--the humans are too unpredictable.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Befitting a SmugSnake he indulges in some EvilGloating telling Michael he's confident that the main four's friends and family will all end up in the Bad Place, even though he shouldn't know that in advance, which spurns Michael into visiting the accountants' office. [[spoiler:Michael discovers that nobody has gotten into the Good Place for the last 521 years, but the accounts don't care because they believe their system is infallible, which inspires Michael to fix it himself.]]
** His attempts to ambush Team Cockroach and take them to the Bad Place lead to Janet being shoved partway through a portal and regaining her powers.
* NonActionBigBad: He's one of the top demons shown in The Bad Place with countless minions at his command. He has to rely upon them pretty heavily, as despite his cocooning skills he's not that good a fighter - both times he's in a brawl, Janet handles him fairly effortlessly.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He enjoys watching men call women crazy, and chose the form of a middle-aged white man specifically to avoid consequences for his actions. "I can only fail up."
* {{Sadist}}: He's a high ranking Bad Place demon after all. He even gets a kick from the misery of his fellow demons by the third season.
* SmugSnake: No matter how many times Michael and the others outwit him, he seems to think he's still more clever and can always come out on top.
* SpecialPersonNormalName: He's an extraordinarily powerful being named Shawn.
* TheStoic: He's deadpan and emotionless almost the entire time, and it's no act. After his true nature is revealed, he's as stiffly deadpan as ever.
* TomTheDarkLord: "This is the Almighty Judge on High of All Beings Living and Dead for All Eternity. My name's Shawn."
* TookALevelInJerkass: While always a complete jerk to the humans, he is relatively polite to his fellow demons in the first two seasons, hearing out any idea they may have regardless of whether he likes it or not, and even rewards Michael with a place on the high council and a party for the other demons for the alleged success of the fake Good Place neighborhood. In the third season, when the humans have escaped to earth, he becomes an impatient and condescending jerk to the other demons, to the point where he cocoons them just for his own amusement
* VillainousBreakdown: Team Cockroach's escape has not put him in the best of moods. He's turned into a full-scale BadBoss who cocoons his underlings for spurious reasons, doesn't care about the universal rules that previously bound him and is clearly enraged (even if he's still pretty stoic).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Trevor]]
!!Trevor
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goodplacetrevor.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"So we'll just roll on out, and you can get back to, uh, putting rainbows up your butt or whatever you do here."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/AdamScott

-->''"This is the 3:18 to the Bad Place, making thousands of stops for literally no reason. Now, you'll notice it's very hot in here, and it will get one degree hotter every time you think about how hot it is. Oops! You just thought about it."''

An architect of The Bad Place, he arrives in The Good Place after Eleanor reveals that she was admitted by mistake and belongs in The Bad Place.
----
* TheBusCameBack: He comes back in Season 3 where Shawn sends him to Earth to ruin Michael's experiment by negating the CharacterDevelopment of the main four and thus send them back to the Bad Place.
* CardCarryingVillain: Knows full well he is a horrible, obnoxious and unpleasant person and is very proud of it.
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: As Trevor rules a section of the Bad Place, he possesses massive amounts of power down there, and as his introduction shows he has an entire posse of other lesser cosmic beings under his control.
* DimensionLord: Of his section of the [[{{Hell}} the Bad Place]]. Michael outright states he has complete control of all the monsters, weapons and horrible things that are there, including multi-mouthed flying bears, and can apparently send them to other dimensions if he feels like it. Of course, Michael proves not to be reliable
* EvilIsPetty: His literal job is to torture people both psychologically and physically for all eternity. Since he's not at his place of work at the moment he seems to settle for just being an asshole in smaller ways, such as by sending wine back without even looking at it, making all manner of sexist remarks, and clipping his toenails at a dinner table.
* HateSink: He has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever and spends every single moment he's onscreen being annoying, petty, evil, and generally smarmy in every way he can.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Being a demon, he assumes the worst of everyone. He was ''expecting'' Jason to take advantage of a drunk Tahani and is visibly surprised that he did no such thing.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's needlessly rude to everyone around him, including Michael. A lot of his actions are mean-spirited trolling, and he goes out of his way to inconvenience and insult anyone near him.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Eleanor has no retort when he points out that Real Eleanor had a worse life than she did and still became a good person. He also nearly convinces her to willingly come to the Bad Place by saying she might be happier in a place where she doesn't have to lie about being a saint.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The majority of Trevor's onscreen villainy falls under low key trolling and generally being an all-out jerk. However, he apparently decides and implements the majority of the tortures that people suffer in his part of the Bad Place, most of which are genuinely horrible, from electrocution to getting eaten alive by flying piranhas. Michael describes him in season 3 as possibly the most dangerous entity in the Universe.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: He refers to himself as a demon at one point, although it's unclear if he means he's literally a different species from Michael or if it's just a metaphor, considering his role.
* PetTheDog: He's a bit more civil to his fellow demons than to everyone else in The Good Place. And he participates in drinking shots with Eleanor while trash-talking her.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He often objectifies Eleanor, and is shown to care even less about her than he would other humans because she's a woman.
* SharpDressedMan: In contrast to Michael's softer, tweedier look, Trevor always wears a smart black suit with a tie, causing him to resemble a business executive.
* {{Troll}}: His brand of evil and bullying is basically just trolling taken to an illogical and dickish extreme.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Bad Janet]]
!!Bad Janet
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bad_janet.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"What's up, fork nuts?"'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' D'Arcy Carden

-->''"What up, ding-dongs?"''

The Bad Place's version of Janet, who is just as cruel and careless as her creators.
----
* CatchPhrase: She's fond of calling people "fat dinks."
* EvilCounterpart: To Janet, quite literally. She's even ''named'' Bad Janet, and is as mean-spirited and unhelpful as Good Janet is polite and helpful.
* {{Gasshole}}: She ends a conversation with the main four by farting loudly. Also delivers one to Vicky.
* HellbentForLeather: Appears wearing a leather jacket and tight black clothes, unlike the Good Janet who dresses similarly to a flight attendant.
* InventionalWisdom: Tahani even asks what the purpose is of a Janet whose only function is to be constantly rude. It's probably another part of the Bad Place torture.
* JerkAss: Seemingly designed to be as big a one as possible.
* LogicBomb: Apparently, trying to be a helpful Janet will cause her to ''melt''.
* MadLibsCatchPhrase: She usually opens conversations with, "What up, [insert insult here]?"
* PhoneaholicTeenager: While certainly not a teenager, Bad Janet's fixation with her phone is clearly meant to evoke this stereotype and is one glaringly negative character trait. She's is ''always'' on it and only tears herself away from it when doing something cruel.
* {{Troll}}: Her seemingly only purpose is to be rude to people who ask her questions.
* VillainousFriendship: Bizarrely, she seems to genuinely get along with the Bad Place crew, despite being as mean to them as she is to everyone else. Of course, they ''like'' meanness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Vicky]]
!!Vicky
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vicky_5.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Yeah, I have some questions about my new character."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Tiya Sircar, [[spoiler:Creator/TedDanson ("Chidi Sees the Time-Knife")]]

-->''"I am a Ferrari, okay? And you don't keep a Ferarri in the garage."''

Originally introduced as the Eleanor Shellstrop (aka "Real Eleanor") who was ''supposed'' to go to The Good Place, but was mistakenly sent to The Bad Place, Vicky is actually an inhabitant of the Bad Place with a love of the limelight.
----
* {{Adorkable}}: In Season 2, she mentions feeling that she "really got" her "Real Eleanor" character, and is dissatisfied with the new role she's given, so tries to inject some personality into her new character by adding a limp and a circus performer backstory.
* AscendedExtra: In Season 2, despite being DemotedToExtra InUniverse. She becomes a more prominent character as she attempts to be TheStarscream and get the control of the neighborhood from Michael and run things her own way to get the recognition and a promotion from Shawn.
* AttentionWhore: Her real personality, obsessed with having as large a role as possible.
* BigBadWannabe: She manages to blackmail Michael into submission, and becomes the "mayor" of the Neighborhood in Attempt #802. However, she isn't as good at it as she thinks she is, not nearly as clever as Michael and is unable to realize when Michael is playing her, since he partnered with the humans against her behind her back. She also very easily falls for Michael's ParanoiaGambit and gets herself cocooned by Shawn and sent away, essentially making her no longer a problem.
* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:She gets un-cocooned in "The Worst Possible Use of Free Will" as Shawn's test subject for an illegal portal to Earth to check if entrants will explode. She gets Doored during "Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By", but returns at the end of "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife"... now using a Michael skin-suit.]]
* ClassicallyTrainedExtra: Ends up as this from Attempt #2 onwards, much to her fury.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her favorite kind of cover story.
** As "Real Eleanor", she was ''apparently'' left in a fish tank at an orphanage, then when she was HappilyAdopted, her parents died when she was four. She gradually made her way to the US where she learned English from watching ''Seinfeld'', worked her way through law school, and that got her all set up for a life of hardship while doing good.
** As "Denise", she claims that she has a limp from a trapeze accident.
* DemotedToExtra: InUniverse, during the numerous reboots, she is quite upset that she no longer plays an important role in torturing the main four and has been reduced to a background player.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Her plan to run the neighborhood doesn't take into account that, if she goes to Shawn with the files that Michael has been repeating the experiment time after time, she is also admitting to have gone along with Michael's plans and even controlled it for a while, essentially making herself an accomplice.
* EvilCounterpart: [[NiceCharacterMeanActor The actual Vicky]] is one to Tahani; whereas Tahani's need for praise comes from a place of deep pain and need to prove to herself she's a good person, Vicky is just vain and completely uncaring for people other than herself.
* GreenEyedMonster: Shows signs of jealousy whenever someone else gets to torture Chidi.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Her Starscream tendencies and being nowhere near as intelligent as she thinks she is makes her predictable. Michael plays her like a fiddle during Team Cockroach's escape.
* ItsAllAboutMe: After blackmailing Michael to give her control of the neighborhood, she positions herself to be the center of attention and ends up taking on roles that would normally be split between Eleanor and Tahani.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even for a demon devoted to torturing people, Vicky is a pretty unpleasant person. Shawn even calls her out on it.
* LargeHam: Vicky wants to be seen and believes the best way to do so is by chewing the scenery. In "Everything Is Great!" she's so unhappy with her minor role that she decides she wants a limp, and in "Dance Dance Resolution" she mentions having practiced an Australian accent that she complains she never got to use.
* NiceCharacterMeanActor: All the Bad Place demons are, but Vicky is the focus; her roles are all sweet-natured Good Placers, in reality, she's a completely amoral torturer whose only love is for her craft.
* PutOnABus: After Michael frames her, she's unceremoniously cocooned and stays that way for the rest of season 2 and the first half of season 3.
* {{Sadist}}: Even by demon standards, she ''really'' enjoys torturing Chidi and breaking his heart.
* SeriousBusiness: She takes her role very seriously.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Despite having a big role in Attempt #1, Vicky isn't ''nearly'' as crucial to Michael's plan as she'd like to think she is. Nor is she as talented an actress as she thinks she is -- once she takes over and starts writing her own material, it's hard to imagine Team Cockroach would've bought it for long, even without Michael cluing them in.
* SmugSnake: She does possess some cunning and skills in manipulation, but she's really not as smooth or intelligent as she thinks she is.
* TheStarscream: As of Attempt #802, she's so tired of being thrown poor roles and Michael's constant do-overs she openly blackmails him into giving her better roles.


!!As "Real Eleanor"
-->''"I don't mean to be a bother, but could I possibly get some water and whatever food doesn't turn to spiders in your mouth?"''

* CharacterShilling: Everybody comments on how sweet, accomplished, inspirational, and all-around amazing she is, even ''Trevor''. This turns out to be part of the scheme to make our Eleanor feel even worse about herself by comparison.
* ChekhovMIA: As the other Eleanor Shellstrop whose identity was mixed up with the protagonist Eleanor, she appears in "Most Improved Player", having been sent to The Bad Place. Turns out to be a lie, as there was never another Eleanor Shellstrop.
* CrusadingLawyer: "Real Eleanor" supposedly spent most of her life fighting for human rights in the original iteration.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: To truly ridiculous extremes. "Real Eleanor's" tragic backstory and her ever-so-heroically rising above it would not be out of place in a bad fanfiction. But, as we find out at the end of Season One, none of it ever happened, and the whole thing was cooked up specifically to make Eleanor feel guilty and insecure about her own moral shortcomings. We later find out that giving these sorts of backstories to her characters is a habit of Vicky's... whether it's relevant to the situation at hand or not.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The first hint that she's a fake is that she's a Bangladeshi woman with a completely Westernized name, though she explains it away as being adopted by a Western couple, and that she managed to get a visa to the United States despite her lack of education and having to learn English from ''Seinfeld''. Even Tahani's parents didn't assimilate that much to the point of changing their names; it's implied they used their wealthy connections to immigrate and assimilate. Asian viewers may catch that on the rewatch.
** Also, Michael and Trevor comment on the ContrivedCoincidence that two women with the same name happened to be in the same grocery store and they die at the same time, when Michael in the pilot implied that Fake Eleanor had died alone and no one had rescued her. It turns out the coincidence is ''too'' contrived.
* GoodCounterpart: The character of "Real Eleanor" was designed to be one for Tahani as well as Eleanor. "Real Eleanor" got into The Good Place having done much for the cause of goodness but, unlike Tahani, it's all from a place of strength and heart rather than partially from insecurity.
* {{Irony}}: "Real Eleanor" was actually a fake the whole time.
* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: "Real Eleanor" learnt how to speak English by watching ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. She seems to have picked up saying "yadda, yadda, yadda" from doing so.
* NiceGirl: While everyone is a somewhat nice person in The Good Place, the other Eleanor Shellstrop really sticks out. She was dedicated to helping the less fortunate when she was alive, she openly encourages Eleanor (the one we've come to know) in her efforts to be a better person and stay in the good place, and she doesn't seem at all bothered that she was subjected to horrific tortures on Eleanor's account. Furthermore, the reason that the whole mix-up happened in the first place was because she was trying to save the more selfish Eleanor, a complete stranger, from dying in a car accident and they were both killed at the same time. Then subverted: it's all an act played by Bad Placer Vicky.
* ToughActToFollow: Is one InUniverse for her actress Vicky, who complains that she truly "got" Real Eleanor as opposed to her other characters.
* WalkingSpoiler: Twice over! Both her existence in Season 1 as "Real Eleanor" and her true identity as a demon.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Todd]]
!!Toddrick Hemple
->'''Portrayed by:''' Joe Mande

A lava monster from The Bad Place.
----
* AffablyEvil: Like most of the Bad Placers we meet, while he may be evil, he also tends to work decently well with his coworkers. When he politely reminds his coworkers that they're not supposed to smoke, he gets a snarky reminder that he should be in his human suit (which he finds itchy). At one point, he cheerily brings donuts for the rest of the demons on his team and compliments his boss's demonic efforts.
* CardCarryingVillain: He's a lava demon from the Bad Place.
* {{Streaking}}: When he gets a chance to shed his human suit at a drunk demon party, he promptly does this. What this means for a lava monster who doesn't wear clothing to begin with is left to the imagination.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Val]]
!!Val
->'''Portrayed by:''' Jama Williamson

A more experienced colleague of Michael's who works at Bad Place Headquarters. Her exact role is not known, though she appears to be an assistant to Shawn.
----
* AffablyEvil: She might be no less sadistic than her co-workers, but she's a cheerful person and gets along well with Michael.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: She came incredibly close to marbelizing Janet, only being stopped thanks to Jason's aim.
* DoesNotLikeSpam: Hates it when the office antimatter coffee is flavoured with French vanilla.
-->'''Val:''' Regular antimatter's fine, why flavor it?
* TheDragon: To Shawn, as his NumberTwo.
* FearlessFool: She probably ''should'' be more afraid of Shawn then she is. Upon seeing that he's been exercising his BadBoss tendencies, she playfully scolds him only to get cocooned herself.
* GirlFriday: To Shawn, as his faithful assistant.
* NightmareFetishist: Offsets her pleasant personality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Glenn]]
!!Glenn Martrempf
->'''Portrayed by:''' Josh Siegal
A Bad Place torturer and resident of Neighborhood 12358W. Glenn is obnoxiously camp and cheerful even after being revealed as a demon, and tends to be the subject of comic mistreatment.
----
* BeardOfEvil: Bearded, and despite his cheery demeanor, he's mercilessly evil.
* ButtMonkey: Things generally don't go so well for Glenn. He falls into the sinkhole, he's ranked lower than Tahani on the rankings, and Glenn is the first person cocooned by an irate Shawn, who seems to hate him for no discernible reason.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Glenn ranks somewhere around or above Michael's level in the real Bad Place, being seen attending Michael's presentation, and is later part of Shawn's crew.
* GoodOldWays: Come Reboot no. 802, Glenn starts complaining about the Good Place.
-->'''Glenn:''' If the flying bears ain't broke, don't fix them.
* PhraseCatcher: Shawn tends to respond to Glenn with a notably un-stoic '''"Shut up, Glenn!"'''
* SkewedPriorities: When Eleanor causes a massive sinkhole, which Glenn falls into, Michael assures him they'll save his bowl of soup for him, with the acknowledgement that this probably ''isn't'' his biggest concern at that moment. Glenn admits it was "up there".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Residents]]
%%Listed alphabetically by the first names of their aliases
->'''Portrayed By:''' Paulina Bugembe (Angelique), Bambadjan Bamba (Bambadjan), Luke Guldan (Chris Baker), Amy Okuda (Jessica/Gayle), Hayden Szeto (Luang), Susan Park (Pevita), Marques Ray (Tomas/Quinston)

The rest of the 318 residents of Neighborhood 12358W, who are all affected by Eleanor's presence. They're actually all torturers used by Michael in his "experiment".
----
* BitchInSheepsClothing: With bitchiness and sheepiness varying on the individual, but they all pretend to be good people while actually being workers from the Bad Place who enjoy making people's afterlives miserable.
* BrainlessBeauty: Chris is easy on the eyes but obviously not very bright; his solution to Eleanor posing any questions is to strip and claim he's going to the gym, [[LiteralMinded because that was what Michael suggested he do.]]
* CrusadingLawyer: Bambadjan claims he spent his life fighting first for gay rights, then women's rights.
* DeusExMachina: Parodied. In the Season 1 finale, Bambadjan turns up with a solution to help everyone, but by that time, Eleanor has already figured out they're in the Bad Place and recognizes it as another deception.
* DemotedToExtra: They only appear in one episode for Season 3, due to the majority of it taking place on Earth.
* TheDitz: Chuck. On hearing Michael use the expression "bit off more than we could chew", he becomes obsessed with the idea of biting the humans, which sticks with him through the reboots.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Bad Place doesn't seem to care about the demons' human masquerades, as the neighborhood has plenty of people of color and at least one gay couple.
* EveryoneIsATomato: Turns out that, instead of being human {{Parody Sue}}s, they're all demons!
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The problem with pretending to be good people is that they tend to do good during their torture. In one case, they accidentally settle an argument between Eleanor and Chidi by holding a marriage counselor session, where Eleanor gets a JerkassRealization about how she's treating her "soulmate" and vows to give him more space.
* OneHeadTaller: Tahani stands much taller than her "soulmate" Tomas in Attempt 2, which irks her. Invoked, of course.
* ParodySue: Everyone in the neighborhood is exaggeratedly perfect and inhumanly selfless and heroic -- because they're all pretending to be, so the exaggeration is intentional.
* PerpetualSmiler: Bambadjan, at least when he's acting, always has a serene smile on his face.
* {{Pyromaniac}}: Luang gets distracted from watching Jason in Attempt 2 because Tahani starts a fire. Because he used to set people on fire in the actual Bad Place.
* RecurringExtra: Some, such as Pevita, Glenn, and Jessica, appear semi-frequently in neighborhood shots.
* ShirtlessScene: Chris takes pretty much every opportunity he can to take his top off and announce that he's going to the gym.
* SquareRaceRoundClass: A lot of humor in the second season comes from the fact that hellish torture demons aren't particularly good at anything besides torture, and often have trouble with being convincing actors.
* TheStarscream: Quinston and Chuck serve as Vicky's chief underlings when she turns on Michael.
* VillainousFriendship: They all seem to get along just fine -- and are often united by their exasperation with Michael.
[[/folder]]

!The Good Place
[[folder:The Good Place Committee]]
!! The Good Place Committee
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/committee.png]]

-> '''Played by:''' Paul Scheer (Chuck), Dana Powell (Paula), Phil Augusta Jackson (Kellen), Takato Yonemoto (Daisuke), Tatiana Carr (Meg), Denise Sanchez (Andie)

-->'''"Committee, Michael the Accountant has brought us evidence of a problem, and now it is up to us to find a solution. While you wait, Kellen will stand by you, showering you with compliments."''

The council of celestial beings in charge of matters concerning the Good Place.
----
* {{God}}: Like Shawn with the Devil, they sort of fill this role as the heads of the Good Place.
* HonorBeforeReason: They feel the need to take at least 1000 years to form a blue ribbon committee and suss out any possible conflicts of interest/corruption within their proposed investigative group, despite the fact that being from the Good Place, any chance the members would be unscrupulous in any way is extremely unlikely. This and the fact during that hypothetical time, [[spoiler:billions of humans would be eternally damned by which time it would be too late to help them]].
* LawfulStupid: The Committee is very strict and committed to following procedure and filing the correct paperwork, to the point that it gets in the way of them making any effective change in any sort of reasonable time frame.
* NiceGuy: Obviously, being residents of the Good Place. While they decide whether or not to assist the Soul Squad, they assign Kellen to stand by Michael and shower him with compliments while he waits for their decision.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Not on purpose, but they are so committed to not breaking the rules that it makes them extremely incapable of taking fast and viable measures to problems, as Michael found out.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted. As they're from the Good Place, Michael expects them to be this, and while they are kind and willing to hear out Michael's plea, their plan of action is too inefficient to deal with the problem.
* StronglyWordedLetter: Their proposal to Michael in a nutshell: that they form an elite investigative team to [[spoiler:root out any possible tampering with the points system and resolve why no one has gotten into the Good Place for over 500 years]]. But... first they have to take 400 years to properly select the members of said group, and then it's a further 1000 years during which they form another council to sort out any conflicts that would arise in that investigative team. Michael even compares them to passengers on a sinking Titanic writing a strongly worded letter to the iceberg.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gwendolyn]]
!!Gwendolyn

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gwendolyntgp.png]]

->'''Portrayed by:''' Nicole Byer

-->''"'If' I could believe it? Watch this: I believe it."''

A postal worker for the Good Place's Correspondence Center (aka their mail department).
----
* EasilyForgiven: Even after finding out [[spoiler:the Soul Squad lied to and manipulated her,]] Gwendolyn still cheerily waves them off and says it was nice to meet them as they [[spoiler:are summoned by Judge Gen and leave the Good Place]].
* GoshDarnItToHeck: Either through the Good Place's profanity filter or her own nature as a Good Place resident, a lot of her expletives come out as G-rated curse words. [[spoiler:Even when she discovers Michael and the humans' deception the best she can muster up is a mildly annoyed "Gosh darn it" as she tries to angrily shake her fist]].
* GenkiGirl: She is very cheerful all the time, even when Michael and the humans end up annoying her, it takes literally seconds to her being cheerful again.
* NiceGirl: Naturally being someone from the Good Place, Gwendolyn is bubbly, polite and friendly towards Michael, Janet and the four humans.
* SuperGullible: Is naive and a bit too trusting. She is fooled by Michael's [[spoiler:lie that the four humans won a contest specifically to visit the postal office in the Good Place]]. To be fair this is justified, as she is from the Good Place and presumably has never been exposed to anybody who might try to deceive or take advantage of her.
-->'''Michael:''' ''(trying to distract her)'' Say, is that a dog barking in another room?\\
'''Gwendolyn:''' I doubt it, because I don't have a dog. But out of politeness and an abundance of caution, I'll go check. ''(leaves the room to look)'' Hello, doggy.
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: When [[spoiler:she discovers that Michael, Janet and the humans have been lying to her]], she makes it very clear that she is upset and, amusingly, attempts to shake her fist at them in anger. Or an awkward flailing of her wrist, in this case.

[[/folder]]

!Other Afterlife Characters

[[folder:Mindy]]
!!Mindy St. Claire
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_mindy.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Oh. Yeah. I mean, I was just, I was just kidding, it was just a joke. I mean, who would want to do cocaine right now?"'']]

->'''Portrayed by:''' Maribeth Monroe

-->''"That is the nicest and only thing anyone has said to me in thirty years."''

A cocaine-abusing lawyer who practiced during the 80s, Mindy generally lived a selfish life. However, one single good action she committed right before her death made her the only person known to have ever been genuinely judged a "medium" person, resulting in her getting her own afterlife outside both the Good and Bad Places.
----
* AccidentalHero: After her death, her sister found out about her plan to create a charity organization and used her withdrawal money to create the organization in Mindy's name that went on to help people all over the world.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: A highly stereotypical hard partying, cocaine-abusing '80s shark lawyer.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: One of the {{running gag}}s of her character is her frequent masturbation; in her first episode she casually tells Eleanor and Jason to get out, as it's her masturbation time. In "Dance Dance Resolution," she mentions how frequently they have caught her masturbating, including once when they walked in on her and another time she walked in on them... while ''she'' was masturbating.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After a long time spent in a horribly dull and solitary afterlife, and then having to repeatedly deal with Team Cockroach as they keep showing up with no memories of their previous visits, she finally gets Derek as a willing sexbot along with a ton of cocaine.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Zig-zagged. She dies right after she decides to turn her life around and do some good in the world. However, the one good thing she did manage to do before she died led to a whole bunch of good done in her name, just enough to get her spared from the Bad Place.
* ItAmusedMe: [[spoiler:Derek mentions she rebooted him, essentially killing him, sometimes because she was bored, or wanted him to go away, or just 'cuz.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: More like a heart of ''very'' tarnished bronze, but she's not all bad. Despite being rude, selfish, and cynical, she's genuinely rooting for Chidi and Eleanor to get together, and she actually ''did'' try to make a genuine effort to change her ways and start a charity. It was just bad luck that she died before she could. And even then, her plan actually ''worked'', as her sister used Mindy's savings and plans to start a relief aid charity that's helped countless people.
* LonersAreFreaks: Quite casually admits that despite having spent years in eternal mediocrity with no-one else around, she's got no desire for company, beyond mention of trying to trick Eleanor and Chidi into a threesome with her at least once.
* MundaneAfterlife: While avoiding the actual Bad Place thanks to all the good things done in her name after her death, she was such a terrible person that she's instead sentenced to eternal ''mediocrity'' as a compromise.
** She's provided with her favorite beer, but it will always be warm.
** She was allowed to list her music preferences, but she was given a jukebox stocked with selections from the ''bottom'' of her list so it only plays ''[[Music/{{Eagles}} The Eagles]]'' (live bootlegs only) and Creator/WilliamShatner spoken-word poetry
** She gets books to read, but her library has nothing but Creator/AnneRice [[Literature/TheVampireChronicles vampire novels]], which all have water stains. And which she cannibalised to make porno.
** The only movies she has are ''[[Film/TheCannonballRun Cannonball Run II]]'' and... ''The Making of Cannonball Run II''[[note]]She eventually tapes over them with secret footage of Eleanor and Chidi having sex[[/note]].
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Embraced casual nudity after being sent to the Medium Place since she wasn't going to be seeing anyone else around (or wasn't meant to, anyway). Thus she's baring it all when Eleanor, Jason and Janet first meet her which freaks everyone out including herself as she ''really'' wasn't expecting guests anytime soon.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Mindy was a cocaine addict and a pretty nasty person in her earthly life. However, one day, she had a drug-fueled epiphany on how she could help people and actually tried to follow up on it by withdrawing all her money in order to form a charity. Right after that, she died in an accident. She then crossed into DeathEqualsRedemption since her sister found out what Mindy's plan was and was so inspired by it that she actually founded the charity in Mindy's name and helped millions of people. If she stayed alive, Mindy would have likely failed in her plan and backslid back into being a bad person. By dying when she did, she accidentally accomplished a lot of good (and avoided being painfully tortured in the Bad Place). [[spoiler: She also got the closest to entering the Good Place of any human in over five centuries.]]
* SeenItAll: Unlike the four mains, she retains her memories of all their visits so that when we catch back up with her, she's gotten quite annoyed at having to go through every variation of their dynamics.
* ShadowArchetype: She basically represents Eleanor before she TookALevelInKindness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Derek]]
!!Derek Hofstetler
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_derek.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Hey, there! Who the fork is that? Derek Hoffstetler, P.I."'']]

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/JasonMantzoukas

--> ''"[[PokemonSpeak Derek!]]"''

The result of Janet making a new person of her own to help her get over Jason.
----
* ActorAllusion: Derek introduces himself as a private investigator at one point. This wound up being the job of his character on Michael Schur sister show ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Played for laughs. As he's Janet's first attempt at making a sentient being, Derek has many glitches.
* TheBusCameBack: Returns in "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife", having become more articulate and urbane, thanks to [[spoiler:Mindy rebooting him many, many, ''many'' times]].
* CloudCuckoolander: Just as you'd expect from someone's first attempt at creating life, he's even loopier than a newly rebooted Janet. [[spoiler:Even after all his reboots, there's still some goofiness in him, like not quite managing to create martinis properly.]]
* DumbassNoMore: Was a major CloudCuckooLander in his first appearance, but after [[spoiler:Mindy rebooting him millions of times]], he becomes more sophisticated and eloquent, although still fairly kooky.
* GagPenis: He has a wind chime rather than genitalia. The audience doesn't get to see it but they do get to hear it. [[spoiler:On his return in season 3, due to the multiple reboots, it's apparently become more like an actual penis.]]
* IncestIsRelative: Janet and Derek both acknowledge he is technically her child, whom she created for the purposes of being a rebound guy.
* OnTheRebound: Invoked. He was specifically created to be a rebound boyfriend for Janet.
* PokemonSpeak: He's capable of the occasional semi-coherent statement, but usually just shouts variations of "Derek!", especially after being powered down. [[spoiler:On his return, he's gotten somewhat better about this.]]
* SexBot: Is given to Mindy at the end of "Leap to Faith" as a sex companion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gen]]
!!Hydrogen "Gen", the Judge
->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MayaRudolph
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_gen.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Hi, I'm the judge. That's a burrito. What's up guys?"'']]

->''"I love that! And I love your passion! I mean, it takes a lot of guts to just show here unannounced. Plus I haven't had a case in like 30 years and I'm super-bored. So it's either this or start 'Bloodline'. And I don't know I just don't feel like I can see Kyle Chandler as anyone else but Coach Taylor."''

The ''actual'' immortal, all-knowing Judge who presides on disputes between the Good and Bad Places. Gen is generally quirky and approachable, but takes the laws of the universe very seriously.
----
* {{Adorkable}}: A flighty, ditzy, TV-obsessed woman who coos over the protagonists. Even lampshaded by herself.
* AlwaysABiggerFish: [[spoiler:Michael describes Trevor as the most evil being in the universe, but when Gen gets fed up with him, she sends him flying off into the darkness with a simple flick of her fingers.]]
* AmbiguouslyBrown: [[spoiler:When she spends some time on Earth]], she is surprised to discover that she is considered black. Maya Rudolph, for the record, is half-black.
* AntiVillain: Opposes Team Cockroach for the first half of Season 3, but never maliciously.
* ArcVillain: For the first half of Season 3. While not an outright evil entity, she serves as a major obstacle for the main characters (even when she's not directly involved) due to her lack of empathy, determination to stick by the rules of the universe no matter what, and her cosmic powers.
* AudienceSurrogate: Her reactions to the main 4 mirrors the audience: thinking of them as adorable, that Tahani's accent is lovely, etc.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Despite her quirks, you ''really'' don't want to make her angry. [[spoiler: She flings Trevor into an abyss for being annoying.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler:She accepts the team's challenge to experience life on Earth for herself, and about ten seconds later comes back with her faith in absolute right and wrong completely demolished.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Eccentric, ditzy and upbeat, she is the celestial being who presides over disputes between the Good and Bad Places, but manages to be an actually very good judge. She shows a great sense of fairness and approachability when Team Cockroach get to her. She is also completely impartial, meaning that even though she likes them, she still needs to send them to the Bad Place when they fail.
* CreatureOfHabit: Gen doesn't like the effects Michael's tampering has on Earth not because the results are bad, but because they're weird and different.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Always referred to and credited as "The Judge". The name Gen was only ever mentioned once, as a throwaway gag.
* ExactWords:
** Eleanor believes that the medallion given to her and Chidi by Gen (which is supposedly a ticket to the Good Place) is a test and that Jason and Tahani are being offered the same thing, with the first pair to accept failing. Gen quickly tells her that Tahani and Jason have not been offered that and shows her their tests. However, Gen never said it wasn't a test.
** Played with in regards to Jason. He quickly tells her to shut up and let him play the video-game, however, she intended to say that his test was not to lose by playing ''VideoGame/{{Madden NFL}}'' while playing against the Jaguars using the Titans. What she meant for him to do is to not even play it, since if he didn't play, he wouldn't lose.
* FatalFlaw: Naivete. Gen, like most non-Bad Place cosmic beings, has no idea how complex human life is and how impossible it is to calculate every single unintended consequence. [[spoiler:When she goes down to Earth to prove Michael is wrong about how complex things are, she comes back almost instantly (from the TimeyWimeyBall perspective of the afterlife) having had a JerkassRealization and is a lot more patient with him.]]
* GenkiGirl: She's enthusiastic, energetic and a bit mercurial.
* {{God}}: She's the closest thing the series has to a portrayal of a true deity, as the most powerful being in the universe who sits above both the Good and Bad Places to determine the fates of humans in the afterlife.
* GreatGazoo: A powerful eternal judge who tests the protagonists using unorthodox methods. Also a cheerful eccentric TV addict who agreed to test them in the first place mostly because she was bored out of her mind [[spoiler:and has little idea about what human existence is actually like]].
* InnocentlyInsensitive: After sentencing the humans to the real Bad Place, she happily burbles about how great it was to meet them and shows them the pictures she's taken of their time together. The fact that none of them are in the mood to appreciate the sentiment seems to be lost on her.
* TheJudge: Played with. She wears the attire Tahani describes, with the black robes, but her personality is the opposite of expected, being an {{Adorkable}} and sweet woman devoid of the stoicism that usually comes with this trope. In season 3, though, her serious, rule-abiding side comes to the forefront, making her fit the trope more.
* LackOfEmpathy: Despite her quirky and bubbly personality she's unable to empathize with others as she passes down her harsh sentences, failing Tahani's test despite the fact that confronting her parents gave her the much needed motivation to stop trying to get their approval which is key to her CharacterDevelopment. But that's nothing to her [[spoiler: trying to send Michael and Janet back to the Bad Place for their constant meddling in the experiment. When Janet points out that Shawn will have them both executed if they come back, Gen coldly replies that they shouldn't have broken the rules. This is also part of the reason the points system is so borked; it honestly never occurred to her that the points system was made with a much simpler world in mind or that humans don't have as much agency as she does until she does a GodInHumanForm experiment.]]
* TheOmniscient: Played with. She can know anything she wants with ease but she finds actually being omniscient to be boring. Instead, she prefers to skip over things so she can be surprised and also keeps her distance from human's files just in case they ever become a case and so she can remain impartial.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** She listens to the Main 4's requests without much problem (though she almost throws them out for lacking the proper paperwork) and allows them to take a test to define their fates, even complying to what she considers a bad idea by grading them as a group. However, she is a professional, and rules to send them to the Bad Place when all of them except Eleanor fail their tests, but is willing to give them another chance when Michael pleads their case.
** In Season 3, [[spoiler:after she finds out about Michael's meddling she ends the experiment, but decides to let the four live out their lives in the new timeline and give them the chance earn a place in the Good Place for real. But she also decides to send Michael and Janet back to the Bad Place despite knowing what Shawn and the others will do to them. Later, she is far more sympathetic to Michael's case after learning just ''how bad'' life on Earth is.]]
* SugarAndIcePersonality: She is very kind and approachable most of the time, but defying her orders or making her angry will ''not'' end well.
* TimeAbyss: The reason her name is Hydrogen? It was the only thing in the universe when she came into existence. Whether this technically makes her older or younger than Michael and the other non-humans remains an open question as Michael is 'as old as time itself'.
* TopGod: Implied to be one of the highest beings on the celestial hierarchy shown yet, possibly the highest, since even Shawn (the boss of The Bad Place) is implied to '''have''' to abide to her decisions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Doorman]]
!!Jeff, The Doorman
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_jeff.png]]

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/MikeOMalley

-->''"Wow, I haven't heard a joke in 8,000 years. And I still haven't."''

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Doorman]] between the afterlife and Earth.
----
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: For the most that we see him, he doesn't seem to care what happens to anyone around him; however, when Michael brings him a thermos with a frog on it, his face lights up like a child at Christmas, hinting that Michael was the first person to ever do anything for him. In return, when Michael gets into trouble with Gen, he gives him the key to Earth to escape.
* CutenessProximity: ''Loves'' frogs. Classic, green frogs.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Seemingly known as The Doorman; he's even got a name plate for his desk. In "The Brain-y Bunch" however, Gen refers to him as "Jeff."
* NotSoAboveItAll: Seems at first to be a stereotypical, humorless bureaucrat; but over time, it's revealed that he loves frogs, finds something like a sink tap interesting, and, at the end of "The Brain-y Bunch", he helps Janet and Michael escape from Gen back down to Earth.
* PerpetualFrowner: He normally has a stony scowl on his face. However, every now and then, he genuinely grins, like when messing around with a sink on Earth, or getting a thermos with a frog on it.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler:He directly defies Gen to help Michael and Janet escape to Earth, because Michael was nice to him.]]
* TheStoic: He beats out ''Shawn'' in terms of a stiff, expressionless demeanor. [[NotSoStoic Except with frogs.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Neutral Janet]]
!!Neutral Janet

->'''Portrayed by:''' D'Arcy Carden
[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neutraljanet.PNG]]

The Accounting Office's Janet who works at the reception. As the place is meant to be impartial, unlike the Good Place and Bad Place, this Janet is devoid of any emotion and personality.
----
* BlackSheep: Is apparently considered the black sheep out of all the Janets, presumably due to how mundane she is compared to the NiceGirl Good Janet and the JerkAss Bad Janet.
* EmotionlessGirl: Well, not a girl. But Neutral Janet looks like a human woman and has no emotions or personality, making her come off as this.
* MachineMonotone: She's one of the series' numerous Janets, the afterlife's user interface. Unlike Good and Bad Janet, Neutral Janet speaks in a complete monotone, making her more robotic and rather creepy.
* TheStoic: She shows no emotion whatsoever.
-->'''Good Janet:''' She's sort of the black sheep of the Janet world. Or blank sheep, I guess.
* VerbalTic: Ends her sentences with "end of conversation".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Neil]]
!!Neil

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/StephenMerchant
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goodplace_neil.PNG]]

->''"Can I just say, I really depreciate you coming. Huh? A little bit of accounting humor."''

The cheerful Head Accountant in the afterlife, responsible for people getting into the Good and Bad Places. Neil is oblivious to the thought of any error or subterfuge in the system.
----

* {{Hypocrite}}: Praises the "cold logic" of the system while dismissing Michael's points that [[spoiler:no one getting into the Good Place for over five hundred years]] is a ''major logical failing''.
* LargeAndInCharge: He's the Head Accountant, and he's played by 6'7" Stephen Merchant. Even Michael looks short in comparison.
* LawfulStupid: Whoa, the system ''can't'' be corrupt, it's entirely randomized and neutral. So what if [[spoiler: no one has gotten into the Good Place for five hundred and twenty one years]]?
* MrExposition: He's the one to finally provide the background for how the entire points system operates.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Naturally, as one of the firmest believers in the afterlife system, he refuses to do absolutely anything to interrupt the process.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Neil's a very chipper guy for someone who's been [[spoiler:sending millions of people to damnation for five hundred years.]]
* PunchClockVillain: When Team Cockroach rematerialize, he immediately hits the alarm, but shows no actual malice toward the four, retaining his cheerful attitude, and even offering them cake.
* SkewedPriorities: Shows more emotion about his corner cake piece getting toppled than ''anything else.''
[[/folder]]

!Earth

!!!Eleanor's circle

[[folder:Doug & Donna]]
!!Doug & Donna Shellstrop
->'''Portrayed By:''' Tom Beyer (Doug) and Leslie Grossman (Donna)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shellstrops.png]]

-->'''Eleanor''': All my life I've been taking care of myself and you guys. I worked two after-school jobs because you blew half my college fund bailing your boyfriend out of jail.
-->'''Doug''': So irresponsible.
-->'''Eleanor''': And you blew the other half trying to frame her boyfriend.
-->'''Donna''': It was so stupid! He was already guilty, dumbass!

Eleanor's parents. Not exactly the most caring people.
----
* AbusiveParents: At best, they were negligent. At worst, they were this. Donna blew half of Eleanor's college fund to bail her boyfriend out of jail and Doug was a drug-addicted felon who tried to frame said boyfriend (who was already guilty) with the other half of the college fund. Donna also once berated Eleanor for crying over her dog dying, because it would ruin Donna's day.
* AlcoholicParent: Especially apparent in [[LadyDrunk Donna]]. Doug has the added bonus of also being into drugs.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Apparently, their marriage was pretty miserable, leading them to split up when Eleanor was young. Early on, Eleanor snarks that they could be used to torture one another in the Bad Place, and it would be ''extremely'' effective.
* TheDitz: On top of being morally repugnant, they're also not very smart.
* EskimosArentReal: Donna apparently isn't aware that Guam is a real place.
* FakingTheDead: Eleanor thinks both her parents are dead. [[spoiler:Her dad is, as seen in the flashback of his funeral, but Janet and Michael inform her in Season 3 that her mother actually faked her death. Eleanor is understandably pissed.]]
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: [[spoiler:Eleanor forgives Donna and wishes her well in season 3, not even asking for an apology. Downplayed in that they both know Donna was a horrible parent to Eleanor because Donna behaves so much better towards her stepdaughter Patricia. Eleanor also makes it clear that Donna has to make Patricia her priority and not repeat her past mistakes.]].
* TheFunInFuneral: In a flashback, we see Eleanor's garbage mother showing up drunk to her ex-husband's funeral and hitting on her own daughter's boyfriend.
* HateSink: Unlike their JerkWithAHeartOfGold daughter, they have no redeeming qualities at all [[spoiler:until season 3]].
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:In season 3, Donna has become a better person, with a husband and daughter she genuinely cares for. Eleanor is able to forgive her and wishes her well, but still wishes she was a better parent when she was a child]].
* ImplausibleDeniability: Donna tries claiming she's Eleanor's sister at Doug's funeral, despite having just identified herself as her mother, and when Eleanor tracks her down in season 3, immediately tries to claim they're sorority sisters. According to Michael's list of Eleanor's insecurities in "The Worst Possible Use of Free Will", she's been doing this since Eleanor was born.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Neither of them care for anyone besides themselves, not even their own daughter. This is how Eleanor developed her cynical belief that everyone's only out for themselves, whether they admit it or not.
* {{Jerkass}}es: Eleanor constantly describes them as awful excuses for human beings, and we're shown in various flashbacks that they did indeed live up to that description. [[FreudianExcuse This left Eleanor]] with the cynical and self-serving outlook she had up until her death, though she later realizes it isn't a valid excuse.
* LackOfEmpathy: Neither of them seem to care very much about their daughter, but Donna's disregard for Eleanor's feelings is ''astounding''. For one thing, there's insulting the girl's father to her face... at his ''funeral''. Then there's what she said after Eleanor's dog died when she was a kid.
-->'''Donna:''' Your dog, Max, is dead in a duffel bag under the deck.\\
'''Eleanor:''' How did he die?\\
'''Donna:''' The short answer is: I don't know. And the slightly longer answer is: I didn't know how hot it gets in cars sometimes. The point is: ''don't be sad''. Honestly, I'll get kind of annoyed if you ''do'' get sad because it's been a very long day and that bitch Carol from work was really on my ass about some stupid thing that I don't even know what it was. And at the end of that long day, I had to use one of my favorite duffel bags to do something very gross that I ''did not'' like. Now, let's celebrate that dead dog's life by bringing Mommy another bottle of white.
* LadyDrunk: Literally every scene with Donna has her with a drink in her hand.
* LowerClassLout: They're trashy, stupid and have absolutely no class.
* {{Manchild}}: They're both incredibly immature. Deconstructed as their immaturity and selfishness caused Eleanor to develop her dim view of humanity.
* MrsRobinson: Donna unsubtly hits on Eleanor's boyfriend ''at Doug's funeral''.
* ParentalNeglect: Constantly forgot their own daughter's birthday, and in general, they treated Eleanor as more like a casual acquaintance than their own child. They also didn't even so much as protest when Eleanor decided to emancipate herself and move out, at the age of ''fourteen''.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: The absurdly stupid, irresponsible, and wacky parents to Eleanor's exasperated, self-sufficient serious child in every flashback they appear in. Eleanor also flatly states she's had to take care of herself ''and'' the two of them her whole life, which is why she's so determined to emancipate herself. ''Extremely'' deconstructed, as this did a lot of damage to Eleanor's mentality and emotional well-being.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wallace]]
!!Wallace
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_wallace.png]]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Seth Morris

-->''"Now, you can't legally call it medicine, because it doesn't technically 'work' and it'' is ''technically 'chalk.'"''

Eleanor's boss in the flashbacks to her life on Earth.
----
* BadBoss: Sexually harasses his employees, and when the company gets investigated for fraud, he sells everyone else out to save his own skin. Played with in that his half-assed, selfish smarminess puts him exactly on Eleanor's wavelength, making him a good boss from her perspective.
* SnakeOilSalesman: He heads up a team which sells phony pharmaceuticals to the sick and elderly.
-->'''Wallace:''' So we sell two products here, [=NasaPRO=] and [=NasaPRO=] Silver. We aim this at seniors. Now, you can't legally call it medicine because it doesn't technically "work" and it is technically "chalk", so what you're gonna want to do -
-->'''Eleanor:''' You need me to lie to old people and scare them into buying fake medicine. I get it, man.
* SpearCounterpart: To Eleanor. He has no scruples either about selling AllNaturalSnakeOil, or about hitting on co-workers of the opposite sex. The flaws that sent Eleanor to the Bad Place are his flaws as well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brittany & Madison]]
!!Brittany & Madison
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_roommates.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Left: Madison, Right: Brittany]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Meryl Hathaway (Brittany) and Angela Trimbur (Madison)

Eleanor's roommates.
----
* EverybodyHasStandards: Brittany is rather shallow, yet even she thinks Madison seriously overreacted to the ripped dress fiasco.
* FrivolousLawsuit: Madison sued a dry-cleaner business because she thinks they broke the back zipper on an expensive dress of hers (which was actually Eleanor's fault) first for the price of the dress... and then $80 ''million'' in mental anguish. The legal fees shut the dry-cleaners down.
* {{Jerkass}}es: Neither of them are very nice people. Even at her worst, Eleanor was ''just'' marginally nicer than these two. Madison has the Dress Bitch Incident, and Brittany mentions that she's just generally awful and unpleasant to everyone all the time. Brittany, meanwhile, laughs at her (admittedly self-inflicted) suffering, makes and sells T-shirts to further said suffering, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking uses Eleanor's credit cards to buy porn without even asking]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: Madison is an awful person, and brought the Dress Bitch fiasco on herself, but it's hard to blame her for being upset with Brittany and Eleanor for making and selling T-shirts based on the incident. Even if Madison is a bitch, it's still an awful thing to do to a friend.
* {{Manchild}}: Of the two, Madison is far more immature, prone to throwing tantrums and acting like a spoiled teenager.
* NeverMyFault: Madison never gets how the fallout of the Dress Bitch incident is her fault, instead accusing all those people taunting or humiliating her afterward of being "jealous".
* RichBitch: Madison has lots of money, and abuses it regularly.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: They're this to Eleanor. She's not exactly ''nice'' when left to her own devices, but she is ''infinitely'' worse when she hangs around them. Brittany especially has a habit of turning up when Eleanor's doing something and talking her into abandoning it.
* WithFriendsLikeThese: They and Eleanor mostly treat each other like crap despite being roommates that hang out with each other.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sam]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Drew Brooks

One of Eleanor's boyfriends while she was alive.
----
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Not much is known about him besides being an ex of Eleanor's, and that he made an effort to be a better person than she was.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dave]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Andy Daly

An architect who Donna has hooked up with.
----
* LoveAtFirstSight: In spite of Donna holding ''a knife to his throat'' when he first met her at the decommissioned bar, the two hit it off and ended up marrying.
* SecretKeeper: [[spoiler:He actually knows that "Diana Tremaine" is Donna Shellstrop. The two plan to break it to their daughter when she's old enough to handle it.]]
[[/folder]]

!!!Tahani's circle

[[folder:Manisha & Waqas]]
!!Manisha & Waqas Al-Jamil
->'''Portrayed By:''' Anna Khaja (Manisha) & Ajay Mehta (Waqas)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aljamils.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:'''Executor''': ''"[The will] says "We bequeath the rest of our estate to Tahini." "Like the sauce."'']]

-->''"Hello, Tahani! We were just talking about how you're a huge disappointment compared to your sister."''
--->-- '''Manisha'''

Tahani and Kamilah's parents, who fawn over Kamilah and completely ignore Tahani unless it's to criticize her.
----

* AbusiveParents: They are staggeringly cold-hearted to Tahani, withholding affection for the simple reason that they don't think she deserves it in comparison to her sister. This is [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood occasionally played for comedy]], such as when they misspell her name in the will.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: The ''most'' praise either of them is ever seen giving Tahani is calling a picture she drew "competent".
* {{Foil}}: To Eleanor's parents. They're wealthy, snobby and refined in sharp contrast to the poor, loutish and immature Doug and Donna. While Doug and Donna were immature people who were completely unfit to be parents, they don't go out of their way to make Eleanor miserable, they're just horribly irresponsible. Contrast Manisha and Waqas, who openly prefer Kamilah to Tahani and think nothing of degrading her to prop up Kamilah.
* HateSink: Between the horrible way they played favorites with their kids, general snobbery, and the fact they never even once considered how their actions hurt Tahani, it's safe to say they would deserve any tortures the Bad Place could inflict on them.
* HumanPopsicle: Tahani mentions that they're in cryogenic chambers.
* {{Jerkass}}: They're snobby, elitist, and absurdly cruel to Tahani. Not even trying to hide the fact that they love Kamilah more than her.
* KickTheDog: Every scene they share with Tahani, they will say something immensely cruel and shatter her fragile sense of self-worth.
* LackOfEmpathy: They don't seem even slightly concerned with how their behavior affects Tahani.
* ParentalFavoritism: '''''Very''''' blatantly played favorites with their daughters, with Kamilah getting the lion's share of attention. While they'd give, at best, token acknowledgment of Tahani's work, they would heap praise upon everything Kamilah did.
* RichBitch: Both of them are wealthy, snobbish, and emotionally hard on their daughters.
* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: A flashback of Tahani's has them scolding her for not doing well enough at an auction, ignoring Tahani's attempt to point out that it's already managed to get to five million pounds, which they still regard as an embarrassing failure.
* YouAreFat: When simulations of them meet Tahani in the afterlife Manisha makes a couple of pointed remarks about Tahani's weight.
-->'''Manisha''': Apparently, wherever you've been, they've been keeping you... well-fed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kamilah]]
!!Kamilah Al-Jamil
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1x05_0003.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Tahani! You're a cocktail waitress now. Honestly, I think this is the right move for you."'']]
->'''Portrayed by:''' Rebecca Hazlewood

-->''"I am auctioning off a lunch date with me. The bidding shall commence at £3 million."''

Tahani's improbably successful sister.
----
* TheAce: Youngest person to ever graduate from Oxford University, world-class painter, sculptor, social activist, iconoclast, Olympic archer (for which she won the gold, of course), Grammy award-winning musician, youngest person ever inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame (her album was so good the Hall of Fame waived the mandatory 25 year waiting period and inducted her just six months after her album was released), BAFTA award-winning documentarian (for a documentary she did on her own previously mentioned Grammy award-winning album), and person voted "Most Likely to Be Creator/{{Banksy}}". Indeed when Tahani is told that Kamilah's music was capable of ''curing malaria'' she doesn't even question it, though that was likely made up just to taunt her.
* AloofBigSister: Inverted. Not only was she [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter infinitely more accomplished and beloved]] than her older sister Tahani, they didn't have a good relationship because Kamilah would either ignore her or rub in her achievements.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Was this to Tahani, who would never measure up to her achievements.
* BigSisterBully: Inverted, as she's Tahani's younger sister yet is incredibly emotionally abusive to her, mocking her by saying that the latter becoming a cocktail waitress is the right move for her in spite of all her achievements, and outright saying that she doesn't think of her.
* BrokenAce: Despite all her accomplishments and talents, Kamilah was a truly nasty, self-centered, and uncaring person. [[spoiler:This is at least partially due to the emotionally abusive way her parents pitted her against Tahani.]]
* ChildProdigy: She was already creating complex modern art sculptures as a child (while Tahani was merely making photorealistic "representational" art), and was the youngest person to graduate from Oxford.[[note]]For reference, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Lawrence Ruth Lawrence]], the youngest person to graduate in modern times, finished at thirteen.[[/note]]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: In flashbacks, she's shown easily accepting the horrific emotional abuse her parents heaped on Tahani (and, to a lesser extent, her as well), even calmly saying, "Thank you for this opportunity" when her parents decide to have her and Tahani paint portraits -- and whichever one is worse gets ''used as kindling''. One gets the distinct impression it's simply because this is all she's ever known, and they ''are'' her parents. [[spoiler:When she and Tahani reconcile, she admits her parents were "wankers," and is almost in tears when Tahani embraces her.]]
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Flashbacks show that everyone wants a piece of her, gender notwithstanding.
* FreudianExcuse: Being forced to compete with Tahani by their parents had just as much an effect on her as with Tahani; she just channeled it into her work.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:In season 3, Kamilah is able to reconcile with Tahani, sharing credit with her on her latest art project and revealing that all of her paintings were of pairs of things, like sisters]].
* InsufferableGenius: She's absurdly pretentious and extremely arrogant about her (admittedly very impressive) achievements, to the point where you sort of wonder how anyone else can stand to be around her.
* JerkAss: From what little we've seen of her interactions with Tahani, she doesn't seem to have been a very good sister. When questioned on whether she thinks poorly of Tahani, she admitted that she doesn't think of Tahani at all.
* JerkassFacade: [[spoiler:At least some of her aloofness and disconnect is due to her parents making her compete with Tahani]].
* KickTheDog: In almost every scene she shares with Tahani, she is either standing by and gloating at how much people favor her or making cruel comments about her.
* MeaningfulName: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kamilah is Arabic for ''perfect''.
* ObliviouslyEvil: She genuinely doesn't seem to realize when she causes Tahani harm through her dismissiveness.
* ParodySue: Subverted. Her numerous achievements certainly come off as such, considering the entire world considers her work in art, music, and activism absolutely ground-breaking. However, while the world sings her praises, she is very unkind to her sister.
* RenaissanceMan: She excels in a ridiculous number of fields, be it from the arts, athletics and academics.
* SmugSnake: It's clear that Kamilah is a very firm believer in her own hype.
* SpoiledBrat: A lifetime of lavish wealth and praise for every accomplishment has left Kamilah with a very unpleasant demeanor.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Not a villain per se but she's adored by everyone who speaks of her and it's likely that they don't know about how cruel she can be to her sister. "Everything is Bonzer" establishes that Kamilah is even willing to take credit for something she knows full well she didn't do, i.e. saving Tahani's life.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Larry]]
!!Larry Hemsworth
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_larry.png]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Ben Lawson

->''"It's like mother said; I'll always be the pudgy one."''

A handsome pediatric surgeon, and perhaps more well-known to the public as the non-famous non-actor Hemsworth brother (just don't remind him of that or even talk about [[Creator/LukeHemsworth Luke]], [[Creator/ChrisHemsworth Chris]], or [[Creator/LiamHemsworth Liam]] in front of him, like, ever). Dated Tahani at point in the past.
----
* ButtMonkey: He sees himself as constantly unlucky compared to his more famous brothers. While most of this is just SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome, he does get the short end of the stick when [[spoiler:Tahani completely forgets about their impending marriage and gets married to Jason so they can share her money, and she is forced to break things off with him as a result]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Initially mentioned as a one-off gag in Season 2 when Tahani remarks how high-status even he is compared to Jason, and then makes an appearance on the cover of the magazine Eleanor's reading in the second episode of Season 3. The next episode he makes his onscreen debut where he [[spoiler:rekindles his relationship with Tahani, leading to them getting engaged and making plans to move back to England which sours Michael's plans to keep Team Cockroach together]].
* HollywoodPudgy: InUniverse, being the chubby son of the family is amongst his many complaints about himself. This is the same man who "barely" has an 8-pack, and Eleanor snarks if he's ashamed to have 0% body fat.
* InformedDeformity: Parodied. Larry, who clearly feels overwhelmed by his brothers' fame, constantly complains about how dull and ugly he apparently is. He claims to have a forgettable face, is considered the "chubby" one at least according to his mother, and he rants about "only" being 6'4'' and barely having an 8-pack. As he is almost a ParodySue with how good-looking and successful he is, the characters are dumbfounded by his exaggerating self-deprecation.
-->'''Chidi:''' [[LampshadeHanging Do you]] ''[[LampshadeHanging know]]'' [[LampshadeHanging what you look like]]?
* ItsAllAboutMe: While normally genial and good natured, he's easily absorbed into his own self-pity.
* TheMaidenNameDebate: Inverted. He's perfectly willing to take Tahani's name, so that he'll never have to be reminded of his brothers again.
* NewOldFlame: An ex-boyfriend of Tahani's, and the two start dating again after [[spoiler:reuniting in Australia, which is actually a part of Michael and Janet's scheme to stop her from getting with Jason]].
* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Parodied as Larry, despite being a classically handsome pediatric surgeon with "almost an 8-pack", is hilariously insecure about not being as famous as his actor brothers. This is apparently something he and Tahani have in common.
[[/folder]]

!!!Chidi's circle

[[folder:Henry]]
!!Henry
->'''Portrayed By:''' Dominic Burgess

One of Chidi's fellow lecturers.
----
* ButtMonkey: This guy's life seems to be an unending parade of unfortunate circumstances.
* NiceShoes: He owns a pair of extremely conspicuous and tacky red boots and is convinced they're the height of fashion. Chidi can't bring himself to tell him otherwise.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Uzo]]
!!Uzo
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_uzo.png]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Keston John, Dallas Young (young)

-->''"Great job, Chidi. You filibustered recess."''

Chidi's best friend since childhood.
----
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He's ''absurdly'' patient with Chidi's indecisiveness, but even he has his limits.
* ChildhoodFriends: He and Chidi were friends as children and remained close into adulthood.
* DeadpanSnarker: Even as a kid, this was his response to Chidi.
* NiceGuy: He'd have to be to put up with Chidi's neuroses.
* PartingWordsRegret: The last thing he ever said to Chidi was yelling angrily that it was literally ''impossible'' to be friends because of Chidi's indecisive nature. Chidi is crushed by a falling air conditioner not even thirty seconds later. The look on Uzo's face says it all.
-->'''Uzo:''' ...Chidi?
* SatelliteCharacter: Chidi's exasperated childhood friend. That's about it.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After Michael saves Chidi from being crushed by the air conditioning vent, and Chidi's takeaway from the near death experience is [[ComicallyMissingThePoint not to buy one himself]], Uzo finally loses patience with Chidi and breaks off ties with him. This is what prompts Chidi to want to change his ways.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: He lets Chidi be his best man... but tells him that the wedding is a month earlier than it really is, to see, when the "big day" came, if Chidi was ''actually'' ready. Just as Uzo predicted, Chidi fails. Miserably.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Simone]]
!!Dr. Simone Garnett
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_simone.png]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Kirby Howell-Baptiste

A neuroscientist and professor at St. John's University in Australia, Chidi first meets her when he tries to determine if there's a neurological reason that he is so indecisive.
----
* {{Adorkable}}: Much like Chidi, she's a sweet intellectual eager to help out those who ask.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Simone's an unusual case, since everything we see of her, proper, indicates she's into men only. However, Janet [[ItMakesSenseInContext creates a hyper-realistic simulation that includes Simone, exactly as she would react and behave in real life]]. In one run of this simulation, Eleanor talks to Simone, which quickly develops into flirty banter and an AlmostKiss -- and Simone seems just as into it as Eleanor. So, if the simulation is as accurate as Janet claims, Simone may well be bisexual.
* BrainyBrunette: She has dark hair, and is just as intelligent as Chidi, if not more.
* BriefAccentImitation: In a simulation created by Janet, she briefly imitates Eleanor's American accent (to tease Eleanor about her claim that she doesn't have an accent).
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Like Gen, she's rather quirky and eccentric, but is still very competent at her job and is one of the more helpful characters the gang has encountered thus far.
* TheBusCameBack: The Bad Place intentionally choses her as one of the four humans for the gang's good place experiment to put Chidi under the stress of having his former girlfriend there to compromise his duties running the neighborhood.
* {{Foil}}: To both Eleanor and Chidi. Like the former, she puts Chidi out of his comfort zone and helps him take decisive actions, but lacks Eleanor's negative personality traits. While she studies human nature like Chidi, she also lacks his faults and is more interested in concrete facts than ethical questions. She's also interested in science, while the other characters have a supernatural perspective of events.
* TheGadfly: Although quite nice, she does mess with Chidi's head by telling him the way she'd analyse his brain involves peeling his scalp open and jabbing his brain with an electrified needle while he's still conscious.
* NiceGirl: Simone's no pushover, but she's a sweet, easygoing lady who takes Team Cockroach's weirdness in stride.
* OnlySaneMan: So far, she's one of the only characters we've met who isn't evil, stupid, or dysfunctional to the point of self-destruction. Of The Brainy Bunch, she is ''easily'' the most together.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Simone's Aussie accent is a bit rough, with the actress being British.
[[/folder]]

!!!Jason's circle

[[folder:Pillboi]]
!!Pillboi
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgp_pillboi.png]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Eugene Cordero

-->''"At least he died doing what he loved: a bunch of whip-its."''

Jason's best friend and partner-in-crime from Jacksonville.
----
* AffablyEvil: Same deal as Jason. For a petty, destructive crook, he seems pretty nice.
* AsianAirhead: He's played by a Filipino-American actor, and like Jason, he doesn't seem to have much in the way of brains.
* BadLiar: His attempts to lie during his crook schemes are very easy to look through due to their absurd nature or poor execution.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Jason in life. Small-time StupidCrooks they may be, but the two of them obviously have a strong friendship, and aren't averse to marrying each other to get out of being convicted (that's not how it works, of course, but the sentiment is there).
* HiddenDepths: Despite his love for petty crime, Season 3 reveals he works at a nursing home and genuinely enjoys it, and he does appear to do a decent job from the little viewers see of him at work.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Only known by the name ''Pillboi'' which is almost certainly not his real name (given he's from Florida, though, you never know). It even says 'Pillboi' on his ''employee badge'' at the retirement home.
* SatelliteCharacter: His only role in the story is to act as a supporting partner-in-crime to Jason.
* StupidCrooks: He and Jason do petty crimes, but their plans are not very well thought-out.
* ThoseTwoBadGuys: In life, he always carred out idiotic criminal schemes with his partner-in-crime Jason.
* VillainousFriendship: Despite their life of crime together, he genuinely cared about Jason and was saddened by his death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Donkey Doug]]
!!Donkey Doug
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donkeydoug_0.png]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Mitch Narito

Jason's dad (yes, really). Like his son, Donkey Doug also dabbles in crime.
----
* AsianAirhead: Similar to his son, the Filipino-American Donkey Doug isn't very bright.
* ChekhovsGunman: First mentioned in season 1, he appears briefly in the first episode of Season 3 when he backs out of Jason's dance crew, against the idea of avoiding crime. He becomes the focus of a later episode when [[spoiler:Jason, Tahani and Michael attempt to redeem him as part of their new plan to help others]], and Jason officially reveals he's his father.
* KavorkaMan: Apparently, up until he met Tahani, his technique for seducing women was nothing more than saying "let's go put stuff in each other." And yet it worked up until then.
* InsistentTerminology: Refers to Jason as "my boy", but they find referring to one another as father and son to be too weird.
* LazyBum: Quits Dance Dance Resolution when Jason states the crew should devote themselves to being better dancers via an astoundingly small amount of working out, which is too much for him.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: It becomes clear Jason's lack of brightness and crook ways were very much the influence of his father.
* LoserSonOfLoserDad: Mentions that his father and grandfather were both petty criminals who eventually gave themselves up to the police so their kids could get away.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Parodied. He was mentioned in earlier seasons, but in Season 3 Jason explains to Tahani that Donkey Doug is his father. Tahani is weirded out by this.
* {{Manchild}}: Even more childish and stupid than his own son.
* NoodleIncident: He once tried inventing his own sport. Lots of people got killed because of it.
* ParentsAsPeople: By his own admission, he's not the best father in the world, and his criminal activity and stupidity almost certainly set Jason on the path to becoming who he is. But he does care about Jason, and willingly gives himself up to the cops so Jason can run away.
* TheStoner: He answers his door holding a bong, despite knowing that a visit from the police is a very real possibility.
* StupidCrooks: He believes that cops cannot arrest people for anything they heard before they reveal they're cops, and he devotes his life to get-rich-quick schemes which wind up involving large amounts of theft, just to sell idiotic products.
* TomatoSurprise: Jason talks about Donkey Doug in season one, but he doesn't reveal Donkey Doug is his father until Season 3 - though he knew about it when almost everyone else didn't (including the audience).
[[/folder]]

!!!Other Earth Characters

[[folder:Doug Forcett]]
!!Doug Forcett
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doug_forcett.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in the present day]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dougforcett.png[[/labelnote]]]]

->'''Portrayed By:''' Noah Garfinkel (photograph, young) & Creator/MichaelMcKean

A random stoner kid from 1970s Calgary who, during a magic mushroom trip, somehow explained what happens in the afterlife with 92% accuracy. His portrait is proudly displayed in Michael's office.
----

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Got high one night and unwittingly achieved what all of humanity had failed to do for millennia: explain what happens to you when you die.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Doug has devoted every day of his life into making others happy, even animals, at his own expense, simply to try and get into the Good Place. As Michael and Janet learn, he has earned a tremendous amount of points... but it's nowhere near enough to get him in.]]
* CanadaEh: He's from Calgary. Downplayed example as he doesn't exhibit any extreme Canadian stereotypes, other than being an overly nice guy in the present [[spoiler:as a result of his epiphany about the afterlife]] and being a stoner in the past.
* ChekhovsGunman: Is briefly talked about in the pilot episode and isn't brought up again for a long time, seemingly acting as nothing more than a small gag. [[spoiler:In Season 3, Michael and Janet seek him out in hopes of using him as a "blueprint for humanity" that others can follow to earn their spot in the Good Place. Unfortunately, Doug's so worried about going to the Bad Place that he goes to uncomfortable extremes to be good and earn enough afterlife points. This really drives the point home to Michael and Janet that the afterlife points system is flawed and that finding ''the'' perfect model to get into the Good Place is a lot more complicated than they thought.]]
* EruditeStoner: This is also what makes him famous in the afterlife. Apparently, he dropped magic mushrooms once and proceeded to guess most of what happens to people after they die. Reportedly, while all world religions got around 5% right each, he accurately described ''92% of what actually happens''.
* ExtremeDoormat: [[spoiler:His vision about the points system, and the fear of ending up in the Bad Place, has turned him into one of these. He'll do literally anything to please others no matter how much he suffers as a result.]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: In a benign way, but [[spoiler:coming to understand how biased and strict the points system is caused him to become a miserable wreck of a person so dedicated to altruism who makes ''Chidi'' look downright relaxed and laid-back.]]
* HeavenSeeker: [[spoiler:He devotes his life exclusively to maximizing his afterlife points in order to make sure he gets into the Good Place.]]
* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: Was the one person in existence to most closely accurately guess the true nature of how the afterlife functions while tripping on shrooms.
* MushroomSamba: And one hell of a Samba it was. It actually made him describe the afterlife better than anyone else before him, plus every single religion. It also made him spend the day after stroking a blanket.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Eleanor and Jason's dads are both also named Doug.
[[/folder]]

----

* AGlitchInTheMatrix: Mindy's situation has a twist that hasn't been fully explored as of Season 3. She earned her Medium Place by planning a bunch of good actions and then having them carried out after her death. That's different from all the other moral judgments shown on the show so far because it credits Mindy for her '''intentions''', not just the consequences of her actions.

* AntiHero: The Disney Anti hero,she can be abrasive selfish but deep down she wants to be a hero

* CharacterDevelopment: More than anyone else on the show, Chidi's development is of a "three steps forward, two steps back" type thanks to his indecisive nature. Time and again he tries to become more decisive, and he even has long stretches where he succeeds... but then, when one of his decisions turns out to be wrong or have negative consequences, he tends to lapse back into indecisiveness for fear that he'll make another wrong choice.
** [[spoiler:His development comes to a head in the Season 3 final, as he makes the decision to willingly give up memories in order to ensure the success of the experiment, a choice that is no doubt the most decisive decision he's made in his entire life.]]

* TheBusCameBack: The Bad Place intentionally choses her as one of the four humans for the gang's good place experiment to put Chidi under the stress of having his former girlfriend there to compromise his duties running the neighborhood.

* God: Like Shawn with the Devil, they sort of fill this role as the heads of the Good Place.

* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:Returns in "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife", having become more articulate and urbane, thanks to Mindy rebooting him many, many, ''many'' times.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goodplace_neil.PNG]]

* [[NiceGuy Nice Guys]]: Obviously, being residents of the Good Place. While they decide whether or not to assist the Soul Squad, they assign Kellen to stand by Michael and shower him with compliments while he waits for their decision.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She listens to the Main 4's requests without much problem (though she almost throws them out for lacking the proper paperwork) and allows them to take a test to define their fates, even complying to what she considers a bad idea by grading them as a group. However, she is a professional, and rules to send them to the Bad Place when all of them except Eleanor fail their tests, but is willing to give them another chance when Michael pleads their case.
** In Season 3, [[spoiler:after she finds out about Michael's meddling she ends the experiment, but decides to let the four live out their lives in the new timeline and give them the chance earn a place in the Good Place for real. But she also decides to send Michael and Janet back to the Bad Place despite knowing what Shawn and the others will do to them.]]