History Main / ExpansionPackPast

* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' is very guilty of this. Alison DiLaurentis did more on the night of her disappearance (and apparent murder) than people do in their entire lives.
** And it got much worse with the introduction of [[spoiler: Charles/Charlotte DiLaurentis and Alex Drake.]]

** Speaking of Bats, The Joker enjoys the fact his past is, to him contradictory and muddled.

* The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' reveals her past, claiming she's never talked this much about herself before. But in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', both Strangelove and EVA reveal all kinds of juicy details about top-secret missions she'd been on in between (and in one case, instead of) the missions she'd told Snake about.

* ''Anime/AstroBoy'': * Most incarnations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Shunsaku Ban. Amusingly, he looks a bit like Jamie Hyneman.

** Season C newcomer Del Tarrant claimed that he was trained as a Federation captain, then worked as a smuggler and mercenary before taking part in the battle against the AlienInvasion from Andromeda. Unfortunately when this BackStory was written, the character was meant to be played by an actor at least ten years older than Steven Pacey. It's {{handwave}}d by a suggestion that Tarrant is [[MultipleChoicePast lying about some of it]], and an AlternateCharacterInterpretation is that he deserted from the Federation military during the battle and is trying to appear more acceptable to the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits gang of rebels and ex-criminals]] he finds himself in with.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' was a pretty good example of this trope, what with the extensive and varied training that Bruce had undergone in the past -- everything from samurai training to magic lessons.
** Exactly how Bruce planned it. Besides, you can do card tricks in Japan.

** Following this, ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' would build up on the events of ''Casino Royale'', with Bond looking for closure over [[spoiler: Vesper Lind]]'s death, searching for her employers and killers.

** Jim from, as a RunningGag, often tangentially mentions being involved in all sorts of different odd jobs (space program test subject, special forces, something about submarines, something else about professional skateboarding, etc.) that he would [[NoodleIncident "rather not talk about"]]. It's implied that he's either OlderThanHeLooks or he's embellishing his past because he's bored.
** Played straighter with Aelita, who was first described as an AI before it was revealed in Season 2 she was human, and the daughter of the creator of Lyoko. Too little is known of her past to make the rare flashbacks yet contradictory, though.

* Howard Moon is supposed to be like this in the Crack Fox episode of ''Series/TheMightyBoosh''.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Robert Goren knows everything.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', they've somehow managed to shoehorn in a ''third'' dark past for Angela, who seems to switch secret conspiracies every few years. Said dark past also involves Chandra Suresh, someone who positively ''couldn't'' be part of any of these conspiracies (he wasn't even sure evolved abilities existed until he was killed by someone with powers) but apparently now was part of one all along.
* This trope is the entire premise behind the title character of ''Series/ThePretender''.
* ''Series/{{Greek}}'' has this in all of Cappie's majors (and one-time photography minor). Of course, he could be lying, but that's part of Cappie's mystery (just like his [[NoNameGiven name]]...)
* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'': Duncan [=MacLeod=] has done just about everything imaginable, and lived in (or at least visited) virtually every culture on Earth, in the course of flashbacks doled out throughout the series. Justified to some extent due to the fact that he's over 400 years old. Several of the other characters have similarly varied pasts, which is also justified because they're usually even older than [=MacLeod=]. For example, his drinking buddy Hugh Fitzcairn is 800 years old, his on-and-off girlfriend Amanda is nearly 1200, and Methos is so old that even most immortals think he's a myth; he says his earliest memories date back to 5500 years ago, but he was already an adult and had already experienced his first death (activating his immortality) before that point.
* Larry, Darryl, and Darryl from ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' had an extremely packed past.
* Despite being an utter failure at almost 40, Johnny Drama on ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' has a story about anyone and everyone in show business, just because he's been around so long. Oddly, his own brother and best friends have never heard most of these stories before.
* Scott Sherwood of ''Series/RememberWENN'' had one of these.
* Hilda, Zelda, and cat Salem of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' are centuries-old witches who have apparently screwed every historically famous person ever and were everywhere for everything that has ever happened in history. Zelda dated Columbus. Hilda dated Shakespeare and Mercury, the Roman messenger God. Also, Salem ''totally'' coined the phrase "let me have liberty or let me have death." Also, in one episode Sabrina mentions that her Aunt Irma didn't like some guy named Ben so she turned him into the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament commonly known as "Big Ben".
* Kenneth from ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has been [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld alive forever]]. Or since the American Civil War. We think. Unless he was born in the 1980s. Maybe.
* Jamie and Adam from ''Series/MythBusters'' love playing with this. A lot of it is for humor, but much is also true - for instance, Jamie once ran a pet shop, used to give diving lessons, and turns out to be qualified for many odd tasks that crop up in the course of mythbusting work.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In order for all of the things in Aaron Hotchner's past to be true, he had to have gone to college at 13. Seriously, the guy was an established prosecutor before joining the BAU and then working his way up to Lead Profiler, which he's been for about five years... yet he's barely 45.
** Yet he's nothing compared to [[TVGenius Reid]]...who really ''did'' graduate high school as a twelve-year-old and ''still'' doesn't have enough time in life for all the things he's supposedly done.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** Former Cardassian spy-turned tailor Elim Garak always adds more details to his past. Played with in that you can never know for sure if '''any''' of his supposed backstory is true, since ThatLiarLies. His backstory was finally revealed in a ''thick'' book, ''[[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineAStitchInTime A Stitch in Time]]'', written by the actor who portrayed him.
** Whenever the writers wanted Dax to have an unusual skill or know something unexpected, they just attributed it to one of her past hosts. Given that there were seven such prior hosts, adding up to over 350 years of experience, this was reasonable enough. One extreme example was [[spoiler:Ezri Dax, who has no police or security training whatsoever, being the best-suited to stop a serial killer on the station...because one of the previous Dax hosts ''was'' a serial killer. (And in fairness, the current host is a trained psychiatrist, giving her more than just the past host's life experiences to use in profiling a serial killer.) And even ''that'' was expanded from a previous episode where that particular host killed just one person.]].
** O'Brien ran into this twice. On TNG, where he was simply the most prominent recurring crewman, he was used a few times when they wanted a known character to add a personal touch to the plot, but didn't want to invest the main characters in it. His past fighting Cardassians with Captain Maxwell being the best example. Also, for several years he wore the rank insignia of a Lieutenant ("Chief" was presumed to be just a shortening of his job title), but he was {{retcon}}ned into being a Senior Chief Petty Officer and thus one of the very few named enlisted personnel in the entire franchise. Then when he moved to ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]'' as a main character, expanding his past became a matter of necessity.
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': For all the many hours of screen time Spock has had over the course of the franchise, it came as somewhat of a surprise when ''Discovery'' revealed that he has a hitherto unmentioned adoptive sister, Michael Burnham, also a prominent Starfleet officer. But the truth is, this has been happening since ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]]'', with no less than three surprise reveals about his family that not even his best friend Kirk was aware of (those being Sarek, T'Pring, and Sybok). It's quite clear that Spock never talks about his family unless he absolutely has to, meaning there could be any number of other people in his life that no one yet knows about.
* ''Series/JustShootMe'': Nina van Horn is a former supermodel, who back in TheSeventies ventured into acting and singing careers. She has also apparently slept with every male celebrity she's ever met, has converted back and forth to various religions, and has even been brainwashed several times into joining cults.
* Happened to the character of Venus Flytrap on ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati''. He got so many contradictory backstories (he was a former soldier, a former teacher, or else a very experienced DJ from New Orleans) that finally they had to make an episode to reconcile the inconsistencies, establishing that he and Andy had simply lied when they said he was an experienced DJ in the first episode.
* During the first season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', Jack Bauer is shown to be a relatively competent (and unassuming) government agent with some special ops training. Subsequent seasons, ExpandedUniverse tie-in's and supplemental books show that he worked for the LAPD's SWAT Team, Delta Force and the CIA, worked extensive field cases that called on him to do extraordinary feats, indirectly worked for/met with five of the series' major villains (including two members of his own family) years before they would put their plans to overthrow the U.S. into motion, sold out several of his CTU colleagues when they accepted bribes, went undercover in several different gangs and cartels and rescued his wife from a BigBad who planned to massacre her and several other civilians on live television.
* Nessa from the British comedy ''Series/GavinAndStacey'' has a ridiculously impressive and convoluted past, revealed in brief reminiscences and anecdotes, although how much of this history is true is debatable - she could be making it all up for all we know, though the other Barry characters will often back her up and are sometimes even involved. Many of the stories she recounts are of bizarre sexual liaisons with high-profile celebrities, made all the more hilarious by her dead-pan delivery of these lewd stories. Hilariously, politician John Prescott showed up at her wedding as one of her exes, meaning at least one of her stories is true.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' likes this trope in all its versions. Enough past is revealed to flesh out a character, and them more and more is revealed as things progress. Listing all the stuff associated with the main characters could be a page in itself.
* Many an episode of ''Series/RemingtonSteele'' revolved around someone from the main character's past coming around to reveal another piece. He's known to have been a thief, con man, and boxer. Along the way, he picked up numerous skills and bits of information.
* Blair Sandburg in ''Series/TheSentinel'' has some odd skills learned on summer jobs, or acquired from his free-spirited mother's various lovers, or picked up in his anthropological/archaeological studies.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'':
** Season C newcomer Del Tarrant claimed that he was trained as a Federation captain, then worked as a smuggler and mercenary before taking part in the battle against the AlienInvasion from Andromeda. Unfortunately when this BackStory was written, the character was meant to be played by an actor at least ten years older than Steven Pacey. It's {{handwave}}d by a suggestion that Tarrant is [[MultipleChoicePast lying about some of it]], and an AlternateCharacterInterpretation is that he deserted from the Federation military during the battle and is trying to appear more acceptable to the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits gang of rebels and ex-criminals]] he finds himself in with.
** Dayna Mellanby was raised in isolation with only her father and step-sister for company. In "Animals", she's required to have a NewOldFlame, a private tutor called in to educate her. Unfortunately this TeacherStudentRomance has distinctly creepy overtones once you do the math (it's been over six years since they met, and Dayna is still quite young when she joins the crew). As with Tarrant, this came about because the script was originally written for an older crewmember (Cally, who left the series).
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': Detective Rosa Diaz is revealed to have gone to ballet school, medical school (for three years) and business school. She was a competitive gymnast, has a pilot's licence, and has lived in Osaka, Berlin, Macau, Stockholm -- and, it's implied, at least a couple of other cities around the world. Somehow she fit all this in before attending the police academy at the same time as Jake Peralta, who is implied to be older than her (a sonic weapon which only affects under-35s is felt by her but not by him), and who seems to have no past more complicated than "grew up, became a cop".
* In ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', Creed's personal history is never laid out, but frequently alluded to, each time suggesting a different [[DarkAndMysteriousPast dark chapter]] which is never fully explained, and they're rarely mentioned again.
-->"I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader."
* Medical Examiner Donald "Ducky" Mallard of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' always has a story to share about his past, whether he's sharing it with the team or the bodies in Autopsy. Considering that he's perhaps the oldest person in the building with a career that involves a lot of traveling, it makes sense that he'd have plenty of interesting backstory.

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* Pretty much every game-product or novel author who wrote about ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'''s Strahd von Zarovich in the 2E era has added something to his past. Partially justified, in that he's been a vampire for centuries; however, the number of subplots that got crammed into the last year or so of his ''mortal'' life is a bit over-the-top.

* The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' reveals her past, claiming she's never talked this much about herself before. But in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', both Strangelove and EVA reveal all kinds of juicy details about top-secret missions she'd been on in between (and in one case, instead of) the missions she'd told Snake about.
* In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, this happens with just about every flashback case. Through them, we learn about Mia's first case, how she and Phoenix met, [[spoiler:her and Phoenix's lovers (who showed up in present-day cases),]] Edgeworth's first prosecution case (against Mia, no less), Edgeworth's meeting of Kay and Detective Gumshoe, and his initial involvement in the KG-8 case.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Played for laughs with the numerous backstories assigned to Grandpa. Among other things, he spent 40 years as the night watchman at a cranberry silo, lived in the Statue of Liberty's head as a child, earned a commission as an under-aged officer in [[UsefulNotes/WW1 World War 1]] (so under-aged that he still took naps and cried) worked as a strikebreaker during the Depression, fought in World War II as an Army infantryman in Europe, Piloted bombers in the Pacific, and so on. However, despite small hints that some of this is probably true, it's usually chalked up to his delusional senility.
** A more controversial example would be the episode "That 90's Show", which is half sliding timescale, and half Homer-being-aged-up-from-34-to-38. Set during the period of Marge and Homer's relationship after they had graduated high school but before Bart was conceived/their shotgun marriage, it mainly expanded upon Marge's background by revealing that she was a college graduate and that Homer spend his years after high school as a member of both an R&B boyband (based on Color Me Bad) and a grunge rock group (that was part Nirvana and part Bush), that made him a household name. The fact that logically this occurs ''after'' he became world famous for singing barbershop in 1986, as shown in a flashback episode which showed him as older and already married with kids, is probably responsible for most of this controversy.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' exaggerated this for a running gag, as the titular character's super-competent sidekick, Cornfed Pig, always appeared to have expertise and an extensive background in any task at hand. The trope was subverted to an extent when it was revealed that in all of Cornfed's many adventures, he had never successfully lost his virginity, and a LampshadeHanging for Cornfed's ridiculous past was attempted, perhaps inadvertently, by showing at least three different flashback scenarios at different times in the series of how he came to be friends with Duckman.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' was a pretty good example of this trope, what with the extensive and varied training that Bruce had undergone in the past -- everything from samurai training to magic lessons.
** Exactly how Bruce planned it. Besides, you can do card tricks in Japan.
* Roger the Alien from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' originally had a two-sentence origin: He was an alien being held at Area 51 who saved Stan's life. To repay him, Stan lets him live in his house. Over time, though Roger's past has been much more colorful -- in one episode it was revealed that he's actually been on Earth for over sixty years (he was the alien who crashed in Roswell) and stories of his past exploits keep popping up. Like how during the 70's, he was a millionaire music producer who "invented" disco by exploiting a StableTimeLoop, then lost everything when disco died. Or that he's inexplicably an Olympic-class figure skater. Or that he's inadvertently responsible for the death of Biggie Smalls. Or that he fought in the Vietnam War, against the Americans. And he invented MDMA.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', almost every episode featuring [[BigBad Demona]] delved further into her complex backstory.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' episode ''A Brief History of Time'', [[BigBad Van Kleis]] ends up thousands of years in the past. The episode shows several scenes and montages of him putting himself in suspended animation and waking up some time later. During those waking periods, he was shown being an adviser to the Egyptian Pharoahs, a Roman Gladiator, a Viking warrior, a Samurai and about a thousand other things that make no sense unless for some reason his sarcophagus was constantly being shipped thousands of miles while he was in it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Robert Jebediah "Granddad" Freeman has this in spades. The backstory of the family has them coming from Chicago, and one season one episode clarifies that, having him live in the same neighborhood as fellow Tuskegee Airman pilot Moe Jackson after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Other instances, however, have him living in the segregated south, both when he was very little (his brief flashback about "a funny lynching story"), and when he was a full-grown adult, placing him in general civil rights marches. In what turned out to be AllJustADream of Huey's, he was also ''Rosa Parks' accomplice on the bus'', though his attempts at defying segregation were ignored in that instance.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', the viewer gradually learns more and more details about what happened when the Elric brothers tried to revive their mother with alchemy, especially what's behind the GateOfTruth. The Ishval Rebellion receives this treatment to some degree.
* Most incarnations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Shunsaku Ban. Amusingly, he looks a bit like Jamie Hyneman.
* Polar Bear from ''[[Manga/ShirokumaCafe Polar Bear's Cafe]]'' tells a touching story about his reasons for opening the cafe, and then Sasako brings up that he had told her a completely different version of events. He then shrugs and says both versions work. [[OnlySaneMan Penguin]] thinks he's making it all up.
* The ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' writers like introducing new elements into Team Rocket's past in any episode centered around them. After 16 years of this, their backstory has become extremely convoluted. One of the characters lived in 4 different regions, flunked out of medical school, was trained in the art of ninjitsu, held a position as a weather forecaster, worked as a professional model, and was in a biker gang at some point. All this was BEFORE becoming an internationally wanted criminal. Oh, and she apparently doesn't know this, but her MissingMom used to be [[TheDragon second in command of Team Rocket]] before [[spoiler:presumably dying on a mission to recover Mew]]. To make matters worse they're in their late teens at earliest, mid twenties at oldest. Further compounded by the fact that we are repeatedly told that Musashi / Jessie was dirt-poor growing up, to the point that she had to eat snow to avoid going hungry. Not the standard background for such a dilettante.

* Following ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'', the colored lanterns of the Emotional Spectrum are introduced to the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' mythos, having retroactively existed alongside the Green Lantern Corps. Their past can then be elaborated on with flashbacks or time travel, often sharing a history with the Green Lanterns.
* ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Spider-Man]]'' tends to have parts of his backstory added to, such as what happened to his parents, or what happened to the other students when Peter was bit by a radioactive spider, or what happened to Peter's LongLostRelative that he never knew about.
* Jessica Drew, the original ComicBook/SpiderWoman, kept getting additions to her origin that made it seem awfully complicated. Some recent attempts to streamline it have generally just made it muddier by using blatant retcons that contradict even the basic stuff most readers agreed on.
* ''The ComicBook/XMen'':
** Arguably the most famous example of this trope is ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}: He's a soldier, mutant, science experiment, ninja, assassin, SuperHero, miner, aristocrat's son, biker with amnesia, and so on. His time in World War II alone is an example of this trope, where Wolvie has fought in different battles spanning from France, to North Africa, to Russia, to Italy... all the while spending ''months'' being tortured and killed over and over in a concentration camp just to mess with some Nazi's head. Somehow during this period, he managed to also spend the key war years in Japan being trained as a samurai, taking a Japanese wife, and having a son. And you thought being in multiple squads of the X-Men and the Avengers, while also going on his solo adventures, was an incredible accomplishment.
** ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, in addition to having a legitimate Expansion Pack Past, also pokes fun at the idea. Among his time with Weapon X, Flirtations with Death (literally), and time with the X-Men, he's done all sorts of wacky oddjobs. This includes being trained as a ''Sumo Wrestler'' (a clear parody of Wolverine's samurai training).
** ComicBook/XMen member ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}'s teleportation abilities involve him slipping into another dimension, traveling very quickly through it, then popping out elsewhere. The exact nature of this dimension varies from adaptation to adaptation, but usually, when we do get to see it, HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace. In the "main" Marvel Universe of the comics, it's eventually revealed that the dimension Nightcrawler teleports through is [[spoiler: [[PhysicalHell Hell]]]].
** ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}} got hit with this even earlier than Wolverine. When she first appeared, she was simply a young woman in rural Kenya whose tribe worshiped her as a goddess due to her power to control the weather. Then it turned out she was born in the United States and even has a Western last name (Munroe). Then when she was a baby, she and her parents moved to Cairo where her parents were killed in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Afterwards she spent her childhood living as a petty thief, ''then'' as a teenager she traveled east to Kenya--discovering her mutant powers along the way and having a fling with [[ComicBook/BlackPanther T'Challa]]--where she was taken in by her mother's tribe and worshiped as a goddess. When she was approached by Xavier to join his new team of X-Men, it's implied that she had never left Kenya before, but given what we now know about her background and the fact that she was in her early 20's when recruited, she couldn't have possibly lived in Kenya longer than a few years.
** Professor Xavier himself often falls victim to this trope. While it's certainly within character that he led a colorful life before founding his school, most of his past was well-established...until the ''Deadly Genesis'' miniseries which revealed that the All-New All-Different X-Men were actually Xavier's ''second'' attempt at reforming the team following the original X-Men's abduction by Krakoa. The rescue team he originally cobbled together were all killed or presumed to be killed until one of them, Vulcan, came back for revenge.
* Elisa Cameron, the eponymous hero of the comic book ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'', has an incredibly convoluted backstory that fits into this trope, although it's all explained, more or less, by the end of the series. The second series, that is, after they canceled the writer of the first 36 shaggy-dog issues and started a new volume at #1. The blinding rate of actual revelations in the second series contrasts with the three-year tease of the first series.
* [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]], as written by Creator/CarlBarks, was neck deep in this until Creator/DonRosa came along and, in a Crowning Moment of ArcWelding, made most of his backstory fit together in ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck''. However, since other writers are usually not so concerned with continuity, they tend to introduce new elements of Scrooge's past which typically serve the needs of a single story and are never heard of ever again.

* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' did this for Bearclaw, Mantricker and Kahvi. Although most of Bearclaw's stories are pretty solid, Mantricker's timeline is broken beyond all help - and for the family trees to still make sense, some of the later writers literally had to have Kahvi ''fall into a magical plot hole'' for a few thousand years.
* In Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comics it got ridiculous how one by one it was revealed that Snake-Eyes had connections to almost every major villain in his past. Trying very hard to make this brief: He served with Storm Shadow in Vietnam. Baroness' brother was also killed in Vietnam while Snake-Eyes was nearby, and she ended up falsely believing he had killed her brother. Destro and his father come to the scene shortly afterwards just as Baroness is leaving, and note that her brother was wearing a bulletproof vest which would have stopped the bullets from Snake-Eyes' pistol. When he returned home, he learned that his family had all perished in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, who also died. The person driving the other car was the brother of the man who would later become Cobra Commander. Next, Snake-Eyes heads to Japan to join the Arashikage clan...which turns out to be the clan Storm Shadow was born into. His time there comes to an end when Zartan murders the clan head and frames Storm Shadow for it. Finally, it was later revealed that Firefly was with the Arashikage clan as well under the persona of "Faceless Master". Out of all the most enduring villains that only leaves Major Bludd with no ties to Snake-Eyes.

* ''ComicBook/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' likes to talk about all the previous Mrs. Burtons. It turns out Jack has had run-ins with the occult before, and just never caught on.

* In ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}, the list of occultist phenomena and people Constantine interacted with in his past only seems to get longer and longer, with a colorful, long-forgotten old friend showing up almost once per storyarc.
* ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} has gotten quite a bit of mileage of Hellboy's adventures during his earlier career (between the 40's and late 80's).

[[folder:Film-Animation]]

[[folder:Film-Live Action]]

* The Moustache in Irma La Douce has a remarkable resume. But that's another story....
* In ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'', the Transformers involvement with the Earth's past is shown in the first movie, while the sequels reveal even more involvement with the Earth's history.

* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, Sister Nicci originally had little background besides being one of the Sisters of the Light and [[spoiler: secretly being aligned with the Keeper of the Underworld.]] However, starting in ''Faith of the Fallen'', her complex past is delved into during chapters from her point of view.
* Faolan from Creator/JulietMarillier's ''Literature/TheBrideiChronicles''. In the first book, he's a spy and bodyguard with a MysteriousPast. In the second and third books, we find out that he [[spoiler:started out as a bard in Ireland, then became an assassin, then was in prison for awhile, then somehow made his way to Scotland and made a career there.]] Despite all that, he's still in his 20s. There doesn't seem to have been time for him to actually do everything he's supposed to have done, particularly given the time it must have taken for a member of an enemy tribe to win the trust of the Priteni king.

* On ''Series/TwinPeaks'', as Laura Palmer's past is revealed episode by episode, we learn she's been quite the busy girl. She tutored Josie Packard in English, tutored Johnny Horne, worked at the perfume counter in Horne's department store, worked as [[spoiler:a private escort and as a prostitute at One Eyed Jack's]], and also delivered food for Meals on Wheels. Still she had time to juggle two boyfriends, [[spoiler:feed her cocaine habit, and maintain two diaries (a public one and a secret one), all while dealing with major problems at home]].

* Phoebe from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' often makes passing allusions to unusual jobs or situations she was involved in before the series started, although she does have an ordinary backstory as well. And as she's a firm believer in reincarnation, there was at least one flashback scene to Phoebe in a previous life. Whether this is supposed to be purely imaginary is, one supposes, left to the viewer. Lampshaded once when she makes one such reference to her past, gets a lot of blank looks, smiles and says "There's so much you don't know"
* Wilson W. Wilson, on ''Series/HomeImprovement'', speaks multiple languages, has been to dozens of countries, has studied several esoteric religions and philosophies, and engages in such myriad hobbies as wine-tasting, ant farming, and fire walking. He is revealed in-universe to be a retired intelligence operative, which would make for an eclectic past.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' really gropes when it tries to come up with what Rangers returning for team-up episodes have been doing since they were last seen. Being a member of the original team, after fifteen years on and off of the screen, Tommy Oliver has been a martial artist, a football player, a race car driver, a paleontologist, a MadScientist (seriously!), a high school science teacher, and highly involved in Ranger-ness behind the scenes while between power sources, having made contact with ''every'' team even if they were based in space, just visiting from a lot more than TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, etc. If there's anything "Dr. O" has not been, he ''will'' have by the next anniversary teamup to bring him back.
* Shawn Spencer of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' travelled a lot and had 57 jobs prior to opening the titular private detective agency.
* Slowly revealing the history of the Doctor and his people from ''Series/DoctorWho'' in bits and pieces over multiple decades and production teams has led to a less than clear vision of his past. It gets even worse when you bring the ExpandedUniverse into it. Of course, this sort of thing is pretty much an occupational hazard once you make it past 500. Which he ''has''.

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'' has a college degree in physics, comprehensive knowledge of mechanics, chemistry, and any other specialty required by a given plot, worked as a deck hand on a tramp steamer, was a bomb disposal expert for the Special Forces in Vietnam, was a professional racing car driver, played Olympic-calibre ice hockey but had a TragicAccident that kept him out of the Olympics, worked as an apprentice and assistant to a noted archaeologist (played by Creator/BrianBlessed), trained as a pilot, worked as a backwoodsman in the Rockies, a lumberjack and a taxi driver, all before becoming a secret agent. Adding to the confusion, the first and second seasons gave two incompatible versions of his initial meeting with Pete Thornton. Furthermore, [[spoiler:[[LastEpisodeNewCharacter the final episode]] reveals he has a long-lost son.]] Oh, and a seemingly infinite number of old girlfriends, every one of whom still considers him a [[NiceGuy nice guy]] and [[AmicableExes good friend.]]
* The "somewhat eponymous" main character of ''Series/NewAmsterdam2008'', as a consequence of his immortality. In the last 400 years he's been a cop, a lawyer, a soldier, a sailor, a hobo, a conman, a carriage rider, etc.

[[folder: TabletopGames]]

** This gets really excessive for the title character in the second season of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. While some of the things are understandable in that he has been a vampire for 200 years, and has had a soul for a hundred years, sometimes you wonder exactly what is consistent with his character. The best example is the fourth season, ''Orpheus'', which had a type of ItsAWonderfulPlot that actually explained some of what was going through his mind.

[[folder:Film]]

-->-- ''ComicBook/XMen92'' #1

* Exploited by the creator of ''Fanfic/OldManHenderson'', by giving said character a DoorStopper of a backstory, with frequent perspective, subject, tense, format, and ''[[SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage language]]'' shifts, to ensure the GM wouldn't actually read it and thus he could [[SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat make up whatever skills Henderson needed whenever they were needed]].