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Main Characters
Elizabeth Brooke "Lizzie" McGuire
Portrayed by: Hilary Duff
The main character. The show revolves around the lives of her and her friends. She is a shy girl and a little clumsy. She dreams to fit in and be popular. She has an animated inner voice that breaks the fourth wall to reveal her thoughts and feelings.
- A-Cup Angst: She's aware of her lack of breasts as seen in "Between a Rock and a Bra Place". She persuades her mom into letting her buy a bra at the mall, only to realize in the end that she didn't need one after all and just wanted to fit in with the crowd.
- Aesop Amnesia: Lizzie learns her lessons; she just doesn't remember those lessons. Justified due to Status Quo Is God.
- All Love Is Unrequited: For Ethan. Larry Tudgeman also had an unrequited crush on her.
- All-Loving Hero: Lizzie is genuinely nice to everyone, even to her enemies. Despite her rivalry with Kate Sanders, there are times where she tries to incorporate her positive spirit into her. Towards the end of "Lizzie and Miranda's Magic Train", when Lizzie expresses disgust over having seen Kate at the Magic Train concert, she clarifies it's not because they're enemies, but because Kate wasn't following the message of Clover and Daisy (the two main characters of The Magic Train): to be kind and be who you are rather than putting on a Jerkass facade.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Lizzie is a very sweet girl, but mess with her and she will fight back. Her cartoon counterpart shows her rather abrasive demeanor.
- Big Damn Kiss: Shares one with Gordo at the end of The Movie.
- Big Sister Instinct: At times she's shown to be defensive of her little brother Matt, as much as a nuisance he is to her. In "Adventures in Babysitting", she protects him from a burglar while babysitting him.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Due to her desire to be treated like a normal teenager, she waltzes into bratty behavior towards her mother occasionally.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The main schtick of her animated counterpart is to express her true feelings to the audience.
- Butt-Monkey: She qualifies as one owing to her clumsiness, while also having her goals sabotaged by school, her family, and especially Kate.
- The Chew Toy: Lizzie is quite a frequent victim of slapstick.
- Childhood Friend Romance: With Gordo in the movie.
- Companion Cube: She shares a close relationship with her stuffed bear pig toy, Mr. Snuggles.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: A Naïve Everygirl who tends to fall to slapstick, both in animated and regular form. It's also lampshaded in one episode which features flashbacks of all her clumsy moments.
- The Cutie: She's incredibly sweet and good-natured most of the time.
- Darkhorse Victory: During the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, she sets a new school record by hanging onto the bar longer than everyone else in class.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her animated consciousness, especially as it's her reason for being there. Real-life Lizzie also has her moments, a particularly funny example is one episode where Animated-Lizzie makes a snarky comment about Miranda, and then Real-life Lizzie repeats exactly the same thing to Miranda's face.
- Fatal Flaw: Her impulsiveness. Even when her parents have objected, Lizzie will be quick to give into peer pressure and find a way around parental authority. It obviously doesn't end well on her part.
- Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: To Kate. They used to be best friends until the latter became popular because she developed early in regards to puberty.
- Genki Girl: While Real-life Lizzie is too calm to fit the trope, Animated-Lizzie is more chatty and hyperactive.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She owns a stuffed pig plush named Mr. Snuggles that she cares deeply for.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Normally a sweet and shy Naïve Everygirl, who clearly likes fashion (in one episode she becomes a model and in another episode she wants to be voted "best dressed" in her school). In "One of the Guys", she finds out she enjoys football and is quite good at it as well, and the conflict comes from the other girls who mock her for being One of the Boys. Lizzie then learns An Aesop that it's possible to be a Girly Girl and enjoy roughing it up.
- Greek Chorus: Her animated self as the narrator.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A sweet Naïve Everygirl with blonde hair.
- The Heart: In her group of friends, she's the one who keeps them together.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Miranda; they are best friends.
- Hidden Depths:
- Lizzie possesses a talent in gymnastics despite her characteristic clumsiness.
- She is shown to excel at arm-wrestling and football.
- Iconic Outfit: The pink tanktop and blue jeans her animated counterpart wears have become this to the show's fans.
- Idiot Ball: Sometimes Lizzie's pursuits and impulsiveness get the best of her and cause her to become oblivious. Nevertheless, she always comes out clean and learns her lesson.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Lizzie's main goal is to fit in with the cool kids, but she's too insecure to do so due to the risks she'd be taking by joining them. As a result, she's overly nice even in the face of bullies like Kate, but has her animated counterpart express her true feelings.
- Innocently Insensitive: Anytime Lizzie misbehaves, it's mostly done out of desire for popularity rather than genuine harm.
- The Kirk: To Gordo's The Spock and Miranda's The McCoy. Not as impulsive as Miranda and not as logical as Gordo.
- The Klutz: She trips and hurts herself a lot.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: She's a fairly short and petite young girl but surprisingly strong and athletic, even proving to be a capable football player.
- Naïve Everygirl: Insecure, nice-but-liable to make mistakes, and picked on by the Alpha Bitch.
- Nice Girl: She's nice, honest and friendly, even to her enemies.
- Oblivious to Love: To Gordo. It's ridiculous that it takes her until the "Whodunit" episode to figure out Gordo loves her. And she needs to have it spelled out to her by Kate of all people.
- Official Couple: With Gordo at the end of The Movie.
- One of the Boys: She gets on better terms with her male peers when trying out for the football team.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She's seldom called by her real first name, "Elizabeth".
- Pink Means Feminine: Her animated consciousness wears a pink tanktop, and Lizzie herself is a shy and insecure Naïve Everygirl who loves fashion and cares very much about her appearance.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She occasionally shows herself to be a lot stronger and more physically capable than you'd expect a petite young girl to be.
- Plot Allergy: In the episode "Rumors", it is revealed that Lizzie is allergic to strawberry ice cream.
- The Prima Donna: During her brief modeling stint, she actually avoided this and remained the humble, nice girl she usually is, but she noticed people who otherwise ignored her being nice to her all of a sudden. Worse, her friends became willing to do things they never would've done before (like Gordo offering to do her homework). Ultimately, she acts like an over the top diva angrily making demands (to the point of ordering her friends to bark like dogs) just to make a point about how subservient they've become.
- Security Blanket: Her stuffed pig toy, Mr. Snuggles, a prized possession of hers which she's had ever since age two. Her animated self in fact yearns for it while lost in the mall in "Between a Rock and a Bra Place".Animated Lizzie: I need Mr. Snuggles!
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: She likes Ethan Craft, the popular guy at school. However, Ethan is actually a very nice if dimwitted dude, along with being very good-looking and implied to be good at athletics.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Miranda's Tomboy. While they're both plenty girly, Lizzie's a bit more conventionally feminine—she's more of a Nice Girl and less snarky, wears skirts and dresses much more often than Miranda, and has a more traditional fashion sense with plenty of pink.
- Town Girls: The nice Naïve Everygirl Neither to Kate's stereotypically prissy Alpha Bitch Femme, and Miranda's blunt, deep-voiced, punk-styled Deadpan Snarker Butch.
- You Go, Girl!: In "One of the Guys", Lizzie tries out playing football with the boys and discovers she enjoys it. Uniquely the guys have no problem with her playing, once she shows how good she is at it.
Miranda Sanchez
Portrayed by: Lalaine
Lizzie's best female friend. She is the most self-conscious character in the show. She has a hard time dealing with being a teenager and growing up.
- Bad "Bad Acting": In one episode, she stars in the school play, but it turns out that she has no acting talent. At the end of the episode, she realized that her real talent is singing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Miranda is witty and never afraid to speak her mind.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lizzie.
- Jerkass Ball: Anytime Miranda sees a chance to make herself more popular, she will take it, often going to extremes that the equally peer-conscious Lizzie wouldn't dare touch:
- In the pilot, she agrees to have her mother create tattoos for Kate, Claire and the rest of their Girl Posse ahead of a pool party to which Lizzie can't attend (due to her grandmother's birthday falling on the same date) and Gordo wasn't invited to begin with. In exchange, she's gifted a space within said posse and resolves to go to the party alone despite previously promising Lizzie she wouldn't.
- She joins Gordo in declaring her personal fealty to Lizzie after the latter becomes a model, with the sole intent on piggybacking on her best friend's perks.
- Then there's "Come Fly With Me". After Gordo abandons his Rat Pack hobby-due to her and Lizzie exploiting it to impress the popular crowd-just before a school dance, she initially resolves to press forward anyway. To the point of disregarding Lizzie's warnings and dragging her to the model plane park (Gordo's replacement hobby) and demanding Gordo give them all their answers right then and there. Cue an epic The Reason You Suck speech against both girls.
- In another episode, she hosts a "Populars-Only" house party (Lizzie and Gordo being the sole exceptions) and makes a specific point of deliberately excluding Larry Tudgeman (and presumably all other "nerds/geeks" as well), refusing to listen to her friends' insistence that Larry is a much cooler person than he's given credit for. Lizzie and Gordo are then forced to disguise Larry as a preppy in order to sneak him in.
- Finally, there's the episode where each of the main trio resolves to spend more time with their respective parents. Miranda's idea of "bonding" involves exploiting her mother's affections for an all-expenses paid shopping spree which could have drained the family savings account in one go.
- Fortunately, Miranda eventually came to her senses and redeemed herself in all cases, but given just how many times it happened to begin with.....
- The Lancer: As Lizzie's best friend.
- Love Makes You Dumb: In "Movin' On Up", she acts this way over a boy.
- The McCoy: To Lizzie's The Kirk and Gordo's The Spock. She's the most impulsive and rebellious.
- Nice Girl: Less sweet and idealistic than Lizzie, but just as good-natured.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Gordo. Unlike Gordo's relationship with Lizzie (secretly in love with her, eventual Relationship Upgrade), Gordo only sees Miranda as a close female friend.
- Put on a Bus: In the last six episodes as well as the movie.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Like Lizzie and most girls, she has a crush on Ethan.
- Straw Loser: A subtle example. She's usually the sidekick who is pushed aside in favor of Lizzie and, to a lesser extent, Gordo. Many episodes start with her and Lizzie in the same situation, but it's always Lizzie who gets the opportunity to shine throughout the episode. Even if they are a trio, Gordo seems to care only about Lizzie. Her few spotlight episodes tend to be negative, like being unable to talk to a boy or being a terrible actress.
- Token Minority: She's Mexican.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Lizzie's Girly Girl. While they're both plenty girly, Miranda's more on the tomboyish side—she's more of a Deadpan Snarker, wears skirts and dresses much less often than Lizzie, and has an edgier fashion sense with darker colors.
- Town Girls: The blunt, deep-voiced, punk-styled Deadpan Snarker Butch to Kate's stereotypically prissy Alpha Bitch Femme, and Lizzie's nice Naïve Everygirl Neither.
David "Gordo" Gordon
Portrayed by: Adam Lamberg
Lizzie's best male friend, and a very loyal one at that, as seen in the movie. They were friends since a very young age. Gordo is a straight A student, being the smartest and practical kid on the show.
- Big Damn Kiss: Shares one with Lizzie in the movie.
- Book Smart: He's a straight A student. His friends Lizzie and Miranda are not Book Dumb but they are both B students, and in one episode Gordo points out they rarely get As, much to their annoyance.
- Cannot Spit It Out: He has a crush on Lizzie but has trouble confessing his love.
- Childhood Friend Romance: He and Lizzie become an Official Couple in the movie.
- Control Freak: He can be over-perfectionistic or obsessive when involved in his film projects, though fortunately he can be very reasonable when he realizes it's becoming a nuisance.
- Cool Big Bro: He sometimes bonds with Lizzie's brother Matt.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has his sarcastic moments, especially due to his Only Sane Man status.
- Jewish and Nerdy: He's revealed to be Jewish American and he's a smart studious boy.
- Last-Name Basis: He's pretty much never called David.
- Nice Jewish Boy: Also a nice, reasonable person.
- Not So Above It All: Occasionaly Gordo will significantly compromise his principles for some personal gain. Besides "Last Year's Model", there's also the time he deliberately spied on his schoolmates for a shot at directorial fame, and another instance where he entered himself and his friends into an academic bowl primarily to win a trip to Miami (with the expectation that he may run into Madonna while there.) and had suprisingly little problem with taking the easy way out of actual studying.
- One of the Girls: He regularly associates himself with Lizzie and Miranda.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His full name is David Gordon, but everyone just calls him Gordo.
- Only Sane Man: In a subversion, Gordo is more mature, reasonable and practical than Lizzie and Miranda.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Miranda, since he only sees her as a close female friend with no Ship Tease at all. Initially he was nothing more than a supportive and close male friend of Lizzie's who neither would treat any differently than their same-sex friends, but later developed a crush on Lizzie which she was unaware of. This changes in The Movie when they get together and share their First Kiss.
- Shorter Means Smarter: One of the shortest students and one of the smartest. He's even shorter than both his female friends that aren't particularly tall to begin with. He's usually okay with it, but becomes pretty insecure about it when a girl who he likes rejects him because of his stature.
- The Smart Guy: The smartest in his group of friends: the one with most common sense and the best grades.
- The Spock: To Lizzie's The Kirk and Miranda's The McCoy.
- Teen Genius: He's academically brilliant.
- Tiny Schoolboy: He is one of the shorter students in his school, and in one episode feels insecure about it after a girl he likes rejects him over it.
Matt McGuire
Portrayed by: Jake Thomas
Lizzie's younger brother. He can be annoying and very clever. Regardless, he does care about Lizzie and his relationship with her is no different than any other sibling relationship.
- The Ace: He's done quite a fair bit of things in his youth with success.
- Alliterative Name: Matt Mcguire.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Regardless of their squabbles, he and Lizzie will come through for one another when the chips are down.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Towards Lizzie, whom he often pranks and insults. Lizzie can give as good as she gets though.
- Deadpan Snarker: Of the Mouthy Kid variety. Especially towards his older sister.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: He and Lanny take up an entire plot dedicated to cheerleading, which weirds out his dad to no end.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may tease his sister and their parents, but he very much cares about them.
- Kid-Appeal Character: In a show aimed primarily towards pre-teens and teenagers, Matt fills the bill as a much-needed kid character, behaving more childishly than any of the other main cast.
- Manipulative Bastard: A clever schemer and troublemaker.
- Precocious Crush: He develops a crush on Miranda in "Working Girl".
- Voice for the Voiceless: He speaks for his silent friend Lanny when he's around.
Jo McGuire
Portrayed by: Hallie Todd
Lizzie's mother. Always gives advice to Lizzie and is sometimes strict to her children when needed.
- Good Parents: She knows what's right for her children and only uses aggression as a form of Tough Love.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Like her daughter Lizzie.
- Happily Married: To Sam.
- Mama Bear: She gets pretty defensive if her children are messed with.
- Nice Girl: A good and caring mother.
- Only Sane Woman: Out of the whole family, she's the most down-to-earth and pragmatic.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She can hold a rather abrasive attitude towards Lizzie at times, but she just wants what's best for her.
- Women Are Wiser: She generally has it together better than her husband at least.
Sam McGuire
Portrayed by: Robert Carradine
Lizzie's father. Like most sitcom dads, he isn't the brightest, but he's a nice enough guy.
- Bumbling Dad: He is a well-meaning person and very nice, but not always the best with advice. However, he does get a moment to shine when comforting his daughter after Jo couldn't.
- Happily Married: To Jo.
- The Klutz: Like Lizzie.
- Nice Guy: He always tries his best to help Lizzie.
Recurring Characters
Kate Sanders
Portrayed by: Ashlie Brillault
The Alpha Bitch and an old friend of Lizzie's. They were the best of friends but had a falling out shortly before the series. She becomes the main antagonist of most of the series.
- Alpha Bitch: She's the most popular as well as the meanest girl at school. She's very prone to harassing Lizzie and Miranda.
- Big Bad: For most of the show she's the main antagonist, though in the movie she has a Heel–Face Turn and the role is taken over by Paolo Valisari.
- The Bully: Being the Alpha Bitch, she's quite psychologically abusive to Lizzie and Miranda.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: The given reason for why she suddenly became popular is because she was the first girl in her grade to develop. Secretly being a year older than everyone else probably helped with that.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: None more so than in The Movie, in which she was built up to more-or-less replace Miranda.
- Everyone Has Standards: Compared to Claire. When Kate was head of the cheer squad, she didn't deny other girls the use of the bathrooms or all students use of the lunch tables.
- Evil Former Friend: To Lizzie. One episode revolves around her and Lizzie having to work together. Turns out they were best friends when they were younger, but then she developed early and became popular.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the backstory she was originally Lizzie's best friend. After becoming popular, she turns into the Alpha Bitch and Arch-Enemy we see on the show. She has a Heel–Face Turn again In The Movie.
- Held Back in School: In one episode, it's revealed that Kate's actually a year older than the other kids in her grade, due to getting held back in Kindergarten for some reason.Animated!Lizzie: What did she do, fail naptime!?
- Informed Attractiveness: She is portrayed as being the Queen Bee of the school, and much is made of her "bustiness." In a show like this, she's not any more attractive than most background girls. However, it's revealed that she actually was an early bloomer regarding puberty, which is where her popularity and subseqent Alpha Bitch attitude came from. By developing early, she stood out from the rest of the girls and by the time of the series, she maintains her popularity from that even though most of the girls have caught up.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she's still the Alpha Bitch, she has some nice moments with Lizzie over the course of the series and The Movie. In The Movie she has a full Heel–Face Turn.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Occasionally.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: At the start of the series, she is the Alpha Bitch stereotype. Later on she has moments of sympathy, such as when her sister and mother seem to show her little to no affection, and some moments that show her character develop, such as helping Lizzie and Gordo in the movie (also becoming a Shipper on Deck for the two).
- Manipulative Bitch: She can manipulate boys into doing anything.
- Pet the Dog: One episode has Lizzie and Kate work together and reconcile their former friendship, sharing a smile at the end of the episode. While it doesn't stop Kate from behaving like an Alpha Bitch, she starts to show some more genuinely kind moments over the course of the series and in The Movie. In the movie, she takes a Heel–Face Turn.
- Plot Allergy: It's revealed in the episode "Pool Party" that Kate is allergic to temporary tattoo ink.
- Town Girls: The stereotypically prissy Alpha Bitch Femme to Miranda's blunt, deep-voiced, punk-styled Deadpan Snarker Butch, and Lizzie's nice Naïve Everygirl Neither.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: In the episode "The Rise and Fall of the Kate Empire," Lizzie and her friends assist Kate in getting her spot in the cheer squad back after Claire is considered worse than her.
Ethan Craft
Portrayed by: Clayton Snyder
A handsome and popular yet dimwitted boy in Lizzie's school. Almost all the girls want him and he's pretty nice (except in the first season).
- Better as Friends: While not very bright, he’s extremely aware he and Lizzie have no future together and no chemistry so he tries to gently dissuade her.
- Big Man on Campus: The most popular and good-looking boy in the school.
- Brainless Beauty: He may be attractive, but also dimwitted and clueless.
- Characterization Marches On: In the first season, he was more-or-less a male version of Kate, but in later seasons, he became a much nicer person.
- Chick Magnet: The target of affection for every girl in the school.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Complete with "wooshing" sound-effects when he says dumb things.
- The Ditz: Apparently it's a family trait.
- Hidden Depths: One episode (the one where Lizzie and Matt are handcuffed together) shows he has a strong charitable side-stemming from an earlier period where his own family was unemployed and suffering financially. This may also explain his nice guy attitude toward Lizzie and other less popular students-because as "the poor kid" he likely was just as much (if not more) ostracized during his younger years.
- Informed Attractiveness: His good looks are regularly mentioned by Lizzie and other girls.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Not very bright, but kind and friendly enough, even to the less popular kids.
- Nice Guy: He's nice to everyone (except in the first season where he was portrayed more as a jerkish bully due to Early-Installment Weirdness).
- Popular Is Dumb: Despite his stupidity, he's the Big Man on Campus.
- Satellite Love Interest: Does not get much characterization outside of being Lizzie's crush.
- Smarter Than You Look: While clearly not the sharpest of characters, he was able to learn of Lizzie's adventures in Rome during the movie without assistance. Something the chaperone didn't know about until the climax.
Larry Tudgeman
Portrayed by: Kyle Downes
The least popular boy at Lizzie's school. Despite this he is pretty nice to people, and gets a friendly enough treatment from Lizzie. He had a crush on Lizzie, but when she decides not to return the feelings, he was pretty understanding.
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Lizzie and, on occasion, Miranda and Kate.
- All Love Is Unrequited: For Lizzie
- All of the Other Reindeer: Though the occasional episode shows he does have some people to pal around with, he's consistently unpopular with the larger school body. "My Fair Larry" plays this more seriously, as he's the only recognizable student not invited to Miranda's party; Lizzie feels so bad for him walking off dejected and everyone around him not even noticing him.
- Butt-Monkey: Unpopular and bullied by other students.
- He Cleans Up Nicely:
- One episode had Lizzie go on a pity date with him and when he arrived at her house, she was bowled over by his appearance (clean combed hair and a different outfit than he usually wears).
- "My Fair Larry" also features this, as Lizzie and Gordo help him pass for cool so that he can attend Miranda's party. Absolutely no one recognized him, and everyone was impressed when he ultimately revealed himself.
- Nice Guy: As Lizzie discovers, he's a perfectly nice, normal guy outside school.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Eccentric, stereotypically nerdy and uncool, Casanova Wannabe and Small Name, Big Ego, so yes, he fills this out.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Subverted. Probably the only character who doesn't fall into this.
Claire Miller
Portrayed by: Davida Williams
Kate's lackey and current best friend (until the movie).
- Beta Bitch: While generally the second-in-command to Kate, she can actually be a lot meaner than Kate herself at time.
- Dragon-in-Chief: When given the opportunity.
- Girl Posse: To Kate.
- Jerkass: Unlike Kate, she never shows having some Hidden Depths or any redeeming qualities.
- Token Minority: One of the few black recurring characters.
Lanny Onasis
Portrayed by: Christian Copelin
Matt's best friend who hasn't spoken a single word in the series.
- Creepy Child: Sam finds his tendency to not talk creepy, though Jo thinks that he's just shy.
- Famous Ancestor: He's related to Crispus Attucks.
- Silent Bob: He never speaks, but Matt seems to have no problem communicating with him. Matt seems to be one of the few who can understand him no problem, much to the confusion of his parents. Stranger still when Matt and Lizzie switch bodies, Lizzie is able to easily understand what Lanny 'said' before Toon!Lizzie (Lizzie's inner self) was confused by how she understood him.
- Token Minority: One of the few black recurring characters.
Movie characters
Paolo Valisari
Portrayed by: Yani Gellman
A handsome Italian pop star that Lizzie meets in the movie. He befriends her during her trip to Rome. He offers to have him sing in his ex-girlfriend, Isabella's place at a concert.
- Big Bad: He tries to manipulate Lizzie into performing onstage as Isabella so he can destroy Isabella's career and humiliate Lizzie onstage by fooling everyone into thinking that Isabella lip syncs.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He seems very charming and sincere but it's just a cover for his true, vile nature.
- Blatant Lies: He lied to Lizzie about Isabella lip-synching and him actually singing as well as Isabella's personality.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's very handsome and suave and a total bastard underneath.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's pretty likable before his Evil Plan is revealed.
- Hate Sink: Paolo turns out to be a slimy, dishonest coward who has no issues manipulating and discarding others for his own benefit.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: It was revealed that Paolo lipsynchs because he can't really sing at all.
- Manipulative Bastard: He manipulates Lizzie in his scheme against Isabella, with the intent of ruining her.
- Walking Spoiler: Just look at EVERY other entry on this list!
Isabella Parigi
Portrayed by: Hilary Duff
Singing voice by: Haylie Duff
Paolo's ex-girlfriend who looks identical to Lizzie, except for the fact that she's a brunette rather than a blonde. Paolo befriends Lizzie because of this.
- Identical Stranger: She and Lizzie look pretty much identical to each other—the only actual physical difference between them is their hair colors, with Isabella being a brunette and Lizzie being a blonde.
- Idol Singer: She is an Italian pop star.
- Meaningful Name: Isabella is the Italian translation of Elizabeth, Lizzie’s full name.
- Nice Girl: A genuine Nice Girl unlike the Diva that Paolo claims she is.
- Something Only They Would Say: A vicarious example. Isabella proves to Lizzie that Paolo is manipulating her by saying the pickup line he just gave her.
Miss Ungermeyer
Portrayed by: Alex Borstein
The principal of the high school Lizzie and Gordo will be attending, as well as the chaperone of the class.
- Deadpan Snarker: She spends a lot of her screen time snarking at people with deadpan quips.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Well, she’s a principal, but she definitely evokes this trope with her sharp tongue and no-nonsense attitude. She’s even accompanied by military drums in her first scene.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She starts to show off her softer side towards Gordo and Sergei at the end.
- Large Ham: Her snarky, scenery-chewing personality makes her one of the funniest characters in the film. What more could you expect from a character played by Alex Borstein?
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She is quite short, yet still manages to take down two big security guards simultaneously.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Under her tough exterior, she’s a genuine person who cares and looks out for the students under her supervision.
Sergei
Portrayed by: Brendan Kelly
Paolo's bodyguard.
- Everyone Has Standards: He quits his job as Paolo's bodyguard, because he was disgusted by his plan to hurt Lizzie.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Paolo is exposed.
- Last-Minute Hookup: He and Miss Ungermeyer are shown briefly flirting with each other near the end of the movie, after Sergei compliments her on her care for her students, and it's implied that they eventually hookup.
