Characters / Looking for Alaska

Miles Halter

Miles Halter "Pudge"

Played by: Charlie Plummer

Miles Halter is the novel's main character and narrator, who has an unusual passion in learning famous people's last words.

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• Big Guy, Little Guy: The big guy to Chip's little guy.
• Endearingly Dorky: Pudge's quirky awkwardness is considered endearing by the other characters, including Alaska, who calls him adorable.
• Foreshadowing: Pudge remarks that he’s happy the Weekday Warriors didn’t ask him to say the last words of a former president like Franklin Pierce; apparently, no one knows his last words, as he died alone.
• Ironic Name: He's called "Pudge" despite being quite skinny.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The Colonel gives Miles the nickname “Pudge,” because he’s skinny.

Alaska Young

Alaska Young

Played by: Kristine Froseth

Alaska is a wild, unpredictable, beautiful, and enigmatic girl with a sad backstory who captures Miles' attention and heart.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: Alaska was described as having mahogany brown hair, which is a darker reddish brown hue than the TV Alaska’s (medium brown with a blondish undertone).
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. Pudge lovingly devotes a few paragraphs to praising Alaska’s curves in the book. Here, she’s more of the lanky type, as fashion models like Froseth usually are.
• Book Ends: A clip of Alaska from some of the opening shots of the series is reused in the final moments, because Pudge is remembering her after her death.
• Bookworm: She loves to read and has a massive personal library of books she hopes to finish one day. The Weekday Warriors destroy her books as revenge because they know it will get to her.
• Broken Bird: It's not apparent at the beginning, although there are some subtle signs. But her Hidden Depths and Dark and Troubled Past are brought up later in the second act.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The genuinely broken, unhappy Alaska is a Deconstruction of the trope, as she is in the novel. The constant hedonism and stimulation she indulges in is her way of distracting herself from her trauma, and because her friends see her as this trope, they don't recognize it for the red flag that it is and encourage her bad behavior rather than getting her help.
• Straw Feminist: Downplayed. Alaska’s feminist statements are played out rather comically, but only because of how a bit discordant or inordinate they sometimes sound. (Justified — she’s a teenager.) Her feminism is treated as a good thing, all things considered, and is honored after her death.

Chip Martin

Chip Martin "The Colonel"

Played by: Denny Love

Chip "The Colonel" Martin is five feet tall but "built like a scale model of Adonis".

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• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Sara and Chip’s first moment falling under this category is, unfortunately, cut short by them arguing once again. But the hubbub caused by Chip setting off the fire alarm at the country club ball surprisingly culminates in Sara truly softening for a genuine scene of affection. They break up not long after, but it’s something.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The little guy to Miles' big guy.
• Deadpan Snarker: Chip is probably the snarkiest character in the show. There’s so many deadpan lines he’s made just one cannot be given as an example.
• Destructive Romance: The Colonel and Sara. He says that he’s a bad boyfriend and she’s a bad girlfriend, so they deserve each other. Episode 2 lets the audience see they do love each other, but it’s also truly a messed-up relationship for both of them.
• The Nicknamer: Better known as "The Colonel".
• Race Lift: Of sorts. Chip’s race was never specified in the novel, but a lot of readers just assumed he was white. Now that he’s African-American, however, it adds another dimension to Longwell’s privileged douchiness. It also makes the scene where his very white, rich girlfriend Sara’s father tells him that he’ll never fit in Sara’s world all the more horrid. Chip’s expulsion is also surrounded by racism, as well as classism.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Chip is noted to be a short guy, and is also the smartest among a group of generally smart kids.
• Token Minority: There are other non-white characters, but him along with Takumi are the only non-white main characters.

Takumi Hikohito

Takumi Hikohito

Played by: Jay Lee

Takumi is a gifted Japanese emcee and hip-hop enthusiast and friend of Alaska and Chip

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• Token Minority: With Chip.

Lara Buterskaya

Lara Buterskaya

Played by: Sofia Vassilieva

Lara is a Romanian immigrant who is Alaska's friend and becomes Miles' girlfriend and, eventually, ex-girlfriend. She is described as having a mild accent.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: Lara is a brunette in the book but blonde in the show.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Lara is a lot more headstrong and envious than she is in the novel, where she comes across mostly as a wide-eyed blank slate of a sweetheart.
• Fake Russian: Inverted. She's stated as a Romanian immigrant however Buterskaya or Butyrskaya is a Russian surname and she's played by an ethnically Russian actress. It's possible though that she's meant to be a Lipovan.
• Funetik Aksent: Having been born in Romania, she has a bit of an accent, which means she speeks like thees.

Mr. Starnes

Mr. Starnes "The Eagle"

Played by: Timothy Simons

Mr. Starnes is the strict Dean of Students at Culver Creek, nicknamed "The Eagle" by the students.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Dr. Hyde is shown cracking up at the stripper prank. Later, it's revealed that even the Eagle found it hilarious, even though he doesn't want anything like it to happen ever again.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Culver Creek's dean Mr. Starnes (aka the Eagle), who’s a relatively asexual authority figure and gets little backstory in the book, starts a relationship with the French teacher Madame O'Malley toward the end of the series.
• Hidden Depths: Gets a much more detailed backstory in the show, has only been the dean of Culver Creek for two years. His dedication to the job not only ended his marriage, but he struggles after Alaska's death as much as any of the students, because it's his job to keep 200 rowdy teenagers safe and he was unable to do that for her.
• When He Smiles: The main gang are surprised when the Eagle lets out a laugh, an unfamiliar sound.

Sara

Sara

Played by: Landry Bender

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: Sara is blonde in the book yet a brunette in the show.
• Alpha Bitch: Sarah is a member of the Weekday Warriors and is popular, popular enough that her Clique, while often questioning why she bothers dating the Colonel, never cross her about dating their arch rivals.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Sara and Chip’s first moment falling under this category is, unfortunately, cut short by them arguing once again. But the hubbub caused by Chip setting off the fire alarm at the country club ball surprisingly culminates in Sara truly softening for a genuine scene of affection. They break up not long after, but it’s something.
• Deadpan Snarker: Just like her boyfriend, she has some pretty snarky lines. “Wow Chip, that chip on your shoulder makes you look even shorter.”
• Destructive Romance: The Colonel and Sara. He says that he’s a bad boyfriend and she’s a bad girlfriend, so they deserve each other. Episode 2 lets the audience see they do love each other, but it’s also truly a messed-up relationship for both of them.

Dr. Hyde

Dr. Hyde

Played by: Ron Cephas Jones

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Dr. Hyde is shown cracking up at the stripper prank. Later, it's revealed that even the Eagle found it hilarious, even though he doesn't want anything like it to happen ever again.
• Adaptational Sexuality: The religion teacher Dr. Hyde gets more of a backstory, including that he was in a relationship with a man named Diego who died of AIDS.

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