Characters / Skam

Season Protagonists

Eva Kviig Mohn

Played By: Lisa Teige

Centric Season: Season 1

• Ambiguously Bi: Has made out with Vilde on more than one occasion.
• Amicable Exes: She and Jonas remain close friends after breaking up.
• Character Development: Over the entire first season, we follow Eva's journey in finding herself and accepting the consequences of her choices.
• Ethical Slut: She's shown to be quite promiscuous and be a bit of a party girl, but it doesn't detract from her overall sweet character.
• Former Friends Photo: With Ingrid and Sara.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Usually gets wasted whenever she's at a party.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Noora.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Eva's motivating desire in her season.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Starts as this.
• Love Hurts: With Jonas.
• Parental Abandonment: Says she and her dad have mostly lost contact.
• Sex with the Ex: She and Jonas had what she refers to as "break-up sex".
• We Used to Be Friends: Before the start of the show, Sara and Ingrid used to be her best friends, until she "stole" Ingrid's boyfriend Jonas.

Noora Amelie Sætre

Played By: Josefine Frida Pettersen

Centric Season: Season 2

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: While she actively attempts to avoid this, she falls into it when she falls for William.
• Break the Cutie: In season 2, she gets involved with some people that almost destroy her morally and mentally. Almost.
• Cannot Spit It Out: When William confronts her about sleeping with his brother, Noora somehow can't tell him that she believes she was drugged and doesn't remember anything. Instead she tells him "I don't know" which of course leads to him walking out on her.
• Deadpan Snarker: She isn't above dropping a sarcastic comment from time to time, though it's usually towards somebody who deserves it.
• Establishing Character Moment: In episode one, she delivers this one-liner to Eva upon meeting her (demonstrating her quick wit and humorous personality):
  Noora: "Did you know that girls who call each other sluts are 90% more likely to get chlamydia?"
• Genre Savvy: When she first gets to know William, she keeps calling him a "high school cliché;" and asks him if he sits at home studying high school movies when he takes her on a date on a hill to talk about his childhood.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Is a genuinely nice girl through and through, though she's not afraid to give The Reason You Suck speeches when they're called for.
• Heroic BSoD: After passing out at a party and waking up naked next to William's brother, she wonders if she was drugged and raped and/or cheated on William, and goes into depression afterwards.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Eva.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Is not happy to find she's falling for playboy William.
• Let's Wait a While: Tells William that she won't have sex before marriage. Eventually, she reveals to the girls that she actually lost her virginity at thirteen – to an older boyfriend that broke up with her the following day. She also hints to Vilde, then later reveals to William that the ex had messed up her self-esteem so badly she had become anorexic afterwards. It's why she's in no hurry to have sex again, fearing it might happen again with a new boyfriend. She does eventually sleep with William in the season 2 finale when their issues have been dealt with and she fully trusts him.
• Parental Neglect: Claims her parents don't love her and that she fled to Madrid because of it.
• Soapbox Sadie: Always rallying behind a cause (usually a feminist one) and displaying her moral superiority.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Each season has a tendency to give Noora a lot of focus even when she's not the main character (particularly season 1 and season 4), which has caused some criticism in parts of the fandom.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: She passes out at a party hosted by William's brother and wakes up naked in bed next to him and another girl, leading her to wonder if she was drugged and slept with him (of if he raped her). Eventually, however, she learns that nothing happened.

Isak Valtersen

Played By: Tarjei Sandvik Moe

Centric Season: Season 3

• Anger Montage: Has a brief one in season 3 after seeing Even kiss his ex-girlfriend at a party.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the first season, he purposefully tried to ruin Eva and Jonas's relationship by tipping off both Jonas and Penetrator-Chris's girlfriend Iben that Eva had kissed Penetrator-Chris, while acting like Eva's friend on the surface. As mentioned below, however, Isak undergoes a lot of Character Development.
• Carpe Diem: Finishes his season by expressing this sentiment in a conversation with Eva.
• Character Development: Goes from being embarassed at being gay and not wanting to kiss Even in front of others in season 3, to happily making out with Even in public in season 4. Developing from his usual grumpy and closed off persona, Isak eventually becomes a more open-minded person with a positive outlook on life.
• Chick Magnet: Much to his displeasure.
• Closet Geek: Tries to adopt the cool teenage boy facade, but is actually quite shy and socially aloof. He also has a major passion for science and holds some pretty deep philosophical theories, so he's definitely more on the nerdy side than he tries to convey.
• Childhood Friends: With Jonas.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cynical quite a lot, especially toward Eskild and Magnus.
• Declaration of Protection: To Even: "You are not alone".
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: the melanchonic (introvert and emotional) out of the boy squad.
• Green-Eyed Monster In season 1 in regards to Eva and Jonas. To lesser extent in season 4 when he punches Mikael for talking to Even
• Hair-Trigger Temper: A development in season 4. Isak punches Mikael out of jealousy regarding Even and loses it at a passerby later on who insults he and Even for a public display of gay affection.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Jonas; more so after he gets over the Incompatible Orientation
• Home Sweet Home: With Even in their very own apartment in Season 4.
• Incompatible Orientation: Towards Jonas in the first season.
• Insufferable Genius: At times.
• Love at First Sight: With Even.
• Manipulative Bastard: A tamer version of it, in season 1. He pulls the strings and actually manages to bring Jonas and Eva much closer to their breakup.
• Nice Guy: By the end of season 3 and into season 4 as his happiness with Even continued, he'd mostly become this as default.
• Oh, Crap!: In the penultimate episode of season 3, he receives a sorrowful text message from Even while in a church, but dismisses it. When thinking about it and reading it again, however, he realizes that Even just sent him a suicide note, and promptly gets up and runs out of the church to find him.
• Parental Abandonment: Isak's father skipped out on his family in season 1, though Isak still occasionally talks to him in season 3, and it is revealed that his dad is trying to get Isak to meet with him. It is therefore uncertain if he ever abandoned Isak. Isak however seems to be unwilling to meet him, or communicate with him outside of asking for money.
• Parental Substitute: Most of season 3, Isak refuses to speak to his parents and what would be their usual roles are taken up by Eskild.
• Race for Your Love: For Even in Episode 9 of his season after he sends Isak a text implying he might kill himself.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Even's red. Isak is more sensible and intellectual, while Even is quite unpredictable and wild.
• Single Tear: Isak is big on these.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Although only in Season 4, after his centric season was 3. Probably due to the fact that 3 was Skam's breakout season, his relationship with Even gets a surprising amount of focus in Season 4 as 4 is Sana's season.
• Straight Gay: He took a 'gay test' online early in season 3, but only scored 20%.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Sugar mostly around Even. As time's gone on he's mostly dropped the ice aspect altogether.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Toward Jonas in season 1
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sana.
• Relationship Sabotage: Isak pushes Eva and Jonas closer to the point of breaking up in season one.

Sana Bakkoush

Played By: Iman Meskini

Centric Season: Season 4

• Accidental Public Confession: Not really public, but in season 4 she texts girl-Chris on whether she should tell everyone that she made the secret account, only to accidentally send the text to Eva instead, revealing herself. Thankfully, after sending the girls a heartfelt apology for her actions, they all forgive her.
• Break the Badass: Season 4 sees her facing challenges that start to wear her seasons long stoic persona down, to the point she breaks down crying in one scene when she believes she's losing her friends while her Love Interest is dating someone else. It takes a little while for her to recover, and she appears to have mellowed out considerably when she does, wearing a bright smile the entire ending scene of the series, (also helped by Yousef having returned her feelings after all).
• Brutal Honesty: Frequently hands out this.
• Celibate Hero:
  • As a result of her religious beliefs, though she's shown in season 4 to be curious of boys and sex, but withstands from (at least the latter) due to the aforemented reason.
  • Sana's actress is a Muslim in real life, which is why she's the only one of the girl squad, as well as protagonist of her season, to not kiss her Love Interest as Meskini wasn't comfortable to do so on-screen.
• Child of Two Worlds: Sana's conflict between her Moroccan/Muslim identity and Norwegian identity is one of her most defining traits.
• The Comically Serious: A common effect of her scenes.
• Darkest Hour: She has one in season 4 episode 5. In just the span of ten minutes, Noora angrily confronts her about knowing that William presumably had a new girlfriend without telling her, Sana's brother gets in a violent fight with Isak that she fears happened for homophobic reasons, she overhears some girls from the "russebuss" talk about how she's going to be thrown out (with some possible Islamophobic vibe to their talk), and then sees Noora and Love Interest Yousef making out. One might wonder why the universe at that moment seemed to have it out for Sana, and the entire fandom just wanted to give her a massive hug afterwards. Thankfully a majority of it turned out a misunderstanding as the fight had nothing to do with homophobia, while Noora only kissed Yousef on a whim due to her distress over William while Yousef thought Sana wasn't interested in him and immediately regretted the kiss afterwards anyway.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly to Vilde.
• Good Is Not Nice: Can be too harsh on her friends at times, but mostly for noble purposes.
• Maybe Ever After: With Yousef.
• Perpetual Frowner: Prior to receiving more focus and Character Development, Sana would nearly always wear a Death Glare.
• Properly Paranoid: In season 4, she gets anxious of Sara trying to exclude her from the "russebuss", which turns out to be correct.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Mostly ice, but she's been shown to occasionally delve into the sugar side for her friends and more recently for her love interest.
• Token Religious Teammate: The most openly spiritual character on the show with her Muslim identity being part of her season's focus.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Sana's religion keeps her and Yousef's relationship as this. Iman Meskini is a Muslim in real life, which is why, even when she and Yousef has a date and nearly officially gets together, they don't kiss as Meskini wasn't comfortable to do so on-screen.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Isak and Vilde.
• When She Smiles: Sana does not smile often, but could light up a room when she does.

Boy Squad

Jonas Noah Vasquez

Played By: Marlon Langeland

• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Just look at them.
• The Cast Showoff: Marlon frequently gets to display his actually great skateboarding skills in character.
• Character Development: Starts off in season 1 as being influenced by his friend Elias (not Elias Bakkoush) to ignore his girlfriend and make gay jokes at Isak's expense (albeit not truly aware of his sexuality at the time). As the seasons go on, we never see Elias again and Jonas becomes much more tolerant, reacts with nothing but support for Isak when he comes out, and even calls out other people for making homophobic remarks.
• The Confidant: Often serves as this for Isak.
• Childhood Friends: With Isak.
• Erudite Stoner: Jonas demonstrates a habit of smoking weed, more so than the other characters, though he's shown to be very bright and academically successful.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The phlegmatic (laid-back, easy-going) out of the boy squad.
• Give Me a Sign: Before his first kiss with Eva, he decided that he would kiss her if "Take Me To Church" came on as it was playing everywhere at the time. It didn't and he kissed her anyway.
• Mistaken for Cheating: In the first season, Eva suspects that Jonas is cheating on her with her former friend and his old flame Ingrid. He's actually getting marijuana from her brother.
• Sex God: Is known amongst the female students as an excellent lay who will go down on them.
• Sex with the Ex: With Eva: see her example.

Even Bech Næsheim

Played By: Henrik Holm

• '50s Hair: A big dirty-blonde mop of it.
• Beautiful Dreamer: Isak watches him sleep (to make sure he's okay) during his depressive episode.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Sports both a Danish and highly impressive American accent when talking to the hotel receptionist.
• Character Development: The confident and charming side of Even is his first impression but he's also shown to be sensitive and vulnerable as the season progresses.
• The Charmer: Even's good looks are noted by many, even Isak's straight friend Jonas.
• Closet Key: For Isak.
• Cooldown Hug: Gives one to Isak when the latter snaps at a guy shouting homophobic insults at them.
• Determinator: Doesn't give up until he gets Isak. This also involves using every paper towel from the school's bathroom just to have a reason to make conversation with him.
• Home Sweet Home: With Isak in their very own apartment in Season 4.
• Hot-Blooded: Quite often.
• The Insomniac: Appears to be this until it's revealed that his strange sleeping habits were the result of a manic episode.
• Interrupted Suicide: It's implied in the penultimate episode of season 3 (confirmed by Julie Andem), that Even was planning to kill himself after having had a manic episode and driving Isak away, but is saved by Isak catching on to Even's text message and arriving in time to hug him and let him know he's "not alone."
• Love at First Sight: With Isak
• Manic Pixie Dream Guy: Deconstructed. Even has a lot of suggestions of being this, being impulsive, cool, and very attractive to Isak, but a lot of that turns out to be his bipolar disorder, which has many negative consequences for him and Isak later.
• The Movie Buff: Passionate about film and openly references Pretty Woman and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann is his favorite director)
• One Head Taller: He's this to Isak and most of the other cast.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red oni to Isak's blue. Even has a wilder nature and is more unpredictable and free-spirited than Isak, who is more intellectual and reserved.
• Sanity Slippage: Unavoidable due to his Bipolar Disorder. This culminates in him wandering on the streets naked during his manic episode, right after his and Isak's hotel encounter. It's also suggested he'd had a major slip-out during his years at Elvebakken too, which is the reason he transferred.
• Smoking Is Cool: Well, smoking weed at least. Often seen early on with a joint suavely tucked behind his ear.

Magnus Fossbakken

Played By: David Alexander Sjøholt

• Casual Kink: Has had dreams about Vilde as a dominatrix.
• Cuddle Bug: Not afraid to constantly hug his bros (especially Even).
• The Ditz: He and Vilde are a match made in heaven.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine (cheerful, out-going, emotional out of the boy squad.
• Hidden Depths: Is more perspective and wiser than first appears.
• Innocently Insensitive: Was sometimes this way towards Isak in season 3, but it was played for laughs and Isak gave as good as he got in return.
• Nature Abhors a Virgin: It's considered extremely odd that Magnus is still a virgin.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Vilde in season 4.
• Virgin-Shaming: Isak makes a friendly joke about Magnus's non-existent sexual history in season 3.

Mahdi Disi

Played By: Sacha Kleber Nyiligira

• Alone Among the Couples: The only Boy Squad member to be single through the whole series.
• Commonality Connection: Is implied to have joined the Boy Squad after bonding over smoking weed at various parties.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric ( unemotional, confident, straight-forward,) out of the boy squad.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: The African version. A couple of times it was assumed he was Muslim; he is Catholic.
• Token Minority: The only main character of black African descent.
• You Say Tomato: Gets ribbed by Magnus for his pronunciation of the word "homophobe".

Girl Squad

Vilde Hellerud Lien

Played By: Ulrikke Falch

• Absurd Phobia: Of getting chlamydia in her eye.
• Ambiguously Bi: Has made out with Eva on more than one occasion.
• Blithe Spirit: Played with. Vilde is bubbly and naïve, but she's not exempt from personal issues of her own (such as her eating disorder in season 2.
• Break the Cutie: As per season one, Vilde is pretty sheltered, which causes her to be absolutely crushed when William ignores her after they have sex.
• Dumb Blonde: More naive than she is dumb, Vilde definitely has the ditziest qualities of her friend group, obsessed with popularity and older boys.
• Hidden Depths: As revealed in her clip in season 4, showing her taking care of her mother and their home. There's also how well she handles Noora telling her that she and William are in love, which Noora (and the audience) thought for sure she'd be crushed at.
• Leader Wannabe: Often attempts to take leadership roles in whatever she's involved in whether others want her to or not.
• Missing Mom: She's not exactly missing, but it's implied that Vilde picks up most of the slack at home, as her mother is either too tired or drunk to provide for her family.
• One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Lampshaded. Vilde gets blackout drunk when she believes herself pregnant, and laments that she's killed William's baby.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Magnus in season 4.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Vilde for William. They sleep together, after which he's completely dismissive of her.
• Slut-Shaming: Noora directly calls out Vilde for doing this to Eva despite Vilde calling herself a feminist.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: For William in the first season and the first half of the second season.
• Stepford Smiler: Always presents herself as happy and put-together even when it's obvious to everyone that she's not doing well as a result of anything from insecurity to a rough home life.
• Teen Pregnancy: Averted. Vilde suspects that she's pregnant after sleeping with William without protection, but it turns out that she isn't.
• Too Much Information: Expect Vilde to go into graphic detail when explaining any aspect of her sex life
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sana.
• Weight Woe: Vilde is implied to have an eating disorder, which only Noora seems to pick up on. She's also shown to be visibly insecure about her body (despite being pretty and thin), comparing herself to Noora or other girls she believes to be skinnier.

Christina (Chris) Berg

Played By: Ina Svenningdal

• Big Eater: Shown eating in almost every scene she's in.
• Big Fun: Chris is the character that most consistently serves as comic relief.

• The Heart: Perhaps the sweetest of the girl squad, she is always there to comfort whoever needs it and cares greatly for them all.
• Incompatible Orientation: Towards Isak in seasons 1 and 2 (before he comes out).
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. In the first episode, Eva confuses Chris for an older boy with the same name (he's nicknamed from then on Penetrator Chris to avoid confusion).
• Plucky Comic Relief: Chris rarely takes part in emotional discourse, but is always there to relieve tension between the girls.
• Tomboyish Name: Chris is confused for another boy who shares her nick-name in the first episode.

The Penetrators

The Penetrator Russ Buss/Squad are a group of '97er's at Hartvig Nissen, who are considered "fuckboys" by many. They are the first bus that the girl squad rules with. Concerned primarily with hedonism, their russe gear is a black sweatshirt that says "Penetrators 2016" and has all the names of the bus members on the back. If a girl has slept with anyone of them, she will receive a sweatshirt with the name of the bus member she slept with outlined.

William Magnusson

Played By: Thomas Hayes

• Bad to the Bone: Rolls up to school with Penetrator-Chris and other friends, and gets out of the car with everyone in the school yard watching, then walks in slow-motion, to "Illest Motherfucker Alive" by Kanye West and Jay Z.
• Call-Back: Does the same thing in season 4, this time with just Penetrator-Chris, to "Who Gon' Stop Me" from the the same exact album as the previous song.

• The Bus Came Back: Shows up after nearly two seasons to Eva's 18th birthday party, much to everyone's shock.
• Cooldown Hug: Gives one to Noora when she's freaking out for reasons unknown to him (actually from having suffered an ordeal with his brother), to which he keeps holding her till she falls asleep.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Noora gives him a dose of this in the penultimate episode of season 2. He insists he's moving to London regardless what she says because withdrawing from people and being cold is just "who he is" thanks to his family and backstory, with Noora retorting that that's not how it works:
  Noora: People experience terrible things every day and still manage to be nice to each other. Being an asshole isn't something you become. It's a choice.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Starts out like the typical high school casanova-cliché as a guy sleeping around and not caring for any of the girls he sleeps with, but is eventually revealed as a decent guy affected by an unhappy childhood, and who leaves his promiscuous behaviour behind as soon as he gets to know Noora.
• Ladykiller in Love: Falls for Noora.

• No Sense of Personal Space: Has a habit of getting up really close to Noora, even before they start dating.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When he finished Noora's 17th of May article.
• Parental Neglect: Both he and his brother apparently had parents that didn't take much care of them.
• Properly Paranoid: Believes that if his brother, Nicolai, finds out that he and Noora are a couple, Nicolai will try to ruin for them somehow, which is exactly what happens.

Penetrator Chris (Christoffer Schistad)

Played By: Herman Tømmeraas

• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With William.
• Ladykiller in Love: Much like his friend, William, by the season 4 finale, Eva and Chris have occasionally been sleeping together, and Chris clearly has feelings for Eva, insisting that they should become a couple despite Eva's doubts. This then gets subverted at the end of the last episode when Chris suddenly has a Love at First Sight case with Emma instead.
• Relationship Reveal: Is revealed to be hooking up with Eva even after leaving Hartvig Nissen, and later, Relationship Upgrade is implied in the series finale, in which he and Eva are about to begin dating. That is, until he suddenly falls for Emma instead.

Kollektivet Members

Eskild Trygvasson

Played By: Carl Martin Eggesbø

• Camp Gay: A rather mild version.
• Gay Best Friend: With Linn, but inverted. He as the gay one has a lot more characterization.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Linn.
• Nice Guy: Basically adopts Isak, is always ready to give help and is friendly to all.
• Parental Substitute: For Isak, at least until Isak reconnects with his own.
• Team Dad: He's only in his early 20s but older than all of the other main characters and acts as a sort of father figure to many of them. The two biggest get-togethers of season 3 were held at his house.

Linn Larsen Hansen

Played By: Rakel Øfsti Nesje

• The Eeyore: Is always depressed.
• Don't Wake the Sleeper: Unless you're Esklid, don't mess with Linn when she's resting.
• Heavy Sleeper: If you don't actively see Linn on screen, odds are good that she's sleeping.

• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Eskild.
• Noodle Incident: Is full of them. She may have only had a boyfriend once in seventh grade, but she sent a used tampon to a girl who made out with him and has also gotten chlamydia around 13 times.

• Seen It All: She may seem like a lazy homebody, but Linn has been around the block and back. She's contracted chlamydia so many times it's no longer a big deal to her.

Balloon Squad

Yousef Acar

Played By: Cengiz Al

• Cannot Talk to Women: Every damn time with Sana. He even admits it to Noora, who is helping him get together with Sana.
  Yousef: I wanted to say to her that I like her, but instead I just got really freaked out and took her basketball. Fucking hell, am I 12 years old, or what?
• Friend to All Children: While not shown on-screen, he works part-time at a kindergarten and otherwise states that he loves children, apparently wanting to have 12 of them. Whether he's joking or not is hard to tell.
• Hollywood Atheist: This keeps he and Sana from being more than friends during the course of the show.
• Nice Guy: An absolutely lovely person.
• One True Love: Confesses that he believes that Sana is his soulmate.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Sana, because of her religious belief incompatibility.
• Wham Line: Tells Sana that he's not a Muslim, which she doesn't handle well.

Elias Bakkoush

Played By: Simo Mohamed Elhbabi

• Big Brother Instinct: 100% with Sana. The Bakkoush siblings act as a team, with Elias as the elder of the two. Whether it's immediately leaping into action with ushering drunk russebus girls out of their house before their parents get home, to helping her with her crush on Yousef, Elias is the ultimate big brother figure to Sana.
  Elias [to Sana] When you're sad, I'm sad.
• Dance-Off: With Madhi.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Yousef.
• Mr. Fanservice: Is shirtless in the gym scene, much to the Girl Squad (barring Sana)'s delight.
• Shipper on Deck: Fully supports Sana and Yousef's relationship and disagrees with her reservation that he's not Muslim, saying he's more good than some Muslims he knows who drink and steal.
• Your Tradition Is Not Mine: Although he observes Ramadan and fasting, Elias drinks alcohol at least once, culminating in him staying over at the Kollectivet after getting blackout drunk. After Mama Bakkoush confronts him as to why he didn't come home the night before, a conversation that hints at this trope occurs between the two of them.

Adam Malik

Played By: Adam Ezzari

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Instead of translating a sentence in a children's story book to French, he just says the names of football players with a French accent.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Mikael.

Mikael Øverlie Boukhal

Played By: Yousef Hjelde El Mofty

• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Adam.

• We Used to Be Friends: With Even.

Mutasim Tatouti

Played By: Mutasim Ahmed