Characters / Tony Hawk's Underground

Custom Skater

The default representation of the player in both games.

Portrayed by: Larc Spies (Male), Melissa Disney (Female), Arif S. Kinchen (Male 2, THUG 2 only), Lani Minella (Female 2, THUG 2 only), Jeffrey Todd Fischer (Male 3, THUG 2 only), Joshua Seth (Male 4, THUG 2 only)

"Todd said he wanted something big. This is it."

• Affirmative Action Girl: If the protagonist is female.
• Arch-Enemy: To former best-friend Eric Sparrow.
• Beware the Nice Ones: They aren't afraid to shove Eric after the latter steals the footage of the protagonist's McTwist over a police helicopter.
• Blatant Lies: Took a page out of Eric's book and lied to enter Eric's pro skating contest after Eric ruined their incredible helicopter footage.
• Butt-Monkey: Treated as such by Todd after joining the skate team.
• Canon Name: Strangely, the protagonist has two. In the first game, he's referred to as "Steve" in the pre-made characters. In the second, he's referred to as "Chris".
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Befitting their kind nature, the protagonist goes out of their way to help people in trouble any way they see fit, ranging from retrieving a woman's stolen purse to finding stolen instruments for a band.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: The police on two occasions; bailing out Eric and filming their Hawaii skate video.
• Demoted to Extra: After being the main character of the first game, they take a backseat to Tony and Bam's antics during the story mode of THUG 2 and don't do much in the grand scheme of things beyond being the Player Character.
• Determinator: No matter how many setbacks they face, they never give up. They refuse to give up on their Tampa AM opportunity despite Eric intentionally forgetting to complete their registration form, and always aim to do their best on their tasks.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Finally defeats Eric in one last skate-off and wins back their helicopter tape.
  • Playing through the game with the same character after achieving the above happy ending gets them a happier one. Instead of dignifying Eric's challenge they just sock him in his smug jaw with their elbow and take the tape, leaving Eric sprawled out on top of his car, out cold with his jaw obliterated.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Their hometown can be changed to whatever the player desires, but they will invariably call New Jersey home.
  • As mentioned further down, the player can set their age to whatever they want, but dialgoue will suggest they are supposed to be high school age.
• Heroic BSoD: Heartbroken after being framed by Eric and arrested by the Russian military. They question their dedication to skating until sponsor Stacy Peralta points them back in the right direction.
• Idiot Ball: No matter how many times Eric stabs them in the back, the protagonist always forgives him. It takes being kicked off the skate team for the protagonist to stop playing nice towards their former best friend.
• Invisible Parents: Todd remarks that the protagonist's parents can pay for the fees of the tank incident in Moscow (that was caused by ERIC). The protagonist is young enough to still be living with their parents, but they are never shown.
• Just in Time: Could not have timed getting their equipment for Moscow any worse, almost missing the team bus.
• Kid Hero: While you can set their age to whatever you want, certain elements (such as dialogue referencing they still attend high school, live with their parents, and they are able to drive) suggests the player character is supposed to be around 16 or 17 years old in the first game and is only about a year older in the second.
• Nice Guy: Or girl. S/he's the opposite of Eric: a nice guy/girl that is kind-hearted, determined and loyal. Their big heart makes them forgive Eric at every opportunity, and they treat people with respect, not being afraid to bail other skaters out of trouble.
• Only Friend: For Eric.
• Plucky Girl: Or guy. S/he's a firm believer in soul-skating, they never waiver from that belief, delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Eric and saying that enjoyment is important in skating, not the money.
• The Reliable One: Capable of helping out pretty much anyone who needs it.
• The Scapegoat: For the Moscow tank incident that cost them their place on the skate team. Eric happily lies and Todd buys it.
• Supporting Protagonist: They play this role to Tony and Bam in the second game.
• Talk to the Fist: In the alternate ending, instead of accepting Eric's final skate-off, s/he elbows him in the face and takes the tape leaving Eric sprawled out unconscious on the hood of his car, his jaw broken..
• We Used to Be Friends: Eventually, even their patience with Eric runs dry, and s/he finally turns on him.

Eric Sparrow

Not pictured: A guy who won't screw you over for the sake of his career.^*  No, not Muska. The other one.

Portrayed by: Ben Diskin

"I got it all. My own company, six cars in my garage, a record deal in the works... what have you got? Food stamps?"

• Arch-Enemy: To their former best friend the protagonist.
• Beard of Evil: Eric develops a small goatee in the second game and remains an utter bastard throughout it all.
• Big Bad: He's the direct cause of most of your problems throughout the game.
• Big Bad Slippage: At first, he isn't really that hostile and gets the player in trouble through his impulsiveness more than anything. After the player pulls off an impressive stunt in Hawaii, he grows jealous of their success and starts to become more antagonistic, which culminates in him framing the protagonist for destroying a building with a tank in Moscow.
• Butt-Monkey: In the second game, he's repeatedly subjected to slapstick and generally humiliated nonstop.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: His main trait throughout the first game's storyline. Whenever he wants to become the bigger skater, he will screw over the protagonist every time, and the protagonist continues to forgive him.
• Demoted to Extra: In THUG 2, Eric acts as little more than comic relief, doesn't get any interaction with the protagonist and is eliminated about halfway through the tour.
• Dirty Coward: After causing a tank to crash into a building in Russia while heavily intoxicated, he runs away, leaving the protagonist to rot in prison while Eric goes off to fly back to the states along with the other team.
• Easily Forgiven: For some reason, the protagonist continues to trust Eric even after the times he screwed them over. It isn't until he destroys a building with a tank in Moscow and leaves them to take the blame that they finally break with him for good.
• Evil Counterpart: To Tony Hawk: they're both ace skaters with bird-themed last names, but while Tony is a Nice Guy who respects the protagonist's skills and eventually becomes a loyal friend to them, Eric is a jerkass who starts off as a friend to the protagonist, but resents the idea of them being better than him and repeatedly screws them over to the point where they end the story as bitter enemies.
• Ex-Big Bad: After a stint as the Big Bad of THUG, Eric returns in 2, where he's significantly downgraded in terms of skill/threat and gets eliminated midway through the tour.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The protagonist is his Only Friend, put it that way. And by the end of the first game, even they are at the end of their patience with him. By the second game, even the other pros have caught on to how pathetic he is, with it being all but stated that Bam only recruited Eric to round out the teams and even then, was more than willing to help Team Hawk get the win in Australia just to get rid of Eric.
• The Ghost: Doesn't physically appear in Tony Hawk's Project 8, but he's still in the ranking system (starting at the bottom, aptly enough).
• Glory Hound: Basically his motivation in the story.
• Hate Sink: Between backstabbing his friend the protagonist at every opportunity, caring only about fame and wealth, and generally being a huge Jerkass more often than not, it's very likely Eric was designed to be hated by the player, making his defeat in the game's final challenge all the more satisfying.
• Hypocrite: Blamed the protagonist for not helping him get on the skate team... because they were going to help him after he left them out of the Tampa AM competition on purpose.
• Jerkass: The opposite of the protagonist. He acts like the protagonist's best friend, but constantly undermines their success and grows jealous, stealing the credit for the protagonist's insane helicopter trick to become a pro before them and happily lying that the protagonist crashed a Russian tank instead of him to get them kicked off the team. It turns into Laser-Guided Karma when the protagonist earns the helicopter tape back from Eric by defeating him in a skate-off.
• Lean and Mean: He's as skinny as he is an asshole.
• The Millstone: He's quite the liability, both as a friend and as a team member for a tour. Bam is more than willing to work with Team Hawk and the Custom Skater in Australia if it means Eric's off his team.
• Only in It for the Money: His true motivations are eventually revealed, per the above quote.
• Punny Name: His name is a play on Tony Hawk's name.
• Pyromaniac: Lights a few things on fire over the course of the story, and mentions that he used to torch action figures when he and the protagonist were kids. During the final challenge against him, he throws fire bombs in your path.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Accuses the protagonist of being too nice and skating for "minimum wage". How it eventually ends up blowing up in his face...
• The Resenter: Towards the protagonist. He hides it somewhat well prior to the events of Hawaii, but cannot resist when the protagonist pulls off the trick that will make them world famous. After that, Eric becomes jealous and they drift apart.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Pulls off a particularly high-pitched scream after Bam's chainsaw prank at the start of the second game. Eric then pisses and craps his pants.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Abandons the protagonist after they try to stop the tank Eric ignited while drunk.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Isn't shy on self-confidence, unlike the protagonist.
• Smug Snake: Aside from doing everything he can to become famous with as little effort as possible, being driven by money and riches, he's also very confident in his skating abilities (as the above trope indicates), believing himself to be better than the protagonist. Later on, he becomes determined to use the protagonist's kind-hearted nature to his advantage and ruin their career to further his own.
• Sore Loser: The protagonist beats him at every contest, and he doesn't take it well.
• Too Dumb to Live: Spends the first half of the game making bad situations worse and having to be bailed out by the protagonist. Examples include burning a car owned by drug dealers who already hated him and insulting a cop that had just apprehended him.
• Villain Decay: In THUG, he gleefully screws the player over multiple times and gets away with it until the end. In THUG 2, he's completely pathetic and everyone can tell that he's the worst skater on the tour by far.
• Villainous Breakdown: After beating him in the final challenge, Eric throws a tantrum as the player nonchalantly walks off with the tape in hand.
• With Friends Like These...: You've seen his rap sheet, right?
• You Don't Look Like You: Looks much different in Tony Hawk's Proving Ground than his appearances in the THUG games.

Todd

This fatass is your Team Manager.

Portrayed by: Dave Wittenberg

"You're the freshie, you organize the party!"

• Big Eater: Gives the protagonist a vague introduction before going off to eat hamburgers. While eating Hamburgers.
• Distracted by the Sexy: By two attractive girls at the pool, taking a few minutes to work out how to introduce himself to them. It Goes Horribly Wrong.
• Fat Bastard: A sleazeball who was willing to let the protagonist rot in Russia to evade paying $700,000 in damages from a stunt Eric framed the protagonist for.
• Jerkass: Not quite to Eric's extent, but he's lazy and rude, doesn't care about the reconciliation between Eric and the protagonist, and leaves the protagonist trapped in Moscow without a second thought to avoid paying fines.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: His team doesn't hold him in high regard, and a couple of missions involve the player having to make up for Todd's incompetence.
• Villainous Glutton: More of a sleazy Jerkass than a villain, but his introduction sees him scarfing down two massive burgers while remarking that he's going to go eat more after he finishes.

Stacy Peralta

Your first sponsor.

Portrayed by: Himself

"Skating is whatever you make it. It didn't change, you're the one that changed."

• Cool Teacher: Gives the protagonist encouragement when they are stressed after the events of Moscow, instructing them to go back to their roots and skate for enjoyment.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: Often doing yoga while instructing the protagonist.
• The Sponsor: After the protagonist and Eric manage to impress him.

Tony Hawk

Portrayed by: Himself

"Talk about a surprise attack!"

• Nice Guy
• The Reliable One: Keeps his word and gets the protagonist into the Tampa AM after they manage to impress him.

Bam Margera

Portrayed by: Himself

"Wow, look at all those tanks!"

• Ax-Crazy: In 2, he decides to logical way to celebrate the end of the World Destruction Tour is to blow up Skatopia with fireworks while there are people and animals still inside.
• Cloudcuckoolander: For starters, look at the above quote.
• Enemy Mine: After Eric Sparrow steals Nigel Beaverhousen's clothes, Bam decides to help out the player character by telling them to wear his clothes to annoy people despite the player being from Team Hawk just to get rid of Sparrow.
• Exposed to the Elements: Insane enough to go through the wintry Russian weather shirtless.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Not as pleasant as Hawk, but happily pulled the protagonist aside and gave them encouragement after they won Best Trick at the Tampa AM event.

Kalo

Portrayed by: Unknown

• Nice Guy: Happily helped the protagonist escape Moscow and return to New Jersey.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Uses a lot of outdated slang, due to having learned English from watching American music videos.

Chad Muska

Doing a demo in a rundown part of New Jersey, for some reason.

Portrayed by: Himself

• Cool Car: Drives a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade with kickin' hydraulics, a loud audio system, and seven screens for his DVD player.
• Good Counterpart: Downplayed, but definitely this to Eric. While Chad seems outwardly to epitomize the glamorous lifestyle Eric wants, he still cares about skating and helping others get onto his level (see the following trope), while Eric just views the skating as a vehicle to fame and actively tries to hold the protagonist down.
• Nice Guy: The first big skater the protagonist meets, an impressed Muska makes a suggestion on having the player get a sponsorship and giving them a brand new skateboard after seeing the tattered deck the protagonist had.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Uses a lot of ghetto slang.

Paulie "Wheels of Fury" Ryan

Portrayed by: Jason Spisak

• Dirty Kid: He's quite... active, to say the least. He rudely hits on a lady significantly older than him in Barcelona and claims the woman painted on the World Destruction Tour van looks like his sister.
• Handicapped Badass: He's confined to a wheelchair, yet he can pull his weight for Team Bam.
• Jerkass: A foul-mouthed brat that rarely, if ever, has a nice thing to say to anyone. He also strikes the player character in the knee when they criticize Bam for his indecisiveness in picking his last team-mate.
• Kids Are Cruel: One of his biggest contributions to Team Bam was throwing a porta-potty containing some hapless schmuck into the river in Boston.

Iron Man

• Big Applesauce: Hails from New York City, which is especially fitting with Manhattan as a stage in the game.
• Forgot I Could Fly: Despite being able to fly and using his thrusters for his exclusive special tricks, he is otherwise on par with the other skaters.
• Guest Fighter: Hails from the Marvel Comics universe rather than the Tony Hawk universe.
• Secret Character: He's unlocked by completing the story mode on easy.
• The Voiceless: Like Shrek, he is completely silent in-game.

Shrek

• Acrofatic: He may be a big, lumbering ogre, but he's perfectly capable of performing the same tricks the smaller, more agile skaters can.
• Guest Fighter: He hails from the Shrek universe, rather than the Tony Hawk universe.
• Master of All: Has maxed out stats.
• Product Placement: He was inserted into the game to promote Shrek 2, where his model seems to be ripped from.
• Prop Recycling: His model appears to be recycled from the Shrek 2 video game.
• Secret Character: He's unlocked by clearing the story mode on easy.
• Signature Move: Shrek has two exclusive special tricks: the Wax Slide grind (which involves using his earwax as lubricant) and Board Snap grab (which involves him taking his board out from under him and snapping it in half). While other skaters can also have said moves equipped as specials, Shrek's the only one to have them equipped by default and they're unlocked with him.
• The Voiceless: Does not speak in-game.
• Vulgar Humor: Being Shrek, he naturally incorporates it into his tricks.
  • Instead of spraying graffiti, he chooses to burp on the walls, forming his trademark S.
  • His grind special has him use his earwax as lubricant.