History Characters / SexEducation

* Characters/SexEducationMoordaleSecondarySchoolStudents
* Characters/SexEducationMoordaleSecondarySchoolStaff
* Characters/SexEducationOtherCharacters

* Characters/SexEducationOtherCharacters

!!Teachers and Staff

!Other Characters
[[folder: Jakob]]
!!Jakob Nyman
-->'''Played By:''' Mikael Persbrandt

A handyman who redoes the Milburns' bathroom. He and Jean develop a mutual attraction for each other.
----
* BilingualBonus: He's got some undubbed lines in Swedish, and most of them are actually quite funny.
* FatalFlaw: Trust. His first wife had an affair, but then immediately got cancer and died slowly, so he never had time to process the betrayal before he had to take care of her and watch her die. Because of it, he has trouble trusting Jean because of her previous, casual approach to dating, and her kissing her ex-husband in a moment of weakness.
* FunnyForeigner: He has a sort of gloomy, philosophical air and vastly different sense of manners that are played for laughs.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: His wife's death affected him deeply, to the point he never had any relationship until Jean appeared. He is also a very wise man, extremely good at reading people (Jean, Jean's ex husband. He also tells Otis that he knows that despite being a bit of an arsehole, he is a good man), and while nice, he will never let anyone push him over, nor be dismissed. He also knows his boundaries and limits.]]
* HotMenAtWork: Downplayed in that he doesn't get overtly fanservicey scenes while fixing the Milburns' plumbing, but she does develop an attraction for him while watching him work.
* OppositesAttract: Deconstructed. Jean and Jakob have precious little in common, coming from very different cultural and class backgrounds, with different temperaments, as well as different views on how to raise kids, how to vote (namely, Jakob doesn't vote), and pretty much everything else. Rather than simply making them an OddCouple, it causes serious tension that brings their relationship to a halt twice, and makes the fact they're [[spoiler:raising a child together]] quite difficult.
* OverprotectiveDad: Subverted.
--> STOP KISSING MY DAUGHTER! ''(smiles)'' Just kidding.
* SexyScandinavian: Jean thinks so.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Seems very foreboding and gloomy at first, but he is a really nice guy and caring parent.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Once he and Jean start an actual relationship, he wastes no time moving in with her and drives her up the wall with his much laxer standards of tidiness.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sean Wiley]]
!! Sean Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Edward Bluemel

Maeve's older brother.
----
* AloofBigBrother: He disappears from Maeve's life for months at a time with no warning, and bear in mind he's the closest thing to her legal guardian.
* ConMan: Spins a story about he and Maeve being orphans in order to solicit donations for Maeve's new prom dress. Maeve isn't comfortable with it.
* PoisonousFriend: He seems cool, but it becomes more and more obvious that he has no intention of stopping his shadier activities like dealing drugs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Erin Wiley]]
!!Erin Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Anne-Marie Duff

Maeve's mother.
----
* FunctionalAddict: She struggles with drug addiction but has been clean for over a year now. In the past she was implicitly less functional. [[spoiler: And it later turns out she isn't as clean as she lets on]].
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: She's implied to have been this in high school. When she sees Maeve reading a copy of ''Middlemarch'', Erin states that she was meant to read that for class but never did, preferring to smoke or hang around boys instead.
* NeverMyFault: Maeve accuses her of this, and from the way we've seen Erin act over the course of the series, she has a point. She never takes real responsibility for her actions, nor does she stop lying to her daughter. When [[spoiler:Elsie is taken away because Maeve called the police on Erin]], rather than realise that it was her own fault for taking drugs, she has the gall to put all the blame and hate on Maeve, because "what child calls the cops on her own mother?"
* ParentalAbandonment: Appears in season 2 after a long disappearance from Maeve's life, and this explains a lot about Maeve's issues connecting with people.
* ParentsAsPeople: She definitely isn't perfect, but she is struggling to do right by Maeve, and is hurt by Maeve's dismissiveness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Remi Milburn]]
!!Remi Milburn
--> '''Played By:''' James Purefoy
Otis's father and Jean's ex husband. A writer and sex guru.
----

* DomesticAbuse: Emotionally. When Jean found out about his cheating, he tried to brush it off by basically gas-lighting her.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: For all his smugness and arrogance, he knows how much of an arsehole and a liar he is, and how deeply miserable he is, and does not want his son to commit the same mistakes he did. And he actually gives Otis genuinely good and deep advice.]]
* InsufferableGenius: An academic who gets very patronizing with Jakob, a plumber and handyman.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:[[spoiler: With Otis, and only Otis, he shows that below all his assholery, there is a regretful and self loathing individual. His talk with Otis in the last chapter of season 2 might be his most genuine and open moment with his son. He also gives him really good advice to avoid committing the mistakes he did.]]
* SexAddiction: How he tries to rationalize his cheating.
* TheShrink: Type One, Harmful. Uses his access to clients to have sex with them, which is unethical and probably illegal. Also admits he believes his book on "Masculinity in Crisis" is a load of crap.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Isaac Goodwin]]
!!Isaac
--> '''Played By:''' George Robinson
Maeve's dismissive and condescending neighbour, a disabled young man with a similar childhood, who lives with his brother Joe.
----
* AbusiveParents: Like Maeve, his parents aren't around. Might be even worse, as they didn't just up and leave, but according to him actually forced him out somehow for being too much of a burden after his injury.
* AppealToPity: He's all too aware of the condescending sympathy strangers feel for him, and often uses it to get favors.
* BirdsOfAFeather: He certainly thinks so; like Maeve, he was the child of drug addicts who then abandoned him, with his disability being directly the result of their neglect.
* DisabledSnarker: He's in a wheelchair which he uses to gain sympathy from strangers, but as he demonstrates with Maeve, he uses it to hide his sarcastic wit.
* HeelRealization: In season 3, he's realised deleting Otis' message was a creepy, manipulative move, and tries to confess and apologise for it before him and Maeve act on their feelings. Naturally this ends any potential relationship between them for the time being, but Maeve does come to forgive him for it.
* MultipleChoicePast: Gives several contradictory stories on how he became confined to his chair. The most recent and plausible story is [[spoiler: that he fell out of a tree, trying to prove he could out climb his brother.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: {{Implied}}. He pursues Maeve despite her initial refusal to get to know him (due to her general antisocial demeanour), and it's shown he watches her from his window whenever she leaves.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: The end of season 2 is this. He viewed it as him protecting Maeve, since he believes Otis is a JerkAss who mistreats Maeve, but he clearly did wrong deleting the voicemail, and realises such the following season.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cynthia]]
!!Cynthia
--> '''Played By:''' Lisa Palfrey
Maeve's landlady, as owner of the caravan park where she lives.
* CrazyCatLady: Treats her cat Jonathan like a child, dressing him up in costumes and talking about him as if he were a person. [[spoiler:This stops being played for laughs after Jonathan dies; her husband confirms she saw him as the son she couldn’t have, and she has trouble moving on or properly grieving him.]]
----
[[/folder]]
----

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Jean Milburn]]
!!Dr. Jean Milburn
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jean_milburn.png]]
--> '''Played by:''' Creator/GillianAnderson

Otis's mother and renowned sex and relationship therapist.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Otis is deeply ashamed of his mother's profession and petrified of anyone finding out about it, and Jean is a lot more open-minded about sex than Otis would prefer her to be.
* AmicableExes: Subverted. She and her ex-husband can have conversations with each other rather easily, but once those are over Jean tends to explode into {{Cluster F Bomb}}s.
* ButWeUsedACondom : [[spoiler: She's revealed to be pregnant at the end of season 2, even though Jakob had a vasectomy (and she's pre-menopausal). ]]
* CoolOldLady: She's not ''that'' old, but she's a savvy middle-aged woman who Otis's teenage classmates occasionally experience attraction to.
* EveryoneHasStandards: As much as she tries to be supportive of anything Otis does regarding sex, she is understandably quite squicked when she catches him masturbating in the car, in public. Though she later tries to focus purely on the logistics, that the car is a shared space and that exposing yourself in public is a crime, at-the-time she was visibly grossed out to see his semen ejaculated onto the window.
* LadykillerInLove: Gender-inverted. After a long string of one-night stands, she realizes that she's fallen for Jakob, who makes it clear he's only interested in having a committed relationship.
* MyBelovedSmother: The main source of conflict between her and Otis. Jean has trouble respecting Otis's boundaries both by invading his room on a regular basis and constantly prying and getting him to discuss his sexual problems when he's clearly uncomfortable about it.
* OpenMindedParent: Has no problem with letting Otis drink, do drugs or have sex, just as long as he remembers to buddy up (for the former two) and offers him condoms before leaving for a party.
* ParentsAsPeople: Jean tries to be a good mother to Otis, and struggles in creating a balance between wanting to help him and giving him space to grow up and let him deal with issues on his own. She also hides a lot of loneliness and fear of being left out of her son's life.
* ReallyGetsAround: As could be expected from a sexually-open attractive single woman, Jean has a series of one-night stands, which embarrasses her son.
* TheShrink: An interesting combination of the Awesome and Ineffective Shrink. There's no doubt she's talented in her vocation; she unknowingly gives Otis helpful advice and he channels her when counselling his own clients. But Jean also blurs the boundary between treating Otis as a patient (and later [[spoiler: the unwitting subject of her new book]]) rather than as her son by prodding him to open up and discuss his problems even when he's unwilling.
* SingleMomStripper: Is perceived as such by Adam, who thinks she's a prostitute at first.
* StacysMom: Definitely has this vibe going on. Jean attracts quite a few younger men throughout the show. Adam, her son's classmate, points out that she's like a "sexy witch".
* TheStoic: In both her personal and professional life, Jean tries to keep herself emotionally distant and not let her feelings get the better of her. Though, this being a comedy there are moments when she's NotSoStoic (see Jean cursing her ex-husband when he sends numerous copies of his new book to spite her and getting stuck in a driveway after following Otis to a party).

[[folder: Mr. Groff]]
!!Headmaster Michael Groff
--> '''Played by:''' Alistair Petrie

Headmaster of Moordale, and Adam's strict father.

* AbusiveParents: His affection for Adam is entirely contingent on his academic performance- so, basically nonexistent. [[spoiler: Comes to a head in Episode 7, when Adam snaps, grabs his father's neck, and screams "I HATE YOU" in public]].
* AlasPoorVillain: After being fired, Season 3 brings pity to Groff by showing just how miserable and humiliating his life is after. It's all his own fault, but still.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: He becomes the closest thing the show has to one in season 2. While he had always been sort of a thorn in the side of Maeve, he goes above and beyond when he prints the diary of Jean and publishes all across the entire school.]]
* TheBully: He is one in general, particularly to his son. Season 3 shows how his older brother Peter and his father bullied him as a child, and how he’s unintentionally carrying that behaviour on.
* DeanBitterman: Crabby and stern, and so concerned about his school's public image that he blatantly plays favorites with students.
* GenerationXerox: Much like his son, Groff has some pretty obvious insecurities and self-loathing, which he takes out on others via bullying, and both have a tendency to cause their own misfortune through completely avoidable mistakes. They even both struggle with intimacy with their partners. Of course, it's entirely ''because'' of Groff's bullying that Adam is the way he is, but it's notable he deals with it the exact same way his father did.
* GRatedDrug: He has a huge stash of chocolate bars in his desk, possibly ones confiscated from students. Sean knows about it and implies it's something Groff doesn't want getting out.
* HiddenDepths: For all his negative qualities, he does have a keen eye for noticing details. [[spoiler: He finds the drugs of Maeve's brother, and he sees Jean's notebook when Otis puts it in there]]. He also [[spoiler: leaves the house when his wife asks him for a divorce, instead of making her leave, and does seem to love her despite all that happened.]]
** Invoked - after admitting he doesn’t know how to feel joy or any emotion, Jean advises him to seek something that brings him pleasure. He takes up cooking and proves to be a very competent chef.
* {{Jerkass}}: An unpleasant person, both as a teacher and parent. Most notable is his treatment of Adam and Maeve, [[spoiler: the latter he assumes is part of a drug ring with her brother Sean and Otis]] and when she is caught it's obvious his mind is made up [[spoiler: in his decision to expel her despite the pleas of Maeve and Mrs. Sands]].
* KickTheDog:
** [[spoiler: Despite showing extreme favoritism towards Jackson and promising him not to expel Maeve if he wins his swimming competition, he responds that he "doesn't take bribes" when Jackson does win and tells him to forget her]].
** [[spoiler: Copying pages from Jean's diary and spreading them around school in an attempt to discredit her]]
** The treatment of his son.
* LargeHam: Some of his monologues fall into this category, particularly when he's lecturing Maeve over [[spoiler: the drug ring he inaccurately presumes that she runs]].
* LaserGuidedKarma: In season 3, he's been fired and the publicity of his mismanagement at Moordale has made him virtually unemployable in education. He's living with his much more successful brother, whose upbeat nature unintentionally makes him feel so ashamed by his own failures he ends up lying about getting a job and finding a new place to live.
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler: Instead of just accepting he was a bad husband and parent, and facing his own fears and insecurities, he blames his failing marriage on Jean's influence. Subverted in Season 3, where he owns up to his flaws and actions in conversation with Maureen and Jean.]]
* ProfessionalButtKisser: Bows and scrapes at any attempt to boost his school's reputation. Picture Basil Fawlty as a school headmaster.
* SexlessMarriage: He hasn't has sex with his wife in years and shuts down any attempt she makes to initiate. She's getting a bit desperate over the whole thing.
* SternTeacher: Principal technically, but is an austere educator nonetheless. This bleeds into his personal life, especially when dealing with his delinquent son Adam.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: After spending all of Season 3 being mocked and ridiculed by his brother, he finally snaps and gives one during a dinner party when Peter insults his cooking.
-->My life is a failure. My wife’s left, I’m quite sure my son hates me, and I’m unemployed. But I’d rather all those things than be a pumped-up shit of a man like you. You’ve been a shit since you were a child, and I think you’ll be a shit until you die, probably because our dad was the biggest shit of all, and you learnt to bully me so he wouldn’t bully you. And that is such a great shame, but I am too old for it to be my problem any more. Goodbye, Peter.
* VillainousBreakdown: Starts cracking throughout season 2 with [[spoiler:his wife leaving him and Jean undermining his authority]], and finally has one [[spoiler:at the end of the season when he goes on a tirade at the school play, humiliating himself in public and being suspended from his job.]]

[[folder: Mr. Hendricks]]
!!Mr. Colin Hendricks
--> '''Played By:''' Jim Howick

Science teacher and conductor of the swing band at Moordale. Something of a minor mentor figure for Eric.

* BourgeoisBohemian: A traumatized and angry Eric accuses him of being this- a wealthy upper middle class geek who thinks he understands swing jazz. In fairness to Hendriks, it seems he actually knows musical theory well, which you can't say for [[DreadfulMusician Eric]].
* ButtMonkey: He is fairly put upon.
** In one episode, he horribly flummoxed by his partner's request for dirty talk; his frantic attempts wind up spoiling the evening.
** He has to teach sex ed even though he knows he's not qualified. This gets him involved, very much to his dismay, in the feud between Jean (who wants to handle that department) and Groff (who refuses to let her).
* CoolTeacher: His attempts at being friendly mostly come across as him trying too hard. However, he does encourage Eric to get out of his comfort zone and is understanding of [[spoiler: Eric's explosive anger following a traumatic experience]], so he is pretty cool in his own way.
* EndearinglyDorky: He's an awkward science teacher and conductor of the swing band with cheerful demeanor which is pretty endearing. He dates Miss Emily Sands who is a very HotTeacher.
* LargeHam: He's a sweet guy, but some of his antics come across as this.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Though he's not always the most clued-in, he's not a bad person and he does seem to genuinely care for Moordale's student body.
* TotallyRadical: He tries to connect with the students by speaking with casual familiarity. It needs some work.

[[folder: Miss Sands]]
!!Miss Emily Sands
--> '''Played By:''' Rakhee Thrakar

English teacher at Moordale. Something of a mentor figure for Maeve.

* CasualKink: [[spoiler: She loves dirty talk. While Hendricks is uncomfortable with it at first, for her it's simply something she happens to like because she feels like a dowdy schoolteacher all day]].
* CoolTeacher: Very supportive of Maeve.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: One of the few that Moordale has to offer, particularly in regards to Maeve.
* SecretKeeper: Figured out about Maeve's fake essay-writing ring, and hasn't told anyone yet because she thinks Maeve getting expelled would be a waste of her talents.

[[folder: Hope Haddon]]
!!Mrs Hope Haddon
--> '''Played By:''' Jemima Kirk

The new Headmaster, replacing Mr Groff in Season 3. She seems cool, but it turns out she has a very controlling and conservative view on education and school culture.

* AffablyEvil: She's personable enough that her cruelty isn't clear at first, but she has a very conservative view on what school culture should look like, including rigid binary uniforms, displeasure with any degree of self-expression, and a condescending attitude towards students, and is openly dismissive and unsupportive of queer students, to the point of punishing Cal for being non-binary and using their choice to present masculine in clothing (or, "sloppy") as an excuse to ignore their simple request for gender-neutral spaces.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: She's introduced as a CoolTeacher who dances in an EndearinglyDorky way to introduce herself to the student body, but it becomes clear she's as bad as Mr Groff.
* BrokenAce: Hope comes with an impressive CV - former Head Girl at Moordale, two degrees, teaching positions at the best schools in the country, and becoming the UK’s youngest headteacher at only twenty-eight - but despite her charismatic and ruthless persona, the show makes clear she’s barely holding it together trying to please Moordale’s private investors, while also trying for IVF. The latter is particularly painful for her, as she sees being a mother as “the one thing my body is supposed to do”.
* DeanBitterman: Even moreso then Groff, surprisingly. While Groff was an outdated, bullying arsehole with a classist attitude, Hope is a barely restrained fascist who is so desperate to control the students she begins openly humiliating them as a form of punishment.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When she meets Jackson and Adam for the first time, knowing only Jackson's name and status, she warmly greets Adam, assuming ''he'' is Jackson. While subtle, it shows a degree of racial bias in just assuming that Adam, the white kid, is the Head Boy and star student. This then reflects her socially conservative nature as she soon forces a gender-based uniform and scoffs at LGBTQ+ positivity.
* HeteronormativeCrusader: Essentially, she wants to rid Moordale of the "Sex School" reputation, and she does so primarily by punishing anything even remotely indicating sexual deviancy, but mostly this just affects the queer students. She's not ''openly'' homophobic or queerphobic (nowadays, being so would likely get her fired), but she makes a lot of dog whistle gestures, like criticising Cal's "sloppy" uniform (because Cal, who's non-binary, chooses to wear masculine clothing instead of the "proper" girl's uniform), and using that as an excuse to ignore any basic request for better treatment for LGBTQ+ students. This gets so petty as to telling Ola she can't wear a LGBTQ+ rainbow pin, and dismisses the implications by accusing Ola's beliefs of being "so fragile they rely solely on a pin" rather than acknowledge what the pin represents. [[spoiler:She gets even more explicit in-private with Viv and later Otis, admitting to having some genuinely bitter views on their generation's "obsession with identity" and how they "don't know how to stay in line".]]
* HiddenDepths: Despite being a bigoted asshole, she genuinely encourages Maeve to apply for the Gifted and Talented Program, to the point she offers to try and find funding for her (though she later threatens to rescind her offer when Maeve disagrees with the new sex education course for girls). When she can't, she seems genuinely upset at not being able to help. She's also desperately trying to have a kid, but is unable to conceive, which is contributing to her assholery.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment and how she desperately wants to be a mother. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children. She also demands to speak to a different doctor after her current one (a black woman) refuses to recommend continued treatment for her. Pushes this to new heights when, in another attempt to establish her control, she introduces ritual humiliation at Moordale - forcing misbehaving students to wear signs around their necks and banning them from talking to their classmates.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted; she seems to be this at first, even seemingly approving of Otis and Maeve's sex clinic when she's informed of it, but when Jackson argues in favour of keeping the Wall of Cock because of its artistic and historic value, she fires him as Head Boy and promotes Viv to this role, because her butt-kissing personality and similar views make her more agreeable to Hope.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Ironic considering she was replacing ''another'' tyrant, but Hope manages to be ''even worse'' than Groff.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: She's trying to rebuild Moordale's reputation after the sex scandals from the previous season. However, her method of doing so is to crush any and all personal expression and instil rigid, somewhat outdated school culture. It becomes clear as time goes on, she's got a ''lot'' of pressure from the school board to rid Moordale of it's "Sex School" reputation, but her method of doing so is pretty much the exact opposite of what it needs. As time goes on, it crosses well into something you'd expect a school in a dictatorship to enact.
* YouAreACreditToYourRace:
** Her attitudes towards Jackson and Viv indicate this. She racially profiles Jackson and, upon learning "Head Boy and Star Athlete Jackson Marchetti" is actually a black kid, she goes from warmly welcoming him to dismissing him with a forced smile and being much more critical, until using his dissenting opinion to demote him from the position. Viv, who she promotes in his place, is much more conforming to Hope so she takes advantage of that, but then privately between them acknowledges that she only keeps her around as a TokenMinority gesture to show Moordale is progressive to the press.
** Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop them up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately. It’s also arguably significant that Layla is white, whereas Cal is black

!Other Characters
[[folder: Jakob]]
!!Jakob Nyman
-->'''Played By:''' Mikael Persbrandt

A handyman who redoes the Milburns' bathroom. He and Jean develop a mutual attraction for each other.

* BilingualBonus: He's got some undubbed lines in Swedish, and most of them are actually quite funny.
* FatalFlaw: Trust. His first wife had an affair, but then immediately got cancer and died slowly, so he never had time to process the betrayal before he had to take care of her and watch her die. Because of it, he has trouble trusting Jean because of her previous, casual approach to dating, and her kissing her ex-husband in a moment of weakness.
* FunnyForeigner: He has a sort of gloomy, philosophical air and vastly different sense of manners that are played for laughs.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: His wife's death affected him deeply, to the point he never had any relationship until Jean appeared. He is also a very wise man, extremely good at reading people (Jean, Jean's ex husband. He also tells Otis that he knows that despite being a bit of an arsehole, he is a good man), and while nice, he will never let anyone push him over, nor be dismissed. He also knows his boundaries and limits.]]
* HotMenAtWork: Downplayed in that he doesn't get overtly fanservicey scenes while fixing the Milburns' plumbing, but she does develop an attraction for him while watching him work.
* OppositesAttract: Deconstructed. Jean and Jakob have precious little in common, coming from very different cultural and class backgrounds, with different temperaments, as well as different views on how to raise kids, how to vote (namely, Jakob doesn't vote), and pretty much everything else. Rather than simply making them an OddCouple, it causes serious tension that brings their relationship to a halt twice, and makes the fact they're [[spoiler:raising a child together]] quite difficult.
* OverprotectiveDad: Subverted.
--> STOP KISSING MY DAUGHTER! ''(smiles)'' Just kidding.
* SexyScandinavian: Jean thinks so.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Seems very foreboding and gloomy at first, but he is a really nice guy and caring parent.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Once he and Jean start an actual relationship, he wastes no time moving in with her and drives her up the wall with his much laxer standards of tidiness.

[[folder: Sean Wiley]]
!! Sean Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Edward Bluemel

Maeve's older brother.
----
* AloofBigBrother: He disappears from Maeve's life for months at a time with no warning, and bear in mind he's the closest thing to her legal guardian.
* ConMan: Spins a story about he and Maeve being orphans in order to solicit donations for Maeve's new prom dress. Maeve isn't comfortable with it.
* PoisonousFriend: He seems cool, but it becomes more and more obvious that he has no intention of stopping his shadier activities like dealing drugs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Erin Wiley]]
!!Erin Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Anne-Marie Duff

Maeve's mother.
----
* FunctionalAddict: She struggles with drug addiction but has been clean for over a year now. In the past she was implicitly less functional. [[spoiler: And it later turns out she isn't as clean as she lets on]].
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: She's implied to have been this in high school. When she sees Maeve reading a copy of ''Middlemarch'', Erin states that she was meant to read that for class but never did, preferring to smoke or hang around boys instead.
* NeverMyFault: Maeve accuses her of this, and from the way we've seen Erin act over the course of the series, she has a point. She never takes real responsibility for her actions, nor does she stop lying to her daughter. When [[spoiler:Elsie is taken away because Maeve called the police on Erin]], rather than realise that it was her own fault for taking drugs, she has the gall to put all the blame and hate on Maeve, because "what child calls the cops on her own mother?"
* ParentalAbandonment: Appears in season 2 after a long disappearance from Maeve's life, and this explains a lot about Maeve's issues connecting with people.
* ParentsAsPeople: She definitely isn't perfect, but she is struggling to do right by Maeve, and is hurt by Maeve's dismissiveness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Remi Milburn]]
!!Remi Milburn
--> '''Played By:''' James Purefoy
Otis's father and Jean's ex husband. A writer and sex guru.
----

* DomesticAbuse: Emotionally. When Jean found out about his cheating, he tried to brush it off by basically gas-lighting her.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: For all his smugness and arrogance, he knows how much of an arsehole and a liar he is, and how deeply miserable he is, and does not want his son to commit the same mistakes he did. And he actually gives Otis genuinely good and deep advice.]]
* InsufferableGenius: An academic who gets very patronizing with Jakob, a plumber and handyman.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:[[spoiler: With Otis, and only Otis, he shows that below all his assholery, there is a regretful and self loathing individual. His talk with Otis in the last chapter of season 2 might be his most genuine and open moment with his son. He also gives him really good advice to avoid committing the mistakes he did.]]
* SexAddiction: How he tries to rationalize his cheating.
* TheShrink: Type One, Harmful. Uses his access to clients to have sex with them, which is unethical and probably illegal. Also admits he believes his book on "Masculinity in Crisis" is a load of crap.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Isaac Goodwin]]
!!Isaac
--> '''Played By:''' George Robinson
Maeve's dismissive and condescending neighbour, a disabled young man with a similar childhood, who lives with his brother Joe.
----
* AbusiveParents: Like Maeve, his parents aren't around. Might be even worse, as they didn't just up and leave, but according to him actually forced him out somehow for being too much of a burden after his injury.
* AppealToPity: He's all too aware of the condescending sympathy strangers feel for him, and often uses it to get favors.
* BirdsOfAFeather: He certainly thinks so; like Maeve, he was the child of drug addicts who then abandoned him, with his disability being directly the result of their neglect.
* DisabledSnarker: He's in a wheelchair which he uses to gain sympathy from strangers, but as he demonstrates with Maeve, he uses it to hide his sarcastic wit.
* HeelRealization: In season 3, he's realised deleting Otis' message was a creepy, manipulative move, and tries to confess and apologise for it before him and Maeve act on their feelings. Naturally this ends any potential relationship between them for the time being, but Maeve does come to forgive him for it.
* MultipleChoicePast: Gives several contradictory stories on how he became confined to his chair. The most recent and plausible story is [[spoiler: that he fell out of a tree, trying to prove he could out climb his brother.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: {{Implied}}. He pursues Maeve despite her initial refusal to get to know him (due to her general antisocial demeanour), and it's shown he watches her from his window whenever she leaves.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: The end of season 2 is this. He viewed it as him protecting Maeve, since he believes Otis is a JerkAss who mistreats Maeve, but he clearly did wrong deleting the voicemail, and realises such the following season.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cynthia]]
!!Cynthia
--> '''Played By:''' Lisa Palfrey
Maeve's landlady, as owner of the caravan park where she lives.
* CrazyCatLady: Treats her cat Jonathan like a child, dressing him up in costumes and talking about him as if he were a person. [[spoiler:This stops being played for laughs after Jonathan dies; her husband confirms she saw him as the son she couldn’t have, and she has trouble moving on or properly grieving him.]]
----
[[/folder]]

!Main Characters

[[folder: Otis Milburn]]
!!Otis Milburn
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_otis.jpg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Creator/AsaButterfield

An awkward and neurotic wallflower and son of Dr. Jean Milburn, Moordale's local sex and relationship therapist. Using his remarkable gift for psychotherapy, Otis befriends fellow outcast Maeve and starts an underground sex therapy clinic for the students at Moordale Secondary School.

* BirdsOfAFeather: With Maeve; both are intelligent outcasts who share a similar sense of humor and academic interests.
* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: A talented sexual psychotherapist, but struggles with his own debilitating sexual neuroses.
* CluelessChickMagnet: An understated example, but throughout the series he catches the attention of Ola, [[spoiler: Maeve]] and Lily. [[spoiler: In season 2, he finally loses his virginity to ''Ruby'' of all people]].
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A significant part of his character development hinges on his masturbation. In season 1, he's grossed out by the idea of it and chooses to pretend he's doing it to avoid Jean trying to give him advice, and when he ''does'' try he has a panic attack. Ola ends up inspiring him to finally do it, but after this he becomes addicted to it, which unfortunately causes problems when he's unable to get it up with Ola because he's spent his sexual energy on himself.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Downplayed; a few characters comment on his pasty complexion. Aimee compares him to a Victorian ghost and Maeve's landlady mistook him for a sickly child.
* EndearinglyDorky: Being an unpopular teenage boy, awkwardness is a given. He starts giving sex therapy sessions to his peers despite being inexperienced himself. And it turns out his awkwardness also carries a definite charm that attracts both Ola and later Maeve. (Maeve especially is considered a cool and aloof girl who previously dated the school golden headboy.)
* FreudianExcuse: Walked in on his father having sex with a client when he was very young; that incident led to his parents' marriage falling apart. This has made it extremely hard for him to even visualize having sex with someone.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Can hear his peers out about their truly... ''unusual'' sexual problems without judgment. However, he still feels ashamed about his own sexuality, even fairly mild things like nocturnal emissions or sudden erections.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: He's best friends with Eric, though Eric is gay. They're friends since they were 9 years old.
* InVinoVeritas: In season two, he gets more than a little drunk and starts [[spoiler: spouting hurtful things about ''both'' Maeve and Ola to a group of rowdy high schoolers.]] It doesn't bode well for him.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Eric accuses Otis of this when they fight in Episode 5. From what we've seen, Eric isn't totally off the mark: previous episodes show that Otis has a tendency of disregarding Eric's interests and personal life when he becomes too focused on his own problems.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Although he doesn't seem remotely like his father Remi at first, Season 2 shows he might be at risk of developing his father's narcissistic and manipulative tendencies.
* NervousWreck: A massive part of why he has NoSocialSkills is due to how neurotic and fussy he is.
* NiceGuy: A total sweetheart, and one the main reasons he is such a good therapist. Otis is a good listener and possesses a tremendous amount of empathy towards his friends and the people he treats.
* ParalyzingFearOfSexuality: Is extremely uncomfortable when it comes to his own sexuality, which is ironic considering he is a budding sexual therapist. Otis has trouble masturbating and has panic attacks when he attempts to. He has a particularly bad one when he tries [[spoiler: to have sex with Lily and is forced to call his mum for help]]. The majority of his phobia seems to stem from [[spoiler: seeing his father cheating on his mother with a patient, and the fighting his parents went through after Jean found out]].
* ParentalSexualitySquick: Not only does his mother talk about sex for a living and tries to "therapize" him, she's constantly having sex and has filmed at least one video on sexual technique which is readily available online. All of this is a lot for Otis.
* ThePornomancer:
** Subverted. He's never had sex, or even brought himself to orgasm [[spoiler: until the Season 1 finale, for the latter]]. But his clinic work has given him this reputation: Aimee nicknamed him "Pleasure Master" and Maeve seems genuinely surprised when he spills to her that he's a virgin.
** When he actually [[spoiler: has sex for the first time, Ruby tells him he wasn't great but wasn't terrible, but thanks him for repeatedly checking in to see if she was okay, something most guys don't do with her]].
** In season 3, as he's became sexually active, its commented that he's ''very'' good at it. When having sex with [[spoiler:Ruby]], she outright states it's the only thing about him that's attractive to her, and she'd never date him otherwise.
%%* RedOniBlueOni: The blue to Eric's red.
%%* RetargetedLust: [[spoiler: Attempted with Lily]]
* SafeWord: [[PlayedForLaughs Sets one up during]] [[spoiler: FOREPLAY with Lily, just after they kiss, which doesn't even end in sex.]]
* ShrinkingViolet: At the start of the series. Otis hates parties, large crowds and was initially happy being the guy in the corner who nobody knows or talked to. He grows out of this mindset as the series goes on, coming to enjoy connecting with the other students and using his talents for something positive.
* TeenGenius: He's a prodigy at sexual therapy, with (so far as we see) a 100% success rate at helping his peers. Downplayed after Season 1, where it becomes obvious that he has some pretty big shortcomings- assuming he can learn a special "one size fits all" fingering trick on the internet, apparently having little or no knowledge of asexuals or how to counsel them, etc.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** He does display a manipulative side and egotistical tendencies in Season 2 with his relationship with Ola and how he responds to Maeve messing with his head. [[spoiler:It all comes to a head at a drunken party.]]
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Not to the same extent as Eric but he does dress in drag to go with him to see ''Theatre/HedwigAndTheAngryInch''.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Otis is perhaps better at these speeches than he is at sex therapy.
** In season 1 he talks a drugged-up classmate out of suicide (or at least serious self injury) by arguing that, even if he can't have his own idealized form of love, he ''is'' good enough to find someone some day.
** In season 2 he passionately defends his mother's ability as a therapist after Groff's attempts to publicly defame her.

[[folder: Eric Effiong]]
!!Eric Effiong
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_eric.jpg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Ncuti Gatwa

Otis's best friend, and one of the only two openly gay students at Moordale Secondary School.

%% * AbhorrentAdmirer: To Anwar, the other openly gay student at school.
%% * AttentionWhore: In Episode 5, Otis accuses Eric .
%%* ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt: When Eric and [[spoiler: Adam]] hook up.
* ButtMonkey: The whole school treats him like shit, which in the first few episodes is used for a couple laughs. A DeconstructedTrope in Episode 6, when this is shown to have created a ''lot'' of built-up anger and resentment that's brought to the surface after his falling out with Otis, where he ends up lashing out at Anwar as a result.
* CampGay: Out, loud and proud (emphasis on the loud, especially when it comes to his wardrobe). Eric definitely checks out the major hallmarks of this trope: effeminate, flamboyant, sassy, dresses in vibrant colors and genderfluid apparel (though this last example is only in private, [[spoiler: initially]]). Additionally, the trope is discussed- while many people feel the "camp gay" trope is exaggerated, gay men who act like this in real life are being their truest selves. The depiction isn't making a joke of his sexuality, but rather makes a point about presentation, especially as it relates to being both black and gay.
* TheChewToy: Constantly picked on by Adam, has the unfortunate nickname of "Tromboner", and isn't treated very seriously by much of the school. [[spoiler: PlayedForDrama in Episode 5 and 6, where he is ditched by Otis on his birthday, attacked while dressed in drag and tries to 'toughen up' by yelling at his music teacher and punching Anwar, resulting in him being suspended]].
* DreadfulMusician: His inability to play the French horn properly is a RunningGag.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After the trauma avalance he's put through during the first season, it mostly ends on a high note for him. [[spoiler:He is reconciled with Otis, his father and Adam and at least tolerated by Anwar, he's back in the band, he feels confident enough to bring drag elements into his school attire. The only minus point is that Adam is shipped off to a military school.]]
* EmbarrassingNickname: "Tromboner," after getting an erection while playing in front of the whole school. "It was a semi!" Also makes less sense considering he plays French Horn.
* ExtravertedNerd: More concerned with social status than Otis, is lot less popular than he thinks he is but that doesn't stop him from with being an outgoing social butterfly.
* GayBestFriend: Eric is definitely a more layered version of the trope, and as the series goes on he gets his own storylines outside of being Otis's best friend, we get a more in-depth look at his home and personal life and even gets a love interest in [[spoiler: Adam]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Otis. They're friends since since they were 9 years old.
* ImmigrantParents: Eric comes from a strict and religious family from Nigeria. Eric's father is particularly concerned about blending in English society; he is thus worried (but ultimately supporting) of his son being so shamelessly himself.
* LargeHam: He's histrionic, flamboyant and very energetic simply because of his campiness.
* NoIndoorVoice: Quite loud at the best of times, but whenever he and Otis are discussing anything private or sensitive he can get overexcited and shout about it at the top of his longs.
* RedOniBlueOni: The vivacious, extroverted Red to Otis's shyer, more low-key Blue.
* ShipperOnDeck: A strong proponent of Otis and Maeve getting together.
-->'''Otis''': I... had a sex dream. About Maeve.
--> '''Eric''': THAT'S BRILLIANT! ''(entire auditorium goes quiet and stares)''
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Enjoys wearing make-up and feminine clothing, though at the beginning he only does this in private. He eventually is encouraged to be more open with it, when he starts sharing it with other people like Lily and eventually makes his a part of his regular wardrobe.
* WrongGuyFirst: [[spoiler:Gets his first boyfriend, Rahim, in season 2. Though Rahim is lovely, caring and open about his sexuality (all the things that Adam is not) and Eric does have genuine feelings for him, ultimately they don't have enough in common with one another. In the season 2 finale, Eric leaves Rahim for Adam. Right in front of Rahim and the ''entire'' rest of the school.]]

[[folder: Maeve Wiley]]
!!Maeve Wiley
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_maeve.jpg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Emma Mackey

A social outcast at Moordale Secondary with a reputation for being [[ReallyGetsAround a slag]] and bad girl. In actuality, Maeve is a whip-smart girl who befriends Otis and has the idea to start a secret sexual therapy clinic.

* AffectionateNickname: Her brother and mother both call her "Froggy" or "Frogface", which is clearly an endearing family pet name from Maeve's childhood. Maeve isn't too fond of it, though, especially when her mother first appears.
* AnimalMotif: An odd one with Frogs. Both her brother and mother call her "Froggy" and "Frogface" as an AffectionateNickname, and growing up, it's shown local boys used to call her "Kermit" when sexually harassing her.
* BirthdayHater: She claims she hates her birthdays, which has lots to do with her bad luck in the family department, her sad childhood and tough life as a teen. She however looks fairly pleased when Aimee brings her homemade cake or when Otis wishes her "happy birthday".
* BittersweetSeventeen: She's one of the only characters who's seventeen as opposed to sixteen, and life doesn't appear to be going well for her at the moment.
* ButWeUsedACondom: [[spoiler:Maeve and Jackson had sex and used a condom as protection, but Maeve becomes pregnant. She doesn't spend any time agonizing over it, simply getting an abortion. She never even tells the father.]]
* CallingParentsByTheirName: [[spoiler: When her mother comes back]], she exclusively refers to her as "Erin". Her mother doesn't like it.
* DeadpanSnarker: Throws around withering remarks at the rest of the student body, especially the Untouchables.
* DefrostingIceQueen: In general has a guarded personality, but shows her nicer side with her friends - notably Aimee, Otis and Jackson (and also Eric to an extent). Maeve tends to put up emotional walls and usually doesn't let people get too close to her.
* DelinquentHair: In the first season, she has dyed blond hair with pink shades and dark roots. Combined with her punk clothes, earrings and a ring in her nose, she looks rather tough and intimidating.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Her BerserkButton is others taking pity on her. This comes to a head when she finds out Aimee paid her fees for the school trip to France, and leads to their first serious argument in the show.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Called "Cock-Biter" around school, due to a rumor that was spread about her giving a classmate oral sex and accidentally biting his penis. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a lie - what ''actually'' happened was that a guy tried to kiss her but she refused. Angry, he made up the "cock-biter" story as vengeance.]]
* EmoTeen: Dresses in a stereotypical emo fashion and listens to punk rock. That being said, she ''does'' have a pretty good reason for being gloomy.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Early in season 2, she dyes her hair. She goes from platinum blonde with pink tones and dark roots to dark brown hair. She dyes her hair shortly after her mother notes she sported similar hair when she was Maeve's age.
* FreudianExcuse: After a long series of personal abandonments, she started cutting off personal ties out of fear of being let down again.
* FriendsWithBenefits: She is this with [[spoiler: Jackson]], at least until [[spoiler: he starts wanting a proper relationship with her.]] [[spoiler: They date in the second half of season one, only to break it off over a disagreement in episode eight.]]
* GoodBadGirl: Under the punk rebel aesthetic and stony exterior, Maeve is emotionally insightful, nice and does remarkably well in her studies.
* GoodIsNotSoft: She's a good person, but she often tends to hide it under a tough demeanor.
* GuileHero: She blackmails her headmaster into letting her come back to school and has no issue threatening people into doing what needs to be done.
* HiddenDepths: Is academically gifted, which she struggles with being more open about, and reads feminist and philosophical literature.
* HighSchoolHustler: She used to accept commissions to do people's homework. And then in the first episode she gets the idea to do back-alley sex therapy. Deconstructed, as it's not just pathological anti-authoritarianism; she's an emancipated minor who lives in poverty, and needs the money.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's generally cold and aloof, but has far more empathy towards women than most of her peers, as seen by her helping Ruby despite the latter never being anything less than awful to her.
* LowerClassLout: Appears to consider herself this in the first season, at least in comparison to [[spoiler: her clean-cut boyfriend Jackson.]] She gets over it.
* MaliciousSlander: Her reputation as the school slag and her nickname of "Cock-biter" originated [[spoiler:when she was 14, a classmate tried to kiss her and she declined. To cover, he invented the cock-biting story whole cloth.]]
* MeaningfulName: In the Irish epic ''Literature/TheCattleRaidOfCooley'', Queen Medbh (same pronunciation) is a powerful queen with a reputation as a man-eater, who insisted on having wealth equal to her husband's. More mundanely, "Wiley" hints at Maeve's intelligence and her willingness to play outside the rules.
* MiseryPoker: When Otis complains about the overbearing nature of his mother, Maeve one-ups him by revealing that hers is an addict. That being said, she doesn't seem to have meant it maliciously, as she quickly smiles and tells him not to apologize.
* NiceGirl: Underneath her cold and aloof exterior, she's a pretty sweet young woman. Lampshaded by Otis.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Usually very scornful of soppiness and excessive sentimentality. But she also falls for Jackson after he makes a very public grand romantic gesture towards her. When Eric accidentally garners attention during an assembly and tries to play it off by giving a small lecture on how menstruation is normal and it's "good to have a nice cleanout", Maeve is noticeably biting down on her lip to keep from cracking up at his antics.
* NotSoStoic: Her "screw you all" persona slips several times in the series. Otis hypothesizes that she puts the whole thing on as an act to stop getting close to people [[spoiler: and gets a firsthand demonstration when he drunkenly shares his hypothesis with about a hundred people, reducing Maeve to tears]].
* OddFriendship: Her and Aimee classify as this. They are basically polar opposites of each other but it doesn't stop them from becoming best friends.
* ParentalAbandonment: Maeve's home life is extremely lonely. It is eventually revealed that [[spoiler: her MissingMom is a drug addict, her father is dead, and her brother -- labeled "Idiot Brother" in her phone -- is a criminal with no time to spare for her.]] She has serious abandonment issues as a result.
* PetTheDog: Her scenes with her little sister are nothing short of adorable, considering Maeve barely knew of her existence and wanted nothing to do with her in the beggining but steadily grows to love her and want the best for her.
* ReallyGetsAround: Maeve has a reputation for sleeping with just about anything with a penis. [[spoiler:This is definitively proven untrue. During her abortion, she only lists one current sexual partner (Jackson -- the one who got her pregnant), and is not shown to have any others over the course of the season.]]
* RebelliousSpirit: Though most of the rumors about her are greatly exaggerated, she's still pretty defiant in reality.
* RiotGrrrl: A fan of classic feminist literature and punk rock.
* SmarterThanYouLook: She's quite adept when it comes to schoolwork, a far cry from her troublemaking reputation.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: When Maeve looks over a photo of her toddler self with family, we notice that she looks a ''lot'' like her young mother.
* TrashyTrailerHome: Maeve is [[MinorLivingAlone a teenager who lives alone in a caravan park]], the UK equivalent, which is indicative of her horrible family life: she has a brother and a mother, but neither are there for her regularly. She's ostracized by much of the school and seen as promiscuous trailer trash.
* TryingNotToCry: Heartbreakingly, she tries to stay tough during her [[spoiler: abortion]]. And later when Otis verbally trashes her at his drunken party in the second season.
* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: With Otis throughout the show, with them both taking it in-turns to pine over the other, only to then decide to move on with someone else. A similar and obviously non-romantic dynamic happens with her mother, who spends much of season 2 desperate for Maeve to forgive her and welcome her back into her life, only for, when Maeve begins to trust her again, she discovers Erin is taking heroin again and calls the police. After she tries desperately to rebuild a relationship, but Erin refuses to forgive her.

[[folder: Jean Milburn]]
!!Dr. Jean Milburn
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jean_milburn.png]]
--> '''Played by:''' Creator/GillianAnderson

Otis's mother and renowned sex and relationship therapist.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Otis is deeply ashamed of his mother's profession and petrified of anyone finding out about it, and Jean is a lot more open-minded about sex than Otis would prefer her to be.
* AmicableExes: Subverted. She and her ex-husband can have conversations with each other rather easily, but once those are over Jean tends to explode into {{Cluster F Bomb}}s.
* ButWeUsedACondom : [[spoiler: She's revealed to be pregnant at the end of season 2, even though Jakob had a vasectomy (and she's pre-menopausal). ]]
* CoolOldLady: She's not ''that'' old, but she's a savvy middle-aged woman who Otis's teenage classmates occasionally experience attraction to.
* EveryoneHasStandards: As much as she tries to be supportive of anything Otis does regarding sex, she is understandably quite squicked when she catches him masturbating in the car, in public. Though she later tries to focus purely on the logistics, that the car is a shared space and that exposing yourself in public is a crime, at-the-time she was visibly grossed out to see his semen ejaculated onto the window.
* LadykillerInLove: Gender-inverted. After a long string of one-night stands, she realizes that she's fallen for Jakob, who makes it clear he's only interested in having a committed relationship.
* MyBelovedSmother: The main source of conflict between her and Otis. Jean has trouble respecting Otis's boundaries both by invading his room on a regular basis and constantly prying and getting him to discuss his sexual problems when he's clearly uncomfortable about it.
* OpenMindedParent: Has no problem with letting Otis drink, do drugs or have sex, just as long as he remembers to buddy up (for the former two) and offers him condoms before leaving for a party.
* ParentsAsPeople: Jean tries to be a good mother to Otis, and struggles in creating a balance between wanting to help him and giving him space to grow up and let him deal with issues on his own. She also hides a lot of loneliness and fear of being left out of her son's life.
* ReallyGetsAround: As could be expected from a sexually-open attractive single woman, Jean has a series of one-night stands, which embarrasses her son.
* TheShrink: An interesting combination of the Awesome and Ineffective Shrink. There's no doubt she's talented in her vocation; she unknowingly gives Otis helpful advice and he channels her when counselling his own clients. But Jean also blurs the boundary between treating Otis as a patient (and later [[spoiler: the unwitting subject of her new book]]) rather than as her son by prodding him to open up and discuss his problems even when he's unwilling.
* SingleMomStripper: Is perceived as such by Adam, who thinks she's a prostitute at first.
* StacysMom: Definitely has this vibe going on. Jean attracts quite a few younger men throughout the show. Adam, her son's classmate, points out that she's like a "sexy witch".
* TheStoic: In both her personal and professional life, Jean tries to keep herself emotionally distant and not let her feelings get the better of her. Though, this being a comedy there are moments when she's NotSoStoic (see Jean cursing her ex-husband when he sends numerous copies of his new book to spite her and getting stuck in a driveway after following Otis to a party).

[[folder: Adam Groff]]
!!Adam Groff
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_adam.jpg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Connor Swindells

A known bully, slacker and stoner, as well as the headmaster's son.

* [[ArmouredClosetGay Armoured Closet Bisexual]]: [[spoiler: He frequently bullies and harasses Eric for being gay, even calling him a "fag" in one episode, but is later revealed to have feelings for Eric himself]].
* BiggerIsBetterInBed: The rumor is that Adam's penis is the size of two Coke cans stacked together (length and width). It is one of the major reasons he has trouble climaxing during sex, because the pressure of this reputation causes him to fret and second-guess himself. He ends up [[spoiler: flashing the rest of the student body to put to rest the rumors about its size, exclaiming it is only actually above average in terms of national statistics]].
* BoomerangBigot: [[spoiler: Calls Eric homophobic slurs and pokes fun of his open homosexuality, despite being a closet bisexual himself. Overlaps with YouAreWhatYouHate]].
* BookDumb: He doesn't do well in school.
* TheBully: Picks on numerous characters, especially Otis and Eric. He has a particular animosity with Eric and even vandalizes Eric's father's car with dog shit when Eric inadvertently causes Adam to lose his dog.
* ButtMonkey: Nothing goes Adam's way, and if there's someone who's going to be the victim of physical comedy it's usually him. To be fair, a lot of this is self-inflicted due to his own recklessness and flagrant stupidity.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Appears to be aware of how much of a bad person his father is. [[spoiler: A shocking example comes in episode seven, wherein he grabs Mr. Groff by the throat and screams about how much he hates him.]]
* CharacterDevelopment: [[spoiler: Season 2 is a big one for him. He drops his bullying ways with everyone, he faces the fact that he is bisexual and he hates himself, also accepting he is in love with Eric, asking forgiveness from him for all the pain he caused him and publicly announcing that he is in love with him. He also develops a friendship with Ola which helps him improve as a person, which indirectly helps the girls bond.]]
* HiddenDepths: Cares deeply both for Aimee and his mom's dog Madam. Dog care is something he's pretty good at. He manages to train his manager's otherwise untrainable dog while working at a convenience store. He also struggles with his reputation being the headmaster's son who is shitty at school.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: More like a heart of rusted bronze, buried very, ''very'' deep down. He's most certainly an arsehole with redeeming moments that a sprinkled very few and far between. [[spoiler: This heart is shown more and grows in season 2, where he really starts growing and improving as a person. He makes serious efforts to improve himself and make amends with those he has hurt, particularly Eric.]]
* LovingBully: [[spoiler:After bullying Eric throughout season 1, they end up hooking up. Season 2 shows that he genuinely has deep feelings for Eric, and they become a couple by the last episode of the season.]]
* PerformanceAnxiety: Has difficulty ejaculating when having sex with Aimee. This is caused by his fear of not living up to his reputation as the headmaster's son and worry he's not a good enough boyfriend for Aimee. This dysfunction ends up making him the first patient of Maeve and Otis's secret sex therapy clinic.
* OddFriendship: With Otis's mum. They share a joint in one scene and later when Jean shows up at Aimee's party looking for Otis they have an in-depth conversation about Adam's love life.
* PetTheDog: Literally; one of his few redeeming points is his affection towards his family dog Madam.
* TheSlacker: Doesn't do well in school, and pays Maeve to write his papers.
* TheStoner: Often seen smoking a joint.
* TroubledAbuser: His bullying of Eric in the first season is framed as this, as there was a lot of reasons behind it. He himself was horribly bullied by his father, he has horrible self-esteem issues that results in explosive bouts of anger, he has trouble communicating, which he's greatly frustrated by and it often causes him to become aggressive, and more directly, he's a closeted bisexual man with a crush on Eric, which he's trying very hard to repress. This is Deconstructed as while he has sympathetic reasons for being the way he is, Otis believes FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and calls Eric out on dating him, and is nothing but critical of the relationship when Eric pursues it.
* TheUnfavourite: His father doesn't make any secret of the fact that he's a disappointment, and is openly warmer and more paternal with his star pupil Jackson, a golden boy athlete. He also directly asks Adam to his face why he isn't more like his hard-working sister.
* WellDoneSonGuy: It's understated, but he wants his father's approval. But due to his father's extremely exacting standards and Adam's own limitations, that's not about to happen anytime soon.

[[folder: Jackson Marchetti]]
!!Jackson Marchetti
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_jackson.jpg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Kedar Williams-Stirling

Moordale Secondary's Head Boy and the swim team's star athlete. He is secretly having sex with Maeve at the beginning of the series.

* TheAce: He's beloved, he's capable, he's friendly and above bullying others and although his reading feminist authors starts as a ploy to get closer to Maeve, he actually becomes interested in them.
* BecomingTheMask: He starts out reading feminist authors to become more attractive to Maeve, but then finds he really likes them.
* BigManOnCampus: He's the handsome, popular star athlete of Moordale. His introduction as Head Boy is met with cheers.
* BookDumb: While his academic performances are not touched upon, he is significantly less cultured than Maeve, part of his scheme to woo her (inadvertently suggested by Otis) is to catch up on her favorite authors.
* BrokenAce: Later episodes reveal some shards of this. His parents are close to divorcing, he feels enormous pressure by the school and one of his moms to succeed and he's just a little too eager to be corrupted by Maeve's brother.[[spoiler: And then of course there’s what he does to his own hand in season 2.]]
* ClassRepresentative: He's the Head Boy, and at first appears to be quite a stereotypical one.
* DramaClub: In season two, he [[spoiler: plays Romeo in a sexually-themed production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' at school]].
* HasTwoMommies: Raised by two lesbian parents. Surprisingly, the show doesn't make that big of a deal out of it. Though one season 2 episode shows his non-bio mom is devastated when he calls her "non my real mom" in anger, for which Jackson later profoundly apologizes.
* HiddenDepths:
** As a competitive swimmer in training, he is under a lot of pressure from one of his moms and his trainer. In reality, he resents the intensity of his training and wishes he could have fun like a regular teenager.
** His attempts to woo Maeve result in developing some additional ones on-top; while implied to be a LadykillerInLove, he quickly finds himself engrossed in the feminist reading he initially takes in just to impress Maeve and it seems to rub off on him, to the point he's the first male to stand up during the "that's my vagina" IAmSpartacus moment.
** In Season 2, he attempts to get into drama so that he has something in his life other than swimming. Unfortunately, nobody's very understanding of his reasons for doing so, putting more pressure on him. However, people are genuinely surprised that his acting and delivery of Shakespeare's line is decent.
* IfItsYouItsOK: He's a straight cis-male, but he finds himself being incredibly attracted to the non-binary Cal. Deconstructed though, as he's still wired to think of romance and sexuality in a cis-het manner, which unfortunately makes things a non-starter with Cal who feels Jackson still views them as a "her". Jackson for his credit tries to be open-minded, scolds himself for making using gendered compliments, and is mostly OK with the idea of being in a queer relationship even if that's not how he identifies.
* LovableJock: Moordale's premier swimming champion, and is very affable despite being at the top of the popularity food chain.
* NiceGuy: He is nothing but friendly to everyone he interacts with. Even after [[spoiler: breaking up with Maeve, he still goes out of his way to help her stay in school by threatening to quit the swim team if she is expelled]]. He's however shown to have some aura of the popular kid who doesn't see the less popular crowd, but he becomes a genuine friend to Viv, a super smart girl who tutors Jackson and is a member of the quiz team.
* SchoolIdol: Seems widely liked. Headmaster Groff clearly likes him much better than his own son.
* SelfHarm: [[spoiler: In Season 2, he finally snaps from the pressure and deliberately smashes his hand with weights to get away from his athletic responsibilities for a while. Viv and his parents intervene before it progresses into a full-blown habit]].
* StepfordSmiler: Privately, he suffers from severe anxiety issues. He has panic attacks and is worried his parents will get a divorce (he believes his athletic career is one of the only things keeping them together).

!Moordale Secondary School
!!Students

[[folder: Aimee Gibbs]]
!! Aimee Gibbs
[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b258be3f_ff2c_41c2_a84e_b4f437afbb8d.jpeg]]
--> '''Played by:''' Aimee Lou Wood

A member of the Untouchables, the most popular clique in school, and secretly friends with Maeve.

* BrainlessBeauty: A sweet girl, but not the brightest.
* BreakTheCutie: In the second season, she's [[spoiler: sexually assaulted on the bus by a stranger. Despite initially waving it off as just a ruined pair of jeans, she soon finds herself unable to use the bus or have sex without panicking]].
* BrokenBird: She loses a lot of her idealism after [[spoiler: being sexually assaulted by a stranger]] in season two.
* CloudCuckooLander: She's an odd girl, to put it mildly. She doesn't seem to have a filter so she'll constantly over-share, she tends to forget to look forward when driving, she becomes fascinated by the oddest things, and upon discovering there are "different types of vulvas", she becomes inspired to make "vulva cupcakes".
* TheCutie: She's sweet, bubbly, and absolutely adorable. Even Maeve - who appears to be disdainful of The Untouchables at best - has a soft spot for her. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, this turns into BreakTheCutie in season two, when she is sexually assaulted on the bus.]]
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Like Otis, her masturbation habits (or lack thereof) become revelant to her arc. After years of prioritizing the pleasure of her boyfriends, Otis suggests she have a wank to figure out what she likes. She ends up loving it.
* DudeMagnet: She's beautiful, popular and has dated three objectively good-looking guys over the course of the series.
%% * DumbBlonde
* ExtremeDoormat: A people-pleaser and tends to let others push her around, especially boyfriends and rest of the Untouchables. This becomes a problem in the bedroom with one of her boyfriends is put off by her faking enjoyment and her inability to put her own sexual needs above his.
** Comes up again in Season 3, when Maeve angrily accuses her of being such a people-pleaser that she won’t break up with Steve even though she doesn’t have feelings for him any more. [[spoiler:During her therapy sessions with Jean, Aimee even wonders if her smiling at the man on the bus is what led to her assault, which Jean immediately shuts down.]]
* {{Gasshole}}: She farts when she's scared.
* GoodBadGirl: She's a sweet and innocent girl with a highly active sex life.
* GrewASpine: By the end of the first season, she chooses Maeve over her popular "friends".
* HairofGoldHeartofGold: Aside from having long, blonde and wavy hair, she’s one of the sweetest and bubbly characters in the show.
* HatesBeingAlone: And as such she's gotten too used to going along with other people, without developing real desires of her own.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Despite being one of the most popular girls in school, she is nothing but kind to nearly everyone she interacts with.
* MeaningfulName: Aimee (from the French meaning "to love") is a kind-hearted, sweet girl.
* NiceGirl: Significantly kinder than the rest of the Untouchables. She's from a wealthy family, but she's kind, and a loyal friend to Maeve.
* OddFriendship: A somewhat dim, pretty, popular girl who is good friends with Maeve, a tough, sarcastic, studious social outcast.
* ReallyGetsAround: She hasn't been without a boyfriend for more than a few days since... ever.
* SpoiledSweet: A wealthy and socially active girl who is nonetheless very kind and considerate. At worst, she's not very understanding about Adam [[spoiler: flashing everyone at lunch]], though to be fair, who would be?
** PlayedForDrama in Season 3. Aimee has her mum pay for Maeve to go on the school trip to France, which rankles her as she hates depending on others or receiving pity. This conflict escalates into their first proper argument in the show.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: After failing to attract Steve's interest with flattery, they bond over their love of making mind maps.

[[folder: Lily]]
!!Lily Iglehart
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se_lily.png]]
-->'''Played By:''' Tanya Reynolds

Student at Moordale who enjoys writing and drawing erotic manga and is fixated on her virginity.

* AmbiguouslyBi: While Lily spends most of season 1 looking to lose her virginity to a boy, in season 2 [[spoiler: Ola kisses her and while at first she isn't certain if she even wants to remain friends, she eventually decides to be more than friends.]]
* CasualKink: Her interests in sci-fi and aliens is more than simply being into geeky stuff, it's a personal fetish for her. This has gotten her ridiculed her entire life, since as a child her overly-keen interest in alien sex organs (while being too young to realise this was inappropriate talk) lead to her weirding out other kids, and when she shares her fictional stories publicly, she's lambasted as a sexual deviant by the press and mocked by other students for "wanting to bang aliens".
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Lily has a very weird energy about her, especially talking about sex and her BrutalHonesty comes out during very inappropriate moments.
* CreepyLonerGirl: She comes across as this at first - randomly asking boys she's never talked to for sex and [[spoiler: flashing her breasts during an entirely platonic conversation with Eric]]. But her character becomes more nuanced later on.
* DoYouWantToCopulate: Said to [[spoiler: Otis, Eric, and [=OctoBoy=]]]. Stems from her early-season desire to lose her virginity and her utilitarian view of sex.
* DramaClub: She writes the songs for Moordale's musical production of ''Romeo and Juliet''.
* EthicalSlut: An eccentric but very sweet kid who happens to be extremely horny and has a hobbyist's interest in sex through her manga.
* ExoticEquipment: She writes an erotic comic strip about a woman on a quest for (as Lily puts it) "alien dick", and the body parts it features most often aren't human.
* IdealizedSex: She writes fictional sex stories, but [[spoiler: when the time comes with [=OctoBoy=], she isn't able or ready to have sex.]]
* InterspeciesRomance: The porn she writes about women and aliens.
* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: In a quite sweet example, [[spoiler: she and Octoboy attempt to have sex in a blanket fort complete with fairy lights]].
* MarsNeedsWomen: DiscussedTrope, this is her preferred form of porn. She has a huge fetish for aliens.
* NoSocialSkills: Extremely forward when interacting with people. The fact that Otis, who's otherwise much more socially capable, is uncomfortable enough with intimacy to make even Lily roll her eyes, is used to underscore how hopeless he is.
* TeenGenius: She wrote a musical at sixteen or seventeen, which certainly accounts for something. The erotic comics she creates are also ''very'' well drawn, to the point she could probably do it professionally.

[[folder: Ola]]
!!Ola Nyman

-->'''Played By:''' Patricia Allison
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ola_nyman_season_1_portrait_8.jpg]]
Jakob's daughter, who strikes up a relationship with Otis that is further kindled when she transfers to Moordale.

* BettyAndVeronica: The Betty to Maeve's Veronica and Otis' Archie.
* BoyishShortHair: She has her hair cut short and a fairly masculine, straight-forward personality.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Nice as she is, she gets very uncomfortable with Otis' obvious attraction to Maeve and asks him to sever ties with her.
* DaddysGirl: She's pretty close to her father, despite their occasional bouts of arguing.
* FireForgedFriends: After a not-at-all-promising start, she and Maeve develop something of a friendship.
* GirlNextDoor: She's a sweet, approachable girl who already spends ''a lot'' of time with Otis due to her father's job.
* NewTransferStudent: Transfers to Moordale towards the end of season one.
* NiceGirl: Her reaction to catching Otis in a number of compromising situations (watching porn, shoplifting) is to laugh it off and hint that she'd be cool going out with him.
* NotBloodSiblings: In season 3, Jakob and Jean's relationship and decision to co-parent means that Ola and Otis are now, essentially, siblings. The fact they used to date makes it ''very'' awkward.
* OddFriendship: Bonds with Lily, who definitely qualifies as odd. [[spoiler: Eventually realizes she wants more than friendship with her]]. Also becomes the first person to call Adam a friend.
* QuirkyGirlQuirkyTux: Wears a tux or suit for formal occasions, never a dress.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: An inversion, played briefly for laughs upon her introduction. She looks and sounds absolutely nothing like her father.
* TheirFirstTime: [[spoiler: She and Otis had their first time heavily planned out, but it comes to a crashing halt when she finds he's getting secret texts from Maeve.]]

[[folder:The Untouchables]]
!!Anwar, Ruby, and Olivia
[[quoteright:278:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81464b22_2b05_4a00_b96e_8fe303340da3.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:278:Left: Ruby; middle: Olivia; right: Anwar]]
-->'''Played By:''' Chaneil Kular (Anwar), Mimi Keene (Ruby), and Simone Ashley (Olivia)

The other members of the Untouchables, the most popular kids at Moordale.

* AlphaBitch: Ruby is the clear leader of the pack and by far the meanest, though this doesn't mean there is no dissent in the ranks, as seen below.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachother:[[spoiler:In season 3, they have an unusual moment of friendship; Anwar and Olivia comfort Ruby when she and Otis break up.]]
* BackstabbingTheAlphaBitch: [[spoiler:Olivia leaks Ruby's nudes]] in revenge for the latter's harsh treatment.
* CampGay: Downplayed with Anwar. He's very fashionable but otherwise has no real campy traits.
* CarloadOfCoolKids: Eric is impressed in the very first episode that they got a car and got even more cool over the summer. In season two - when [[spoiler: Aimee has denounced their friendship]] - they yell insults at her from their car.
* TheDogBitesBack: Olivia cites Ruby's bitchy treatment of her as the reason for [[spoiler:leaking a photo of her vagina and threatening to reveal her identity]].
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Anwar may be a jerk, but he at least stands up to Adam's homophobic bullying of Eric.
** When Adams snaps at his father during the school dance and grabs him by the neck saying how much he hates him, Anwar, Olivia and Ruby are among the students who are silently shocked.
** Olivia is empathetic when Aimee breaks down over her sexual assault, and later rides the bus with her in solidarity, despite having previously only been rude and unpleasant towards her former friend
** They all take part in the plan to take down Hope, even sharing some of their own embarrassing sex stuff. Notably, during the ritual humiliation assembly, they're just as silent as everyone else is when Adam, Cal, and Lily are degraded.
* GirlPosse: A clique of popular, fashionable jerks with one gay man (Anwar) thrown in.
* GiveGeeksAChance: Variation; Ruby admits that she goes after nerdy guys when she feels down. This accounts for Warhammer Tom [[spoiler: and eventually Otis]].
* GossipyHens: To the point where they formed an entire study group just to smoke weed and talk bad about people.
* GranolaGirl: They appear to be ''very'' steadfast in their vegan beliefs, though they do seem confused as to what veganism actually entails.
* HiddenDepths: By the end of Season 1, all of them have revealed some kind of vulnerable sexual hang-up that Otis helps them with. Taken further in season 2. While not to the extent of ADayInTheLimelight, each of them get a bit of focus and development; Olivia [[spoiler:has a lot of issues with her body and being herself in front of her boyfriend, as well as revealing a past sexual assault that deeply affected her]], Anwar [[spoiler:reveals that he is a virgin who doesn't have the first clue about how to have anal sex, which gives him a lot of insecurities with his boyfriend]] and Ruby [[spoiler:has recently found out her father has MS, putting huge stress on her entire family. She also takes Otis' virginity and bonds with him afterwards]].
* IncompatibleOrientation: In season 2, Ruby gets one look at Rahim and decides immediately that he ''will'' be her boyfriend. She continues her attempts to seduce him even after he starts a relationship with another male student, even flirting with him while he and [[spoiler:Eric]] are standing in front of her, literally arm-in-arm.
* PetTheDog: Anwar in episode 6, after making a mean comment that sets off Eric when he was at the end of his rope, gets punched in the face. Rather than take offence at the assault, he recognises that Eric was having a bad day and he was just unfortunate enough to be the straw that broke the camels back with him. He accepts his apology and encourages him not to take it personally if he sees Anwar's mom giving him death glares around town (as Anwar used the assault to come out to his mom and claimed Eric was a homophobic gay-basher).
* WithFriendsLikeThese: Towards Aimee. They constantly take advantage of her, using her house to throw parties and smoke weed in, and even use her mother's credit card to buy pizza.

[[folder:Rahim]]
!!Rahim
-->'''Played by:''' Sami Outalbali

A French exchange student who sets his sights on Eric.

* ForeignExchangeStudent: From France. When he's introduced, the horde of Moordale students trip over themselves to get a look at him, and rumors start flying around instantly.
* HeadTurningBeauty: In his introduction, the whole school stops and stares as he walks down the hallway. Even the clique at top of the popularity food chain "The Untouchables" are impressed with him and Ruby decides he will be her boyfriend. Lily says she just had a very small orgasm just from looking at him. Eric stares, calls Otis to have a look and then calls him the hottest man he's ever seen.
* HiddenDepths: Though presented as the quiet though very hot exchange student, he's incredibly observant and well-read, and even somewhat politically minded, as he notes Moordale's slow turn to fascism under Hope's leadership.
* NiceGuy: Very much so -- Rahim is self-assured, straightforward, and a little socially awkward, but he takes Eric's eccentricities in stride, is understanding about his religion, and gives Otis a lecture about douching with a straight face.
* InformedAttractiveness: Considered very hot and hunky in-universe.
* RomanticFalseLead: [[spoiler:For Eric. Although Rahim is handsome and sweet, he doesn't make Eric feel the way Adam does.]]
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Same-sex couple example, but he was the Savvy Guy to Eric's Energetic Guy; other than Eric's gender, they play the trope to the letter.
* StraightGay: Unlike Eric, he's not outwardly camp, but is rather straightforward and serious.
* TheStoic: He expresses very little facially, and has something of a resting scowl. It seems to make him even more attractive to people.

[[folder:Viv]]
!!Vivienne 'Viv' Odesanya
-->'''Played by:''' Chinenye Ezeudu

One of Moordale's best students.
----
* CannotSpitItOut: Has a crush on a fellow Quiz Head but turns into a babbling idiot whenever she tries to talk to him. Jackson decides to help her out; [[spoiler: she's grateful but eventually realizes her crush is a bit of a bore and cuts ties]].
* TheCorruptible: She has a lot of immediate affection/hero worship for Hope, the new headteacher in season 3, so much so she jumps at the chance to side with her against her peers.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Though she jumps to follow Hope's hoops, she draws the line at outright ratting on people, and tries to find a balance between the draconic policies and finding a way to make them accommodating for Cal and other queer students. Also, while she might not take too much issue with Hope's indirectly anti-LGBTQ+ policies (which, to Viv's credit, it's plausible to assume she believed Hope was merely not taking queer issues into consideration rather than being outright unsympathetic), when Hope privately admits to some racist views, it's enough to break the pedestal. It's firmly broken when she then outright admits how much she outright detests the "identity politics" of the current generation.
* ExtracurricularEnthusiast: She's planned her life around her academics and extracurriculars to get ahead in life.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: She's the smartest kid in her grade, but doesn't have friends and has trouble getting a date.
* KickTheDog: She already heard Cal's pronouns are They / Them, which makes Viv's decision to accost them over wearing the "wrong" uniform (Cal wore the more gender-neutral boy's uniform), and aggressively demand they put on the girl's uniform, humiliating them.
* LesCollaborateurs: When the new headteacher asks her to be the new Head Girl, relieving Jackson of his duty, she immediately says yes because it'd be good for her academic career.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: What makes her ultimately betray Hope is when Hope, casually, admits that Viv's only real use to Hope as Head Girl is that her ethnicity makes her a good TokenMinority to show investors.
* NerdyBully: She's a bit hostile towards Maeve when she joins the Quiz Heads, and a bit disparaging of Jackson's reliance on his athletic accomplishments. At first.
* NotSoStoic: The first crack in her uptight facade comes when her crush walks past and she immediately turns flighty and giggly, to Jackson's extreme amusement.
* OddFriendship: With Jackson. What starts as a forced peer tutoring relationship between a lonely nerd and the BigManOnCampus becomes a genuine friendship.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: What leads to her betraying Jackson; she really wants to excel in school, to the point she's willing to take Jackson's place as Head Boy.
* ScheduleFanatic: Has her life meticulously planned out to optimize her chances of getting into a good school.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Her loyalty to Hope finally ends after Moordale introduces ritual humiliation, and she allies with Jackson and Cal in their plan to take back control of the school.
* TheSpock: She is accused of being unemotional and prone to rattling off statistics about the situation at hand.
* TrueCompanions:
** She's good enough friends with Jackson to [[spoiler: help him with his self-harm habit, even doing the right thing by alerting his parents knowing he might never forgive her for it.]]
** She also bonds with Maeve, Aimee, Ola, Olivia, and Lily while in detention together, over shared experiences of sexual assault or harassment.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cal]]
!!Cal Bowman
--> '''Played By:''' Dua Saleh

A non-binary student introduced in Season 3, who becomes Jackson's new maybe Love Interest.
----
* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: At first, until they clarify they identify as They / Them. Despite their identification, it seems others are confused/dismissive, as Hope and Viv both insist on treating them as simply a tomboyish girl.
* ArchEnemy: Hope Haddon. Of all the students, Cal is the most open about how much they ''hate'' Hope, and Hope in turn makes it clear Cal is the one they dislike the most. Cal is non-binary and Hope's new policies directly harms them more than any other student, and Hope finds Cal's repeated urgence of these matters to be increasingly annoying, especially Cal's refusal to simply bend to her rules. [[spoiler:When Hope is finally fired, Cal ''cheers''.]]
* ForeignExchangeStudent: They're from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
* ShowerShy: Well, changing room shy. Because they're non-binary, they don't like being in public changing rooms, especially as Moordale only has binary changing rooms for girls and boys. Destroying the abandoned toilets is devastating for them, as it destroys the only place they were safe changing in.
* TheSlacker: They tick off most of the boxes: skateboards everywhere, wears baggy oversized clothes, frequently clashes with Hope, and gets high off weed and mushrooms on the France trip with Jackson. That said, some of these behaviours are justified: They wear baggy clothes because wearing otherwise makes them feel uncomfortable with their body, and they clash with Hope because she keeps using her position to undermine their gender identity.
* TheStoner: Not as much as Kyle, but they'll smoke a joint and take some mushrooms for fun.
[[/folder]]

!!Teachers and Staff

[[folder: Jean Milburn]]
!!Dr. Jean Milburn
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jean_milburn.png]]
--> '''Played by:''' Creator/GillianAnderson

Otis's mother and renowned sex and relationship therapist.
----
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Otis is deeply ashamed of his mother's profession and petrified of anyone finding out about it, and Jean is a lot more open-minded about sex than Otis would prefer her to be.
* AmicableExes: Subverted. She and her ex-husband can have conversations with each other rather easily, but once those are over Jean tends to explode into {{Cluster F Bomb}}s.
* ButWeUsedACondom : [[spoiler: She's revealed to be pregnant at the end of season 2, even though Jakob had a vasectomy (and she's pre-menopausal). ]]
* CoolOldLady: She's not ''that'' old, but she's a savvy middle-aged woman who Otis's teenage classmates occasionally experience attraction to.
* EveryoneHasStandards: As much as she tries to be supportive of anything Otis does regarding sex, she is understandably quite squicked when she catches him masturbating in the car, in public. Though she later tries to focus purely on the logistics, that the car is a shared space and that exposing yourself in public is a crime, at-the-time she was visibly grossed out to see his semen ejaculated onto the window.
* LadykillerInLove: Gender-inverted. After a long string of one-night stands, she realizes that she's fallen for Jakob, who makes it clear he's only interested in having a committed relationship.
* MyBelovedSmother: The main source of conflict between her and Otis. Jean has trouble respecting Otis's boundaries both by invading his room on a regular basis and constantly prying and getting him to discuss his sexual problems when he's clearly uncomfortable about it.
* OpenMindedParent: Has no problem with letting Otis drink, do drugs or have sex, just as long as he remembers to buddy up (for the former two) and offers him condoms before leaving for a party.
* ParentsAsPeople: Jean tries to be a good mother to Otis, and struggles in creating a balance between wanting to help him and giving him space to grow up and let him deal with issues on his own. She also hides a lot of loneliness and fear of being left out of her son's life.
* ReallyGetsAround: As could be expected from a sexually-open attractive single woman, Jean has a series of one-night stands, which embarrasses her son.
* TheShrink: An interesting combination of the Awesome and Ineffective Shrink. There's no doubt she's talented in her vocation; she unknowingly gives Otis helpful advice and he channels her when counselling his own clients. But Jean also blurs the boundary between treating Otis as a patient (and later [[spoiler: the unwitting subject of her new book]]) rather than as her son by prodding him to open up and discuss his problems even when he's unwilling.
* SingleMomStripper: Is perceived as such by Adam, who thinks she's a prostitute at first.
* StacysMom: Definitely has this vibe going on. Jean attracts quite a few younger men throughout the show. Adam, her son's classmate, points out that she's like a "sexy witch".
* TheStoic: In both her personal and professional life, Jean tries to keep herself emotionally distant and not let her feelings get the better of her. Though, this being a comedy there are moments when she's NotSoStoic (see Jean cursing her ex-husband when he sends numerous copies of his new book to spite her and getting stuck in a driveway after following Otis to a party).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Groff]]
!!Headmaster Michael Groff
--> '''Played by:''' Alistair Petrie

Headmaster of Moordale, and Adam's strict father.
----
* AbusiveParents: His affection for Adam is entirely contingent on his academic performance- so, basically nonexistent. [[spoiler: Comes to a head in Episode 7, when Adam snaps, grabs his father's neck, and screams "I HATE YOU" in public]].
* AlasPoorVillain: After being fired, Season 3 brings pity to Groff by showing just how miserable and humiliating his life is after. It's all his own fault, but still.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: He becomes the closest thing the show has to one in season 2. While he had always been sort of a thorn in the side of Maeve, he goes above and beyond when he prints the diary of Jean and publishes all across the entire school.]]
* TheBully: He is one in general, particularly to his son. Season 3 shows how his older brother Peter and his father bullied him as a child, and how he’s unintentionally carrying that behaviour on.
* DeanBitterman: Crabby and stern, and so concerned about his school's public image that he blatantly plays favorites with students.
* GenerationXerox: Much like his son, Groff has some pretty obvious insecurities and self-loathing, which he takes out on others via bullying, and both have a tendency to cause their own misfortune through completely avoidable mistakes. They even both struggle with intimacy with their partners. Of course, it's entirely ''because'' of Groff's bullying that Adam is the way he is, but it's notable he deals with it the exact same way his father did.
* GRatedDrug: He has a huge stash of chocolate bars in his desk, possibly ones confiscated from students. Sean knows about it and implies it's something Groff doesn't want getting out.
* HiddenDepths: For all his negative qualities, he does have a keen eye for noticing details. [[spoiler: He finds the drugs of Maeve's brother, and he sees Jean's notebook when Otis puts it in there]]. He also [[spoiler: leaves the house when his wife asks him for a divorce, instead of making her leave, and does seem to love her despite all that happened.]]
** Invoked - after admitting he doesn’t know how to feel joy or any emotion, Jean advises him to seek something that brings him pleasure. He takes up cooking and proves to be a very competent chef.
* {{Jerkass}}: An unpleasant person, both as a teacher and parent. Most notable is his treatment of Adam and Maeve, [[spoiler: the latter he assumes is part of a drug ring with her brother Sean and Otis]] and when she is caught it's obvious his mind is made up [[spoiler: in his decision to expel her despite the pleas of Maeve and Mrs. Sands]].
* KickTheDog:
** [[spoiler: Despite showing extreme favoritism towards Jackson and promising him not to expel Maeve if he wins his swimming competition, he responds that he "doesn't take bribes" when Jackson does win and tells him to forget her]].
** [[spoiler: Copying pages from Jean's diary and spreading them around school in an attempt to discredit her]]
** The treatment of his son.
* LargeHam: Some of his monologues fall into this category, particularly when he's lecturing Maeve over [[spoiler: the drug ring he inaccurately presumes that she runs]].
* LaserGuidedKarma: In season 3, he's been fired and the publicity of his mismanagement at Moordale has made him virtually unemployable in education. He's living with his much more successful brother, whose upbeat nature unintentionally makes him feel so ashamed by his own failures he ends up lying about getting a job and finding a new place to live.
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler: Instead of just accepting he was a bad husband and parent, and facing his own fears and insecurities, he blames his failing marriage on Jean's influence. Subverted in Season 3, where he owns up to his flaws and actions in conversation with Maureen and Jean.]]
* ProfessionalButtKisser: Bows and scrapes at any attempt to boost his school's reputation. Picture Basil Fawlty as a school headmaster.
* SexlessMarriage: He hasn't has sex with his wife in years and shuts down any attempt she makes to initiate. She's getting a bit desperate over the whole thing.
* SternTeacher: Principal technically, but is an austere educator nonetheless. This bleeds into his personal life, especially when dealing with his delinquent son Adam.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: After spending all of Season 3 being mocked and ridiculed by his brother, he finally snaps and gives one during a dinner party when Peter insults his cooking.
-->My life is a failure. My wife’s left, I’m quite sure my son hates me, and I’m unemployed. But I’d rather all those things than be a pumped-up shit of a man like you. You’ve been a shit since you were a child, and I think you’ll be a shit until you die, probably because our dad was the biggest shit of all, and you learnt to bully me so he wouldn’t bully you. And that is such a great shame, but I am too old for it to be my problem any more. Goodbye, Peter.
* VillainousBreakdown: Starts cracking throughout season 2 with [[spoiler:his wife leaving him and Jean undermining his authority]], and finally has one [[spoiler:at the end of the season when he goes on a tirade at the school play, humiliating himself in public and being suspended from his job.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Hendricks]]
!!Mr. Colin Hendricks
--> '''Played By:''' Jim Howick

Science teacher and conductor of the swing band at Moordale. Something of a minor mentor figure for Eric.
----

* BourgeoisBohemian: A traumatized and angry Eric accuses him of being this- a wealthy upper middle class geek who thinks he understands swing jazz. In fairness to Hendriks, it seems he actually knows musical theory well, which you can't say for [[DreadfulMusician Eric]].
* ButtMonkey: He is fairly put upon.
** In one episode, he horribly flummoxed by his partner's request for dirty talk; his frantic attempts wind up spoiling the evening.
** He has to teach sex ed even though he knows he's not qualified. This gets him involved, very much to his dismay, in the feud between Jean (who wants to handle that department) and Groff (who refuses to let her).
* CoolTeacher: His attempts at being friendly mostly come across as him trying too hard. However, he does encourage Eric to get out of his comfort zone and is understanding of [[spoiler: Eric's explosive anger following a traumatic experience]], so he is pretty cool in his own way.
* EndearinglyDorky: He's an awkward science teacher and conductor of the swing band with cheerful demeanor which is pretty endearing. He dates Miss Emily Sands who is a very HotTeacher.
* LargeHam: He's a sweet guy, but some of his antics come across as this.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Though he's not always the most clued-in, he's not a bad person and he does seem to genuinely care for Moordale's student body.
* TotallyRadical: He tries to connect with the students by speaking with casual familiarity. It needs some work.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Miss Sands]]
!!Miss Emily Sands
--> '''Played By:''' Rakhee Thrakar

English teacher at Moordale. Something of a mentor figure for Maeve.
----

* CasualKink: [[spoiler: She loves dirty talk. While Hendricks is uncomfortable with it at first, for her it's simply something she happens to like because she feels like a dowdy schoolteacher all day]].
* CoolTeacher: Very supportive of Maeve.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: One of the few that Moordale has to offer, particularly in regards to Maeve.
* SecretKeeper: Figured out about Maeve's fake essay-writing ring, and hasn't told anyone yet because she thinks Maeve getting expelled would be a waste of her talents.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hope Haddon]]
!!Mrs Hope Haddon
--> '''Played By:''' Jemima Kirk

The new Headmaster, replacing Mr Groff in Season 3. She seems cool, but it turns out she has a very controlling and conservative view on education and school culture.
----
* AffablyEvil: She's personable enough that her cruelty isn't clear at first, but she has a very conservative view on what school culture should look like, including rigid binary uniforms, displeasure with any degree of self-expression, and a condescending attitude towards students, and is openly dismissive and unsupportive of queer students, to the point of punishing Cal for being non-binary and using their choice to present masculine in clothing (or, "sloppy") as an excuse to ignore their simple request for gender-neutral spaces.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: She's introduced as a CoolTeacher who dances in an EndearinglyDorky way to introduce herself to the student body, but it becomes clear she's as bad as Mr Groff.
* BrokenAce: Hope comes with an impressive CV - former Head Girl at Moordale, two degrees, teaching positions at the best schools in the country, and becoming the UK’s youngest headteacher at only twenty-eight - but despite her charismatic and ruthless persona, the show makes clear she’s barely holding it together trying to please Moordale’s private investors, while also trying for IVF. The latter is particularly painful for her, as she sees being a mother as “the one thing my body is supposed to do”.
* DeanBitterman: Even moreso then Groff, surprisingly. While Groff was an outdated, bullying arsehole with a classist attitude, Hope is a barely restrained fascist who is so desperate to control the students she begins openly humiliating them as a form of punishment.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When she meets Jackson and Adam for the first time, knowing only Jackson's name and status, she warmly greets Adam, assuming ''he'' is Jackson. While subtle, it shows a degree of racial bias in just assuming that Adam, the white kid, is the Head Boy and star student. This then reflects her socially conservative nature as she soon forces a gender-based uniform and scoffs at LGBTQ+ positivity.
* HeteronormativeCrusader: Essentially, she wants to rid Moordale of the "Sex School" reputation, and she does so primarily by punishing anything even remotely indicating sexual deviancy, but mostly this just affects the queer students. She's not ''openly'' homophobic or queerphobic (nowadays, being so would likely get her fired), but she makes a lot of dog whistle gestures, like criticising Cal's "sloppy" uniform (because Cal, who's non-binary, chooses to wear masculine clothing instead of the "proper" girl's uniform), and using that as an excuse to ignore any basic request for better treatment for LGBTQ+ students. This gets so petty as to telling Ola she can't wear a LGBTQ+ rainbow pin, and dismisses the implications by accusing Ola's beliefs of being "so fragile they rely solely on a pin" rather than acknowledge what the pin represents. [[spoiler:She gets even more explicit in-private with Viv and later Otis, admitting to having some genuinely bitter views on their generation's "obsession with identity" and how they "don't know how to stay in line".]]
* HiddenDepths: Despite being a bigoted asshole, she genuinely encourages Maeve to apply for the Gifted and Talented Program, to the point she offers to try and find funding for her (though she later threatens to rescind her offer when Maeve disagrees with the new sex education course for girls). When she can't, she seems genuinely upset at not being able to help. She's also desperately trying to have a kid, but is unable to conceive, which is contributing to her assholery.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment and how she desperately wants to be a mother. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children. She also demands to speak to a different doctor after her current one (a black woman) refuses to recommend continued treatment for her. Pushes this to new heights when, in another attempt to establish her control, she introduces ritual humiliation at Moordale - forcing misbehaving students to wear signs around their necks and banning them from talking to their classmates.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted; she seems to be this at first, even seemingly approving of Otis and Maeve's sex clinic when she's informed of it, but when Jackson argues in favour of keeping the Wall of Cock because of its artistic and historic value, she fires him as Head Boy and promotes Viv to this role, because her butt-kissing personality and similar views make her more agreeable to Hope.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Ironic considering she was replacing ''another'' tyrant, but Hope manages to be ''even worse'' than Groff.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: She's trying to rebuild Moordale's reputation after the sex scandals from the previous season. However, her method of doing so is to crush any and all personal expression and instil rigid, somewhat outdated school culture. It becomes clear as time goes on, she's got a ''lot'' of pressure from the school board to rid Moordale of it's "Sex School" reputation, but her method of doing so is pretty much the exact opposite of what it needs. As time goes on, it crosses well into something you'd expect a school in a dictatorship to enact.
* YouAreACreditToYourRace:
** Her attitudes towards Jackson and Viv indicate this. She racially profiles Jackson and, upon learning "Head Boy and Star Athlete Jackson Marchetti" is actually a black kid, she goes from warmly welcoming him to dismissing him with a forced smile and being much more critical, until using his dissenting opinion to demote him from the position. Viv, who she promotes in his place, is much more conforming to Hope so she takes advantage of that, but then privately between them acknowledges that she only keeps her around as a TokenMinority gesture to show Moordale is progressive to the press.
** Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop them up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately. It’s also arguably significant that Layla is white, whereas Cal is black
[[/folder]]

!Other Characters
[[folder: Jakob]]
!!Jakob Nyman
-->'''Played By:''' Mikael Persbrandt

A handyman who redoes the Milburns' bathroom. He and Jean develop a mutual attraction for each other.
----
* BilingualBonus: He's got some undubbed lines in Swedish, and most of them are actually quite funny.
* FatalFlaw: Trust. His first wife had an affair, but then immediately got cancer and died slowly, so he never had time to process the betrayal before he had to take care of her and watch her die. Because of it, he has trouble trusting Jean because of her previous, casual approach to dating, and her kissing her ex-husband in a moment of weakness.
* FunnyForeigner: He has a sort of gloomy, philosophical air and vastly different sense of manners that are played for laughs.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: His wife's death affected him deeply, to the point he never had any relationship until Jean appeared. He is also a very wise man, extremely good at reading people (Jean, Jean's ex husband. He also tells Otis that he knows that despite being a bit of an arsehole, he is a good man), and while nice, he will never let anyone push him over, nor be dismissed. He also knows his boundaries and limits.]]
* HotMenAtWork: Downplayed in that he doesn't get overtly fanservicey scenes while fixing the Milburns' plumbing, but she does develop an attraction for him while watching him work.
* OppositesAttract: Deconstructed. Jean and Jakob have precious little in common, coming from very different cultural and class backgrounds, with different temperaments, as well as different views on how to raise kids, how to vote (namely, Jakob doesn't vote), and pretty much everything else. Rather than simply making them an OddCouple, it causes serious tension that brings their relationship to a halt twice, and makes the fact they're [[spoiler:raising a child together]] quite difficult.
* OverprotectiveDad: Subverted.
--> STOP KISSING MY DAUGHTER! ''(smiles)'' Just kidding.
* SexyScandinavian: Jean thinks so.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Seems very foreboding and gloomy at first, but he is a really nice guy and caring parent.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Once he and Jean start an actual relationship, he wastes no time moving in with her and drives her up the wall with his much laxer standards of tidiness.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sean Wiley]]
!! Sean Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Edward Bluemel

Maeve's older brother.
----
* AloofBigBrother: He disappears from Maeve's life for months at a time with no warning, and bear in mind he's the closest thing to her legal guardian.
* ConMan: Spins a story about he and Maeve being orphans in order to solicit donations for Maeve's new prom dress. Maeve isn't comfortable with it.
* PoisonousFriend: He seems cool, but it becomes more and more obvious that he has no intention of stopping his shadier activities like dealing drugs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Erin Wiley]]
!!Erin Wiley
--> '''Played By:''' Anne-Marie Duff

Maeve's mother.
----
* FunctionalAddict: She struggles with drug addiction but has been clean for over a year now. In the past she was implicitly less functional. [[spoiler: And it later turns out she isn't as clean as she lets on]].
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: She's implied to have been this in high school. When she sees Maeve reading a copy of ''Middlemarch'', Erin states that she was meant to read that for class but never did, preferring to smoke or hang around boys instead.
* NeverMyFault: Maeve accuses her of this, and from the way we've seen Erin act over the course of the series, she has a point. She never takes real responsibility for her actions, nor does she stop lying to her daughter. When [[spoiler:Elsie is taken away because Maeve called the police on Erin]], rather than realise that it was her own fault for taking drugs, she has the gall to put all the blame and hate on Maeve, because "what child calls the cops on her own mother?"
* ParentalAbandonment: Appears in season 2 after a long disappearance from Maeve's life, and this explains a lot about Maeve's issues connecting with people.
* ParentsAsPeople: She definitely isn't perfect, but she is struggling to do right by Maeve, and is hurt by Maeve's dismissiveness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Remi Milburn]]
!!Remi Milburn
--> '''Played By:''' James Purefoy
Otis's father and Jean's ex husband. A writer and sex guru.
----

* DomesticAbuse: Emotionally. When Jean found out about his cheating, he tried to brush it off by basically gas-lighting her.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: For all his smugness and arrogance, he knows how much of an arsehole and a liar he is, and how deeply miserable he is, and does not want his son to commit the same mistakes he did. And he actually gives Otis genuinely good and deep advice.]]
* InsufferableGenius: An academic who gets very patronizing with Jakob, a plumber and handyman.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:[[spoiler: With Otis, and only Otis, he shows that below all his assholery, there is a regretful and self loathing individual. His talk with Otis in the last chapter of season 2 might be his most genuine and open moment with his son. He also gives him really good advice to avoid committing the mistakes he did.]]
* SexAddiction: How he tries to rationalize his cheating.
* TheShrink: Type One, Harmful. Uses his access to clients to have sex with them, which is unethical and probably illegal. Also admits he believes his book on "Masculinity in Crisis" is a load of crap.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Isaac Goodwin]]
!!Isaac
--> '''Played By:''' George Robinson
Maeve's dismissive and condescending neighbour, a disabled young man with a similar childhood, who lives with his brother Joe.
----
* AbusiveParents: Like Maeve, his parents aren't around. Might be even worse, as they didn't just up and leave, but according to him actually forced him out somehow for being too much of a burden after his injury.
* AppealToPity: He's all too aware of the condescending sympathy strangers feel for him, and often uses it to get favors.
* BirdsOfAFeather: He certainly thinks so; like Maeve, he was the child of drug addicts who then abandoned him, with his disability being directly the result of their neglect.
* DisabledSnarker: He's in a wheelchair which he uses to gain sympathy from strangers, but as he demonstrates with Maeve, he uses it to hide his sarcastic wit.
* HeelRealization: In season 3, he's realised deleting Otis' message was a creepy, manipulative move, and tries to confess and apologise for it before him and Maeve act on their feelings. Naturally this ends any potential relationship between them for the time being, but Maeve does come to forgive him for it.
* MultipleChoicePast: Gives several contradictory stories on how he became confined to his chair. The most recent and plausible story is [[spoiler: that he fell out of a tree, trying to prove he could out climb his brother.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: {{Implied}}. He pursues Maeve despite her initial refusal to get to know him (due to her general antisocial demeanour), and it's shown he watches her from his window whenever she leaves.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: The end of season 2 is this. He viewed it as him protecting Maeve, since he believes Otis is a JerkAss who mistreats Maeve, but he clearly did wrong deleting the voicemail, and realises such the following season.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cynthia]]
!!Cynthia
--> '''Played By:''' Lisa Palfrey
Maeve's landlady, as owner of the caravan park where she lives.
* CrazyCatLady: Treats her cat Jonathan like a child, dressing him up in costumes and talking about him as if he were a person. [[spoiler:This stops being played for laughs after Jonathan dies; her husband confirms she saw him as the son she couldn’t have, and she has trouble moving on or properly grieving him.]]
----
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Groff]]
!!Headmaster Michael Groff
--> '''Played by:''' Alistair Petrie

Headmaster of Moordale, and Adam's strict father.

** Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop them up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately.

* CasualKink: Her interests in sci-fi and aliens is more than simply being into geeky stuff, it's a personal fetish for her.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Anwar may be a jerk, but he at least stands up to Adam's homophobic bullying of Eric.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: Essentially, she wants to rid Moordale of the "Sex School" reputation, and she does so primarily by punishing anything even remotely indicating sexual deviancy, but mostly this just affects the queer students. She's not ''openly'' homophobic or queerphobic (nowadays, being so would likely get her fired), but she makes a lot of dog whistle gestures, like criticising Cal's "sloppy" uniform (because Cal, who's non-binary, chooses to wear masculine clothing instead of the "proper" girl's uniform), and using that as an excuse to ignore any basic request for better treatment for LGBTQ+ students. This gets so petty as to telling Ola she can't wear a LGBTQ+ rainbow pin, and dismisses the implications by accusing Ola's beliefs of being "so fragile they rely solely on a pin" rather than acknowledge what the pin represents.

* NeverMyFault: Maeve accuses her of this, and from the way we've seen Erin act over the course of the series, she has a point. She never takes real responsibility for her actions, nor does she stop lying to her daughter.

Maeve's dismissive and condescending neighbor, a disabled young man with a similar childhood, who lives with his brother Joe.

* HeelRealization: In season 3, he's realised deleting Otis' message was a creepy, manipulative move, and tries to confess and apologise for it before him and Maeve act on their feelings. Naturally this ends any potential relationship between them.

* ImmigrantParents: Eric comes from a strict and religious family from an unspecified African country. Eric's father is particularly concerned about blending in English society; he is thus worried (but ultimately supporting) of his son being so shamelessly himself.

** Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop her up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately.

* TheSlacker: They tick off most of the boxes: skateboards everywhere, wears baggy oversized clothes, frequently clashes with Hope, and gets high off weed and mushrooms on the France trip with Jackson.

* ShutUpHannibal: After spending all of Season 3 being insulted by his brother, he finally snaps during a dinner party.

* TheBully: He is one in general,particularly to his son.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In season 3, he's been fired and the publicity of his mismanagement at Moordale has made him virtually unemployable in education. He's living with his much more successful brother, who's upbeat nature unintentionally makes him feel so ashamed by his own failures he ends up lying about getting a job and finding a new place to live.
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler: Instead of just accepting he was a bad husband and parent, and facing his own fears and insecurities, he blames his failing marriage on Jean's influence.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment and how she desperately wants to be a mother. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children. She also demands to speak to a different doctor after her current one (a black woman) refuses to recommend continued treatment for her.

* YoureACreditToYourRace:

* CrazyCatLady: Treats her cat Jonathan like a child, dressing him up in costumes and talking about him as if he were a person

* AffablyEvil: She's personable enough that her cruelty isn't clear at first, but she has a very conservative view on what school culture should look like, including rigid binary uniforms, displeasure with any degree of self-expression, and a condescending attitude towards students, and is openly dismissive and unsupportive of queer students, to the point of punishing Cal for being non-binary and using her choice to present masculine in clothing (or, "sloppy") as an excuse to ignore her simple request for gender-neutral spaces.

* HiddenDepths: Despite being a bigoted asshole, she genuinely encourages Maeve to apply for the Gifted and Talented Program, to the point she offers to try and find funding for her. When she can't, she seems genuinely upset at not being able to help. She's also desperately trying to have a kid, but is unable to conceive, which is contributing to her assholery.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment and how she desperately wants to be a mother. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children.

* YoureACreditToYourRace: Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop her up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately.

* AffablyEvil: "Evil" is stretching it, but she has a very conservative view on what school culture should look like, including rigid binary uniforms, displeasure with any degree of self-expression, and a condescending attitude towards students.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: She's trying to rebuild Moordale's reputation after the sex scandals from the previous season. However, her method of doing so is to crush any and all personal expression and instil rigid, somewhat outdated school culture.

!Other Characters
[[folder: Jakob]]
!!Jakob Nyman
-->'''Played By:''' Mikael Persbrandt

A handyman who redoes the Milburns' bathroom. He and Jean develop a mutual attraction for each other.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler: The end of season 2 is this. His motivations are not clear, but he clearly did wrong deleting the voicemail.]]

* SympatheticAbuser: His bullying of Eric in the first season is framed as this, as there was a lot of reasons behind it. He himself was horribly bullied by his father, he has horrible self-esteem issues that results in explosive bouts of anger, he has trouble communicating, which he's greatly frustrated by and it often causes him to become aggressive, and more directly, he's a closeted bisexual man with a crush on Eric, which he's trying very hard to repress. This is Deconstructed as while he has sympathetic reasons for being the way he is, Otis believes FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and calls Eric out on dating him, and is nothing but critical of the relationship when Eric pursues it.

* EndearinglyDorky: Being an unpopular teenage boy, awkwardness is a given. He starts giving sex therapy sessions to his peers despite being inexperienced himself. And it turns out his awkwardness also carries a definite charm that attracts both Ola and later Maeve. (Maeve especially is considered a cool and aloof girl who previsouly dated the school golden headboy.)

* AffectionateNickname: Her mother calls her "Froggy" or "Frogface", which is clearly an endearing family pet name from Maeve's childhood. Maeve isn't too fond of it, though, especially when her mother first appears.

%%* MarsNeedsWomen: Her porn.

* {{Armoured Closet Bisexual ArmouredClosetGay}}: [[spoiler: He frequently bullies and harasses Eric for being gay, even calling him a "fag" in one episode, but is later revealed to have feelings for Eric himself]].

* ArmouredClosetGay: [[spoiler: He frequently bullies and harasses Eric for being gay, even calling him a "fag" in one episode, but is later revealed to have feelings for Eric himself]].

[[folder: Mr Groff]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachother:[[ spoiler: In season 3, they have an unusual moment of friendship; Anwar and Olivia comfort Ruby when she and Otis break up.]]

* Awlooktheyreallydoloveeachother:[[ In season 3, they have an unusual moment of friendship; Anwar and Olivia comfort Ruby when she and Otis break up.]]

* OddFriednship: Her and Aimee classify as this. They are basically polar opposites of each other but it doesn't stop them from becoming best friends.