History Main / CircusBrat

* Carlotta in EnidBlyton's Summer at St Clares grew up in a circus. She keeps this a secret but is betrayed by the school sneak. Her friends, however, are thrilled by her exotic background.

* Sophia, a girl from an itinerant circus that a MagicalGirl named [[HananoKoLunlun Lunlun]] meets in her travels through Europe.

* The main character from ''MirrorMask.''

* Sir John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990-1997, was the son of a retired circus performer. This gave rise to the joke that he ran away from the circus to become an accountant.

* On ''{{Ratatoille}}'', Colette explains to Linguini the backstories of the other cooks. One was a circus acrobat who was fired for messing around with the ringmaster's daughter.

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* I'm pretty sure Patrick Jane from ''The Mentalist'' qualifies for this trope.
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* Ellis from {{Battle Arena Toshinden}}. Thanks to horrific events in her past, her [[BadassLongHair fa]][[PapaWolf ther]] sent her to be raised anonymously as a dancer in a Turkish traveling circus in order to keep her safe from the mysterious organization hunting them. As result, she became an extremely skilled {{Dance Battler}}, arguably one of the fastest playable characters in the game and capable of jumps and acrobacies that [[NotQuiteFlight actually makes the viewers think she can fly]].

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* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', John assumes he's one of these because of his father's obsession with clowns, which makes him think that he's a clown himself. [[spoiler:Actually, he's completely normal. He only decorates the house with [[InsistantTerminology harlequins]] because ''John'' subconciously loves them.]]
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* Razputin from ''{{Psychonauts}}''. In an inversion, he ran ''away'' from the circus. He had a strict upbringing because his father was trying to prepare him for encounters with their family's many enemies, who were hinted at in a SequelHook that never took off, sadly.

* In the JamesBond novel ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', BigBad and WorthyOpponent / ShadowArchetype Francisco Scaramanga's parents were circus performers, and he worked both as a trick shot and an animal caretaker as a kid. His StartOfDarkness happened when he shot a policeman to death for killing his favorite elephant when it went on a rampage.

* Richard "Dick" Grayson, the original Robin from ''{{Batman}}''. He still returns to the circus whenever they pass by Gotham and Bludhaven.

* Mai from Magical Star Magical Emi grew up in the Magic Carat Magic Show.

* Mai from ''MagicalStarMagicalEmi'' grew up in the Magic Carat Magic Show.

* Eddie, the protagonist of ''TheFivePeopleYouMeetInHeaven'' grew up (and spent the rest of his life) at a seaside amusement park. It was where he met his wife and eventually died; one of the eponymous people is the Blue Man from the freak show; a flashback shows Eddie using his ability to juggle to fight off his captors during the war in the Phillippines, etc.

* Bob Snarly from AnthonyHorowitz' YA novel ''TheSwitch'' is close to a deconstruction of the trope. He's a brat raised by circus people alright, but he's far from open-minded, instead behaving like common trailer trash. AnAesop is learned.

* The protagonist of Margaret Mahy's ''Maddigan's Fantasia'', Garland, is the daughter of the titular circus' Ringmaster.

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* Renaissance Faire performers are a good modern expy. Most performers work within a local circuit, so not so much the traveling aspect, but they often come in families with the kids starting to perform as early as they can handle staying in a character.

* Rita from ''MichikoToHatchin''.

* Another Rita: Rita Rossi from ''AshitaNoNadja''. In a sense, also Kennosuke and Nadja themselves.

* Dick Grayson, the original Robin from ''{{Batman}}''. He still returns to the circus whenever they pass by Gotham and Bludhaven.

* In the JamesBond novel ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', BigBad and WorthyOpponent / ShadowArchetype Francisco Scaramanga's parents were circus performers, and he worked both as a trick shot and an animal caretaker as a child. His StartOfDarkness happened when he shot a policeman to death for killing his favorite elephant when it went on a rampage.

* Bob Snarly from AnthonyHorowitz' YA novel ''TheSwitch'' is close to a deconstruction of the trope. He's a brat raised in a circus alright, but he's far from open-minded, instead behaving like common trailer trash. AnAesop is learned.