History Main / WhiteMaleLead

* In "WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero" the cartoon ignores the lead of the surprisingly diverse comic and toy line by focusing on Duke, the generic blue-eyed, blonde-haired, straight, WASP. How do we know he's straight? They took the disfigured Vietnam veteran's girlfriend from the comic and awarded to him. Heterosexuality confirmed! The worst part is that the comic book HAD a rich WASPy commander named Hawk, who wasn't always portrayed as... heroic (Creator Larry Hama served in Vietnam) but there can be only one "WhiteMaleLead" so Hawk had HIS hair color changed to brown, (the SHAME) and was sidelined.

--> '''Narrator:''' In case you get confused, the hero is still the white guy.

** ''Series/{{CSI}}'' started out with white male lead Creator/WilliamPetersen, went into an aversion phase with African-American Creator/LaurenceFishburne having top billing, and ended up with white male Creator/TedDanson in the lead.

* The ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows, at various points. The two spinoffs, ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' and ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'' all the time and ''Series/{{CSI}}'' started out with white male William Petersen and then went into an aversion phase with Lawerence Fishburne as its lead, and now back to the white male lead thing with Ted Danson.

You may be surprised to learn that this trope has less to do with Western bias (although that's still prevalent, make no mistake) and more to do with [[MoneyDearBoy courting the international dollar]]. In the United States, for example, you're more likely to see female, non-white, and LGBT leads in TV shows, where the viewership is mostly domestic. But in big-budget blockbuster films, such actors don't do nearly as well in international markets, particularly China and Russia; Blacks and Hispanics aren't seen as relatable to the audiences there, LGBT characters are outright ''banned'' due to the countries' laws against "gay propaganda", and a woman as the hero might upset social mores depending on the movie. As a result, Western studios often play it safe by casting a plain white male as the lead.

* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'': Zack, Screech, and Mr. Belding are all white males. Zack is the protagonist during the most popular 1989-1993 run. Screech and Mr. Belding were in all the incarnations. Mark Paul Gosselaar is part Indonesian on his mother's side, but he sported [[ButNotTooBlack bleached blond hair]] during the show which made him look decidedly more Anglo.

** For the run on the classic show, the Doctor was treated as asexual, but the TV movie and the revived series frequently make overtures of the Doctor having sexual tension with orientation-appropriate companions. There are conflicting stories as to whether Creator/PeterCapaldi (the Twelfth Doctor) wanted to make him aromantic again when he took on the role. What is clear is that initially the show '''seemed''' to be going in that direction in his first season...but by the end of Series 9 it was clear that the Doctor and Clara Oswald's relationship ran '''far''' deeper emotionally than simple friendship (to the point that the season finale has him mocked for claiming she's just his friend, given that he [[spoiler: would risk the universe to bring her back from the grave]]), while the post-season Christmas special was an out-and-out RomanticComedy involving him and River Song, one of his several wives.

* Zig-zagged with the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise. While the historical character the series [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI started with]] is Syrian, VanillaProtagonist in the present-day storyline was just AmbiguouslyBrown enough to be considered any ethnicity (including white) by those who wish, while his ancestors in the historical storyline are of various ethnicities (Syrian, Italian, British, and Native American). He was eventually replaced by [[PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration you, the player]], starting with ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', which was also where the historical protagonists began to play it agonizingly straight to the point where the parade of white male leads can be hard to tell apart. This was not helped by the fact that the titles centering on a half-Black woman (''AC III: Liberation'') and a Black man (''AC IV: Freedom Cry'') are a GaidenGame and DownloadableContent respectively, neither of which received much promotion, to the point where few have heard of them. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' featured a woman as a co-player character alongside her twin brother, although both of them were white. To their credit, Ubisoft looks to be attempting to rectify this problem with the heavily-promoted ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', whose Ptolemaic Egyptian protagonist has appropriately dark skin. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' offers the player the choice between a male character and a female historical character, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' offers the player the choice to make the historical character either male or female (while keeping the same name) and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedMirage'' {{promote|d To Playable}}s the Arabic supporting character of ''Valhalla'' to PlayerCharacter.

* Zig-zagged with the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise. While the historical character the series [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI started with]] is Syrian, VanillaProtagonist in the present-day storyline was just AmbiguouslyBrown enough to be considered any ethnicity (including white) by those who wish, while his ancestors in the historical storyline are of various ethnicities (Syrian, Italian, British, and Native American). He was eventually replaced by [[PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration you, the player]], starting with ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', which was also where the historical protagonists began to play it agonizingly straight to the point where the parade of white male leads can be hard to tell apart. This was not helped by the fact that the titles centering on a half-Black woman (''AC III: Liberation'') and a Black man (''AC IV: Freedom Cry'') are a GaidenGame and DownloadableContent respectively, neither of which received much promotion, to the point where few have heard of them. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' featured a woman as a co-player character alongside her twin brother, although both of them were white. To their credit, Ubisoft looks to be attempting to rectify this problem with the heavily-promoted ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', whose Ptolemaic Egyptian protagonist has appropriately dark skin. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' offers the player the choice between a male character and a female historical character, VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' offers the player the choice to make the historical character either male or female (while keeping the same name) and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedMirage'' {{promote|d To Playable}}s the Arabic supporting character of ''Valhalla'' to PlayerCharacter.

* Zig-zagged with the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise. The VanillaProtagonist in the present-day storyline is just AmbiguouslyBrown enough to be considered any ethnicity (including white) by those who wish, while his ancestors in the historical storyline are of various ethnicities (Arabic Hashashin, Italian, British, and Native American). He was eventually replaced by [[PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration you, the player]], starting with ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', which was also where the historical protagonists began to play it agonizingly straight to the point where the parade of white male leads can be hard to tell apart. This was not helped by the fact that the titles centering on a half-Black woman (''AC III: Liberation'') and a Black man (''AC IV: Freedom Cry'') are a GaidenGame and DownloadableContent respectively, neither of which received much promotion, to the point where few have heard of them. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' featured a woman as a co-player character alongside her twin brother, although both of them were white. To their credit, Ubisoft looks to be attempting to rectify this problem with the heavily-promoted ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', whose Ptolemaic Egyptian protagonist has appropriately dark skin.

** ''Film/{{Stonewall|1995}}'' (1995) featuring a white male protagonist, but his second-lead drag queen boyfriend was Hispanic and another second-lead drag queen was African-American.
** ''Film/{{Stonewall|2015}}'' (2015) focuses on fictional Danny Winters, a white StraightGay teenager from Indiana who bused to New York City after being kicked out of his home. Filmmaker Creator/RolandEmmerich stated in interviews that he created Danny to appeal to straight white audiences, which pleased no one. LGBT historians were obviously unimpressed, and straight white people with enough interest in the subject to even watch the movie knew better. Some were also offended by the idea that they could only relate to the blandest kid possible--not even a native New Yorker but someone from the rural Midwest--rather than the diverse individuals who were actually there.

* Subverted in ''Series/DarkMatter'' - the show started out with the most milquetoast white guy in the racially diverse crew acting as the lead and audience sympathy character (he wakes up first and he's the only human character who doesn't have a criminal background). But then at the beginning of season 2, the writers [[spoiler: kill him off (right after a new plotline for him started, no less)]], and then they also [[spoiler: kill off]] another, much less moral recurring character the same actor was playing, just in case you thought he was supposed to take over the lead now that the rest of the crew [[CharacterDevelopment had become more sympathetic.]] And, just to drive the point home, another, new white male character who joins the crew and seems like a replacement in terms of personality gets [[spoiler: killed off even more abruptly]] after a few episodes, with the rest of the crew not even caring to find out what happened to him. A Black female character gets to permanently join the regular cast instead. And the Asian female ActionGirl love interest from the first season becomes the primary protagonist (and captain of the ship). By the end of the second season, the only white male character still on the crew is the show's [[Series/{{Firefly}} Jayne-expy]], who is perfectly content just being the muscle for "Boss Lady."

* Given a LampshadeHanging in the ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'' for ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' after the narrator goes over the many factions of differently colored aliens.

* A theory known in some internet communities as the Galbrush Paradox posits that the reason that straight white male characters (especially leads) are so ubiquitous is that they are the only type of characters who creators feel like they write as realistically flawed and that often the people demanding better representation for women, minorities, LGBT, etc. end up calling for the creators' blood when those characters are portrayed as [[FlawlessToken anything less than perfect]]. The name comes from the ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series of video games, as the theory explains that if the protagonist Guybrush Threepwood was a woman named Galbrush instead, the developers would be called misogynists if they portrayed her as the exact same hopeless dumbass that Guybrush is.
-->"A white male can be a lecherous drunk. A woman can't or it's sexist. Sexualizing women and what all. A white male can be a mentally disturbed soldier whose mind is unravelling as he walks through thehell of the modern battlefield. A woman can't or you're victimizing women and saying they're all crazy. [...] Men can be comically inept halfwits. Women can't. Men can be flawed, tragic human beings. Women can't. And why? Because every single female character reflects all women everywhere."

* Played (almost) completely straight in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. Steven, the lead character, is an alien-human hybrid, yet he still entirely appears to be a white, male human. The alien Gems tick many boxes: they're [[OneGenderRace all female]], ([[NoBiologicalSex or at least present themselves that way]]), they're DiscountLesbians, and their voice actresses are almost all nonwhite women, but the central figure is always Steven. He's also, however, TheChick, and the WhiteMage in a show where all the combat-oriented characters are women [[spoiler: including his sword-wielding Indian-American girlfriend]], and no one sees it as a big deal.

[[folder:Film]]

** ''Stonewall'' (1995) featuring a white male protagonist, but his second-lead drag queen boyfriend was Hispanic and another second-lead drag queen was African-American.
** ''Film/{{Stonewall}}'' (2015) focuses on fictional Danny Winters, a white StraightGay teenager from Indiana who bused to New York City after being kicked out of his home. Filmmaker Creator/RolandEmmerich stated in interviews that he created Danny to appeal to straight white audiences, which pleased no one. LGBT historians were obviously unimpressed, and straight white people with enough interest in the subject to even watch the movie knew better. Some were also offended by the idea that they could only relate to the blandest kid possible--not even a native New Yorker but someone from the rural Midwest--rather than the diverse individuals who were actually there.

No matter how diverse a show's cast or how positive its portrayal of minorities, the lead character will almost always be a conventionally attractive, heterosexual, white, vaguely Christian, and often American male. Common wisdom in the Western entertainment industry is that a show or film needs a lead character that the [[MostWritersAreMale target demographic]] can [[LeadYouCanRelateTo identify with]], so this is usually an EnforcedTrope. The White Male Lead is often TheHero.

* ''Film/TheForbiddenKingdom'' takes place in ancient China, but its lead is a white male from the present day. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forbidden_Kingdom#Critical_reception One reviewer]] said "As a Hollywood blockbuster, ''The Forbidden Kingdom'' offers no apologies for its American-centrism. In fact, it wears it with pride like a badge of honor." It was star Jackie Chan's own idea that the protagonist be a white kid, precisely to attract interest in the West for what was basically a WireFu movie. This example is unusual in that the White Male Lead is not featured prominently in any of the advertising. The purpose of a White Male Lead in a movie with a minority-heavy cast is usually to attract white audiences, but as mentioned above, Creator/JackieChan and Creator/JetLi movies usually do not have this problem.

* ''Film/TheLastKingOfScotland'': A movie (and [[AdaptationDisplacement its source novel]]) about Idi Amin's dictatorship in Uganda, with a fictional Scottish doctor as the lead. Though, admittedly, it ''is'' a heavy plot point, with at least one LampshadeHanging. And it's VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory.

* Averted and parodied in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle''. The opening scene contains two white guys rather than the actual lead characters and sets up their storyline, [[HeroOfAnotherStory which happens almost entirely offscreen]]. The film's creators initially feared that ExecutiveMeddling would turn Harold and Kumar into "Joe and Dave." The two white guys are the movie the creators were afraid that ''Harold And Kumar'' would become.

** ''Film/{{Stonewall}}'' (2015) focuses on fictional Danny Winters, a white StraightGay teenager from Indiana who bused to New York City after being kicked out of his home. Filmmaker Creator/RolandEmmerlich stated in interviews that he created Danny to appeal to straight white audiences, which pleased no one. LGBT historians were obviously unimpressed, and straight white people with enough interest in the subject to even watch the movie knew better. Some were also offended by the idea that they could only relate to the blandest kid possible--not even a native New Yorker but someone from the rural Midwest--rather than the diverse individuals who were actually there.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Finn is a white male lead in a land where he is actually the only human.

* ''Film/NoEscape'': Despite being set in an Asian country, the film is focused solely on Jack Dwyer (played by the very white Creator/OwenWilson) and his desire to protect his family, and not focused on any Asian character.

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': The 99th precinct has a good number of racial minorities and women as main and one-shot characters, with the main cast consisting of two black men (one gay), two Latina women (one bisexual), one white woman, and two white men. The lead character is the straight, white Jake Peralta. However, his last name is Spanish, so he's apparently of Sephardi Jewish stock, which is a bit more diverse than most examples.

* ''Series/{{Outsourced}}'', a fish-out-of-water story about a white male American running a call center in India.
* ''Series/{{Glee}}''
** ''Glee'' has a very diverse cast, boasting characters of all different races, sexual orientations, and levels of ability, but the stars of the show always seem to be the white, heterosexual teacher Will, and the leaders of Glee club: white, straight couple Finn and Rachel (albeit Rachel is ethnically Jewish, but the point remains the same). {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Emma at one point.
** It gets to the point where one episode has a tacked-on musical number for the Black Mercedes and the Asian Tina. This number is explicitly said InUniverse to have been added to give two underutilized characters something to do.
** ...Until the fifth season with the untimely death of Finn's actor Creator/CoryMonteith, which led to Kurt and Blaine becoming ''Glee's'' OfficialCouple, though they are both white males.[[note]] Actually, Darren Criss is Eurasian: half-white, half-Filipino, but no mention is made about Blaine's race and ethnicity within the show (his mother is portrayed by Gina Gershon, a white Jewish actress, but not much is known about his father).[[/note]]
** Finn is also an example in-universe. Apparently he is the only suitable "male lead" for the Glee club at the time the other two boy members are white, but one is a CampGay and the other one is disabled. Shortly later three other boys join in, but one is Jewish, one is Black and one is Asian, so Finn, the only non-minority boy, stays as the designated lead, soaking in Will's favoritism, despite definitely not being the best male singer in the group and actually being one of the worst dancers.
* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'': Zack, Screech, and Mr. Belding are all white males. Zack is the protagonist during the most popular 1989-1993 run. Screech and Mr. Belding were in all the incarnations. Mark Paul Gosselaar is part Indonesian on his mother's side, but he sported [[ButNotTooBlack bleached blond hair]] during the show which made him look decidedly more Anglo.

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'' has a racially diverse cast, with a Black woman and two Black men as the main characters, as well as several Black side characters. The head of the show always ends up being a white man, however, with the arrival of Richard Poole, later replaced by Humphrey Goodman.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** All the Doctors through Creator/PeterCapaldi (Twelfth) were white males, though it was eventually confirmed during Creator/StevenMoffat's tenure that Time Lords can change race and sex when they [[TheNthDoctor regenerate]]. There had long been debate among fans -- and indeed, Creator/{{the BBC}}, who've considered Black actors for the role -- of getting a female or alternate race in, but this quickly degraded into accusations that it would be wrecked. The announcement in 2017 that the Thirteenth Doctor would be Creator/JodieWhittaker, a white woman, caused the fanbase to erupt and [[BrokenBase break]] -- some were overjoyed, some would rather have had a male Doctor of an alternate race, some wanted a non-white woman, and some wanted another white man.
** For the run on the classic show, the Doctor was treated as asexual, but the TV movie and the revived series frequently make overtures of the Doctor having sexual tension with orientation-appropriate companions. There are conflicting stories as to whether Creator/PeterCapaldi (the Twelfth Doctor) wanted to make him aromantic again when he took on the role. What is clear is that initially the show '''seemed''' to be going in that direction in his first season...but by the end of Series 9 it was clear that the Doctor and Clara Oswald's relationship ran '''far''' deeper emotionally than simple friendship (to the point that the season finale has him mocked for claiming she's just his friend, given that he [[spoiler: would risk the universe to bring her back from the grave]]), while the post-season Christmas special was an out-and-out RomanticComedy involving him and River Song, one of his several wives.
* Subverted in ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet''. The series initially focused on white NaiveNewcomer AudienceSurrogate Tim Bayliss, but quickly shifted focus to his black partner Frank Pembleton after he became a BreakoutCharacter.
* ''Series/TheSingoff'''s third series was won by a now-famous group called Music/{{Pentatonix}}. Despite all the singers being diverse and talented, the lead singer during the show was definitely the conventionally good looking white male.
* The ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise usually has one of these, typically from a salty, no-nonsense, working-class background, plus or minus an [[ActionGirl Olivia Benson]] or two. The exception is season 13 of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' when Olivia Benson moves into the role of lead character, and the male lead, Nick Amaro, is Latino.
* Despite boasting a far more diverse cast than its [[Series/{{NCIS}} parent show]], the ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' team is lead by one of these in Special Agent Dwayne Pride. Technically, two, as his second-in-command Agent [=LaSalle=] is one of these too.
* Jim from ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' isn't exactly the only white male at his small paper company in small-town Pennsylvania, but he often served as being the young, attractive, savvy [[SitComCharacterArchetypes wisecracker]] who would make fun of the middle-aged eccentric losers around him. Naturally, the [[SpotlightStealingSquad spotlight gets stolen from him]] on a regular basis. After a good deal of CharacterizationMarchesOn, he's learned to be NotSoAboveItAll.
* The ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows, at various points. The two spinoffs, ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' and ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'' all the time and ''Series/{{CSI}}'' started out with white male William Petersen and then went into an aversion phase with Lawerence Fishburne as its lead, and now back to the white male lead thing with Ted Danson.
* In ''Series/HawaiiFive0,'' despite the diversity of the Hawaiian islands, the main lead is still a white guy (mcgarrett) and the main plot is usually about him and his white guy partner (Danno). Some seasons had an otherwise minority-majority cast but the leads were unchanged.
* As diverse as ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' tried to be in the [[TheSixties racially charged '60s]], they still had to have a white man as the Captain; the [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wouldn't even stand for a female NumberTwo. This was followed by Jean-Luc Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and Jonathan Archer in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. It was averted with ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', in which the eponymous space station is commanded by BaldOfAuthority Benjamin Sisko, and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', in which the eponymous ship is captained by the female Kathryn Janeway. Michael Burnam is the lead but not the captain of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', and a Black woman. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' is the most straightforward example yet, with Picard as the ''only'' white male among the main cast.
* When the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] adapted the Literature/{{Earthsea}} novels into the mini-series ''Series/{{Earthsea}}'', they decided to make the main character white. This [[DisownedAdaptation did not sit well]] with the [[Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin original author]].

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': The 99th precinct has a good number of racial minorities and women as main and one-shot characters, but the lead character is the white Jake Peralta. However, his last name is Spanish, so he's apparently of Sephardi Jewish stock, which is a bit more diverse than most examples.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Four white men, two white women, one Latina woman, one Black woman, and one Black man in the main cast. The captain and pilot make up two of the white men. However, the Black woman is second in command, and the captain avoids the "vaguely Christian" description by being belligerently anti-spiritual.
* Subverted in ''Series/DarkMatter'' - the show started out with the most milquetoast white guy in the racially diverse crew acting as the lead and audience sympathy character (he wakes up first and he's the only human character who doesn't have a criminal background). But then at the beginning of season 2, the writers [[spoiler: kill him off (right after a new plotline for him started, no less)]], and then they also [[spoiler: kill off]] another, much less moral recurring character the same actor was playing, just in case you thought he was supposed to take over the lead now that the rest of the crew [[CharacterDevelopment had become more sympathetic.]] And, just to drive the point home, another, new white male character who joins the crew and seems like a replacement in terms of personality gets [[spoiler: killed off even more abruptly]] after a few episodes, with the rest of the crew not even caring to find out what happened to him. A Black female character gets to permanently join the regular cast instead. And the Asian female ActionGirl love interest from the first season becomes the primary protagonist (and captain of the ship). By the end of the second season, the only white male character still on the crew is the show's [[Series/{{Firefly}} Jayne-expy]], who is perfectly content just being the muscle for "Boss Lady."
* ''Series/{{Narcos}}'': The story of Pablo Escobar's rise and fall is told from the perspective of the white American DEA Agent Steve Murphy. However, the first two seasons are a bit of a SidelongGlanceBiopic, and Murphy is himself something of a FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator since the real main character is Escobar. Once Escobar goes down, and the real Murphy left Colombia, the focus switches to other villains, and our main character becomes Murphy's Mexican partner, Javier Pena.
* ''Series/{{Defiance}}'': Played ''egregiously'' straight with [[VanillaProtagonist Joshua Nolan]], who has the [[ClicheStorm textbook]] [[TheAtoner atoning]] [[WhiteMansBurden White Savior]] [[FantasticRacism allegory]] character arc in a cast whose human members consist of at least one white woman, a Native American father and daughter and a [[TokenMinority Token Black man]], in ''[[MonochromeCasting future!St. Louis]]'' sharing the setting with [[AnImmigrantsTale immigrant]] [[FantasyCounterpartCulture aliens]].
* Applies to ''Series/TheMagicians2016''. Its main character, Quentin, is one of two white men in a fairly diverse cast -- the other, Eliot, starts the series as openly into men. Quentin is later revealed to be bisexual and neuroatypical, however.
** This trope is also lampshaded by an old-timey character who recognizes Quentin as the traditional AudienceSurrogate.
--->'''Hyman:''' But Quentin, I mean, [you're] the outsider let into the inner sanctum of secret knowledge. As someone born in 1902, I find a heterosexual white male hero very relatable.
** Discussed as foreshadowing in "The Side Effect"; two librarians well aware of how the plot will go are discussing the main characters. Derek considers Quentin the white male lead; Penny rebukes him, as viewing Quentin as the main character when everyone has their own contributions is a case of "white male protagonism". He says the story does not go the way one might expect. [[spoiler:Indeed, Quentin dies at the end of the season, leaving the series without a clear White Male Lead.]]

* Creator/DisneyXD has done this for almost all of its live-action shows: either as the sole lead ([[Series/ImInTheBand Tripp Campbell]], [[Series/KickinIt Jack Brewer]], Series/KirbyBuckets, [[Series/GamersGuideToPrettyMuchEverything Conor]]), a pair of white male co-leads (Series/{{Zeke and Luther}}, [[Series/MightyMed Kaz and Oliver]]), co-leads with a non-white character ([[Series/PairOfKings Brady and later Boz]]), co-leads with a non-''human'' character ([[Series/CrashAndBernstein Wyatt Bernstein]]), and one highly disputed case ([[Series/LabRats Adam and Chase Davenport]] are considered either two of three or four leads or secondary to Leo Dooley depending on your view).

* As diverse as ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' tried to be in the [[TheSixties racially charged '60s]], they still had to have a white man as the Captain; the [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wouldn't even stand for a female NumberTwo. This was followed by Jean-Luc Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and Jonathan Archer in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. It was averted with ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', in which the eponymous space station is commanded by BaldBlackLeaderGuy Benjamin Sisko, and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', in which the eponymous ship is captained by the female Kathryn Janeway. Michael Burnam is the lead but not the captain of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', and a Black woman. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' is the most straightforward example yet, with Picard as the ''only'' white male among the main cast.

** The first {{spinoff}} ''Series/CriminalMindsSuspectBehavior'', in its pursuit to be radically different from the original series while keeping faithful to its [[StrictlyFormula basic structure]], had a BaldBlackLeaderGuy played by Creator/ForestWhitaker among an [[InvertedTrope otherwise whole white main cast]]. The character "Prophet," who had been originally envisioned as [[TokenMinority Black]], was made white.

You may be surprised to learn that this trope has less to do with Western bias (though that's still prevalent, make no mistake) and more to do with [[MoneyDearBoy courting the international dollar]]. In the United States, for example, you're more likely to see female, non-white, and LGBT leads in TV shows, where the viewership is mostly domestic. But in big-budget blockbuster films, such actors don't do nearly as well in international markets, particularly China and Russia; Blacks and Hispanics aren't seen as relatable to the audiences there, LGBT characters are outright ''banned'' due to the countries' laws against "gay propaganda", and a woman as the hero might upset social mores depending on the movie. As a result, Western studios often play it safe by casting a plain white male as the lead.