Characters / Bunk'd

Main Characters

Emma Ross

Portrayed by: Peyton List

See here for more info.

Tropes Specific to Bunk'd

• Bilingual Bonus: When Ravi is babbling in Hindi due to fear-induced panic, Emma translates everything he is saying into English for benefit of the other campers nearby. Justified as she explains that she learned the language from prior occurrences of the very same panic attacks.
• Butt-Monkey: Unlike the previous series, Emma took the role of subjected to slapstick and other humiliating situations.
• Fish out of Water: The premise of the show in relation to Emma (and the rest of the Ross kids).
• Put on a Bus: Does not return in the fourth season due to going to Milan to model Christina's fashion line. Although, she comes back to be a guest star in the Season 5 premiere episode "Lou's Still the Boss, But Now There's a Ross".

Ravi Ross

Portrayed by: Karan Brar

See here for more info.

Tropes Specific to Bunk'd

• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The feminine boy to his one-time girlfriend Sasha.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only character along with Tiffany, and the only Ross child, who knows of the Kikiwaka's existence.
• Put on a Bus: Does not return in the fourth season due to being accepted into a science fellowship.
• Team Chef: Becomes the chef of Camp Kikiwaka in season 3.

Zuri Ross

Portrayed by: Skai Jackson

See here for more info.

Tropes Specific to Bunk'd

• Big Eater: Several episodes' plots revolve around Zuri and food.
• Lazy Bum: Hates, hates, hates hard work.
• Put on a Bus: Does not return in the fourth season due to becoming an intern at Morgan's film studio.

Louella Dorcas "Lou" Hockhauser

Portrayed by: Miranda May

• Broken Pedestal: She does not take it well when she learns her hero Jedediah Swearingen gave up on Camp Kikiwaka after causing so many accidents, casualties and releasing a poltergeist in the camp director's cabin and secretly faked his death to found Camp Champion. Though it's rebuilt to a certain extent when she accepts that Camp Kikiwaka can be really hard to deal with at times.
  Lou: (after seeing the campers' shenanigans) You know, maybe scrapping this camp and starting a new one isn't such a bad idea.
• Country Mouse: Lou is apparently from rural part of America, she enjoys being in the outdoors, has won the country fair, enjoys the simple life, and has been to pig races. She even at one point calls herself a "country girl".
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Seriously? "Dorcas"?
• Genki Girl
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Gladys. Lou may seem like a goofy country girl, but she's the most knowledgeable about the business side of running the camp, including all necessary legal and financial paperwork.
• Nice Girl: Is very friendly and kind towards the new campers.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: It isn't until season 3 that we find out her full first name: Louella.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Really loves being at camp, and away from technology and modern life.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy, to Emma's girly girl.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Lou's afraid of babies. Or rather, afraid of hurting them. The reason is because when Finn was a baby, she accidentally bumped his head on a refrigerator door.

Xander McCormick

Portrayed by: Kevin Quinn

• Big Brother Instinct: As councillor for the Grizzly cabin, Xander sets himself up as cool older brother figure, whose always caring, supportive and protective of the younger campers under his care. Or just younger campers in general.
  • He literally becomes this to Griff, after his parents legally adopt him into their family.
• The Cast Showoff: He sings the Camp Kikiwakka song at the end of the pilot; the same performance also is the show's theme song.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears at the end of season 2, and isn't even mentioned in season 3.
• The Generic Guy: Other than his musical skills, he hasn't been seen doing much else.
  • Gets more nuanced as the series goes on, with his love of outdoor sports and protectiveness of the younger campers.
• Lust Object: To Hazel; he's not happy about this, but is too nice a guy to be very firm about it.
• Made of Iron: In the second episode Emma hits him several times with a huge tree branch, apart from some momentary pain it doesn't have much effect on him.
• Nature Lover: Loves camping, fishing, hiking and pretty much everything involving being out with nature.
• Nice Guy: Really he's an all around cheerful and friendly person, who is kind to everyone.
• No Sense of Direction: He has a really poor sense of direction, and he refuses to admit it.
• Odd Couple: Is an nature loving, outdoorsy fella, paired with Phoneaholic Teenager and city girl Emma Ross. Deconstructed, as he takes their differences to mean they shouldn't date, and breaks up with her.
• Pretty Boy: The fact he's attractive is made point of, plenty of times.

Jorge Ramirez

Portrayed by: Nathan Arenas

• Book Dumb: He didn't finish reading the title of the "Cat in the Hat" and he said his motto is "Never Read".
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Leaves at the end of season 2 and isn't even mentioned in season 3.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Sometimes things he says don't make sense for example he asked what an apple is made of.
• Gass Hole: His flatulence is regularly complained about.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. Sometimes he likes to cause trouble mischief or egg on his friends....but at the end of the day he's always there for those he considers friends.
• The Ditz: He can be pretty unintelligent at times.
• The Pig-Pen: Horribly messy and unhygienic. Lampshaded in episode four, when Zuri rips apart his bunk, it's pointed out no one will be able to tell the difference.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Luke. From gas hole and the unhygienic nature to the dim-wittedness, it seems as if they wanted Luke for the series but got Jorge as a last minute replacement. Even Ravi ends up doing the same things to him he does to Luke. Fittingly when Luke himself appears, Jorge identifies with his craft.
  • Jorge also seems to share much in common, especially in looks, with Woody Fink.

Tiffany Chen

Portrayed by: Nina Lu

• Abusive Parents: Tiffany's mother, even ignoring her extremely high standards and unreasonable techniques, is presented as unfairly berating and bullying her daughter, who is utterly terrified of her. Some of her notable accomplishments in the field of abusive parenting include:
  • In the pilot, it's said that she punished Tiffany's brother by refusing to let him come home after he lost the national spelling bee.
  • In "Secret Santa", it's revealed that she has hidden all of the Christmas presents Tiffany has gotten from Santa over the years, and told her that he only gives presents to people who have gotten a paper published in an Ivy league journal.
  • Treating her birthday as something not worth celebrating.
• Asian and Nerdy: Is of Chinese descent, and possibly a bigger nerd than Ravi.
• Birds of a Feather: While starting off with rivalry, she grows into this with Ravi. Down to them both being incredibly smart, unathletic and nerds.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Old woman, but it has the same effect. She chastises her mother for being as abusive as she was, pointing out how her mother and grandmother's relationship has been soured by the Education Mama lifestyle.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears at the end of season 2, and even when a picture allegedly from season 2 is shown in season 3, she is absent (it's allegedly a "cabin portrait" of all the girls in Woodchuck Cabin, but Tiffany is noticeably missing and explicitly not mentioned).
• Education Mama: Part and parcel of being Asian and Nerdy. Her mother wants her in Harvard medical school, so she's been deprived of everything remotely resembling fun for her entire life. She also considers sleep to be akin to a disease and is researching a cure for it, because "anything that takes 8 hours a day away from studying can't be good for you".
  • Subverted in that her mother isn't Asian.
• Only Sane Man: She and Ravi are the only characters who know the Kikiwaka is real.

Destiny Baker

Portrayed by: Mallory James Mahoney

• Catchphrase: "Ta-dow!"
• Competition Freak: When it comes to pageants, anyways.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: When in pageant mode.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: A pageant contestant who has no problems only being friends with boys and getting into somewhat messy adventures with them.
• Pink Is Feminine: Most of her clothes are pink.
• Quirky Curls: Has very, very curly hair.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Her girly girl to Gwen's tomboy.

Matteo Silva

Portrayed by: Raphael Alejandro

• Child Prodigy: Besides love to science in general, when Lou decides to finalize her degree and enrolls a chemistry course in a community college, Matteo turns out to be a professor there, and a pretty strict one.
• The Klutz: Tends to get injured fairly easily.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Matteo is the science lover to Gwen's nature lover. Interestingly, they are the closest boy/girl friendship in season 4, flirting with a preteen "romance" and confirmed in season 5 that they became a couple over the summer.
• Nervous Wreck: Went off to summer camp with at least 3 different types of "bite kits", although he seems to get a bit better once he becomes friends with Destiny and Finn. Is also a hypochondriac.
• Omniglot: Is fluent in English, Portuguese, French, and sign language alone, at the age of (roughly) ten. It should be noted that his actor speaks the first three languages fluently.
• Stronger Than They Look: When Lou, Noah and Matteo end up in the latter's home town during shopping trip, Lou decides to visit Matteo's family and founds his mother to be a BJJ sensei. Matty tries to refrain from participation in class, but when made to enter the mats - easily throws Lou and holds her in an armlock.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: for Tiffany, though with Jorge's appearance.
• Put on a Bus:: Matteo does not appear in season 6.
• Back for the Finale: He along with Finn, Ava and Gwen returns for the finale episode.

Finn Sawyer

Portrayed by: Will Buie Jr

• Childhood Brain Damage: It turns out the reason he's so odd is because when he was a baby, Lou accidentally bumped his head on the fridge door.
• Cousin Oliver: A new camper introduced in season 3 who just happens to be Lou's second-cousin.
• Genius Ditz: Generally tends to be a bit stupid, though he is sometimes capable of surprising amounts of insight.
• The Pig-Pen
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: for Jorge.
• Put on a Bus: Finn does not appear in season 6 (although he does have a special guest appearance in the episode "Finn it to Win it").
• Back for the Finale: He along with Matteo, Ava and Gwen returns for the finale episode.

Ava King

Portrayed by: Shelby Simmons

• City Mouse: Similar to the Ross kids in the first three seasons, she grew up in the city.
• Deadpan Snarker: She is very cynical and sarcastic.
• Fish out of Water: A city girl with no camping experience at all.
• Friendless Background: By choice rather then circumstance, due to valuing privacy and solitude over socialisation.
• Put on a Bus:: Ava does not appear in season 6.
• Back for the Finale: She along with Matteo, Finn and Gwen returns for the finale episode.

Gwen Flores

Portrayed by: Scarlett Estevez

• Fish out of Water
• Friend to Bugs: Gwen likes crickets, she can even speak their language, as when they escape from a jar, they immediately obey an order to go back inside it. She can also apply this ability to other insects and is an avid insectologist.
• In Harmony with Nature: Due to being raised in the wilderness, Gwen can hunt for her own food and is capable of thriving in the wild completely unsupervised. She's been self-sufficient like this since she was two years old.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: Gwen, the girl who grew up in the forest and Matteo, the scientist. Interestingly, they are the closest boy/girl friendship in season 4, flirting with a preteen "romance" and confirmed in season 5 that they became a couple over the summer.
• Off the Grid: She spent her whole life living this way.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Generally prefers outdoor activities to quieter indoor ones.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: When Noah gets lost trying to leave the camp, Gwen unerringly tracks him down by following his footprints and broken foliage within 5 minutes of his disappearance.
• Stealth Expert: Gwen is capable of sneaking up on anyone completely unobserved, they'll be unaware of her presence unless she speaks to them and if nobody is looking at her, she can be gone in that instant.
• Put on a Bus: She ends up not making it the next summer. Although, she did return for one Season 5 episode "Crushin' It".
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Destiny's girly girl.
• Back for the Finale: She along with Matteo, Ava and Finn returns for the finale episode.

Noah Lambert

Portrayed by: Israel Johnson

• Big Little Brother: He's noticeably taller than his older brother, Guion.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Despite telling everyone he is an dedicated thespian, the only role he ever had was as an extra for a Summer Camp movie and even then, the casting director was only hiring him out of necessity. On his resume, his special skills is just one line: speaks English.

Parker Preston

Portrayed by: Trevor Tordjman

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be, in short, a spoiled brat who wants to make Camp Kikiwaka more "modern" and a semi-rival to Lou's more traditional viewpoint, but he want to amount to something when it comes to running the camp.
• Villainous Legacy: His great-great-great grandfather is Hatchet Joe Preston, the man who killed Jedediah Swearingen.

Recurring Characters

Camp Director Gladys

Portrayed by: Mary Scheer

• Big Bad: She makes it her purpose to make the Ross Kids' lives miserable because she hates their mom, Christina due to also having been in love with their father Morgan.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after the third season after taking off with the insurance money.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty:
• Evil Aunt: She threw her niece, Hazel under the bus by making her take the fall for burning the cabins at the end of the Second Season, and then making off with the insurance money.
• Freudian Excuse: Whenever something bad happens to her in her life, she's going to make everyone's life miserable.
• Jaded Washout: Isn't happy how her life turned out.
• Too Dumb to Live: Gladys is stupid enough to fall for the old 419 Scam and refuses to back out when Lou reminds her how common it is.
• Unknown Rival: Gladys has held a long term resentment against Christina Ross because of their history at the camp. But when Christina visits the camp, she doesn't even know who Gladys is or even remember her.
• Written-In Absence: She no longer appears as of the third season, having left town for good according to Emma.

Hazel Swearingen

Portrayed by: Tessa Netting

• Alpha Bitch: Qualifies down to being a camp councilor, and constantly being mean to Emma.
• Ax-Crazy: At times, especially when it comes down to Xander.
• The Bully: Often towards Emma. She hates Ravi and Zuri, but she likes Luke.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears at the end of season 2 and isn't even mentioned in season 3.
• The Dragon: To her aunt, camp director Gladys, and she acts as her enforcer. She picks up the slack in antagonizing Emma and co when her aunt isn't around.
• Enemy Mine: If it serves her interests, she will help the Rosses.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Hazel considers campers of Camp Champion to be smug and despicable, which is a fair assessment that even Lou and Emma can agree with.
• Girlish Pigtails: She is mostly seen with these.
• Hated by All: Turns out no one likes her (it's understandable why), and it's implied even her aunt has some contempt for her.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After everything bad she has done to the Rosses, she gets demoted for burning the cabins, though she's never seen again until a featured episode in season 4.
• Signature Laugh: "HA-HA!", usually used whenever she's playing a mean trick on the Rosses.
• Stalker with a Crush: Xander has made it very clear he's not interested, this hasn't stopped her advances towards him in the slightest.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Lou, until her jealousy towards Xander ruined their friendship. Season 4 she surprisingly tries to reconcile with Lou. While it's made clear Lou hasn't entirely forgiven Hazel for how she acted, she seemed at least willing (albeit hesitantly) to give their friendship another shot.

Griff Jones

Portrayed by: Lincoln Melcher

• Expy: of Oliver Twist in terms of backstory.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after Season 2 with no explanation.

Timmy

Portrayed by: Nate Stone

• Butt-Monkey: He can't go to Camp Kikiwaka because his parents' check bounced, so he has to wait for them to pick him up...but they haven't picked him up in several months! And every time he tries to sneak back into camp, the councilors and campers shoo him away like he is a pest. By the third season's finale, he decides to resign himself as a Wild Child living in the woods. At the end of season 3, he is adopted by a family of Kikiwaka Sasquatches just as the camp considers letting him in.
• Kick the Dog: Being neglected by the counselors and campers eventually lead to him giving up all hope to go back to camp.
  • He shows up one time with a check his parents finally sent, but Hazel tears it up and sends him back to the woods because they spelled it 'Kikiwoka' and she won't accept it.
• Parental Neglect: Played for Laughs. Is apparently still living in the woods three summers after being dropped off at camp, and his parents apparently never came back for him. In real life, Social Services would have gotten involved years ago.

Barb Barca

Portrayed by: Raini Rodriguez

• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Shows several shades of this.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Lou, being the head of Camp Champion.