The character sheet for My Dad the Rock Star. It is currently under construction.
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The Zillas
William "Willy" Zilla
Voiced by: Joanne Vannicola
The star of the show. A mild-mannered 14-year-old boy who has lived almost his entire life going on tour with his family. However, he really just wants to be treated as a normal teen and have an ordinary suburban life hanging out with others his age. Like his father, he's a natural musician, and he plays trumpet in his school's band.- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: He readily admits that his parents drive him batty, but it's clear that he does share his parents' love and understands that they mean well.
- Berserk Button: Willy can usually take comments about his family in stride, as he knows they're pretty weird, but say that his parents are horrible people, and he'll flip out on you.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: A big part of his character throughout the series. Having never lived a normal life, Willy worries that his weird family will ruin his attempts to do things that normal teens do, and he never uses his family's fame and wealth to make himself popular.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears these to signify his mild personality and low position on the school popularity chain.
- Nice Guy: Willy's a good teen who's loyal to his friends and family.
- Official Couple: He and Alyssa hook up in the final episode.
- Only Sane Man: He's the most normal person in the Zilla family.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Considering his dad's a Hot-Blooded rock star and his mom's a New-Age Retro Hippie, it's safe to say Willy is easily far more down-to-earth than they are.
Rockford "Rock" Amadeus Zilla
Voiced by: Lawrence Bayne
Willy's eponymous rock star dad. A celebrity who has recently retired to the town of Silent Springs after years of touring the world. Even despite having settled down, he retains his lively, flamboyant, and passionate spirit, but also does his best to be a family man.- Attention Whore: Given his career, it's no surprise that he loves being in the spotlight as much as possible.
- Author Avatar: He's obviously meant to be a stand-in for series creator Gene Simmons.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Averted: his navel is usually visible from below his purple tank top, but it's more an indicator of his rebellious and flamboyant personality rather than femininity.
- Bumbling Dad: Rock Zilla can be a pretty goofy father sometimes.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: He can't stand Scoop always trying to get dirt on him, but the one time Scoop was somewhere else for an extended period of time, he felt very lonely and desperate for coverage. He's actually relieved when Scoop comes back.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: He has his moments.
- Generation Xerox: His father was a famous musician (albeit a cellist instead of a rock star) and never hesitated to show off to fans. Rock was embarrassed to no end and wanted his space while growing up, so he completely understands why Willy often feels the same way.
- Genius Ditz: He's a hammy and excitable goofball not adept at the real world, but he's a hypercompetent musician. He effortlessly takes over as the school's music teacher for an episode and even Willy admits he was doing a great job.
- Good Parents: As crazy as he can be, Rock Zilla clearly loves his kids very much and does everything he can to do what's best for them.
- Happily Married: With Crystal; the two clearly still love each other a lot.
- Hidden Depths: There's a video of an interview in which he ended up crying profusely and needing to be led off the stage. You're made to think he considers this moment embarrassing, but he actually thought it showed his sensitive side and was disappointed it never aired (at least until Willy tricked Scoop into releasing it).
- Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: He starts feeling his age on his birthday (especially as he's put on some weight) and inadvertently gets pushed over the edge by Willy's gift, leaving him acting like a defeated, over the hill old man. Willy helps him get him back in shape to prove he's not an old-timer, but it works too well, as Rock starts dressing and acting like a stereotypical teenager. Seeing a boy band is eclipsing his own music in popularity just intensifies this, but when things predictably go wrong, he lapses into self-pity again. It takes some doing for Willy to shake him of this.
- Hot-Blooded: He's got a heck of a lot of passion burning inside him, even when he's retired to a suburban life.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He is much taller than his wife Crystal and according to Skunk in Rock is From Mars, Willy is from Venus, Rock is eight feel tall, while according to Willy in The Sound of Zilla, he is seven feet, though that could just be his platform shoes and hair taken into account.
- Ladykiller in Love: A flashback in "Blind Date" shows him disinterested in a group of adoring fangirls, only for him to fall head over heels for Crystal the moment he saw her.
- Large Ham: Of course, in his line of business, that's pretty much a job requirement!
- Like Father, Unlike Son:
- Zig-Zagged with his father. The old man is a classy cellist that prefers the finer things in a life, so there are a host of differences in terms of personality, dress, interests, and hobbies. For example, he'll attend a symphony with excitement; Rock can barely stay awake. On the other hand, musical talent runs in the family, so Rock got his from him. When push comes to shove, the old man can also be just as stubborn, prideful, and boastful as his son is.
- Subverted with his mother. She initially appears as a calm and dignified figure so completely unlike her son, but she secretly has a wild side and extraverted personality. Serenity was floored, while trying to keep up with her.
- Older Than They Look: According to the third episode, Rock has been in the music business since the 1970's at least, due to the head of the schoolboard being a fan of his. Given the fact that he is a stand-in for series creator Gene Simmons, whose own career started in 1970, he has to be at least in his mid-fifties, as Simmons was fifty-four when the show debuted.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Hey, he wouldn't be a Gene Simmons lookalike if he didn't have one.
- The Rock Star: Obviously! The show isn't called My Dad the Rock Star for nothing.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: He's quite clearly the Wacky Parent to his son's Serious Child.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He has a tense relationship with his own father, due to their polarizing personalities and different styles of music. He spends "Chip Off the Old Rock" alternating between trying to make everything perfect in order to avoid being criticized and wanting some appreciation. By the end of the episode, he and the old man hash things out and reach an understanding.
Crystal Zilla
Voiced by: Kathleen Laskey
Willy's mother and Rock Zilla's wife. She is a hippie spiritualist interested in all things New Age.- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Like her daughter, she usually has her stomach visible, which in this case is an indicator of her Granola Girl personality.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Her New Age obsessions can make her come off as such sometimes, even to her own family.
- Good Parents: As eccentric as she is, Crystal still clearly loves her children and does her best to take good care of them.
- Granola Girl: Very much so.
- Happily Married: To Rock, whom she still loves very deeply.
- Lethal Chef: She prioritizes making healthy food, and what she comes up with in the kitchen leaves the others losing their appetites. She can apparently make more traditional meals just fine, though.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: She only barely looks any older than her teenage daughter.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: She's an almost archetypal example.
- Only Sane Woman: Zig-Zagged. She has her own quirks and eccentricities that make her a wacky parent, but she's typically a more soft-spoken and levelheaded person in the family. (Hardly a difficult task, of course.) The dynamic is sometimes flipped, though, such as when Willie expressed interest in Angela. Crystal was reduced to bawling that her baby is just too young to date, whereas Rock simply offered the boy some surprisingly reasonable advice about dating and wished him luck.
- Secret-Keeper: She's well-aware that Rock's mother has a secret wild side, having been The Drag-Along a couple of times.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Like her husband, she's very much the Wacky Parent to Willy Zilla's Serious Child.
Serenity Zilla
Voiced by: Stephanie Anne Mills
Willy's older sister and Rock and Crystal's daughter. She is your classic spoiled, boy-crazy teenage girl, and she finds her younger brother to be nothing more than a nuisance.- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: She is a boy-crazy teenage girl who wears a top that exposes quite a lot of her stomach.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: A textbook example, thanks to being spoiled by life as the daughter of a celebrity rock star.
- Drives Like Crazy: Very much so. Her test ends with a comical crash and her having no idea why she got failed. She does end up getting a license at some point, as she racks up a lot of parking tickets and has to do community service when she fails to pay up.
- Dude Magnet: Mostly thanks to her flaunting the fact that Rockzilla is her father.Serenity: All I can tell you is that there's not a boy in that school who won't want to date Rockzilla's daughter.
Willy: 'Til they get to know you, that is. - Foil: Unlike Willy, who would prefer not to have people know he's the son of a celebrity rock star, Serenity flaunts her status as the daughter of Rock Zilla to win the attention of boys and become popular with others.
- Hidden Depths: During her community service, she proves adept at interacting with children and senior citizens.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For as bratty and self-centered as she can be, there are plenty of times that prove Crystal really does love and care about her friends and family (including her younger brother).
Nigel "Skunk" Fanshawe
Voiced by: Don Francks
The English-accented ex-driver of Rock Zilla's tour bus, as well as the best friend of Rock Zilla. He lives on the grounds of the Zilla family's mansion in the tour bus, which has now been placed in the backyard and had the engine removed.- Cool Old Guy: He's noticeably older than any member of the Zilla family, but his laidback attitude and loads of wisdom make him a reliable friend to all of them.
- Large Ham: Not typically, but in Meet the Zillas, he gets in on the act to be the show's host, under his real name of Nigel Fanshawe. It includes a cane, bowler hat, a polka dot bowtie, what appears to be an orange plaid suit and a song and dance routine.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Skunk's real name is only mentioned in one episode.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Willy admits in "Mr. Zilla's Opus" that he just wants some space from his family's nuttiness, Skunk says he gets it. He fully admits he lives in the tour bus because the mansion is full of crazy people.
Mosh
The Zilla family's pet Komodo dragon.
- All Animals Are Dogs: He frequently acts like some scaly, reptilian mutt and is treated by the Zillas the same way that a normal family would with a dog.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's got bright green-and-purple scales despite real-life Komodo dragons being more of a dull shade of grey.
- Informed Species: He looks more like an iguana than a Komodo Dragon considering that he's got green skin and spikes on the back of his head and body and a dewlap under his throat whereas Komodo Dragons have grey skin and no spikes or dewlap under their throat.
- Meaningful Name: A "mosh" pit is an area where moshing (an aggressive and violent form of dancing that involves a lot of body contact and wild movements) occurs, usually at rock and metal concerts.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted. He's basically a friendly puppy dog in a Komodo Dragon's body.
Silent Springs High School
Quincy ("Q")
Voiced by: Martin Villafana
One of Willy's two best friends. Despite his father being an uptight government accountant, he dresses and acts like he's from the ghetto.- Black Best Friend: To Willy.
- Jive Turkey: Subverted. He often speaks in hip-hop slang and dresses the part, but is in fact from a staid white-collar suburban family.
Alyssa
Voiced by: Sarah Gadon
Willy's other best friend and eventual girlfriend. She's a clever and sarcastic girl with a strong interest in environmentalism.- Ambiguously Brown: Although it's implied she might be of mixed ethnicity based on what we see of her parents.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Downplayed in that her navel isn't showing, but her clothes do show off a sliver of her stomach, and she's Willy's closest female friend and Love Interest.
- Deadpan Snarker: Probably the biggest one in the entire series.
- First Girl Wins: She was Willy's first female friend, and they ultimately end up together.
- Official Couple: She and Willy hook up in the final episode.
- Soapbox Sadie: She's often shown to be interested in engaging in protests and other demonstrations for various causes.
Robert "Buzz" Sawchuck
Voiced by: Rob Stefaniuk
The resident bully at Silent Springs High School and arch-nemesis of Willy Zilla. His dad is the head of the school board and president of the Rock Zilla fan club.- Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Alyssa, who usually fires back at his advances with a biting remark.
- The Bully: Full stop. His favourite targets are Willy and Q.
- Jerkass: He's a mean teen all around.
- Wicked Cultured: Despite being brutish and violent, he often talks like a Shakespearean actor and makes lots of long-winded speeches and monologues.
Principal Desmond Malfactor
Voiced by: Jim Millington
The principal of Silent Springs High School. He hates Willy and Rock Zilla.- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He bears an uncanny resemblance to Ed Sullivan.
- Dean Bitterman: He's a strict disciplinarian who runs the school like a dictator. He's even tried to deliberately get Willy expelled from school and has had music class shut down once because he's an enormous cheapskate.
- Given Name Reveal: He gives his first name as Desmond in Meet the Zillas, the thirteenth episode of the series.
Others
Mr. Kant
Voiced by: Dwight Schultz
The Zilla family's next-door neighbour. He despises Rock Zilla and his music, but gets along well with Willy. He has a cat and a dog named Helga and Henderson.- Cranky Neighbour: To the Zillas, whom he hates for their craziness (with the exception of Willy).
Scoop
An unscrupulous paparazzi photographer/reporter who shows up every now and then to harass the Zilla family and try to dig up dirt on them for the tabloids.
- Paparazzi: A classic example. He will do anything to get a scandalous scoop from Rock Zilla if it means reaching the front page of the national newspapers.
- Rock Bottom: How he sees working for tabloids. He couldn't get work anywhere else after being blackballed for inadvertently wrecking one of Rock's concerts.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: To himself. When he was a newbie reporter, he met Rock backstage and behaved appropriately, but then he ate one of the marshmallows on a crew table. Rock freaked because doing so disrupted his preshow ritual; he refused to perform that night and Scoop got the blame, which in turn got him banned for life from Rock's concerts and blackballed by credible news organizations.
- Unwitting Pawn: Willy secures his help for digging up dirt on Buzz in exchange for a tape of an interview in which Rock openly cries and has to be led off the set. Scoop thought it was supremely embarrassing for a rock star, but Willy knew his father thought the tape showed off his sensitive side, which is why he had no problem handing it over. Scoop realizes he was tricked when reporting indicates Rock is being seen in a sympathetic light.
- Villain Respect: Upon realizing Willy tricked him with the interview tape, he commends the boy for beating him at his own game.
