The resident Smart Guy or Girl in Live-Action TV series.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Both halves of "Fitzsimmons": Leo does the physics and engineering stuff, Jemma has two PhDs and handles biochem.
- Alphas: Gary Bell is a high-functioning autistic 20-year-old with transductive powers.
- Arrow: Felicity Smoak — an MIT double major early graduate whose been taking computers apart since she was seven — acts as the hacker and computer specialist for Team Arrow. Generally Oliver, Diggle and their other allies will hit the streets while she mans the comms from afar, although she does sometimes go into the field when needed.
- The A-Team: Face filled this role as the scrounging Con Man who always had a financial scheme up his sleeve. There are episodes where he geeks out over the intricacies of his latest con, and he was shown to be great with doing math in his head quickly. Ironically, Face was also the team's handsome womanizer.
- Barney Miller: Dietrich was a master of low-key wit and arcane knowledge, tossed off in a kind of humblebraggy way.
- Bones: Also plenty to go around. Brennan often fills the role, but Hodgins or Zack have as well, or one of the rotating 'squinterns'.
- The Boys (2019). Lampshaded by Hughie Campbell when he offers to be the tech guy in the van with the thing in his ear for Billy Butcher. Ironically, he does take on this trope (sharing it with Frenchie) due to his previous job of being a sales clerk in an audio-visual store. For instance when Frenchie wants to bug Popclaw's apartment, Hughie points out that a simpler way would be to install their own router which they can use to hack into her webcam.
- Breaking Bad: Saul and Skyler both filled this role.
- Skyler uses an off-hand remark about having two phones to figure out that Walt is a drug dealer, convinces the IRS that fraudulent accounting by a former friend was due to incompetence on her behalf and spins a story about Walt having a gambling problem.
- Saul, meanwhile, portrays the images of a sleazy lawyer but is in fact highly competent, convincing Walt and Jesse to set up a drug empire and helping Skyler obtain a carwash to help launder said drug empire money through.
- Buffyverse:
- Had Giles, and the spinoff Angel had Wesley. Watchers are pretty much Smart Guy incarnate. Angel also had Fred, a mixture of the Smart Guy and The Chick. In addition, Anya could be considered a Smart Guy when talking about demonic matters (with which she has personal experience), although less so in most other matters (such as "how to conduct myself in human society"). Willow was also very smart, as well as magical. Giles was better educated but functioned more as their mentor, whereas Willow was clever/good with computers.
- Between Seasons 6 and 7, Dawn had taken on this role, along with a bit of Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Gunn got in on the Smart Guy role mixed with a bit of Genius Bruiser in Season 5 of Angel, after his brain upgrade.
- Chespirito's shows
- Profesor Jirafales is the smartest of the characters in El Chavo del ocho, with knowledge even superior that the needed for his job as elementary school professor. Among the children Chilindrina is probably the most intelligent but more in the sense that she’s cunning. Ñoño is book-smart but more naïve although he does have good grades unlike Chilindrina.note .
- Botija is the smartest character of Los Caquitos as constantly correct the other characters for their lack of knowledge, especially his accomplice Chompiras and his wife Chimoltrufia that are exceptionally dumb. Licenciado Morales is also very smart, naturally as he's the local District Attorney.
- Chouseishin Series:
- Chouseishin Gransazer: Akira Dentsuin / Sazer-Remls tends to play this role among the Gransazers. Being a doctor, he often applies his medical knowledge whenever one of them gets injured.
- Genseishin Justiriser has Shinya Hiraga / Riser Gant, who acts as the strategist of the Justirisers and is also a robotics expert on the side.
- Chousei Kantai Sazer X: Kane Lucano / Beetle-Sazer plays this role among Sazer-X, acting as their main mechanic and technician for their Ryuuseishin. Although Remy and Ein and Zwein also have enough mechanic expertise to help with repairs on occasion.
- Chuck: Stephen and Ellie both fit. Stephen's work made for the entire plot of the series and Ellie — PhD, MD — is one of the only people that can understand said work.
- Criminal Minds: Dr. Spencer Reid fits this to a T. Although, ironically, he's the tallest person in the cast.
- CSI:
- Dawson's Creek: Both Joey and Andie.
- Doctor Who:
- The Doctor, obviously.
- Some of his companions fulfill this trope, too, most notably Susan (his granddaughter), Zoe Heriot, Romana (who might be smarter than the Doctor himself), allegedly Adric, and Martha.
- Dollhouse: Although many of the workers are intelligent, Topher is the one who best fits this trope.
- Game of Thrones:
- Talisa Maegyr is an adept healer.
- Of all Daenerys' loyalists, Ser Barristan has by far the closest ties to Westeros, making him extremely valuable for more than just his proficiency with violence.
- Glee: At first it looked like Artie would be The Smart Guy for the show's New Directions, but lately the role has started to shift over to organiser extraordinaire (see: 'Le Jazz Hot', Burt and Carole's wedding, the 'Barbra Streisand' flash mob) and genuinely bright kid Kurt Hummel.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: Most prominently Pembleton, who was teaching at Fordham by the time of the 2000 reunion movie. Also John Munch, who would be the undisputed king when he moved to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- House of Anubis: Fabian is the smartest person on Sibuna and is typically the one to solve puzzles and move the team ahead.
- In the third season movie, Mara seems to become this once she joins the team, to Fabian's displeasure and jealousy, as she's even smarter than he is.
- JAG: No one in particular, anyone of the regulars could be the The Smart Guy for the episode of the week.
- Kamen Rider Build: Science Hero Sento Kiryu is this, as he's the one who creates the Transformation Trinkets and weapons used by him and the other Kamen Riders. There's also Sawa Takigawa, who isn't a scientific genius like Sento but a crafty reporter who uses her connections to gather information for Team Build. In episode 28 she and Sento also pull off a pretty impressive plan where they leak half the information on Sento's new form to the villains (who are holding an innocent family hostage). While the villains think they have the advantage, Sento and Sawa have Grease go and rescue the family, at which point Sento reveals the other half of his new form and trounces the villains' trump card.
- Leverage: Hardison is the computer hacker geek of the show's Three-Men-and-Two-Women Band, and pinchhits as the Deadpan Snarker when needed.
- He occasionally faces off against his Arch-Nemesis Chaos, and they end up working together once.
- Lincoln Heights: Lizzie Sutton falls under The Smart Girl version.
- Lost: Sayid Jarrah is an expert in communications technology. In his time on the Island, he has built several radios and fixed a computer. Physicist Daniel Faraday also counts, besides his amnesia and moments where he isn't much clear while explaining. It's also taken up to eleven in Season 4 when he takes a look at a chopper and states that it can fly and even more when he dismantle an H-Bomb, taking its core, later in Season 5.
- Merlin:
- The titular character. He fits into the third variety for the most part (something of a Squishy Wizardnote and, off and on, he uses a magic staff aquired in an early episode) though he has shades of the fifth type, too. In-universe, he's generally regarded as 'mentally afflicted' and enjoys taking jabs at... pretty much everyone. This does not go unpunished.
- Gaius, who is not as powerful as Merlin, but knows a lot about magic. He is also the the court physician and teaches Merlin about medicine.
- NCIS: On Team Gibbs, Tim is at the top of the list, though neither Ducky nor Abby are slouches.
- Noah's Arc: Chance fits this role, being a college professor continually in pursuit of his academics. He also is a bit more withdrawn compared with the rest of the cast, and often will explain more complex matters to the rest of the group (often doubling as Mr. Exposition in the process). Though he doesn't wear them often, hes also the only one of the main cast who wears glasses, and is fairly thin compared to the more muscular (and in Alex's case, thicker) cast members.
- Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn has Ricky, the second-oldest of the titular Harper quadruplets.
- NUMB3RS: Charlie Eppes.
- Outer Banks: Pope is described as “the brains of the operation”, being the smartest of the Pogues and with a scholarship on the line.
- Parker Lewis Can't Lose: Has Jerry. Although his friends Parker and Mikey are not dumb (actually it could be argue that they have more social and emotional intelligence than Jerry) in regards of cold logical intelligence and computer/science sawyness there's no doubt that Jerry is by far the smarter, as he is also the typical nerd.
- Power Rangers:
- Billy Cranston was the first PR smart guy, and it's hard to find one since who's embodied the trope as much as him. He invented their communicators, built a Flying Car and a body-swap machine in his spare time, and was a near-constant lifesaver when it came to fixing out-of-control Zords or teleporting into other dimensions.
- Trip from Time Force is also a good example. Cam from Ninja Storm started out as this before getting the Sixth Ranger suit. When pulling double-duty proved exhausting, he came up with the unique solution of making a Projected Man version of himself to pick up the slack.
- T.J. from Power Rangers in Space is another example. He's managed to save the team with a well-thought out strategy on more than one occasion, including against the Psycho Rangers.
- Pretty Little Liars: Spencer and Aria both fit the bill, depending on the situation. Mona is the villain version of this for the A team.
- Connor Temple from Primeval is not just a nerd, but also a genius.
- Revolution: Aaron Pittman and Maggie Foster share the role in "Pilot", "Chained Heat", and "No Quarter". Aaron is quite knowledgeable about electronics, which is a skill rendered almost obsolete in the wake of a 15-year-long worldwide blackout. Maggie is quite knowledgeable about medicine in general. However, once Maggie dies in "The Plague Dogs", Aaron becomes the one Smart Guy on Team Matheson. After "Nobody's Fault But Mine", Rachel Matheson becomes a contender for this trope.
- Saved by the Bell: Jessica "Jessi" Spano is a straight-A student and the stereotype of the Straw Feminist too. Screech is the stereotype of the nerd but he is hardly considered intelligent outside his academic achievements due to being the Butt-Monkey of the series.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sarah Jane is quite brilliant, although not exactly in the genius sort of way (that title goes to her son).
- Scandal (2012): Huck has aspects; Harrison Wright has others.
- The Secret Circle: Diana. She is the one who is the brains and logic of the Circle.
- Sharpe: Harris of the Chosen Men is a former teacher who joined the army to escape debts. He speaks at least three languages and is the one who usually quotes philosophers or is found reading.
- Sherlock: Being a rare two-person example, Sherlock and John could qualify the Badass Bookworm version of this.
- Oh, and John doubles as The Lancer, since he's the sane one. Plus, he's also Sherlock's Number Two.
- Smallville: Chloe Sullivan was the show's original Smart Guy. She also defies the unattractive part, being elected prom queen and five out of eight of the same-generation main characters has expressed romantic interest in her (and she ended up marrying two of them). In later seasons, the role was shifted to two people: Gadgeteer Genius Emil Hamilton (who was also The Medic, first appearing in Season 8 but never got main character status) and Tess Mercer, a reformed villain (Heel–Face Turn in late Season 9) and Evil Genius who served as the team's Chessmaster, computer hacker, backer, and resident Manipulative Bitch.
- Stargate Atlantis:
- McKay is probably the most egregious example on modern TV; often, the other characters will just sit around and threaten him until he comes up with a plan.
- Samantha Carter is more Badass Bookworm than just The Smart Guy; Zelenka is McKay's much more reserved and polite second in command. The remaining scientists tend to fit a different trope, in no small part as they are not members of the Five-Man Band.
- Stargate SG-1: Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson share the role of The Smart Guy. They do have their own specialties, however, with Samantha Carter being the technology expert/astrophysicist and Daniel Jackson being the archaeologist/anthropologist/linguist. Both of them can be considered Badass Bookworms.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: Has The Spock, who's the science officer on the Enterprise.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- Data. Given that he's an android, with a supercomputer in his head, he can usually come up with solutions that would be at best impractical if they didn't have an android on the crew.
- Geordi LaForge and Dr. Crusher both have elements of this as well. As the ship's chief engineer, Geordi is the resident Gadgeteer Genius and the one who usually repairs Data. Dr. Crusher is obviously The Medic and is also the mother of Wesley.
- Wesley plays with this one; although he's smart and the equal of at least the junior crewmembers on a technical basis, he lacks the credibility (partly due to his young age) to get the people with real power to listen to him. Usually Data will listen to him (because Data is only evaluating Wesley's evidence on its face alone), but occasionally Geordi, Riker, or Picard will be convinced — but never Worf.
- Star Trek: Voyager: Does not have one clear cut Smart Guy, but several members of the crew display various aspects of it. Tuvok is a Vulcan and therefore is naturally The Spock. B'Elanna Torres is the chief engineer and therefore the most tech savvy. The Doctor is obviously The Medic and, like Data, his "brain" is a literal supercomputer. Finally, as a former Borg drone, Seven of Nine has access to the combined knowledge of every alien race that the Borg have ever assimilated.
- Star Trek: Picard: Raffi Musiker had formerly worked for Starfleet Intelligence, so she's the most analytical person on La Sirena. She does the information-gathering for the team and is The Strategist.
- Super Sentai usually has one member of The Team who's the brains (typically either the blue or the green), often because they're the most bookish of the team.
- The Choujuu Sentai Liveman are an entire team of this. They're all genius university students who built their own transformation gear and mecha. The villains they fight meanwhile are a team of Evil Geniuses.
- Top Gear (UK): James May, whose interest in detail and facts borders on obsession and alternately amuses and bores his non-scholarly co-presenters.
- Torchwood: Ianto Jones and Toshiko Sato both fit this.
- Ultra Series examples:
- Mitsuhiro Ide from Ultraman is the original Ultra-example, as he was the guy who created the various gadgets that Science Patrol used against the Monster of the Week, and would fix their hi-tech weapons and planes. He also did double duty as the Plucky Comic Relief.
- Amagi from Ultraseven. His I.Q. is stated to be 200, and he serves as the strategist for the Ultra Garrison. On the other hand, he's also a Non-Action Guy and tends to be rather twitchy.
- Ultraman Tiga's Masami Horii shared the role with Teen Genius Jun Yazumi. In Sequel Series Ultraman Dyna, Tsutomu Nakajima succeeds Horii, although Kouhei Kariya's expertise in archaeology could qualify him a little.
- Koji Doigaki from Ultraman Cosmos. Although also a Fat Comic Relief, his expertise in science and technology was critical in a number of missions against Chaos Header or subduing a rampaging kaiju.
- Teppei Kuze from Ultraman Mebius, a medical student and monster nerd who knew pretty much everything about every kaiju that had appeared in a previous show. Since the show has a lot of returning monsters, he got to show off his expertise quite a bit.
- Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle divided the role between Oki and Kumano, with the former being a kaiju nerd and the latter acting as the Pendragon's mechanic.
- The Vampire Diaries: Stefan. He is intelligent, academic and scholarly.
- Vikings: Due to his upbringing as a Catholic monk, Athelstan is the most well-educated character on the show. Unlike the Vikings, he can read and write multiple languages as well as speak them, spent time in Charlemagne's court, and displays a great deal of knowledge on cultures and religions outside of his own, including Ancient Rome and its predecessors. By the time of Athelstan's capture in Wessex, he has also become the foremost expert of Saxon blood on the Norsemen, their culture, and paganism in general.
- James Trivette of Walker, Texas Ranger, who prefers the modern approach to tracking down the bad guys, typically using computers and cellphones.
- Weird Science: Lisa has superhuman intelligence, as she was designed as such. Not that Wyatt and Gary are dumb as they are actually Stereotypical Nerds but they do can be very naïve and/or immature. The only really dumb character is Chett.
- The West Wing: No one of the regulars was shown as unintelligent, but Toby was the only one who's intellect was regularly shown to rival that of President Bartlett.
