Characters / Diary of a Wimpy Kid

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Greg's closest friend, Rowley is positive and cheerful, but also childlike and naïve. Despite this, he manages to be more popular than Greg is with other children at school.

• Achievements in Ignorance: Throughout the books, he succeeds at a lot of things that Greg fails at, such as getting a girlfriend, becoming the school's newspaper cartoonist, winning a spot on the yearbook's favorites page, and even appearing on TV. Rowley accomplishes some of these things (most of which involve becoming popular) because he's a likable Nice Guy and some just because he seems to be luckier than Greg, who always tries too hard and usually ends up with little to show for it.
• All-Loving Hero: Rowley has a pure soul and only wishes the best for everyone.
• Ambiguously Bi: Sometimes, Rowley's actions are a bit suspect, especially with Greg. You'd think that a twelve-year-old boy would realize that sharing a "Best Friends" locket (in the shape of a heart) with another twelve-year-old boy wouldn't be something straight people do. It could be argued that he's just completely unaware of these things considering that he is a Cloudcuckoolander and is completely sheltered, however. That said, he does hook up with Abigail. He also has an obvious crush on his female teacher and his Author Avatar in "Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure" gets Ship Tease exclusively with female characters.
• Barely Changed Dub Name: His name in the French books is "Robert", which ironically is his father's original English name, and the name of the actor who plays him in the first three films.
• Big Fun: Larger than Greg, and more cheerful and optimistic than him.
• Blaming the Tools: In one book, Rowley insists that volleyball is called "bolleyball", and when he can't find that word in the dictionary, he decides the dictionary must be outdated.
• Born Lucky: Although he can be a Butt-Monkey on occasion, he has much better luck than Greg and even got a girlfriend at one point.
• Bumbling Sidekick: Greg's bumbling, often annoying best friend.
• Butt-Monkey: At times, mostly as an indirect result of Greg's actions, so he RARELY receives respect.
• Camp Straight: He likes pop music, which isn't particularly a masculine interest, and yet managed to get in a relationship with Abigail for two books. He also has a crush on his female teacher.
• Catchphrase: "Zoo-Wee-Mama!"
• Character Development: Throughout the books, Rowley learns to stand up for himself and grow a spine instead of blindly following people (including Greg).
• Childish Tooth Gap: He's illustrated with one of these.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Rowley acts like he's "out of it" sometimes.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: He doesn't seem to be all that interested in girls, yet in Rodrick Rules, he manages to socialize with some of the most popular girls in his grade.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: As the main character of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, he's this to the usual narrator Greg. Greg is The Cynic who dislikes most people except himself, while Rowley is a naive and innocent Wide-Eyed Idealist.
• A Day in the Limelight: He's the main character of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid.
• Demoted to Extra: The later books make him appear way less often and speak even less. He would return to being a main character in Party Pooper.
• Deuteragonist: Of the book series and the first movie.
• The Ditz: He often says and does ignorant things. Part of this is because of Greg's depiction of him. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid shows that he's naive, gullible, and does have moments of being ditzy, but he's smarter than Greg usually gives him credit for.
• Ditzy Genius: He's very school-smart and works hard in class, but he has a pretty severe blind spot for Greg's mistreatment of him.
• Does Not Like Spam: According to Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, he hasn't been able to eat anything with cheese in it, ever since the incident with the Cheese. He can't even bring himself to write down the word "cheese".
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • In "Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid", he hits Greg with his journal after being treated like garbage for the entire book.
  • The first movie has him give Greg a well-deserved Shut Up, Hannibal! after the latter reveals he abandoned the children.
• Dumbass Has a Point: The very few times Rowley calls out Greg for being unfair, he's usually right.
• Dumb Is Good: Rowley may not have the most common sense, but everyone likes him better than Greg.
• Endearingly Dorky: Rowley is a naive and gullible Kiddie Kid who doesn't have a mean bone in his body. While his friend Greg finds him childish and annoying, Rowley is actually better liked by his classmates than Greg is and even becomes a Clueless Chick-Magnet on more than one occasion. In the third book, Holly even signed his yearbook saying "you are so cute" with "cute" being underlined three times.
• Extreme Doormat: He usually just goes along with Greg's ideas, even though Greg often uses him and makes him do all of the work.
• Fat and Skinny: The Big Fun to Greg's Lean and Mean anti-hero.
• Fat Best Friend: He is to Greg what Patrick is to Spongebob.
• Fat Comic Relief: He's a little wide around the edges, and is a comedic relief character.
• Fat Idiot: Downplayed, as he's chubby but not that fat, and ditzy but not completely stupid. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid supports the latter, revealing that he has a 95 in math while Greg has a 72.
• Flanderization: Rowley was simply gullible and slow on the uptake before becoming the Kiddie Kid. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid seems to rerail his characterization.
• Foil: To Greg. Greg is a skinny, cynical, Jerkass and Butt-Monkey, while Rowley is chubby, optimistic, nice, and Born Lucky.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Gleeful to Greg's Grumpy.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, he talks about his friend Greg who obviously comes off as a jerk and a bad friend. But even when describing all of Greg's With Friends Like These... moments, Rowley insists Greg is awesome and doesn't understand why his father doesn't like him.
• Idiot Hero: In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, he's the main character and has more heroic intentions than Greg, but is still completely clueless and easily manipulated by his friend.
• Innocent Means Naïve: Rowley is very innocent–– he can't handle horror movies, his favorite musician is targeted towards little girls, and he still uses childish vocabulary like "come to my house and play". He even thinks puberty is contagious. He also has little to no awareness of Greg's toxicity.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He's a fan of some rather effeminate pop singers.
• Kiddie Kid: He's very childish for someone his age, and at one of his birthday parties, all his guests aside from Greg are six-year-olds (albeit because they were all from his karate class).
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He means well for the most part.
• The Lancer: As Greg's sidekick.
• Made of Iron: The first book ends with him surviving being force-fed "the Cheese", a piece of cheese that has been sitting in the outdoors growing mold for a year and change, with no immediately apparent (physical) damage.
• Momma's Boy: His mother is overly loving and protective towards him, especially seen in the third film. This may explain Rowley's Kiddie Kid behavior.
• Nice Guy: In sharp contrast to his friend Greg, he is a decent guy to be around.
• The Noseless: His art style, where he only puts exaggerated noses to express gonk in his fictional comics. Greg disapproves of this choice, likely thinking he's just forgetting to draw them.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Frank treats him like a Lethal Klutz because he dropped and broke a plate one time, entirely by accident, as a fairly young kid.
• Only Friend: To Greg, who doesn't appear to have any actual friends other than him.
• Out of Focus: Has suffered this in recent books after "Wrecking Ball", either not showing up or only making brief appearences.
• Pain to the Ass: Sits on Manny's tinfoil ball made for Gregory in "Rodrick Rules," hurting his rear on the toothpicks that have been embedded in it.
• Perpetual Smiler: In contrast to Greg, he almost always is smiling.
• The Pollyanna: He's much more optimistic than Greg.
• Precocious Crush: Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid reveals that he has one on his math teacher, Ms. Beck, which Greg teases him about.
• Rule of Symbolism: Rowley's head is square-shaped. Symbolically, Evil Is Angular because sharp points seem dangerous. Round shapes usually connote good because of their lack of sharpness. Squares, on the other hand, are the sturdiest of the three main shapes, and they're often used to represent consistency.
  • Rowley almost always sticks by Greg no matter how horrible he gets.
  • Moreover, Rowley never admits defeat, such as when he insisted "volleyball" started with the letter "b" even after the dictionary proved him wrong.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy (childish and naive Nice Guy) to Greg's Manly Man (Jerkass Casanova Wannabe).
• Smarter Than You Look: Though he's pretty terrible at situational awareness and has trouble with spelling, he's revealed to be quite skilled in mathematics.
• Spoiled Sweet: Rowley's family is well-off enough that they have a membership to a country club, but he's a very nice kid.
• Status Quo Is God: No matter how deep the rift between him and Greg gets, they ultimately go back to being friends again.
• Straw Loser: Invoked by Greg. Being fat and childish, he seems to be even more pathetic than Greg. However, all signs point to Rowley actually being a great deal more popular than Greg, simply because he's just nice to everyone and doesn't try too hard to be cool.
• Stupid Good: He's one if not the nicest character in the stories, but also one of the dumbest.
• Supporting Protagonist: In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid. Rowley was originally going to talk about his own life in his diary, but Greg forced him to make all the diaries about Greg, so we see Rowley's life mainly in relation to him.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, he denies having a crush on his math teacher, Ms. Beck, although he thinks she's super nice, smells good, bases Awesome Guy's love interest off of her, and would like to buy her nice things like a fancy car and drive her around in it if he was rich. Greg sees through it.
• Terrible Artist: Greg describes Rowley as a terrible artist in the first book when Rowley reveals his art style.
  Greg: And believe it or not, Rowley's drawing skills are worse than his writing skills.
• Unintentionally Karmic: Rowley (foolishly) believes that Greg is the best thing since sliced bread, and will follow him anywhere and do anything he says, no questions asked. However, his childish personality and somewhat moronic nature often embarrass and ruin things for Greg.
• Unreliable Narrator: More innocent and unintentional than Greg, but he's this in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid. While Rowley is more honest and open in comparison to Greg, he has the mentality of a child and is always blind to Greg's mistreatment of him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Completely one-sided on Greg's part, as Rowley has nothing but cheerfulness to offer.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Played for laughs in the first movie, when Rodrick says he's going to kill Greg after catching them in his room and Rowley clings to Rodrick's leg to hold him off (and Rodrick yells, "Let go, baby hippo!")

Another school kid who lives in Greg's neighborhood, Fregley is mostly distinguished by his long list of bizarre habits and idiosyncrasies. Greg mostly tries to avoid him.

• Adaptational Attractiveness: While calling him ugly may be a bit of a stretch, Fregley is considerably much dowdier in the books. He has messy, unkept hair, a wide-open mouth with round teeth and wears goofy-looking glasses. In the movies, he's played by the thick-haired Grayson Russell and wears normal-looking glasses.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the books, Greg disliked Fregley and refused to be anywhere near him. In the movies, while he still freaks out Greg a little bit, because he hangs out with Greg, Rowley and Chirag quite a bit, it can be assumed that Fregley is one of Greg's friends (or Greg and the others are at least more able to tolerate him around).
• All of the Other Reindeer: He's a social outcast whom nobody likes (though it's not like one could blame them, given his grossness and lack of personal space).
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He tends to get distracted easily.
• Attention Whore: He constantly does things to get a reaction from others.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After Hard Luck, he's been absent in the books. He does come back for The Meltdown and Wrecking Ball, but disappears once again afterwards.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's considered the class weirdo who's frequently trying to show off his belly button and collects weird objects.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His wrestling match against Greg. He pinned the boy in every way possible.
• Disease by Any Other Name: Fregley is implied to be neurodivergent. He has his own made-up language, acts very strange around other kids, struggles with personal space and likes to play his own made-up games.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In "Hard Luck", he becomes one of the popular kids.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the online version, Fregley is homeschooled, while the books and movies show him attending the same middle school as Greg and Rowley.
• Eye Glasses: He has these in the books.
• Flanderization: His Cloudcuckoolander tendencies are kicked up a few dozen notches in Hard Luck.
• Hidden Depths: Who would have expected him to be good at wrestling?
• Informed Attribute: Greg comments that he's heard Fregley is actually really smart, but his opinion is that "someone who sits in their yard and packs dirt in their ears can't be all that sharp."
• I Just Want to Have Friends:
  • In Hard Luck, it is shown that Fregley desires to have friends but does not have any due to his unpopularity. Fortunately, he gets his wish when he becomes one of the popular kids thanks to his unique ability to eat with his belly button.
  • The film adaptation (particularly the sequels) has him hanging out with Greg, Rowley, and Chirag, heavily implying they are able to tolerate him at the least.
• Keet: Always a very hyperactive and annoying Cloudcuckoolander.
• Nerd Glasses: A dorky kid with glasses.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Known for his many disturbing activities and disgusting quirks.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Greg is very much creeped out by Fregley's quirky behavior. And that's not counting the fact that Greg and Rowley are understandably fooled into thinking he was the infamous "devil worshipper" that Rodrick warned them about. Oh, and the live-action adaptation of the Muddy Hand? That's an old Wilderness Explorer story narrated by him.
• No Full Name Given: Unlike Greg's other friends, his last name is not revealed.
• Non Sequitur: He tends to drop random and gross lines whenever Greg walks by his house, such as "Wanna see my secret freckle?" and "I bet I can fit your whole foot in my mouth!"
• Non-Standard Character Design: No other character has his head shape.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He often gets disturbingly close to others.
• No Social Skills: He doesn't seem to understand that flashing his chest hair to others or chasing Greg with one of his boogers is inappropriate behavior.
• Perpetual Smiler: He's almost always drawn with that wide grin of his.
• Potty Dance: In the first book. Accompanied by his cry of, "Juice!"
• Redheads Are Uncool: Fregley is the least popular kid in the school, and in the movies, he has red hair.
• Sixth Ranger: Implied in the second and third live-action movies. In the first movie, Greg finds him to be too creepy to hang out with. The second and third movies (especially the latter) actually have him hanging out with Greg and his friends, implying that although he still squicks him out, Greg might've changed his mind.
• Straw Loser: Another outcast "friend" to Greg and Rowley, and they are the cool ones compared to him. Subverted in Hard Luck when Greg starts hanging out with him (although that was just to mold Fregley into another Rowley), Fregley becomes very popular with other students, much to Greg's dismay.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Fregley is an extremely unpopular student, but he does get a few moments of fame:
  • In "Hard Luck", Fregley manages to win "Most Popular" by virtue of his ability to chew food and blow bubblegum with his bellybutton.
  • In the first film, Fregley easily pins Greg multiple times in wrestling class, getting cheered on by the rest of his classmates.
• Weird Homeschooled Kid: Although he's only homeschooled in the online version, Fregley is a very strange kid who has his own made-up language (like yelling, "Juice! Juice!!" when he needs to use the bathroom), sits in the yard and packs dirt in his ears, and likes to play strange games like "Slap and Tickle" and "Diaper Whip". Greg tries to avoid him as much as possible.

Another kid in Greg's grade. Chirag is mostly a bit character in the books but becomes a secondary friend of Greg's in the movies.

• Adaptational Comic Relief: In the films, Chirag is a lot hammier and has a thick Indian accent, which his book counterpart seems to lack.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Zigzagged. In the books, Chirag's hostility towards Greg is very well-deserved. In the movies, he's extremely condescending and arrogant. Unlike in the books, however, Greg and Chirag actually share somewhat of a friendship in the movies. However, in the Disney+ movies, due to almost every one of his classmates being jerkasses to each other (and mainly to Greg), this applies to him, as he becomes Rowley’s replacement friend, but after that, when Rowley eats the cheese, and no one saw he attempts to yell out that Rowley ate the cheese, and he’s only stopped when Greg interrupts him and says he ate the cheese.
• Against My Religion: Greg is jealous of Chirag because ––since he doesn't celebrate Christmas–– Chirag doesn't have to behave for Santa Claus. His exact religion is never specified. India isn't religiously homogenous, but the surname "Gupta" indicates that he's most likely Hindu.
• The Artifact: Chirag's full name is of Indian origin. In the animated movie, he's black, but his name isn't changed.
• Ascended Extra: He's only occasionally mentioned in the books as one of Greg's classmates. In the movies, he gets a more active role, being the occasional Mr. Exposition.
• Bully Magnet: Due to his small stature, Chirag gets picked on a lot by the other students, including Greg himself, who started the "Invisible Chirag" joke.
• Butt-Monkey: He's sometimes picked on because of his short height. Also, in the second movie and book, when Greg plays the "Invisible Chirag" joke on him.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Hasn't appeared since book 6. He's still making appearances in the animated movies, though.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Chirag may look small, but as Greg notes, he packs an extremely hard punch for his size. However, he's not an idiotic character and is averagely intelligent.
• The Dog Bites Back: In both the book series and the live-action movies, Chirag retaliates against Greg for the "invisible Chirag" joke.
• Funny Foreigner: Not so much in the books, where his Indian heritage is largely treated as incidental and most of the comedy involving him comes from the situations that he finds himself in, but the movies dial up his more foreign traits and make him more of a comic relief character.
• Inverted Trope: His movie counterpart serves to invert Culturally Sensitive Adaptation. The live-action films make Chirag much more of a racial stereotype. In the book, he wasn't described as having any unusual vocal mannerisms. However, in the live action movie, he speaks in exaggerated Stereotypical South Asian English. His actor, Karan Brar, has an American accent, and he had to see a dialect coach to get the role. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot", a book released after the live action films, introduced another South Asian character named Preet Patel. The polar opposite of the Bollywood Nerd stereotype, Preet is characterized as the star of Greg's baseball team.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he frequently comes off as condescending and arrogant in the movies, he nevertheless has his share of nicer moments. Most notably, he saves Greg from getting the cheese touch (the first time) and has Greg and Frank's backs when they find out how much of a jerkass Stan Warren is.
• Mr. Exposition: Tells Greg and Rowley about the Cheese in the 1st movie and Holly Hills in the 2nd.
• Older Than They Look: Greg says Chirag could pass for a first grader, but he is the same age as him.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's the shortest kid in class, but Greg mentions that he can punch hard.
• Race Lift: While he's Indian in most of the franchise's media, the animated movie makes him black.
• The Rival: To Greg in the 2nd film. Both of them like Holly Hills.
• Stalker with a Crush: "What? I Googled her."
• Token Minority: He's the only regularly recurring character of color in the series.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite their rivalry for Holly's affections, Greg still hangs around him. He even helps Greg with his revenge scheme against a rival scout troop and defends him when it's exposed.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Briefly disguises himself as Holly to make fun of Greg in the 2nd movie.

Played by: Laine MacNeil (2010-2012), Lila Bahng (2025-present)

A girl at Greg's school. Patty and Greg aren't the best of friends, in fact, they are deathly enemies.

• Abled in the Adaptation: She doesn't wear glasses in the films.
• Academic Alpha Bitch: In the movies. She is the class president and seems to be abusing her power.
• Academic Athlete: Class president and teacher's pet, she's also great at wrestling, soccer, and tennis. Though the "athlete" part only applies to the movie version.
• Adaptational Badass: In the movies, she's a stellar athlete, being good at wrestling, soccer, and tennis, when in the books, she's only shown to be academically smart.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Dark-haired in the books, blond in the movies.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, Patty is a teacher's pet at worst and is only implied to be an Attention Whore — in fact, she's never directly interacted with Greg ^note Besides denying him access to the bathroom when put in charge of their class — while in the movies, she's a nasty two-faced egomaniac who goes out of her way to antagonize Greg. The animated movies also depict a more hostile relationship between both, though Patty is nowhere near as mean as she was in the live-action films.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the books, Greg hates Patty because she ruined his chance to ace a state capitals quiz without studying. His desk was next to a map of the US with all the state capitals labeled, but she told the teacher and got it covered up. In the films, it's the other way around, and Patty hates Greg because he once made fun of her in kindergarten ("Patty, Patty is a fatty! Has a face just like a ratty!")
• Always Someone Better: In the movies, she seems to always beat Greg at everything.
• Ascended Extra: Has a bigger role in the movies than in the books.
• Attention Whore: She wanted to be in the most prominent role of Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz" school play and, in the movies, was pissed when Greg was chosen.
• Big Bad Ensemble: One of the main antagonists in the first movie, along with Rodrick and Pete Hosey.
• Blind Without 'Em: In the books. The reason why the school play had to be cut short is because she broke her glasses.
• Braids of Action: In the movies, her hair is in braided pigtails, and she's given the Adaptational Badass treatment.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Since her last appearance in The Last Straw, she hasn't been seen ever since.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: She easily bests Greg in wrestling in the first movie. Happens again in the third movie where she easily wins in tennis against Greg AND Rowley.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Her thoughts on Rowley wildly change from the first to the third movie. She seems to be friendly to him in the first movie, cheering him on in his "fight" against Greg and hugging him and wishing him a good summer, but in the third movie, she's just as aggressive to him as she is to Greg when playing tennis and is shown to be exasperated when trying to teach him how to play.
  • Likewise for her feelings for Holly. They have no interactions in the second movie, but Patty seems to be indifferent to her as she rolls her eyes annoyed when people clap at Holly's presentation. Come the third movie and they're best friends and are seen talking together and playing tennis with each other.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the movie, she is brutally vindictive to Greg, for insulting her in kindergarten.
• Freudian Excuse: In the movie, it's shown in a flashback that she was bullied by Greg in kindergarten and it's implied that he did it more than once, suggesting that's why she hates him now.
• Girlish Pigtails: Subverted. Even though her hair is tied in pigtails, she is not at all girly.
• Jerkass: In the movies, where she's bratty, rude, and even more selfish than Greg.
• Jerkass to One: Type II. She's a mean jerk and doesn't hide it from anybody, but she treats Greg the worst.
• Jerk Jock: A rare female example. Not only does she beat Greg at wrestling in the movie (which doesn't happen in the book version), but she's also violent when it comes to playing tennis.
• Karma Houdini: She didn't get punished for yelling at the drama teacher, threatening to ruin her life unless she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz school play. She also goes psycho on Greg when he is unable to sing in the middle of the play, and yet she doesn't get punished.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: However, she gets her just desserts when in Rodrick Rules (movie version), a bird splatters bird poop on her head.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Movie adaptation only: The Mean to Holly's Nice and Angie's Inbetween.
• Noodle Incident: In the films, she's beaten up Greg in kindergarten and fourth grade, but neither incident is seen onscreen.
• Not So Above It All:
  • In the second film, Patty rats out Greg for (accidentally) passing her a note reading "How do you get your hair to smell so beautiful?" When Greg gets punished, Patty does take time to sniff one of her braids, curious to see if Greg is actually right.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but she is clearly seen in the background in the lunchroom laughing at Greg's continued prank on Chirag amongst the others despite her clear animosity toward the former.
• Odd Friendship: Despite being a Jerkass, in the movies she's on good terms with a Nice Girl like Holly.
• Pet the Dog: She does seem to act friendly to Holly, as they're seen having a friendly conversation in the third movie and playing Tennis together. And she does try to help Rowley learn how to play tennis better, even if she gets aggravated with him not getting the gist of it
• The Rival: She is Greg's worst enemy, especially in the movies.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She uses her mom's is the head of the PTA as an excuse to be a Jerkass in school.
• Spoiled Brat: Her mother in the movies is the head of the PTA, so she gets what she wants from the teachers.
• Teacher's Pet: She mentions her Mom's Responsibility to fire a teacher if she doesn't get what she wants.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Inverted. In the movie adaptation, Patty is a mean-spirited tomboy to Holly's kind-hearted girly girl.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Movie adaptation only: The Tomboy (an aggressive and temperamental Academic Alpha Bitch who loves wrestling and sports) to Holly's Girly Girl (a sweet, bubbly and cheerful Girl Next Door who's commonly associated with the color pink).
• Tomboyness Upgrade: She goes from a serious student in the books to an aggressive and violent Passionate Sports Girl in the movies.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: In the movies, she's a violent and aggressive girl who is interested in wrestling and sports, but she’s also a preppy Academic Alpha Bitch who likes theatre, has braided pigtails, and wears a frilly pink dress during the talent show.
• Town Girls: Movie adaptation only: the Butch to Holly's Femme and Angie's Neither. Although Holly and Angie never appear together, they are the three most prominent girls in Greg's school.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: At least from Greg's perspective. Their first "interaction" was when Patty told the teacher to cover up the United States map during their states capital quiz, in which she unknowingly foils Greg's plan to cheat by looking at the map and resulting in him failing.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The only flashback about her childhood shows her as a sensitive little girl who cries after being insulted by Greg, but now she's always aggressive, especially to Greg. It's also implied that she Took a Level in Jerkass immediately after that, when she was still a little kid, since Patty mentions that she has beaten up Greg in kindergarten.
• You Don't Look Like You: In the animated credits for Rodrick Rules (2011), she's given lighter hair and no glasses, making her resemble her actor more.

Played by: Chloë Grace Moretz

A movie-only character.

• Big Sister Mentor: She tries to be this to Greg and Rowley, but the former won't listen to her.
• Canon Foreigner: She's one of the few characters who does not appear in the books.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She's never seen or mentioned after the first movie. Maybe she moved away and transferred to another school, but it's not confirmed.
• Deadpan Snarker: "This place is an intellectual wasteland."
• High School Is Hell: Seems to have this view about middle school.
• Hollywood Beauty Standards: She's a very pretty school journalist.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The Inbetween to Holly's Nice and Patty's Mean.
• School Newspaper Newshound: She works for the school newspaper.
• Single Serving Friend: She befriends Rowley and (eventually) Greg in the first movie, but is not even mentioned in the sequels.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She and Patty are both the Tomboys to Holly Hills' Girly Girl.
• Town Girls: The Neither to Patty's Butch and Holly's Femme. Although Holly and Angie never appear together, they are the three most prominent girls in Greg's school.

One of the prettiest girls in the middle school, and the subject of Greg's longtime crush. It is not entirely clear that she even knows who he is.

• The Ace: Summed up by Chirag — "She is an all-star soccer player, has done professional modeling, and was her 6th-grade class president... what? I Googled her!"
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Sort of. While there isn't any indication of her being unpleasant or mean in the books, we simply don't know enough about her to judge. The movie version is more fleshed-out; an overly sweet, bubbly, friendly girl who likes to be with her friends and do good deeds for others.
• Adaptation Name Change: Holly Hills is called "Piper Matthews" in the online diary.
• Alliterative Family: Holly and Heather Hills.
• Alliterative Name: Holly Hills
• Ascended Extra: Her character and personality were hardly explored in the books, but she gets a bigger role in the movies.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: In the movie, this is played up when compared to Patty. The sweet Holly always appears as a pretty and fashionable girl with a bright and innocent smile. The cruel Patty is portrayed as an unfashionable, dorky-looking girl with braces, and her actress often gives her not-so-pretty facial expressions (with intentional Large Ham acting) to make her even more obnoxious.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Downplayed in the movies (where she gets more screen time) but Holly is noticeably much more cheerful and friendly than the snarky and cynical Greg.
• Class Princess: In the movies, she's still one of the prettiest and most popular girls in her grade, and her personality is fleshed out as a nice and friendly girl who willingly hangs out with "losers" like Greg and Rowley.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: In the movie sequels, she replaces Angie as a blonde female friend to Greg and Rowley and as a sympathetic foil to Patty Farrell. Angie was snarky and cynical, disliked by Greg, and The Not-Love Interest. Holly is sweet and innocent, loved by Greg, and his main Love Interest.
• Everyone Has Standards: Holly is known as a Nice Girl, and even she's disgusted and creeped out, understandably so, by Fregley as shown in My Summer Vacation.
• Girl Next Door: To Greg in the movies. She's a Nice Girl who serves as his Love Interest.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In the film version, she's portrayed as a very Nice Girl. She willingly hangs out with "class losers" like Greg and Rowley.
• Innocently Insensitive: She initially mistakes Greg for Fregley, which unknowingly offends and shocks Greg.
• Maybe Ever After: With Greg, implied at the end of the third movie as they hold hands.
• Middle Child Syndrome: According to the second movie, she has a mean older sister and a spoiled younger sister, which makes her similar to Greg.
• Mirror Character: The movie version is this to Angie. Both are nice blondes who befriend Greg and (to a lesser extent) Rowley but there's an important difference. Although she's intelligent and pretty, Angie doesn't seem to be very popular at school while Holly is one of the most popular girls at school. Although she was one of Greg's friends, Angie was The Not-Love Interest and was just one of Greg's friends and nothing more. Holly was promoted to Greg's love interest and it's subtly implied that they got together at the end of the third movie.
• Morality Pet:
  • Greg is shown to have quite a soft spot for her.
  • In the movies, this also extends to Patty as she's the only person we see her acting friendly too. She even manages to stop Patty from beating up Greg after he snarks at her.
• Nice Girl: In stark contrast to the film version of Heather, she is a kind, friendly, sweet girl.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Movie adaptation only: The Nice to Patty's Mean and Angie's Inbetween.
• Odd Friendship: In the movies, she's on good terms with Patty. Her friendship with losers like Greg and Rowley also counts in a Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship kind of way.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In the books, Greg has a shallow crush on her, but there's no indication she even knows or cares who he is and they never have real interaction. The movies upgrade her to a real love interest by giving her and Greg an actual point of bonding (namely, their shared Middle Child Syndrome and problems with their siblings) and a genuine friendship, which leads her to reciprocate his feelings.
• Satellite Love Interest: More so in the books. In the second and third movies, she gets more personality.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Her older sister Heather is a jerk, her younger sister is spoiled, but Holly is a good-natured kid.
• Spoiled Sweet: Unlike her Spoiled Brat sister, she's a perfectly nice person despite her wealthy background.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Inverted. In the movie adaptation, Holly is a kind-hearted girly girl to Patty's mean-spirited tomboy.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • Movie adaptation only: The Girly Girl (a sweet, bubbly and cheerful Girl Next Door who's commonly associated with the color pink) to Patty's and Angie's Tomboys (the former is an aggressive and temperamental Academic Alpha Bitch who loves wrestling and sports and the latter is a loser who's commonly associated with the color blue).
• Town Girls: Movie adaptation only: the Femme to Patty's Butch and Angie's Neither. Although Holly and Angie never appear together, they are the three most prominent girls in Greg's school.

• The Ace: According to the second movie, Rowley calls him an athlete, whose soccer skills are only bested by Holly.
• Adaptational Hair Style Change: He has short hair on the sides and long hair on the top that is combed upwards in the original books. In the live-action movies, he has messy, long hair.
• Big Man on Campus: The most popular kid in Greg's grade.
• Chick Magnet: Greg is jealous of his apparent popularity with girls.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After the eighth book, he doesn't appear in the series anymore.
• Crazy-Prepared: When he ran a restaurant of sorts at his house, he had one of his cronies guard the area with a pellet gun.
• Gang of Bullies: Has a group of goons under his employ who worked at his restaurant. The "bullies" part might be subverted since they never actually bullied anyone (that we know of).
• Girls Have Cooties: According to Greg, he used to think "Girls are stinky-poos!" in elementary school, but now he's a Chick Magnet.
• Jerk Jock: How Greg puts it, but it's mostly an Informed Attribute.
• A Lady on Each Arm: When Bryce is introduced in the first movie, he has his arms wrapped around two girls, one on each side of him.
• School Idol: Most of the girls at Greg's school have a crush on him, and a good number of boys worship him.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The last we see of Collin is him running away from Greg when Patty calls the latter out for having the Cheese Touch. It's not even shown whether or not he still remains friends with Rowley.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Heavily implied to be this, as Collin immediately dips with everyone else when Greg gets the cheese touch. It's safe to say he would've done the same to Rowley had Greg not taken the blame when the former ate the cheese.
• Replacement Goldfish: Takes over as Rowley's best friend (albeit temporarily) after Rowley's relationship with Greg is strained.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Collin is never seen again after he (and everyone else) run from Greg when he gets the cheese touch, especially after Rowley and Greg make up.

One of the smartest kids in the school.

• Adapted Out: His first book appearance is Rodrick Rules, but he doesn't appear in any of the movies.
• Alliterative Name: Alex Aruda.
• Bookworm: He reads dictionaries.
• Genius Sweet Tooth: In No Brainer, he apparently craves lollipops.
• Not So Stoic: In "No Brainer", he deliberately makes a mess to get in trouble so he could get a lollipop after learning Greg has been handing them out as part of his Principal For A Day and then he starts crying when he is in the office, likely from never being in trouble before.
• The Smart Guy: He's the smartest kid in class.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He has a pair of typical Nerd Glasses.
• The Stoic: He hardly ever changes expression. Subverted in "No Brainer", as described above.

• Ascended Extra: Starting in Old School, he makes a brief appearance in the books telling students about stories with an occasional absence.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: He recalls watching a film where a prisoner escaped captivity by digging a tunnel with nothing but a spoon. When his listeners try to put this into practice while trying to escape a school lock-in party, they find themselves unable to make a dent in the linoleum floor.
• Fat Idiot: He's pretty overweight and, assuming he's not deliberately lying with his stories, extremely gullible to everything he hears.
• Insane Troll Logic: As fears of Silas Scratch begin circulating around Hardscrabble Farms, students begin telling contradictory stories of when they supposedly saw him. Sandy explains this confusion away as Silas using the farm's sewage system to travel around the camp quickly, which is how he can potentially be seen at two locations around the same time.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He claims you can dig holes in the floor with a spoon without any other tools to get started, and that spit can freeze in the air.
• Real After All: In No Brainer, he actually gets something right for once when the construction crew renovating the school finds a bunch of money that Albert had previously claimed embezzling former Principal Larry Mack hid on school grounds.
• Running Gag: A recurring joke in the series is for Sandy to tell the other students a sensational claim and prompt Greg and/or the other students to try it (and fail).
  • In The Last Straw, Sandy claims that a man learned how to jump like a kangaroo by jumping in and out of progressively deeper holes. Greg and Rowley attempt the same thing, but all sorts of hinderances, like Susan's interference and snowfall, throw a wrench in their plans.
  • While the boys discuss how to escape the Lock-In sleepover, Sandy proposes digging their way out, claiming that he saw a guy from a movie do the same thing to escape prison. When the students try to do same thing, they can't even make a dent in the linoleum floor and discover that it was all a bunch of "Hollywood baloney".
  • On a cold day, he claims that a person's spit can freeze before it hits the ground. When everyone tests Sandy's claim, it's not only wrong, but also creates chaos as students begin spitting on each other.
• The Storyteller: His defining character trait is to tell Greg and the other students buzzworthy stories, usually about people performing supernatural feats.
• Two First Names: Sandy can also be a first name, though it's usually a girl's name.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Greg tries to be nice to Ruby because he's terrified of her, but he worries that he's being too nice to her and is scared by the idea that she might develop a crush on him. We never get to find out her feelings on the matter.
• The Bus Came Back: After only appearing in The Third Wheel, she returns in Big Shot as part of Greg's basketball team.
• Creepy Child: Her Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency to bite people terrifies Greg and she is the only girl his age he does not have any romantic interest in.
• Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle looks a bit juvenile for a middle school girl.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Even a minor grievance will set Ruby off and bite the person who irritated her. This habit got her suspended when she bit a teacher, making her the only female student to be suspended in Westmore's history.
• Man Bites Man: Bites people when she’s mad at them.
• Official Couple: With Fregley after they're partnered for couples dancing in gym class.

• Getting Sick Deliberately: He eats half a stick of deodorant to make himself sick and gets sent home from Hardscrabble Farms, and it works.
• Momma's Boy: He was very attached to his mom as a kid. One time, in second grade, he clung to his mom so tightly that the vice principal had to come down and peel them apart.
• Nervous Wreck: Greg remembers that when Julian was in elementary school, he would always cry when his mom dropped him off in the mornings.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Somewhat downplayed since he otherwise mostly looks the same but his eyes are always drawn in the same style to represent someone being shocked, though it could represent his Nervous Wreck nature.

• The Ace:
  Greg: "Yusef passed the ball to Preet, who was better on ONE leg than the rest of us on TWO."
• Alliterative Name: Preet Patel.
• Dented Iron: He continues playing when his broken ankle is only partially healed.
• Fallen Princess: A male example. He's a well-liked athletic superstar, but he loses his uncle, is forced to play on a team of losers, and breaks his ankle. He is able to carry the team to victory, though.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He skips basketball tryouts to attend his uncle's funeral, fully aware that doing so would cost him his spot on a more competent team.
• Like Father, Like Son: His father is Coach Patel, and he inherited his love for basketball.
• Lovable Jock: He is the only good player on Greg's team (at least until he's injured early on) and is surprisingly nice for a jock in the series. He happily goofs around with Greg and the other un-athletic kids in one scene. He later shows up to cheer for them during the final game after their humiliating season, while happily agreeing to play while wearing an orthopedic boot.
• Mythology Gag: In the 2022 animated film, a pamphlet for a talent show says he scored some hoops.
• Noodle People: His physique is even more stretched-out than Greg's, and he towers over the other characters.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Coach Patel uproots the entire basketball team that so Preet can join after being disqualified.
• Stereotype Flip: Indian-Americans are frequently stereotyped as very nerdy, but Preet is a popular star athlete.
• Stock Foreign Name: His last name, Patel.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Preet is the driving force for the basketball team. He's even respected by Greg, who normally can't stand guys who are more popular than him. Granted, Greg's jealousy of popular guys is usually more directed at Chick Magnet characters like Bryce, and Preet seems more focused on sports than romance.

Rowley's father, who doesn't like Greg and finds him to be a bad influence.

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. His film counterpart isn't that much different from his book counterpart, but he is much less petty towards Greg in the films. This is especially evident in the third film where banning Greg from the country club came off as far more justified because Greg almost got him arrested.
• Butt-Monkey: Becomes one as the third film progresses. Thanks to Greg, he gets flooded with emails of people thinking he's in trouble, almost gets arrested (though it wasn't smart for him to answer the door with a knife in his hand), and gets hit with a lot of charges due to Greg posing as Rowley at the country club.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • In the books he got Greg banned from the country club, likely because he can't take being criticized.
  • In the first book and the movie Greg tells Rowley in a "secret language" that Mr. Jefferson smells like a woman when he was in hearing range. Mr. Jefferson responded by kicking Greg out of the Jeffersons' house. It's worse when you realize that with Greg at his age, smelling like a woman probably means smelling like flowers.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite not liking Greg, he still had the intention to report him as missing along with Rowley after the two did not meet up with him at the boardwalk.
• Jerkass: He's an extremely strict father (far more so than Frank Heffley), and will never give Greg the benefit of the doubt at all. In Old School, when he chaperones the cabin Greg ends up in, he is particularly keen to pin any trouble on him. The thing is that Greg is well aware of how Mr. Jefferson feels about him and goes out of his way to not be disobedient.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • His attitude towards Greg is justified since Greg has caused trouble for him and Rowley on numerous occasions. According to Rowley in Diary of an Awesome, Friendly Kid, his dad and Greg first met when Greg tricked Rowley into letting him steal his bike and Mr. Jefferson had to get it back from Greg.
  • In The Third Wheel, when driving Greg to Abigail's house to pick her up, he tells Robert to honk his car horn to let her come out of the house. He argues that honking his horn is no way to treat a lady, and suggests that Greg should just go up to the front door and get Abigail herself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his hostility towards Greg, he has an entirely positive relationship with his own family, unlike Greg's parents.
• Knight Templar Parent: He's very protective of his son Rowley, which leads him to often overly swaddle him in an attempt to isolate him from any kind of negative stimulus.
• Moral Guardian: He thinks that Greg is a bad influence on his son Rowley and doesn't like to see Greg around. To be fair, Greg probably is a bad influence, at least in the books. Also, he doesn't allow video games that have any kind of violence in them, which means Rowley can only play racing games. Greg finds a loophole by storing video games with violence in Edutainment Game cases.
• Papa Wolf: To Rowley. He's overprotective of him and will immediately come to his defense if he's exploited or harmed in any way.
• The Quiet One: In the first two movies, he doesn't speak. He gets to talk more in the third film.

The lead singer in Löded Diper, Bill is an unemployed thirty-something who still lives in his parents' house. Rodrick's parents are terrified by the thought that he might consider Bill to be a role model.

• Accidental Hero: In the webcomic, Frank wants to enroll Greg in Bishop Garrigan High School, but Greg is desperate not to be sent there as it's a boys-only school and he's scared of being bullied. After Bill says, "Hey, I went to that school!", Frank immediately loses all interest in sending Greg there.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: He's quite a bit more handsome in the movie than he is in the books, where he's depicted as a hairy middle-aged man with a beer gut.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books and animated films, he's merely annoying, and the worst he does is make Rodrick's parents fear that their son might take after him. His live-action movie version is more of a prick and drops Rodrick from the band the moment keeping him becomes inconvenient.
• Ascended Extra: Bill plays a much more prominent role in Diper Overlode due to the book being heavily focused on Rodrick and Löded Diper as a whole.
• Basement Dweller: He's a 30+ something man who still lives with his parents (later his grandmother).
• Intergenerational Friendship: Bill and Rodrick. Rodrick is in his late teens and Bill is in his thirties, but the two of them are good friends due to a shared interest in rock music. However, in the movies, their friendship falls apart once Bill drops Rodrick from the band.
• It's All About Me: During the later points of Diper Overlode, Bill believes himself to be the true face of Löded Diper believing alongside his girlfriend Becky that he should be the one on the cover of their flyers. After his and Roderick's falling out, he quickly joins the main opposition, Stank, and becomes their new face for awhile.
• Jerkass: In the live-action film, he invites himself over to the Heffleys' for dinner, and then replaces Rodrick with another drummer when he's grounded from performing in the talent show.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the films, Bill replaces Rodrick in Löded Diper after he was grounded from joining the talent show, telling him it's "rock and roll, bro" and to get over it. When Susan lets Rodrick rejoin the band, he kicks Bill out of the band for his betrayal, parroting his exact earlier line to justify it. Bill is shocked by this development, clearly displeased that his own philosophy has been turned on him this time.
• The Rockstar: He's the lead singer of Rodrick's band "Loded Diper".
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the books and animated films overall, he is a decent fellow especially compared to his live-action movie counterpart. However, during the later points of Diper Overlode, Bill starts to develop more of an ego, especially after revealing he has a girlfriend, with both of them believing that Bill is the true face of Löded Diper saying that he should be on the cover of their fliers (despite Rodrick being the founder). Needless to say, this ended up resulting in a falling out between the two with Bill being quick to join up on their main competition, Stank, after their lead singer ruptured his vocal cords. Luckily, they make up at the end of the book.

Holly's older sister. Not much is said about her in the books, so most of these tropes apply to her in the films.

• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, we don't learn much about her but there was never any indication that she was the stereotypical snobby, ungrateful bitch she is in the movies.
• Adaptation Name Change: She's named "Lori Matthews" in the online diary.
• Alliterative Family: Holly and Heather Hills.
• Alliterative Name: Heather Hills.
• Alpha Bitch: She's rich, beautiful, and popular, and uses this as an excuse to treat basically everyone around her (including her own sister) like trash.
• Ascended Extra: She's a total non-entity in the books, only existing as an even more unattainable crush for Greg. The third movie features her as a prominent Alpha Bitch.
• Big Bad Ensemble: One of the main antagonists of the third movie along with Stan Warren.
• Big Sister Bully: To her little sister Holly. She's rude to everyone, anyway.
• Cain and Abel: A female version of this. She is the Cain to Holly's Abel.
• Distaff Counterpart: The movie version is this to Rodrick, not to mention an even worse one at that. Lampshaded by Greg who, at one point, describes her as "Rodrick in a dress".
• Evil Counterpart:
  • She's this to Holly. Both sisters are beautiful blonde rich girls, they're both the most popular girls in their grade and one of the Heffley brothers has a crush on each of them (Rodrick for Heather and Greg for Holly). The main difference between them is that Holly's genuinely friendly and sweet-natured while Heather's a nasty and self-centered Alpha Bitch.
  • She's also this to Rodrick. Both are Jerkasses who bully their younger siblings but the similarities end there. Whereas Rodrick acts nicer than his book counterpart and later goes on to become a Cool Big Bro to Greg, Heather acts much meaner than her book counterpart and doesn't change her attitude whatsoever.
• Foil: To Rodrick; while both have bullied their younger siblings, Rodrick eventually went through Character Development and became a Cool Big Bro to Greg, while Heather has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
• Hate Sink: The film version of Heather Hills is a vain, self-centered Alpha Bitch who spends practically all of her screentime, either insulting somebody or cowing someone to submit to her demands, expressing outrage whenever they don't. When her sweet sixteen party is accidentally ruined by Rodrick, the main reason why the audience can still laugh at his antics without any remorse is that it's all happening to Heather Hills.
• Jerkass: She's a self-centered brat who refuses to help others even while on lifeguard duty, and frequently stops Holly from being nice to Greg because she'd rather her help out in her Sweet Sixteenth celebration.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Throughout most of the third film, she does not face any repercussions from being a huge jerk, particularly towards Holly and while on lifeguard duty. It all comes crashing down during her sweet sixteen, making it almost nice to see her humiliated when her beloved party is ruined and she ended up covered in chocolate. Even Holly said she was happy and that she thought that Heather fairly deserved it.
• Kick the Dog: Several times. In her first appearance in the third movie, she runs over Rodrick's feet with her car when he tried to flirt with her. Then she is shown to turn away a little girl asking her questions about the Country Club schedule even though she's a lifeguard.
• Lack of Empathy: Of all the jerkasses in the trilogy, Heather has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Rodrick. Both are Jerkasses who bully their younger siblings simply for their own amusement and have two younger siblings (Holly mentions having a younger sister in the second movie). However, while Rodrick does start off similar to his book counterpart, after going through some Character Development, he takes a level in kindness and becomes a Cool Big Bro to Greg while Heather is a stuck-up Alpha Bitch with little-to-no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
  • She also shows a few similarities to Patty. Both are spoiled Alpha Bitches who act act much meaner than their book counterparts. However, whereas Patty was subtly implied to be good friends with Holly, Heather is a Big Sister Bully to Holly and couldn't care less about what happens to her.
• Shadow Archetype: She's what Rodrick would've been if he lacked his Pet the Dog moments with Greg.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Holly is good-hearted and affable, but Heather is selfish and stuck up.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: In the online diary, she got fired from her babysitting job when Rowley's parents caught her smoking behind their house.
• Spoiled Brat: In contrast to her sister's sweetness.
• Unseen No More: Holly tells Greg that she has a Big Sister Bully in the second movie, but we don't get to see her until the third movie.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the third film, when Rodrick and his band arrive to perform a cover of Justin Bieber's "Baby", she is irritated by the band not following her sweet sixteen's dress code and their choice of song before getting more appalled when Rodrick continues the cover and goes all out. When Rodrick accidentally topples over an ice bust carved in her image, she snaps and attempts to attack Rodrick with a microphone stand, only to accidentally hit her own chocolate fountain, leaving herself in a bigger humiliating mess.

A neighbor of the Heffleys, and Frank's boss in the books. Since he is a relatively minor character in the books, most of these tropes apply to him in the films.

• Adaptational Jerkass: He doesn't receive much characterization in the books, but he seems to be Innocently Insensitive at worst. The third live-action film, however, makes him an arrogant dick.
• Adaptational Job Change: He goes from Frank's boss to the leader of a scout troop in the movie.
• Adaptation Name Change: He's named "Mr. Swann" in the online diary.
• Always Someone Better: His sons are this to the Heffley boys; while they're all fairly motivated and successful (especially when it comes to sports), the Heffleys are far less so, causing no amount of grief for Frank.
• Big Bad Ensemble: One of the main antagonists of the third movie along with Heather Hills.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When he is first introduced in the film, he is shown to be a decent guy with a successful wilderness explorer troop. It is later shown that he and his troop secretly make fun of Frank's troop and carry luxuries unrelated to camping.^note  These include premade meals, a store-bought smores maker, and even a TV. Greg, Rowley, Chirag, and Fregley eventually catch wind of his true nature and expose him to Frank.
• Foil: To Frank and Mr. Barrett during the wilderness weekend. Stan's troop is far more successful, but Mr. Barrett and Frank operate their troop honestly.
• Hate Sink: His jerkass film counterpart is an arrogant, uncivil scout leader, who belittles and insults scout troops whom he considers inferior, particularly speaking ill of Frank Heffley. On top of that, it's soon revealed that Stan's reputation as a "big camper" is a fat lie, as he indulges in modern-day, instant conveniences to ease his own camping experience, including microwavable meals, pre-tied knots, and a TV. When he ultimately gets kicked off the Wilderness Explorer troop, there's little sympathy to be had for him.
• Innocently Insensitive: Seems to be this at his worst in the books; while he only ever appears whenever Frank is humiliated by something (usually Greg's antics), the most he ever reacts to said humiliations is with some light-hearted ribbing, not realizing how his presence is increasing Frank's distress.
• Jerkass: As the third film goes on, he is eventually shown to be incredibly arrogant, when he insults Frank and the rest of his troop behind their backs, and later attempts to go on a rant about Greg until Frank tells him to shut up.
• Laser-Guided Karma: His troop disbands by the end of the third film, leaving him to host a badminton team for kindergartners.
• Running Gag: In the books, he is often shown when something embarrassing happens to Frank.
• You Don't Look Like You: In the movies, in the animated scenes, he's drawn to look more athletic.

• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, the teenagers ended up backing off from feeding Greg the Cheese because he told them that he was allergic to dairy. In the film, Greg tries pulling that same excuse, but they simply ignore his pleas and only stop when they are confronted by the coach.
• Berserk Button: Their leader, Pete Hosey, turns bloodthirsty when someone damages his truck's paint job.
• Dirty Coward: Their film counterparts are a gang of bullies who pick on kids weaker than them, but the second that their victims show any capacity of fighting back or getting an adult to intervene, they start backing off, if not hightailing it out of there.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the book, they wouldn't force a kid to consume dairy products if he's lactose intolerant, and begrudgingly let Greg off the hook. However, their movie counterparts have no such reservations.
• Evil Is Hammy: When Greg accidentally damages his truck in the film:
  Pete Hosey: Are you kidding me?! I'm gonna rip off your arms and punch you in the face with your own fists!
• Karma Houdini: In the film, the closest punishment they get is getting yelled at by the gym teacher, ultimately getting away with forcing Rowley to eat half of the Cheese. In the books, they don't get punished at all.
• Kick the Dog: When they force Rowley to eat the Cheese in the books, they only have him eat half to feed the rest to Greg. When Greg gets out of consuming it by claiming that he's allergic to dairy, they force Rowley to eat the rest of the Cheese.
• Knight of Cerebus: The moment they show up near the end, you just know things are about to go south.
• Named by the Adaptation: They're unnamed in the book series, but they are given the names Pete Hosey, Wade, and Carter in the film adaptation.
• Terrible Trio: Three teenage punks who antagonize Greg and Rowley. In the films, Pete Hosey seems to be the leader.

A socially inept kid who finds Greg's balloon for Balloon Brigade.

• Berserk Button: Stealing one of his Legos, even if was a small piece and by accident, is one of the few things to elicit anger from the otherwise emotionless Maddox.
• Bookworm: He doesn't watch television, so he reads books instead. When Greg visits his household, he's surprised to see a bookshelf in place of the TV.
• Control Freak: He's very particular about his precious collection of Lego sets, refusing to let Greg play with them or even go near them. He does let Greg play with the Legos in his leftover bin, but he still freaks out when he thinks Greg stole one of his thousands of leftover bricks.
• No Social Skills: Maddox spends most of his time by himself, so his playdate with Greg is equally awkward for both parties.
• Not So Stoic: On his first playdate with Greg, Maddox doesn't say a word to his new friend. However, when Greg starts playing a video game in front of him, Maddox becomes "animated" and starts making strange noises while scratching himself. Maddox's mom explains that this is because he's never even seen a video game before in his life.
• Weird Homeschooled Kid: His primary hobbies are playing his violin and building elaborate Lego sets. He starts going crazy and making monkey noises when he sees Greg play a video game, and Maddox's mom explains that he's never seen one before, as he's not allowed to play them. Susan, with her distaste for modern tech, thinks Maddox is a good role model for Greg.
  Greg's thoughts: But if Mom wants to connect me with someone I’ll actually look UP to, she’s gonna have to try a little harder.

^{Present Day (Spoilers)}

A heavy metal rock band who are idolized by Rodrick and the other Löded Diper members. Of their members, Stewart Taylor Jr. was the lead singer, Wayne Barnes was the lead guitarist, Warwick Sprinter was the bass guitarist, and Sebastian Sleeves was the drummer. However, pride and greed split the band years ago.

• Broken Pedestal: Metallichihuahua is the inspiration and personal heroes of Rodrick's Löded Diper, but when they meet Warwick and Sebastian, they're disappointed to see that the former has become a washed-up celebrity trying to sell his merchandise junk and the latter has become a cynical hermit wallowing in his decrepit mansion.
• Celebrity Endorsement: When the band members found out that their manager stole money from them, they started signing endorsement deals for a bunch of subpar products to make a quick buck.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The security guard at Hipp O' Henry's turns out to be Wayne, after Metallichihuahua disbanded and he got into law enforcement.
• Compressed Hair: While on-duty, Wayne keeps his long hair under a security guard hat.
• Hidden Depths: On first impression, Sebastian seems to be a total recluse, living only off of the royalty checks he receives from Metallichihuahua Pups reruns in Denmark. However, he's among the audience members in the Battle of the Bands competition before his confrontation with the other Metallichihuahua members, implying that he's not as isolated or disillusioned in rock music as he initially appears.
• It's All About Me: While Metallichihuahua was backsliding into irrelevancy, Stewart was convinced that he was the real star of the show, so he made a solo holiday album as a vanity project featuring himself only. It bombed and his selfish departure from Metallichihuahua was the last nail in the coffin for them.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Metallichihuahua is a stand-in for Metallica, at least in terms of names. They're actually much closer to KISS, what with the absurd marketing tactics, the insane gimmicked concerts, the constant Celebrity Endorsements, and the Old Shame media geared towards younger fans. There's also some parallels to Judas Priest, particularly where the lead singer left the band and an inferior replacement stepped in, as well as having its own conflict within the bandmates.
• Old Shame:
  • To make up the money they lost, Metallichihuahua signed a deal to make a line of personal fragrances that used their image. They ended up on the bargain shelf after two weeks of their release and no one on the band is particularly proud of them.
  • However, the line of fragrances doesn't compare to the time they helped create the Metallichihuahua Pups show, a Saturday morning cartoon that alienated their older fans and something that Warwick considers the worst decision the band had ever done.
• Putting the Band Back Together: The original Metallichihuahua members reunite at the Battle of the Bands competition and get into a heated argument over their past grievances. However, when the crowd goes wild with their appearance, the band set aside their disagreements and use Löded Diper's instruments to play their greatest hits, even breaking the instruments like they used to. This event reignites their passion for music and signals their return to the industry.
• Reclusive Artist: An exaggerated, in-universe example with Sebastian, who completely disappeared from the public eye when Metallichihuahua parted ways. He still lives in his mansion, but since he's jobless, it's become decrepit after he sold all of his luxuries and the state turned off his utilities when he went broke. Sebastian only survives by ordering delivered food with the royalty checks he receives from the Metallichihuahua Pups show still running in Denmark.
• White Collar Worker: After putting his rock star days behind him, Stewart went back to school and became a lawyer. When he reunites with the other Metallichihuahua members and restarts their musical careers, he unbuttons his collared shirt, symbolizing his return to heavy metal music.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: Warwick is the only member of Metallichihuahua who still plays in the music industry and he's fallen hard since his glory days. Warwick's appearance at the Legends of Yesteryear convention doesn't draw a whole lot of attention and his advertisement of having "surprisingly affordable rates" along with claiming he'll play at events like corporate retreats implies that he's long been overshadowed by other artists.

• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Parodied - despite ostensibly being just a cleaning robot, the robot attains sentience and starts taking classes (even cheating off Greg's test), playing cards with the other janitors (despite not having any visible hands), and applying for other jobs to make extra money.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: The school inadvertently gets it to start emulating human behavior just by attaching some googly eyes to it.
• Job-Stealing Robot: Replaces most of the school's janitorial staff. Becomes downright parodic at the end when the robot becomes the new principal.

A student at Slacksvile who begins dating Greg in No Brainer.

• Dumb Blonde: She is a fair-haired girl who can't spell or understand how a clock tells time. However, this (probably) isn't because Sophie herself is inherently dumb or a bad student and is instead a symptom of the pathetic curriculum at her school.
• Trophy Wife: Or rather Trophy Girlfriend. It's heavily hinted that Greg isn't actually romantically interested in Sophie and is only dating her because he likes the title of "boyfriend" as it boosts his social status.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She is completely forgotten after she dumps Greg and doesn't get any time to develop past her miseducation.

Aunt Veronica's former dog who's a well-known celebrity.

• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She leaves Aunt Veronica and the rest of the family without them knowing and stays on Ruttyneck Island with Vincent.

Aunt Cakey's former boyfriend who's been dating her for an unspecified amount of time.

• Butt-Monkey: He's treated like this by Gramma. Examples include being treated as not being part of the family, being constantly exploited by Gramma, and tons of other things, which eventually leads to him leaving Ruttyneck Island (and subsequently breaking up with Aunt Cakey) with Dazzle to live their own lives.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He loves Cakey with all his heart, practically worshipping the ground she walks on, and wants to become part of her family by marrying her. Not only does his girlfriend constantly bring up her sister stealing her boyfriend from when they were TEENS, but the rest of the family walks all over him, especially Cakey’s mother, who loves using him for free labor around her house.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He acts like he doesn't know Aunt Cakey and the rest of the family after they get arrested and stays on Ruttyneck Island with Dazzle, ending his relationship with Aunt Cakey in the process.

Played by: Dalila Bela

• Bratty Half-Pint: She was shown to be an extreme brat in her few moments of screentime. Yelling at Greg for damaging her birthday cake, and teasing him for being too scared to jump off the high dive.
• Canon Foreigner: She was created exclusively for the film series and doesn't have a book counterpart.
• Karma Houdini: Never gets any comeuppance for tormenting Greg and getting him humiliated in the high dive.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the second film, she had some reason to be mad at Greg, since Greg did face plant into her birthday cake. In the third film, she doesn't have any justification for how she treats Greg.

Played by: Elise Gatien

• Beta Bitch: She's Heather Hills' closest and most loyal friend, who goes along with nearly all of her decisions, though she's noticeably less mean than Heather is and mostly just follows orders.
• Canon Foreigner: She was created exclusively for the film series and doesn't have a book counterpart.
• Satellite Character: She's mostly defined as being Heather Hills' closest friend and she's almost always seen by Heather's side.