List of Big Nate characters

This is a list of characters from Big Nate, an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce.[1][2][3]

Characters

Primary

The Wright Family

• Nate Wright: The comic strip's main character. Nate is in sixth grade and 11 years old, a talented cartoonist, drummer, and chess player. He also believes he is a natural prankster , as he attempts funny and difficult pranks on the second to last day of school (known in the book as "Prank Day"). He is somewhat vain, believing himself to be irresistible to girls despite being rejected repeatedly by his crush, Jenny Jenkins. He believes he is a brilliant sports player despite his lack of athletic abilities. He also thinks of himself as a genius despite his below-average grades. Nate spends much of his time in detention, in the art room drawing comics, or playing drums for his band, Enslave the Mollusk, which also comprises his friends Francis, Teddy, and Artur. Nate is desperate to own a dog as he is a dog person who is ailurophobic, but rarely gets his wish, as his father does not want to own a dog. He also has ailurophobia, the fear of cats, and hates Figure skating and egg salad, but loves "Cheez Doodles". Surprisingly, Nate's most well-known talent is that he is a skilled chess-player, to the complete confusion of his friends and family. Nate is also well known as being able to detect vibes. He even tried to teach Chad Applewhite this ability but failed. Nate is also known for having a very accurate sense of smell.
• Martin Earl "Marty" Wright: Nate's father, a bald, overweight divorcée who lost his job in the eighth novel of the series (eventually getting another one). Like his son, he is somewhat clueless about his failings and considers himself a professional musician despite his indescribably horrible singing voice and initially poor steel-string guitar playing, an athlete despite his inherent laziness, and an expert golfer, though he constantly cheats or loses his ball. He is a health nut and always tries to hand out healthy alternatives to candy on Halloween (raisins, prunes, trail mix, etc.), which are always rejected by trick-or-treaters. He also was the hero of the first Mud Bowl, according to Big Nate: Blasts Off. His first name was first stated on July 28, 2005.
• Ellen Wright: Nate's fifteen-year-old sister. Unlike Nate, Ellen is responsible and hardworking and loves cats and figure-skating, and egg salad. Nate is always compared to Ellen in school by teachers. She is Nate's consistent rival, and he enjoys playing pranks on her. Ellen also dates Gordie on and off, who works at the comic book store, Klassic Komix and has previously dated Kenny Smithson, the captain of the football team and is considered her crush. They briefly broke up before reconciling. She is 4 years older than Nate.
• Marjorie “Marge” Wright: Nate's grandmother. She and her husband, Vern, have a slightly tense relationship, as she sometimes nags him about giving up her career for married life and for generally being lazy and perverted.
• Vernon “Vern” Wright: Nate's grandfather. He enjoys stating his opinion without consideration, using his age to show off. He is shown to have a tattoo, and he also likes Junior Mints.
• Theodore “Ted” Wright: Nate's lazy uncle, an overweight, unemployed man-child who lives in Nate's grandparent's basement. He dropped out of college and since then has never held down a job. He is oblivious to his family's hints that he move out and find work, and spouts sci-fi and musical trivia at the drop of a hat. He is a big fan of World of Warcraft, My Little Pony and Star Trek

Nate's Friends

• Francis Butthurst Pope: Nate's number #1 friend, Francis is very intelligent, and this upsets his friends from time to time. He has a gap between his teeth and lets people bully him often. Nate and Francis frequently make fun of each other, but he states that this is how they operate. He also likes to read ‘The Book of Facts’ which annoys Nate and Teddy. Nate and Francis often argue about cats vs dogs as Francis is a cat person, he also has a cat named Pickles. Contrary to Nate's feelings for them, Francis is friendly with both Mrs. Godfrey and Artur. Francis plays the electric guitar in Enslave the Mollusk and dates Sheila Stapleton.
• Teddy Ortiz : Nate's number "1A" best friend, Teddy is a comedic character who frequently cracks jokes and annoys Nate. Like Francis, Teddy likes Artur and is a member of Enslave the Mollusk. His middle name is the square root symbol since his parents are math teachers. In Big Nate: Flips Out, it is revealed that he is fluent in Spanish. He plays the musical keyboard in Enslave The Mollusk. In 1994, it is revealed that Teddy is half Mexican, and half Puerto Rican. In 1994, it is revealed that over the summer Teddy gets to live in Mexico with his grandparents, however, this stopped happening in 1996. Teddy also knows a lot about the Civil War, as his dad is an expert of the Civil War, and has been teaching him facts since he was a baby.

Secondary

Nate's Classmates

• Dee Dee Dorcas Holloway: A friend of Nate mentioned in Big Nate Strikes Again and also reappeared in Big Nate Goes for Broke and Big Nate Flips Out. She is a member of the drama club and is considered by Nate to be a drama queen. Nate does not like her much at first, but she gradually becomes a part of Nate's friend group and a major character. Dee Dee and Nate are now friends and are comfortable with each other. She is a very good artist and cartoonist, and once hosted a large party.
• Chad Applewhite: Chad is one of Nate's good friends. He is a chubby kid with red hair and freckles. He is obsessed with eating and food. In Big Nate: In a Class By Himself; Nate mistakes him for Todd. He is willing to help Nate with all his schemes. When he is selling things with Nate, because he is so cute, the customers end up buying all the things he is selling. Chad has appeared in the comics since February 16, 2006. On September 30, 2019, Nate hypnotized Chad to be rude and obnoxious so Gina, who has a crush on Chad, would stop being his science lab partner. Chad did not revert to his nice self until October 12.
• Artur Pashkov: A very friendly, intelligent, and well-liked exchange student from Belarus. He was first seen on May 7, 2001.[4] He is in Nate's class and is Jenny Jenkins' boyfriend. Jenny's liking for Artur and Artur's ability to beat Nate at chess (and almost anything else) makes Nate take an instant dislike to Artur. Artur was the Boys' Age-Group Chess Champion of Belarus before moving to the United States. Artur speaks broken English as a second language. He is very innocent, gentle, kind, and (most of the time) unassuming. He regards Nate as his best friend and is generally unaware of Nate's dislike of him. He went with his father, a college professor, to Turkey for 6 months, during which time Nate tried to start going out with Jenny. Artur is a nice boy who is trying to please Nate, including letting Nate beat him at chess at one point. While Nate somewhat views Artur as a friend, he is quite jealous of Artur's talent and better luck. Artur has proven to be a match for Nate in chess, which is important because Nate is extremely good at chess.
• Randy Betancourt: One of Nate's other rivals which Nate sometimes refers to as "Randy Buttancourt". Randy once got Nate into detention in the chess club bake sale by using Nate as a scapegoat. In Big Nate Strikes Again, he creates a fleece ball team called the Raptors and gets revenge on Nate by injuring him, stepping hard on his foot, after Nate accidentally breaks Randy's nose. Usually, Nate tries to avoid confrontation with Randy, but once when Randy was bullying Francis, Nate jumped on Randy "like a rabid wolverine." They became kind of friends on a field trip after a Jefferson student shoved Nate in Big Nate Blasts Off. Their new friendship is strengthened when the two boys are in the PS 38 Ultimate Frisbee team in the Mud Bowl. Randy and Nate discover they are very effective at playing together. From rivals, they go on to become great friends. However, in the comic strip, they remain rivals. In one comic, it is revealed that his mom writes him a note in his lunch bag and calls him "Li'l Dumpling". Randy was caught stealing a My Little Pony book at Klassic Comix. Randy once got a dislocated shoulder, after Nate ducked when Randy attempted to tackle him. After that Randy was seen going into an ambulance.
• Jenny Jenkins: Nate's classmate since 1st grade. She is his biggest crush, however, she used to despise Nate (though Nate was oblivious, believing Jenny is hiding her true feelings). On February 2, 2013, she briefly moved to Seattle, Washington. However, she moved back on June 4, 2013. She is blonde with blue eyes and dates Artur. She has no feelings for Nate and up to 2016, she couldn't stand Nate. But on April 11, 2016, it was stated that Nate doesn't like Jenny anymore, so Jenny doesn't hate him and they are friends now. She tends to go berserk when something embarrassing is done to her (e.g. when Nate trips and spills egg salad on her). In older comics, it is mentioned that she and Sheila Stapleton were best friends. In first grade Nate misunderstood Jenny’s name tag calling her Jonny.
• Breckenridge Puffington III: Nate's most recent met student. He's somewhat shy and is a huge fanatic of plants. Teddy is constantly messing up his first name. He considered Nate his "buddy," but Nate thinks the opposite about him. Nate said to his friends once that Breckenridge is a stiff, boring, has an annoying voice, and is a wuss. Nate was constantly wondering if he had met Breckenridge before. He was known to Nate as Bobby when he attended the Honey Hive for a month 7 years ago, and he used to bully Nate when they were toddlers. He was a contributing member of Nate's Non-Stoppers winning the scavenger hunt and even found the Granny Peppers Mural. He has only appeared once in 2015 and in a drawing in Big Nate Blasts Off.
• Nick Blonsky: Nick is mentioned in the first two books. In the first, Nate says even Nick was raising his hand along with everyone else but he had a pencil up his nose. In the second, Nate says he is a horrible project partner because he is usually 'digging for gold'. He makes his first major appearance in the fifth book. He steals a camera that Nate borrowed from Mrs. Godfrey, which results in Francis getting in trouble. Nick says he stole the camera just because he wanted to see Nate and Francis fight. Dee Dee records the conversation and Nick gets suspended from school for a week. Nick is also a known liar. He has never appeared in a comic strip but was mentioned on October 16, 2014.
• Gina Hemphill-Toms: One of Nate's schoolmates and rivals. Gina is an egotistical nerd. She weighs 123 pounds (56  kilograms) as a result of no exercise. Gina spends 18 hours a day studying and wears nerdy, thick glasses. Gina always gets an A-plus on her assignments, but sometimes she gets them because the teachers like her. She is an enemy of Nate and likes to get him in trouble. Gina almost never gets detention, except for three incidents: One time because Gina tried to correct an error of Nate's test to in an attempt to lower Nate's grade, in Big Nate Strikes Again for screaming in the library, and recently she got five detentions for belittling Nate by making him nice to her all week and forcing him to tie her shoe (Nate also got two detentions for accidentally hitting Mrs. Godfrey with Gina's shoe). Gina also has a case of chronic flatulence, according to Nate.
• Kim Cressly: A very big girl who at one point decided Nate was her boyfriend and refused to take "no" for an answer. Nate spent much of his time trying to avoid her before she started dating Chester. When Nate's team was unable to find a sponsor, her family's bakery became the sponsor, giving the name the Cream Puffs, much to Nate's horror. She then joined and "dated" Nate, though he attempted to object many times. This was before she dated Chester, but she continued on the team anyway.
• Chester Budrick: Chester Budrick is a male student at P.S. 38 and a school bully. Chester is mostly seen either in detention, bullying Nate, etc. He is also dating Kim Cressley, who previously had a crush on Nate. He is also shown to play on the school baseball and basketball team. Chester's appearance is unknown and has been teased throughout the series. In Big Nate Strikes Again, it was revealed he has a beard and tattoos and looks like he has been on growth hormones. He is 6 foot 6 inches and weighs 300 pounds (136 kilograms).
• Marcus Goode: Marcus Goode is the "popular kid" of the seventh grade at P.S. 38, though it is difficult to understand why. He's a narcissist, and tends to be quite a bully, usually to sixth-grade students. He is often accompanied by his cronies, Andy and Dennis. In 2011, Nate joins his posse, but then realizes that it isn't that fun. After Marcus teases Artur, Nate reaches his breaking point and quits, earning a black eye when standing up to him when he used Francis' dumb technique of only saying "I'm not afraid of you." He ran against Nate for student president once in 2009 and lost to Nate. Nate had also attempted to become a trendsetter like Marcus by spreading a fashion trend of wearing a sombrero throughout P.S. 38, which didn't end well for Nate, whose sombrero got its brim torn off and yanked down to his waist by Marcus. Marcus also appeared as the main antagonist of the sixth chapter book, Big Nate In the Zone.
• Ruby Dinsmore: Nate’s current girlfriend in the eighth book, Big Nate: Blasts Off, It was shown that Randy Betancourt also had feelings for her, but when Nate says he was not moving to California for his dad’s new job, she kissed him on the cheek. She also played in the Mud Bowl. Randy was always trying to impress her.

Nate's Teachers at Public School 38

• Mrs. Clara Godfrey: Nate's ultimate hated teacher, his social studies teacher. Nate spends much of his time trying to avoid her outside of class and antagonizing her in class, making up several nicknames for her, like Venus de Silo, Godzilla, Dark Side Of the Moon, She who Must not Be Named, Dragon Breath, etc.. Nate has been known to exaggerate her physical features in his comics. Nate always refers here to the 'Creature Teacher' and hates her the most due to her rude attitude and the fact that she is a cat person. Additionally, he frequently draws her as a parody of The Devil. Nate also thinks that 6th grade would have been much easier for him if his older sister Ellen had not been there first. The relations between Mrs. Godfrey and Nate are not entirely negative, though. She allows Nate to create reports in cartoon form, giving him an outlet for his creativity and energy. She once saved Nate from choking on a peppermint. She has a daughter named Katrina. Her maiden name is Lessard then she changes it to Godfrey after she got married. She shares Nate's love for Star Trek: The Next Generation and maple donuts, something that is especially horrifying to him. She is a fan of Gina and favors her.
• Mr. Ken Rosa: Nate's art teacher, Mr. Rosa is a soft-spoken and mild-mannered man but somewhat overworked and embittered about his career. As a result, Nate enjoys a lot of freedom in the art class. He also enjoys sketching pictures of his teachers. Mr. Rosa has a master's degree in art, but he has to work at an ice cream shop called Sweet Licks all summer long to make ends meet. On a January 1994 strip, it is revealed he is 40 years old.
• Principal Wesley Nichols: The principal of P.S. 38. Nate and the other students are very friendly towards him, but do not treat him as an authority figure; he is bewildered by the students. On the rare occasion he goes out of his office, he soon retreats. He is sometimes snappy to Nate and Nate is taken aback by this, but of all the teachers (besides Mr. Rosa, Mrs. Shipulski, and Mrs. Czerwicki) he is probably the one Nate gets along best with; he sometimes helps the cartooning club and treats Nate's antics with good humor most of the time. He has a niece named Noelle, who is one of Nate's classmates and never gets in trouble. His first name was revealed when he was interviewed on the news in Big Nate Lives it Up. He is usually the victim in the worst prank on each Prank Day, so one year he got his wife’s cousin to pose as a police officer.
• Mrs. Geraldine Shipulski: Principal Nichols' secretary. She prides herself on her 18.5 BMI. Nate flatters her by calling her a "cougar," among other things. She has 22 million Twitter followers as shown in the recent comics in which one of them revealed her first name, Geraldine. It is mentioned that she is 62. Nate once gave her a box of Snowcaps on Secretary's Day. She has grey hair, but sometimes she can have yellow or brown hair.
• Mrs. Lettie Czerwicki: She is a school volunteer who supervises the students in detention. She is friendly with Nate. She reads romance novels while sitting in detention. Mrs. Czerwicki sometimes plays table football with him. In one strip it is revealed that she wears a wig and was once an actress.
• Mr. Shawn Galvin: Nate's science teacher. He has a crush on Greta Van Susteren. He has almost no visible sense of humor and conducts a very boring class. According to Nate, he is the Oldest Teacher present in school.
• " School Picture Guy": Not only showing up every year as the school picture photographer, this character often shows up in unexpected places doing odd jobs such as a birthday clown, DJ or a school board meeting reporter. "School Picture Guy" often has some amusing nuggets of wisdom about the job he is doing, or for whatever is on Nate's mind at the moment. He is known to be a fan of Star Trek. His actual name has never been revealed, as he is constantly referred to by Nate and other characters as simply "School Picture Guy". He has also been seen by Nate at the local cinemas dressed as a cat, advertising for a seafood restaurant in a lobster costume, and at the annual fair as Loony the Balloon sculptor.
• Coach Calhoun: Nate's main gym teacher. He is also Nate's friends' baseball, soccer, and basketball coach. He manages to keep a positive attitude despite the fact that P.S. 38's sports teams tend to lose competitions against other schools most of the time.
• Coach John: A frequent substitute for Coach Calhoun, Coach John originally was the full time coach of the school's physical education program. He also is the school's soccer coach. He is known to use "tough love" speech tactics with his pupils and likes to make them do wind sprints, even when they are in a classroom. In July 2011, it is revealed that Coach John wears a toupee when Nate accidentally pulls it off. In Big Nate Flips Out, it shows Coach John's toupee blow off in the wind. He is bad with names (although he knows Nate's last name, Wright, well). He usually comes up with nicknames for Nate like "Porcupine," "Speedy," and "Cactus Head".
• Mr. Staples: The math teacher. He has a tendency to tell corny knock-knock jokes, and to act corny in general as well. He was born in China.
• Mrs. Clarke: Nate's English teacher, his second favourite teacher behind Mr. Rosa. It was mentioned that Mrs. Godfrey and Mrs. Clarke are very good friends.
• Mrs. Hickson: The school librarian. She is a middle-aged woman who does not tolerate insolence from anyone. She is the first person to ever send Gina Hemphill-Toms to detention in Big Nate: Strikes Again.
• Ms. LaChance: Nate's French teacher. Depicted in some of Nate's comic strips, with Nate stating she is one of his least favorite teachers.
• Ms. Brindle: Nate's home economics teacher. She had once accidentally given herself food poisoning while teaching her class how to make crab rangoon.
• Mr. Aldridge: Nate's computer lab teacher, who tends to make frequent mistakes when teaching computer code because his grades are not really good in general.

Nate's Comic Creations

Some earlier strips would show the weekly adventures of Nate's comic strip creations, drawn on notebook paper in a more childlike drawing style. Few of these characters have appeared in more recent strips. Nate's characters include -

• Dr. Cesspool: An inept surgeon whose mistakes in the operating room tend to be either fatal or debilitating. He has an assistant named Maureen Biology, who also serves as Cesspool's love interest.He has sometimes operated on Mrs Godfrey or Nate’s father. His bitter enemy is his supervisor, Dr. Arch Enemy.
• Chip Chipson and Biff Biffwell: Two inept TV reporters who sometimes appear in other strips interviewing the characters. Nate also has them interview characters like Santa Claus, Mother Nature, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny and sometimes Mrs. Godfrey or his father.
• Ben Franklin A famous founding father of the United States whom Nate and Gina are assigned to construct and present an assignment about in "Big Nate Strikes Again". Nate draws him in comics for the school project, despite Gina's objections. This project, however, gets an A because Mrs. Godfrey loved his creativity.
• Ken Doolittle: A talent TV show host. Ellen is often drawn on his show failing at some activity or making a fool of herself.
• Dan Cupid: A cupid who sometimes neglects or messes up his job to bring happy couples together.
• 'Evil' Stan Cupid: The brother of Dan, he is the opposite of a cupid, breaking couples up other then bringing them together.
• Superdad: Nate's parody of his father as "The world's only balding superhero with a slight paunch," who sometimes appears with Ellen, here known as 'Mega-Teen', as his "dimwitted sidekick." Superdad usually avoids fighting crime or facing danger, preferring to lie on the couch or delegate his job to 'Chore Boy' (Nate ).
• The Snuggles Family: A parody of a saccharine, wholesome middle-class family, consisting of husband Bob, wife Honey, son Timmy, daughter Punkin, and dog Fluffy haven't been seen since 2015. Bob says he has 1.8 kids because Timmy is short for his age.
• Moe Mentum: A Hollywood stuntman stuck doing dangerous stunts in badly directed action or horror flicks.
• Slim Stubby: A country-western singer struggling with being a second-rate celebrity, who is a possible parody of Slim Dusty.
• The Pilgrims of Plymouth: These strips would appear the week of Thanksgiving. Instead of showing the traditional 'First Thanksgiving,' the strip would show the Pilgrims having a wild party, complete with dunk-tanks and bikini mud-wrestling. Haven't been seen since 2015.
• Leo-Tard: Dance Instructor for the hopeless. Series of strips mocking Nate's sister Ellen's dancing abilities.
• Ultra-Nate: Nate's parody of himself, but a superhero with super strength, flying, and super suction.
• Mega-Chad: Appears in Big Nate In the Zone and Big Nate Lives it Up as Ultra Nate's sidekick. This was seen in a comic strip, and thus is not very well known.
• Teddy-Titan: Appears in Big Nate Lives it Up as a usual head.
• Captain Frantastic: Another sidekick character whom also appears in Big Nate Lives it Up.
• Action Cat: A comic about a cat getting run over by vehicles. There were a few Action Cat comics in 1993, but there haven't been any of them ever since, probably due to some complaints about those strips being too violent.
• Luke Warm, Private Eye: Nate's comic strip about a detective he made up, shown in Big Nate Flips Out. Luke is very clumsy, and not really efficient.
• Everlovin' Ellen: An early comic about Ellen's life as a soap opera.
• Claude The Stupid Ideas Fairy: Nate’s comic character that appeared in multiple books including “Big Nate: In the Zone”. He is depicted as a small fairy that gives bad advice to others.
• Nate Is Great: A comic strip about Nate himself in 1991 and has not been seen since.

References

1. Peirce, Lincoln,. Big Nate goes bananas. Kansas City, Missouri. ISBN 978-1-4494-8995-3. OCLC 1023524693.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. Peirce, Lincoln,. Big Nate : silent but deadly. Kansas City, Missouri. ISBN 978-1-4494-8991-5. OCLC 1027470620.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Peirce, Lincoln,. Big Nate. A good old-fashioned wedgie. Kansas City, Missouri. ISBN 978-1-4494-6230-7. OCLC 994234441.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Big Nate episode for May 7, 2001,