Manny Diary of a Wimpy Kid Lil Baby

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Heffley family

    In General

• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the film trilogy, the Heffleys are nicer and more sympathetic, essentially acting more like people you'd meet in life. Greg is less selfish and more willing to do nice things for his friends and family (and many of his Kick the Dog moments are either downplayed or removed), Frank tries to be a better dad, Rodrick becomes a Big Brother Mentor, and even Manny is noticeably less of an Annoying Younger Sibling and never reaches the Troubling Unchildlike Behavior territory. The only one this trope doesn't apply to is Susan since she was already the nicest of the family to begin with.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Greg and Rodrick in the second film, Greg and Frank in the third film. These films explore and flesh out Greg's dysfunctional relationships with his father and older brother better than in the books, eventually showing they do care for each other.
• Butt-Monkey: Whether on their own or all together, nothing ever goes right for Greg's family.
• Dysfunctional Family: Susan is a bossy Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher, Frank is a grumpy Jerkass and not the most pleasant father, Rodrick is a wild and aggressive Big Brother Bully and Lazy Bum who would make a second grader proud of his spelling skills, Manny is an immensely Spoiled Brat who really crosses the Moral Event Horizon at his absolute worst, and Greg is...just Greg.
• Noodle People: How Greg draws the cartoon version of his family in the books.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: After 14+ books, Greg's still a middle schooler, Rodrick's still in high school, and Manny's still a preschooler.
• Shared Family Quirks: All of the Heffley men are self-centered jerks to varying degrees.
• Vacation Episode: The Long Haul, The Getaway, and The Deep End all deal with the disasters that happen when the Heffleys go on vacation.
• Walking Disaster Area: Thanks to the Sadist Show nature of the books, the Heffleys can't seem to go anywhere as a family without some sort of disaster happening. Sometimes it's their fault, sometimes not.

    Greg Heffley

Played by: Zachary Gordon (first three movies), Jason Drucker (The Long Haul), Brady Noon (2021 film)

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• Abandon the Disabled: Greg mentions that he wears contacts. He also says he's glad he wasn't alive in caveman times, because his family would abandon him because he won't be able to hunt.
• Absurd Phobia: Greg admits that he developed a fear of puzzles, ever since he opened a puzzle box filled with crickets.
  • He seems to have gotten over this fear in The Deep End, as he was shown doing puzzles without any problems.
• Accidental Hero: He shovels the walk to the soup kitchen in Cabin Fever causing poor people to be able to eat there, but he didn't even know it was a soup kitchen in the first place. He just wanted to find the letter he had sent to the church.
• Accidental Pervert: In The Getaway, Greg accidentally steps onto a nude beach. He ends up paying for it.
• Adaptational Karma: In the Rodrick Rules book, while Susan did find out about "The Invisible Chirag" joke and forced Greg to apologize, he still got off pretty lightly and even twisted his mother's Brutal Honesty-inflicted punishment to his advantage, forcing Susan to call it off. The movie, however, has Chirag actually get the last laugh by tricking Greg into acknowledging him and having a bunch of kids laugh at him.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • He's considerably more sympathetic and less abrasive in the films. They also make his not-so-nice moments (his prank on Chirag, throwing apples at Patty) more justified by the situations and the other's Jerkass attitude towards him, while in the books, both pranks were made basically For the Evulz (Patty was never mean to Greg in the books like she was in the movies). Although he's still kind of a Jerkass in the first film like his book counterpart, in the sequels, he becomes nicer and even his bad treatment of Rowley is downplayed.
  • While the animated film is mostly faithful to Greg's portrayal in the books, after Rowley's wrist is broken Greg is genuinely remorseful and is fully prepared to accept whatever punishment Susan is going to dole out. As a result, he comes off as less of an asshole and more of a flawed but good-hearted kid who lets peer pressure and a desire to be somebody influence cloud his judgement.
• Aesop Amnesia: You expect him to learn his lesson and stop trying to do stupid things that always end up flying right back in his face? Not a chance. He will just never, ever learn.
• Affection-Hating Kid: Greg finds it absolutely disgusting when his parents kiss or say, "I love you so much!" to one another. He also hates being kissed by his relatives because he's afraid they'll spread germs.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: In the first book, Greg wants to become treasurer and use his powers to do favors for cheerleaders.
• Ambiguous Disorder: There is something clearly off with Greg. He shows signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder due to him thinking he's more important than he actually is, manipulating his family and friends in his schemes, blames them for getting him trouble despite the fault being all his, not caring how other people feels and doesn't show regret unless he's in trouble. He clearly suffers from an undiagnosed Truman Effect since he thinks he's in a reality TV show in Double Down.
• Anti-Hero: He definitely fits this trope due to being the protagonist of the series and is a selfish and whiny jerk.
• Anti-Role Model: Jeff Kinney, author of the books, describes Greg as this in an interview.

  Interviewer: Is Greg a good role model?
  Jeff Kinney: No. In fact, you should do the opposite of everything Greg does.

• Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe, Greg shoehorns in a line of comedy in his horror movie due to Rowley getting scared easily.
• Asshole Victim: His Butt-Monkey status usually serves him right for his jerkass ways.
• Attention Whore: He always tries to gain attention and respect at school.
• Author Avatar: Jeff Kinney stated on Reddit that Greg is based on his worst qualities while growing up.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On the surface, he seems nice to the people around him, but in reality he is a massive jerk who looks down on everyone and he won't hesitate to manipulate and gaslight others to get what he wants.
• Black Bead Eyes: Like everyone else in the series.
• Blind Without 'Em: He mentions that without contacts or glasses, he's blind as a bat.
• Big Brother Bully: In one of the books, Greg explicitly says he had intended to become this to Manny and treat Manny the same way Rodrick treats him. But he could never really do it, mainly because he can't get away with a thing with Manny, due to his parents being extremely protective of him.
• Book Dumb: He's not stupid, but he's a slacker who receives bad grades.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Eventually, he did catch up on his grades... but he's still lazy.
• Brutal Honesty: Invokes this when his mom tells him he'll be grounded for a month if he's caught lying. He takes pleasure in this trope. He's also this in his journals, when it comes to his opinions and the failings of others. When it comes to himself, however....
• The Bully: A strange variation of this. Despite being a victim of bullying sometimes, he surely counts as a bully himself, especially to Fregley and Rowley.
• Butt-Monkey: A day without something going wrong for Gregory Heffley is a lost day.
• Cain and Abel: Abel to Rodrick's Cain. Greg is no saint, but while Greg is a cowardly sell-out, Rodrick is an active sadist who delights in tormenting others. Their relationship can be seen as a sort of Sensitive Guy and Manly Man dynamic played up to the worst extremes.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • Whenever he tries to hide his misdeeds (starting the "Invisible Chirag" game, or failing his duties in the Safety Patrol and blaming Rowley for it), he's always eventually found out and punished.
  • Greg strives to be a Big Brother Bully to Manny in the same way that Rodrick is to him, but fails because his parents are too overprotective of the little boy.
• Casanova Wannabe: Often attempts to get with various girls, but he's so bad at it that it ends up that the girls in question never even realize he exists or he ends up looking like a perverted loser in front of them.
• Catchphrase: He comes up with one due to his "Truman Show" Plot, "Bite my biscuits."
• Character Development:
  • Played with. Greg has had his fair share of Pet the Dog moments and shows of maturity throughout the books: in Cabin Fever, after being rumbled for accidentally vandalizing the school, he takes the punishment himself because, while Rowley was involved, he was essentially dragged into it. In other books, he yells at a loud group of kids during a road trip for waking him up in the middle of the night instead of hoping someone else will do it, gets along with his older brother better, admits he's not proud of several things he's done and is genuinely happy to see Rowley at his leaving party. However, these developments are all subject to change by the next book, as he's endlessly prone to returning to his Jerkass ways.
  • Greg's on-and-off character growth gets lampshaded in Hard Luck. At first it seems like he's matured a great deal by the end after all the awful things that happened throughout the book: he finishes up his schoolwork on time, hides Meemaw's diamond ring (which he could sell for a massive sum of money, something he really wants to acquire) so it won't break up the family, and patches things up with Rowley after he realises Abigail was just using him. Rather than try to better himself after that, though, he just figures that he and Rowley will break up and make up again.
  • Unlike the books, the movies show him becoming considerably nicer and learning lessons that actually stick. After the first movie, he's no longer quite as obsessed with being "cool" and isn't embarrassed by his friendship with Rowley, and he bonds with Rodrick to the point that he hugs him out of relief at his well-being at one point in the third film (something their book counterparts would never dream of doing).
• Charlie Brown Baldness: How he draws himself.
• Chekhov's Skill: In "Big Shot", Greg unexpectedly manages to get a basketball through the hoop by throwing backwards during practice (for which Mr. Patel reprimands him). Later on, similarly through dumb luck, wins the Second Chance Tournament by doing so yet again.
• The Chew Toy: He could give Charlie Brown ] a run for his money. The main difference is that Greg pretty much deserves the torment he receives.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He has some pretty crazy ideas about how the world works. In Double Down, for example, he thinks houseflies are drones aliens use to watch us. In the same book, he has a theory about how your brain can only hold so much information and when you're eight or nine, it's filled up, so to learn something after that, you have to get rid of something old. His "proof" is that when he learned photosynthesis, he forgot long division (most likely, this is just a coincidence).
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Rowley all the time, even though he's a Cloudcuckoolander too.
• Comedic Sociopathy: This and Greg's reaction to it is from where most of the books' humor derives. Less so later on, though.
• Comically Missing the Point: Greg's mother tells him he'll be a garbage collector if he doesn't take school seriously. Greg says that being a garbage collector sounds cool.
  • In the same book, his mom tells him he can be anything he wants when grows up. Young Greg thinks he can literally be anything.
• Companion Cube: One Christmas, Susan got him a baby doll named Alfredo which he became extremely attached to until he lost the doll (actually, his Dad took him and hid him). So Greg replaced Alfrendo with a grapefruit that he took care of in the same manner for the next three months.
• Contemptible Cover: Views the Shadowdoom cover as this.
• Cool Loser: Subverted. Greg wants to be seen as such by others (the reader included), but most will tell you that Greg is a dork.
• Cosmic Plaything: The universe seems to just have it for Greg.
• The Cynic: Let's just say it's not often that we see him smiling.
• Deadpan Snarker: Considering that he is the narrator and his personality, this isn't too surprising.
• Death by Newbery Medal: Greg is very much aware of this trope. When his mom makes him read Charlotte's Web, he predicts either Wilbur or Fern will die.
• Didn't Think This Through: His Fatal Flaw. A good example of this is The Getaway, where he tries to dry his socks with the eco friendly dryer. Needless to say, it backfires horribly.
• Dirty Coward: Greg lives up to the "wimpy" part of the title of the series in many ways. He's fine with letting Rowley take the blame for scaring kindergarteners in the first book when it was Greg who did it in the first place. Another example is in Old School. After being caught trying to flee with Frew and Billy, Greg instantly blames it all on Billy to get out of trouble. And in The Getaway, he admits himself that "when Heffleys get in trouble, Heffleys RUN."
• The Ditz: Greg provides so many facepalm worthy moments it's ridiculous. In Dog Days, for example, he thinks a muddy hand from a movie is real and constantly tries to avoid it. In Old School, he puts his SOCKS OVER HIS SHOES due to his father taking down a chart to help him get ready. And there are times where if Greg thought before he acted, he would be fine.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The film trilogy ends on a high note for him. He becomes a better friend to Rowley, he and Rodrick are now friends, Frank and Susan start to respect him, Holly probably becomes his girlfriend, and he's much less of an outright Jerkass thanks to his Character Development.
• Easily Embarrassed Youngster: Let's just say Greg is very easily embarassed.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Bubby" from Manny, a childish pronunciation of "brother". Greg goes to extreme lengths to keep anyone from learning about that nickname.
• Enraged by Idiocy: He's often enraged by the stupidity of others (mostly Rowley). Though this is a bit hypocritical seeing how he himself is not much better.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even though Greg is an unrepentant Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist to the tenth degree, being an insensitive jerk and a sellout, he still got his limits on what he's okay with.
  • In Rodrick Rules, Rodrick offers him a chance to buy a paper off him, since he had the same teacher and the same assignment as him a few years ago. Greg is seriously tempted, but can't go through with it. As he puts it, cheating on a pop quiz is one thing, but outright buying a paper off someone is too far. He actually does put in the work and try to do the assignment the honest way... and then the power goes out. He gives into desperation and buys the paper from Rodrick... and finds that because it's Rodrick, it's utterly unusable anyway. He promptly resigns himself to summer school.
  • In the same book, he genuinely feels sorry for Rodrick when it looks like he might flunk out of school, and decides to help him out. As much as he hates his brother, he doesn't want his future to be ruined.
  • He really hated how the Hero Points scheme was ruined by two hoodlums who photocopied the sheets, resulting in the teachers becoming suspicious and eventually landing a genuine Nice Guy in detention, who earned his points legitimately and didn't buy them. Later, he refuses to buy an old science project from the same two guys, as he knows that it's not only going to land him in jail, it's stealing from everyone. Finally, when he manages to find the diamond ring that Mom's family nearly came to blows over, he hides it so a conflict like that can't happen again for a while (and in case he needs to fall back on it...).
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While the term "evil" is pretty exaggerated, Greg is quite an ass. When he tells Rowley about how his family is going to get a bigger kitchen in Wrecking Ball, he doesn't understand why Rowley is happy instead of jealous as Greg can't understand that people can be happy for others and that not everyone is as self-centered as him.
• Fatal Flaw: His impulsiveness and stupidity, which often gets him into major trouble. Notable examples include the first book, in which he told some teenagers he would call the cops, of which they later got revenge, Dog Days where Greg constantly ordered drinks without pay and racked up a bill for Rowley's dad and Double Down, when he buys an expensive French Horn for a party, only for him to lose interest and get himself grounded for goofing off during a concert.
• Flanderization:
  • Greg's status as a Loser Protagonist and The Chew Toy has been upped. While initially he deserved most of his misfortune, in recent books he seems to suffer for no reason at all other than bad luck. It doesn't help that he becomes more smug and delusional per book.
  • Wrecking Ball ups Greg's Jerkass traits. While previously he mourned the deaths of his relatives, here he actually celebrates Aunt Reba's death and tries to con people into buying useless items, including gifts that Rowley bought him. At the end though, he still proves to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and he genuinely appreciates Rowley showing up at the party at the end and admits he will genuinely miss him.
• First-Person Smartass: In his narration, he often makes snarky comments on how idiotic, petty, and brutish the people surrounding him are, including his own family.
• Freudian Excuse: He may be a complete jerk, but his life should gave you a reason as to why he acts as such. His mother is overbearing and embarrassing as all hell, his father is a no-nonsense curmudgeon, his older brother always seek out ways to screw him over, his younger brother is a spoiled brat and he's constantly stepped on and made fun of at school. It's not hard to see where his jerkassery comes from.
• Friendless Background: Outside of Rowley, Collin and sometimes Fregley, he doesn't appear to have any actual friends, mainly for extremely petty reasons. Whenever Susan tries to get Greg to befriend other kids, he refuses to because he looks down on everyone, even for the most minor of flaws.
• For the Evulz: A lot of his pranks and mistreatment of others are just cruelty for cruelty's sake.
• Generation Xerox: In The Ugly Truth, it turns out that Greg looks exactly like Frank's ugly cousin, Terrence, in the latter's youth. He's not happy about it.
• Genius Ditz: Despite his idiocy and cluelessness, he can come up with good plans. Notable examples include The Third Wheel, where he comes up with a plan to get Rowley into the student council and get himself to help Rowley make decisions and also comes up with a secret stall to hide his toilet paper and Double Down, where he plans to join the band to get invited to a party and makes a two headed monster to get in when he realizes his section wasn't invited.
• Genre Savvy: He knows about the Death by Newbery Medal trope in Dog Days. He predicts that by the end of Charlotte's Web, either Wilbur or Fern will die at the end of the book. Of course, since he's a Lazy Bum, he never figures out that it's really Charlotte who dies.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Grumpy to Rowley's Gleeful.
• Goal in Life: To become rich and famous, although he doesn't seem to have any idea of how he's going to get there.
• Gone Horribly Right: Is told he'll be grounded for a month if he's caught lying, so he takes Brutal Honesty and runs wild with it, much to his mother's dismay.
• Global Ignorance: When he's forced to make a school project about Malta, he admits he doesn't know almost anything about that country and the only thing he's sure about is that Malta is "somewhere near Russia" (it's in the Mediterranean Sea). He also mistakes an iguana for a dinosaur, though this is likely because he has never seen one before.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Whenever Rowley is getting more attention, Greg tries to steal his limelight.
• Hates Everyone Equally: It's a natural instinct for Greg to judge people for the most minor of faults. He even looks down on Rowley, who is supposed to be his best friend who has been with him through thick and thin.
• Heavy Sleeper: Only behind Rodrick when it comes to this.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Greg is not a good person, no matter what anyone tells you. The books are funny because of how much of a jerk Greg is, and while he does have an occasional Pet the Dog moment, at the end of the day Greg is Exactly What It Says on the Tin — a wimpy kid.
• The Hero: He certainly thinks he is this trope.
• Hidden Depths:
  • The first movie reveals that he's actually got a great singing voice, albeit he's embarrassed that his voice is high enough that the music teacher wants him to play the part of Dorothy in the school's The Wizard of Oz play.
  • He has a fondness for animals, especially dogs, fish, dolphins and pandas.
  • Big Shot reveals that he is actually great at shooting hoops, albeit only from across the court and when facing backwards.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Rodrick is constantly bullying him, but his antics are mostly portrayed as funny. Downplayed as it is not abuse per se.
• Hopeless Suitor: Greg's crush on Holly, at least in the books. In the films, it's implied she may like him, too. By the end of the third book, he gave up on her after she mistook him for Fregley. Come the 8th book, though, and as it turns out, he still wants to marry her when he grows older. He's this for pretty much every girl he's liked.
• Humiliation Conga: In the second film, which finishes with him falling into a cake and getting beaten up.
• Hype Backlash: In-Universe in the webcomic. Greg is hyped for Twisted Wizard 2, only to think it sucks.
• Hypocrite: One of his many flaws.
  • In Hard Luck, he complains about Rowley who is always hanging out with his new girlfriend Abigail and basically says that he misses Rowley's friendship because he misses Rowley doing things for him, like carrying all of Greg's books when they're walking to school (he even describes Rowley as a "pack animal"). And then he says "Unfortunately, Rowley is just as willing to help Abigail with HER books, which makes me think the only reason she's even with him is to USE him". It doesn't help that he actually tries to use Fregley to mold him into another Rowley (luckily, that backfires).
  • Also in Hard Luck, he is disappointed in his schoolmates gaming the "Hero Points" program with counterfeit notes, which ends up with the program cancelled, but he did more or less the exact same thing in Rodrick Rules (with the exact same end result). Of course, the difference in that case was that he was the one trying to game the system.
  • In The Ugly Truth, Greg's relatives have put sticky notes on Gammie's stuff so they can claim it when she dies. Greg rightfully points out that it's disrespectful before admitting that he did the exact same thing himself.
  • He tends to frequently bring up how dysfunctional his family is, and especially his brothers while making it seem like he's the only normal one in the family. But as Diary of An Awesome Friendly Kid shows, Greg is actually just as dysfunctional as his family is.
  • He often looks down on the kids in his middle school as thugs who bully and exploit weaker kids, despite the fact that Greg himself bullies and exploits kids who are too submissive or too weak to fight back, like Rowley and Chirag.
  • In spite of his love for animals, he has zero problem on harming them.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: Greg's consistent description of Rodrick as a jerk is rather hypocritical in light of his own behavior and his treatment of Rowley. It's also completely truthful, seeing as how Rodrick is a Big Brother Bully with a penchant for crass jokes and petty schemes.
• Idiot Hero: You know you're a complete moron when you think a muddy hand from a FICTIONAL HORROR MOVIE is real. What really deserves the Darwin Award however, is Greg putting his socks over his shoes.
• If I Were a Rich Man: In the books, he often fantasizes about being rich and famous and seems convinced that it'll happen one day.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Or popular. He puts on a mean ego to fit in with the crowd instead of being outcast for being too cowardly.
• Insistent Terminology: It's a JOURNAL, not a diary.
• Irrational Hatred:
  • His hatred of Fregley. Sure, he's not the most normal guy in the world, but he does not deserve the harsh treatment Greg gives him.
  • His hatred of Patty in the books, as she's only implied to be a Teacher's Pet at worst and never actually INTERACTS with Greg. In the movies, however, this trope is averted.
• It's All About Me: His incredibly self-centered personality needs no introduction.
• Jerkass: Greg is a really mean kid. When he and Rowley often try to accomplish tasks together, he usually makes him do all of the work and tries to take credit for it. In the online version, he only goes to Collin's house to play his games and read his comic books. Also, there's his treatment of Chirag Gupta and all the times he manipulated poor Fregley.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Pretty frequently. For example, he's completely right about how his brother Rodrick is an abusive jerk who takes delight in Greg's torment and Manny does deserve to be grounded when he misbehaves.
  • In the first movie, he's trying to make Rowley look cooler by getting rid of some of his more babyish stuff. While he's being a jerk about it, he has a point that some of Rowley's favorite clothes are embarrassing to wear in public and will probably get him bullied by the other middle schoolers.

    Greg: (holding up a "Me and My Mommy" shirt) This one, we burn.
    Rowley: It was a present from my mom!
    Greg: Well, then your mom is trying to get you killed.

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though he is a surly, snarky jerk with bullying tendencies towards Rowley, his Pet the Dog moments do show that he will eventually do the right thing and is not heartless.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Nerd Son to Frank's Jock Dad. An odd case since Greg is Book Dumb unlike the typical nerd, but the trope is still there: Frank wants Greg to play sports, even if Greg hates them and would rather stay at home with comic books and video games.
• Karma Houdini: Usually averted big time , but played straight when it comes to one instance where he sent mean Valentine's cards to people. He never gets in trouble for it.
  • In "The Ugly Truth", he dumps a pile of deviled eggs in the Snella's potted plant due to their awful taste, which drives them to move out due to the awful smell. Greg is never found let alone punished, though he feels guilty when he sees the Snellas take their potted plant with them.
  • Downplayed in Roderick Rules. He manages to weasel his way out of punishment for helping Roderick cover up his house party, but since Greg had been locked in the basement for the entire party and then blackmailed into cleaning up the aftermath, it's hard to feel like he really deserved much punishment in this scenario.
• Kick the Dog: To literally everyone.
• Kick the Morality Pet: His relationship with Rowley hinges on this.
• Kids Are Cruel: Possibly the king of this trope.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He'll help. There just has to be no other choice. Less so later on though.
• Lean and Mean: In contrast to his friend Rowley who is wide and much nicer.
• Lack of Empathy: Despite being treated badly by Rodrick and knowing how painful said treatment can be, he treats Rowley the exact same way, which causes Rowley to give him "The Reason You Suck" Speech. In addition, despite being an outcast, Greg feels no empathy for Fregley and looks down on him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: One of the reasons the books are funny is because Greg is such a cowardly Jerkass that we feel no sympathy whenever bad things happen to him. In the second movie: Chirag actually gets the last laugh by tricking Greg into acknowledging his existence by pretending to have Holly to want to meet Greg, only for Chirag to be dressed like Holly.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Greg mentions how he feels like he's been in middle school forever.
• Limited Wardrobe: A white shirt and black shorts is all you're getting with Greg Heffley.
• Literal-Minded: Greg sometimes is this. When his parents say they want to recharge their batteries, Greg sees it as proof that they are robots.
• Loser Protagonist: Our protagonist here is an underachieving dork who completely fails at everything, except for video games. It's mostly subverted in the films, where he progressively gets better.
• Love at First Sight: Towards Holly Hills in the second film.
• Manipulative Bastard: Basically what his relationship with Rowley hinges on. Although as a number of instances imply, he does have some genuine care for his friend, with the biggest evidence of that arguably being sharing a teary-eyed hug with Rowley in Wrecking Ball.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Rodrick frequently bullies him and gets away with it through intimidation and covering his tracks. Meanwhile, Manny makes himself a pest, but Greg can't do anything to him without getting into trouble with his parents.
• Missing Child: In the Long Haul movie, Greg sneaks off to a video game convention, only for Susan to find out.
• Misplaced Retribution: In Rodrick Rules, Greg recalls a time where he snitched on Rodrick for swearing. Greg spelled out the word for his mom, and was punished for knowing how to spell a swear word, whilst Rodrick got away with it.
• Mistaken for Gay: In The Meltdown, Greg and Rowley sneak off to Gramma's house. Greg thinks he can get warm in the dryer. They are then caught by Susan wearing their underwear. Susan then says it's OK for boys to play pretend.
• Moral Myopia: In Hard Luck, he believes Abigail is only with Rowley to use him because she makes him help her carry her books, even though Greg himself did that a lot too.
• Narcissist:
  • To the point where the entire reason he begins writing in journals is his expectations of being rich and famous and being too busy to answer people's questions. He also thinks he'll have a reality TV show by age 12. He even spends most of the book not shutting up about it.
  • In The Last Straw, he's talking about his family's New Year's resolutions and about finding ways to improve himself...but it's not easy for him to improve himself because, in his own words, "I'm pretty much one of the best people I know". So he starts thinking of ways to "improve other people" and telling them what he doesn't like about them.
  • In Wrecking Ball, he claims that he will have his own national holiday in the same vein as Dr. King and they'll make his childhood home into a museum.
• Never My Fault: Typically he is looking to find a scapegoat to blame, and very few times he admits being wrong.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Believe it or not, he's the nice one to Manny's mean and Rodrick's in-between, having had a few Pet the Dog moments here and there.
• No Infantile Amnesia: Greg claims to remember the time he spent in his mother's womb.
• Nominal Hero: Not particularly noble to begin with, and most of the time he only looks out for himself. But he is capable of correcting his wrongs in the end, if only out of guilt.
• Noodle Incident: In The Ugly Truth, Greg constantly avoids Rowley due to a fight they had.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Word of God has confirmed that Greg will be in middle school forever.
• Only Sane Man: Can occasionally play this role. Probably the biggest example is Old School, where he's the only one who doesn't believe in Silas Scratch and constantly puts up with his cabinmates
• Parental Sexuality Squick: In The Getaway, when he turns around to ask his parents something, he sees them making out, so he just leaves them alone and privately wishes that he didn't see that.
• Perpetual Frowner: His general facial expression in the books is a frown.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being a jerk most of the time, Greg has his moments of being nicer than usual.
  • At the end of Rodrick Rules, he stays up all night to help Rodrick put together a school project so he won't flunk out, something he really did not have to do, especially given that Rodrick has spent that book terrorizing him more than usual.
  • In Cabin Fever, when Rowley anonymously snitches on Greg for accidentally vandalizing the school, he doesn't pull Rowley into it and takes the punishment by himself.
  • In Hard Luck, he comforts Rowley after a particularly cruel breakup, decides to hide a diamond ring worth millions so his mom's family can't tear each other apart again, is genuinely furious when a Nice Guy gets landed in detention, and utterly disgusted at how a bunch of delinquents in Hard Luck stole thousands and thousands of science projects and ruined the Hero Points scheme all for a quick buck (although he did something very similar before).
• Pinball Protagonist: In The Getaway and Wrecking Ball Greg does nothing to drive the plot other than go through his usual Butt-Monkey routine, while Susan drives the plot in both stories.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: ALL THE TIME. Greg gets Rowley in trouble for something he did? Good and dandy! Rowley snitches on him for this? He will pay for this! Greg bullies and abuses the crap out of Rowley? Perfectly justified! Rodrick treats Greg the exact same way? He's a complete jerk. Probably the worst example is Hard Luck, where he criticizes Abigail for making Rowley carry her books only to admit he did the exact same thing himself. It doesn't help that he used Fregley, too.
• Poor Communication Kills: SEVERAL things could have been avoided if Greg simply told people what happened.
• Potty Emergency: In The Long Haul and The Last Straw.
• Potty Failure: He used to wet the bed when he was eight.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Seems to inherit this from Rodrick.
• Sadist: He seems to take joy in tormenting others.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man:
  • The Manly Man (Jerkass Casanova Wannabe) to Rowley's Sensitive Guy (childish and naive Nice Guy).
  • On the flip side, he's the Sensitive Guy (a cowardly, physically weak, awkward preteen) to Rodrick's Manly Man (a tough, physically aggressive rocker).
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Implied to be this in The Last Straw.
• The Slacker: Not as much as his brother, but he's still very lazy, and not just when it comes to school. When he hangs out with Rowley, he usually makes his friend do all of the work.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's full of himself, being confident of becoming rich and famous when he grows up. In fact, the only reason he keeps a diary at all is so that he can have a record of his life for people to admire when he becomes famous.

  Imaginary male reporter: Gregory! Tell us about your childhood!

  Imaginary female reporter: Were you always so smart and handsome?

  Imaginary Greg: Here's my journal. Now, shoo, shoo.

• Smug Snake: "When I'm rich and famous, I'll have better things to do than listen to people's stupid questions."
• Spiders Are Scary: Greg has serious arachnophobia as shown in The Getaway. He is completely panicked when he meets a tarantula.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks like Rodrick a lot in the films.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Grows into this mindset as the books go on - and quite a lot of the time, it's justified.
• Sweet Tooth: Falls asleep in class if he doesn't get a sugary snack in his lunch.
• Terrified of Germs: A minor running gag is his fear of germs or anything he considers unhygienic. He scrubs his face with antibacterial wipes (and a curtain) after being kissed by relatives, refuses to swim in the ocean because fish pee in it, and won't touch his mom's potato salad because it's served in the same bowl she gives him and his brothers to throw up in when they're sick.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: At the end of Cabin Fever, he gets his picture in the paper for shoveling all the snow off the church sidewalk and clearing the way for the soup kitchen to open on Christmas. They weren't able to identify him since he was wearing a ski mask, but it was still pretty cool.
• The Unfavorite: Only behind Rodrick. His parents favour Manny over him.
• This Loser Is You: Readers are clearly supposed to identify with Greg, who is often the passive victim of the torment and ridicule he receives.
• Token Good Teammate: Downplayed, at least of the children (Susan's easily the one of the entire family). He's far from a nice kid, but he's surprisingly far less mean-spirited than both of his brothers — the elder is a huge Big Brother Bully and the younger is a horribly spoiled child who isn't hesitant in leaving his family to die in a blizzard for no good reason. In fact, this actually makes it obvious in which he gets his jerkish behavior from (from Rodrick, at least).
• Took a Level in Dumbass: He become a lot dumber in later books. In Old School, he puts his socks over his shoes.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Diary of An Awesome Friendly Kid, Greg is almost never shown being nice, and in the rare instances he is nice, it's usually for a selfish reason. His dickishness in Diary of An Awesome Friendly Kid is so extreme that he's a borderline bully in the book.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the 1st movie, he was a big jerk like in the books, but in the 2nd and 3rd movie, he was more likable (and Holly Hills was also introduced in the second movie, coincidence?). He notably apologizes to Rowley in the third film when he messes up and the two rekindle their friendship much faster than they did in the books.
• Toxic Friend Influence: To Rowley, at least according to Rowley's parents (they're not entirely wrong...)
• Ungrateful Bastard: In "Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid", Rowley shows Greg his journal and suggests they could make a book series about their adventures together, so they'll both be famous. How does Greg respond? By saying that it's stupid and he can replace Rowley with any other moron in his biography. You don't feel bad when Rowley hits Greg with the book.
• Unreliable Narrator: Sure, a lot of what he goes through seems plausible. But Greg often tells very obvious lies, twists the facts to make himself look better and due to being a first person narrator, we only have his accounts to go off of. And this being Greg, it's very hard to 100% trust them.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Despite his claiming otherwise, he's clearly not the nicest person in the world and the reader is obviously supposed to laugh at him, not like him. The movies downplay this considerably and make him a much more sympathetic character.
• Unusual Euphemism: Has his own made up language to avoid getting in trouble for swearing.
• Villainous Aromantic Asexual: Possibly. The only times he shows interest in girls are because he wants their attention, because he wants to be popular and at the top, or because everyone else has one and he wants to blend in. Plus, he shows no real feelings for them and gets annoyed at them for minor flaws easily. These facts would especially line up with his possible narcissistic personality and/or antisocial personality disorder/s.
• Villain Protagonist: At his worst.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • With Rowley. Greg supplies all the vitriol, and Rowley is the cheerful, passive one.
  • In the films, he's this to a lesser degree with Fregley and Chirag, as despite the fact that he thinks of one as a weirdo and the other as annoying respectively, he still hangs out with them. It culminates in them helping Greg stage a revenge scheme against a rival troop.
• Vocal Evolution: Over the course of the first 3 films, his voice gradually deepens, as a result of his actor going through puberty.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As a kid, he was afraid of the creepy photo of Shel Silverstein on the back cover of The Giving Tree.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • For someone who claims to be his friend, Greg treats Rowley like absolute garbage, though he does have some Pet the Dog moments.
  • In the online version, he only goes to Collin's house to mooch off of him such as playing his games, reading his books, and he ignores Collin when he asks a question and even steals Monopoly money from him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Greg has no problem at all throwing an apple at Patty in the school play. In the movie, Patty deserves it due to being a Jerkass.

    Rodrick Heffley

Played by: Devon Bostick (first three movies), Charlie Wright (The Long Haul), Hunter Dillon (2021 film)

Greg's older brother in high school. He lives in the basement and leads a garage band, Loded Diper.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: His film self plays up the All Girls Want Bad Boys / Loveable Rogue angle, with a few gratuitous Shirtless Scenes for extra fanservice.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the movie adaptation of Rodrick Rules. He goes from the Big Bad in the book to the Deuteragonist who (eventually) helps the main character in the movie.
• Adaptational Karma: In the books, Rodrick got away with most of his attempts to bully Greg and the punishments he did receive were too flimsy for Rodrick to actually learn anything from the experience. In the films, Rodrick faces more serious punishments for his actions. For instance, Rodrick in the books is punished for hosting a house party without permission with a grounding that didn't affect his ability to continue practicing drums and ultimately drove Frank into cancelling his punishment early. In the films, Rodrick gets restricted from joining the talent show for the same offense, forcing Rodrick to lose composure and plead for his parents to let him participate.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: The movies have him start off as identical to his book counterpart, but the second and third films add more depth to his character by having him bond with Greg, becoming more of a Cool Big Bro.
• Ascended Extra: A secondary antagonist in the first movie, but he gets A Day in the Limelight in the second movie (it even has his name in the title).
• At Arm's Length: He does this to Greg in the second movie.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In Rodrick Rules (the book), he wants people to notice his band so they can get famous. He gets noticed, all right...when the videotape of his mom dancing to the band's music turns into a meme and he becomes a laughingstock for being the drummer in the "Dancing Mom" video.
• Big Brother Bully: He frequently plays mean pranks on Greg. He gets better, though.
• Big Brother Instinct: During The Getaway, in a rare case of Rodrick actually having a heart in the books, he willingly tried to help Greg to safety when he saw him in serious danger of getting beat up by an angry mob.
• Big Brother Mentor: In the second half of the second movie he evolves from a Big Brother Bully to this, giving him advice about how to deal with his parents and school problems.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He's the only character in the books who is drawn with default eyebrows. In fact, he has eyebrows thicker than his lips, to judge from Greg's art.
• Black Sheep: Not exactly the most popular member of the family.
• Book Dumb: He lets his father do all his homework, and fails his assignments when he does it on his own.
• Cain and Abel: Cain to Greg's Abel. Greg is no saint, but it's clear that Rodrick is the meaner one of the two.
• Casanova Wannabe: The movies give him this trait. He tries to flirt with girls at his party, who are clearly off-put by him, and his efforts to win over Heather Hills are comically bad. When he tries to give Greg advice about Holly in the second film, he has this to say:

  Rodrick: Girls act like they're not into you when they really are. I mean, tons of girls act like they're not into me, but they are. I know they are.

• Character Development: In the books, there's not much to him other than being Greg's tormentor. In the movies, he gets a bit more depth, and turns into a Big Brother Mentor.
• Childish Older Sibling: While Greg isn't the pinnacle of maturity himself, his older brother Rodrick is a lazy, Book Dumb troublemaker who does little more than make life harder for the family, especially with how he acts towards Greg and Frank.
• Cool Big Bro: After a bit of Character Development in the movies.
  • He spends most of the second movie bullying Greg, but in later scenes he starts bonding with him and giving him advice. The whole movie is about their rivalry and the development of their brotherly relationship.
  • He's still one in the third movie. While Greg doesn't look up to him nor thinks he's "cool", they are more or less on good terms (at least, much better than before) and Rodrick is never seen pranking or tormenting his brother.
• Crazy-Prepared: He has a magazine picture of a one-armed drummer in his room, just in case his mom ever asks what he'll do for a living if he loses an arm and can't play the drums anymore.
• Deadpan Snarker: If there's a sarcastic one-liner to be given, he'll usually deliver it.

  Rodrick: Monkeys don't speak English, stupid.

• Deuteragonist: In the second movie he plays the role as the second most important character after Greg. The movie even has his name in the title.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Greg doesn't have a high opinion of him, to say the least. He describes Rodrick as a "jerk", looks down on him for being lazy and Book Dumb (even if Greg himself is not much better), and even thinks Rodrick's band is lame.
• Dogged Nice Guy: "Nice Guy" might be a bit of a stretch, but when you see him try so hard to win the love of Heather Hills in the third film, only for her to respond with rudeness and a cold personality, it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for him.
• Dreaded Kids' Table: He has to sit at the kids' table during family reunions, even though, in Greg's words, "he's practically a grown man."
• Dreadful Musician: Zigzagged. Greg doesn't really think much of his music. But then again, Greg doesn't think much of him at all. Frank doesn't like his music either, but Susan does.
• Dumb and Drummer: He has aspirations of playing drums in a heavy metal band. He's also one of the dumbest characters in the series.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: He's portrayed as dimwitted, especially when it comes to his schoolwork.
• For the Evulz: Why he messes with Greg. There's no real benefit, except for the enjoyment he gets of it.
• Goal in Life: To become a famous heavy metal musician.
• Guyliner: In the movie, he occasionally dons eyeliner as part of his performance makeup.
• Heavy Sleeper: Spends most of his free time sleeping and once slept for almost two days straight. One time, when his old mattress was replaced, he went right back to sleep on the floor in the middle of his empty bed frame.

  Greg: "The only person I know who's better at sleeping than me is Rodrick."

• Hopeless Suitor: He's smitten with Heather Hills, and tries to win her heart. He fails.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: He owns a porn stash consisting of sexually clad women.
• I'll Kill You!: In the first movie, this is his reaction when he finds Greg and Rowley in his room.

  Rodrick: I came up here to get a new drumstick. And now, Greg, since Mom and Dad are gone...I'm going to kill you. Literally, kill you!

• Implausible Deniability: The second movie has Frank catch incriminating crystal clear photos of Rodrick in a Wild Teen Party (due to Greg taking pictures and forgetting to delete them.). Rodrick's reaction?
• Insufferable Imbecile: He's an obnoxious Dumbass Teenage Son who likes to bully his younger brother.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Rodrick and Bill. Rodrick is a high schooler and Bill is in his mid-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.
• Karma Houdini: He always gets away with bullying Greg.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: On one occasion his parents ground him for throwing a Wild Teen Party while they were away after he did everything in his power to prevent himself from doing so.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch:
  • His treatment of Greg can be considered this, especially since Greg is not above pulling the same pranks on Rowley.
  • Does this unintentionally to Heather, whom he was trying to win over. However, when Greg turned up the volume and effects, Heather's birthday party is ruined and her dress is messed up. Heather is a complete asshole to the main characters, and the destruction of her sweet 16 is fitting punishment for her behavior. You can actually cheer on Rodrick for doing this, jerk he may be.
• Lazy Bum: According to Greg, he's "the king of laziness".
• Lean and Mean: Very thin, and mean like his two younger brothers; though not as bad as Manny.
• Little Known Facts: Since they were both very young, Rodrick has told Greg several lies in order to mess with him. For instance, in Dog Days, it's revealed that Rodrick once told Greg that if you swallow watermelon seeds, a watermelon will grow in your stomach, and in Double Down, Greg recalls a variety of lies Rodrick has told him, including "if your belly button comes untied, your butt will fall off", "if you wear camouflage, you become invisible to everyone else", and "if you bury money in the ground, it will grow into a money tree".
• Metalhead: With aspirations of becoming a big-time musician.
• Misplaced Retribution: In the first book, Manny cuts out a picture of a bikini-clad woman from one of Rodrick's magazines and takes it with him to preschool the following day. Who gets punished for this? Rodrick, despite the fact that he had no involvement in this scheme and it was Manny's fault for breaking into his room in the first place and doing that without anyone's knowledge.
• Mr. Fanservice: In the movies where he's played by Devon Bostick with a few gratuitous Shirtless Scenes.
• Never My Fault: The book version of "Rodrick Rules" has the distinction of having it happen twice on one page. When Susan dances during the recording of Rodrick's band session at the talent show, thus depriving him of his chance to show his performance to record companies, Rodrick calls her out. She just responds that he shouldn't play music if he doesn't want people to dance. Rodrick then blames the recording fiasco on Greg for not taping the show for him, only for Greg to reply that he would have done it if Rodrick wasn't such a Jerkass.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The in-between to Greg's nice and Manny's mean - he hasn't had as many Pet the Dog moments as Greg, but he's certainly never left his family to die in a blizzard like Manny.
• Perpetual Frowner: In the books he's mainly drawn this way.
• Pet the Dog: In The Getaway, he tries to save Greg from a crowd of angry beachgoers.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man (a tough, physically aggressive rocker) to Greg's sensitive guy (a cowardly, physically weak, awkward preteen).
• Serenade Your Lover: In the third movie, Rodrick has a huge crush on Heather Hills, to the point of attempting to serenade her. She wants nothing to do with him.
• Shirtless Scene: Several in the movies, including the "three days and no shower" scene.
• The Slacker: He weaponizes this behavior to "lower people's expectations and surprise them by doing almost nothing at all."
• Slouch of Villainy: His cartoon-self is drawn with a hunched back. Greg believes it's because of the heavy backpack he has to carry to and from school all day.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With Greg in the movies—seriously, the actors who play them could easily pass for brothers.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In the latest books it's noticeable that Rodrick has gone from simple being Book Dumb because he's "Too cool for school" but clever when it comes to teasing Greg to being a complete idiot who thinks you can get bacon from pigs the same way you get eggs from chickens, and thinks his brain exploded when he had cinnamon bun dough all over him. That said, his embarrassing essay about "The Earth A Hundred Years Ago" makes it pretty clear since the second book (and movie) that he's not a smart guy.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Unlike the book it was based on, the second movie focuses on Rodrick genuinely bonding with Greg and becoming his Big Brother Mentor.
• Troubled, but Cute: In the movies, which play up the All Girls Want Bad Boys / Loveable Rogue angle.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In the books, he has never softened up to Greg one bit, not even when Greg willingly helps him with the science fair in Book 2.
• The Unfavorite:
  • Even more so than Greg. Come to think of it, that's probably why he's such a Jerkass. Greg himself believes this is why Rodrick is so grumpy.
  • This apparently also applies to the grandparents, since Manny is Gramma's favorite and Greg is Grandpa's favorite.
• Would Hurt a Child: Picks physically on pre-teen Greg For the Evulz. Downplayed given he's just 17 himself, and Greg's sibling at that.

    Manny Heffley

Played by: Connor and Owen Fielding (first three movies), Wyatt and Dylan Walters (The Long Haul), Grace Newton (2021 film)

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: The film version of Manny is a nuisance to Greg, but his spoiled nature and brattiness are toned down from the books.
• Ambiguous Disorder: His Child Prodigy tendencies, occasional obsessive compulsion (the way he deals with certain food) mixed with his lack of social skills border on showing signs of a disorder.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Manny is Rodrick and Greg's younger brother, who gets his way no matter what. Their mother even drives to Manny's preschool just to cut his sandwich because it wasn't how he wanted.
• Animal Stereotypes: He has the look of "a bucktoothed alligator" according to the movie diary.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Of the Heffley family, and the reason why Susan spoils him.
• Baby Talk: "Wipe my heinie, ploopy!"
• Barely Changed Dub Name: He's called Manu in the French translation.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Taken Up to Eleven. Manny persists to throws tantrums until his demands are fulfilled.
• Born Lucky: Has much more privileges than his brothers and barely anything bad happens to him, to Greg's annoyance.
• Berserk Button:
  • If you don't give him what he wants, he will have an utter tantrum.
  • It's revealed in "The Long Haul" that he will go on an utter rage if his nap time is interrupted.
  • Never give him sandwiches cut in halves. You'd better put the mustard on his hotdog across the middle if he asks you to give one. Always put the cereal in his bowl before the milk. If you fail at any of these, he'll cry like mad.
• Bilingual Bonus: In The Long Haul, he is shown to be fluent in Spanish.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Manny acts all nice and sweet around Susan and Frank, but in reality he's a complete brat and the gloves will come off if he doesn't get what he wants.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: For some reason, he loves the taste of Bitter Apple Spray, a bad-tasting but non-toxic substance meant to be sprayed on furniture to discourage dogs from chewing on it. He puts it on everything he eats.
• Bratty Food Demand: He'll throw a tantrum if his food is not prepared in the very specific way he demands, e.g. if you cut his sandwich in halves instead of quarters, pour the milk in the bowl before the cereal, or give him a hotdog without a short line of mustard applied in the middle.
• Character Development:
  • He makes one small improvement in Hard Luck: he's shown to have made a friend in his preschool class, which suggests that his social skills may be getting better, if nothing else (although according to Greg, they don't even talk to each other). And he is the only one who can speak Spanish, which leads to getting a ride home in a car that works.
  • In The Meltdown, he's noticeably less bratty and almost acts like a normal kid. Also, for the first time, he's looking up to his older brothers and imitating what they're doing.
• Child Prodigy:
  • In Cabin Fever, he figured out how to change the parental controls, hack into Greg's Net Kritterz account, and even switch off most of the electricity.
  • Also showing signs of this by The Long Haul. He can speak perfectly fluent conversational Spanish, understand decimal numbers, and give accurate directions in Spanish to a place that he's only seen once in his life (that, or he figured out how to use the family's GPS, which is still impressive by itself).
  • He built an entire house by himself in Wrecking Ball.
• Companion Cube: The remains of his old knit blanket, which he calls "Tingy" (which was accidentally thrown away by Frank).
• Cloudcuckoolander: He has quite the air-headed personality. He has No Social Skills and his Baby Talk mannerisms are immature even by the standards of most kids his age, who know how to form at least some coherent sentences.
• Creepy Child: Played for laughs in book 6, where he steals almost all of the house's supplies and leaves the rest of the family to die during a blizzard. Greg throws out the possibility that Manny was just throwing a tantrum and didn't honestly realize he was endangering anybody, but he's not 100% convinced that's the case.
  • In addition, this is invoked in the third movie, where after his father assures him that him throwing away Tingy was "an accident", Manny responds with "Tingy says you're going to have an accident." and shoots him a Death Glare. This scene was deleted for reasons not too mysterious.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: A variation. Jeff Kinney chose the name "Manny" because he thought it was meant to be an "ultra-masculine name" and thought it would be hilarious if he gave such a manly name to a tiny boy.
• Deliberately Cute Child: Uses this to manipulate his mother.

  Greg: He ruined my video game.

  Susan: He didn't anything on purpose, did you honey?

  Manny: No, I didn't.

  Susan: No, he didn't. He's only three.

• Demoted to Extra: He doesn't have much of a role in the books since, "The Long Haul" and is mainly just sitting there in the background.
• Don't Wake the Sleeper: In The Long Haul, it's mentioned that if Manny is woken up from one of his naps, he "goes ballistic" and is unable to be calmed down.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Out of all the Heffleys, Manny is the closest to Susan, despite his spoiled and bratty personality.
• Flanderization:
  • The books have gradually upped Manny's negative traits. While he was always a spoiled brat, he slowly transformed into a possible sociopath as a consistent Karma Houdini.
  • While Manny was prone to odd behaviors as far back as the first book, these were either him Obfuscating Stupidity to mess with people or were just simply him behaving like the child he was. In later books, Manny is unable to speak in a coherent sentence and engages in completely crazy acts like trying to climb down a toilet or trying to keep a box jellyfish as a pet.
  • Initially, Susan's insistence that he's smart for his age comes off as her justifying his behavior. In later books, Manny is a Child Prodigy who can speak in Spanish by listening to a tape once, build a house, and hack into electronics.
• Genius Ditz: He has No Social Skills and has an Ambiguous Disorder, but he's implied to be quite smart for his age. He seems to have extensive knowledge of computers, being that he messed up Greg's Net Kritterz account password in Cabin Fever and changed the settings on the TV. Manny is also shown to be highly fluent in Spanish in The Long Haul.
• It's All About Me: Has extremely selfish behavior, even for kids his age.
• Jerkass: Manny is very bratty and spoiled, and throws fits to get what he wants. He even almost starved his family to death in the middle of a blizzard just because nobody taught him to tie his shoes. Manny has a vindictive streak as well; he once ruined Frank's civil war battlefield because the latter threw out his blanket, though to be fair, Frank didn't know it was Manny's blanket.
• Karma Houdini: He can get away with messing with Greg's stuff solely because Susan and Frank baby him. This gets ridiculous in book 6. He gets away with the events described in the above trope. That's right, he left the family to die during a blizzard, and did not get PUNISHED.
• Kick the Dog: He not only left his family to die during a blizzard to ensure his own survival, but also turned off the electricity to every room but his own. When Manny went missing for a day, his mother, Susan, found him in his room surrounded by food, water, toys and a space heater. The reason for this? Nobody ever taught him how to tie his own shoes!
• Momma's Boy: He's clearly Susan's favorite son, probably because he's the youngest.
• Moral Myopia: He has no qualms with calling Greg a "ploopy", but he gets really upset when Greg does that to him.
• Never My Fault: He blames breaking a plate on his imaginary friend "Johnny Cheddar" and always comes up with the same lame excuse for his actions.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The mean to Greg's nice and Rodrick's in-between, being a nasty little selfish brat who left his family to die in a blizzard with no remorse for his actions.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: After watching a horror movie, Manny draws a picture of a monster, and it even frightens Greg.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Manny accidentally watches a scary movie that Rodrick left in the disk drive, then later makes a scary drawing that Greg notes was enough to give him nightmares.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He has an extremely pronounced upper jaw and prominent buck teeth. Since this is at no point commented on, it's likely a purely artistic matter.
• No Social Skills: Even for a kid his age. He's so terrified of kids his age that his only friends are imaginary ones. Heck! When other kids come over to play, he takes everything away because he doesn't want to share. Subverted in Hard Luck, where he manages to make at least one friend in preschool, but they don't even talk to each other and just watch TV together.
• Not Good with People: Manny is terrified of other children. However, he does seem to love animals; he's very attached to the Heffleys' pet pig, and in The Getaway, he catches sea creatures in his bucket with the intention of keeping them as pets on three occasions.
• Out of Focus: From "The Long Haul" onward, Manny doesn't play much of a role in the series' plotlines, and mostly serves as set dressing or gag fodder.
• Pet the Dog: He helps Greg shovel the driveway in Meltdown even though he has no reason to.
• Picky Eater: Manny will refuse to eat certain foods if they aren't served to his standards.
• Ping-Pong Naïveté: It varies from story to story just how intelligent Manny is and how much he acts like a normal child as opposed to a Child Prodigy. In some books, like Cabin Fever, he's clever enough to cut power to every room in the house but his own, and in "The Long Haul" he quickly learns fluent Spanish. However, he's still young enough to believe in some pretty illogical ideas, like another kid being a vampire. There's also some books, particularly the early ones like Rodrick Rules, that suggest he's really intelligent, but pretends to be childishly dumb to get away with things.
• Sinister Schnoz: In the books, Manny is drawn with a long, snout-like nose, and he's often portrayed as cruel, petty, vindictive, and antagonistic.
• Spoiled Brat: His parents spoil him so much and let him get away with things that Greg and Rodrick would get in big trouble for.
• The Stool Pigeon: Manny has always been a big tattletale since the day he was able to talk. According to Greg, he also told his parents what wrong deeds Greg did before he could talk.
• Super OCD: With his food. Never give him sandwich cut in halves (quarters instead); only eats hotdogs with a short line of mustard applied in the middle; poured milk in the bowl first before cereal and he will throw a tantrum.
• Teens Are Monsters:
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In book 6, he acted noticeably brattier than other books.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the first book, Manny rips out a suggestive picture of a bikini-clad woman reclining on a car hood from one of Rodrick's magazines and takes it to preschool. Susan ends up punishing Rodrick.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Book 6 has him hoard food and cut off all the power to the house except his room during a blizzard, essentially leaving the family for dead because no one taught how to tie his shoes. After Susan teaches him, he decides he likes having her tie them for him better.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Was afraid of the "Potty Monster" for a time after Uncle Joe ^note Greg in the movie told him there was a monster in the toilet.
• Youngest Child Wins: In that Manny winds up getting treated much better than his siblings. It's implied that this is a bit of a cyclical matter, as Gregory used to enjoy a similarly privileged position right until Manny was born.

    Susan Heffley

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• Adaptational Jerkass: In the Long Haul film, she is noticeably more immature and bossy. She even deliberately humiliates Greg (to be fair though, it was his fault the trip was going wrong).
• Adaptation Name Change: Susan was named "Ann" in the original online diary.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Susan was always the Token Good Teammate for the Heffley family, but one of her main flaws in the books was forcing her family to do things she wants, even if they protest against it. In the original film trilogy, this trait gets downplayed (assuming that it's not a punishment) in the film trilogy, in which scenes like forcing Greg to participate in the school play or Frank to accompany Greg and Rowley on Halloween have been removed.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: She tends to (unintentionally) humiliate Greg a lot.
• Blind Without 'Em: In Cabin Fever, it's shown she cannot see well if her glasses aren't on, and this is a huge problem when Manny breaks her glasses.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: She runs a parenting advice column in the newspaper, but is completely ineffective at disciplining any of her children, especially Manny. It does not help that she tries to use methods meant for preschoolers to discipline her older sons, one being middle school age and the other high school age.
• Doting Parent: To Manny, especially, but she's also shown to be a loving parent to Greg and is also soppy to Rodrick, being the only person in the family who actually likes his music.
• Flanderization: Susan was always oblivious to what teenagers enjoyed and embarrassed Greg constantly, but only out of love, and was only stern when the situation called for it. The Long Haul turned her into someone who doesn't care what anyone else thinks about her family activities and forces the entire family to participate (against their will) to go on an ill-advised road trip. Also, her mild skepticism of modern technology turned into a pathological hatred of it, using a petition to force the town into giving it up for a weekend and making the family abandon technology whenever she can.
• Hidden Depths: She loves dancing to heavy metal music.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She means well, but doesn't seem to understand any of her children and spoils her youngest son Manny way too much.
• Hypocrite: Can come off as one at times. To name some examples:
  • She frequently calls out people (Greg especially) for lying, but Greg himself has noted that Susan herself has a tendency to lie about stuff, and that she's also willing to lie to Manny about stuff.
  • She hates it when a member of the family, particularly her husband, make decisions without consulting her first, but she makes tons of major decisions on her own, ignoring whatever her family thinks about it.
  • In Rodrick Rules where Greg mentions that his Grandma expresses favoritism towards Manny, one moment shows Susan accusing Grandma of favoritism even though she and Frank express just as much, if not more favoritsm towards Manny.
  • In Hard Luck, Susan's revealed to have a sister named Audra who's a big believer in stuff related to the supernatural, such as horoscopes and crystal balls, and Greg claims that Aunt Audra never does anything, not even household chores, without consulting her psychic first—Susan apparently finds that sort of stuff to be "hocus-pocus" and got mad after she discovered that Audra had brought Greg along to a couple of her psychic appointments when he happened for a little while during one summer. Greg admits that he finds this to be kind of hypocritical, especially since Susan apparently claims that her and Audra's mother (Greg's maternal grandmother) has psychic abilities, such as ESP.
• It's All About Me:
  • Susan loves to railroad everyone into going along with her plans, and ignores any complaints or criticisms so that she can live out her fantasies. The greatest examples of this is in The Long Haul where none of the family can decide what to do for the day, so she makes an "executive decision" of going to the beach, which she wanted to do in the first place, and all of her attempts to ban technology, merrily going on her crusade against it and ignoring that no one actually wants to give up technology.
  • In Wrecking Ball Susan shoots down the rest of her family's (admittedly impractical) ideas for spending the inheritance Aunt Reba left them, but when they reject her idea to use it to improve the kitchen, she throws a hissy fit, demands they go along with her idea because she was "the only one to send her thank-you letters", and storms out.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Susan thinks she knows Spanish, even though every Spanish phrase she says is wrong.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Big Shot", Susan urging Greg to take up basketball (which he understandably suspects is to compensate for losing when she played the sport as a teen) and later trading her to another team in the Second Chance Tournament, using him as her "secret weapon", eventually backfire when Greg scores a basket with a backwards throw and ultimately wins the game, causing her and her team to lose.
• Ludd Was Right: She prefers doing things the old-fashioned way and seems to dislike modern technology (or more precisely her sons' addiction to it). In Old School, she starts a petition for the entire town to go electronics-free for the weekend.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: She is gleefully oblivious to Greg's unhappiness to any inconvenience she causes him, from inviting Fregley over to play hide 'n' seek, to making him participate in the school play of The Wizard of Oz, to joining in Greg's "Magick and Monsters" game and not getting (or outright ignoring) the "kill and level up" nature of the game.
• Moral Guardian: She dislikes violence in any sort of media and will do anything to keep it away from the kids.
• My Beloved Smother: She always spoils the youngest child and treats her older two sons with little knowledge of pre-teen and teenage culture, albeit with good intentions.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: According to Greg in the 9th-book, "The Long Haul," Susan has been trying to teach her sons Spanish since they were really young, claiming that learning a foreign language is one of the best things that you can do for your brain (which Greg acknowledges that she has a point on). However, it's clear that Susan doesn't understand Spanish nearly as well as she thinks she does (such as thinking that "Tengo hambre" means "Tango hamburgers," when in reality it means "I'm hungry"). In fact, Greg says that up until he started taking Spanish in middle school, Susan had taught him a bunch of incorrect words and phrases, such as teaching Greg that the way to ask "What's your name?" is "Te amo", which actually means "I love you" (the actual correct way is "¿Cómo te llamas?").
• Nice Girl: While unaware to things around her, she ultimately just wants what's best for her family.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: In the books. Her eyes are rarely drawn because of her glasses.
• Opposites Attract: She's caring and good-natured while her husband Frank is cranky and mean.
• Parental Favoritism: Towards Manny. She even went all the way from her workplace to his preschool to cut his sandwiches because Manny was throwing a tantrum about his sandwich being cut in halves instead of quarters.
• Parental Neglect: Not intentionally, but her obliviousness towards the Sibling Rivalry between Greg and Rodrick, her unwillingness to punish Manny let alone teach him right from wrong in general, her actions that frequently embarrass Greg in public, and also her uselessness in giving Greg help when he's having personal troubles. Downplayed in the movies, except in The Long Haul, where she's more competent at parenting, aware of Greg's poor relationship with Rodrick, and smart at giving Greg advice like when he was hesitant to confess about the safety patrol incident. But she's still hesitant with Manny, and she still embarrasses Greg at times.
• Parental Obliviousness: She's apparently unaware of the ongoing Sibling Rivalry between Greg and Rodrick, among other things. This is is downplayed in the films, as she's shown to listen to what Greg has to say about Rodrick's party and even agrees to keep it secret if it meant ending Greg and Rodrick's rivalry.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Zigzagged—it's never confirmed what Susan does for a living. Greg mentions that she used to be a preschool teacher (Kindergarten teacher in the original online version) and she's also said to run an article in the local newspaper, and it's also implied that she used to work as a therapist (probably one for younger kids). Also, for part of The Ugly Truth, she went back to school for a semester to "stimulate her mind" and ends up going back to school full-time in the 11th-book. Other than that, she doesn't appear to do much.
• The Pollyanna: Always tries to see the good side of things, even in her Dysfunctional Family.
• Pushover Parents: She's too hesitant to punish her jerkass of a youngest child Manny simply because he's the youngest and also her favorite. However, she has sometimes acknowledged some of Manny's bad deeds, like when he broke Greg's console in Rodrick Rules, leading her to tell him what he did was wrong or in Cabin Fever, whereas despite not grounding him for nearly accidentally killing her and his brothers, she isn't shown to be happy with him after giving him his presents.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only main female Heffley member.
• Springtime for Hitler: After signing Greg up for basketball in Big Shot, she trades him to a rival team after discovering that he's terrible at it, hoping that his incompetence will cause them to lose against her own team. Cue Greg scoring the winning shot for his new team and celebrating his victory with them as Susan drives away with nothing but shame.
• Soapbox Sadie: Susan often gets very preachy on her one-woman campaign against technology.
• Token Good Teammate: She's the only one who isn't a total Jerkass in the family, although she is pretty oblivious to anything to do with teens and pre-teens.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Following The Long Haul, Susan has a tendency to railroad her family into doing whatever she, and she alone, thinks is best for the family and totally ignores any protests.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Always tries to do good with her family, like bringing them on trips, inviting friends over, and trying to get kids to be more active, but they never ever pan out and always end up making the situation worse for the main character. She still keeps trying anyway.
• What Does She See in Him?: One's a snarky, Jerkass, grumpy, bumbling dad who hates teenagers, heavy metal, video games and only wants to toughen up his middle child while get rid of his eldest child. The other is a former kindergarten teacher who's a gentle, caring, well-meaning Moral Guardian mother who dances to heavy metal, loves her family for the way they are, only wishes for them to be more like a family, and genuinely tries to do the best for her sons (though it's often wasted effort because of her inability to understand the fact that problems teens face can't really be solved with methods used to solve problems for preschoolers and kindergarteners). They're married.

    Frank Heffley

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• Abusive Parents: To Greg and Rodrick:
  • In the first book, his method of disciplining was to throw at his misbehaving sons whatever he just so happened to be holding at the time, and Greg even once talks about how a bad time to make a transgression was when his dad was laying bricks.
  • In Dog Days, it's also stated that he has to be reminded by his wife to show affection to his sons.
  • In the online version, Rodrick tells Greg he beats his sons with a belt if they misbehave. As far as Greg knows, their dad doesn't believe in this form of discipline, so either this isn't true, Frank is willing to make an exception with Greg or he only beats Rodrick (or used to beat him) with a belt.
  • Him and Susan making Rodrick sleep in the freezing cold basement (implied to be so in Rodrick Rules and Dog Days) instead of possibly sharing a room with one of his brothers would be considered neglect.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: In the books, he mostly exists as a put-upon and constantly exasperated Straight Man. In the films, he's highly bombastic and almost always Suddenly Shouting.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He's much milder and more fatherly in the movies, to the point where he and Greg actually have a rather close relationship. He's even friendlier to people outside his family, as seen when he cheerfully welcomes Rowley into the house in Rodrick Rules, while in the books he stingily resents whenever that happens due to considering Rowley a Lethal Klutz.
• Ascended Extra: The third movie is sort of A Day in the Limelight for him, compared to his role in the first two movies.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: He can be this, but not to same extent as his wife.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • Occasionally with Greg, especially in the third film where Greg's final line is "As for my dad, we may not see eye to eye on everything... but we work as a team".
  • In the books, he and Susan have their moments. Although he doesn't usually show it (presumably because Greg is an Unreliable Narrator, didn't want to talk about his parents being romantic, and/or just isn't around when they show affection).
• Bait-and-Switch: In the film version of "Rodrick Rules", Frank begins poking around the house to see if Greg and Rodrick held a house party and breaking their rules to not invite anyone over. Some time later, he yells in anger and confronts the two in the living room, making it seem like he's uncovered their deception. However, it turns out not to be the case and he's only angry because he found one of his Civil War figuirines on the thermostat rather than on his battlefield model.
• Bumbling Dad: He acts like he's in his 80's. Not only does he regularly yell "Dagnab you rotten teenagers!", but in the webcomic, he tries to get classical music playing throughout the town to scare the teenagers away, is apparently teenager-phobic, can't figure out how Greg's game system is even hooked up to the TV, and says people at drive-thrus are idiots...yet he tries to place his order through a garbage can.
• Berserk Button: To put it bluntly, a lot of things make Frank angry.
  • Don't wake him up in the middle of the night.
  • Frank HATES heavy metal music.
  • Never mess with his Civil War battlefield models.
  • The entire existence of the comic strip Li'l Cutie is this for him.
  • Bringing up the time Uncle Gary pranked him on Christmas.
  • The Peachy Breeze ice cream commercial is a huge button for Frank, to the point that Greg thinks he might even hate it more than "Li'l Cutie", which is saying a lot. Every time it comes on TV, he types a long letter to the company saying how much he hates the commercial and how he'll never buy any of their products.
• Deadpan Snarker: He isn't really far behind Greg in levels of snarkiness.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He strongly disapproves of Rodrick's desire to become a heavy metal musician. He also hates the fact that Greg spends so much time playing video games.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He has a steady job and is Happily Married while his brother Gary is a goofy man-child who has never held down a job for more than a day.
• Horrible Judge of Character: His Irrational Hatred for Rowley in the books. At some point in the third movie, he even states that Rowley may be a Toxic Friend Influence for Greg, when it's actually the other way around.
• Irrational Hatred: Greg claims that when Rowley was having dinner with the Heffley family one night, he accidentally dropped a plate and broke it—and ever since, Frank has treated Rowley like a Lethal Klutz ever since.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • His fears that Rodrick will grow up to be a Basement-Dweller aren't too far off.
  • He's also quite right to think that Greg is a lazy person, as he has a history of cheating and/or half-assing on his assignments and wants nothing to do but play video games all day.
  • In the films, his suspicion of Bill being a bad role model for Rodrick are proven correct when he kicks Rodrick out of the band when it is convenient.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bit of an asshole to his sons and frequently forces them to participate in activities they don't like (i.e. sports). However, Frank did go to scout meetings with Greg, and bought tickets to the baseball game so the two could bond (sadly both events backfired horribly). He also bought Greg an expensive weights set for Christmas (that Greg then never used). In the movies, he's not nearly as much of a jerk as he is in the books (though he is still kind of strict). He's notably much more involved with his sons, and with Greg consistently shows support for him when he's down on his luck. This is best shown in the first film, when he comforts Greg after he ruined the school play, and the third, where he gives Greg some genuine advice on admitting mistakes and cover each other's backs in the camping trip against their rival scout troop. Humorously, the closer relationship he has with his sons here means he thinks Rowley is the bad influence on Greg.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Jock Dad to Greg's Nerd Son. An odd case since Greg is Book Dumb unlike the typical nerd, but the trope is still there: Frank wants Greg to play sports, even if Greg hates them and would rather stay at home with comic books and video games.
• Large Ham: In the movies, Steve Zahn portrays him pretty humorously.
• Not So Above It All:
  • In the second film, he's the one to record Susan's goofy dancing, and asks Greg to keep it between them that the crowd is cheering for her and not Rodrick's music.
  • In Old School, it turns out that he made up the legend of Silas Scratch so he could use an old maintenance shed he found during his time at camp. When Greg finds out about this, he lets him in on it.
• Perpetual Frowner: Does not smile very much. It's very obvious in the books, but the films downplay it.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In "The Last Straw", Frank decides to not send Greg to Spag Union as repayment for Greg (accidentally) causing a scene that saved him from performing in front of the Snella's baby and publicly humiliating himself.
  • In the first movie, he waits outside for Greg while picking him up from Fregley's house.
  • In the first movie, after Greg lashes out at Patty during the play and ends up ruining the whole play, Frank is more accepting of it than Susan and comforts him, saying that "I think Dorothy deserved it."
• Serious Business: He is very protective of his toy American Civil War battlefield and won't let anyone else touch it.
• Sibling Rivalry: Frank despises both of his brothers, disliking Gary for being lazy and disliking Joe for accidentally stoking Manny's fears of the toilet and resetting all of his potty training.
• Sports Dad: He pushes Greg into signing up for sports like soccer and swimming.
• The Stoic: Is not a terribly emotional person. Not so much in the film, where he's a Large Ham.
• Sweet Tooth: He's addicted to snack foods to the point he'll frame his sons for taking them.
• Teen Hater: He loathes teenagers due to their tendency to vandalize and TP his house on Halloween, a holiday which he very much fears the upcoming of. He becomes armed with buckets of water to drop onto them once they come onto his property to trick-or-treat. As the series goes on, it's clear that he hates any teenager from random ones to his oldest son Rodrick. He even considered sending Greg off to military school when the latter had turned 13, only to change his mind when Greg accidentally saved him from public embarrassment.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Anything with sugar in it.
• The Unreveal: Combined with What, Exactly, Is His Job?. Much like with his wife, it's never confirmed what Frank does for a living, though from what we can gather through Greg's journals, it's apparently some kind of office job.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: He wishes his sons to be more manly because the sons of his boss are all sports jocks. He gets better about it in the third film with Greg in particular, admitting that he was never really all that into camping and as he Greg talk things over, the two discover that they're actually much more similar than they originally thought.

    The Pig

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• Anthropomorphic Shift: He learns how to walk on his back feet.
• Artistic License – Biology: Pigs can't walk on their back feet due to their bone structure and they can't write for obvious reasons (although the latter could've been a trick).
• Jerkass: The smarter he gets, the more condescending he becomes, especially when he decides to come and go as he pleases.
• The Load: In ''The Long Haul", the Pig serves as another nuisance who hinders the Heffley's vacation, often making an already chaotic situation even worse.
• Nearly Normal Animal: Can't talk, but seems to be able to stand on his hind legs and possesses greater intelligence than one would expect from a pig.
• Put on a Bus: He runs away in "The Meltdown" after not being invited to the family vacation in the previous book.

Greg's Classmates

    Rowley Jefferson

Played by: Robert Capron (first three movies), Owen Asztalos (The Long Haul), Ethan William Childress (2021 film)

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• 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 in 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 likeable 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 12-year old boy would realize that sharing a "Best Friends" locket (in the shape of a heart) with another 12-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.
• 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 annoying best friend.
• Butt-Monkey: At times, mostly as an indirect result of Greg's actions.
• 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.
• Character Development: Throughout the books, Rowley learns to stand up for himself and grow a spine instead of blindly following people (including Greg).
• 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.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Rowley acts like he's "out of it" sometimes.
• 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.
• 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.
• Deuteragonist: Of the book series and the first movie.
• 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 completely 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 accasion. In the third movie, Holly even signed him 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: Greg's chubby sidekick, of the airheaded Cloudcuckoolander type.
• 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 outright 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.
• 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 in 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.
• 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 behaviour.
• Nice Guy: In sharp contrast to his friend Greg, he is a decent guy to be around.
• The Noseless: His artstyle, where he only puts exaggerated noses to express gonk in his fictional comics.
• 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.
• 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.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy (childish and naive Nice Guy) to Greg's Manly Man (Jerkass Casanova Wannabe).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 diary about Greg, so we see Rowley's life mainly in relation to him.
• Terrible Artist: Greg describes Rowley as a terrible artist in the first book, when Rowley reveals his art style. But that's Greg's opinion.

  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 embarrasses and ruins 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 towards 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!")

    Chirag Gupta

Played by: Karan Brar (first three movies), Veda Maharaj (2021 film)

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• Adaptational Comic Relief: In the films, Chirag is a lot more hammy 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.
• 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, whom 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.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Chirag may look small, but as Greg notes, he packs an extremely hard punch for his size.
• Funny Foreigner: The movie states that he's originally from India.
• Mr. Exposition: Tells Greg and Rowley about the Cheese in the 1st movie and Holly Hills in the 2nd.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's the shortest kid in class, but Greg mentions that he can punch hard.
• 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 non-white character in the series.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Briefly disguises as Holly to make fun of Greg in the 2nd movie.
• 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.

    Fregley

Played by: Grayson Russell (first three movies), Christian Convery (2021 film)

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• 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).
• Ambiguous Disorder: He has some over-the-top idiosyncrasies like collecting bizarre objects, obsessively flashing his chest hair to others, strange speech euphemisms like shouting "Juice!" whenever he has to go to the bathroom, and is seemingly slow on the uptake but highly intelligent.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He tends to get distracted easily.
• Attention Whore: Constantly does things to get a reaction from others.
• Cloudcuckoolander: 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.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In "Hard Luck", he becomes one of the popular kids.
• 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?
• I Just Want to Have Friends: But he gets his wish in Hard Luck, when he becomes one of the popular kids thanks to his unique ability to eat with his belly button.
• 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.
• 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 Full Name Given: Unlike Greg's other friends, his last name is not revealed.
• 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 with his cry of, "Juice!"
• Redheads Are Uncool: Fregley is the least popular kid in the school, and in the movies, he has red hair.
• 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), and Fregley becomes very popular with other students, much to Greg's dismay.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After revealing his ability to chew food with his belly button, Fregley then announces that he can blow a bubblegum with it. Unsurprisingly, the attempt flops, a fact that Greg himself Lampshades. This gets subverted by the end of "Hard Luck", where Fregley reveals that he really can learn how to blow gum with his belly button.
• 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.

    Patty Farrell

Played by: Laine MacNeil

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

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• 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 academic smart.
• Adaptational Villainy: 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.
• 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 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. It's the reason why the play had to be cut short, 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 beats 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 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 aggresive 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 on Holly. They have no interactions in the second movie, but Patty seems to dislike her as she rolls her eyes annoyed when people clap on 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.
• Girlish Pigtails: Subverted. Even though her hair is tied in pigtails, she is not at all girly.
• Jerkass: In the movies. Bratty, rude, and even more selfish than Greg.
• 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 Dorthy 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 deserts when in Rodrick Rules (movie version), a bird splatters bird poop on her head.
• Meganekko: Wears glasses in the books.
• Nice Mean And Inbetween: 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 you 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.
• 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.
• The Rival: She is Greg's worst enemy.
• 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.
• Tomboy: Mainly in the movies, where she's interested in wrestling and sports.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: She goes from a serious student in the books to an aggressive and violent Passionate Sports Girl in the movies.
• 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 results in him failing.

    Angie Steadman

A movie-only character.

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• Big Sister Mentor: Tries to be this to Greg and Rowley, but the former won't listen to her.
• Canon Foreigner: 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.
• Cool Loser: She's intelligent and pretty, but dislikes school and other students.
• 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 Inbetween: 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.
• 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.

    Holly Hills

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• 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.
• 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.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: In the movies. A very polite sweet rich girl who has done professional modeling, but she's also good at sports like soccer and tennis.
• 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.
• 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 to. 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 Inbetween: 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.
• 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.

    Bryce Anderson

Played by: Owen Best

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• The Ace: According to the second movie, Rowley calls him an athlete, whose soccer skills are only bested by Holly.
• 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.
• Big Man on Campus: The most popular kid in Greg's grade.
• Chick Magnet: Greg is jealous of his apparent popularity with girls.
• 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.
• School Idol: Most of the girls at Greg's school have a crush on him, and a good number of boys worship him.

    Alex Aruda

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• Adapted Out: His first book appearance is "Rodrick Rules", but he doesn't appear in any of the movies.
• Alliterative Name: Alex Aruda.
• Bookworm: Reads dictionaries.
• The Smart Guy: Is the smartest kid in class.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Has a pair of typical Nerd Glasses.
• The Stoic: He hardly changes expression.

    Ruby Bird

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• 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.
• Ambiguous Disorder: She seems to be a Distaff Counterpart to Fregley. She's the only girl who's ever been suspended from Greg's middle school, because she bit a teacher's arm so hard that her front tooth ended up in his elbow. She's also drawn with a vacant stare and a mouth that's constantly gaping open. Sure enough, she and Fregley are partnered up for couples dancing, and it's a match made in heaven.
• Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle looks like it should be on a girl a little younger than her age.
• Official Couple: With Fregley after they're partnered for couples dancing in gym class.

Other Characters

    Robert Jefferson

Played by: Alf Humphreys

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

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• Berserk Button: Has a few, such as telling him he smells like a woman.
• 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.
• Jerkass: He's an extremely strict father (far more so than Frank Heffley), and a very rude person in general. In the tenth book, when 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 not to do anything to cause trouble, and it's his cabin-mates who cause the problem.
• 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.
• Moral Guardian: Thinks that Greg is a bad influence to 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 which 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.
• Overprotective Dad: Overly protective of his son Rowley.
• 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 Three Teenagers

Played by: Nicholas Carey, Donnie McNeil, and, Samuel Patrick

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• 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 paintjob.
• 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 intervenes, they start backing off, if not hightailing it out of there.
• 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!"

• Even Evil Has Standards: Their book versions wouldn't force a kid to consume dairy products if he was lactose intolerant. However, their movie counterparts have no such reservations.
• 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.
• 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.

    Bill Walter

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Quite a bit more handsome in the movie than he is in the book, where he's depicted as a hairy middle-aged man with a beer gut.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, he's merely annoying, and the worst he does is make Rodrick's parents fear that their son might take after him. His movie version is more of a prick and drops Rodrick from the band the moment keeping him becomes inconvenient.
• Basement-Dweller: He's a 30+ something man who still lives with his parents.
• Cool Loser: Well, Rodrick thinks he's cool, even though he's an unemployed Basement-Dweller.
• 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.
• Jerkass: In the 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.
• Moral Myopia: In the films, Bill replaces Rodrick in Loded Diper after he was grounded from joining the talent show, telling him it's "rick and roll, bro" and to get over it. When Susan lets Rodrick rejoin the band, Rodrick kicks Bill out of the band for his betrayal, parroting Bill's 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".

    Heather Hills

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

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• Adaptation Name Change: Named "Lori Matthews" in the online diary.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 because 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.
• 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.
• Laser-Guided Karma: It was almost nice to see her humiliated when her beloved party is ruined and she ended up covered in chocolate. Even her sister Holly said she was happy and that she thought that Heather fairly deserved it.
• Lack of Empathy: Of all the jerkasses in the trilogy, Heather has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
• 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.

    Stan Warren

Played by: Phil Hayes

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 film.

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• Adaptation Name Change: Named "Mr. Swann" in the online diary.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He doesn't receive much characterization in the books, but the film portrays him as an arrogant jerkass.
• 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 on 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.

    Uncle Charlie

A relative of Greg's (the uncle of his dad, making him Greg's great-uncle).

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• Adaptation Name Change: In the webcomic, he's named Freddie.
• Attention Whore: He gives Greg a framed photo of himself for Christmas!
• Cool Uncle: Greg refers to him as his secret Christmas weapon, since he'll get Greg any gift he wants (although whether he gets Greg the right gift is another matter entirely).
• Innocently Insensitive: When Greg was young, Uncle Charlie would nickname him after the color of his footie pajamas, unaware that Greg gets irritated by those names.
• Rich Bitch: Uncle Charlie is wealthy and not afraid to flaunt it to other people. One of Greg's illustrations depict Uncle Charlie riding an expensive motorcycle in front of a pair of exhausted parents trying to take care of their children, mockingly greeting them with "Hey there, Plummers!"

    Gramma

Greg's maternal grandmother.

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• Blatant Lies: It's very obvious that Gramma favors Manny out of all the Heffley children, decorating her refrigerator solely with pictures of Manny and taking any opportunity to babysit him, but if anyone accuses her of this, she always denies it.
• Chronic Pet Killer: She's overfed Sweetie to the point that he's gotten obese, and Greg thinks that Sweetie's gotten depressed from that.
• Cool Old Lady: She's mentioned to have full cable, with premium movie channels included.
• Flat Character: She's rather unnoteworthy compared to the other characters. Although this possibly could be because she's one of the only sane characters in the series.
• Took A Level In Jerk Ass: She clearly isn't happy about her daughter, son in law and grandsons having to live with her in "The Deep End". She makes them live in the basement, despite having a guest room (which is apparently only for Sweetie), and when her friends are over, she makes them stay in the basement and won't let them come out, not even to use the bathroom.

    Grandpa

Played by: Terence Kelly

Greg's paternal grandfather.

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• Brutal Honesty: Unlike Gramma, he doesn't even try to hide the fact that Greg is his favorite grandchild.
• Chick Magnet: He accidentally invited a bunch of women on a dating site to his apartment, even though he only wanted to invite one. He has a quite a lot of women who like him.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He vanishes after "Double Down."
• Cloudcuckoolander: He likes making watercress salad (which is just uncooked green beans in a bowl of vinegar), watching only the CCTV channel, and finds the unfunny jokes in "Gutbusters" hilarious.
• December–December Romance: In Hard Luck, he dates an old woman named Darlene. By Old School, however, the two of them have broken up, so Greg decides to help Grandpa find a new girlfriend online. This results in him accidentally dating multiple women at once due to his lack of knowledge regarding technology.
• Jerkass Ball: He moves in with the Heffley family after getting kicked out of the nursing home. Soon enough, he begins to goof off, steals Greg's bedroom, and causing trouble when they go out.
• Released to Elsewhere: He accidentally ran over Frank's dog, Nutty, while backing out of the driveway and told him that Nutty ran away to a butterfly farm.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Greg teaches him about online dating, but he's so inexperienced with computers and the Internet that he ends up accidentally dating multiple women at once.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him revealing the truth about what happened to Frank's dog to him leads to Frank buying Sweetie on impulse.

    Uncle Gary

Greg's paternal uncle.

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• Big Eater: He once ate a three-pound Monstrilla Burger in one sitting at Dan's Diner, and got a tattoo on his arm to commemorate the event.
• Cool Uncle: In The Third Wheel, he gives Greg advice on how to make him look more attractive to girls.
• Con Artist: After being scammed into buying someone's entire supply of shirts with a typo on it, he tries unloading them on Greg's schoolmates during the Valentine's Day Dance for $5 each, while working there as the DJ. When the lights are turned on, all of his victims realize that they've been tricked and demand refunds, but Uncle Gary gets away with the scheme by turning up the music and diverting everyone's attention to dancing.
• Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: Gary is an entertainer at children's birthday parties. At one point, he arrives late to his wedding, still in costume, because the kids weren't letting him leave.
• Heavy Sleeper: Something he shares with Rodrick. When he moves in with the Heffleys during The Third Wheel, he spends half his time sleeping on the living room couch.
• Manchild: Compared to his brother Frank, he's basically a teenager in an adult's body.
• Serial Spouse: He's gotten married four times, all of which ended in divorce. Greg's parents use wedding photos of him, Rodrick, and Manny as growth charts.
• Too Dumb to Live: In Double Down, he saws a branch off a tree...while still sitting on said branch. Not surprisingly, he falls to the ground and breaks his collar bone.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: According to Greg, he's never held down a real job for more than a few days.

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Manny Diary of a Wimpy Kid Lil Baby

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/DiaryOfAWimpyKid

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