My So-Called Life - Characters

Characters

• Angela Chase, played by Claire Danes, is a 15-year-old sophomore at Liberty High School in Three Rivers, Pennsylvania, a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh. Like most teens in the throes of self-evaluation, Angela is attempting to discover and assert her identity. To do this, she distances herself from her past and pulls away from her parents and her childhood friends, Sharon Cherski and Brian Krakow. In their place, she befriends Rayanne Graff and Rickie Vasquez. Angela has a crush on Jordan Catalano and admires him from afar; they later begin dating, and inevitably break up. With these new relationships, Angela finds herself in precarious and sometimes dangerous situations; despite temptation, she always remains true to her values. Angela narrates 17 of the 19 episodes in voice-over.

• Patricia "Patty" Chase, played by Bess Armstrong, is Angela's mother. Unlike many TV mothers, she is the main breadwinner and, at the beginning of the series, employs her husband. She is opinionated and often can't help but express her strongly held beliefs, which at one point leads to a confrontation with the free-spirited mother of Rayanne.

• Jordan Catalano is played by Jared Leto. He is good-looking but rebellious, his bad boy image masking the real reason for his poor scholastic record (he has an undiagnosed learning disability and is nearly illiterate). He is Angela's love interest, and during the series they have an on-again/off-again relationship. He reveals his emotional depth in his songwriting ability and his occasional — and seemingly accidental — profound thoughts.

• Graham Chase, played by Tom Irwin, is Angela's father. He's relatively soft-spoken and continues to struggle with his role in the household and the direction of his life in general.

• Danielle Chase, played by Lisa Wilhoit, is Angela's younger sister. There is an emphasis on how much she is ignored by her family. She has a biting and sarcastic wit, serving as somewhat of a comic relief throughout the show. In the episode "Halloween", she dresses up as Angela and fools her parents with her near-exact replication of Angela's red hair, clothes, and demeanor. Danielle narrates the penultimate episode, "Weekend", in voice-over.

• Rayanne Graff, played by A.J. Langer, is Angela's new best friend at the beginning of the series. She is wild, rebellious, and parented by a single mother (Amber, played by Patti D'Arbanville-Quinn). In the episode "Other People's Mothers", the depth of Rayanne's troubles are revealed when she suffers a drug and alcohol overdose at her own party.

• Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, played by Wilson Cruz, is Rayanne Graff's other best friend. He is a gay 15-year-old boy being raised by his uncle, who physically abuses him. Rickie wears eyeliner and bright clothing and feels most at home in the girls' bathroom with Rayanne and Angela. When his uncle kicks him out of the house, he is fostered briefly by the Chases; he is then fostered by gay English teacher Richard Katimski (played by Jeff Perry), who becomes a mentor to Rickie.

• Sharon Cherski, played by Devon Odessa, was Angela's best friend throughout childhood until Angela became friends with Rayanne. Sharon is conventional and academically minded, but her values and ideals are challenged throughout the show and she grows to be more open-minded.

• Brian Krakow, played by Devon Gummersall, has an unrequited crush on Angela, and has been longtime friends with both her and Sharon. Despite his high IQ and insight into other characters, he lacks emotional intelligence and is socially awkward and self-righteous. This tends to alienate him from his peers. The other characters usually turn to him only when they have an academic or technological query, and he usually seems willing if not actually pleased to help them out. Brian is a conflicted character, fearing and often rejecting the intimacy that he intensely desires. He becomes friends with Rickie towards the middle of the series.