List of Invader Zim characters
This is a list of characters from the animated Nickelodeon TV series Invader Zim. The recurring cast includes long-term Nickelodeon voice actors Richard Steven Horvitz and Rodger Bumpass, as well as actors from live-action television such as Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) and John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation). The creator and writer of Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez, also voices parts in the show.
Main characters
Zim
Zim is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz[1] in the series and Billy West in the pilot. He is an incompetent Irken invader who is overzealous, impulsive, and convinced of his own greatness. He dreams of regaining his leaders' trust by taking part in Operation Impending Doom II (his own incompetence led to the failure of Operation Impending Doom I), the Irken plot to conquer the universe and enslave all races. He is assigned to Earth, a planet which the Almighty Tallest believe has little to no chance of existing. However, against all odds, Zim makes it to Earth and establishes a base on a fake mission of conquest. Because of his stature, Zim disguises himself as a human child using a wig to cover his antennae and contact lenses to make his eyes look normal.
Despite his tendency to vociferously malign humans as a species, constantly shouting at everyone that they "LIE!" whenever things do not go his way, his undisguised green skin, a severe allergy to balogna and water, his refusal to eat human food, multiple failures in his disguise, and an occasionally blatant disregard for his own cover, no one realizes that Zim is an alien—with the exception of Dib and Gaz, although the other children in his class say that he's a little weird. Even though he has no friends, and physically harms other kids when they attempt to befriend him, they will always defend him when Dib calls him an alien. He is equipped with a PAK, a backpack-like piece of equipment with (among other gadgets) long, retractable arms that enable him to move about quickly and climb almost any obstacle. Zim constantly schemes to enslave or destroy mankind, and despite his access to potent Irken technology, his plans, frequently based on misconceptions, are never successful. He serves as the main protagonist of the series but is sometimes depicted as the antagonist when facing off against his rival Dib. He usually goes over the top with his various and ridiculous plans and they all end blowing up in his face, often quite literally, such as in episode "Walk for your lives", "Zim Eats Waffles" and "GIR goes crazy, and stuff".
GIR
GIR is voiced by Riki Simmons. He is a malfunctioning Irken SIR (Standard-issue Information Retrieval) Unit who was assigned to Zim in the series. He was built by The Almighty Tallest out of SIR unit remains and whatever they could find in the trash and their pockets, passing him off to Zim as a "top-secret" and "advanced model". His name is a self-applied moniker that is never explained in the show. When GIR does comply, the cyan-colored parts of his body (most notably, his eyes, shoulders, and belly) glow red like normal SIRs. He has shown glimpses of intelligence and logic, as he did in the episode, although Zim views this as disobedience, as they usually involve poking holes in his plans. He disguises himself in public by wearing a green dog suit which fools most humans, despite looking and acting almost nothing like an Earth dog.
Dib
Dib is voiced by Andy Berman.[2] Dib is a young paranormal investigator and Zim's worst enemy. Dib spends his days studying the supernatural and trying to thwart Zim in his schemes to take over the world. Dib is generally hated by his classmates because they see his efforts to help them as annoying and crazy. His classmates also tend to bully him a lot, but Dib is determined to save them anyway.
Dib is extremely sensitive about the size of his head and usually overreacts when people point out its largeness. As reveled in the Halloween episode, Dib's head is actually a portal that under speical circumstances can be used between this world and the Supernatural world. He has a talkative nature and finds that he talks to himself frequently. Despite his loud, annoying nature, Dib is actually a very misunderstood genius and visionary and he knows it.
According to Jhonen Vasquez, had Invader Zim continued, there would've been a possibility that Dib and his sister Gaz are not even natural humans, and are instead male and female clones of their father Professor Membrane.
Dib's last name isn't the same as Professor Membrane's, and there is a possibility he doesn't have one, or he has forgotten it, as seen in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom."
Gaz
Gaz is voiced by Melissa Fahn.[3] She is Dib's psychotic, antisocial, and apathetic younger sister, often described as "Dib's scary sister". She has a penchant for video games and a fixation with pizza, particularly from her favorite restaurant Bloaty's Pizza Hog (satirical of Chuck E. Cheese's). If and when someone or something stands in the way of her getting those things, she will not hesitate to thrust them into "a nightmare world from which there is no awakening." She knows and admits that Zim is an alien, but does not care because she also knows he's too stupid to take over the world, making her quite possibly one of the smartest characters in the series.
Secondary characters
- Almighty Tallest (Kevin McDonald; Wally Wingert): Red and Purple are both the leaders of the Irken race. The Irken Empire has a hierarchal class structure, where shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken born in a specific generation takes command of the Empire as "the Tallest", but since Red and Purple, the two current Tallest, are exactly the same height, they share equal (and high-supreme) power. They are not related, as it sometimes seems, which is proved in the unaired episode "The Trial." They often show an obssesion with snackfood and ridiculing Zim.
- Professor Membrane (Rodger Bumpass): Membrane is a scientist who hosts the popular television show Probing the Membrane of Science and is the father of Dib and Gaz. Membrane's scientific abilities are offset by incredibly poor parenting: his primary method of managing his children is by way of a floating digital projection screen-and his messages to them are often not only prerecorded, but woefully out of date. He has sometimes urged Dib to give up on the paranormal and focus on "real science". His scientific achievements can range from useful to bizarre, ranging from restoring power during a blackout to "SuperToast".
- Ms. Bitters (Lucille Bliss): Ms. Bitters is the teacher of Zim and Dib's class. She is a tall, slender, and elderly woman who is devoid of any compassionate emotion and having a very demonic hatred for life. She often slinks around to the sound of a rattlesnake and must wear a dark cloak when in the sun.Ms. Bitters can be seen on the back cover of Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors so as other aliens/characters there.
Recurring characters
- Tak (Olivia d'Abo): Tak is one of the seemingly rare female Irken invaders who has had many unfortunate encounters with Zim. One of them includes inadvertently trapping her in a building on Devastis, the Irken military training planet, therefore missing her chance to take the test to become one of the Irken Elite Soldiers (and an Invader). In "Tak: The Hideous New Girl", she comes to Earth, digiused as a human girl, and attempts to take over the Earth. However, her attempts were thwarted by Zim, GIR, Dib, and Gaz, who reluctantly worked together to defeat her.
- MiMi: MiMi is a SIR unit who was built for Tak on planet Dirt. Her disguise is also holographic, and is generated as a cat. Like GIR, she is easily distinguishable from other SIR units. She has no dialogue in the show. She is taken over with GIR's personality and is dismembered in the process. She thinks of GIR as arrogant.
- Piggy: Piggy is a live piggy that GIR has been seen having tea and watching movies with. GIR seems to have a fascination with piggies, because he also has a large collection of rubber piggies, which are thrown into a time machine by Zim to destroy Dib.
- Computer (Jhonen Vasquez): Zim's computer is normally seen talking with Zim. He is scattered around the house and base so Zim can talk to him whenever he needs to. The computer also seems to display defects, similar to GIR, in both that he lacks information on Earth and will occasionally change his voice tone to a much harsher version at usually completely unnecessary times and situation. In the episode "Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain" Computer's brain is replaced with GIR's.
- Minimoose (Jhonen Vasquez): Minimoose is a floating purple shape with distorted moose-like appendages (stubby legs, bloated eyes and antlers). Minimoose is introduced as Zim's other sidekick. Though it does not appear before The Most Horrible X-mas Ever, Zim proudly declares that Minimoose has been with him all along. This was to be followed by a series of pictures from past episodes with minimoose crudely pasted in, but that was scrapped for sake of time. Minimoose was to be introduced in the episode Nubs of Doom, which was scheduled to air before Most Horrible X-Mas. The episode established that Minimoose is an Irken superweapon which Zim does not know how to use. The series was cancelled before this episode could complete production, with Minimoose's origins left a mystery.
- Invader Skoodge (Ted Raimi): Skoodge is a successful and competent Irken Invader, but was assigned to planet Blorch, home of the slaughtering rat people, due to his shortness. He was the first Invader to successfully conquer a planet in Operation Impending Doom II, but is prejudiced against by the Almighty Tallest, who proceed to launch him into the planet as the first shot of the destruction. Somehow, he survived. When Zim says "But I thought the Tallest killed you" on Hobo 13, Skoodge replies "Yeah...But I'm okay now." Skoodge is very loyal to The Almighty Tallest, no matter how much they hate him. He was planned to be included in future episodes of the show, but it was canceled before the episodes could be finished.
- Bloaty (Rosearik Rikki Simmons): The owner and/or mascot of the Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant, Bloaty's Pizza Hog. He is mostly seen in comercials. He was only seen out of his pig costume once, in the episode "Bloaty's Pizza Hog," and appearently has an eating disorder. He is an elderly, morbidly obese man, to the point of being fatter out of costume than in it. He is said to be depressed and hate his life, to the point of crying during one comercial.
Minor characters
- Lard Nar (Fred Tatasciore): The leader of the Resisty, a group whose goal is to defy and ultimately bring down the Irken Empire. His only appearance is in Back Seat Drivers From Beyond The Stars. He is from the planet named Vort which has since been conquered by Invader Larb.
- Roboparents and Gnomes: Zim's helpers that guard his base and help make him seem more human. The Roboparents are poorly built and have an utter lack of normal parental behavior. The Roboparents frequently act inappropriately (for instance, Robo Dad once said "C'MON, son! Let's go play in the TOILET!") or attack visitors to Zim's house. The gnomes protect the exterior of Zim's house when people are in the yard, with the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes and once threw Dib from Zim's yard.
- Keef (Danny Cooksey): Keef is a clingy child that attends the Skool with Zim. He is seen to be overeager to have a friend in the second episode, "Bestest Friend", where Zim befriends him to appear normal. In the episode, Zim grows tired of Keef's constant presence, and when Keef's "surprise party" for Zim jeopardizes base security, he tricks him into thinking a squirrel was Zim. He was supposed to appear in "Return of Keef" but the animation was never finished because the show had been canceled. He (or someone identical) is seen in the background in numerous episodes, and has a few lines in "Lice".
- President Man (Jeffrey Jones): The President of the United States who appears in the series, with his most significant role being in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome". He is essentially a figurehead, being the incompetent fool he is. The stupid things he's done include leaving the coat hanger in his suit, giving up his power to "Santa", (who was really Zim in disguise) and trading the fate of a "crisis" for Ninja Star cookies, which he is exceedingly fond of.
- Nick (Jhonen Vasquez): Excessively happy human held captive by Zim for experimentation. His most notable feature is the enormous drill-like "happiness probe" in his head. He appears in "Zim Eats Waffles", "GIR Goes Crazy And Stuff" and "The Girl Who Cried Gnome".
- The Swollen Eyeball Network (various): A group (including Dib, known within the group as "Agent Mothman") who are determined to prove the paranormal.Some Agents are Agent Mothman (Dib's alias), Agent Darkbooty (Revealed to be a NASA janitor), Agent Tunaghost, Agent Disembodied-Head, and Agent Nessie. Found in episodes "Battle of the Planets", "Battle Dib", "Zim Eats Waffles" and "Gaz, Taster of Pork"
- Bill (Adam Paul): Moronic paranormal investigator who believes that ghosts, the Loch Ness Monster,and Bigfoot are fake, while cereal box characters such as Count Chocofang and Frankenchokey are real. Seen in "Career Day" and "The Sad, Sad Tale Of Chickenfoot".
- Mr. Elliot (Simon Scott Bullock): Gaz's teacher. Appears to have a positive outlook but is not revealed to have very much intelligence. Seen in "Gir Goes Crazy And Stuff", "Gaz, Taster of Pork", "Parent-Teacher Night", and was going to appear in the unfinished episode "Simon sez Doom".
See also
References
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