Main Characters

First, the main characters for the whole series, and then some key characters for each book.

Mia Thermopolis, aka Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo
The protagonist of the story, she writes her thoughts and feelings about being a princess in her diary.  She is shy and awkward on the outside, but smart and opinionated on the inside, and it shows through her diary entries.  Mia's favorite thing is her cat, Fat Louie, and writing.

Helen Thermopolis
Mia's liberal-minded artist mother who had a college romance with the Prince of Genovia, hence Mia's title and status.  She never married the prince, though.  Her sense of humor and strength helps Mia cope with life as a princess.

Prince Artur Cristoff Phillippe Gerard Grimaldi Renaldo
Mia's father, the current sovereign prince of Genovia.  Strict and duty oriented, he makes it his mission to keep Mia on the straight and narrow path.  He isn't as strict as his mother, though, and is always there for Mia and her mother.

Princess Clarisse Grimaldi Renaldo, Dowager Princess of Genovia
Mia's paternal grandmother who is very old-fashioned and royal.  She is enlisted by Mia's father to turn Mia into a princess.  Princess lessons are conducted by Grandmére every day after Mia's after-school Algebra review.  Sometimes she does embarrassing things to get Mia to get into her role as a princess, and this causes tension between Mia and Grandmére.

Frank Gianini
Mia's Algebra teacher (a class she's flunking).  He's an easygoing and helpful kind of guy, and he captures Helen's heart.  She ends up getting pregnant and they get married, much to Mia's consternation.

Rocky Gianini
Rocky is Mia's new baby brother.

Lilly Moscovitz
Lilly is Mia's genius-best-friend.  She has her own TV show (Lilly Tells It Like It Is) and is unafraid of anything.  Never one to back down from her convictions, Lilly is a bit bossy, but she is always there for Mia, ready to defend her against anything, including mean people like Josh and Lana.  Lilly's convictions, however, have put some strain on her relationship with Mia, after Mia's royal makeover and 'outing' as a princess.

Michael Moscovitz
Michael is Lilly's older brother.  He's a senior who's been accepted to Columbia early decision and is every bit the genius Lilly is.  He is not the typical 'big man on campus' and has few friends.  The few friends he does have are fellow members of the Computer Club, of which he is treasurer.  At first Mia just thinks he's attractive, but as as the story goes on, he becomes the subject of her infatuations...and later becomes her boyfriend.

Lars
Lars is Mia's bodyguard.  He used to be Mia's father's driver and bodyguard, but was assigned to protecting Mia after her father told her she was the heir to the throne of Genovia.  Lars and Mia aren't exactly close, but they do keep a few of each other's secrets, and of course, Lars as well as Mia's other friends helped get Mia and Michael together.

Tina Hakim Baba
Tina is the eldest daughter of a wealthy Arabian sheik living in New York City.  Her mother is a former British model and distant relative to the royal family of Sweden.  Tina and Mia become friends after Mia and Lilly have a falling out over the whole princess thing.  After Mia and Lilly make up, Tina and Lilly and the rest of their friends hit it off well.  Tina's a typical boy-crazy teenager, but she's a very loyal and patient friend.  Her favorite thing to do is read teen romance novels.

Shameeka Taylor
Shameeka is one of Mia's friends.  She is the location scout for Lilly's show, and later becomes a cheerleader.  Her father is very strict, which you can see in the second book.  Shameeka has always been a bit of a minor character, but in the fourth book her role is 'expanded' a bit when she tries out for the cheerleading squad, much to Lana Weinberger's chagrin.

Ling Su
Another one of Lilly and Mia's friends...she has a pretty small role.

Boris Pelkowski
Boris is a Russian exchange student who is also a musical genius.  He is a talented violinist who has performed at Carnegie Hall.  Mia regards him as a nerd or geek, especially because of his habit of tucking his sweater into his pants.  The students in the Gifted & Talented class are always locking him in the supply closet so that they can't hear him practice his violin.  He ends up being Lilly's boyfriend, and Mia kinda-sorta warms up to him.

Dave Farouq El-Abar
An Arab guy from another private school called Trinity.  He was Tina's boyfriend, until he dumped her for a girl named Jasmine.

Kenny Showalter
For the first semester of school Kenny was Mia's Biology lab partner.  He's in to sci-fi and anime, and is very smart.  He's also for animal rights, as he and Mia refused to dissect frogs for their class.  He wrote a series of secret admirer letters to Mia and became her boyfriend...and then broke up with Mia when he suspected her of 'being in love with someone else'....but you'll have to read the third book to find out who that 'someone else' was!  He shows up a lot in the second and third books, and not so much in the first and fourth ones.

Lana Weinberger
Lana is a beautiful freshman cheerleader who's daily habit is putting Mia down.  Lana is the girlfriend of the cutest boy on campus (until the third book), Josh Richter.  She is a snobby person who puts down all of Mia's friends.

Josh Richter
The best looking guy on campus...he's rich, smart, and a senior--and Mia fell for him.  He took her to a school dance and humiliated her in front of all her classmates.  He doesn't feature very much in the rest of the books.

Justin Baxendale
Justin transfers to Albert Einstein High School from Trinity in the third book, and quickly replaces Josh as the cutest boy on campus.  Mia thinks he's good-looking but is not obsessed with him the way she was with Josh...that is probably because she was in love with Michael.  He has a pretty small role, though.

Ronette, or Ronnie
Mia's neighbor.  Ronnie used to be a man, but got a sex change.  Ronnie kinda looks up to Mia due to her activism.

Minor Characters

Princess Diaries

Paolo
Paolo is a hairdresser and stylist.  He gives Mia a royal makeover, so to speak.

Princess in the Spotlight

Vigo
Vigo is the royal event organizer and protocol expert.  He helps Grandmere organize Mia's mother and Mr. Gianini's wedding.

Beverly Bellerieve
Beverly is a high-profile journalist and host of a newsmagazine show called TwentyFour/Seven.  She is recruited by Grandmere to conduct Mia's first ever televised interview.

Princess in Love

Sebastiano Grimaldi
Sebastiano is Mia's dead grandfather's sister's daughter's kid--in Mia's words.  If it weren't for Mia's existence, Sebastiano would inherit the throne of Genovia upon Mia's father's demise.  But he apparently doesn't mind because he's a fashion designer.  He designs a few of Mia's outfits--such as her dress for the Nondenominational Winter Dance, her outfit for her televised address to the Genovian people and her dress for a ball in Genovia.  His command of English is, well, practically non-existent and becomes the butt of Mia's jokes.

Judith Gershner
Judith is the president of the Computer Club.  She and Michael worked on a computer project together--one that got its debut at the Winter Carnival.  She is like Michael--smart, talented, introverted and really into computers.  She even cloned a fruit fly in her own bedroom, something Mia is jealous of.  Mia mistakes her for Michael's new girlfriend.

Princess in Waiting

Prince Pierre René Grimaldi Alberto, or Prince René
Another one of Mia's distant cousins.  He is an Italian prince living in Genovia because of an Italian law that states that male members of the deposed royal family cannot set foot on Italian soil.  He's eighteen years old and a typical European jet setter.  Mia thinks he's very annoying because René thinks all the girls want him.  He's very popular in Europe.

Contessa Trevanni
The Contessa is an old friend/rival of Grandmere's.  She holds a black and white ball that conflicts with Mia's personal schedule.

Bella Trevanni
The Contessa's granddaughter who got kicked out of finishing school.  She's homely and insecure and a disappointment in her grandmother's eyes, which makes Mia feel sorry for her.

Princess in Training

Perrin
Perrin is a girl in Mia's French II class - at first, she nor her friends cannot tell whether Perrin is a girl or a boy.

Ms. Martinez
Ms. Martinez is Mia's new English teacher.  Everyone thinks Ms. Martinez is cool - even Mia, but she changes her mind once Ms. Martinez gives her a B on her first paper.

Trisha Hayes
Lana's new friend, who sometimes teams up with Lana to bully Mia.

Mr. Harding
Mr. Harding is Mia's Geometry teacher.

Ramon Riveras
Ramon Riveras is an exchange student from Brazil.  He is assigned to Josh's old locker, and is good at playing soccer.