List of HIV-positive television characters

HIV-positive characters from television shows or made-for-television movies.

Years of appearance	Title	Network	Character name	Actor	Notes
1985	An Early Frost	NBC	Michael Pierson	Aidan Quinn	The first made-for-television film to address people with AIDS.
1987	Designing Women	CBS	Kendall Dobbs	Tony Goldwyn	In "Killing All the Right People", Kendall is a young gay man with AIDS who asks the women to design his funeral.
1988	Go Toward the Light	CBS	Ben Madison	Joshua Harris	A young couple face the realities of life with their child who is diagnosed with AIDS. The young couple (Linda Hamilton, Richard Thomas) try to save their young son from the virus.
1988	Midnight Caller	NBC	Mike Barnes Tina Cassidy Kelly West Ross Parker	Richard Cox Kay Lenz Julia Montgomery J. D. Lewis	In "After It Happened", Mike is a bisexual man who deliberately infects men and women, including Tina and Kelly, with HIV. Ross is Mike's former partner, who Mike abandons when Ross gets sick. The episode was controversial, drawing protests from San Francisco AIDS groups who believed the episode would encourage violence against gay people and people with AIDS. Kay Lenz won an Emmy Award for her portrayal. She reprised her role in 1989's "Someone to Love".
1989–1991	Degrassi High	CBC Television	Dwayne Meyers	Darrin Brown	Heterosexual white male teenager, infected by a summer girlfriend.
1989	The Ryan White Story	ABC	Ryan White	Lukas Haas	13-year-old haemophiliac who contracted AIDS from factor VIII
1990–2003	EastEnders	BBC	Mark Fowler	Todd Carty	Heterosexual male; former runaway who returned to his family after contracting HIV; died of an AIDS-related illness.
1991–1993	Life Goes On	ABC	Jessie	Chad Lowe	white male teenager, infected by girlfriend.
1991	thirtysomething	ABC	Peter Montefiore	Peter Frechette	gay male, infected by his one of his partners
1992	Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story	ABC	Alison Gertz	Molly Ringwald	female, infected during a one night affair
1993	And the Band Played On	HBO	Various	Various	The shows details the original discovery of AIDS and early problems in dealing with the disease
1993	NYPD Blue	ABC	Ferdinand Holley	Giancarlo Esposito	Appears on episode titled "Holley and the Blowfish", character is a police informant who robs drug dealers. Was infected by drug usage.
1993–1995	General Hospital	ABC	Stone Cates	Michael Sutton	white male teenager
1994	The Real World	MTV	Pedro Zamora		openly gay, infected by one of his partners, famous AIDS educator
1994-	General Hospital	ABC	Robin Scorpio	Kimberly McCullough	white female teenager, infected by her boyfriend Stone Cates.
1996	Murder One	ABC	Richard Cross	Stanley Tucci	Cross is an unscrupulous businessman whose imminent death from AIDS leads to an ethical awakening.
1997	Oz	HBO	Various including Antonio Nappa, James Robson, Nat Ginzburg and Clarence Seroy	Various	Men, infected while in prison, HIV positive inmates are isolated in Unit E, a cell block exclusively for HIV positive inmates not allowed to be amongst general inmate population.
1998	Law & Order	NBC	Kenneth "Twist" Stark	Jason Hayes	In the 1998 episode "Carrier", Stark was charged with murder and attempted murder for deliberately infecting women with HIV.
1999	ER	NBC	Jeanie Boulet	Gloria Reuben	African-American female adult, infected by husband.
2001–2005	Queer as Folk	Showtime	Vic Grassi Ben Bruckner James "Hunter" Montgomery	Jack Wetherall Robert Gant Harris Allan	Vic was Michael Novotney's uncle. Ben was Michael's boyfriend and a college professor. Hunter was a former hustler who became Ben and Michael's foster son.
2002	Takalani Sesame	SABC	Kami	puppet	Five-year-old female puppet. Contracted HIV via tainted blood transfusion. World's first HIV-positive Sesame Street Muppet.
2005	Nip/Tuck	FX	Gina Russo	Jessalyn Gilsig	Sex addict. Had a child before she knew she was infected with the virus but the baby did not contract it. Re-appeared briefly to work as a receptionist at McNamara/Troy but died soon after when she fell off a building.
2005–2008	Home and Away	Seven Network	Cassie Turner	Sharni Vinson	Cassie contracted HIV after sleeping with her older boyfriend Henk, who had contracted the disease from a drug addicted former girlfriend.
2007 -	The Best Years	The N (U.S.)	Lee Campbell	Alan Van Sprang	Bisexual Lee owns local hot spot nightclub Colony.
2008	Hollyoaks	Channel 4	Malachy Fisher	Glen Wallace	Heterosexual male; contracted the disease and kept it a secret from girlfriend Mercedes. He told his brother Kris as he may have contracted it from a one night stand with Merdedes Mercedes & Malachy were to marry but ended their relationship, a row in the pub had Mercedes revealing his disease to his friends & Mum, They couple later married, Mercedes is awiting her results.