List of Invader Zim characters
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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 (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
Voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz[1], Zim is incompetent as an invader who is overzealous, impulsive, and convinced of his own greatness. He dreams of regaining his leaders' trust,the Almighty Tallest, by taking part in Operation Impending Doom II, which is an Irken military initiative to conquer the universe. The Tallest send him to Earth (a planet of no interest to the Empire on the outskirts of the known universe) on a fake mission of conquest. They were expecting him to die or become lost en route. Against the odds, Zim lands on Earth, establishes a base and, much to the chagrin of the Tallest, routine communication with his home world. Because of his stature, Zim disguises himself as a human child using a wig to cover his antennae and 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 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. In spite of his slight build, Zim occasionally displays superhuman strength and agility, although due to the show's lack of continuity, these traits are not always present. He is never without his PAK, a backpack-like piece of equipment with 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.
GIR
Voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons, GIR is Zim's only companion. GIR is a dysfunctional robot built by The Almighty Tallest out of SIR unit remains and whatever they could find in the trash and their pockets. GIR's creation was the result of a cruel joke the Tallest played on Zim when the other invaders were receiving their SIR (Standard Information Retrieval) units, which serve as their personal assistants. Rather than waste a perfectly good SIR unit on Zim, though, the Tallest instead gave Zim a "top-secret model", which they constructed on the spot, behind Zim's back. Shortly after being built, the junky robot activates and announces himself as GIR. The name "GIR" is a self-applied moniker that is never explained in the show. It is unknown what the G stands for (SIR standing for Standard-Information Retrival); GIR himself states that he does not know why he refers to himself as GIR ("GIR, reporting for duty." Zim: "GIR? What does the G stand for?" GIR: "I-don't-know."). The most notable of visible differences between GIR and your typical SIR unit is his mouth, something that average SIR units lack. Because GIR's head contains various odds-and-ends (rather than artificial intelligence hardware), GIR displays a wildly erratic personality. He is almost completely irreverent, and rarely obeys Zim's commands, variously due to distraction, disinterest and disobedience, but when he does, the teal-colored parts of his body (most notably, his eyes) glow red like normal SIR's and he will usually refer to Zim as "My Lord" or sometimes "My Master". As in the episode "Mortos der Soulstealer", GIR says, "Yes, vermin lord!" when Zim needs another mutant vermin for his evil scheme. GIR disguises himself by wearing a green dog suit which fools most humans, despite looking and acting almost nothing like an Earth dog. He also does things that a real dog would not do, such as talking in public, dancing and using jet rockets. A prime example of GIR's uselessness is his pre-programmed "defensive mode" which for normal SIR units is to repel hostiles. When GIR's defensive mode is activated, on the other hand, he usually responds by assisting the enemy; in one case offering the enemy ice cream and in another voluntarily jumping into a sack for abductors.
Dib
Voiced by Andy Berman, Dib is Zim's mortal enemy and is highly unpopular at school (where he shares a class with Zim) and at home for his broken record obsession with the paranormal, aliens, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and other paranormal phenomena. He and his sister, Gaz (Who could not care less), are some of the only humans who know that Zim is actually an alien. He is the co-protagonist of the series, but at the same time being the antagonist because he is constantly trying to break into Zim's house, or even go as far as pushing Zim into water (which was equivalent to acid to Zim's skin, but is not so in other episodes). Then again, "antagonist" and "protagonist" are subjective terms in this situation, and Jhonen Vasquez himself has said that there is no "good side" or "bad side" in the constant battle between Zim and Dib. Dib tries constantly to convince his classmates that Zim is an alien, but they do not believe him because he has "cried wolf" so many times before. Dib is so unpopular that the children will not accept his help for anything (even if the situation happens to be life-threatening) because it would mean having to interact with him. His constant harassment of Zim is sometimes seen as an act of bullying by others, but this does not necessarily mean that Zim himself is popular either. Dib is part of a society of paranormal investigators called 'The Swollen Eyeball' where his code name is Agent Mothman. In the episode, "Zim Eats Waffles", he tries to show them proof after he successfully planted a camera in Zim's kitchen. Because of broken software, however, he is not able to record his sightings. There are many times were the other agents could have seen what was going on, but because of their bad timing they answered his call when things had already calmed down.
It has been assumed that Dib's last name is Membrane [after his father], but the series creators have long since confirmed that Dib does not have a last name, as a kind of tradition among cartoon characters. This is shown in "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom," where an alien tries to address Dib by his last name, but without knowing what it is. "Now Dib...Dib.. uh, whatever your last name is," and rather than correct him, Dib simply says "that's right." There is, according to Jhonen Vasquez, a possibility that Dib and his sister Gaz are not even natural humans, and are instead male and female clones of Professor Membrane.
Gaz
Voiced by Melissa Fahn, Gaz is Dib's creepy, antisocial, and apathetic younger sister, often described as "Dib's scary sister". She has a penchant for video games and a fixation with pizza. 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. She has, like the others, shown some obvious signs of insanity. In the episode "Game Slave 2" she somewhat goes crazy as a result of the fact that Iggins stole the last Game Slave, which, in her eyes, should have been rightly hers. In order to get it back, Gaz follows him everywhere, ultimately forcing him to give it to her.Iggins gets the most freaked out when she emerges from the shadows of his bathroom. She is not afraid to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Usually, however, she keeps to herself and never really shows any emotion except annoyance. Her vengeful and explosive nature shortens all common reasons to care about the satisfaction for others, especially that of her brother. However, in the episode "Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggy," it seems to be revealed that she cares about Dib when she is concerned that he is presumably crashing to his death, although truthfully she was probably more impressed by the fall itself rather than Dib's well-being. She loves to play Game Slave 1 and 2. She usually plays a secondary role in the series. In the episode Bloaty's Pizza Hog, she must rescue Dib from Zim's clutches only to have pizza with her father, Professor Membrane.
Secondary characters
The Almighty Tallest
Purple, voiced by Kevin McDonald, and Red, voiced by Wally Wingert, are 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. While the Tallest function mainly as figureheads, doing little to organize the society (preferring to lounge around and eat snacks), they do hold absolute power over the populace. One of the Tallest also has purple eyes, which is normally seen in Irken females, although he is male. However, it's likely that eye color among Irkens is the same as it is among humans. They travel around to observe and supervise Operation Impending Doom II. They appear to mostly use their unlimited powers of state to amuse themselves- sending loyal Irken soldiers to painful deaths ("Battle of the Planets"), and forcing others weaker than themselves to obey their random whims ("Hobo 13"). The Tallest also seem to enjoy puppet shows, in the episode "Walk For Your Lives", they have fun beating up those invaders who do not put on a puppet show for them. They also hate short Irken soldiers like Zim and Skoodge, regardless of their competence. They were the ones who sent Zim on his "mission" to Earth. Little does Zim know (despite the evidence put right in front of his face, and being outright told on occasion) that this was just so they could get rid of him. As a matter of fact, they were not even aware of the earth's existance, they believed they were sending him forever into the void of space. They might be construed as the main antagonists of the series because they are conquering and sometimes annihilating entire alien races, however they have little or no influence on or interest in the events that take place on Earth.
Professor Membrane
Voiced by Rodger Bumpass, Professor Membrane is the world's smartest man, host of the popular television show "Probing the Membrane of Science", inventor of SuperToast, and 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. Dib often goes to him for guidance and/or to show him of his findings. Although some of Dib's evidence is sometimes very believable, Membrane always tells Dib that there is a reasonable, and scientific, explanation for anything Dib's found (explaining away the "alien glow" in Dib's video of Zim and GIR out of their disguises as "swamp gas") and calls him "his poor insane son". And it seems that he does not have a wife and manages his children alone. It's also implied that he never married, and Dib and Gaz were created through science. He also appears to have supernatural powers, as seen in the final episode of the series, where he fires a laser beam from his palm, in order to blast open the door for his children, who had previously not announced their presence.
Ms. Bitters
Voiced by Lucille Bliss, Ms. Bitters is the evil teacher of Dib and Zim's class. She is a tall, slender, aged woman that is very creepy in many ways. For one example: in the episode "Rise of Zitboy", after Zim's pimple blows up Ms. Bitters forms out of Dib's shadow. Another example is prominent in the episode "Parent Teacher Night" Zim reveals his birth, after his backtrack in time he hugs Ms. Bitters. Not liking the affection of Zim, she slips from his grip by swirling through his arms without showing her feet or using her hands. Also on the list of creepy things she has done was to float across the classroom to the door to open it, each foot settling down independently and audibly in the episode "Career Day". [citation needed]. True to her name, she is devoid of any compassionate emotion and having a very demonic hatred for life. Her body has a "snake-like" quality, and is animated as such that it seems she can "slither" around (and in one episode, floats), and sticks out a forked tongue while hissing. She also bears a sensitivity to the sun (Season 2, Episode 13, 15:32 - 15:37). Occasionally she emerges out of other people's shadows and even suck people into her own. The character is directly pulled from Vasquez's earlier comic book series Squee! Where she was Todd's teacher.
Recurring characters
Tak
Voiced by Olivia d'Abo, Tak is one of the seemingly rare female Irken invaders (Implying most of them are male on a seemingly all male planet) 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 the one episode that she is in (Tak: The Hideous New Girl), she tries to take over Zim's position on Earth, but fails miserably in the end, mostly due to GIR's unpredictable nature. Tak's holographic disguise (particularly the clothing) somewhat resembles Johnny from "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac", a comic by Vasquez. Tak is slightly taller than Zim and has purple eyes, a trait that appears to be rare in the Irken species. Despite her failure on Earth, Tak is far more competent than Zim (and most of the other Invaders) thanks to her superior intelligence and technical ingenuity. Almost all her equipment is self-designed and therefore almost flawless.
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.
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
Voiced by 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 situations.
Minimoose
Voiced by 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 (but gir manages to learn how). The series was cancelled before this episode could complete production, with Minimoose's origins left a mystery.
Moose
Moose was introduced in the episode A Room With a Moose, in which Zim tries to trap the students of Ms. Bitters in a wormhole that ends with a room with a moose in it.
Invader Skoodge
Voiced by Ted Raimi, Invader Skoodge is a successful competent Irken Invader, 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 "Yea....But i'm ok 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 episode could be finished.
Sizz-Lorr
Voiced by Jim Wise, Sizz-Lorr is an Irken character who works at Foodcourtia in an episode. Although Sizz-Lorr only appears in one episode that is all he needs to fully describe his personality. He has a grudge against Zim for leaving him for Impending doom 2, Sizz Lor was all alone during the great foodining. He is a little on the flabby side and always wants the job done right. He places bio scanners on all the exits so that Zim cannot escape. Apparently not recognizable by Zim unless he is wearing his hat. He left "booth 12" for Zim to clean upon Zim's return.
Sizz-Lorr comes to Earth in the episode "The Frycook What Came from All That Space". It is his only appearance.
Lard Nar
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.
Minor characters
- Roboparents and Gnomes
Roboparents and gnomes are 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.
- Moofy
Moofy is an annoying little girl who appears in the episode "The Girl Who Cried Gnome." She loves attention and falls in a hole in Zim's yard when he sends out the "robot gopher". The media responds and blows the situation so out of proportion that even President Man "all the way from president land" comes to help. She is content on keeping her position because she has the world's attention. She is also part of an aggressive girl scout group known as the "Girly Rangers" who sell ninja star cookies, one of president mans favorite snacks.
- Keef
Voiced by Danny Cooksey, Keef is an 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 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.
President Man
The head honcho of America (possibly Earth), President Man rarely shows up 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. He is a possible parody of USA president George Bush. He was voiced by Jeffrey Jones.
- Bee/Evil Death Bee
The creature who wrecked Zim's Voot Cruiser in Attack of the Saucer Morons episode. Zim also vowed to destroy that evil death bee, but never did.
Countess Von Verminstrasser
In the episode "Lice" she was called to terminate the infestation. She was voiced by Mindy Sterling
Nick
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" He is voiced by Jhonen Vasquez, who created him namely for the purpose of mocking Nickelodeon's constant demands for Jhonen to make the show less dark and more "carefree".
The Swollen Eyeballs
A group (including Dib)who are determined to prove the paranormal.Some Agents are Agent Mothman (Dib's alias), Agent Darkbootie, 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"
Sergeant Slab Rankle
An extremely overzealous mall security guard who is shown only once, in "FBI Warning of Doom", where he tries to prevent Zim from returning a movie after business hours. Voiced by Robert Cait.
Mr. Dwicky
A rather friendly school counselor who tells Dib he believes about Zim being an alien. He tries to help Dib lure Zim with a false sales pitch,but was really trying to help find out what's wrong with Dib. However, Zim ultimately shows up and turns his world upside down. Voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Chickenfoot
Saw in "The Sad,Sad Tell Of Chickenfoot". He was once an employee of Chicky Licky, and stood outside of the restaurant in a chicken suit. His real name is Chuy. Two co-workers were arguing and spilled dishwater on the microwave, causing radiation to hit Chuy and fuse him to his suit (or so he thought, being extraordinarily stupid. In fact, the suit's zipper simply got stuck).
Bill
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". Voiced by Adam Paul.
Iggins
Iggins is a fat, arrogant and extremely hyperactive game addict who thinks he is better than everyone else, claiming over and over again that "HE'S the superior gamer". However, he makes a huge mistake when he incurs Gaz's wrath by stealing the last of the all-new gaming consoles that Gaz had to wait in an enormous line for. As a result, she constantly stalks and terrifies him in his own house until he agrees to cough it up. Vasquez originally intended for the twerp to die in an elevator crash. Nickelodeon' refusal to let him die caused Jhonen to add in a crudely hashed-together clip at the end of the episode showing Iggins breaking free of the elevator's wreckage and flying away, mocking Nick.
The Maniac
Only in "Career Day" as a mentor to "Lizard Boy". Seen showing him how to choke someone.
Mr. Elliot
Gaz's teacher. EXTREMELY HAPPY! Seen in "Gir Goes Crazy And Stuff", "Gaz, Taster of Pork", and "Parent-Teacher Night". Voiced by Scott Bullock