List of We Are America characters

Here is a comprohensive list of characters from We Are America.

Tom Santos
Played by Blake Michael. A sporty, kindhearted boy with a love of skateboarding and basketball. He is of Mexican-American heritage and lives with his mother, father and younger brother. He is also a skilled singer, as evidenced when he performs a rendition of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)". Throughout the series, Tom has a number of relationships, before later having a gay relationship with Alex, despite disapproval from the latter's strict parents.

Towards the end of the series, Tom is chosen to play for Mexican basketball team Panteras de Aguascalientes.

Molly Harper
Played by Sierra McCormick. A girl with a feisty personality and a caring nature, she has been close friends with Tom since kindergarten. She shares his love of sports, especially basketball, and also likes travel and cooking. She lives with her single mother and grandmother. Her favourite holiday destinations are Jamaica, Greece and Australia.

Molly's parents are divorced, but sees her father every other weekend, and on one such visit, she discovers that her father is gay, and has a younger Italian partner called Nick; she later leaves Houston with him to live in Sydney.

Ben DeSanto
Played by Jeremy Shada. He is Tom's closest friend aside from Molly, and has known him since first grade. He is of Italian-American and Polish-American descent, and has a quirky, nerdy personality, exhibited in his extensive love and knowledge of pop culture and superheroes. He lives with his strict parents and paternal grandmother.

Ben appears to have Asperger's, which makes social situations difficult for him, which is demonstrated in him often turning up to school and going out in public dressed as various superheroes. Ben is killed during a school shooting by a troubled ex-student called Jonathan, who also shoots Tom (his injuries are non-life threatening and he recovers), before shooting himself.

Josh Yang
Played by Ryan Potter. A confident, spunky boy with a love of art and comics, he lives next door to Tom with his large Chinese-American family. As well as his passion for art, he is also an accomplished breakdancer and rapper, and also acts as the mascot for the school basketball team The Coyotes.

Due to Josh's parents and culture, he must obtain good grades and be observant of family values; as a result, he and his parents rarely see eye to eye; however, his father reveals to him that his difficult relationship with his own parents led him to be hard on him. Midway through the series, he leaves Houston to study art in Los Angeles.

Katie West
Played by Abigail Breslin. A shy, caring girl with a positive nature, she is close friends with Tom and even dates him for a brief period of time. She lives with her aunt and uncle, who brought her up due to her mother's alcoholism and her father walking out on her. Despite the hardships thrown her way, she retains her caring attitude.

Katie's caring personality is clearly exhibited in her love for animals, and she is passionate about conservation; it is revealed midway through the series that she left Houston to volunteer for a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa.

Sam Tyler
Played by Madison Davenport. A somewhat dimwitted but happy, bubbly and caring girl, she enjoys sports, especially gymnastics. She is close friends with Katie and Tom, and lives with foster parents after being abandoned by her mother. Although Sam enjoys living with her foster parents, she still craves a relationship with her biological mother and tracks her address in Gulfton, where she discovers that she is living in a halfway house, and that she is a recovering crack addict. When Sam asks her mother why she abandoned her, she discovers that she turned to smoking crack as a way of coping with an abusive relationship, and the deaths of her parents. Sam forgives her mother later on, and allows her to have contact with her. At the end of the series, she leaves Houston with her foster family and moves to St. Louis.

Westmoore High students and faculty
Alex Sosa-Played by Jeff Wahlberg. He is a member of the school basketball team along with Tom, who he develops a crush on and later embarks on a relationship with; however, this relationship is much to the chagrin of his conservative Mexican parents; however, they later become more accepting of their son's sexuality.

Sophie Matlin-Played by Laura Marano. She is the head of the school cheersquad and has a peppy, bubbly nature. She develops a crush on Tom, but when he embarks on a gay relationship with Alex, she ends it, but parts ways with him as a friend.

Shay Navarro-Played by Sofia Castro. She attends geography class with Tom and Katie, and later develops a volatile, abusive on-off relationship with him. She appears to have a personality disorder, possibly histrionic personality disorder, and lives with her Honduran parents. She is also very cunning and devious, going as far as to lie about Tom raping her and faking being pregnant; eventually, Tom decides to break up with her, and she moves to Chicago afterwords.

Rachel Carter-Played by Sydney Fox. She is on the cheer squad with Sophie and is close friends with her. She likes pop music, especially Backstreet Boys.

Jonathan Ely-Played by Noah Gray-Cabey. A troubled student, who becomes friends with Tom after he helps him with biology homework. However, when it is revealed that Jonathan has a penchant for robbery and causing damage, and even goes so far as to blackmail Tom into not telling the principal for him spraying graffiti on the school. Tom later reveals that Jonathan sprayed graffiti on the school, leading to the latter being expelled. He later returns with a gun, and shoots Tom and Ben-with the latter dying of his injuries-before commiting suicide by shooting himself.

Jessica McQuarrie-Played by Madeleine Arthur. She sits with Tom and Molly in music and is skilled at playing the guitar and flute. She is sassy, intelligent and somewhat snooty.

Mrs. Samia Abbud-The gang's home room teacher, later promoted to principal. The only character to appear across all series, she is of Syrian-American, and fled her native Damascus as a child to escape the Arab-Israeli war.