List of Invader Zim characters


Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by Jhonen Vasquez. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven episodes originally aired on Nickelodeon from March 30, 2001 to December 10, 2002 while the remaining six were originally released on DVD on October 12, 2004. The recurring cast includes voice actors Richard Steven Horvitz, Rodger Bumpass, Kevin McDonald and Wally Wingert. Vasquez voices parts in the show. The show was cancelled early in its run and some episodes were unfinished. The show ran for two seasons before its cancellation.

Main characters

Zim

Zim is an incompetent Irken who is arrogant, foul-tempered, reckless, overzealous, uppity, impatient, impulsive, native, megalomaniacal and convinced of his own greatness. He dreams of regaining his leaders' trust by taking part in Operation Impending Doom II, so Zim is assigned as an “invader” 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 conquest mission. Zim disguises himself as a human child using a hairpiece to cover his antennae and contact lenses to make his eyes look normal.
No one realizes that Zim is an alien, except Dib and Gaz. Zim has no friends, and often physically harms his classmates if they attempt to befriend him. However, despite this, they always naively defend him when Dib tries to warn them that Zim is a space alien. Zim is equipped with a PAK, a cybernetic backpack-like device with long, retractable robotic spider legs 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 are never successful. Zim also has a high opinion of himself, and will sometimes refer to himself in the third person.

GIR

GIR is a malfunctioning and dimwitted robot SIR Unit who was assigned to Zim. He was built by the Almighty Tallest out of SIR unit remains from a trash can and rubbish they found in their pockets, and was subsequently passed off to Zim as a "top-secret" and "advanced model". He disguises himself in public by wearing a green dog suit, which fools most humans, despite looking and acting nothing like an “Earth dog”. Out of the pair, GIR has more interaction with Earth's social and cultural life-style. His personality is cheerful, friendly, and easy-going. GIR also has a love for Earth that his master does not share. Throughout the series, GIR has demonstrated talents such as cooking and dancing.
GIR has no sense of who is a friend and who is an enemy. He also rarely understands the severity of the predicaments he finds himself in, unless it involves pain or very severe danger. However, he often understands it more than his master, and has on rare occasion predicted the correct outcome of a very dangerous situation.
GIR's upbeat, clueless, thoughtful and friendly personality is a contrast to Zim's self-centered, imperious behavior. GIR enjoys taking part in Earth's culture, while Zim distances himself from it in order to complete his mission. Since GIR does not usually obey Zim, this often results in Zim growing furiously with GIR. However, GIR and Zim occasionally seem to care for one another.

Dib Membrane

Dib Membrane is a young eccentric paranormal investigator who spends his time studying the supernatural and paranormal, as well as thwarting Zim in his schemes to take over the world. Dib is generally mocked, bullied and hated by his classmates because they see him as annoying and crazy. Even though Dib’s classmates tend to bully him, he is reluctantly determined to defend and save them from Zim’s evil schemes anyway. Zim and Dib often fight and hate each other, as Dib, knowing Zim is an alien bent on destroying the Earth, is determined to protect planet Earth and humankind. While they are often portrayed as mortal enemies, Dib and Zim have at times been forced to work together as reluctant teammates. Despite their feud, an unfinished episode of the series titled "Mopiness of Doom" revealed that Dib lost interest in Zim and the paranormal while Zim gave up on destroying Earth and mankind, though he later came back when Dib changed his mind and decided to hunt Zim.
Dib is self-conscious over the size of his head, and usually overreacts when people point out its largeness. It is revealed in some episodes that his head serves multiple purposes; in the episode "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", it served as a portal into other worlds.
People such as the police, the F.B.I., NASA Place, and “The Swollen Eyeballs”, tend to find Dib annoying. However, a few of these people realize just how sane Dib is and are kind enough to help him at times. Dib's secret codename as part of this group is “Agent Mothman”. Because he has cried wolf so many times, Dib finds it very hard for people to believe him, and is thrilled on the rare occasion when he finds someone who does. Nonetheless, he is willing and prepared to strongly defend the paranormal field of study whenever someone makes fun of it or claims it is not a real field of study.
Before the comic book series was launched in July 2015, it was unknown what Dib and Gaz's surname was, if they had one at all. At the time of the television series, series creator Jhonen Vasquez claimed that their father Professor Membrane was actually using his first name in his title. However, the comic series has had Dib addressed as "Dib Membrane" multiple times, with the first being in a pre-Issue 0 and in an official Issue 5.

Gaz Membrane

Gazlene "Gaz" Membrane is Dib's younger sister who enjoys playing video games, drinking soda and eating pizza, particularly from her favorite restaurant Bloaty's Pizza Hog. If and when someone or something stands in the way of her getting those things, she is extremely vengeful and quick to lose her temper. Like her brother, Gaz knows that Zim is an alien, but does not care because she believes he is incapable of conquering the Earth. Gaz very rarely displays happiness, and is usually humorless and ill-tempered. However, she is sometimes amused at Zim and Dib's misfortunes.
She seems to be very underestimated, especially in the episode where she saves Dib’s life from Zim. Also, she was going to be Zim’s love interest.
In the series, Gaz has either a lukewarm or a cold relationship with most of the other characters. She mostly dislikes her brother Dib, although she has been rarely shown to care about him. The only exception to all of the people she does not get along with might be her famous father, Professor Membrane. He seems to have a warm relationship with Gaz, even though it is not shown all that often.
Gaz has a very vengeful and creepy way of stalking people who have significantly pestered, or upset her—like Dib or the video game-crazed boy named Iggins. She has displayed amazing abilities in two episodes.
In the episode "Lice", it shown that Gaz can endure pain and even calls the students who complain about the pain "whiners". Another example of Gaz's toughness is shown in "Dark Harvest" when Zim steals and replaces one of her organs with her Game Slave, but she continues to play her game, even though it is inside of her.

Secondary characters