This is a list of characters from Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series. This includes characters from the novels, the film, the television series, the graphic novels, and the short stories.
Cast overview Character Portrayed by Appearances Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Alex Rider Otto Farrant colspan="3" Alan Blunt Stephen Dillane colspan="3" Mrs. Jones Vicky McClure colspan="3" Ian Rider Andrew Buchan colspan="2" Tom Harris Brenock O'Connor colspan="3" Jack Starbright Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo colspan="3" Martin Wilby Liam Garrigan colspan="2" John Crawley Ace Bhatti colspan="3" Yassen Gregorovitch Thomas Levin colspan="3" Dr. Hugo Grief Haluk Bilginer colspan="2" Wolf Howard Charles colspan="2" Smithers Nyasha Hatendi colspan="3" Eva Stellenbosch Ana Ularu colspan="2" Kyra Vashenko-Chao Marli Siu colspan="3" Damian Cray Toby Stephens Jo Bryne Rakie Ayola Sabina Pleasance Charithra Chandran Evelyn Gwyneth Keyworth Max Grendel Kevin McNally colspan="2" Nile Jason Wong colspan="2" Julia Rothman Sofia Helin colspan="2" Laura Kellner Shelley Conn colspan="2"
Protagonists The following is a list of the protagonists recurring, appearing in, or referred to in the Alex Rider series, listed alphabetically.
Alan Blunt Alan Blunt was the head of MI6 Special Operations until Scorpia Rising. He is an aloof, impassive, and ruthless man. Throughout the series he is known for wearing a grey suit and grey glasses and being driven around in a Rolls-Royce. From the book Point Blanc, it is said that he had graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. Blunt is dedicated to his job and has a very analytical mind. After the events of the book Scorpia Rising and Scorpia's demise, Alan Blunt retires from his role at MI6, supposedly forced to by pressure from higher-ups. His assistant Lâle "Tulip" Jones, known better as Mrs. Jones, takes over from the end of Scorpia Rising onwards. It is stated in the same book that he receives knighthood following his retirement.
In the film Stormbreaker, Blunt was portrayed by Bill Nighy, and in the TV series he is portrayed by Stephen Dillane.
Joe Byrne Joe Byrne is the head of the CIA, who has worked with Alex on three separate occasions. Unlike the more cold and manipulative Blunt, who was not above blackmailing Alex to accept missions for him, Byrne generally appeared more willing to simply ask Alex for help rather than forcing him to do something he didn't want to do, and displayed a strong respect for Alex when they worked together. During Scorpia Rising, he even trusted Alex despite Scorpia having attempted to frame Alex for an assassination attempt, even though Alex's story involved the existence of a boy who was basically Alex's clone (Julius Grief, given plastic surgery to resemble Alex back in Point Blanc).
In the Alex Rider TV series, Joe Byrne is reimagined as a woman and the Deputy CIA Jo Bryne, played by Rakie Ayola. This version of the character has no interaction with or knowledge of Alex.
Kyra Vashenko-Chao Kyra Vashenko-Chao is an original character from the Alex Rider TV series, portrayed by Marli Siu. She is introduced as a student at Point Blanc, a secretive, reclusive, and introverted but eager and extremely talented computer hacker who suspects something is wrong with the school even before Alex gets there, and works with Alex to discover the truth and undermine Dr Greif's efforts. Alongside Jack Starbright and Tom Harris, Kyra is one of the few who knows about Alex's double life; after leaving Point Blanc, she finds herself crossing paths with Alex during every one of the situations he finds himself in, eventually becoming part of Alex's "team" alongside Tom Harris, where she serves as "tech support" or a deus ex machina to retcon certain aspects of the original books. Although usually somber and deadpan by nature, Kyra develops an attraction to Alex, pulling him into a kiss before he leaves to take down SCORPIA so that he "has something to come back to".
Kyra can be considered a composite of different female allies from the book series who have been interested in Alex: her computer skills and bemusement over Alex reflect Shadia Manzour from Never Say Die, her initially aloof demeanour and subsequent collaboration with Alex evokes Tamara Knight from Ark Angel, and her teasing and subdued infatuation with Alex are reminiscent of Sabina Pleasure, Alex's original love interest in the novels.
John Crawley John Crawley has been described as an "office manager" for MI6, and often acts as a messenger between Alex Rider and Special Operations, such as delivering him to MI6 in Stormbreaker and Point Blanc, informing him of his mission in Skeleton Key, visiting him in hospital in Ark Angel and, most recently, leading the "Invisible Man" operation against Harold Bulman in Crocodile Tears. He is known to have worked with John Rider, Alex's father, on a number of occasions and is described as having "the kind of face you forget while you're still looking at it".
In the film adaption of Stormbreaker, he was portrayed by Jimmy Carr, with the character's name changed (by an unusual request from the real MI6) to "John Crawford". In the TV series, he is played by Ace Bhatti, once again under the name "John Crawley".
Ben Daniels Ben Daniels is a minor protagonist who has appeared in Stormbreaker, Snakehead, Never Say Die and Nightshade Revenge. He first meets Alex at an SAS training camp in the Brecon Beacons, where Alex was sent by MI6 for training. In Snakehead, Ben secretly kills Anan Sukit, who was attempting to shoot Alex after he had beaten Sukit's fighter "Sunthorn" in an arena fight. Alex later meets Ben again, where he takes him to an MI6 outpost in Bangkok.
In Snakehead, it is revealed from his accent that he comes from Liverpool. His codename, depending on whenever the different editions of the books were published, is either "Fox" or "Wolf": in pre-2010 editions of the novels up to Snakehead he is "Fox", while in the later novels and in post-2010 editions of the earliest novels, he is often conflated with the character "Wolf".
In Nightshade Revenge, Alex assists Ben on his mission to first Nice and later San Francisco, Ben saving his life both times.
He is portrayed by Ben Peel in the series.
Paul Drevin Paul Drevin is the son of Russian multibillionaire Nikolei Drevin, a minor antagonist of Ark Angel. Alex and Paul first meet in hospital, where Alex is recovering from a bullet wound, and Paul is recovering from appendicitis. When Force Three attempts to kidnap Paul, Alex is kidnapped instead after he pretends he is Paul. When Alex escapes from Force Three, Nikolei invites Alex to stay with them for a few days and view the launch of Ark Angel.
Tom Harris Tom Harris is Alex's best friend at Brookland High School. He first appeared in the novel Scorpia, and has since appeared in Crocodile Tears, Scorpia Rising, Nightshade and Nightshade Revenge.
He is portrayed by Brenock O'Connor in the Alex Rider TV series, where he is shown to be an avid gamer and an aspiring filmmaker, and serves as a sort of team-mate to Alex.
Mrs. Jones Lâle "Tulip" Jones is the former second-in-command at MI6 and was Alan Blunt's closest associate, before succeeding him in becoming head of MI6 following the events of Scorpia Rising. Blunt insists their personal and professional lives remain separate; consequently, Mrs. Jones has never even been inside of his house, despite knowing him better than anyone else in Special Operations. Unlike Alan Blunt, who openly forces and blackmails Alex into many of his missions, Mrs. Jones had always opposed using Alex and is reluctant of sending him on missions once she takes over from Blunt. Mrs. Jones has two children, both of whom have been taken by her undercover Russian spy husband, Hans Meyer, to Nightshade at a young age.
In the Stormbreaker film, she is played by Sophie Okonedo, and in the Alex Rider TV series she is played by Vicky McClure. Both portrayals omit her peculiar habit of chewing peppermints before she speaks with Alex: this is compared in the novels to a similar habit associated with Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Tamara Knight Tamara Knight is introduced in the novel Ark Angel as Nikolei Drevin's personal assistant. At first, she is cold towards Alex and she doesn't seem to like him at all. However, it was later revealed that she was working for the CIA when she saved Alex's life from drowning when he went scuba diving. Tamara softened towards him and they joined forces to stop Drevin's plans to destroy his Ark Angel space hotel. They were captured by Magnus Payne and the Force Three "freedom fighters", in fact mercenaries working for Drevin. Tamara was injured and was imprisoned. She was later rescued by Ed Shulsky and a CIA task force. She was the one who convinced Alex to go into space and stop Payne from setting off the bomb that would destroy Ark Angel.
Ali Manzour Colonel Ali Manzour appears in Scorpia Rising and Never Say Die as the head of the Egyptian secret service. He is described as an overweight and stern but amiable and jocular man with a morbid sense of humor and a penchant for gold jewelry, wearing heavy rings on every finger, and takes a mixed approach towards intelligence work in general and Alex in particular – he is firm about operations and implies that he relishes the use of lethal force, but he also appears to have a soft spot for Alex, being alternately stern and doting towards him. Manzour is the first to recognize Alex's psychological trauma after the death of Jack Starbright (explicitly mentioning it to Joe Byrne) and is skeptical when Alex begins his own investigation into it. His daughter Shadia is a computer hacker working under him: it is implied that Manzour's soft spot towards Alex is because he has no sons of his own, although this is questionable – he claims to have two sons in Scorpia Rising, while in Never Say Die Shadia claims that she is one of four sisters and no brothers.
Sabina Pleasure Sabina Pleasure is a protagonist who made her first appearance in the novel Skeleton Key and has gone on to appear in Eagle Strike, Snakehead, Crocodile Tears, Scorpia Rising, Never Say Die and Nightshade Revenge. She is romantically interested in Alex and has been supportive of his work as a teenage spy. Her parents are Edward Pleasure and Elizabeth “Liz” Pleasure.
In the film Stormbreaker, the character of Pleasure was portrayed by Sarah Bolger. In the Amazon Prime TV series, Pleasure is renamed Sabina Pleasance and is portrayed by Charithra Chandran.
Alex Rider
Alex Rider is the main character of the series.
Alex is an early teenage spy recruited by MI6. Known for his intelligence, athletic and fighting skills, all of which were trained by his uncle and the SAS, Alex is seen demonstrating karate, pickpocketing, climbing, surfing, swimming and more throughout the series. His skills have helped him escape death multiple times. He also speaks several languages, English, French, German and Spanish.
Alex's parents were killed when their private plane crashed – later revealed to have been caused by a bomb planted by Ash under Scorpia's orders; he was subsequently raised by his uncle Ian Rider, until Ian himself was killed when Alex was fourteen years old. After his uncle's death, MI6 allows Alex's best friend and housekeeper, Jack Starbright, to become his legal guardian. He is extremely close to Jack and was shattered by her “death” until he realised her death was faked by Julius and Razim. His close friends, and the only ones who know about his secret job as a spy, are Tom Harris and Sabina Pleasure.
Alex is described as strikingly good looking with an athletic build, dark brown eyes said to be “too serious for his face” and fair hair.
He is portrayed by Alex Pettyfer in the film Stormbreaker and Otto Farrant in the Amazon Prime TV series.
Helen Rider