= Main characters =

Zim

Zim is a short, green, almost stereotypical looking alien from the planet Irk. He is trying to conquer the Earth, and is generally unsuccessful. He uses ridiculously excessive and elaborate plans to conquer the planet when he obviously has the resources to do so much more efficiently.

After the series's cancelation, Jhonen Vasquez did a four-page comic for the Nickolodeon Magazine. In it, Zim conquers the Earth when Dib isn't looking. Dib and Zim then go to outerspace to ride space bunnies. This blunt and exagerated plot may have been done out of spite for the cancelation.

Zim isn't technically an Invader, and his superiors actively despise him. The episode The Frycook What Came From All That Space confirms that Zim was officially demoted from the rank of Invader to Food Services after his disastrous performance during Operation Impending Doom One. His current assignment to invade Earth is actually just the Tallest's latest and most desperate attempt to get Zim as far away from them as possible.

Zim is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.

GIR

GIR is a dysfunctional version of the Irken SIR (Standard Information Retrieval) units given to Irken invaders. In order to avoid wasting a functional SIR unit on Zim, GIR was constructed from junk parts found in a trash can. He is completely insane. Zim blames him for most of the problems on the mission, regardless of whether or not it is his fault.

GIR takes a lackadaisical approach to life, mostly concerned with his squeaky toys, food, the Scary Monkey Show, pigs, and television. He doesn't know what 'GIR' stands for.

GIR is voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons.

Dib

A member of Zim's class at the school they both attend. Dib has been obsessed with the paranormal and supernatural since an early age. An avid paranormalist, Dib is often criticised by his classmates for being "crazy" or mentally unstable due to his outlandish theories. He apparently is the only human to recognize or care that Zim is an alien. Dib has devoted himself to stopping Zim's plans of conquest.

Almost every being he comes into contact with remarks that Dib has an abnormally large head, even though his head looks no more disproportionate than any one else's.

Dib is voiced by Andy Berman.

Gaz

Gaz is Dib's younger, creepy, antisocial sister, with psychic powers, often described as "Dib's scary sister." She has a penchant for video games and a fixation with pizza. She knows and admits that Zim is an alien, but doesn't care because she knows he's too stupid to take over the world.

Gaz is voiced by Melissa Fahn.

= Secondary characters =

Human

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Professor Membrane

He 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 (Future Dib, Dib Ship). Also he rarely, if ever, calls Dib and Gaz by their name (he always refers to Dib as "son").

According to a commentary on the Invader Zim DVD's, Dib was going to find out that he was an experiment created by his father, thus explaining why his life sucked so much.

Professor Membrane hates Santa Claus with the same vigor that his son despises Zim: when Membrane was a child, he wanted 12 cases of uranium 238, but Santa merely gave him a seemingly endless supply of socks. Vowing 'a portion of his life' to the defeat of Santa, Membrane created a massive polar fortress full of anti-Santa technology, which he allows Dib to access in The Most Horrible X-Mas ever. This is one of the very few times he takes his son's devotion to paranormal activity seriously.

In an unfinished episode, Dib would have given up paranormal studies and bonded with his father over "real science," only to resume his hunt of Zim later, much to Membrane's dismay.

He often appears surrounded by bursts of bright blue sparks, reminiscent of Nikola Tesla's lightning-juggling abilities. In "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", he possesses the power to shoot energy out of his hand. He doesn't believe in the paranormal, and frequently refers to Dib as his "Poor Insane Son".He sees Zim as a Foreigner (misconstruing Dib's statements that Zim is an alien).

Though "Membrane" seems to be the last name of Dib's father, it's actually his first name rather than the family name. It was mentioned on dvd commentary that they wanted the cliche of a cartoon character with no last name. Also, in Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom, Zim's simulation of the Meekrob referred to Dib as "Dib... whatever your last name is" and Dib replied "That's right" instead of correcting him with the name of his father.

It is rumored that the remains of Dib's mother are kept by Professor Membrane in a jar somewhere.

Professor Membrane is voiced by Rodger Bumpass.

The Swollen Eyeball Network

A group of conspiracy theorists who have an astonishingly high burden of proof, at least as far as grade-school alien invaders are concerned. Dib is, of course, a member - albeit a junior one, with the alias "Agent Mothman". Dib spends a fair amount of his time trying to convince the membership of the threat posed by Zim. Dib, for the majority of the series, communicates with them via video-conferencing. On screen, they appear as solid-black figures with somewhat-thick white outlines and solid-red oval discs for eyes (though due to a continuity error they are white eyed and have pupils in Battle-Dib), disguised behind nicknames like Agent Nessie, Agent Darkbootie, Agent Disembodied-Head, and Agent Tunaghost.

However, Dib makes direct contact with Agent Darkbooty (who turns out to be a crafty old janitor for NASA, renamed NASAPLACE in the series) in the episode Battle of the Planets. Darkbooty assists Dib, meaning that most likely he saw Zim on the Mars cameras.

In Battle-Dib Dib struggles to get his father to sign a permission slip so that he can make a presentation on Zim to the entirety of the Swollen Eyeball Network's membership. However, he loses the briefcase along the way, and has to reschedule.

Probably because of this, the Eyeball Network stops taking Dib too seriously, and by the time the episode Zim Eats Waffles rolls around, they show dislike for him. Agent Darkbooty even says, "You make me sick." Although, in a later episode Gaz, Taster of Pork, Agent Tunaghost helps Dib to solve his problem with the "Sense of the Shadowhog" spell. The swollen eyeball net figures out a way to transport Dib to the Shadowhog's realm.

Agent Darkbooty is voiced by Star Trek regular John DeLancie.

Sargeant Slab Rankle

He is a security guard who appears only once, in the episode FBI Warning of Doom. He is voiced by Robert Cait.

Rankle is a meglomaniacal security guard in one of the malls in Zim's city. He takes his job far, far too seriously for words, often reassuring the camera pictures of the stores that he will protect them. A weird person who even frightened Zim a little.

He first encountered Zim when he was attempting to break into the mall and return a video GIR had been watching for a month. When Zim resisted his command to surrender, Rankle quickly imprisoned him in a prison, where he keeps other people. Zim quickly escaped, and was faced down by evil zombie soldiers who pretty much collapsed in a heap, not bothering to fight.

Amazed by Zim's escapes, Rankle then appeared in person, asking Zim to join him; together, they could conquer everything. But Zim, creeped out by his appearance, declined, instead going home.

In the last we ever saw of Rankle, he takes Zim's rejection well, and rejuvenatedly walks back to his hovel amid the pile of zombies.

Important Skoolchildren

• Brian - Was replaced by 'Poonchy, Drinker of Hate' in Tak, the Hideous New Girl
• Chunk - One of the bullies that torments Dib. He has orange hair and drools. He likes dogs.
• Gretchen - Has purple hair and braces. From Tak, the Hideous New Girl it is seen that she fancies Dib.
• Keef - Main character in Bestest Friend and the unfinished The Return of Keef
• Melvin - Gives a presentation during the pilot. He eats paste in The Wettening.
• Poonchy, Drinker of Hate - Has orange hair and often has his hands in the air. Was to have a major role in the unfinished episode Invader Poonchey.
• Rob - Has 2 orange tufts of hair which look like horns. He was transferred to the underground classrooms in Tak, the Hideous New Girl
• Willy - Deemed "leadership material" by the skool, but considered a bald moron by everyone else. Was the last person to use the toilet Dib was ordered by Ms. Bitters to roll around in in the episode Bolognis Maximus.
• Zita - Was blinded by potatoes in Gaz, Taster of Pork. She also used one of the 3 "crazy cards" given to the class to commit Dib to an insane assylum in Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom.
• Old Kid - Oldest kid in class, looks like a short adult
• Pig Boy - A half-pig, half-child student who jumps out a window and flies away when Dib offends him by trying to explain that Zim is insulting the human race by calling them "pig smellies".

Irken

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The Almighty Tallest

The Irken Empire has a hierarchal class structure, where shorter individuals are both figuratively and literally looked down upon. The tallest Irken alive takes command of the Empire as "the Tallest", but since Red and Purple, the two current Tallest, are the exact same height, they share equal (and nigh-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. They travel around to observe and supervise Operation Impending Doom II in The Massive, the largest and most powerful ship in the Irken Armada. They appear to mostly use their unlimited powers of state to amuse themselves- sending loyal Irken soldiers to painful deaths ("Battle of the Planets"), forcing others weaker than themselves to obey their random whims ("Hobo 13") and starving their own command crew ("Backseat Drivers"). Red is often considered to actually have a slight focus on ruling the Irken race, as is usually seen as being more intellegent than Purple. This is seen in the episode Backseat Drivers, where, while Purple floats around screaming and eating doughnuts, Red finds out that Zim is controlling the ship via the power core, and switches it with the Resisty's core, thus saving The Massive from hitting Earth. The voice of Almighty Tallest Purple was done by Kevin McDonald, best known for his participation in the Canadian sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall).

Almighty Tallest Red was voiced by Wally Wingert.

Sizz-Lorr

Zim's forman during his exile at Foodcourtia for ruining Operation Impending Doom 1. When Zim escaped through the back door, Sizz-Lorr was trapped without help (with the possible exception of Gashlooke) during the first Great Foodening in which people ate so much the gravity was too strong to escape for 20 years (which a time warp managed to make the time period no more than a year for the rest of the universe according to Sizz-Lorr). When he captured Zim on Earth and returned to Foodcourtia, Zim managed to escape before the second Foodening trapping Sizz-Lorr for another 20 years.

Tak

Tak, another Irken, has a serious grudge against Zim and appears on Earth in "Tak, the Hideous New Girl". Originally assigned to janitorial duty, she comes to Earth to steal Zim's mission and impress the Tallest, hoping to achieve Invader status in this way.

50 years ago, on the Irken training planet Devastis, Tak was in the process of taking her final test to become an Invader-candidate. However, a blackout (caused by Zim who wanted to reach a snack by destroying the vending machine) that took out half of the planet interrupted her testing, and trapped her in the testing chamber. Although she pleaded with the Control Brain to retake the test, her request was denied and she was sent to planet Dirt, to perform janitorial duties until the next testing cycle- 70 years later. Ultimately, Tak discovered that Zim was responsible for this, and tracked Zim down to take her revenge, and steal his mission.

She possesses a customized Irken personal cruiser ( made from a heavily modified Spittle Runner she found on Planet Dirt while she was assigned there), a customized SIR unit named "MiMi" disguised as a cat, and a cybernetic implant that hypnotizes others to obey her commands. (This implant doesn't work on Dib or Gaz, however.) Gaz later screws up MiMi by using GIR to remote control MiMi.

She has purple eyes and an outfit similar to that worn by Jhonen Vasquez's comic-book character Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Unlike Zim, Tak uses a holographic generator as the base of her human disguise.

Sometimes seen in the episode is a modified Irken logo, with curlier antennae. Her antennae and clothes are slightly different from other Irkens, Tak, like Zim, may also be a "defective," as described in the unfinished episode, "The Trial." However, her invading techniques, while a little unorthodox, are extremely efficient, and she would have destroyed earth in just a few days, if Zim had not interfered.

After combat with Zim in space, Tak ejects from her ship, and its remains fall into the hands of Dib. He begins repair attempts, with varying degrees of failure, until Gaz repairs the ship in minutes in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever". Remnants of Tak's downloaded personality still remain in her ship's user interface and it is unclear how much this would have impacted the ship's use in future episodes. In the episode Dibship Rising, Dib attempts to overwrite this personality-data with his own, but the ship rejects his memories.

As for Tak herself, she was intended to return in at least one second-season episode, but the show was cancelled before this came about.

Tak is voiced by Olivia D'Abo.

Invader Skoodge

Invader Skoodge was shown in the first episode as being the shortest, fattest, ugliest Invader. Since the Irken culture idolizes height little Skoodge was at an instant disadvantage. In scorn of his stature, the Tallest sent him to invade Planet Blorch, home of the Slaughtering Rat People, where he was expected to die horribly.

However, Skoodge is a highly skilled Invader- the first Invader of Impending Doom Two to successfully subjugate his assigned planet. The Nickelodeon e-card for Skoodge says he survived on Blorch by eating really nasty things.

On the arrival of the Irken Armada to Blorch to proclaim their first successful Invasion, The Tallest refused to make short Skoodge their poster-boy for galactic conquest. Instead, declaring a 'new tradition' on the spot, they instead fired him out of a cannon into space. A taller Irken civilian, randomly selected by Tallest Purple, was dubbed Invader Skoodge, and paraded in front of the cameras.

Skoodge and Zim were smeeted (born) in the same generation of Irkens, (The Trial) and their first (and most subsequent) adventures together usually lead to Skoodge suffering horrible pain. Zim believes Skoodge to be very gullible. Skoodge was originally slated to have a larger role in season two: he was to be hiding from The Tallest in Zim's basement and was later to be in many future episodes such as Day of da Spookies.For some odd reason he can live without a PAK to suport his life and seems to be abel to think with out a brain.

Invader Skoodge was voiced by Ted Raimi.

Vortian

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The Vortians are a highly intelligent race of alien scientists existing in the Invader Zim universe. They are blue-gray and have hocks on their legs, which lack feet. They also have curled, hard horns on the top of their heads. The Vortians were once allies of the Irken Empire, until their enslavement, when they were forced into service after being conquered by Invader Larb. The Vortians' most famous inventions include the Santa Suit substance, Minimoose, The Massive, the Universe's Most Comfortable Couch and the MegaDoomer Combat Stealth Mech. Although the vehicles and weaponry that the vourtian design for the Irken Empire are undoubtably powerful, they are also subtly and purposely flawed. take for example the vourtian-designed MegaDoomer stealth system which, while making the machine invisible, leaves the pilot for all to see,an obvious drawback that makes it useless.

Lard Nar

Leader of the resistance against the Irken empire, he and Dib are the only viable opposition to the Irken empire. Appearing only in the season two premier, Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars, he and The Resisty were scheduled to appear in the unnamed season two finale. His primary concern is to keep The Resisty alive and fed before attempting a coup on the Irken Empire. He was the captain of the last Vortian ship (the others destroyed by Irkens), until it entered "Shrinky Self-Destruct" mode, ejecting all crew members and detonating a significantly smaller ship.

In the episode, after over-hearing the Tallests exclaim their weapons were deactivated, providing an opportunity to destroy the Massive, Lard Nar commands "Get those snacks!" even though they could destroy the entire ship.

Lard Nar is voiced By Fred Tatasciore.

Prisoner 777

A prisoner of the Irken empire held on his home planet after it had been converted into a military prison by the Irken empire. The prisoners are still employed (against their will) to design weaponry, ships and various other devices for the irkens. Zim uses prisoner 777 as a means for gaining the materials he cannot gain through usual means, such as the schematics for The Massive, the vortian weaponry to build minimoose and presumably the vortian liquid substance used for the santa suit. Prisoner 777 has a pinkish coloured skin.

The number "777" is also the number of Johnny's run-down house in Jhonen Vasquez's comic series, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

Prisoner 777 is voiced by Wally Wingert.

Other

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Ms. Bitters

Teacher of Dib and Zim's class. Devoid of any compassionate emotion, she is a tall, slender aged woman of unknown origin. Directly pulled from Vasquez's earlier comic book series Squee! (where she was Todd's teacher), she apparently possesses eerie powers, including the ability to materialize out of shadows and adopt snake-like features. In some early episodes, she has a moustache and appears to be covered in cockroaches.

It has been confirmed that Ms. Bitters is not human, but her actual identity and form is unknown. The biography on the back of the Nickelodeon electronic trading card (written by Eric Trueheart) states that she has always been where she is, and the "Skool" was built around her. Whatever she is, she cannot stand sunlight, as seen in 'Voting of the Doomed'. She dislikes the smell of children, and has expressed frustration at school over-crowding, as well as disdain for traditional holidays such as Halloween and Valentine's Day.

She appears to delight in horrifying her students with grotesque recollections: she claims to have once been a fairy princess until she was shocked with a bugzapper in "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", and in "Career Day" she claims to have been an astronaut whose spaceship imploded. These may have been lies, however. It is revealed in the DVD commentaries that many more Ms. Bitters flashbacks were to occur in the series, but they constantly had to be cut due to time constraints.

Ms. Bitters is voiced by Lucille Bliss.

Seargeant Hobo

The being in charge of the Hobo 13 military training facility. In "Hobo 13" Zim and Sckooge are both sent by The Tallest on what the Tallest are hoping is another ensured death mission. However Zim manages to complete the trials and defeat Seargeant Hobo at the expense of all his teammates.

Bill

A moronic paranormal investigator who claims that aliens, Bigfoot, and dinosaurs are all just myths, while cereal box creatures such as Count Cocofang and Frankenchokey are real, even when proof of the existence of aliens is right in front of him. He also believes that chickenfoot (actually a guy stuck in a chicken suit) is some sort of space chicken. Seen in Career Day and The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot.

Scary Monkey (Sometimes called Angry Monkey)

A minor character who is shown throughout the series, mostly as the focus of the "Scary Monkey Show" (which GIR adores), but shown in person during a few episodes such as "FBI Warning Of Doom", where he is in Sgt. Slab Rankle's jail for unknown reasons.

Nothing else is known about the Scary Monkey, except that Zim seems to have something against "that horrible monkey".

Iggins

Iggins, according to himself, is the master of all reality and gaming. He seems to be obbsessed with games, and will do almost anything to get one (as seen in Game Slave 2). He was originally supposed to die in that episode (in the elavator crash) but Nick would not allow it. He also had a minor appearance in the episode Walk for your Lives, shown getting arrested for loitering.

The Spooky Chihuahua

A small, chihuahua-like dog with a lobotomy scar and a strange right eyeball, appears in many episodes. Everybody, especially Zim, seems to greatly fear this dog and shriek in horror when it is spotted. Intended to be a running gag, Zim screamed "MADNESS!" at the sight of the dog in Walk of Doom, (Which led to the fans unofficially naming him "Madness") He also appeared in Walk for your Lives, but wasn't refered to as "madness"

The Dog would seem to be an indirect reference to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, as Johnny remarks that he encountered a Chihuahua and had a similar reaction to it as Zim.

The DVD commentary explains that the character was eventually abandoned because the staff found that this running gag was just not all that funny after all.

Minimoose

A tiny, rounded moose figure, presented as Zim's other henchman, debuting in the series' final episode, The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever. Zim claims that Minimoose has "been ^* all along", despite having only one appearance. (Vasquez planned to show a montage of scenes from older episodes with Minimoose crudely pasted into them after the quote, but the scene was cut for time)

Minimoose was created by Zim from designs given by Vortian Prisoner #777. He has extremely dangerous weapons hidden in his "nubs"; which could be referring to either the small antlers on the sides of his head or the four bumps that serve as his legs. However, these weapons malfunction on their first attempted use, in the unfinished script "Nubs of Doom". Zim created Minimoose to replace Gir, out of sheer frustration with the insane little robot. When Minimoose failed, Zim gave him to Gir to play with.

His favourite activities include floating and squeaking adorably; the only form of communication of which he is capable. The actual personality of Minimoose is unknown, as he is incapable of communicating intelligibly, even though it seems his listeners understand him quite clearly. Implications by the context of surrounding dialogue to the squeaks imply that a single squeak from Minimoose can convey a rather large amount of verbiage.

Had the show continued, he would have played a major role, as shown in two unfinished scripts, 'Nubs of Doom' and 'Day of da Spookies'

Minimoose's squeaks and squeals were done by Jhonen Vasquez under his alias, Mr. Scolex.

Pigs, Bees, Squirrels and Moose

Many of these creatures are seen throughout Zim. GIR is obsessed with piggies and has one nearly all the time. In the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Zim uses all of GIR's toy piggies to replace vital items in Dib's past in an attempt to destroy him. Gaz can be seen drawing piggies in the episode Bloaty's Pizza Hog, an entire episode revolves around her gaining the senses of a pig, and Bloaty from Bloaty's Pizza Hog is a grotesque man in a pig suit. There is also a Mysterious Mystery file referring to "Pigfoot'. Moose are present in the form of Minimoose and the horrible nut-eating moose in Room With a Moose, while Zim declares war on the 'evil death bees' for downing his Voot Cruiser in Saucer Morons and creates a robot bee in Tak, the Hideous New Girl. Squirrels appear in Zim's lab, dancing on Dib's school windowsill, and crawling over the Dib Ship. Zim also reprograms his classmate Keef to see a squirrel on a fence as Zim. In the commentary session for the episode "Attack of the saucer morons", Creator Jhonen Vasquez states "People ask me if I have a thing about Piggies, Squirrels or Moose, I do not. I do, however, have thing about Bees".

Invader Zim characters | nicktoon characters