Collin Lee was the backup friend of Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson's one-time best friend. He appears in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film), and Dog Days, playing a minor role. He plays a prominent role in the online book. Likewise, his role was replaced by Chirag Gupta in the 2021 animated film.
History[]
Diary of a Wimpy Kid[]
After Greg and Rowley break up their friendship, Rowley starts hanging out with Collin every day after school and the two become close to the point that they made "Best Friend" T-shirts that features each other and wear them to school. After dinner one night, Greg sees him and Rowley walking up to Rowley's house, noting that Collin was carrying his sleeping bag and decides to go to Fregley's house to show that he has other friend options as well. While inside, Greg starts to regret his decision and intends to leave, though he doesn't because Collin is still with Rowley in his front yard.[1] It's unknown what happened to him after Greg and Rowley got back together.
Dog Days[]
Collin was mentioned when Greg tells Rowley he should tell his parents he's spending the night at Collin's house because they banned Greg from seeing Rowley for the rest of the summer.[2]
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)[]
Collin is played by Alex Ferris in the movie.
He appears many times at school, including class and when seeing Greg and Rowley with hot cocoa. He also appears as Rowley's new best friend when Rowley dumps Greg. One of the first things he does with Rowley was bringing his suitcase to go over to Rowley's house after school for a sleepover and plays patrol with. Greg passes by Rowley's house seeing them play with both Rowley and Collin pausing their game and glaring at Greg as he makes his way to Fregley's house. Greg tries to have a sleepover with Fregley to get even with Rowley and to make him jealous.
Collin also attends The Wizard of Oz play and the Mother/Son Sweetheart Dance with Rowley. There, Collin continues to be a wedge between Greg's attempt to mend his friendship with Rowley. Greg attempts to invite Rowley to go for ice cream after the dance but Collin steps in and gives Rowley an ice cream and shuts Greg down for Rowley saying they already have plans.
He is last seen with the rest of the students after Greg and Rowley get attacked by Pete Hosey and his crew from Halloween. He runs away with the rest of the students after Greg took the fall for Rowley by saying he ate the cheese and, with the rest, ignored Greg's speech about the middle school order to avoid the cheese touch. Collin is not seen again, nor does he seem to still be friends with Rowley after Rowley took Greg back.
Online[]

Collin plays a much more prominent role, taking up many of Rowley's significant roles from the books. During his first appearance, Greg says he goes up to Collin's house after his dad kicks him out of the house because his dad has every Spider Man comic book since 1968 and many of Rowley's traits in the book series. [3]
Greg and Rowley headed straight to Collin's house, hoping to drain out the teenagers that are chasing them in a pickup truck. Collin's parents were at a party, but Rowley knew Collin's babysitter, who let them inside while Collin was asleep upstairs. After Greg and Rowley knew, the teenagers were going to wait them out, they decided they were going to spend the night at Collin's though they became cocky after that decision. Rowley called his parents and said he was staying over at Collin's and Greg called Ann Heffley to say the same thing but was actually furious at Greg and demanded them to come home this instant. Greg tells Rowley that they had to make a run for it, but Rowley said there was no way he was going out there and was going to spend the night at Collin's but changes his mind after Greg gives him a speech about "loyalty."[4] The next day, Collin's house was toilet papered by the teenagers as Greg was passing by on a bus.[5]
Every time Greg was grounded from playing video games, he would get around his punishment by bring his games to Collin's house. [6]
Greg plans to go up to Collin's house again until he was informed that he was going to stay at Aunt Cakey's with his younger brother, Manny Heffley.[7]
Later, Collin attempts to play with Greg not knowing that he was trying to recover from Mr. Peters's class. It was only when Collin brought out Zoo-Opoly that got Greg's attention. Greg realizes the boardgame uses the exact same currency as Mom Bucks and so he leaves with the entire stash after Collin excuse himself to the bathroom. [8]

After his breakup with Rowley, Greg and Collin search for a limbo to rent through the Yellow Pages, something that Greg had originally planned to do with Rowley. They eventually find an affordable price but drop the deal when the caller misgenders Greg.[9]
Greg later got him to sign up for private drum lessons from Rodrick Heffley under the false impression that he would cover the cymbals by week 4. In the first lesson, he had to resort to a paper plate and plastic utensils due to lack of proper equipment. His fork ends up breaking halfway through the lesson. The next day, Greg and Collin took turns on their only practice pad. Each time they mess up, Rodrick would get frustrated eventually taking their drumsticks away and then having them “watch and learn” as he performed a drum solo. Realizing how preoccupied Rodrick was, they sneak out of the basement to play video games. By day 3, Rodrick gives up leaving Greg and Collin to continue their gaming session. However with one of the controllers broken, they had to take turns and during one of Greg's, Collin walked around the carpet then shocked Greg. This annoys Greg and he retaliates during Collin's turn by snapping his leg with a rubber band.

Confused, Collin believed Greg had actually shocked him so he spends the next 5 minutes building up a charge only to be disappointed by the outcome and this repeats several times eventually until when Collin uses the bathroom where he notices the red marks and snitches on Greg out of panic. This makes Greg forgive Rowley, appreciating him for not being a snitch.[10]
Collin's father eventually discovers that his son is skipping drum lessons when he catches him and Greg playing board games. Ann forces Rodrick to refund Collin's money as a result.
Trivia[]
- Given estimates made based off of illustrations of him, Collin Lee is most likely between 3' 9" (114.3 cm) and 3' 11" (119.38 cm) tall. However, this is entirely conjecture, as his height has never been stated conclusively within the series.
- In the online book, Collin bears a very strong resemblance to Alex Aruda. In the book series, his appearance is changed so that he is short and stout with curly hair and no glasses.
- In the online book, Collin's house gets toilet papered. In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the victim is changed to Gramma.
- In the online book, according to Greg, Collin's dad has every Spider-Man comic book since 1968.
- It's possible that Collin Lee is related to Mrs. Lee, a teacher who is mentioned in Rodrick Rules, or the online version of Mr. Odom, who also has the surname "Lee". In the latter's case, it's possible that the two Mr. Lees are the same person.
Appearances[]
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (mentioned)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
- The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
- The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary
Gallery[]
Online[]
Diary of a Wimpy Kid[]
Other[]
References[]
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid, pages 190-192
- ↑ Dog Days, page 204
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), page 80
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), pages 257-260
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), page 265
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), page 302
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), page 318
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), pages 648-50
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), pages 797-798 & 803
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), pages 820-31