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I'll be famous one day, but for now I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons.
Greg when he joins middle school

Gregory "Greg" Heffley is a middle school student who attends Larry Mack Junior Middle School and is the titular protagonist of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, as well as the main antagonist and supporting character of the Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is the best friend of Rowley Jefferson and the second son of Frank Heffley and Susan Heffley, with Rodrick and Manny Heffley being his brothers, respectively. He resides with his family at 12 Surrey Street.[4]

In the first three film adaptations of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Greg was played by Zachary Gordon, with the role being filled by Jason Drucker in the fourth installment five years later. In the first two CGI animated films, he is voiced by Brady Noon, and in the third CGI animated film, he is voiced by Wesley Kimmel. In these adaptations, Greg instead attends Westmore Middle School.

Personality

Crybaby Greg

Jeff Kinney, the author of the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, has revealed that the protagonist, Greg Heffley, is based on his own worst qualities during his middle school and high school years. While he may not admit it, Greg is a character with several undesirable traits that make him less than admirable. He is selfish, but he doesn't seem to know it.

Download-0

One of Greg's hobbies is video games. In the Dog Days movie, he plays video games for as long as his dad's shift at work is.

One of his main flaws is his cowardice. He often avoids confrontation and is unwilling to stand up for himself or others, even when it's necessary. This is shown in several instances throughout the series, such as when he lets Rowley take the blame for breaking a school rule or when he doesn't protect himself against his brother, Rodrick.

Another aspect of his personality that leaves much to be desired is his cockiness. He has an inflated sense of self-importance and often overestimates his abilities, leading him to make foolish decisions. For instance, he believes he can become famous by uploading a video of himself doing a silly dance on the Internet.

His laziness is also a recurring theme in the series. He frequently takes shortcuts and avoids putting in any real effort, preferring to take the easy way out by cheating to get good grades rather than doing his own work, a trait which he likely learned from Rodrick. This can be seen in his tendency to copy other students' homework or in his lack of enthusiasm for physical activity during gym class. This could be because he doesn't like P.E. just like many other students don't like the class.

In addition to being lazy, Greg is also selfish and self-centered. He is primarily worried with his own desires and rarely considers how his actions affect those around him. This is evidenced by his treatment of his best friend, Rowley, whom he frequently takes advantage of and manipulates for his own benefit.

Greg is also highly egotistical and narcissistic. He often exaggerates his accomplishments and believes he is better than those around him, even when he has no real reason to think so. This is exemplified by his desire to be the center of attention and his frequent attempts to impress others.

Perhaps one of Greg's most concerning qualities is his occasional lack of common sense and critical thinking skills. He often makes impulsive decisions without considering the consequences, leading him to get into trouble. This is seen in his tendency to lie to his parents, even when it's obvious that he will get caught.

Despite these numerous flaws, Greg has a few talents that he takes pride in, and even a skill that he occasionally shows, such as intelligence, as he has been shown to make intelligent and logical decisions, despite his occasional impulsivity. He is shown to be skilled at playing video games, sewing, and possibly singing. He is also really skilled in drawing and narrating as shown in the series. While these may not be the most practical skills, they do provide him with some measure of self-confidence and enjoyment.

Greg also has a high opinion of himself, as he believes that he is surrounded by idiots and that one day he will achieve greatness. He can be, and sometimes is, nervous over certain things that may not be a big deal for adults but is absolutely paramount for other kids.

Greg and Rowley blubbering and hug each other

Greg showing his rare affectionate side towards Rowley.

His only real best friend is Rowley Jefferson. Rowley takes part in Greg's schemes and is often a victim of Greg's manipulations and deceptions. The two have a very complicated relationship, as Greg sometimes takes advantage of Rowley's good nature, his own schemes fail due to Rowley's foolishness or Greg's own stupidity. Rowley's parents, mainly his father, view Greg as a bad influence on their son because Greg has a tendency of getting himself and Rowley into trouble. However, on some occasions, Greg can be seen standing up for Rowley, like in the first book, where he lied to his fellow students, telling them that it was he who had gotten rid of the Cheese, so that Rowley would not be alienated because of the incident. In Wrecking Ball, it is revealed that Greg truly does have a soft spot for Rowley, as Greg cries when it is time to say goodbye to him.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid1

Greg is commonly bullied. The same bully appears at the end of No Brainer, the middle of Double Down, as well as the first book on page 7.

At school, Greg often receives bad grades (likely due to laziness, procrastination on school work and bad test scores), gets bullied, receives detentions (for things he has done due to his numerous flaws), deals with the difficulties of middle school, and is always trying to earn popularity points in order to gain attention and respect (although his plans to do so often result in either his own supposed place on the Popularity List to drop, or unintentionally raises Rowley's popularity). Rowley is often himself which causes him to be popular while Greg often acts like someone else to try to get more popular which is why it causes it to drop.

At home, Greg has a mixed relationship with his family, especially with his younger brother Manny, who is overly pampered and protected by his parents (particularly his mother Susan). His mother tries to devise ways for Greg and his older brother Rodrick to get along but it never works out. This is because Rodrick seems to hate Greg. His father, Frank, is annoyed by his antics and laziness and tries to make him more "active". He has a like/dislike relationship with him. He's often tortured and picked on by Rodrick and is also the victim of his jokes, yet they do care about each other deep down. In addition, he has inherited many of his traits (such as laziness, inflated ego, etc.). In fact, many of Greg's teachers dislike him because they originally had Rodrick as a student, even though his classroom behavior does not mirror Rodrick's. The complications of middle school and Rodrick treating him badly could be why he is mean to people such as Rowley.

Greg is a fan of video games and comic books, and he sees them as talents, which annoys his father, Frank. His greatest gift is for cartooning and dry humor, evidenced by the many comic strips he has drawn.

Greg steps in a slush puddle

Greg ignores his surroundings often.

An important trait of Greg that becomes more apparent as the novels go on is his occasional lack of logical and critical thinking. A lot of his actions are shown to have no thought or consideration prior to being acted out, and usually end in disastrous repercussions. This is shown in The Getaway when he delays his family by drying his sock after stepping in a slush puddle while heading to an airport, and later burning the sock while attempting to dry it.

Greg also has been shown to display constant forgetfulness as well as no linear thinking. A good example of this is when he constantly has to remind himself to put his socks on before his shoes after a string of incidents involving him doing the opposite act. Another example is shown in the Long Haul, when he forgot he had the locker key and gotten the locker number wrong.

Greg wears the socks on his shoes the wrong way

Greg is often in a negative attitude.

Another character trait of Greg is his paranoia, which sometimes seems to get the better of him. A notable example of this is in Cabin Fever, in which he is worried that his old doll, Alfrendo, will come back to haunt him, and the Santa's Scout doll that he fears is actually following him around before finally realizing it is Rodrick who is doing it. Another notable example is in Wrecking ball, when Greg fears an imaginary monster called 'The Grout' and locks himself in his room until his father screws the door out.

Santa's Scout in the fireplace as Greg shuddering

Greg gets scared of simple and harmless things.

Neighboring Greg is his awkward, unpopular, and eccentric schoolmate named Fregley, whose vast variety of oddities disgust and befuddle those around him, including Greg, who tries to distance himself from Fregley as much as possible. Though Greg detests the fact that he is next-door-neighbors with Fregley, the only time he has ever shown interest in acquiring friendship with Fregley is in the eighth book Hard Luck, where he becomes friends with Fregley (though this was really to Greg's advantage to become popular).

Greg is also noted for having many attractions to girls throughout the series, most notably a girl named Holly Hills, his classmate. His schemes used throughout the series usually fail in the hope of attracting girls, though. One very notable example is The Third Wheel, where Greg attempts to use Rowley as a wingman to get himself a date for the upcoming Valentine's Day Dance. He succeeds in obtaining the chance to take a girl named Abigail Brown to the dance, but Rowley, who tags along as a third wheel, hence the name, proves to be a better date at the dance than Greg. This ultimately leads to Rowley and Abigail becoming a couple, setting the stage for Hard Luck. However, he never bothers to get to know them and seems to only want to be with them so he can become popular and brag to everyone about it.

Greg rarely learns from his ill-fated mistakes and continues to scheme and plot for his various goals. Because of this and his impulsive nature, he usually puts himself and others in trouble, and will often try to find another person to take the blame.

Greg technically has the Cheese Touch as the boys scream and ran away

Greg lies to protect Rowley, not caring about the consequences.

However, despite all this, Greg still has had his kind and caring moments, but not very frequently.

In Cabin Fever, he takes the blame over school vandalism, recognizing that he basically dragged Rowley into it.

He also stands up for Rowley as shown in the 2010 movie when he lied and told everyone that he ate the cheese, taking the blame for the green blobs on the school left by him and Rowley, and complimenting Rowley that he was a nice kid in Dog Days.

In the first live-action film, Greg's personality is similar to the books but comes out more unlikable. Greg says mostly the same things as the first book but worse as he constantly insults Rowley's interests, showing no remorse when he breaks his arm, and tries to change Rowley's personality. But Greg becomes more insecure as he changes at the end of the movie and becomes much nicer to Rowley in the next two films. In Rodrick Rules, Greg improves his relationship with Rodrick but maintains some of his personality from the books.

In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2021 film, Greg just seems like a normal kid just trying to survive middle school. The only bad things he does is lying to his mother and breaking Rowley's arm; however, he shows a lot more remorse for his actions than the previous adaptations, when in fact, Rowley is the unlikable one, not standing up for his friend when one of his fans punches him in the face, and gets shoved by a girl and also pretty much steals Zoo-Wee Mama! from Greg. Despite Rowley's awful treatment, Greg still gives up his school reputation just for him.

Appearance

Greg is typically portrayed wearing black shorts or pants, and occasionally opting for black jeans or, in his fantasies, a black tuxedo. He pairs these bottoms with a plain white shirt, and in his adult fantasies, he sports a thin mustache. Despite his father's attempts to encourage him to exercise, Greg remains skinny and shows little interest in working out, preferring to spend his time playing video games. He is always shown slouching at an 80° angle.

His facial features include a simple oval nose that stops near the first eye, and circular ears. His head is a bulbous circle, ending around his left eye. In The Last Straw, Greg mentions wearing contact lenses but resorts to his backup glasses when needed. A retainer, as mentioned in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, and headgear, as shown in The Ugly Truth, are also part of his accessories. He is almost always shown frowning.

Footwear-wise, Greg alternates between white shoes and black sandals, as depicted in Dog Days. In the book illustrations, he is portrayed with only three hair strands resembling a waterspout, maintaining a consistently bent-over appearance. However, in the live-action movies, he has dark brown hair and pale skin. Greg is visually slender and slightly shorter than Rowley, except in Dog Days where he is slightly taller than his friend.

Trivia

Birthday/Age

  • Greg is older than Rowley, as his birthday takes place during the summer, while Rowley's takes place sometime during early October (as mentioned in Rodrick Rules.)
    • There is some confusion surrounding the June dates of Dog Days. However, Greg's birthday is before Father's Day, and the latest possible day that Father's Day can be is June 21st, meaning that Greg is a Gemini.
  • Greg was born on February 23 in the online version.
  • Greg Heffley was created in 1998 by Jeff Kinney and was continuously developed until 2004.
  • In the live-action films, the characters do in fact age as Greg progresses through 6-8th grade of middle unlike the book series where they are set in a floating timeline.
    • There are mild exceptions to this rule in the books such as Seth Snella, who aged from two months to six months within the course of The Last Straw. According to the Class Clown short, the Dog Days film takes place in 2012, the year it is released, meaning the film version of Greg was born in 1998.
    • In the first movie script, Greg is revealed to be 12 years old.
    • In the online version, Greg is in the 7th grade.

Physical/Medical

  • In the first book, Greg said he is smaller than 90% of kids in his grade.
    • Given estimates made based off of illustrations of him, Greg Heffley is most likely between 4' 11" (149.86 cm) and 5' 1" (154.94 cm) tall. However, this is entirely conjecture, as his height has never been stated conclusively within the series.
  • He seems to have very high metabolism. It is shown in The Meltdown that he eats a lot of junk food and even cannot deliberately gain fat. He seems to be unable to gain muscle as well, as mentioned in Old School. This probably explains his skinny physique and small obesity. His metabolism is greatly shown in Hot Mess, where he end up eating a lot of food at a restaurant and gaining a lot of weight only to lose it not long after.
  • As what has been stated by Greg's creator, Jeff Kinney, Greg is drawn almost completely bald. Additionally, he slightly resembles Charlie Brown in Peanuts as well as Doug Funnie from Doug since all 3 of them have a few springs of hair.
  • In The Third Wheel, Greg claims to be able to recall his pre-birth and his newborn years accurately. This is almost certainly false as people aren't able to remember when they were born, much less before they were born.
  • Greg was born premature, as stated in The Third Wheel. He was only five pounds seven ounces at birth, which means he was likely born 3 weeks early.
  • Greg has very poor eyesight and normally wears contact-lenses. Though he temporarily wore thick glasses in "The Last Straw" when he lost a contact lens. He shares this trait with his mother, who was "practically blind" without her glasses in "Cabin Fever".
  • Greg is right-handed, as revealed in Double Down.
  • Greg has an innie belly button.
  • In Wrecking Ball, Greg reveals he is allergic to chickpeas.
  • The Ugly Truth mentions that Greg broke his wrist once.
  • Not long before Cabin Fever, Greg got his tonsils out.
  • In the first book, Greg is able to sing a soprano, which suggests he has a rather high-pitched voice. Also, in The Last Straw, when he called the limo service, the person on the phone called him "Ma'am."
  • Greg has a high voice in the first, second and fourth films, but in Dog Days his voice is huskier. This is due to his original actor, Zachary Gordon, hitting puberty and the fourth film doing a complete recast due to all the child actors inevitably growing up and aging.
  • In the The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, it is mentioned that he has a bite mark on the back of his leg, caused by Fregley, and a broken pinkie due to being slammed with a door by Manny.

Personality

  • On the internet, there has been debate regarding Greg's traits and behavior displaying sociopathic tendencies. According to the video "The Dark Truth of Diary of a Wimpy Kid", Greg has a total of 12 out of 13 traits. But Kinney has stated that Greg is more of an "Anti-Hero" than a sociopath.[5] Greg also shows hints of the 13th trait (A promiscuous nature) by being rather girl crazy at times, but obviously can't display this trait to its full potential due to being from a children's book series. This has caused people to believe he is a pervert or a simp.
  • He is known for manipulating others and using them as his right-hand men, such as Rowley, Christopher Brownfield, Frew, Fregley, etc. to do his deeds.
  • He is extremely gullible as he believes most lies Rodrick and Albert Sandy tell him, with very little or no doubt. This is especially evident in Double Down. A notable exception is The Meltdown, where he admits Albert Sandy says a lot of baloney.
  • Greg believes that he is the best person he knows. He also seems to be quite self-absorbed due to his thoughts about some people and how oblivious he is of his behavior sometimes.

School

  • Greg isn't very good at mathematics in general, including Algebra. This is especially evident in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid when Rowley mentions how he has a 95 in math and Greg has a 72. Once he got a C- on a math test. He also was failing Algebra when he mentioned he didn't want to fail Health too in one of the books as he would try to make sure the egg won't break in order to do so.
  • He often does not do any research when he does projects, instead guessing and making up facts for them due to him being lazy. This resulted in him failing both his Moose and Chimpanzee essays as well due to purposefully not researching and guessing and making up facts for them as his international showcase of Malta due to him forgetting about it until the due date.
  • Greg has been in detention 16 known times:
    • 1st Detention: For sleeping in class in The Last Straw.
    • 2nd Detention: For being disrespectful to the teacher in the Class Clown short.
    • 3rd Detention: For selling a fake elevator pass to a 6th grader. Greg himself bought the pass on his first day in middle school. This occurred in The Third Wheel.
    • 4th-13th Detentions: In The Meltdown, a substitute teacher taught at the school. Greg and his friends decided to prank him by switching their names. The boy who said his name was Greg Heffley started misbehaving. The substitute teacher told the principal that "Greg Heffley" had been misbehaving. This incident caused the real Greg to receive 10 detentions.
    • 14th-16th Detentions: Getting caught copying off Rowley's paper on a test, causing him three detentions, and to retake the test. This happens in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid.

Technology

  • In the second film when Greg finds out Manny put a cookie in his gaming console, it is shown it is an Xbox 360 Slim. In Dog Days, there are multiple times when Greg is seen playing a PlayStation Portable and an Xbox 360.
  • Greg is shown to be playing with a controller almost similar to the Nintendo 64 controller.
  • Greg owns a Ladybug in the Dog Days book and film. He occasionally borrows his mother’s phone such as in Hard Luck and Hot Mess. In the Long Haul film, it shows Greg owning an iPhone.
  • In the Rodrick Rules film, it is showed that Greg has a YouTube Channel named "amazinggregheffley".
  • In the book "The Ugly Truth", Greg is shown to have a social media account, possibly Twitter or Instagram due to having a bunch of pictures.
  • Greg has a Macbook, as shown in the movies and a Nintendo Switch in The Deep End.

Likes and Dislikes

  • Greg has watched soap operas, which he started doing after talking to Annette, a hairdresser in Bombshells Beauty Salon in Dog Days.
  • Greg's favorite color is blue, which was shown on a piece of paper in The Getaway.
  • It's also shown that Greg's favorite animal is dogs.
  • As shown in Diper Överlöde, Greg likes his steak medium rare.
  • In The Getaway, Greg is shown to have arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, and Greg once fainted after seeing crickets in a box. Usually, it is a childish habit of fainting at the sight of insects and arachnids, considering Greg may possibly have entomophobia.
  • Greg dislikes mayonnaise, as revealed in The Third Wheel and Old School.
    • This might have been retconned in Big Shot, where he says he's not going to eat anything with mayonnaise at Marconi's, implying that he normally likes it,
  • On page 88 in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it shows when he was young, he thought muscles were gross.
  • Greg is said to like Shrinky Dinks in Hard Luck, but it was Susan Heffley saying it, and since she doesn't know him that well, this may not be true.

Other

  • Greg is likely a Roman Catholic as evidenced by a priest being the leader of his church, his church having confessionals in the online version, and Jeff Kinney being a Catholic himself. Greg has been in Sunday School as stated in The Deep End.
  • Although not confirmed, Greg could likely have the inattentive type of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Due to his impulsive, forgetful, and careless nature. As well as the fact that Jeff Kinney mentioned that he has ADHD himself in a 2021 interview.
  • Despite being nearly a teenager, Greg still supposedly believes in Santa and is often paranoid about him. This may have been explained in the online version, as Rodrick said that he did not believe in Santa, and the only presents he got were from his parents, while Greg got the normal amount from Santa.
  • It is revealed in The Last Straw that Greg swears a lot, often swearing at school and even swearing in front of his toddler brother, Manny, and also using "made-up" swears along with Rodrick like "Raspberry Plastic Tickle Bear!", "Spooky Stork!", and etc.
  • None of the Wimpy Kid books' covers feature Greg smiling. However, the original Do-It-Yourself Book's cover has Greg smiling.
  • Greg is the least popular kid in school in the first film after he got beaten up by Patty in Wrestling Class, and in "The Wizard of Oz" play.
  • He is Grandpa's favorite out of Frank's three sons, as revealed in Rodrick Rules.
  • A character with a similar appearance to Greg has appeared in Igdoof several times.
  • At the beginning of Double Down, Greg has a strong belief that the world revolves around him. It is implied that Greg has undiagnosed Truman Show syndrome, which is a delusion disorder in which the person believes their lives are television shows.
  • Greg made an appearance in a Happy Meal Commercial created by McDonald's alongside with The Pig, Rodrick, Gammie, and Sweetie.
  • In the online version, Greg writes in his journal just to get out of doing chores.
  • Though Greg's head is usually shown in profile, the front of his head is shown in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, The Third Wheel and Class Clown and the back of his head in The Getaway, The Meltdown, Big Shot, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film) and the online book.
  • The real-life books that Greg has read include
    • The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
    • The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
    • The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
    • The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
    • Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  • Zachary Gordon was 11 years old during the production/filming of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid (2010), as principal photography started and completed in 2009, as Greg Heffley is in the first novel.
  • Susan Heffley has not once called him by his full name (Gregory Heffley) in the movies. However when she writes an article for the PTA she refers to him as Gregory.
  • In "The Meltdown" he states he is kind to the smart kids because they'll be the ones to save the world from climate messes, unlike bullies.

Quotes

See Greg Heffley/Quotes

Relationships

See Greg Heffley/Relationships

Gallery

See Greg Heffley/Gallery

External Links

Greg Heffley on Wikipedia

Greg Heffley at the Neutral Characters Wiki

Greg Heffley at the Disney Wiki

References

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