Aria Montgomery

Aria Yolanda Montgomery moves back to Rosewood with her mother Ella, her father Byron, and her younger brother Mike after an extended absence in Europe. Aria begins a romance with a man who turns out to be her new English teacher, Ezra Fitz. She immediately receives a message from "A" taunting her about the secret romance. Aria and Ezra struggle with the forbidden nature of their relationship as Aria is tormented by keeping the secret of her father's past affair from her mother. As she decides what to do with the information, she finds that "A" has beaten her to it in a tell-all letter to her mother.

She is portrayed by Lucy Hale.

The TV series
The series begins with a flashback in a barn where four girls Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily are having a sleepover; they are surprised by their best friend and queen bee Alison, who frightens them by causing creaking noises outside the barn as a practical joke. The five girls gossip and share secrets before falling asleep. When they awake they realize that two of the girls are gone, they run into Spencer who tells them Alison is missing and that she heard a scream.

One year later and Aria and her family have returned home to Rosewood after a year of living in Iceland. Aria still feels troubled over her best friend’s disappearance which concerns both her parents who encourage her to reconnect with her old friends. Aria sees through her dad's concerns however and reassures him that she is still keeping his secret. She drops her brother of at lacrosse and stops off at a Bar and Grill, where she meets a man named Ezra, who mistakes her for a college girl and informs her that he will soon be starting a new teaching post. The two feel an instant connection and end up kissing in the bathrooms.

In a conversation with her father, we see flashbacks of Aria and Alison catching her dad making out with another woman in the back of his car. Aria begins to reunite with her old friends, mainly Emily at school and discovers that Ezra is in fact her new English teacher, Mr Fitz. After an awkward moment Aria receives a text message from an unknown "A" which reads "Aria: Maybe he fools around with students all the time. A lot of teachers do. Just ask your dad. -A". Aria attempts to continue her relationship with Mr Fitz but he rejects her telling her everything has changed, however they rekindle their romance at Alison’s funeral, which is held after her body is discovered under her swimming pool. Aria meets up with Emily and in turn Hanna and Spencer at the funeral, and they reveal that each have received a message from the mysterious A. The police now reveal that the girls need questioning again as they are now looking at a murder case, before they each receive a text. "I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A".

Aria and her friends continue to be tormented by the anonymous "A", who seems to know all the secrets they told Alison, including the secret surrounding a mysterious blind girl called Jenna Cavanaugh. When Jenna joins them at their lunch table her presence triggers a flashback to the night of the unknown "The Jenna Thing". The four girls and Alison are having a sleep over and trying one each others clothes when Alison claims to have seen Toby Cavanaugh spying on them through her window. To get revenge Alison and the girls plant a stink bomb in his house. However it causes the garage to explode, presumably causing Jenna to lose her sight, a fact that Jenna seems determined to hang over their heads.

Aria continues her illicit affair with Mr Fitz, while trying to come to terms with her father’s own affair. "A" continues to taunt the girls in every aspect of their lives, they try to block them out of their lives but "A" appears too smart, even breaking into Spencer’s house and ends up sending a detailed letter to Aria’s mother Ella telling of her husband’s affair which leaves Ella devastated and Aria guilty for keeping it from her.

A meeting with an old college friend of Ezra’s as well as an untimely message from "A" brings home the reality of his relationship with Aria and he eventually ends it at their school homecoming. After which he leaves Rosewood and Aria discovers he has gone to New York to look for another job.

Aria's parents argued and eventually separated over her father’s affair, with her mom moving out of the house and into an apartment above her art gallery. Noel Kahn, a boy Aria used to have a crush on, asks her out. She declines at first but eventually accepts when the school’s SATs are canceled and they have to take shelter due to a hurricane warning in which Mr Fitz makes his return and tells Aria that she was all he thought about. At Mona's "glamping" party Mr Fitz texts Aria to meet him near the party in his car. She does so and the two eventually end up kissing, this is spotted by Hanna who has been surveying the area with binoculars, to attempt to spot who "A" is. She apparently does but before she can tell others, Hanna is hit by a car, and Aria reads a text from "A" who tells the remaining girls that "She knew too much. -A".

Aria finds a message on Ezra's car where they made out saying "I see you." Aria, Spencer, and Emily visited Hanna at the hospital. Hanna says that Noel is "A," but Aria refuses to accept that a guy she knows and crushed on could be doing this. She asked him where he was the night before, but he lied and said he was with his best friend. Eventually, Noel admits he saw Aria making out with Ezra Fitz, and wrote on the car. Noel thinks Ezra raped Aria, and offers to help her tell the police. But Aria makes him promise not to tell anyone. Ezra told her later that Noel blackmailed him to get a better grade on an essay, but when Aria confronted him about it, he denied it and said he was just asking Ezra to look it over again.

Ezra Fitz

 * Started: Pilot
 * Ended: Reality Bites Me
 * Reason: Ezra thought that Aria was telling people about their affair
 * Started back up: Keep Your Friends Close
 * Reason: Ezra feels like a jerk to Aria, and asks her to forgive him.

Noel Kahn

 * Started: Please Do Talk About Me When I'm Gone
 * Ended: Moments Later
 * Reason: Aria realises that she has stronger feelings for Ezra Fitz.