Characters

Aria Montgomery
Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) moves back to Rosewood with her mother Ella, father Byron, and younger brother Mike after an extended absence in Europe following Alison's disappearance. 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 Ella. As her family starts falling apart, Aria runs to Ezra's apartment to find him not there. After Ezra leaves, she becomes romantically involved with a student, Noel Kahn. As things turn out great between her and Noel, Ezra returns. Troubles arise as she is caught in a love triangle, with Noel and Ezra. She chooses Ezra and one night while kissing Ezra in his car, Noel sees this and blackmails Ezra for good grades. Once Aria discovers this, she cuts things off with Noel. In more recent episodes, Aria has been having trouble maintaining her relationship with Ezra a secret, especially after accidentally sending a romantic text to her mom meant for Ezra. In the latest episode, Aria leaves Ezra's apartment only to been seen by Garret who pays Ezra a visit and says, "Let's talk about one of your students..."

Hanna Marin
Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) has taken Alison's place as the most popular girl at Rosewood in Alison's absence. Previously chubby, Hanna became slimmer after Alison's disappearance, and now shoplifts. Rejected by her boyfriend, a distraught Hanna crashes his car into a tree, later working at a dentist's office to pay off her debt. In the mid-season finale, Hanna is hit by a car as she runs to tell the girls who "A" is. After recovering from the injuries, Hanna throws a party to find that someone had stolen from her house and that Lucas was the person who had destroyed Alison's memorial. Hanna has a hard time trying to accept the fact that Aria is seeing Ezra. She becomes closer with a known bad boy Caleb, and once discovering that he more or less lives in the school offers her basement to him. When Hanna's mother almost catches Caleb in their home, Hanna has to jump in a shower with him, making their relationship very awkward. However, they "solve" this problem by making out in the end of the episode. In the next episode, they start dating and this fact comes to her mother attention, who finds out that Caleb has been sleeping in the basement and kicks him out. Hanna goes with him to camp somewhere in the forest, and they bond, watching the campfire. Caleb tells her the truth about his father and later, they sleep together. Things afterward seem to be going perfect, however once discovering the real reason why Caleb was hanging around her - to spy on her for information for Jenna - she is infuriated and breaks up with him kicking him out of her house and refuses to talk to him.

Emily Fields
Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) is a competitive swimmer. She befriends Maya St. Germain, the new resident of Alison's former home. Maya introduces Emily to marijuana, and the girls grow closer. A message from "A" reveals Emily to be curious about her sexuality, and hints that she had kissed Alison in the past or had been in a relationship with Alison. Emily's mother invites Maya to stay for a while, and she and Emily share a room and a bed. Emily's boyfriend becomes possessive and almost forces her to have sex with him, but she is saved by Toby. Emily breaks up with her boyfriend and kisses Maya in a photo booth at a party; someone steals the photograph and makes copies. Emily goes with Toby to Homecoming, much to the shock of her friends, who believe Toby is dangerous. Emily begins to feel the same way, but Toby brings her to the hospital after she is knocked out trying to flee from him. Emily eventually pursues a relationship with Maya after Toby runs away. During the mid-season 1 premiere, she reveals to her father that she is gay. When the season started again, it is revealed that someone has sent those photos to her mother, presumably the infamous "A" making things "Sub-zero' between the two. Recently, after Maya was sent away by her parents, Emily has returned to the swim team but makes an enemy with competitive swimmer Paige who sees Emily as a threat. But one night Paige shows up in the pouring rain at Emily's front door and gives a tearful apology to Emily before taking off. From there on out things are more cooled between the two. In the episode "The New Normal", Emily is getting into her car and Paige abruptly appears, kisses her, and says "Don't tell", before running back to wherever she came from.

Spencer Hastings
Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) lives with her family's expectations looming over her head. Spencer's newly-engaged and condescending sister, Melissa, moves into the guest house which Spencer had been fixing up for herself. Spencer finds herself increasingly attracted to her sister's fiancé, Wren, whom "A" warns Spencer not to kiss or "A" will tell. Spencer and Wren do kiss and are caught by Melissa, who insists that Wren move out. Spencer starts dating a worker at the country club to which her family belongs, and later hides from her friends the news that her mother has breast cancer. Her field hockey coach is her sister's ex-boyfriend, Ian, who both Ali and Spencer had a crush on. Spencer and Ali were always competing. For example, Ali was on the Varsity team in 7th grade and Spencer wasn't. In the beginning of the series, Spencer was against Emily hanging out with Toby but eventually grew to like him and has been spending more and more time with him. In "A Person of Interest", they spend time together in a motel room, as seen as Spencer's parents have a hard time understanding her connection with Ali's murder. Spencer and Toby play scrabble, sleep in the same bed and eventually kiss near the end of the episode. In the following episodes, Spencer, after suspicion continues to take a toll on her, is told to stay away from Toby for her own good. She then makes an arrangement to see him in private at the town's festival, only to be sent a fake text (presumably from "A") telling her to meet Toby in the haunted house. When she enters, she is locked into a small space. She is found by Ian, her mother and her sister and when leaving she sees Toby and almost leaves without speaking to him, but she then rushes to him, hugs him and kisses him in front of her family.

Alison DiLaurentis
Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) was the former leader of Rosewood's premiere clique. Ruling the group with an iron fist, the vicious but charismatic Alison had gone missing during a slumber party; a year later, her disappearance was still unsolved. When Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily begin receiving threatening messages from "A" reminding them of their darkest secrets, they suspect that "A" is Alison, in whom they had all confided. But, Alison's body is soon discovered buried in her former backyard. It is revealed (by a video "A" sent the girls on Spencer's computer) that Alison may have had a relationship with Melissa's brand new husband, Ian, and that Ian might have been the one who killed her. It is revealed during a flashback that Ali and Emily kissed. Emily had strong feelings for Ali, but Alison didn't feel the same, saying, "I like boys, Emily. And trust me, if I'm kissing you, it's because I'm practicing for the real thing." She also pressured the girls into doing things, like going along with her when she exploded Toby's garage. Ali was also with Aria when she saw Meredith and Byron kissing. Alison comforted Hanna when Hanna binged on eating a whole pie. She said, "I can teach you how to make it go away" which meant that she taught Hanna how to make herself throw up. She taunted Lucas, and broke up Noel and his girlfriend, saying that she did it for Aria since she had a crush on him. "I only kill when we need food," she said. "Or when I'm bored."

"A"
"A" is the main antagonist in the series. From the opener, "A" sends messages to Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer taunting them about knowing all their secrets and plans to make their lives miserable, as Alison and they had made everyone else's lives miserable. At first, the girls suspected Alison as "A", but her corpse was unearthed in her backyard. The most possible suspect is Jenna Marshall, who was a victim of Alison's prank. With Jenna's vindictive tendencies, she could be "A". During the season 1 finale, while Ezra and Aria were in the car, Noel Kahn wrote "I see you" on the back of Ezra's car, prompting Hanna to believe Noel is "A". The girls continually think Noel was "A", possibly but "A" also went to great lengths to destroy any evidence, like cutting down a tree that had "Alison + Ian" carved on it. However, "A" has also done good things for the Liars, such as saving Ezra and Aria's relationship by framing Noel for cheating on midterms. Although "A" did some good, "A" decides to blackmail Hanna into doing things she doesn't want to do, like torture Lucas and almost ruin Aria and Ezra's relationship. In return, "A" gives her money, to help combat the financial difficulty that her and her mother are going through.

Acquaintances of Aria Montgomery
The following characters are all family members and acquaintances of Aria Montgomery, one of the protagonists of the series.

Ella Montgomery
Ella Montgomery (Holly Marie Combs) is Aria's stay-at-home mother. Ella unknowingly befriends Byron's former mistress, a student named Meredith. The relationship between Byron and Ella is strained after Ella reads a letter from "A" revealing Byron's affair.

Byron Montgomery
Byron Montgomery (Chad Lowe) is a history professor. Aria is aware that her father had cheated on Ella a year before; Byron regrets the affair, and Aria struggles with keeping the secret from her mother to protect her. Ella unknowingly befriends Byron's former mistress, a student named Meredith. The relationship between Byron and Ella is strained after Ella reads a letter from "A" revealing Byron's affair.

Mike Montgomery
Mike Montgomery (Cody Christian) is Aria's younger brother who has some anger issues. He doesn't want to admit that he knows about his father's affair and when his mother finds out, Mike completely goes into an anger spiral.

Ezra Fitz
Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) is the new English teacher in Rosewood who becomes romantically involved with Aria the day before she appears in his class. They try to resist their attraction, but fail. Their relationship is discovered by Noel Khan who writes 'I See You' on the windshield of Ezra's car and he is later blackmailed by Noel for a better grade in the class.

Noel Kahn
Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) plays the guitar and is one of Sean's friends and Aria's crush before Ezra. After Ezra leaves Aria, Noel steps in to comfort her. Hanna and Sean decide to go on a double date with Noel and Aria, where Noel tells her that he has feelings for her and that he will keep his options open. Finally, he asks Aria out on a date, and she accepts. When Hanna's memory is recollected after she is in an accident, she tells the girls that she believes Noel is the mysterious "A".

Meredith Sorenson
Meredith Sorenson (Amanda Schull) was the mistress of Byron Montgomery. Aria and Alison witnessed Meredith and Byron kissing passionately in Byron's car. Byron and Meredith started living together after Byron and Ella decided to divorce.

Simone
Simone (Alona Tal) was Aria's babysitter, she became a journalist in New York. She flirted with Ezra Fitz, but he was not interested because he loved Aria too much.

Acquaintances of Hanna Marin
The following characters are all family members and acquaintances of Hanna Marin, one of the protagonists of the series.

Ashley Marin
Ashley Marin (Laura Leighton) is Hanna's workaholic mother, who is raising her daughter on her own. Abandoned by Hanna's father, Ashley recognizes Hanna's wild behavior as a cry for attention. Warning her daughter that any indiscretion in their small town can humiliate them, Ashley avoids Hanna being charged for shoplifting by sleeping with the arresting officer. Even though Hanna's father and she are no longer together, Ashley longs to get him back. When Ashley finds that she and Hanna are in debt she steals money from a client at the bank she works for telling Hanna that she is going to replace it by the end of the year; the money is later stolen by "A" at a party at Hanna's house thrown by Mona.

Tom Marin
Tom Marin (Roark Critchlow) is Hanna's father. He left hanna and her mother after Allison's death and is now engaged to a woman named Isabel.

Sean Ackard
Sean Ackard (Chuck Hittinger) was originally Hanna's crush before Alison disappeared, back when Hanna was still, "Hefty Hanna". They began dating sometime after her disappearance. Hanna's anger and embarrassment at Sean's refusal to have sex drives her to steal his car and ultimately crash it. Sean forgives Hanna and reveals that he is a member of the virginity club RLW, "Real Love Waits." Hanna and Sean get back together, but nothing is ever the same with them. After the mid-season finale, Sean gets into an intense fight with Lucas when Lucas thinks she deserves a better boyfriend. Sean later breaks up with Hanna after she dances with Lucas.

Lucas Gottesman
Lucas Gottesman (Brendan Robinson) is a social outcast who begins to form a friendship with Hanna, for whom he secretly had feelings for until they were revealed while he was visiting Hanna in the hospital after her accident. Lucas tells Hanna that it was him who destroyed one of the memorials dedicated to Ali as a result of anger of all the things Ali had done to him in junior high. Despite her anger with him, Hanna keeps his secret, and still wants to be friends with him. At Hanna's party, Lucas picks a fight with Sean after seeing Hanna with him. Later in the season at the school dance, "A" forces Hanna to torture Lucas by dancing with him making him express his feelings to her, to once again be denied. Emily eventually confronts Hanna about messing with Lucas, but Hanna tries to plead about how she doesn't want to ever hurt Lucas.

Mona Vanderwaal
Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) is a former social outcast who longed to be accepted into Alison's group. In the year since Alison's disappearance, Mona has transformed herself into a popular social leader alongside Hanna. Mona is also afraid when Hanna suddenly acts strange, and insists that she stop before they both become unpopular again. Hanna will always still be friends with Mona, but now is best friends with Aria, Emily, and Spencer, who all went their separate ways after Alison's disappearance.

Caleb Rivers
Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn), a 'bad boy' and Hanna's love interest. He is currently staying in Hanna's basement when the school finds out that he had been living there. He is also the boy to whom Hanna lost her virginity. He left Hanna's home once she found out he had been spying on her for Jenna although he does have feelings for her and quit the job once he realized it.

Darren Wilden
Darren Wilden (Bryce Johnson) was the detective investigating Ali's murder, who continually questions the girls and takes advantage of Hanna's mother. He leaves the case when Veronica Hastings finds him question the four girls, who are all minors, without an adult present, and threatens to get him kicked of the force.

Acquaintances of Emily Fields
The following characters are all family members and acquaintances of Emily Fields, one of the protagonists of the series.

Pam Fields
Pam Fields (Nia Peeples) is Emily's mother, who has a hard time accepting Maya and Emily's relationship. She goes through Maya's backpack and finds joints. She then asks Emily if she's stoned, which she isn't. One night after having dinner with her family and Maya, Emily thanks her mother for being supportive and accepting her sexuality, Pam says that she's "not okay with it" and the "whole thing disgusts me." She shows the drugs to Maya's parents, and she gets sent to juvie. Emily says it won't change the way she feels about Maya but Pam says she is disappointed in her. Emily responds to her by saying "for the first time in my life, I am ashamed that you are my mother."

Wayne Fields
Wayne Fields (Eric Steinberg) is Emily's father, currently stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. He came home on leave to meet Maya for the first time. He was at first against Emily and Maya's relationship, but he never stopped loving Emily and tolerated it for her sake. After a few weeks, he gets called back to active duty.

Toby Cavanaugh
Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) is Jenna's stepbrother. Ali had planned getting rid of Toby with a stinkbomb to the garage, but he and Jenna were having sexual relations at the time, so it ended up blinding Jenna; he knows the girls were behind it, but took the blame when Ali threatened to reveal that he was having sexual relations with Jenna. He is interested in Emily and attempts to get closer to her, saving her from near rape by her boyfriend Ben. At homecoming, Emily gets a text from her friends saying Toby was Ali's murderer. She runs away, injuring herself and Toby. Toby drives her to the hospital, leaving immediately afterwards. The police find his wrecked motorcycle. In the August 10, 2010 summer finale episode "Keep Your Friends Close", Toby is unfairly arrested for Alison's murder. Soon after, the district attorney drops charges on Toby because of corrupted blood evidence. Until further evidence can be found against him, Toby is free from conviction. He becomes close to Spencer during this time because both of them suspect that they were being framed by "A". Emily tries to reenact their friendship and interest but steps back when she realizes Spencer was interested in Toby also and lets Spencer have Toby. Toby and Spencer end up sleeping in bed together and kissing. Spencer then ignores her parents' warning to stay away from Toby and kisses him in front of her mother.

Ben Coogan
Ben Coogan (Steven Krueger) is Emily's boyfriend at the beginning of Season 1. She begins to avoid him as she develops feelings for Maya.

Maya St. Germain
Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson) is Emily's girlfriend. They have very strong feelings for each other; Emily is drawn to Maya, no matter what her parents say. Emily goes out with Toby Cavanaugh but goes back to Maya when he runs away. After Emily's mother found marijuana in Maya's backpack, she calls Maya's family and the police arrest her for drug possession, and was sent away to a religious camp called "True North" for three months. Before she left, the girls arranged Emily and Maya to meet at Spencer's house for a tearful get-together. When Emily tries to contact Maya at True North she reaches her director who will not let them communicate. But Emily gets Caleb to mess with her phone, so they can now talk to each other.

Paige McCullers
Paige McCullers (Lindsey Shaw) took over as captain of the swim team in Emily's absence. She becomes jealous that Emily is attempting to take her spot as captain and bashes her with gay slander. When she realizes the error of her way, she apologizes to Emily in the middle of the night, having an accident right after. After her father comes to the school to complain about the injustice that Paige is getting, Paige admits to Emily that her life isn't easy either: she is gay as well. Paige kisses Emily in a car and asks her not to tell, leaving Emily shocked. They secretly start going out but once Emily realizes that Paige is not willing to come out, she says to stay friends.

Acquaintances of Spencer Hastings
The following characters are all family members and acquaintances of Spencer Hastings, one of the protagonists of the series.

Peter Hastings
Peter Hastings (Nolan North) is Spencer and Melissa's father who is all about winning, and being the best. The picture perfect life, with the not so picture perfect daughter.

Veronica Hastings
Veronica Hastings (Lesley Fera) is Spencer's and Melissa's mother. In "The Perfect Storm" spencer discovers her mother had breast cancer and was keeping it a secret from the reat ofthe family because their, "family doesn't handle imperfections well."

Melissa Hastings
Melissa Hastings Thomas (Torrey DeVitto) is Spencer's older sister, who was engaged to Wren. Melissa is the family's "perfect child", and treats Spencer cruelly. When she catches Wren kissing Spencer, she demands he move out. When her previous boyfriend, Ian, returns, she is reluctant to see him, but they end up happily eloping in the winter premiere "Moments Later". They also quietly marry, much to Spencer and her mother's shock. It is revealed in "Know Your Frenemies" that she is trying to get pregnant with Ian. It was supposed to be kept a secret but Spencer saw an ovulation kit belonging to Melissa. When Spencer asks why she wants to be pregnant, Melissa says she always wanted a big family. However, she never mentioned this in her life. She also said that winning and getting her way wasn't important to her anymore, even though Spencer said "but you wanted those things last WEEK!" Spencer promises to keep the secret, but she tells Hanna when they're at school. Melissa then gets pregnant which worries her sister. In the season one finale, Spencer and Melissa get into a car crash, and doctors are unsure of whether or not Melissa's baby will survive.

Ian Thomas
Ian Thomas (Ryan Merriman) is Melissa Hastings's former boyfriend, who had kissed Spencer. He elopes with Melissa in the mid-season 1 premiere. He also cheated on Melissa with Alison, when she was still alive. He was in a video shot by Alison before she went missing. "A" managed to show the girls the entire video of Ian apparently choking Alison to death. In the season finale he is killed on top of the church bell tower by "A". However, when the police go in to retrieve the body, his corpse is nowhere to be found.

Wren Kim
Wren Kim (Julian Morris) is engaged to Melissa until he develops feelings for Spencer. Melissa calls off the engagement and kicks Wren out when she catches him kissing Spencer. He then apologizes to Spencer for making a mess with her and Melissa, and tells Spencer that he wishes that he met her first.

Alexander 'Alex' Santiago
Alex Santiago (Diego Boneta) was Spencer's new love interest, who works at her family's country club. Spencer asks Alex to homecoming, but ignores him most of the night, and Alex leaves early after Melissa tells him that Spencer only invited him to anger their father. Alex eventually forgives her, and they continue their relationship. Later in the series a friend of his from the country club gave him a brochure for a tennis clinic in Sweden where almost everyone who enters it gets to play in the Swedish Open. When he tells this to Spencer, she persuades him to go but he declines because he's not interested in playing pro instead he would rather work and earn up for college. "A" used the situation to drive a wedge between him and Spencer; he walks out on her after Hanna's homecoming party.

Acquaintances of Alison DiLaurentis
The following characters are all family members and acquaintances of Alison DiLaurentis, one of the protagonists of the series.

Jason DiLaurentis
Jason DiLaurentis (Parker Bagley) is Alison's brother who is somewhat creepy, and keeps secrets. In If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again it is revealed he used to smoke pot, and hang out with Ian Thomas during the summer.

Jessica DiLaurentis
Jessica DiLaurentis is Alison's mother, she appeared in the first episode when Alison's body was found.

Kenneth DiLaurentis
Kenneth DiLaurentis is Alison's father.

Jenna Marshall
Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) is Toby's younger stepsister, Jenna lost her sight due to a prank played by Alison, intended for Toby. The girls suspect Jenna to be the mysterious "A." During season 1 she was revealed to have a sexual relationship with Toby prior to losing her sight. Toby is her stepbrother. Jenna's vindictive nature doesn't end with the girls, but also Toby as well, for trying to inadvertently assist them. In the episode "The New Normal", Toby reveals that Jenna was actually scared of Alison and her posse even though she was always putting up an intimidating face. In Someone to Watch Over Me she ask Cabel to get hacked Hannah's phone, but he did not that as he download 'junk', but Hannah found out and broken up with him. Later in the bathroom she slaps her across the face so badly her glasses come off.