Degrassi/Characters/Graduating Class of Season 5

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Jimmy Brooks and Gavin "Spinner" Mason graduated with the Class of Season 7. Jimmy lost a year due to rehab from the shooting and Spinner lost a year due to being expelled. Ashley Kerwin would have graduated with the class of Season 7 after she spent a year in England, but she left school early to tour with Craig.

Ashley Kerwin

Ashley Kerwin (Seasons 1-7)

Played by Melissa McIntyre

“You take everything so seriously...just lighten up.”

Ashley was the most popular girl at Degrassi and was class president. But after she experimented with ecstasy and revealed her true feelings in regards to the popular crowd, she was outcast. She changes her look dramatically to a Goth style to go along with her new friend Ellie in season 2. She also meets Craig Manning in season 2 and they start a relationship. However in season 3, Ashley is cheated on by Craig to which she finds it hard to forgive him until he writes a song for her. Ashley tends to be very melodramatic and uptight compared to her peers, a point stressed in "I Want Candy." She also is a very creative person and is a good musician. She leaves Degrassi in order to pursue a music career in London in season 7.

Ellie Nash

Eleanor "Ellie" Nash (Season 2-8)

Played by Stacey Farber

“I go for cool, alternative girls like Ellie Nash.”

Snarky, world-weary Goth/Emo Girl introduced in season 2 who carries a lot of hurt. She first turned heads at Degrassi with her alternative fashion. Her father is away in the Peace Corps and her mother is an neglectful alcoholic. In season 3, she starts cutting her arms to distract herself from her home life. While she has recovered, her self-injury mentality has latched onto other aspects of her life as she seemingly puts herself into situations where she knows there's a likelihood she'll be hurt. She also has trust issues due to being burned, from her family to her boyfriends (namely Sean). She has an interest in writing and journalism and in season 7, she is made the editor of the college's newspaper. She has had a tumultuous relationship with Craig, who she has been crushing on for two years before finally wrapping up the ordeal for good in The Movie.

Paige Michalchuck

Paige Michalchuck (Seasons 1-8)

Played by Lauren Collins

“You're still the same insecure girl that you've always been!”

The sharp-tongued young girl who was gunning for Ashley's top popularity spot since season one. She is smart, funny and wouldn't hesitate stepping over others to get to her goals. She can be very cutting with her insults and attitude and she was the primary reason Ashley was outcast in season 2. She is date raped at a party and traumatized until she finally tells Ashley about the rape. After the incident, she starts to open up some to others and tone down her meanness, along with dating Spinner until season 4. In season 5, she begins a relationship with Alex Nunez, a former girl bully and explores her sexuality. In season 6, she has a complete breakdown at Banting University, which is the start of her downward slide which lasted all the way to The Movie in which she's actually picked to be the star of Jason Mewes' movie and goes on a power trip until she comes crashing down back to Earth and in the process loses Marco as a friend.

Spinner Mason

Gavin "Spinner" Mason (Seasons 1-9)

Played by Shane Kippel

“...I have my job, my loft, my band, Jane so staying [in Toronto] was just...me.”

Spinner was Degrassi's school bully and friend to Jimmy Brooks. As the years went by, his bully reputation went away and he became a lot sweeter, if not more intelligent. However, in season 4, he, along with Jay bullied Rick Murray to extremes. Rick then brought a gun to school and shot Jimmy, under a pretense fueled by Spinner that it was Jimmy who was behind an embarrassing prank. When the truth came out, Spinner was immediately outcast and was held back a year after being expelled for his role in the bullying. Jimmy disowned him as a friend and during season five, it took a long time for Spinner to find his way back in his former friend's good graces. Spinner is also a testicular cancer survivor and after he graduated (and rejection from police college), he stayed around in the Degrassi neighborhood helping the new class of Degrassi students and worked at The Dot. In season 9, he marries Emma Nelson after a drunk accidental marriage. No, really.

Jimmy Brooks

Jimmy Brooks (Seasons 1-8)

Played by Aubrey "Drake" Graham

“How do you know what I mean? Are you in a chair? Huh? Do you wake up every morning thinking you can walk and then remembering you can never ever walk again?!”

Jimmy was a great basketball player at Degrassi and had a bright future as a pro, until he was shot in a school shooting and was paralyzed from the waist down. He spent much of the time afterward re-adjusting to his new life as a disabled person, whilst lamenting over the loss of his athletic dreams and ever walking again. He is best friends with Spinner, and even forgave him for essentially putting him in the chair, though it did take a while for Jimmy to stop being resentful. Jimmy is a very nice guy, but as Sean and Spinner can attest to, he has a mean streak a mile wide. He meets and falls in love with a disabled girl named Trina and he proposes to her in season 8.

Craig Manning

Craig Manning (Seasons 2-8)

Played by Jake Epstein

“Ninety percent of my issues in life: girls, girls, girls.”

Craig Manning has had a difficult life. His mother died when he was young. His father physically abused him, which was eventually found out and he went to live with Joey Jeremiah and his half-sister. And then his father was killed in a car accident. And then he cheated on his girlfriend Ashley and got a girl pregnant. And then he developed bipolar disorder. Despite his hardships, he is still an affable young man with a weakness for girls. He has had more romantic drama than possibly any other character on the show past or present, much of it due to his lack of commitment. He is a talented musician and starts his own band with Jimmy, Marco, Spinner and later Ellie named Downtown Sasquatch. In season 5, he leaves Toronto to pursue a music career. And then later gets a coke addiction. However, in season 8 he's gone through rehab, and he is clean with a new girlfriend, and living his life in Los Angeles.

Marco Del Rossi

Marco Del Rossi (Seasons 2-8)

Played by Adamo Ruggiero

“Pa, it's taken me seventeen years to say it...I'm gay. I'm totally gay!”

Introduced in season 2 as the first gay student known at Degrassi. In his time at Degrassi, he came to terms with his sexuality, told his parents (his mom was accepting, his father not so much at first), and even got a boyfriend, Paige's brother Dylan. After he graduated and Dylan left the country, he went through the motions of dealing with a long distance relationship (and later breakup) and dealing with being alone. Marco can be very neurotic and clingy, but he is still a dependable and caring friend and a leader, and few students at Degrassi hate him save for homophobic Linus of the Friendship Club. As of season 9, he is training as a student teacher and even started out his training at Degrassi.

Marco: "I can't be what you want."
Ellie: "Can't, or won't?"

Jay Hogart

Jason "Jay" Hogart (Seasons 3-9)

Played by Mike Lobel

“This guy, he's nasty. He tastes like fire, rubs people the wrong way. This guy here; sweet, refreshing. But when these two get together...bad news.”

A bad boy at Degrassi. Unlike his best friend Sean, he lives up to his reputation and during the show's run, he engages in many illegal activities, drug use, and "corrupts" several Degrassi characters from Spinner to Darcy. Beneath the criminal exterior, Jay is a nice, sensitive and smart guy. He is also very resourceful and a good mechanic. In season 7, he starts seeing Manny Santos and in The Movie, they finally become a couple.

Alex Nunez

Alexandra "Alex" Nunez (Seasons 3-7)

Played by Deanna Casaluce

“Jay, I'm not bi, I'm not confused. I'm a lesbian. An actual lesbian. Who just broke up with her first girlfriend and it sucks.”

Alex is a girl who hurts a lot inside. One of the outcasts at Degrassi, she has a very tough exterior and attitude. But inside, she is very caring, vulnerable and soft. Her mother has bad luck with love and gets abused, and she has spent time living in a women's shelter with her mom due to their poverty. Paige Michalchuk is her first true love and the first person to break down her walls and she finally admitted to herself that she was a lesbian. Due to this relationship, she begins to believe in herself more and starts taking her life more seriously. Unfortunately, in season 7 she and Paige had a cataclysmic breakup and she took a bus to Ajax for a new start.

Hazel Aden

Hazel Aden (Seasons 1-5)

Played by Andrea Lewis

“Does Paige need you to lick her boots before she goes out?”

Paige's right-hand girl from seasons 1-5. That's basically it for Hazel, she had one significant episode in season 2 regarding racism and anti-Muslim sentiment. Other than that, she is Paige's shadow, a fact that is pointed out a few times by other characters. She dated Jimmy Brooks from seasons 3 to 5.

Terri Mc Greggor

Theresa 'Terri' McGreggor (Seasons 1-3)

Played by Christina Schmidt

“Most girls on the planet look like this, so get used to it!...I made 500 bucks today as a plus size model today...what did you make, ice cream boy?”

An insecure, overweight girl. Both Ashley and Paige's strong personalities completely dominated hers to the point to where she really could not stand up to them. In season 2, she aligns herself with Paige due to Ashley falling out of favor with the popular crowd. In season 3, she dates Rick Murrary who in turn, abuses her and puts her in a coma and later she transfers from Degrassi in order to get away from Rick.

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