Autistic representation in fiction

From ActuallyAutistic Wiki

I think this could be better organized by media type --Fire Eider (talk) 13:18, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

General Discussion

Animation

  • Marcy Wu - Amphibia - (semi-canon? When a fan brought it up to the show creator, with the supporting opinion of psychologist friends, he said he would “default to you and your trained colleagues on this one.”)
  • Manny Rivera/El Tigre - El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera - (canon)
  • Billy - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy - (canon)
  • Grim Reaper - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy - (canon)
  • Mandy - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy - (canon)
  • Max Jerry Horowitz - Mary and Max - (canon)
  • Entrapta - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - (confirmed by showrunner ND Stevenson)

Books

  • Christopher Boone - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (canon)
  • Astra Ordott - The Gaia Chronicles (canon)
  • Harriet Manners - Geek Girl series (canon)
  • Denise - On the Edge of Gone (canon)
  • Harvey Cunningham - Origami Yoda series (canon)
  • Dwight Tharp - Origami Yoda series (canon)
  • Blackwolf - Soon I Will Be Invincible - (canon)

Games

  • Brigid Tenenbaum - BioShock (canon)
  • Simone Cole - Clive Barker's Jericho (canon)
  • Symmetra - Overwatch (canon)
  • Murky - Pathologic (canon)
  • Ibushi Gin - Your Turn to Die (canon)

Movies

  • Elle Woods - Legally Blonde - (fan theory [1])
  • Wendy - Please Stand By - (canon)
  • Raymond Babbitt - Rain Man - (canon)

Plays

  • Christopher Boone - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (canon)

Television

  • Gary Bell - Alphas - (canon)
  • Sam Gardner - Atypical - (canon)
  • Dr. Temperance Brennan - Bones - (never said in canon, but creator said she was based off someone they knew IRL who is autistic)
  • Abed Nadir - Community - (canon)
  • Spencer Reid - Criminal Minds - (not confirmed canon aside from actor who plays him)
  • Daria - Daria - (coded)
  • Fiona Helbron - Elementary - (canon)
  • Kevin Blake - Eureka - (canon - He was "cured" when an alternate timeline was created. Autistic people... were not thrilled with that outcome)
  • Drea - Everything's Gonna Be Okay - (canon)
  • Matilda Moss - Everything's Gonna Be Okay - (canon)
  • Nicholas Moss - Everything's Gonna Be Okay - (canon)
  • Woo Young Woo - Extraordinary Attorney Woo - (canon)
  • Will Graham - Hannibal - (in the first episode, he is said to be somewhere on the autism spectrum)
  • Rufus Whedon - Locke & Key
  • Charles Hayden-Savage - Only Murders in the Building - (coded)
  • Julia - Sesame Street - (canon)
  • Lieutenant Commander Data - Star Trek: The Next Generation - (Probably best classified as "accidentally autistic". He has autistic traits and many autistic people see themselves represented in Data, but it seems that the writers of the show did not intentionally write him as autistic. Brent Spiner, the actor who plays Data, said in an interview that he was glad that he didn't know Data to be autistic, because he was afraid that he would have pushed the writers to write him in a certain way, which "could have ruined the entire thing".[2])
  • Lieutenant Commander Spock - Star Trek: The Original Series (and more) - (Another character that is probably best classified as "accidentally autistic". While not explicitly written as such Template:Citation needed, many autistic people see themselves represented by Spock.)
  • Zach - Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Some of my favourite autistic-coded fictional queer women

  • Robin Buckley - Stranger Things (coded but not officially canon)
  • Jillian Holtzmann - Ghostbusters (coded but not officially canon)
  • Janine Kishi - The Baby-sitters Club (coded but not officially canon)

References