Alex Russo

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Alex Russo
Wizards of Waverly Place character
First appearance	"Crazy 10-Minute Sale" 1x01, October 12, 2007
Last appearance	"Who Will Be The Family Wizard" 4x27, January 6, 2012
Created by	Todd J. Greenwald
Portrayed by	Selena Gomez
Information
Nickname(s)	Alex (by everyone) Lexie (by her maternal grandmother) Russo (by Dean) Brown Eyes, Little Meatball, Love (by Mason) Moxie Finkle (herself and the Finkles)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Waitress (at the Waverly Sub Station) Tribeca Prep Student (graduated; seasons 1 - 4) Wizards Delinquent Teacher's Assistant (season 4) Russo Family Wizard (series finale-onwards)
Family	Jerry Russo (father) Theresa Russo (mother) Justin Russo (brother) Max Russo (brother)
Significant other(s)	Riley (season 1) Dean Moriarty (season 2) Mason Greyback (seasons 3-present)
Relatives	Hank Russo (paternal grandfather) Rose Russo (paternal grandmother) Kelbo Russo (paternal uncle) Megan Brooke Russo (paternal aunt) Trevor, Graeme and Kim Russo (paternal cousins; all male) Magdelena Larkin (maternal grandmother) Ernesto Larkin (maternal uncle) Janieve Larkin (maternal uncle)

Alexandra "Alex" Margarita Russo^[1] is the main protagonist of the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, portrayed by Selena Gomez.^[2] As the middle child and only daughter, she is sly, outgoing, and sometimes rude to her family and friends. Alex usually underachieves when it comes to school and wizard training. She often gets into trouble because of her constant schemes (usually involving magic).

Alex is smart but not hardworking, much to the dismay of her older brother, Justin. Alex became a full wizard in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie but later makes a wish through the Stone of Dreams to turn back time which, in turn, made her a student again. In the series finale when Justin wins, he reveals that Alex would have won but she helped him because he got stuck. Alex then becomes the Russo family wizard, keeping her powers, as does Justin for becoming the new Headmaster of WizTech.

In 2008, despite the character being classified as a wizard in all official material, AOL named her the twentieth greatest witch in television history.^[3] Selena Gomez, who portrays Alex, is one of the only two cast members to appear in every single episode of the series to date; the only other cast member to do so is David Henrie, who portrays Justin Russo. The character has also appeared in The Suite Life on Deck.

Personality

Alex is the middle and the only female child of the Russos. She often argues and insults her older brother, Justin Russo, though it is later revealed that she does so because she admires him and wishes to be like him. He is kind and smart. It is later revealed that the reason that she acts mean is simply because she wants to be liked and actually fears being hated. She can be rude to her family sometimes but at the end, everything goes alright.

Alex can be very sneaky and tricky.^[4] Her best friend since childhood is Harper Finkle (Jennifer Stone), who mostly tries to keep her out of trouble, and is also her voice of wisdom. Alex later says that Harper is like a sister to her.

Though Alex likes tormenting Justin, the two share a close bond that neither seem to have with any other character on the show. Alex often uses magic to solve her problems, which frequently ends up causing more problems than she began with. Alex underachieves when it comes to high school, however, she excels greatly at Art. Art is her favorite school subject and is pretty much the only class she takes seriously, being the best in it, and even being the co-art teacher at one point.^[5][6]

Alex and Justin act as foils, as the two are near-polar opposites; Justin is responsible and fair in judgment, though easily insecure at Alex's great magical feats. Alex is lazy, carefree, sarcastic, stubborn, and biased when it comes to herself or others. She feels insecure when seeing Justin accomplish much with his hard work and responsibility. In the film, Alex says that Justin was everything she ever wanted to be while Justin responds, saying that he is jealous of how everything comes easy to her, especially magic, which is why he strives so hard to be perfect.

Positive qualities

Despite her flaws, Alex is far from heartless and has numerous instances of generosity, loyalty, and compassion. Her actions and pranks are typically free of any malice. She deeply cares for Harper, going as far as to reveal her secret to her in "Harper Knows" out of guilt for lying. She also loves Justin dearly despite their constant antagonism. Alex feels remorse and guilt for her actions and has apologized and taken responsibility for them. At times, she often goes out of her way to set things right whenever her disregard for the consequences directly affect her friends and/or family. Though these instances are rare, Alex does occasionally use magic with good intentions. Alex has a strong sense of justice and hates "fake" people. In Season 3, Alex is rarely the source of magical problems, instead often being the one to solve them, though she is still always the first to blame when magic causes a situation to go haywire. Alex later begins dating Mason (Gregg Sulkin), a werewolf she falls in love with. She quits the wizard competition and becomes mortal after deciding that there is no way she could win. However, this action puts her relationship with Mason against wizard law, since she is a mortal and he is not. Therefore, Alex decides not to give up the competition so that she and Mason can be together. Alex is named Wizard of the Year for saving the wizard world from the angels of darkness, which also puts her back in the wizard competition. When a misunderstanding ensues between Mason and Alex, Mason crashes Alex's "Wizard of the Year" party, after which Alex decides that she and Mason "need a break." After Mason saves her from becoming trapped in the Bermuda Triangle however, she realizes that they can't stay apart and the couple get back together.

In the end of the series, during the Family Wizard Competition, Alex takes the lead in the final round of the competition. However, in second place, Justin gets trapped in a tangle of tree roots. Not wanting to win the competition unfairly, Alex turns back to save him. While Justin crosses the finish line first, he in turn tells Professor Crumbs that Alex turned back to save him and that he does not deserve to win. By clearing himself of the guilt, Justin gives the title of 'Family Wizard' to Alex.

Description

Alex has dark brown hair. Alex constantly switches between long and short hair, layered and not-layered, and straight, curly and wavy hair, throughout the series. In the first episode of season 1, her hair is long and straight and she wears her bangs back with a clip. Sometimes, Alex's bangs are clipped to one side of her head, or are let loose. When it is short, Alex's hair is curly and she does not have bangs or wears her hair completely straight. Alex is always seen wearing mascara and eye shadow, with a touch of lipstick/lip-gloss. Her usual wardrobe always consists of many colors and patterns. She is almost always seen wearing tights with skirts or long shirts. Later on in the series, Alex starts to wear dresses and tank tops. There is sometimes lettering on her shirts, like the orange shirt she wore on Halloween that had the word 'Costume' printed on the front. Alex often wears jeans, throughout the last 2 seasons usually with a loose shirt/blouse or a T-shirt. At the beginning of Wizards of Waverly Place, she was seen wearing high tops with her outfits, but later began wearing boots (sometimes high heeled), slippers, and sandals. Alex accessorizes with chunky bracelets, long necklaces and dangly earrings. Every time she wears a type of boots, she slips her red wand in the side of one of her boots. The young wizard never settles on a style, as she constantly changes. In a 'behind the scenes' video, Selena pointed out how Alex always had (and still does occasionally) a peace sign somewhere on her outfits in Season 2. "It would either be on my earrings, my rings, my scarves, my pants or whatever." said Selena.

Relationships

Family

Alex lives with Jerry Russo (her father), Theresa Russo (her mother), Justin Russo (her older brother), and Max Russo (her younger brother). Theresa is a kind and caring mother, but Alex sometimes thinks she is too strict, and wants to ruin Alex's life. Alex has always connected well with Jerry, who does not think of her as much of a pain as Theresa does. Justin is the exact opposite of Alex in many ways so they don't get along with each other in many ways. Since Max is crazy and creative like his older sister, she and him do not "clash" as much. It has happened many times in the show that Alex has gotten tired and annoyed of her family. In the end, though, she always ends up realizing that she actually loves her family a lot.

Friends

Harper Finkle is Alex's best friend, and is almost like a sister to her. Harper runs wild when it comes to fashion sense, as she always makes her outfits "unique". Alex turns to Harper in times of trouble and when she has to take important decisions. Harper always cares and watches out for Alex (which is obvious), even though Alex also cares deeply for her yet she doesn't show it as often. The two friends fight sometimes but always patch up again. Harper feels sad and jealous when Alex befriends Stevie, another young wizard. Of course, Alex later learns that Stevie plans to use her in an evil scheme and apologizes to Harper. When Harper tries to befriend Gigi, a bratty girl who plans to make fun of Harper at her party, Alex tries to stop her since Alex knows Gigi's plan. Harper, oblivious to the fact that Gigi is merely using her, ignores Alex's pleas and thinks that Alex is jealous. Alex saves Harper just in time, though, and Gigi's plan backfires.

Alex's love interests

• Brad Sherwood (Shane Lyons, season 1) – seen in "Potion Commotion"; Alex tries to get Brad to like her with a love potion, but she accidentally drinks both halves of the potion and falls in love with herself.
• Riley (Brian Kubach, season 1) – long term; first seen in "I Almost Drowned in a Chocolate Fountain", where he and Alex went on a so-called 'date'. Alex got Riley to believe that she was his good luck charm in baseball, and charmed the ball so his team would win each time. They break up in "Alex's Spring Fling".
• Manny Quin (Matt Smith, season 1) – A male mannequin that Alex used magic on to bring it to life, and briefly dated to make Riley jealous.
• Dean Moriarty (Daniel Samonas, season 2) – long term; first seen in "Smarty Pants", last seen in "Journey To The Center Of Mason". They start dating but Dean later moves away to Ohio. He returns in "Wizards vs. Vampires: Dream Date" (Alex was using magic to control his dreams to go on dates with him). They broke up because Dean wasn't acting as romantic as he was in the dreams Alex was controlling. When they broke up, he seemed all right with it; but when Alex went into another dream and let Dean control it, he says he only covered up the fact that he was hurt. Dean returns in the episode, "Journey To The Center Of Mason" to try to get back together with Alex but she says she is in love with Mason and Dean leaves.
• Ronald Longcape, Jr. (Chad Duell, season 2) – seen in "Saving WizTech". Alex liked Ronald when they met, but she was still in a relationship with Dean. Ronald then shape-shifted into Dean (he froze the real Dean inside gelatin). Ronald used her as part of his evil plan to take over WizTech, but his plan was foiled by Alex's love for Dean.
• George (Austin Butler, season 3) - the school's band leader in "Positive Alex". Alex uses a spell to be positive so he will like her but she starts cheering for the opposing team.
• Mason Greyback (Gregg Sulkin, season 3 onwards) – longest term, current term; first mentioned in season 2 episode " Future Harper" and first seen in "Alex Charms a Boy". In "Future Harper", Harper from the future asked Alex if Mason has already broken up with her, but Alex had not met him yet. Mason turns out to be a transfer student from England. After it is revealed that he is a werewolf, Mason gives Alex a magical necklace that glows when the wearer is in love with whomever put it on them. After helping Justin rescue Juliet, it is revealed that Mason had known Juliet for 300 years and back then, they had dated. Harper later says that Mason is Alex's longest relationship. Alex and Mason break up after Mason causes havoc at Alex's "Wizard of the Year" ceremony. He becomes her neighbor when she and Harper move into a haunted apartment. When he saves her, he and Alex get back together. He and Alex are still together at the end of the show, in "Who Will Be the Family Wizard?, " the series finale of the show.
• Chase Riprock (Nick Roux, season 4) – An undefeated beast-tamer who flirts with Alex. In "Wizard of the Year" Chase comes to congratulate Alex on her achievement. At the Wizard of the Year ceremony, Chase and Alex sit together. When Mason shows up, he and Chase begin to fight, due to which Alex and Mason break up in the first place.

References

External links

• Alex Russo at the Internet Movie Database