Lead characters

* Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is the male protagonist of the story and the captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team. His best friend is Chad Danforth. At a New Years party at a ski resort, he was pressured into singing ‘Start of Something New’ with Gabriella Montez; prior to that, he had only sung in the shower.[5] Troy is torn between basketball and singing; he wants to sing with Gabriella (the girl Troy has a crush on), but his teammates push him away from it with peer pressure and even trickery because they are worried it will affect their chances at winning the championship game, as Troy is the coach’s son, Wildcat captain, and star player. Troy also enjoys snowboarding.

* Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) is the female protagonist, who secretly likes Troy. She is a shy and intelligent student who just changed schools. She originally met Troy when they were forced into a karaoke duet at a New Years party at a ski resort. She meets him again when she moves to the same school as Troy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is hesitant to let everybody know of her past achievements, although they find out, through the internet, that she previously won numerous Scholastic Competitions. She had previously been in a church choir, but passed out after having everybody stare at her while singing solo. She and Troy audition, get a callback, and then win the lead parts for the Winter musical. She also helps East High win the Scholastic Decathlon. In the Japanese dub of the special, she is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa.

* Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is the antagonist of High School Musical. She is an arrogant person who always wants her way. She overdominates and likes to be in control even of her twin brother Ryan. She auditions with him for the winter school musical against Troy and Gabriella. When she hears that Troy and Gabriella have a callback, she changes the callback date so Troy and Gabriella wouldn’t be able to get the leads. The plan however fails with the aid of Taylor and Chad who have. Sharpay ends up being the understudy for Gabriella, and in the end, wishes Gabriella good luck by telling her to break a leg. Chad, at one point, calls Sharpay and Ryan “show dogs”; the Shar Pei, a homophone of Sharpay, is a kind of dog. She also makes reference to famous Broadway songwriter Stephen Sondheim by calling Kelsi “my sawed-off Sondheim”. Despite her resentment of Troy and Gabriella taking the lead from her in the school musical, she seems to have a small crush or interest in Troy, and somewhat jealous of Gabriella. It also should be noted that at the end of High School Musical she seems to at least get along with Troy and Gabriella. Yet in High School Musical 2, she has reverted to hating Gabriella, and actually developed an interest for Troy.

* Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) is Sharpay’s fraternal twin brother, acting partner, and nicer one of the twins. They have starred in seventeen productions together. He seems to have a very developed fashion sense, and dresses very differently then most of the East High students in shirts etc. while all other students are wearing vests and shorts. Ryan isn’t very smart, as shown by his inability to read “Go Drama Club!” on the basketball team’s shirts. He also has a taste for hats, wearing nine different ones during the movie. He seems to be the more submissive of the twins and just goes along with whatever Sharpay says. Near the end of this movie, and in the second one, Ryan shows his disapproval of Sharpay’s behavior.

* Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) is a member of the Wildcats team and Troy’s best friend. He seems to be extremely devoted to basketball. From the start, he’s a little snobby, selfish, and unsupportive of Troy’s auditioning for the musical. He thinks that the musical isn’t for basketball players. However, he realizes later that singing is something that Troy truly enjoys and so Chad gives his support to his best friend’s audition endeavor. After teaming up with Taylor McKessie to pull Troy and Gabriella apart, and then to put them back together again, he asks her out.

* Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) is the leader of East High’s science club, which competes in the Scholastic Decathlon. She befriends Gabriella when she arrives to the school and convinces her to join the Scholastic Club. While she at first tried to stop Gabriella from singing, she eventually ended up supporting her. She has a strong dislike for athletes including Troy Bolton, stating that they “contribute nothing to society other than slam dunks and touchdowns.” However, her opinion of athletes changes over time. She is asked out by Chad Danforth by the end of the film and accepts.

Supporting characters

* Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) is the drama teacher at East High. She is an advocate of theater and has a strong dislike for cell phones. She has gotten into arguments with Coach Bolton numerous times. She has shown that she has little to no knowledge of basketball.

* Coach Jack Bolton (Bart Johnson) is the Wildcats’ coach and Troy’s father. He is a former champion Wildcats player, and expects his son to follow in his footsteps. He has gotten into numerous heated arguments with Ms. Darbus and is upset over his son’s decision to go out for theater but then he eventually comes around. Similarly, he disapproves of Troy’s relationship with Gabriella because it may interfere with basketball.

* Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin) is a pianist and the composer of the Twinkle Towne musical. Kelsi is not confident at first. However, by the end of the movie, she stands up to Sharpay. Troy calls her the playmaker to build her confidence.

* Zeke Baylor (Chris Warren, Jr.) is a member of the Wildcats team, who secretly enjoys baking and has a crush on Sharpay.

* Mrs. Montez (Socorro Herrera) is Gabriella’s mother. Although she is never shown to have a strong feeling of approval or disapproval of Gabriella’s singing, she is shown to support her daughter at the end of the movie. She also approves of Gabriella’s relationship with Troy.