Will Grayson, Will Grayson John Green, David Levithan

Main characters

• Will Grayson 1: First protagonist of the story. He lives in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, home to Northwestern University, where his parents want him to attend university. His point of view is seen in the odd-numbered chapters, where the entirety of the text shows proper capitalization. He is the first, and only, male straight-identifying member of the Gay Straight Alliance. He is a fan of the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Jane Turner is his love interest; Tiny Cooper is his best friend. His character is written by John Green.[13]
• Will Grayson 2: Second protagonist of the story. He lives in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. His point of view is seen in the even-numbered chapters, where the entirety of the text is always lowercased. He has a crush on Isaac, a boy that he met online; the two of them communicate via instant messaging, in secrecy, under the pseudonym grayscale and boundbydad. Meets Tiny Cooper through Will Grayson 1. Will Grayson 2 has been diagnosed with depression, taking antidepressants and claiming, early on, that he is constantly "torn between killing himself and killing everyone around him". He is not close with any major character in his school, though he does interact with his admirer, Maura.[14][15]

Secondary characters

• Tiny Cooper: Will Grayson 1's best friend in school. He is described as being a large flamboyant homosexual football player who runs through love interests swiftly. He is the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at school. He is described as "very gay, and very proud".[16] He meets Will Grayson 2 through Will Grayson 1. Though the book may be titled after both Will Graysons, Tiny becomes the primary focus of the story.[17]
• Jane Turner: Friend of Tiny and Will Grayson 1. She is also a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance at school, and adores Neutral Milk Hotel. She is Will Grayson 1's love interest.
• Maura: A goth girl who is attracted to Will Grayson 2. She is one of the few people at his school with whom he interacts. She is described by Will Grayson 2 as "unrealistically friendly", because she pays "too much attention" to him when he describes himself as uninteresting. Maura poses as the online love interest of Will Grayson 2, Isaac, to gain Will's attention, admiration, and further, affection.[18]