Character Help Overview

Character Pages are a new feature on IMDb, offering contributors the opportunity to create a new page, much like the pages we currently have for titles and actors -- only in this case, the page will outline the cinematic, television and video game history of a specific character. Contributors will be able to add filmography appearances, select photos, and write a biography for a character via our new Character creation tool.

Here are a few guidelines for the creation of character pages:

-- Please only create interesting characters. We define interesting as having at least one of: filmography credits in more than one movie/episode; a photo; a real biography; or an original quote.

-- Please do not copy character biographies from other sources. We ask that you write up your own original biography for a character.

-- Characters that are superheroes: IMDb views superheroes and their alter-egos as two separate characters. As such, two separate character pages can be created. For example, Clark Kent and Superman have separate character pages on the site.

-- Characters will have pages created based on their proper name, with any titles or nickname versions of that name included as Alternate Names. For example, James T. Kirk will have a page, and Admiral James T. Kirk / Capt. James T. Kirk, etc. will listed in the Alternate Names section of that page. (Automated support of this guideline is coming soon.)

Currently, there are two places you can begin creating a new character page:

Option 1: At the bottom of the cast list section of any film, TV show or videogame title page, you will find a drop-down menu that includes the names of the characters involved in that title. Select a name from the drop-down menu and click the adjoining 'Create' button, which will then lead you through the process of building a new page for the character selected.

--or--

Option 2: You can enter a character name into our sitewide search box , then select the 'Characters' option from the drop-down menu to the left of that search box, and you will be presented with search results that most closely match the name you entered.

Exact matches are those character names that most closely resemble the character name you've entered.

Approximate matches are those character names that contain portions of the character name that you've entered.

You may also choose to do a more focused search in Plot Summaries, Biographies and Quotes for your characters name.

Once you've found the character name you have in mind, click the 'Create' button next to that character's name in the search results, which will then lead you through the process of building the character's page.

Once you have either created a new character page or updated an existing character page, you'll receive an e-mail confirmation that your updates have been received and are being processed.

While the character page you have created won't be visible immediately, it will cycle through our system and be live on our site within 6 hours. From there, you can return to the page and make any additions or corrections you'd like to the filmography, photo selections, or biography.

We've split the Help for creating character pages into a few different categories:

Biography - http://www.imdb.com/swiki/special?CharBioHelp

Photos - http://www.imdb.com/swiki/special?CharPhotosHelp

Character Credits http://www.imdb.com/swiki/special?CharCreditsHelp

These links, including the one to this page, can be found on the top right hand side of this page, just below the logout/login link on our navigation bar.