An Incomplete Listing Of Fictional Characters With Epilepsy And Seizures

An Incomplete Listing of Fictional Characters with Epilepsy and Seizures

@seaglassdinosaur requested a list of fictional characters with epilepsy and seizures. I couldn’t find one particular list on the Internet beyond the Wikipedia article so I complied my own list. The characters here will not all be positive depictions of the epilepsy experience, but they are representation regardless.

Literature:

Adult Literature

Antonio (Three O'Clock in the Morning)

Carmen Sternwood (The Big Sleep)

Evan Wallace (How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets)

Isaac Hammoudeh (Mis(h)adra) (graphic novel)

Keziah Montgomery (Engraved on the Heart)

Lizzie Molyneux (The Dare)

Mary (The Florist’s Daughter)

Molly Volkova (Molly Falls To Earth)

Oscar Dubourg (Poor Miss Finch)

Othello (Othello)

Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov (The Brothers Karamazov)

Prince Myshkin (The Idiot)

Robert “Sweetrobin” Arryn (A Song of Ice and Fire series)

Silas Marner (Silas Marner) (Catalepsy, which is different from epilepsy but still includes seizures and can be a symptom of epilepsy)

Sophie (We are Satellites)

Toby Withers (Owls Do Cry & The Edge of the Alphabet)

Youth Literature (Teen and Children)

Alex Woods (The Universe Verses Alex Woods)

Annemarie (When You Reach Me)

Duncan MacDonald (Prince Across the Water)

Emma Cooper (Throat)

Finn Easton (100 Sideways Miles)

Jake (Takedown)

Leilani Milton (The Islands at the End of the World series)

Meena Zee (Meena Meets Her Match)

Monks (Oliver Twist)

Ollie Paulot (Because You’ll Never Meet Me)

Pepper Al-Yusef (The Arsonist)

Percy Newton (The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue)

Pippa (Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

Sven Beekman (Talking to Alaska)

Thom Creed (Hero) (Unspecified Seizure Disorder)

Zane Guesswind (Zane’s Trace)

Film:

Movies

Angie (The Sacred Disease)

Bagi (Khadak)

Dave O'Hara (Wide Awake 1998)

Esteban Espinosa (El Aura)

Ivy (The Exploding Girl)

Kinji Kameda (The Idiot 1951)

Lily O’Connor (Electricity)

Michaela Klingler (Requiem)

Penelope Stamp (The Brothers Bloom)

Robbie Reimuller (…First Do No Harm)

Ruth (Fast Color) (Unspecified Seizure Disorder)

Ruth Hunsdorfer (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds)

Sam (Garden State)

Sam (Under the Lights)

Teresa Ronchelli (Mean Streets)

Television

Anežka Archuletta (Jane the Virgin)

Ashley Thomas (Emmerdale)

Caitlin Ryan (Degrassi)

David Platt (Coronation Street)

Erica Reyes (Teen Wolf)

Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn (Sailor Moon) (Unspecified Seizure Disorder; Magically cured during the series run)

Karen (Diff’rent Strokes) (only appears in one episode)

Nancy Carter (EastEnders)

Pearl Gallagher (Diff’rent Strokes)

Reverend Smith (Deadwood)

Steph Cunningham (Hollyoaks)

Victor Newman (The Young and the Restless)

Will Graham (Hannibal) (seizures as a symptom of encephalitis)

Note: This list is incomplete due to both the vast scope of this description (a lot of characters have seizures when, for example, being possessed or experiencing visions and I’m unsure whether to count them or not.) and the limitations I have with media as someone who only speaks english.

Also: If you know of any epileptic characters or characters who have had seizures that I missed, please let me know!

Made MH styled icons for my oc :>

There are different genres of pop punk within pop punk

there’s a goat! why is there a goat!? oh my god! there’s a fucking lama!

I grew up reading lots of epics and myths, like I loved greek mythology and occult stories about things like demons, gods, monsters, etc.

But I especially loved hearing about various oracles and prophets, especially The Oracle of Delphi and how she was considered such a powerful staple of all these stories.

Like I read about how epilepsy was treated in history, with it occasionally being treated as a sign of prophecy or being touched by a god or something otherworldly, and a part of me latched onto that.

I loved all things fantasy as a kid and I still do, so this little coping mechanism at the back of my head saying that I am already connected to something magical.

Well. It helped in a way. It helped to think that maybe I wasn’t something bad for existing, maybe I was something that was just different in my own way, something that if the world were a little more otherworldly, would make me something like an Oracle or someone who could be the voice of the demons, or have a demon be my friend, or something cool because I have this.

It’s a harmful thing in fiction and a dangerous stereotype that epilepsy is at all supernatural, as it has gotten many people killed and is one of the largest factors as to why there is so much stigma regarding epilepsy.

Yet, I guess a small part of me was glad I could reclaim it, especially as a kid who was tired of having everyone treat me like a burden, or have so many kids ostracize me when I happened to have seizures in class.

There’s a small comfort in thinking that I’m magic, that The Sacred Disease made me a little…sacred.

If you do not have epilepsy this is not an encouragement or allowance to have this in your story or treat people like this/romanticize seizures. This is my personal take on my condition and the things related to it. I am not a voice for the community. Thanks.