Tao Xu is a main character in the first season of Netflix series Heartstopper. He is portrayed by William Gao.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
Tao is the “token straight friend” and part of Charlie’s support system at school. He is protective of Charlie and very skeptical of Nick (but soon grows to accept the rugby star). He’s also struggling to adjust to attending school without Elle by his side. While Tao swears he simply wants to keep his friend group together, it seems that his interest in Elle is more than platonic.[1]
Personality[]
Relationships[]
Family[]
Tao lives with his mother Yan Xu. She only appeared once but she has been shown to be very kind and caring and supportive of Tao's feelings for Elle, who she adores.
Romances[]
Tao Xu is in a romantic relationship with Elle Argent, his friend a year above him who once attended Truham Grammar but transferred to Higgs School halfway through her 11th year.
Friends[]
Charlie Spring[]
Tao and Charlie both go to Truham and they're best friends. Tao is very loyal to his friends and he's protective of Charlie in particular because he knows how harshly he was and is bullied because of his sexuality; he always defends him from the remarks Harry and his peers make. He tends to be too protective though, which is the reason he doesn't want Charlie and Nick to date at first, afraid that it might be just a game to Nick, and that Charlie will get hurt; once he sees how good Nick is to Charlie, he backs down and supports his best friend.
Isaac is part of Taos friend group and he goes to Truham. Isaac likes to spend his time in Library and reading books. He seems to follow most of the "friend group" around and enjoy himself listening to their conversations. Not much has been covered on Isaac (Yet?).
Enemies[]
- Harry Greene
- Ben Hope
- Anyone who likes Marvel Movies
Physical appearance[]
Tao is British-Chinese, is the tallest of his friend group and has long hair.
Appearances[]
| Season 1 appearances | |||
| Meet | Crush | Kiss | Secret |
| Friend | Girls | Bully | Boyfriend |
Quotes[]
"It's literally another silly crush."
"I deserve to be appreciated."
"I was going to say I'd send him a strongly worded DM, but murder's fine too."
"As your token straight best friend, it is my duty to remind you that sometimes people are straight"
"Does anyone know the rules of rugby?"
"He looks like a golden retriever"
"Life must be so hard when your only personality trait is rich bell-end"
"If you want my attention that badly why don't you throw something at me again, like your last remaining brain cell?"
"Classic Harry. Resorting on homophobia when you can't think of a good comeback"
"You clearly didn't hugged much as a child, but if you're craving human contact that badly, you could just say so"
Trivia[]
- Tao has a film review blog.
- His favorite movie is Hunt for the Wilder People.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
Listen to Heartstopper: Elle & Tao playlist on Spotify