Regina George (Mean Girls)

Regina George is the main antagonist in the 2004 film Mean Girls and its musical counterpart. She is portrayed by Rachel McAdams in the original 2004 film, was originated by Taylor Louderman in its Broadway musical version, and Reneé Rapp as the Broadway replacement and in the 2024 film adaptation of the musical.

Biography
Regina George is the oldest child in her family. She has a younger sister named Kylie. Regina grew up wealthy, which is possibly where her need for control, sense of superiority, and expert manipulation tactics originate, possibly due to her parents' leniency towards her.

Regina was best friends with Janis Ian throughout middle school, but the pair stopped talking due to Regina suspecting Janis was lesbian, causing Janis to leave school, not returning until high school. Sometime between Janis leaving and the events of Mean Girls, Regina dated and broke up with Aaron Samuels and she became best friends with Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, with the group becoming known as the Plastics.

Personality
Regina is cunning, confident, intelligent and manipulative. She is capable of doing everything in her power to get what she wants and was the Queen Bee of North Shore High. Throughout the movie, Regina becomes progressively more insecure as Cady Heron becomes more popular than her. Her initial control was identified as her possessing two traits - sex appeal and preying on the insecurities of other people. Regina's following stemmed from her mastering making girls feel inferior next to her for her attractiveness, and using male attention to make herself seem and feel superior.

Regina is able to control people at school and at home masterfully. She manipulates the people around her into giving her exactly what she wants, including persuading her parents to switch bedrooms or breaking up couples. This control doesn’t last for the whole story as it comes from her social status, and once that starts falling, so does her influence. Regina loves shopping, parties and gossip. Regina is ruthlessly determined to make sure that she stays at the very top of the social ladder and will use anything she has at her disposal to stay there. She has unshakeable confidence and seems utterly ignorant of the possibility that she’s even capable of doing wrong.

Role in Mean Girls
Throughout the beginning of the movie, Cady Heron is often warned of Regina and told to avoid her, establishing Regina as a threat. On Cady’s second day, Regina notices her being harassed by Gretchen Wieners' boyfriend Jason and invites her to sit with The Plastics. Regina calls Cady pretty and learns about her backstory before deciding to initiate her into The Plastics as their fourth member, likely due to Regina seeing Cady's good looks and interesting backstory as a threat. Her tactics work as Cady accepts the invite to join The Plastics and thinks of Regina as a sweet girl. The Plastics show Cady "The Burn Book", a book where they write mean comments about other girls in their class. One day Cady confides in Gretchen that she has a crush on Aaron Samuels (Regina's ex-boyfriend), and despite Gretchen promising not to tell Regina, she does tell Regina, who calls Cady that night and assures her that it isn't a problem and promises to put a good word in to Aaron for Cady. At a Halloween party, Regina makes out with Aaron in front of Cady, unknowingly fuelling Cady's desire for revenge.

Regina tells The Plastics that she wants to lose 3lbs, so as revenge Cady gives her high calorie nutrition bars, telling her they help lose weight, but actually make her rapidly gain weight. Cady attempts to have Aaron catch Regina making out with Shane Oman, with whom she had been cheating on Aaron, but fails and eventually she just spills it to Aaron while he tutors her. This causes Aaron to break up with Regina, covering for Cady by not disclosing who told him. When Regina arrives at school wearing sweatpants on a Monday, something The Plastics prohibit, Gretchen and Karen tell her she can't sit with them. Regina tries to gain their sympathy by saying that her weight gain means sweatpants are all that can fit her, however, Gretchen and Karen do not care due to Regina doing the same to them in the past and bubbling tensions between them since Cady's revenge plot began. Regina's role in The Plastics has now been taken over by Cady, signifying Regina's downfall.

Cady, now the new queen bee, throws a party without inviting Regina. When Regina tries crashing, she walks in on Cady vomiting on Aaron, leaving shortly after. When she is about to leave with Shane, she eats one of the nutrition bars Cady gave her, only to be told by Shane that Coach Carr gives them to the student athletes when he wants them to gain weight. At this point, Regina realizes Cady is sabotaging her and decides to take down the remaining three Plastics.

Regina adds herself to the Burn Book, meaning only Cady, Gretchen, and Karen are not mentioned in it. Regina brings the book to the principal claiming she found it in the bathroom. She also copies many pages from the Burn Book and distributes them throughout the school. Regina's plan works and the school erupts in chaos. Due to the chaos, a workshop begins in the gymnasium for all the girls, in which they have to apologize to people they have hurt with their behaviour. Janis Ian apologizes to Regina for sabotaging her with the secret help of Cady. Regina storms out of the building with Cady following her. After a brief confrontation, Regina is run over by a school bus, badly injuring her spine.

At the Spring Fling dance, Regina is nominated for Spring Fling queen, but loses it to Cady. Once her spine heals the following year, Regina is advised by her physiotherapist to channel her anger through sports, which she does as she joins the lacrosse team. The story ends with Regina and Cady at peace, with a mutual respect for each other.

Mean Girls (musical)
The character was revived for the Broadway counterpart of the film, but with a smaller role in the story.

Regina is featured in three songs: "Meet the Plastics", "Someone Gets Hurt", and "World Burn". Taylor Louderman was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Regina.

Other appearances

 * In 2018, Ariana Grande portrayed the character in her music video for "Thank U, Next".
 * In the 2024 film adaptation of the Mean Girls stage musical, Regina is played by Reneé Rapp.

Reception
Regina is frequently regarded as one of the best villains in teen movie history. In 2019, she was named by The Independent as the "meanest high school film character of all time".