Betty Suarez

Betty Suarez walks into the glossy Manhattan offices of Mode magazine in braces and a Guadalajara poncho, hired as assistant to the editor-in-chief precisely because she's not the type he'd sleep with. She's smart, warm, and hungry to prove herself in a world built to mock her, determined to make good on her family's sacrifices.

The show could have made her a punching bag, but America Ferrera plays every humiliation with such unguarded sincerity that the joke curdles back onto the people laughing. Her comic timing is real, but it's the stubborn decency underneath—the refusal to become cynical to fit in—that makes Betty impossible not to root for.