Vod

Vod is the housemate nobody quite dares to cross. Sharp, sardonic and visibly uninterested in freshers' week bonding rituals, she smokes, deals in world-weary put-downs, and treats the whole business of university with contempt even as she quietly turns out to be cleverer than anyone else in the house.

The joke is that Vod looks like the person most likely to drop out, and the show keeps undercutting that with flashes of real brilliance she can't be bothered to advertise. Zawe Ashton plays her with a bone-dry stillness that makes every insult land harder, and never lets the character soften into someone you can predict.