Tao Xu, portrayed by William Gao, is a recurring character in Heartstopper and Nick and Charlie. He is best friends with Tara Jones, Aled Last, Isaac Henderson, Nick Nelson, Darcy Olsson, Charlie Spring, and Sahar Zahid, and is the boyfriend of Elle Argent.
Appearance
In the graphic novel series, Tao is of Chinese descent and is the shortest of the boys, standing at about 5'5". He has short black hair and dark eyes. A signature part of Tao's outfits is his large collection of beanies, which he wears even in the summertime. In the television series, Tao is ironically the tallest of the group, standing at 6'3". His hair is split into two swirls underneath his beanie, and is often seen wearing sweaters and long-sleeve shirts. In the second season, he begins to change his appearance in order to impress Elle, wearing button up shirts with patterns and chino pants, while also cutting his hair to get rid of the two swirls he had.
Personality
Out of all the members of the Paris Squad, Tao is the second most attentive of Charlie, behind Nick. Tao is extremely protective of his friends, as it's mentioned how he comforted both Charlie and Elle when they were faced by relentless homophobia and transphobia. Tao is initially very distrustful of Nick, believing his flirtatious attitude towards Charlie to be a ruse. But seeing how much Nick brings happiness to Charlie, Tao backs down. Tao is shown to suffer from low self-esteem, as he believes Elle isn't attracted to him whatsoever and thinks that their friendship is all that Elle wants. One flaw of Tao is his loud nature, as it's revealed that him speaking of Charlie's sexuality at school resulted in students overhearing and caused Charlie to be outed. When Charlie mentions this as the reason why he hesitated to reveal his relationship with Nick to him, Tao sinks into a brief depression and is too ashamed to face Charlie. This eventually passes over and the two reconcile, and Tao's mental health improves after he and Elle begin dating. In the second season of the television adaption, Tao reveals that he fears people leaving him due to his father passing away when he was twelve, and he latches on to his loved ones unintentionally.
Trivia
- He used to be called Luke, but this was changed for the Nick and Charlie ebook.
- He is fluent in both Cantonese and English.
- His MBTI is ENFP/The Champion, as shown in the books, but he is mistyped and actually is an ISTJ/The Logistician.[1]
- He has a film review blog.
- His favourite film is Hunt for the Wilderpeople.[2]
- His Instagram handle, as shown in the comics, is @the.xu.tao and in the television series, is @tao_moviexu.
Gallery
