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Holly Davis from Yonggary

This woman really knows what dinosaurs look like.

Stereotypically speaking, in fiction, blondes are lacking in intelligence, redheads are lacking in feminine charm, so, out of the trio, brunettes are all brain. Like the Dumb Blonde, the brunette varies quite a bit. Whichever it is, their knowledge is real—if she's on your side, then you can always count on her intelligence in a fix. She may be a Hot Librarian, a Hot Scientist, or even a Wrench Wench. If so, her Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness and/or Techno Babble will turn people on. And she always has nice, thick, brown locks. What they don't have is strength, like the Squishy Wizard (who may be The Smart Guy himself), as they care more about their intelligence than their body. That's what makes a Badass Bookworm so interesting, a rare combination.

This trope doesn't mean that blondes and redheads can't be the brains of the outfit. It's just more common for them to have brown hair, especially if they're female, though there are a couple of male examples.

Contrast Dumb Blonde and Fiery Redhead. And, as with both of them, this character can be either good or evil. Make the hair color extremely dark, though, and the character borders on Shiny Midnight Black (yet also brainy).

Examples of Brainy Brunette include:


Advertising[]

  • The Brown M&M seems to be this, with glasses and all.


Anime & Manga[]

Comics[]


Films — Animation[]

  • Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
  • Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Naveen too, when he can be bothered to do stuff.
  • Queen Elinor from Brave. In a Royal Family full of Fiery Redheads, she's the one keeping order but in the clan and in the realm itself - in fact, when she walks into the council rooms, the unruly Lords submit near completely to her.
  • Roxanne Ritchi from Megamind, so much that the title character (a Gadgeteer Genius) admits that she's the smartest person he knows. She's also voiced by brainy Tina Fey.
  • Edna Mode from The Incredibles.


Films — Live-Action[]

  • In the film version of Starter for 10, the character of Rebecca is a brunette and intuitive. She holds various protests and is often seen informing the main character, Brian Jackson, of her ideas.
  • Evelyn in The Mummy. She's also a Hot Librarian.
  • Brutally mocked in Where The Truth Lies:
Cquote1

 Lanny: My favorite catches were the intellectuals. They'd be the ones in the straight black dresses, severe black hair. Your basic neurotic, eyeglasses, cool jazz, liberal, "I'll fuck any black guy as part of my personal apology for racism in America" type.

Cquote2


Literature[]

  • Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter book series is probably the embodiment of this trope in its purest form.
  • Lessa from Dragonriders of Pern qualifies as she is not only the one to figure out Threadfall patterns and trick a Dragonrider into challenging a Lord Holder to a death match, but she also figures out how to save the planet and then does it against the wishes of everyone else involved.
  • Tiffany Aching of the Discworld books, who read the dictionary for fun when she was a girl, always pestered traveling scholars with difficult questions, and turned out to be very clever and talented for a witch her age.
  • Jo March in Little Women has thick chestnut hair, "her one beauty", and is a devoted writer.
  • October "Toby" Daye in Rosemary And Rue is a tough and savvy private investigator who servers both mortal and faerie clients.
  • Amelia Marsh in Darkness Visible borders on the Shiny Midnight Black end of the spectrum and is very intelligent/educated for a woman of her era. She speaks French, paints beautifully, and, to Lewis's surprise, can play chess. Mrs Emiline Pound also counts, though her hair is going gray. It is her tireless work in the Warden's archives which finally reveals the identity of the traitor among them.
  • Claudia's sister Janine from Babysitters Club is an exaggeration with her Asian and Nerdy ways. Claudia feels bad when she compares herself to her genius sister.
  • Anji Kapoor, from the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures, is a genius or very close to it when it comes to economics, to the point of seeming to be a bit of a nerd when you get her started on the topic.
  • Averted in Percy Jackson: Athena, the goddess of wisdom, is blond and so are her descendants (they have Gray Eyes, though). Annabeth, the brains of the group around the titular character, is Athena's daughter.


Live-Action TV[]

  • Wonder Woman in, well every property with her ever and her campy '70s TV show is no exception.
  • Fred Burkle on Angel. She was adorable, sexy, funny, and her high intelligence was a great asset to the "Fang Gang".
  • Double Subverted with Cordelia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Cordelia was shown as an example of the Brainless Beauty. Though, after exams, it was revealed that she actually had very good grades which she simply chose to hide from her peers, thinking it would make her less popular.
  • Kaylee, the resident Wrench Wench on Firefly. She had very light brown hair, but it was still brown, and her mechanical genius was definitely a fetish for some.
    • Also, River, who was a genius and a Waif Prophet, though she was also completely nuts.
      • Simon himself would count, with his fierce knowledge of medicine and ability to organize a heist in one episode.
    • Inara may make her living with her body, but her brain is no slouch either. She has a working knowledge of many subjects that a Courtesan would be expected to converse intelligently about. She's well-versed in human psychology and the arts physical, martial arts, swordplay, history, religion, etc.
    • Zoe is an expert on setting traps, organizing missions, and leading attacks, all of which were skills she picked up while serving in the military.
  • Summer Glau's other character, Bennett Halverson on Dollhouse, also qualifies.
  • Liz Lemon on Thirty Rock. Emphasized by the fact that the show's two other female regulars are both Dumb Blondes. In fact, every character ever played by Tina Fey.
    • The film Baby Mama paired Fey (no, not like that) with blonde Amy Poehler. Guess what their characters' personalities were.
  • Not quite as overt as the other examples, but Chuck in Pushing Daisies has a great general knowledge and speaks seemingly every language known to man.
  • Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek.
  • Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls.
  • Temperance Brennan, Bones. Place your own generic erection euphemism here, I just can't think of a good one.
    • When you think of it, they're all brunettes.
  • Abby Sciuto of NCIS. Underneath her punk groupie looks, she's a scientist and Mensa member.
    • Ziva is no slouch either, with her smart-ass comments, multiple languages, skill with weapons, and Photographic Memory.
  • Most of the brunettes in CSI probably qualify; Sara Sidle definitely does.
    • Carries over to CSI: NY and probably CSI: Miami as well. All the casts have several smart brunettes.
  • At least in season 7, Janis Gold in 24. Well, it's Janeane Garofalo, so what else would you expect?
  • Possible subversion in Privileged: Megan, the Yale graduate, is shown as a redhead; however, in the first episode, we're told that she dyed it red and we never really learn her natural colour, so it's possible she's simply a Brainy Brunette in disguise.
  • Blair on Gossip Girl.
  • Detective Kate Beckett from Castle.
  • Lindsay Weir on Freaks and Geeks.
  • Emily Prentiss from Criminal Minds. Her predecessor, Elle Greenaway, was also intelligent, but Emily gets more credit because she has yet to be dumb enough to kill someone in cold blood. Special Agent Doctor Spencer Reid also qualifies.
  • In Doctor Who, Zoe can blow up a computer with her brain. And Romana I is repeatedly shown to be smarter than the Doctor. Of course, Barbara was the very first brainy companion, being a history teacher. And let's not forget widely beloved Intrepid Reporter Sarah Jane Smith, who is repeatedly shown both on Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures to be quite intelligent, considering she saves the Earth roughly every week.
  • Annie Edison on Community.
  • Averted and played straight in No Ordinary Family. Stephanie is a world-class research scientist who graduated from MIT and is blonde. Her nerdy yet attractive sidekick Katie, also shown to be very intelligent, is a brunette.
  • George from Being Human is described as having a brain like a "planet" and is said by several characters to be able to carry a much more prestigious job than hospital janitor if he wanted.
  • Carrusel has Valeria, Carmen, and Alicia, to a lesser extent. All 3 girls have jet black hair and are good students. Valeria is a talented painter. Carmen is very good with people. And Alicia is very mature and has common sense.
  • Dr. Helen Magnus of Sanctuary, Omnidisciplinary Scientist extraordinaire, whose long brunette locks are a stark contrast to Amanda Tapping's former role as the short-haired, blonde, and equally brainy astrophysicist Major Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1. This was probably deliberate.
  • The younger Dunphy daughter, Alex, on "Modern Family"


Theater[]


Video Games[]

  • Jennifer Willis, from the original Splatterhouse.
  • Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect 2 falls under Shiny Midnight Black.
  • The default player character from A Dance With Rogues has black hair and is really the only character who ever fits the role of The Smart Guy on your team.
  • Morrigan from Dragon Age, whose intellect is beyond question (though she does seem to spend a lot of it on thinking up more ways to insult Alistair).
  • Both April Ryan and Zoe Castillo from The Longest Journey series. And the Word of God is that the stereotype played (possibly without realization) a role in their design.
  • Angela Delvecchio of Backyard Sports.
  • Rita from Tales of Vesperia.
  • Ace Attorney has Lana Skye, Chief Prosecutor, and her younger sister, Ema, Police Detective.
  • Mei Ling and Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid.
    • Solid Snake (160-point IQ, speaks six languages) and Otacon (expert programmer, Gadgeteer Genius, creator of Metal Gear Rex) are male examples (although Otacon's hair is more gray-brown than conventional brunet).
  • Princess Zelda in her only remotely brunette incarnation, The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, is noted by her former tutor to have been an excellent student. She's also the chosen disciple of the Goddess of Wisdom, so it's only logical.
  • Fire Emblem
    • Fire Emblem Akaneia has Linde, a very cute Black Magician Girl regarded as a genius spellcaster.
    • In Genealogy of the Holy War, Lana and her Expy Muirne are kind, sensitive, and very intuitive White Magician Girls. Also Oifaye, who was The Strategist in the first part and then became the Big Brother Mentor to Seliph's group.
    • In Fire Emblem Awakening, the Badass Bookworm Player Character's looks can be customized and one can certainly make them a brunet.
      • The Gentleman Wizard Laurent will fit here if he's fathered by a man with dark hair - like Frederick, Lon'qu, Kellam, Donnel or a darkhaired Male Avatar. Same goes to the Avatar's child Morgan, a Badass Bookworm in training, if her mother (i.e Tharja, Lucina, Panne, Say'ri, the daughter of a darkhaired guy, etc.) or his father (i.e, Chrom, Priam, Frederick, Kellam, Lon'qu, etc.) has dark hair; as a plus, in Cipher and Heroes Morgan has default purple-black hair.
    • Fire Emblem Fates has Nyx, whose hair may be black-purple but is noted to be a very booksmart woman.
      • Hisame is both a very clever young man and an excellent swordsman. Like Laurent, he'll fit here if his mother is a dark-haired woman like Mozu, Oboro, a Female Avatar with dark hair, etc.
  • In the second Dark Parables game, Cinderella is implied to have been this, based on the fact that her husband constructed a library in her memory.
  • Stern, the Material of Wisdom from the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable. Unlike the light-haired Nanoha whose form she was based on, Stern's hair is dark brown.


Webcomics[]


Web Original[]


Western Animation[]

  • Donna of The Cleveland Show.
  • Velma Dinkley of Scooby Doo.
  • Jeanette Miller of the Chipettes.
  • Inverted on The Powerpuff Girls where the red-headed Blossom is the brainy one while the brunette Buttercup is the aggressive spitfire. (Bubbles is still the Dumb Blonde, though.)
  • Bushroot's Hot Scientist love interest Dr. Rhoda Dendron from his origin story on Darkwing Duck. Morgana the successful businesswoman and scholar counts as well.
  • Daria is a combination of this trope and Deadpan Snarker. It helps make her a famous Snark Knight.
    • Daria's hair is actually a dark auburn red, but she is certainly brainy. A more straightforward example would be her artistic best friend Jane Lane, who is doubtlessly a brunette.
  • Wendy from South Park.
  • Yumi, from Code Lyoko.
  • Azula, from Avatar: The Last Airbender, is terrifyingly intelligent and a Manipulative Bastard par excellence. And Katara isn't dumb, either, though her brother Sokka is "the Idea Guy" of the Gaang. Of course, all but one character in the show are or were dark-haired.
  • Total Drama Island has Noah (book smarts), Courtney (legal smarts), and Alejandro (mechanical smarts).
  • Played mostly straight with the Kanker sisters in Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. May (the blonde) is Too Dumb to Live; Lee (the redhead) definitely has the attitude; and while Marie has blue hair and isn't overtly bookish, she comes up with the smartest ideas.
  • The Simpsons: an episode's B-plot focused on Lisa joining the debate team and ending up dyeing her hair brown to prove that they didn't take her seriously before, due to being blonde.
  • On Recess, Gretchen and Spinelli invert their typical hair tropes, as Spinelli (brunette) is firey and Gretchen (redhead) is brainy. Gretchen did have black hair in the pilot, though.
    • T.J. subverts this, as he's quite ditzy when it comes to academics, but is a genius when it comes to his schemes on the playground.
    • Miss Grotke plays this trope straight.

Real Life[]

  • Tina Fey counts.
  • Natalie Portman, anyone?
  • Danica McKellar, math genius.
  • Marilyn vos Savant, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (at least, at one point) as having the world's highest IQ.
  • Due to ethnic traits, Asian and Nerdy has almost total crossover with this.
  • Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor. Also major-league hottie.
  • Ellen Page. There's really no need to explain this one.
  • Audrey Hepburn didn't have much in the way of formal schooling, but she was extremely well-read, could speak at least seven languages fluently, and was a talented piano player.
  • Elaine May.
  • Nino Burjanadze, a political leader in the Republic of Georgia.
  • Emma Watson is enrolled at the Brown University and is rumored to have grades rivaling Hermione Granger's - the icing to the cake is that she considers her education more important than her acting career.
  • Anne Frank, well known posthumously for the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl.