Derek Venturi

Derek Venturi is a character from Life With Derek, a Canadian-produced show. Derek Venturi is played by Michael Seater.

Character description

Derek is portrayed as a rebel. Over the years he has always gotten what he wanted, both at home and school. He takes pride in charming his father, his peers, their parents, and seasoned teachers. Until now, his influence, especially at home, has been uncontested.

Derek is a "cool guy". He plays sports, notably hockey; he claims he doesn't like football, saying that football players are just "cows" ("Derek Un-Done"). He also spends a considerable amount of time thinking about, and talking to girls, completing the "macho male" stereotype. It is suggested he's never really had very many girlfriends more then a couple days (with the exception of Kendra and Sally), and he says in "Cheerleader Casey" that he has a list of girls he wants to date before he gets out of high school. Also, he has a very strict "no hugging policy", suggested from the very beginning, brought up again in "It's Our Party" when he tells Edwin, "You know my no hugging policy."

In episode "The Venturian Candidate", it was revealed that Derek failed the first grade. However, along with the rest of the Venturis, Derek is afraid of mice.

Derek often finds picking on his new step-sister Casey amusing. In his mind, her refusal to submit only encourages him, and makes the activity more challenging.

His younger brother Edwin is his trusted accomplice and lackey. For years, what Derek wanted, Edwin delivered, such as doing Derek's school projects. Now, with the appearance of two new sisters, Edwin is reconsidering his position. In the series, Edwin seems to always stick to Derek's side.

Since Casey has moved into Derek 's house, and since he is portrayed as having a naturally conniving nature, Derek starts out ahead. However he often seems to underestimate Casey.

Moreover, well hidden beneath the arrogance and confidence is a soft heart, which sometimes gets in the way of his desire to win. This soft-heartedness is characterized by the fact that he, though generally being considered not very considerate, has a noticeable soft spot for his younger sister, Marti.

Exceptions

When it comes to Casey, Derek has a "nobody messes with my step-sister but me" attitude:

• In "The Fall", Derek admits to the entire school (by word of mouth) that Casey is his stepsister, using his popularity to minimize the teasing aimed at her.
• Also in "The Fall", Derek, knowing Casey has a crush on his best friend Sam, uses him to stop Casey from making a "Teasing Hurts" speech, which he knows will embarrass her more than ever if she goes through with it.
• In "The Poxfather", Derek is running an under-the-counter business at school - but when he's stuck home with the chicken pox, he pays Casey to run the business for him. When Casey gets caught, he sacrifices the biggest money-maker in his business to get her out of trouble, and uses his connections to get her a cell phone.
• In "Male Code Blue", Derek concedes that Sam and Casey have real feelings for each other and, even though he doesn't like it, they should be together.
• In "Crushing the Coach", Derek struggles with the truth about Casey's current boyfriend Scott (Lizzie's Soccer Coach), who's "scamming" her and other "soccer sisters" (The players' older sisters) This gets him so distracted that he can't even sleep - he eventually reveals this fact to Casey in front of everyone.
• In "Dinner Guest", after a horrible dinner with her biological father, Casey feels that her dad paid more attention to Derek than her and is very upset. Derek notices this and calls Casey's dad and has him come back before he goes to New York.
• In "Don't Take A Tip From Me", Derek quits his job after his boss treats Casey unfairly, saying that "Nobody talks to my stepsister like that except me."
• In "The Bully Brothers", Derek helps Edwin get rid of his bully problem, but gets into a fight with the bully's older brother, a guy who Derek used to get teased by.Derek confides in Casey by telling her about his previous teasing.
• In "Home Movies", Derek finishes the Sociology project for Casey and makes it better.
• In "Make no Prom-ises", Derek accidentally ruins Casey's dress and eventually comes to Casey's rescue (with the convincing of Emily and Sally) with a new and better dress and takes her back to the prom.
• In "Not So Sweet 16", Derek finds out that Casey has to be in the hospital due to appendicitis and misses her own 16th birthday party, so he makes her a video, goes to the hospital and sneaks in (because no one is allowed to see her at that moment) dressed as a doctor to show her the video.
• In "Derek 's School of Dating", Derek finally realizes that the games he is playing with Sally aren't good and that he might lose her and asks for Casey's help. Derek admits to Sally that he fell for her and wants to make their relationship work. (Which isn't the usual Derek style). Then he comes in singing and completely lovestruck, he tells Casey to enjoy his chair.
• In "A Very Derekus Christmas", The MacDonald-Venturi's have an unexpected visitor and all of the children are gone away. They come back because of a big blizzard and discover that they are completely unprepared for Christmas. With a little help from a certain relative, Derek manages to save Christmas (or in his case, "Derekus")
• in "Adios Derek", Derek has to go to Spain with his mother and first likes it very much. After he realizes he is going to miss his friends and family, he tells Marti he will miss them all, and that he might even miss Casey.

Relationship with other characters

Casey MacDonald

Although their siblings seem to get along with each other fine, Casey and Derek, the older children do not get along at all. Casey and her battles with her new step-brother are often main points of every episode. However, it's shown in a few episodes that they don't totally dislike each other. In the episode "The Fall", Derek insists he's only helping Casey's rep because if she looks bad, he looks bad, but it's made pretty obvious that Lizzie's statement, "She's your sister too," actually got to him. He also bails her out of trouble in "The Poxfather". He is quicker to help, however, when he gets something out of it too. Although, as the show advances, it's shown that Derek is actually starting to have a closer relationship with Casey. Same as Derek, Casey knows when her stepbrother is not playing and needs help. At home mostly what Casey fights for is for the Venturi and the MacDonald family to have the same power over the house. In an episode where Derek finds out that Casey's new boyfriend is cheating on her, Derek is quick to rescue Casey and reveal what a jerk her boyfriend is. Through the whole episode, he is pondering whether to do "the right thing" to help Casey, and in the end, he does. Now they get along a little better than they did in the earlier days of their parent's marriage but they still fight quite a bit but tend to work together more after having gone through much together.

Lizzie MacDonald

Derek and Lizzie have an unspoken "live and let live" policy. They rarely interact, but neither does one of them have a problem with the other. They could potentially be close without Casey standing between them, but they have an understanding that for right now, this is how it is. In "The Fall", Derek is unsympathetic toward Casey's plight until Lizzie comes to him and begs on Casey's behalf. He does act brotherly towards her and considers her his sister. He also coaches her in hockey, and ends up hugging her and calling her "Super Lizzie". Also, when he offers to help her more, she asks if it's as her coach or stepbrother, and he replies: as your big brother. He does mention in "When Derek Met Sally" that he likes being her step-brother. Derek never teases Lizzie like he does to Casey and Edwin, or love her like he loves Marti.

Marti Venturi

Though Derek doesn't seem much like an older brother in most respects, he does have the older-brother instincts when it comes to Marti. Derek would do nearly anything for Marti - including dressing up as a princess. He also comes to her rescue when Casey doesn't know what to do when Marti eats mysterious berries in the episode, "The Wedding", in "The Lies My Brother Told Me" when Casey says that the fake dog died and Marti got upset, Derek immediately picks her up and tells her he was just a pretend dog to make her feel better, in "Adios Derek" Marti gives him the silent treatment which seems to upset him, she drew a picture for him and this seemed to make him more upset. Derek and Marti have a really special relationship. Derek usually doesn't understand why Marti likes Casey and sometimes considers her a "liability" when he and Casey are competing, but he always forgives Marti and always lets her try again. They call each other Smarti and Smerek, and they have a secret handshake.

George Venturi

Derek 's father, George, always seems to have to discipline Derek. Derek often makes smart-alec remarks to his smart lawyer father. However, in most episodes, Derek and George have a decently normal father-son relationship, although George never hesitates in accusing Derek for all his problems. But usually Derek gets him to take his side in argument with Casey.

George is like Derek in many ways, he likes sports, he will normally get a burp in at the total gross-out contest, and he respects the fact that Edwin and Derek don't want to be turned into "girls". But he also doesn't mind the changes Casey is making, which Derek will not accept. It is, however, obvious, that Derek has at least resigned himself to living with it. In the episode "the Room", Derek admits that he's never seen his father happier, and this makes him rethink his own position about his bedroom. He also suggests that he really does think a great deal about his Dad, saying, "Your Mom was lucky to have married my Dad."

George often accidentally gives Derek ideas that he shouldn't give, demonstrated in the episode "Rumor Mill" when he tells Derek about how he used to break up with his girlfriend right before Valentine's day to avoid buying her a gift. There are times when Nora questions things he has allowed his children to do in the past, an example being scary movies.

George and Derek do not have many "father-son" moments, but in the episode "Mice and Men", after trying for a long time to impress Kendra by being serious and well-behaved, they do share a moment when George tells Derek he would like it better if Derek went back to being himself.

Nora MacDonald

In "Babe Raider", Derek makes the comment to his father that "I like her, Dad, but you married her." Derek thinks Nora is a good person, but he really didn't want her to move into his house, bringing two daughters and all their feminist ideas. While Nora always takes Casey's side in arguments and won't even consider Derek 's point, she usually tries to reason with him about her points. Derek sees Nora as Casey's tool to get what she wants in the house.

Although, in the episode 'Slacker Mom', Derek refers to Nora as "the best step-mom in all of Canada" and then he goes to help her out at the school's funfair, showing that he actually respect her and love her as a step-mom.

Edwin Venturi

Derek often appears to be treating Edwin like a slave, especially in the first season, but as the series progresses, it becomes apparent that he really does love Edwin as a brother. It is stated in the episode "Bully Brothers" that Derek has never actually physically harmed Edwin. In this episode, he attempts to teach Edwin to stand up for himself.

He often gives Edwin advice (mostly on girls, demonstrated in "Derek's School of Dating" and "He Shoots, She Scores"). In the episode "It's Our Party", he tells Edwin that it's all right to be scared of girls, and that it's normal, though he later confides in Casey that "I lied to Edwin and told him I was a loser like him".

Kendra Mason

Kendra is Derek's ex-girlfriend. In episode "Dating Game", Kendra helps Derek's stepsister, Casey, to get a boyfriend. And Derek and Kendra share a kiss in this episode. He feels she calls him too much, and tries to avoid her in "Dinner Guest" and "Misadventures in Babysitting", stating he doesn't do tears.

Sally

Sally is currently Derek's girlfriend. They met in the episode "When Derek Meets Sally." He tends to listen to and obey Sally more readily than anyone seen on the show so far. He has a hard time expressing his feelings for her, demonstrated in the episode, "Open Mic plight", when she asks him to write her a song if he can't find the words. They break-up when Sally states that she will attend college in Vancouver; they get back together but break up for good when Sally actually goes to Vancouver.