Alex Russo's History
Alex is of Italian & Mexican descent, like her actress, Selena Gomez. In Season 1, Alex had a traditional Quinceanera like most girls of Hispanic heritage. She is usually seen with her wand in her sock or her shoe, usually a knee high boot. Alex also loves shopping and fashion and is often seen wearing peace signs along with her outfits. It is known that her hobby is poking things with a stick (as shown in the episode Racing when she pokes Justin with the Transport Stick when he's on the ground), though she hasn't been able to make money out of it yet, as she tells Dwayne Johnson in the Season 2 episode "Art Teacher".
In the Season 1 episode "Potion Commotion", she drank both halves of a love potion and became obsessed with herself (so much so that when she made a reference to herself, her head expanded). Even after the potion wore off, she expressed love towards herself by sending herself multiple amounts of flowers. Other episodes of the series sometimes show Alex to be conceited in a similar manner, though it's really only harmless fun, and she enjoys her loved ones' typical reactions to them. Alex really likes boosting up her already great self-esteem by showering herself with such things that brought about those moments. She appears to hardly ever think of anyone other than herself and can be seen occasionally as a spoiled brat, though it is quite the opposite, as she cares deeply for her family members and other close loved ones, willing to sacrifice many great things to make them happy and secure physically and mentally.
When asked by her father why she could not be more like Justin, Alex sarcastically replied in good humor, "'Cause I don't wanna grow old alone." As much as she torments and mocks him, she's said that she wants to be like him but doesn't know what to do about it. Alex is hardly ever shy when it comes to boys; she once went as far as to kiss a random boy named Matt to get back at Justin after he discovers that Alex had never had her first kiss in the season one episode "First Kiss". Matt seemed excited about the kiss after he realized what was happening, and ran after Alex when the kiss was over, suggesting that she's likely good at kissing.
Alex claims everyone takes her advice as she knows a lot about fashion, relationships, girls, and guys, but above all, she can be very sneaky and tricky. She's even willing to admit that she's usually up to no good, and feels disturbed when others say the opposite.
Her best friend since childhood is Harper (portrayed by Jennifer Stone), who often tries to keep her out of trouble. Though she continues to torment her older brother Justin, the two seem to have a close bond that neither seem to have with any other characters on the show. Her enemy since kindergarten is Gigi Hollingsworth (Skyler Samuels), ever since Gigi spilled juice on Alex's blanket and told everybody that Alex had an "accident" during nap time in their kindergarten years.
Alex often uses magic to solve her problems, which frequently ends up giving her even more problems than she began with. Her tendency to use magic without permission is often caused by her lack of work ethic and respect for the rules she deems unnecessary. Alex hardly ever considers the consequences of magic and is often unprepared when the situation goes haywire, which requires the help of her more sensible brother Justin when she finds she can't fix them by herself, often grudgingly accepting his offer to work together. In this particular everyday situation of Justin and Alex's, when Alex doesn't ask for Justin's help, he proceeds to work against her using sly ways very similar to Alex's, further emphasizing the fact that they share several qualities despite some being hidden by the other. Alex usually lets him help with much reluctance, not liking how roles are switched so easily in those times, as she's usually the one with the upper hand.
In "Wizards vs Vampires" it was revealed that Alex has a criminal record with the Wizard Police, though none apparently have forced her to do any community service to work it off or anything too major. She is very skilled at "Make-'em-Ups", when a wizard can make up their own emergency spell.
Riley (Brian Kubach) had been Alex's crush for most of the first season and manipulates Justin (who is on the baseball team with Riley) into throwing games that Alex doesn't go to so she can impress Riley and make him think she's his good luck charm. However, when Justin realises what's going on, he uses magic against Alex, so she has to contradict Justin's spells in order to be Riley's date. In the end, she cleverly manages to win the game for Riley even with Jerry and Justin's attempts to foil her magic. This further shows how skilled she can be at magic so discreetly at the baseball game when it clashes with her understanding of it. However, this is a small amount of understanding at the start of the use of magic. She had also got Riley jealous by enchanting a mannequin to come alive and date her—after he breaks up with her—in the episode "Alex's Spring Fling".
She is considered Daddy's Girl and according to her father, Jerry (David DeLuise), she uses her puppy dog eyes to get out of trouble. She can't tell when her dad's being overprotective, she just thinks he's "being crazy" and doesn't make the situation better by saying she's "growing up". In "You Can't Always Get What You Carpet", however, she tells her dad she will always be his little girl. She isn't fazed very much, if not at all when he's overprotective and still does whatever it is he doesn't want her to do. For example, in "Alex's Brother, Maximan", Jerry hears Alex tell her mom, Theresa, that her boyfriend, Dean (Daniel Samonas), wants to kiss her, and he says, "Kissing? Who are you kissing?" Later in the episode, she does kiss Dean, but when her dad questions it, she tries to change the subject.
Alex is often depicted as a slacker, somewhat more so with regular high school than in wizardry and witchcraft. If Alex does not want to do something that is school-related, she will make an excuse or scheme about why she does not want to do it, or will just simply not do it. She will often rebel against mandatory assignments with glee and has been known to avoid any ambition in attending her classes or being on time, freely admitting that she always arrives in school during the third period and never cares. It is because of this that Alex spends a lot of time in detention for tardiness and pulling pranks. Alex never likes doing work she finds unnecessary. She has even resorted to trying extreme measures in order to get out of a school project despite the cost being much greater, once going as far as attempting to injure herself on purpose by jumping off the stage after she is named as Harper's replacement as Tinker Bell in the school production of Peter Pan (this after she already auditioned to be Harper's understudy, thinking that she would not have to do anything in the play), when Harper accidentally falls off the stage during rehearsal. Art is her favorite school subject and is pretty much the only class she takes seriously and excels greatly at, being the best in her class and even being named the co-art teacher.
Alex is also often quick when making some type of excuse, such as when she almost exposed Justin as a wizard in the season one episode "The Supernatural", claiming that Justin was taking a spelling test after almost stating that he had cast a spell in order to make himself an ace baseball pitcher. At times, Alex also works together with her younger brother Max to play tricks on Justin, and they can be seen laughing together at his expense.
Despite her less than kind behavior, Alex hates "fake" people. In the season two episode "Alex Does Good", she is disgusted with the do-gooder club she is forced to join since the other members are only doing good deeds to earn awards. Later, she even refuses a ribbon to protest their behavior (though she quickly changes her mind and accepts it, when she finds out that if she doesn't participate in the "Happy Helpers Club" in every way, she'll get suspended).
Alex is also very much like her Aunt Megan, as both love art and hate hard work. In fact, Max said that Megan is just like Alex's twin, only older in "Retest", though the key difference between the two is that Alex is capable of apologizing for her actions, something that Megan never learned to do.
Despite her poor work ethics, Alex has been shown to be highly intelligent; for example, in "Don't Rain on Justin's Parade - Earth", she shows great detective skills by quickly deducing those responsible for several accounts of school property damage by simple observation when Mr. Laritate is stumped by everything.
In the movie, Alex says that Justin was everything that she ever wanted to be and she was jealous of how smart he was and how kind he is, while Justin responds in kind saying how he is jealous of how everything comes easy to her, especially magic, which is why he strives so hard to be perfect.
After her parents complain how she never has never been in any school clubs, she lied and said she was in the reading club and tried to steal the award from Justin's room and scratch out his name and put hers. Justin, however, is fed up with her always getting passed his defenses to keep her out of his room and stealing his stuff, so he created Frankie (Franken Girl) to guard his room, but Alex still managed to shut down Frankie when she figures out that Frankie's brain worked like a computer, and when Justin made Frankie immune to shutting down like a computer and cast a spell to make her think of Alex as her best friend, -much to Alex's disdain- and Alex was then forced to put up with her before noticing that Frankie fit a lot of her best friend requirements, and became fast friends with Frankie. Justin then put a spell on Frankie to like cheer-leading and she wanted Alex to be on the squad with her. It is unknown what happened to Frankie in the end.
In "Monster Hunter", Alex gets jealous of Justin when he moves forward in wizard training so she creates a spell song where she can remember the spells she learns, hopefully, to catch up with him, successfully learning a great deal more of spells. It is revealed in "Doll House" that Alex did not know she was a wizard when she was five years old, which makes fans wonder when and how she found out.
During the series finale "Who Will Be The Family Wizard", Alex nearly wins the Family Wizard Competition but sacrifices it to free a trapped Justin. While Justin wins, he gives the title of Family Wizard over to Alex as she should've won and wouldn't have been able to be with Mason Greybeck anymore as a mortal. Alex became the family wizard, but Professor Crumbs was so impressed with Justin's actions and knowledge that he made Justin a Full Wizard too and the new headmaster of WizTech. Max got the Sub Shop and Alex noted how they were all finally happy at the same time.
