Troy Bolton is the most popular guy at East High School, and captain of the varsity basketball team. He is in a relationship with Gabriella Montez. They met at a ski lodge while attending a New Year's Eve party in High School Musical, and were called on stage to sing a duet together. They exchanged cell numbers, and Gabriella later moved to Albuquerque with her mother, surprising Troy when she arrived at his school. Along with most of East High, he takes a summer job at Lava Springs, the country club owned by Sharpay and Ryan Evans' parents. Over the summer, he gets new opportunities to go to a great college, and easily obtain a basketball scholarship, but this causes jealousy in his best friend, Chad Danforth, and Gabriella starts to worry that he has forgotten about his friends. He is also friends with Jason and Zeke.
She is a smart girl, who won East High the Scholastic Decathlon in the first film. Known as the "freaky math girl" in her old schools, she appears shy and intelligent, but finds a new popularity for herself at East High. She is in a relationship with Troy Bolton. Along with most of East High, she takes a summer job at Lava Springs (as a lifeguard), the country club owned by Sharpay and Ryan Evans' parents. As the summer progresses, she feels that Troy has become a different person when he gets new opportunities with his promotion. The pair briefly split up, but quickly get back together. Her best friend is Taylor McKessie. She is also best friends with Kelsi Nielson and Martha Cox.
She plans to spend the summer lounging around her parents' country club, Lava Springs, and winning the country club's mid-summer talent show -- AGAIN. She has a noticeable crush on Troy Bolton, and is always trying to steal him away from Gabriella and his friends. It is also said that she also has a crush on Zeke. Her plan is taken to a whole new notch when she promotes Troy to be an honorary member of the club, and cancels the Wildcats' performance in the talent show. She is convinced that Troy and Gabriella singing together could steal her spotlight -- after the pair previously beat her and her brother out to star in the lead roles for the Winter Musical of "Twinkle Town". Although she is an antagonist, she is portrayed as both friendly and mean.
Chad is Troy's best friend, and is also very good friends with Jason and Zeke. He has a summer job at Lava Springs as a waiter and part-time golf caddy, and is saving the money from his job to get a car to impress his girlfriend Taylor, whom he appears to be in a serious relationship with. After Troy gets promoted, Chad becomes a little jealous of him and hated the way Troy is treating his friends. He begins to drift away from him, and as they begin to separate from each other he becomes great friends with Ryan Evans by baseball together. He and Troy make up near the end and it seems that he, Troy and Ryan are best friends at the end of the movie whilst singing "All for One".
Ryan Evans, is Sharpay's fraternal twin brother, who is stuck between being an antagonist, and a male protagonist. Throughout the movies, we see that he owes his total devotion to Sharpay to his utter stupidity; In High School Musical, he is unable to read the word "Drama". He can be very sneaky and cunning at times, but occasionally has a hard time keeping up with schemes that are not his own. Over the course of the film, he finds his own person, and abandons his place as Sharpay's "lackey", even becoming friends with the Wildcats. It was implied that he had a crush on Gabriella on the official website and throughout the film, later to be confirmed by the director..
Taylor is Gabriella's best friend. She is also friends with Kelsi Neilsen and Martha Cox. She is captain of the school Scholastic Decathlon team, and seems to be just as intelligent in math and science. She has a summer job at Lava Springs as an Activities Coordinator. She always sees through Sharpay, and tends to be cynical when it comes to boys. This cynicism appears to have lessened since she and Chad began dating.
Kelsi-is a student at East High. She is a pianist, and is hired as such at Lava Springs. She is best friends with Gabriella, Martha and Taylor. She has also developed a crush on Jason Cross.
Martha-is a student at East High. She enjoys hip-hop dance. Her summer job at Lava Springs is in Food Preparations. She is best friends with Gabriella, Kelsi, and Taylor.