Manny Santos (Degrassi: The Next Generation)
Manuella "Manny" Santos is a fictional high schooler on the Degrassi: The Next Generation television series. She is portrayed by Cassie Steele. Manny began as a flat character in the first two seasons of DTNG, more or less playing Emma Nelson's sidekick. In season three, Manny debuted a shocking new look and personality. Since then, she has developed the reputation of being the "school slut", being called that by almost every student at one point or another, including her own father. Drama has seemed to follow this young girl everywhere around the halls of Degrassi.
Season 1
Manny and the Spirit Squad
Manny's foreshadowing desire to be popular first appears in the episode, Wannabe. When Paige decides to set up a Spirit Squad, Manny defies Emma's hatred for anyone wanting to be "sexist," and signs up for it. When Emma threatens to write an article in the Grape Vine revealing the sexist and archaic elements of cheerleading, Manny is torn. She begins hanging out with Paige and Hazel, two of the "most popular kids at Degrassi." This is the first development Manny gets on the show aside from being Emma's sidekick. She even sticks up to Emma, accusing her of being boring for the first time. This scene with Emma and a later scene in the episode where she stands up to Paige foreshadow future turbulences between Manny and them. Emma eventually sees Manny's side of the story, and Manny becomes a cheerleader after all.
Season 2
A crush on Craig
Manny and Emma both fell for Craig Manning, a new student in Grade 9. While it was Emma who initially seemed to be winning Craig's affections, Craig surprised both girls by asking Manny to dance at an '80s dance for upperclassmen which Manny and Emma snuck into. Manny and Craig went on their first date to a carnival. While Manny was head over heels, Craig was put off by how much Manny reminded him of his little sister, Angela (this is believed to be an inside joke by the writers; Angela is portrayed by Cassie Steele's real-life sister Alex Steele). He broke it off with her harshly, leaving Manny crushed.
Meddling at the Wedding
When Spike and Snake's wedding approaches Manny notices Sean Cameron's lingering affection for Emma. She discusses Sean's affection with Emma, and encourages her to invite him to the wedding. When Emma refuses, Manny takes matters into her own hands, and secretly gives him an invitation. When things get hectic, Manny reveals she invited him which angers Emma. The two exchange insults about meddling (Emma meddles by telling Snake that Spike is pregnant and is considering an abortion), but quickly cool off.
Thusly, Manny is the key catalyst to Sean and Emma's second relationship.
Season 3
Manny debuts her new look
At the beginning of her freshman year, Manny was finally starting to come into her own. A soccer player named Sully caught Manny's eye, but her attempts to get his attention went unnoticed. While bemoaning her "cute" reputation with Paige, the older girl told her that if she didn't like her image, she should simply change it. Manny took the advice and her new appearance took "sexy" to the edge. While she was ogled by the entire male student body for wearing visible thongs and skimpy tops, Emma and Liberty feared she was sacrificing her dignity. Manny saw it as jealousy, and was particularly indignant to Emma's reaction, telling her to support her like Manny had always supported Emma over the years.
The Ashley-Craig-Manny triangle
Sully quickly became Manny's "boyfriend," but she grew agitated of his inattentiveness. Her focus resumed on Craig, who was dating Ashley Kerwin at the time. After a misunderstanding with Ashley led to a big fight and break up at Paige's birthday party, Manny met Craig to console him. He took her back to his room where they proceeded to have sex.
Craig kept up his adulterous relationship with Manny even after making up and getting back together with Ashley. One night, while trying to hook Emma up with a new boy named Chris, the two girls attended a rave. With Ashley out of town, Craig showed up, on Manny's invitation, and they proceeded to hook up again. Manny took Craig back to Emma's room in the private basement of her house. After leaving the rave alone, Emma discovered Manny and Craig making out on her bed. She kicked Craig out and refused to talk to Manny. The next day at school, the girls had a particularly ugly fight in which Manny called Emma "the prude princess" and Emma called Manny "the school slut."
Manny was losing her friends left and right, but she continued to date Craig. Over Christmas break, Manny and Craig met up in secret. She begged him to break up with Ashley for her but Craig said he couldn't. After a talk with Caitlin Ryan, Craig realized he loved Manny and went to the ice arena to tell her he would break up with Ashley. When Craig went to Ashley's house she gave him a guitar and so he didn't break up with her. Manny was unaware of this as Craig had told her he ended things with Ashley. Thinking they were history, Manny made a comment to Ashley about dating Craig. A bewildered and upset Ashley broke up with Craig. Manny soon followed suit.
Pregnancy
A nasty flu was spreading across Degrassi once school was back in session, and Manny appeared to be coming down with it. She felt sick and vomited several times. It soon became obvious, however, that Manny wasn't sick--she was pregnant. Not knowing who else to tell, she confided in Spike Nelson, Emma's mother, who had Emma at around the same age as Manny. Spike comforted her, and even Emma and Craig were supportive. Craig, it seemed, was maybe a little too supportive. His fantasies of raising a family drove Manny to the breaking point when she realized she wasn't ready to have a child. Her conservative Filipino family had led her previously to see her cousin sent to a convent in the Philippines when she had gotten pregnant. She decided to tell her mother that she was pregnant, and also that she wanted an abortion. Craig flew off the hinges, his dream of a family shattered. Manny's decision also further harmed her fragile relationship with Emma, who likened Manny's abortion to Spike getting an abortion.
Things only got worse when an angry Ashley announced the scandalous pregnancy to the entire student body in the cafeteria. This heightened Manny's new reputation as the school slut.
In the United States, the network that carries DTNG (The-N, a sub-channel of Noggin), re-edited the the two-part episode "Accidents Will Happen" dealing with Manny's pregnancy and abortion. The result was two mini-episodes that only contained the b-plots. The original episodes didn't air in the United States due to the controversial subject matter, but they are scheduled to air during The N's "Every Episode of Degrassi Ever" Marathon.
Manny finished the school year depressed and, for the most part, anti-social. JT, who had been harboring feelings for her since the beginning of the year, attempted to date her, though to no avail. Eventually, however, the two attended the end of year school dance together, and began dating.
Season 4
Dealing With JT
To celebrate the beginning of a new school year (and to possibly forget about Liberty's unrequited love for Chris which was wrecked by Emma), Liberty invites Manny, J.T., and Toby over to her house for a party in her jacuzzi. While sipping drinks, J.T. jokes around and is ready to jump into the jacuzzi when Liberty's precocious little brother, Danny, pantses him. It is revealed that J.T. doesn't quite measure up to Manny's old boyfriend, Craig. She begins chatting with him more which upsets J.T. who sees Craig as a threat. Manny grows annoyed of J.T.'s constant childish antics, and Liberty suggests she breaks it off with him.
J.T., however, has plans of his own. Danny orders him a penis pump to help him measure up to Craig. The night he invites her over to finally have sex is consequently the night she wants to break it off. Manny gets nervous and decides to leave the room to get the courage to break up with him. He expects her to be in the bathroom, and when she she opens the door seconds later, the penis pump sits on his lap below his shocked face. Manny leaves quickly, and the next morning, breaks it off with J.T. She, despite evidence that she wasn't too happy with his penis, claims that he's too immature for her.
Waning friendships
Her friendship with Emma continued to be strained, especially as Emma became more of a social climber. She scolded Emma for stealing Chris away from Liberty just because she didn't want to be succeeded by "unpopular" Liberty. When Emma contracted gonorrhea through oral sex with Jay Hogart, Manny informed a boy who was meant to share a kiss with Emma in a school production of Emma's situation.
Of her original group of friends, only her relationship with Toby remained steady, with her comforting him following the shooting and the death of Toby's friend Rick, as well as patching up the friendship between him and JT. She even danced with him at a Degrassi function (though the latter may have been to make up for some of her poor behavior around that same time).
The Manny-Paige feud
In the meantime, Manny focused on cheer squad, but tensions continued to rise between her and Paige. Paige's boyfriend, Spinner Mason, grew attracted to Manny, and eventually Paige and Spinner broke up over it. Manny then began dating Spinner, which was obviously a sore spot for Paige. While Paige carried on an illicit affair with student teacher Matt Oleander, Manny essentially ran the squad as Paige took all the credit. Paige and Manny had an infamous physical fight in the hall, where Matt and Ms. Hatzilakos pulled the two girls apart. Manny cracked, "Hey Mr. Pedophile... I mean Oleander." From there, Matt would get fired. Manny and her friends Darcy and Chante also broke Paige's leg by dropping her in a cheer routine in front of the entire school: Paige, far from finished, retaliated by nearly stripping Manny during Senior Prom.
Troubled relationship with Spinner
By the end of her sophomore year, Manny, still battling insecurity, broke it off with Spinner, even though he wanted desperately to stay with her. She had a flirtation with a new kid named Chester that essentially went nowhere but led her to realize that even after everything that happened with Craig she had to stay true to her feelings for Spinner, though she did make him promise never to hurt her. This relationship quickly ended after Manny learned of Spinner's involvement in the school shooting.
During summer, Manny played a major part in Kevin Smith's movie being shot at the school.
Season 5
Pursuit of an Acting Career
Manny is now a junior in high school, and drama is following her now more than ever. She is pursuing a new goal of becoming an actress, battling bad decisions, and exploring old relationships as she appears to have restored her friendship with Emma. She considered plastic surgery and went so far as to make a deposit on her credit card, when her parents found out. Her father yelled at her for being a "loose girl" and a "slut." She stormed out of the house in tears and ran off to a party that Peter invited her to. After a couple of blonde girls made fun of her body, she retreated to the bar, where she proceeded to get drunk on vodka.
When Peter found her she led him off to the bathroom where Peter took a video of her flashing her breasts. Peter used this to blackmail her by emailing the video to the entire school. Her parents, fed up with Manny's promiscuous behaviour and obsession of becoming an actress, kicked her out of the house. She has been living at Emma's house ever since, with no sign of wanting to return.
Rekindling relationship with Craig
Through all of her trouble, Manny and Craig seemed to be getting close after he protected her from Peter and sympathized for her current situation. Craig later invited her to a wedding gig his band had, leading Ellie to became rudely jealous of the two and almost got into a catfight with Manny. The next day, after some confusion over feelings for Ellie, it seemed Craig still had some feelings for Manny; the two shared a romantic kiss when he visited her at home and proceeded to get back together.
Bulimia
She was very happy after her movie with Kevin Smith premiered and she even got called by Bernice Vine, the agent who had made her consider plastic surgery. With Emma's life going downhill, they both developed the disorders]] anorexia and bulimia (Emma for control, and Manny to lose weight for her audition). Manny quickly decided it was stupid, but she realized that Emma hadn't stopped. She tells Emma's parents and Emma becomes furious and tells Manny to leave, but then Emma falls to the floor and can't breathe.
Future Troubles?
As Craig leaves for his musical career, he becomes more attached to Ellie. When Manny calls to talk to him, he and Ellie are sitting around his garage chatting about nothing. When Joey comes to hand him the phone, he tells Joey to tell her they're studying. Manny senses some chemistry between Ellie, but soon drops her suspicions.
Season 6
Manny and Darcy
Manny is back on the spirit squad as the team's choreographerand this year Emma has a new romantic dilemma but Manny sticks by her side and tries her best to make this year free of "Emma Drama-rama". When a 16-year old new student named Mia Jones auditions for the squad, both Darcy and Manny are impressed with her. She is soon revealed to be a single mother. While Manny doesn't mind, Darcy becomes very judgmental towards her and despite her impressive skill, does not allow her to be on the squad. Manny won't let that decision stand, but Mia quits to avoid any problems. Manny would've quit as well had Mia not convinced her otherwise.
Spirit Squad Pictures
Captain Darcy and new sqaud member Peter get some dangerous ideas on how to raise money for the new uniforms. But their ideas make Manny question forgiving either of them. Manny tells them to stop the pictures as it is creepy however Darcy doesn't listen. Darcy: "That's why I love being captain" Manny: "Is it possible that I'm missing Paige Michalchuk?"
Degrassi Mini: Two's Company
In "Two's Company", Manny is seen watching Instant Star which airs on The N.