A breakout character is a fictional character in different episodes, books or other media (TV, comics, literature, games etc) that evolves from a minor role to a major role, sometimes becoming the main character of the show. In television programs, movies and other episodic media, a character that becomes the most popular, talked about, and imitated is a breakout character. Most often a breakout character in a series captures audience's imagination and popularizes it, sometimes inadvertently. Breakout characters are known to come from intended single appearances.

In some instances, particularly television, when characters have broken out from minor roles to become the center of the action, viewers have felt they received too much focus and were detrimental to the show, Break-out characters discussion thread at Sitcoms Online, started May 10, 2006; retrieved July 28, 2006. sometimes leading it to jump the shark.