Dani Harmer

Tracy Beaker, played by actress Dani Harmer, is the main (and title) character throughout The Story of Tracy Beaker and ''Tracy Beaker Returns. She made her first appearance during the first episode of The Story of Tracy Beaker'', which aired on 8 July 2002, in which she returns to care after an unsuccessful fostering.

After appearing in all five series of "The Story of Tracy Beaker" and continuing to appear in all three series of "Tracy Beaker Returns", Harmer announced that she would not be returning to the series in order to pursue other acting work. Therefore, the character departed the series in the final episode of "Tracy Beaker Returns", aired 23 March 2012.

Tracy Beaker is the main character of the original series, despite taking less prominent roles in the later series of the show. She resided in a care home (first Stowey House and then Elm Tree House), affectionately nicknamed "The Dumping Ground", and was a resident there for some time. Tracy is a tomboy with behavioural problems, probably a consequence of her mother's abandonment of her and failure to show an interest in her. Known for her lies which exaggerate her mother's fame and fortune, she tried to convince herself continually her mother would one day appear. She was often reluctant to show her emotions, attributing tears to hayfever. In later series, writer Cam Lawson (portrayed by Lisa Coleman) and her new husband Gary adopted Tracy. Tracy disliked Gary at first, as she considered him an intruder on her life with Cam, although the series ended with them on good terms.

At the beginning of "Tracy Beaker Returns", Tracy had written and was promoting her new autobiography, "Who Cares", when she was arrested and brought into police custody after it came to light that the book was published by using Cam's credit card without permission. At the police station, she met resident, Liam O'Donovan (Richard Wisker) and head careworker, Mike Milligan (Connor Byrne). Cam withdraw her accusation of fraud and Tracy was cleared of all charges, but was ordered to undergo community service by writing a column for the local newspaper. Finding herself threatened by her adopted mother's angry answerphone messages, she returned to Elm Tree House seeking solace in Mike, who offered her a job as a careworker.

Although her new career did not begin well, she soon began to improve as a careworker, although her actions put her boss Mike's career in jeopardy after a protest she led resulted in Lily Kettle (Jess Williams) falling off the roof. Also, Tracy finds it hard to cope when Cam goes to New York, and ends up suffering a panic attack. Following this, Tracy continued working at Elm Tree House, using amateur detective skills to unmask new careworker Denis Stockle as a smoker, sustaining minor injuries falling down stairs in panics, and meeting her childhood rival Justine Littlewood (Montana Thompson) again.

The final episode saw Tracy preparing to leave Elm Tree House to leave for work in another career home with better pay, soon after gaining a qualification as a care worker. After causing an accident which resulted in a roof collapsing on Mike, and making sure everybody was alright, she left Elm Tree House for the last time.