Who is Chidi Anagonye in The Good Place?

Show

The Good Place

Played by

William Jackson Harper

First episode

“Everything Is Fine”Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 19, 2016

Role

Main cast

Network

NBC

Occupation

Professor of ethics and moral philosophy

Show run

2016 to 2020

Also known as

Chidi

Chidi Anagonye spent his life studying how to be good and still cannot make a simple decision. Played by William Jackson Harper, he is the anxious moral philosophy teacher whose lessons, and stomachaches, power The Good Place.

On The Good Place, Chidi Anagonye's story runs through Eleanor Shellstrop (Soulmate), Michael (Ethics Student), Tahani Al-Jamil (Friend), Jason Mendoza (Ethics Student), and Janet (Friend).

Who is Chidi Anagonye?

Chidi is a French-speaking ethics professor of Nigerian and Senegalese background who taught moral philosophy in France and Australia. He arrives in the Good Place at the same time as Eleanor and is told that she is his soulmate. When Eleanor admits she was sent there by mistake, Chidi faces a classic ethical dilemma: report her, or help her become someone who deserves to stay.

He chooses to help, and his ethics lessons become the framework of the series. Through him, the show walks viewers through Aristotle, Kant, utilitarianism, the trolley problem, and much more, usually while Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani find new ways to derail class.

Personality and comedy

Chidi's defining trait is that he cannot make a decision. He once spent three years tormented by a tiny white lie about a coworker's boots, he can turn a simple choice into a crisis, and moral stress gives him stomachaches. Even his death on Earth is a punchline: an air conditioner fell on him, and the show ties the accident to his chronic dithering.

William Jackson Harper plays all of this with a precise, nerdy sweetness, and the show treats Chidi's anxiety with affection rather than mockery. His friendship with Eleanor, the rule-breaker to his rule-follower, is the heart of the show, and over time each of them pulls the other toward the middle.

Key storylines

In the first season Chidi accidentally kills Janet while trying to stop Jason from pressing her off switch, and keeping that secret makes him miserable. After the twist that they are in the Bad Place, he keeps teaching ethics to Michael and the others, and his lessons help a demon learn to care. The group's escape and their time on Earth send him into a full existential breakdown, including one memorable lecture delivered over a pot of chili.

His romance with Eleanor survives hundreds of reboots, but in the season three finale he agrees to have his memories of her erased so he can take part in a new experiment without spoiling it. Season four returns those memories, giving him the answer he spent his life searching for, and in the finale he decides for himself when it is time to leave the Good Place.

Behind the scenes and legacy

William Jackson Harper was cast in February 2016 for a character originally named Chris, who became Chidi. The role made him a breakout star, and in 2020 he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Chidi is often credited with making moral philosophy fun for a mainstream audience, and "The Trolley Problem," a Chidi-centered episode, won a Hugo Award.

Chidi Anagonye: frequently asked questions

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