Dewey Finn

School Of Rock
Guitarist Dewey Finn is voted out from the band No Vacancy, when his on-stage antics unnerve the other band members. Dewey's roommate, Ned Schneebly, pressured by his girlfriend Patty Di Marco, threatens to evict Dewey without a paying gig as he has been late on his rent. The next day, while attempting to sell guitars for rent money, Dewey takes a call for Ned from Horace Green, a nearby prestigious private preparatory school, who are looking for an immediate short-term substitute teacher. On hearing how much the teaching job pays, and desperate for money to pay off his rent, Dewey poses as Ned and takes the job.

Dewey meets Principal Rosalie "Roz" Mullins, and is introduced to the class. With no teaching experience, Dewey instructs the class to do "busy work" in order to use his time freely when not in other studies. However, the next day, Dewey overhears the class in their music studies and observes that they are competent performers, and hatches a plan to recruit the students as part of his new band as to compete against No Vacancy at an upcoming battle of the bands event. Secretly, he starts teaching many of the students on various instruments and the methods of classic rock, while having other members of the class act as groupies and roadies to help maintain the illusion that Dewey is actually teaching them for real. Through this, he helps several of the students gain confidence in their musical, soundproofing, and stage lighting skills. He also befriends Rosalie, so as to help secure the band's performance under the guise of a school field trip. At the audition for the battle, Dewey has to chase down and talk to two students when Tomika gets stage fright and Freddie accepts an invitation to come to another band's van, causing them to miss the audition period. However, Summer comes up with a plan to convince the judging panel to let them in: the kids are all a terminal disease called "Stick-it-to-da-man-neosis". Soon after, Dewey is almost exposed when Rosalie decides to see how Dewey's teaching is working for him, forcing him to teach the real material.

Dewey learns that parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for the night before the battle of the bands. On the night of the conference, Dewey's big secret is finally out when the real Ned discovers a check addressed to him from the school, and attempts to call, forcing Dewey to explain the situation what happened. He then urges Ned not to tell Patty, and then leaves, but she walks in, pressures Ned to tell what happened, and calls the police on Dewey. At the conference, Dewey is convincingly telling the parents about their students' performance in class until the police arrive, alerted by Patty. Dewey is immediately dismissed from the school and goes home to drown his sorrows.