Dewey Finn

"You guys, all I can say is, let's rock."

- Dewey Finn Dewey Finn is the main human protagonist in the 2003 movie, School Of Rock.

He is portrayed by Jack Black.

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.

The next day, Principal Rosalie does not want to let the field trip go to waste as planned, and prepares to send Dewey's class to a fine arts performance as a show of good will to the upset parents. The students are able to convince the bus driver to take them to get Dewey before Rosalie and the other parent chaperons get on the bus. They wake Dewey and collect their instruments and set off for the show. Ned, also interested in seeing Dewey perform and recalling his own music past, breaks up with Patty. Rosalie and the parents then discover the students missing and race to the Battle of the Bands as well.

Dewey and the students take the stage as the band "School of Rock" as the parents file into the venue. They play a song that is well received by the crowd, with Rosalie and the parents recognizing the talent in their children. Though No Vacancy wins the battle, the audience cheers for School of Rock for an encore. A few weeks later, Dewey and Ned have worked together to open an after-school program to continue to teach rock music to the students as well as newer students just starting on instruments. Thanks to battle of the bands they have a lot of potential gigs and record offers that Summer made the deals on her cell phone.