| “ | I am over it, seriously, I'm in love with you, you just wanna be friends and I'm totally cool with living with that constant pain. | „ |
| ~ Freddie's first appearance in the series |
Fredward "Freddie" Benson (born on February 4, 1994) is Carly Shay's best friend and neighbour. He is the tech producer of iCarly, and the oldest member of the iCarly gang. He lives across the hall from Carly in Bushwell Plaza, in apartment 8D. Freddie is portrayed by Nathan Kress.
He has a crush on Carly and has asked her out many times. He has more of a love/hate relationship with Sam but in a few episodes they kissed.
Personality
Freddie is very intelligent and is shown to be a bit of a "geeky, but cool" person who can get excited about anything that has to do with technology. He is also a member of the A.V. Club in school, along with being a fan of World of Warlords (parody of World of Warcraft). Because of his love for computers, he became iCarly's technical producer, the one who builds and operates the technical equipment on iCarly. Examples of such equipment are the green screen, the flat screen monitor (which he made move 18% faster), Sam's remote, and various special effects.
Freddie does have a somewhat devious side, especially when he wants to get back at Carly or Sam for something. This was shown in iStage An Intervention and iHire An Idiot. Freddie likes to believe that he is "bad", but his pranks and wrongdoings usually backfire somehow, leaving him as squeaky-clean as ever.
Freddie shares Spencer Shay's enthusiasm for Galaxy Wars (parody of Star Wars). His interest is also shown in the decoration of his room and the fan-talk they share after Spencer buys a "Proton Cruiser" spaceship. In [[iHeart Art]] and [[iWas A Pageant Girl]], he mentioned that he visits the Galaxy Wars Convention, and he has also been shown to have a laser gun and a stun blazer (which he shocked himself with when he thought he was dreaming). He also shares Spencer's love for World of Warlords as evidenced in [[iStart a Fanwar]].
In iFence, it was shown he has great talent for fencing - just like his ancestors and his mother. However, his fencing has not been mentioned since, and it is likely he quickly lost interest in it. His mother also takes him to different sports activities, like synchronized swimming or tennis, much to his embarrassment. Interestingly, in numerous episodes, he's holding a fork or a pen with his left hand. In iFence, however, he is shown fencing with his right hand, which has led fans to think that he might be ambidextrous.
He is the only person in the cast who is shown to be multi-lingual, although Sam has demonstrated fluency in Italian (she said it is because her mom ''really'' likes Italian guys). Besides being able to speak fluent Spanish (he often has random Spanish outbursts, see below), he also speaks some French, as shown in the episode iHate Sam's Boyfriend. It is unknown why he's multi-lingual. Some iCarly fans theorize that it has something to do with the tracking chip that Freddie's mom put in his head. (Freddie began an explanation in [[iGoodbye]] as to why he speaks Spanish so randomly, but he never finishes it.)
In some episodes, Freddie shows a rare case of somewhat violent and mean thoughts. In iWon't Cancel The Show, he is shown to be shaking in laughter at Gibby's discomfort of having to brush his teeth with mustard repeatedly. When Sam bothers him in [[iSell Penny-Tees]], he slowly picks up a knife, but stops himself. In iPity The Nevel, he wanted Nevel to drink from the shoe Sam's foot had "been sweating in for over a year." In iOMG, he seems pretty amused by the fact that Sam posted the (obviously mean) pictures of what she'd drawn on Gibby's forehead on the internet.
Freddie lives with his overprotective mother [[Marissa Benson]], who frequently embarrasses him. In [[iMove Out]], Freddie gets a little too irked with his mom's behavior and moves out. At the end of the episode, he comes back on the condition that she never embarrass him in public again, and that she unlocks all the TV channels, although Marissa is hesitant to unlock the nature channel. As mentioned in [[iDate Sam & Freddie]], he knows his mom put a chip in his head. In a recent iCarly.com interview with [[T-Bo]], Freddie confesses to T-Bo that he has stage fright, although in [[iCook]], Freddie (when he found out he was on TV), said "I'm Freddie Benson" in a nervous and rather amusing way.
In various episodes, he has been shown to be a caring person and true friend to both Carly and Sam. For example, in [[iReunite with Missy]], he saw Sam's need for help, and secretly got rid of Missy for her by giving away his cruise vacation to Missy (also removing the problem of his absence from the webshow). On numerous other occasions, he does whatever he can to help both of his friends, and sometimes Carly's brother Spencer as well.
When he was younger, Freddie was portrayed as a bit of a wimp, easily pinned by Carly. Later on, Freddie developed greater physical strength. In [[iScream on Halloween]], he ripped a door knob off with his bare hands (it was an accident). In [[iThink They Kissed]], when Carly pinned him down, Freddie easily reversed it. In Season 4, his biceps looked a lot thicker than in the past. This is due to Nathan Kress working out more. (In iOMG, it took Sam a little longer than before to beat him in arm wrestling.)