Friends: Uzo Eleanor Shellstrop Tahani Al-Jamil Jason Mendoza
Played by: William Jackson Harper
Personality: Chidi is a kind and extremely intelligent individual. He is passionate about moral philosophy and ethics, constantly quoting famous philosophers and putting many of the scenarios he and others get into under a philosophical microscope. Chidi is easily prone to becoming anxious and nervous when under pressure, leading to him getting numerous stomachaches. He loves teaching, and though Eleanor adds to his stress and annoyance, he genuinely enjoys teaching her how to be a good person. Like Tahani, he enjoys the fine arts, such as reading poetry and impressionist paintings. Chidi has a huge flaw, however, that being his crippling indecisiveness. He is practically incapable of making quick, snap decisions, needing to deliberate over and over again for even the smallest things. His overwhelming knowledge of ethics often caused him to obsess over whether even his most insignificant actions were deemed ethical, such as telling his friend he liked his boots when in fact he hated them, even going as far as to admit to his friend months later after his surgery that he was lying. Though he is well-meaning, Chidi's hesitance to make decisions ultimately lead to him torturing those around him and would eventually cause his death. His inability to take a definite stance is even shown in is work, as his manuscript on ethics was so long, confusing, and inconsistent that it took Michael (who can read all of humanity's literature in just an hour) two weeks to finish it, though Michael was likely exaggerating for the sake of torturing Chidi. Despite this, with the help of Eleanor, Chidi begins to understand his issues and attempts to resolve them.
Origin: Chidi was born in Nigeria and raised in Senegal. He was a Professor of Moral Philosophy and worked in several countries, including periods teaching at the Sorbonne in Paris, France (where Tahani was a student, though presumably not in his course) and at St. John's University in Sydney, Australia.
Facts: Chidi is unique in that unlike Eleanor, Tahani & Jason, he made a genuine and sincere effort in life to be an ethical and good person. However, his rigidness in the pursuit of what would be "Right" and his inability to make decisions out of fear of making the "Wrong" choice caused incredible suffering to all those around him, which landed him in "The Bad Place". Have a unnamed dog who got lost before he getting a chance to name it. Chidi suffers from a condition called "Directional Insanity" and once got lost on an escalator. A recurring joke is that Chidi in multiple iterations of Michael's attempts think he's in the bad place for drinking almond milk. From his point of view, everyone around him is speaking French because the neighborhood Michael created translates everything into the language each individual person is most comfortable with. He probably doesn't need it to understand the other humans, as he evidently spoke English well enough to teach at English-speaking universities, though communicating with the other neigborhood residents (who may not speak human language at all) may be a different matter. Despite being a Professor of Moral Philosophy and so in theory the human with the best chance of realising that "The Good Place" is really The Bad Place, in all of Michael's 802 attempts, he is never the one who figures it out. He frequently gets stomach aches when confronted with choices or stressful situations. He once missed his mother's back surgery because he promised his landlord's nephew that he would help him program his phone on the day of her surgery. When he mentions that he briefly taught at a university in Brisbane, Australia, he correctly uses the local pronunciation "BRIZ-bun", rather than the common American mistake of pronouncing the name "Bris-BANE".
