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Charles 'Charlie' Young, Special Aide to the Chief of Staff and former Personal Aide to the President is a fictional character played by Dulé Hill on the television serial drama The West Wing.
Beginning in season one, Charlie is President Bartlet's "body man", his personal assistant and works closely with the President's Secretary to ensure the smooth operation of the Oval Office. He originally came to the White House to get a part-time job as a messenger, but was picked by Ms. Laguardia (Debbie Fiderer, later to become the President's secretary) to replace the President's previous personal aide, and was interviewed by Josh Lyman for the job.
Charlie's mother was a police officer in Washington D.C. who was killed in the line of duty (revealed in the episode "A Proportional Response"). He takes care of his sister, Deena (known later as Deanna), as his father is "long gone". Though he had high grades at school, Charlie decided not to go to college until Deena finished school. However, during Season 2, he decided to take courses at Georgetown University while still keeping up with the demands of his job.
After graduating from Georgetown, Charlie was forced to make good on a promise he made to the President to move on and leave his job as the President's bodyman once he graduated. Charlie found it hard to leave the White House and began passing his resume around the West Wing. C.J. Cregg, the newly appointed Chief of Staff asked Charlie to stay in the West Wing as a special aide to the Chief of Staff. A man named Curtis replaced Charlie as President Bartlet's bodyman.
Charlie began dating Zoey Bartlet, the President's youngest daughter, in Season 1. Because of this, he was the target of an assassination attempt by a white supremacist group at the end of Season 1. He and Zoey later broke up, though he often professed his love for her, much to her chagrin (and secret delight). As Season 5 progressed, we saw that Charlie briefly had a new love interest; though there is no clear indication on whether Charlie and Zoey will reunite, they were sighted sitting next to one another at Zoey's birthday party in the East Room watching Penn and Teller burn a flag.
Charlie is also a mentor to Anthony, a troubled young man whose "Big Brother", Simon Donovan (a Secret Service Agent assigned to protect C.J. Cregg), was killed (at the end of Season 3).
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