A cynical teenage girl who speaks her mind and hides her feelings, Daria is the center of her own little universe. Her interests include literature, writing dark and disturbing stories, Sick Sad World, and making a running commentary on the various absurdities of life.

Daria's best friend is Jane Lane. Their friendship is based on a mutual interest in pizza, Sick Sad World, and holding up the world to satire and ridicule. They grow very close over their high school years, and it would not be exaggerating to say that each of them is the most important person in the other's life.

She once had a crush on Jane's brother Trent, but got over it and ended up dating Tom Sloane, Jane's ex. While this created a rift in her friendship with Jane, they were able to get past it. Daria's relationship with Tom has been rocky, due in large part to Daria's difficulty in trusting another person, but they were able to survive the rough points until Daria decided to end the relationship shortly before she graduated high school.

During their relationship, the subject of sex came up, and after six to ten months Daria felt ready to take the plunge - but backed out at the last minute, saying that she was scared of that much intimacy. Her relationship with Tom survived this hurdle, even though she thought it wouldn't. They never did have sex.

Her abrasive personality and disdain for those she considers shallow make her a difficult person to get to know. However, the few close friends she has know that she is of good character and a worthwhile person. Daria has experienced difficulty relating to her own family, particularly her sister Quinn, but has let down her barriers a bit as time goes on. Her battles with her mother generally have to do with the fact that Helen concentrates more on work than motherhood. Daria seems to feel her father Jake is simply clueless, but she knows that he does his best and even admires him a bit.

Daria is a very intelligent girl, and has shown unusual ability (particularly in reading and writing) from a very young age, but is also socially awkward. She cares little about what others think of her, and judges herself (and others) by her own, fairly rigid standards.

She enjoys writing, particularly short stories. Her works include a satirical spy adventure featuring Melody Powers, an optimistic (!) story about her family about five or ten years in the future, and a piece about a flesh-eating virus that she submitted for publication. It was rejected.

She nearly always wears a green jacket, mustard yellow T-shirt, black skirt, and oversized black boots. She also wears thick glasses and is nearly blind without them. She is five feet two inches tall and her shoe size is 6 1/2 B. She does not own a fur bikini.

Daria has shown a cynical, antisocial streak almost all her life. As a child her favorite activity was reading - she was into such books as "Black Beauty" by the time she was in first grade, and had moved onto George Orwell by the time she was twelve. She and Quinn have never gotten along well even as kids (especially as kids) and have given a number of babysitters a very hard time over the years. When she was around ten or twelve years old, Daria stayed at Camp Grizzly, and was known as "The Weird Kid".

On one particular night in her early childhood, Daria overheard a loud argument between her parents about how she was failing to fit in at school. Frightened, she hid in a large cardboard box for the night, and eventually forgot about the incident. Years later, her memory was stirred when her family got a new refrigerator and the box was left in the front yard.

Daria applies to several colleges, and is accepted to Raft in Boston, but is rejected at Bromwell, the college Tom will attend. At first Daria is disappointed, but comes to realize she was more interested in Raft than Bromwell in the first place. She decides to break up with Tom in part because they're going to different schools, in part because they're getting bored with each other, and perhaps in part because she was never comfortable about how their relationship started in the first place.

She encourages Jane to apply to Boston Fine Arts College, and is overjoyed when Jane is accepted.

Daria is presented with the Lawndale High School "Dian Fossey Award for Dazzling Academic Achievement in the Face of Near Total Misanthropy" at her graduation ceremony, and makes the following acceptance speech:

"Um… thank you. I'm not much for public speaking. Or much for speaking. Or, come to think of it, much for the public. And I'm not very good at lying. So let me just say that, in my experience, high school sucks. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have started advanced placement classes in pre-school so I could go from eighth grade straight to college. However, given the unalterable fact that high school sucks, I'd like to add that if you're lucky enough to have a good friend and a family that cares, it doesn't have to suck quite as much.

"Otherwise, my advice is: Stand firm for what you believe in, until and unless logic and experience prove you wrong. Remember: when the emperor looks naked, the emperor is naked. The truth and a lie are not sort of the same thing. And there's no aspect, no facet, no moment of life, that can't be improved with pizza.

"Thank you."

Daria moved to Lawndale from Highland, where she was acquainted with two moronic boys named Beavis and Butt-head.