Steve Malek is the main antagonist of the Dodo franchise.
He is a student at O'Malley High School who is one of the most unpopular students in the school for reasons that are his own fault though he refuses to admit it. He is also the former "friend" and secret killer of Tom Toosley and the archenemy of Joe "Dodo" Connolly.
He is voiced by Matthew Jacob Morgan.
Biography[]
Background[]
Steve Malek was born at some point in the year 2010 to an unnamed mother. He has apparently been the way he is since he was a young child, this has led him to be out casted by most children who don't want to hang around with someone like Steve who hurts other people for their own amusement. This led Steve to foolishly believe that they are all horrible people who hate him for the sake of it, instead of either seeking help or making an attempt to change himself he plotted to hurt as many people as possible even those who haven't wronged him hypocritically believing he deserves to rule the weak.
In mid 2021, Steve was accepted into O'Malley high school for his undeniably impressive intelligence though the staff of course don't know about Steve nature. Similar to when he was a young child, Steve was within days was out casted by most students and even members of staff who sought to have the Headmistress expel him but couldn't get any evidence against Steve thus he was made to stay unless any evidence of misbehavior was to pop up, though the Headmistress arrogance is also to blame. He eventually met a boy name Tom Toosley whom he would start lie to about everyone hating him.
He also befriended Tom in hopes of ruining his reputation as the most popular year 10 student. Eventually, Steve manipulated Tom to cheat on his girlfriend Mellisa Barnet by claiming "why have one when you can have two Tom" just to complicate Tom's school life even more. Tom ended up making the mistake of dating a girl from another school named Tash Coffey, this led to a fight between both girls which hospitalized both. Steve then realizes that the town lacks willing kidney donors thus begins guilt tripping Tom into donating both his kidneys one each to both girls. Steve did this knowing Tom would die.
This came true as Tom donated both kidneys. Steve would meet Tom again in the hospital where he cruelly revealed that he was just using Tom for his own sadistic amusement. Tom died minutes afterwards from both lack of Doners and a broken heart from Steve betrayal. It's also heavily implied he killed both Mellisa and Tash out of fear that they would deduce that he causes Tom's death. After this Steve came up with a master plan to take over the school and plunge it into carnage but he also realized he needed help from someone to be able to fully go through with his plan.
Season 1[]
First encounter with Joe[]
He is first seen outside the school gate being bribed with money by Joe's brother Jamie Connolly to beat Joe up because it's his birthday as it will be a part of the birthday beats. Jamie also promises to pay Steve triple the amount of money if he is able to make Joe Beg for mercy just for his own amusement. Steve happily agrees to do this for the money. This also shows us his complete lack of regard to the people around him and even he is just a greedy person deep down. He is later seen stalking Joe and then places a cupcake in a birthday card on Jamie's orders and to place a voice recording of Jamie singing happy birthday in the card.
He also tells Pete Wilson one of Joe's friends to put a happy birthday balloon in Joe's locker and shout happy birthday as load as he could in front of everyone else present knowing Joe and his friends would get beaten up. While the first part of the plan just about succeeded as it caused a small mob though they gave up looking for Joe after a few minutes. The second part however fails though as the balloon goes into the playground and gets destroyed which no one notices while Joe and Frisbo shut Pete up before he can attract attention. Shortly afterwards, him and John are seen interrogating two random girls whom the school now believes is one of whose birthdays. Though Steve is not fooled but still bullies them into giving him Joe and his friends location even threatening to beat both girls up.
Offscreen, he finds Frisbo and Pete, he then bribes them with hush money but in return demands they lure Joe into the RE classroom. While they reluctantly accept Steve money, they did it more so that Joe can get his misery over with. After evading a mob Steve had sent because he believed Frisbo, and Pete were taking too long Joe is lured into the RE classroom. Alongside a mob he then beats up Joe and then takes it too far and breaks Joe arm to feed his sadism and get a little extra than the promised triple. This majorly backfired as he is met with an enraged Jamie who states Steve took it way too far by breaking his arm. Steve then asks for his triple pay which Jamie angrily dismisses before walking off. Steve then plots to destroy Joe's school life even believing he could manipulate Joe to his side.
Getting revenge[]
He is seen in class stalking Joe and is prepared to talk to him until he is humiliated by Sobhan Murphy. After the humiliation Steve asks if he could come to Sobhan's Halloween party so he could keep a close eye on Joe and his friends though he is simply met with verbal abuse and laughter, though at the time he didn't know that it was a trap for Sobhan to obtain several souls of her classmates. Later on, he is seen spying on Joe by looking through Sobhan window he also catches Joe and Lilly Scott hitting it off simply saying "interesting". About halfway through the school year, Steve discovers that Joe and Lilly have feelings for each other. He has a fellow student named Owen antagonize the couple, he picks Owen because he is infamous for beating up girls for fun and is notorious for shoplifting on a daily basis. He also had Owen bully several over kids before having him target Joe and Lilly. However, Owen eventually screws up and gets beaten by Joe and Lilly but just before being taken away by Mr. Matt, he states to Joe and Lilly: "He is coming". Obviously referring to Steve, though the couple dismiss it as a random taunt and because they become distracted by the flirts, they begin to throw at each other.
Much later on, he successfully planned how he intends to rule the school but now realizes he needs to get Joe on his side then he will be able to pull through with his plan successfully. He then somehow is able to manipulate Sobhan Murphy (despite her past yet somewhat justified mistreatment of him) to seduce Joe on the talent show so it would make Lilly Scott (whom is now Joe girlfriend) break up with him making it easier for Steve to manipulate Joe.
He is later seen attending the talent show wanting to see his plan successfully come together and it's also implied so that Sobhan doesn't back out at the last minute, and she doesn't even know that he is there. He is seen smirking smugly when he sees his plan succeeded when he witnesses an upset Lilly dump Joe, shortly afterwards he leads a crowd of bullies who start to humiliate Frisbo which also reveals another secret mission to destroy Joe and Frisbo friendship. Afterwards he commands Sobhan to break up with Joe which she reluctantly does so because she developed genuine feelings for Joe and Steve blackmailing Sobhan with his knowledge of her soul collecting which he threatens to expose, which would get her arrested, this causes her to tell Steve she won't do anything for him again. Steve is seen shortly afterwards saying, "let the games begin" and maniacally laughing.
Manipulating Joe[]
About a week later, he is seen searching through Frisbo school bag looking for the Mickey Page football card so he could manipulate Joe to his side and to completely turn him against Frisbo and Pete, so Joe is nothing but loyal to him and his master plan. He then befriends Joe by revealing he had stolen the Mickey Page football card which successfully leads to the two becoming friends over the next few weeks. Steve would then have Joe bully weaker kids for fun.
Steve eventually stole a dummy from a karate studio because they apparently wronged him (though probably a lie), and he painted a picture of Frisbo then put it on the dummy for Joe to beat up while saying incredibly hurtful things to Joe while mockingly pretending to sound like Frisbo all just to agitate Joe while at the same time ranting about how much he hates his mom just for being a woman. Later on, when Joe see Lilly and his feelings for her are getting stronger despite their breakup something Steve quickly notices much to his frustration. He then reveals his sexist side when he calls girls stupid and worthless, this also got a reaction of anger out of Joe. Steve then says that Lilly is the worst of them, and that Joe is a pathetic idiot to think he could ever love her.
Offscreen, he tells Frisbo and Pete that Joe had stolen the Mickey Page football card knowing the conflict it would cause. This leads to a fight between both Frisbo and Joe though Joe denies any wrong doing. A member of staff quickly notices the fight and breaks it up. Steve quickly lies by claiming Frisbo wanted to steal Joe's bag for no reason then attacked Joe when he tried to stop Frisbo. Something Joe claims is the truth leading to Frisbo being unfairly punished.
Betrayal and seeking vengeance[]
While Joe and Steve (especially Steve because he believes that within days his plan will become a reality) triumphed over beating Frisbo. Joe quickly feels regret due to the two close friendships since they were infants leading to Joe to stand up to Steve and refuse to help him anymore choosing his friendship with Frisbo over helping Steve with his delusional plan.
He appears witnessing Joe and Lilly reconciling their relationship with Steve seeking to hurt Lilly just to get his new enemy attention.
Personality[]
Steve represents the worst any child could be he is ruthless, greedy, deceitful and very manipulative. While at first glance he appears to be a fairly normal child with a bright future especially with his intelligence and is even good mannered with people at times, he used this tactic to get into O'Malley. But any form of kindness weather big or small acts are just facades to hide the psychopath he is in reality. He is also a very good liar as show multiple times with what he did to Tom and his huge screw over on Joe being perfect examples.
While he was isolated by most people in his life, he is completely at fault for this because of his vile nature. While it's never really made clear as to why he started acting the way he did, but he only has himself to blame so despite blaming his misery onto everyone else at the end of the day he is his own worst enemy. It's also worth noting, that by killing Tom he threw away the one chance he had to truly be happy and appreciated by someone which goes to show that no matter how insecure he was (if he even was to begin with) in the past that he is just a sadistic piece of scum who cares about no one but himself and his delusional schemes. His actions also, have a negative impact on others, as it indirectly led to Kayla Madani villainy as she seeks to have Joe expelled, despite attempting to do so through unethical methods and remorselessly manipulating Frisbo's feelings. This is, partially because she believed Steve's lies in which Joe was cheating on Lilly with Sobhan Murphy whom Steve manipulated in seducing Joe. He also has a sadistic sense of humor as shown a few times with how he cracks dark jokes about Tom's death and how he sadistically torments Joe about his past mistakes.
He is also resorts to straight up murder to achieve his goals as shown with Tom, the implication he killed Tom's two girlfriends and it's hinted that he intended to make Lilly Scott "disappear" so he could completely turn Joe to his side. Unlike every other antagonist in the series Steve has no comedic moments nor redeeming qualities being nothing but a heartless monster.
Appearance[]
Steve is a young African-British child with a smart haircut. He wears a plain white shirt, a yellow and black school tie, black pants, black shoes, and black socks.
Appearances on the show[]
Season 1[]
- 1x01: Big School (Mentioned Only)
- 1x03: Forever Eleven
- 1x05: Pickled Onions
- 1x09: Deux (Mentioned Only)
- 1x17: Cosmic Frisbo
- 1x18: Mickey Page
- 1x19: Bad Sport (Mentioned Only/Non-Speaking Flashback)
- 1x20: Breaking Up
Trivia[]
- Steve is a foil to Joe as both are students at O'Malley, both are selfish hypocrites, both want to take over the school though in much different ways than the other would want and most importantly both suffer with loneliness (despite it happening under very different circumstances) while Joe initially aloud that to consume him thus become selfish. However, once he realized that having two loyal best friends and a loving girlfriend was more important than his own selfish satisfactory Joe felt very remorseful, and tried to save his friends from turning out like him (though while he saved Pete and Lilly he couldn't save Frisbo because how much he had negatively corrupted him by this point). While Steve on the other hand could never understand that because of how selfish and delusional he truly is. So, Steve represents what Joe would become if he abandoned his friends and family out pettiness and self-gain.
- Ironically, despite hating women including his own mother, if it wasn't for the existence of women, Steve himself would cease to exist, though because he was so caught up in his petty plan for most of his life, it's likely he didn't have the time and care to want to learn such an important fact.
- It's currently unknown what his opinion of Joe's brother, Jamie, is. However, he probably dislikes him for not giving him the triple amount of money he was promised for doing extra to Joe. It's also unknown why he didn't target Jamie though it's possible he had plans for Jamie for when he planned to take over the school.
- Humorously enough, his last name Malek is spelt the same way as actor Rami Malek last name.
- It's unknown what happened to Steve's father, as their is no mention of him. For an assumption, it's possible that his parents divorced (if true could be a motivator as to why he is the way he is), he died before the events of the series (another possible motivator) or he is alive and well but Steve just hasn't mentioned him onscreen.
- It's unknown where his sexism for women stems from, though it could just be Steve seeing men as superior.
- Steve was originally going to have pale skin, as opposed to being mixed-race in the final cut of the show we got. According to the show creator Jack Bennet, this was cut for being a little bit too disturbing for the show, as it might scare younger audiences.
- Steve is a somewhat controversial character due to how dark his crimes are, despite Dodo mostly being a light-hearted comedy.
- Despite already having 1 kill and 2 implied kills, Steve shows a couple signs of a future serial killer, such as him frequently bullying kids when he was as young as 3 which is normally a sign of some sort psychopathy in the future and his borderline obsession with causing destruction and misery wherever he goes for his own amusement.
- When Joe, realized that Steve was just using him, Joe's imagination shows Steve with a laser pointing at Earth which is meant to represent Joe's life and happiness. This is ironic considering that's what Steve had technically (at least at the time) succeeded in doing and it shows us that Steve wants to eliminate every good thing Joe has going for him so he could help with his delusional schemes.
- He is 5'1 inches tall.
- It's currently unknown, how he convinced Owen to work for him. Though it's likely that he either bribed him or recruited him because of his sadistic behaviors towards girls.
- Despite the implications of his return for Series 2, and some hints of him plotting revenge behind the scenes, the main antagonist role of that Series is taken by Hitesh Rhakara, who acts as an antagonist to Joe and tries to ruin his life out of jealousy of the good life Joe has. Though unlike Steve, Hitesh whilst not redeeming himself and is still a petty and sadistic scumbag, he still at least has a couple of redeeming qualities, and doesn’t really pass the baseline even if his actions are personally vile, and he has far more screen time doing the things he does than Steve does.