Tori Vega is a teenage girl who is accepted into Hollywood Arts, a performing arts high school for talented teens. The show follows Tori and her friends as she finds her place within Hollywood Arts, completing school projects that usually involve musical and theatrical performances, and overcoming unusual and absurd challenges. Other students at Hollywood Arts (and the students who make up Tori's group of friends) include the musical prodigy Andre Harris, the socially awkward Robbie Shapiro and his ventriloquist dummy Rex, the sweet but dim-witted red-head Cat Valentine, the sarcastic and mean Jade West (who serves as Tori's frenemy), Jade's handsome down-to-earth boyfriend Beck Oliver, and Tori's untalented and self-absorbed older sister Trina. Other characters include Erwin Sikowitz, the performing-arts teacher for Hollywood Arts; Lane Alexander, the school's guidance counselor; and Sinjin Van Cleef, an odd and often unsettling classmate that handles audiovisual.