Derek Venturi

Derek Venturi is a character from Life With Derek, Derek Venturi is played by Michael Seater.

Personal life
Derek Venturi is the adult and the titular "Derek" of the series. Unlike Casey, he is laid-back and somewhat underhanded about achieving his goals and excelling in his academic studies, though he is not entirely unkind to her. In the episodes "The Fall" and "Grade Point: Average", respectively, he defends Casey when he sees or hears about Casey being teased by others, thus showing the protective side of himself. In "The Fall", he tells Corey Plunkett to cut Casey some slack, much to Corey's surprise; in "Grade Point: Average", he surprises two students who called Casey a "grade-grubber" by telling them not to say anything, much to their puzzlement.

It is shown that he has a bond with Marti because he calls her "Smarti" and she calls him "Smerek". He also likes competing with and irritating Casey. He loves to play pranks and has his own band called D-Rock, in which he plays guitar. He got into Queen's University, along with Casey.

Derek's a rebel - at least in a confident, witty way. Over the years he's gotten pretty much what he wants, both at home and school. He takes pride in charming his father, his peers, their parents, and seasoned teachers (especially those who should know better). Until now, his influence, especially at home, has been uncontested. Is he a bully? Not at all. He's arrogant in that "gosh aren't I something" way. He prefers charm and cunning, but can be ruthless at times. Derek is a guy's guy and plays sports well. He also likes girls, and spends the average teenage boy amount of time thinking about them (90%).

Exceptions
When it comes to Casey, Derek has a "nobody messes with my step-sister but me" attitude.

In "The Fall", Derek admits to the entire school (by word of mouth) that Casey is his stepsister, using his popularity to minimize the teasing aimed at her, and then asks his best friend Sam to stop Casey from making a "Teasing Hurts" speech, which he knows will embarrass her more than ever if she goes through with it (which Sam does).

In "The Poxfather", Derek is running an under-the-counter business at school - but when he's stuck home with the chicken pox, he pays Casey to run the business for him. When Casey gets caught, he sacrifices the biggest money-maker in his business to get her out of trouble, and uses his connections to get her a cell phone.

In "Male Code Blue", Derek concedes that Sam and Casey have real feelings for each other and, even though he doesn't like it, they should be together.

In "Crushing the Coach", Derek struggles with the truth about Casey's current boyfriend Scott (Lizzie's Soccer Coach), who's "scamming" her and other "soccer sisters" (The players' older sisters) This gets him so distracted that he can't even sleep - he eventually reveals this fact to Casey in front of everyone.

In "Dinner Guest", after a horrible dinner with her biological father, Casey feels that her dad paid more attention to Derek than her and is very upset. Derek notices this and calls Casey's dad and has him come back before he goes to New York.

In "Don't Take A Tip From Me", Derek quits his job after his boss Andrew treats Casey unfairly. Then, much to Andrew's surprise, Derek tells him that "nobody talks to my stepsister like that except me".

In "The Bully Brothers", Derek helps Edwin get rid of his bully problem, but gets into a fight with the bully's older brother, a guy who Derek used to get teased by. Derek confides in Casey by telling her about his previous teasing.

In "Home Movies", Derek finishes the Sociology project for Casey and makes it better.

In "Make no Prom-ises", Derek accidentally ruins Casey's dress and eventually comes to Casey's rescue (with the convincing of Emily and Sally) with a new and better dress and takes her back to the prom.

In "Not So Sweet 16", Derek finds out that Casey has to be in the hospital due to appendicitis and misses her own 16th birthday party, so he makes her a video, goes to the hospital and sneaks in (because no one is allowed to see her at that moment) dressed as a doctor to show her the video.

In "Derek's School of Dating", Derek finally realizes that the games he is playing with Sally aren't good and that he might lose her. So he asks for Casey's help. Derek admits to Sally that he fell for her and wants to make their relationship work. (Which isn't the usual Derek style). Then he comes in singing and completely lovestruck, he tells Casey to enjoy his chair.

In "A Very Derekus Christmas", The MacDonald-Venturi's have an unexpected visitor and all of the children are gone away. They come back because of a big blizzard and discover that they are completely unprepared for Christmas. With a little help from a certain relative, Derek manages to save Christmas (or in his case, "Derekus").

in "Adios Derek", Derek has to leave to Spain and first likes it very much. After he realizes he is going to miss his friends and family, he tells Marti he will miss them all, and that he might even miss Casey.