Derek Wheeler

Derek Wheeler is a fictional character from the ''Degrassi'' teen drama franchise. He was portrayed by Neil Hope. He appears throughout ''Degrassi Junior High'' and ''Degrassi High'', with two cameo appearances in ''Degrassi: The Next Generation''. His role throughout the former two series primarily concerns his friendship with Joey Jeremiah (Pat Mastroianni) and Archie "Snake" Simpson (Stefan Brogren), and later the death of his adoptive parents in a traffic collision with a drunk driver. Throughout the series, he plays with Joey and Snake in a band called The Zit Remedy, who are always seen performing one song.

In the aftermath of his parents' death, Wheels' behavior undergoes a significant decline, causing tension between himself and his grandparents, who eventually evict him from their house. Joey lets Wheels stay at his house, until too kicking him out when he discovers Wheels had been stealing money from his mother. In the television movie ''School's Out'', Wheels begins to drink heavily, and ends up killing a two-year-old boy and blinding the school valedictorian Lucy Fernandez in a car accident. This causes a disgusted Snake, who already is angry at Joey for another reason, to sever ties with him, effectively ending the three's friendship. In ''Next Generation'', he briefly appears at the ten-year school reunion to apologize to Lucy, and then again in the third season, where he reconciles with the ailing Snake. An eponymous novel was released in 1992 which explored the character in greater detail.

Upon the news of actor Neil Hope's death, which occurred in 2007 but was not publicized until 2012, critics wrote of Wheels as a tragic figure of the series, and noted the correlation between his character's troubled life, as well as his own.

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