Romani people in fiction

• 1596: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare – Which includes the lines "Sees Helen's beauty in the brow of Egypt" ("Egyptian" was used to refer to the Roma of England). Here, Theseus is imagining the face of a lover can make the dark-skinned Roma look like Helen of Troy, who he considers more beautiful.[11][12]
• 1600: As You Like It a pastoral comedy by Shakespeare – He uses the word "ducdame" (Act II, Sc. 5), possibly a corruption or mishearing of the old Anglo-Romani word dukka me or (I foretell or I tell fortunes).[13][14]
• 1603: Othello by Shakespeare – Desdemona's handkerchief a gift to Othello's mother is a gift from an "Egyptian charmer" who can almost read the thoughts of people.[15]
• 1611: The Tempest by Shakespeare – Caliban, the only human inhabitant of the mythical island, is thought to be named after the word Kaliban meaning "black" or "with blackness" in Anglo-Romani.[16] As the first Roma immigrants arrived in England a century before Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, it is thought he may have been influenced by looks and exoticised them.[14][15]
• 1613: Miguel de Cervantes' novel La Gitanilla
• 1631: Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair. A comedy set in London's Bartholomew Fair where a band of Roma entertain a crowd.
• 1722: Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. Moll's earliest memory is of wandering "among a group of people they call Gypsies or Egyptians" in England.
• 1798: William Wordsworth's poem, The Female Vagrant from Lyrical Ballads. A young homeless woman is welcomed by a band of Roma who take her in and offer her charity and companionship.

• Carmen, an 1875 opera by Georges Bizet. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery Carmen, a Roma woman. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen's love to the glamorous torero Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage.
• The Gypsy Girl, a 1905 play by Hal Reid
• Notre-Dame de Paris, a 1998 musical based on the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a 1999 musical adapted from the 1996 Walt Disney Animation Studios film adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel.
• Klokkeren fra Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), a 2002 Danish musical written and composed by Knud Christensen (better known as Sebastian), based on the Hugo novel.

• The Cirque du Soleil traveling show Varekai takes its name from the Romanies language and the characters represented on stage are loosely based on the nomadic way of life associated with the Roma.
• Warhammer Fantasy includes an ethnic group of humans, the Strigany, who are often referred to as "gypsies". They conflate the Roma with the Romanians: the Strigany are from the same geographical area as Romania, and negative stereotypes about the Roma are justified against the Strigany, who are persecuted for vampire worship and sometimes actually enabling the Undead.
• The Curse of Strahd supplement for Dungeons & Dragons includes a fantasy version of the Roma, the Vistani. Early printings portrayed the Vistani in a stereotyped light.[17]

• "Zigenarvän" (Eng: "Gypsy Friend". 1969) – Agnetha Fältskog (later of ABBA fame): featured on the album Agnetha Fältskog Vol. 2, the song tells of a young woman's visit to a Roma camp. The young woman finds herself drawn to the Roma camp one night. The light from their fire leads the way. From a distance, the young woman can hear their laughter, singing and music. She attends a Romanies wedding, and dances with the bride's brother (whom she falls in love with). She returns the next day, only to find it gone. The young woman is left wondering if it was all just a dream. The song was the album's biggest hit, but its overly romantic lyrics became the source of controversy. Its release coincided with a heated debate about the Roma in the Swedish media, and Fältskog was accused of deliberately trying to make money out of the situation by writing the song.

• "Rock 'n' Roll Children" (1985) – Dio: a young couple, both aspiring rock musicians, seek shelter from a rainstorm in an antique store, after an argument. The store is run by a Romanies-esque mystic (Ronnie James Dio), who keeps out of their sight. The couple go into a closet, entering another world, where they are separated. Through a crystal ball, the mystic observes the couple, while they're being subjected to discrimination, exclusion, and demands from others to give up their way of life and culture. After the couple are reunited, and rekindle their love (while hostile people begins to circle around them), the mystic smashes the crystal ball onto the floor, releasing them from the other world.
• "Who's That Girl" (1987) – Madonna: Madonna goes to visit a Roma fortune-teller. The fortune-teller shows Madonna a tarot card, with a moving (cartoon) image, and mysteriously disappears.
• "Love to Hate You" (1991) – Erasure: the video features a group of female dancers, wearing Romani dress.
• "Ain't It Funny" (2001) – Jennifer Lopez: Lopez comes across a Romanies camp, where a fortune-teller reads her future. Young Roma women comes and makes over Lopez into one of them. In the camp, Lopez finds an irresistible man, and falls in love with him. She then performs a flamenco-influenced routine.

• In the anime Blood +, it is implied that the character Haji is Roma. However, he was bought from his caravan at a young age and does not identify as such thereafter.
• In the anime Cowboy Bebop, the character Faye Valentine claims to be one of the Roma, though this is later dispelled through her own personal flashbacks.
• In the anime Kaze to Ki no Uta, Serge Battour is the orphaned son of a viscount and a beautiful Roma woman.
• In the Code Geass OVA spinoff, Akito the Exiled, the main cast of characters encounter a group of elderly Roma.
• The Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, features Roma women in Pre-Nazi Germany.

• The videogame Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King features Roma characters Kalderasha, named after the Kalderash, and his daughter Valentina.
• In the videogame Psychonauts and its sequel, Psychonauts 2, The main character, Razputin Aquato, and his family are Roma.
• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, courtesan NPCs are replaced by the Roma which act as moving hiding spots and can be used to distract guards.
• The Crimson Skies character Nathan Zachary has claimed Roma heritage.
• The four protagonists of Mother Russia Bleeds are all referred to as Roma (their background is vague, but they were apparently raised in an impoverished Roma camp somewhere in Russia).
• The videogame Bohemian Killing features a Roma protagonist guilty of murder, who has to try and convince the jury he didn't do it.
• In Koudelka, the main protagonist Koudelka Iasant is a young Roma from Wales.

• In the television series Car 54, Where Are You episode "The Gypsy Curse" (aired 12 November 1961), Maureen Stapleton plays a Roma matriarch telling fortunes from a storefront in Toody and Muldoon's precinct. Stereotypical jokes abound. She lifts a guy's wallet, the father is a layabout, the children don't go to school, they pack up and move to another storefront in short order, etc.[66]
• The Dennis the Menace episode "Dennis in Gypsyland" (aired 4 November 1962), featured a group of Roma who visited Dennis's town, were accused of theft, and almost inveigled police Officer Murphy into marrying one of their women, to whom he had offered bread at dinner.[67]
• In The Andy Griffith Show episode "The Gypsies" (aired 21 February 1966), a family of Roma (one of whom is played by Jamie Farr) places a curse on the town of Mayberry.[68]
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966), a seven episode adaptation of the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, done for British television. Although some photographs exist, no recordings of the production are known to have survived.
• In The Monkees episode "Son of a Gypsy" (aired 26 December 1966), a family of Roma lose an audition to The Monkees, whom they proceed to invite back to their camp and force them to steal a valuable statue.[69]
• Bombi Bitt och jag (1968) (Eng: Bombi Bitt and Me). A Swedish mini series focusing on a respectable young boy named Eli, and his friend Edvin/Bombi Bitt (Stellan Skarsgård), a wild rascal (whom parents forbid their children from being friends with), in the early days of the 20th Century. Bombi Bitt is depicted a child left to look after himself, and is disinterested in the knowledge gained from books (implied to be illiterate) The narration, for the first episode, establishes that Bombi Bitt's mother (Margaretha Krook) is a dispised woman, who lives with her son in a tiny cottage, and commits fornication with "tattare" (an ethnic slur for the Roma in Sweden, usually used for the Roma group known as Travellers). The narration states that the identity of Bombi Bitt's father is unknown (though, as his mother is said to sleep with Travellers, it is possible that the boy's father was one).[70] It is left unclear if Bombi Bitt's mother is a Traveller herself. She is depicted as a dark woman, who drinks, is abusive towards her son, and sleeps around. Together with two men, she plots to steal the church silver, but their plan is foiled by Bombi Bitt and Eli. With the aid of the church keys (which they acquire with the aid of a bottle of moonshine, that Bombi Bitt says was dropped by some Traveller), the boys move and hide the church silver before the heist.[71] Towards the end of the series, Eli and Bombi Bitt head to the market in Kivik. At the market, a group of Kalderash (one of whom is played by Roma singer and civil rights activist Hans Caldaras) sing and dance for the visitors.The Kalderash Roma sing in the Romani language, and are never shown being able to speak Swedish. At the market, there is also a Traveller husband and wife, who work with horse castration. The husband is depicted as a drunk, who pulls a knife at people. The wife pulls up her skirt in front of a full crowd.[72][73]
• In the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts" (aired 22 November 1969), Scooby and the gang come across a "gypsy wagon" while driving, and have their fortunes told by an apparent Roma fortune teller.[74]
• In the Mission: Impossible episode "Gitano" (aired 1 February 1970), the IMF team is tasked with protecting young King Victor of Sardia (Barry Williams) from assassination. Among the agents, selected by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) for the mission is IMF agent Zorka (Margarita Cordova), a Roma woman and flamenco dancer. For the mission, team regulars Paris (Leonard Nimoy) and William "Willy" Armitage (Peter Lupus) disguise themselves as Roma men. The team intercepts Victor, shortly before his intended assassination. The team splits up, with Zorka, Paris, and Willy transporting Victor in a caravan. To protect Victor, they disguise him as a young Roma girl.[75]
• In the Hogan's Heroes episode "The Gypsy" (aired 13 December 1970), LeBeau (Robert Clary) is almost struck by lightning. The other POWs see this as an opportunity for one of their schemes. Knowing that Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer) believes in fortunes, they have LeBeau pretend to have Roma ancestry, and that the lightning caused the psychic powers of his blood to become active.[76] Hogan's Heroes is set in a German POW camp, during World War II.
• The Canterville Ghost (1974) Television dramatization – Based on the (1887) short story by Oscar Wilde. An English gypsy group are suspected of kidnapping a girl but are innocent and join in the search.
• M*A*S*H (1972–1983):
  • In "Hawkeye Get Your Gun" (aired 30 November 1976), Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) attempts to get out of the army by claiming to be "Zoltan, King of the Gypsies", and dresses up in stereotypical Roma clothes. Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) questions how Klinger could be "King of the Gypsies", when he's Lebanese. Klinger insists that he was stolen from the Roma by two ruthless Lebanese peasants, who raised him as theirs (and have now admitted to the truth). Potter does not buy the story. Klinger, refusing to give up, says that: "Now I know why the sound of violins set my blood on fire. Why I'm so attracted to storefront windows. Why, when I smell paprika, I face towards Budapest. Why I have the urge to roam". Klinger spends the rest of the episode pretending to be a Roma fortune-teller, and claims to be "Working on a plan to turn the motor pool into a Gypsy caravan". In one scene, Major Burns asks Klinger where some tape is. Klinger assures Burns that "Just 'cause I'm a Gypsy doesn't mean I stole it".[77]
  • In "The Yalu Brick Road" (aired November 19, 1979), the whole camp is affected by a salmonella epidemic after eating a bad Thanksgiving turkey, acquired by Klinger. When Majors Winchester and Houlihan (who had been away during the dinner) are informed of the situation, Major Winchester states that "any fool would know better than to actually eat Gypsy poultry".[78]
  • In "Yessir, That's Our Baby" (aired 31 December 1979), Klinger states that he understands babies. He adds: "It's the Gypsy in my soul".[79]
  • In "Settling Debts" (aired 6 December 1982), Colonel Potter tells the story of how he and his wife, Mildred, bought their house. He recalls that it had been Mildred's idea to buy one (previously, they had been living in rented houses on military bases). According to Colonel Potter, Mildred had "said that she was tired of livin' like a Gypsy".[80]
• The Muppet Show (1976-1981):
  • In the episode guest starring Peter Sellers (aired 1 January 1978), the opening number casts Sellers as a "demented Gypsy violinist". The number has Sellers dressed as a stereotypical Roma man, and features a stereotypical caravan on stage.[81] The episode was made available on Disney+, with a content advisory attached to the episode: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”[82]
  • In the episode guest starring Jonathan Winters (aired 8 February 1980), the show is placed under a curse by a stereotypically dressed "Old Gypsy Lady" muppet, causing accidents and, eventually, results in everyone talking mock-Swedish (like the Swedish Chef). Jonathan Winters runs around terrified of the "Gypsy curse". The "Old Gypsy Lady" muppet performs several musical numbers, alongside other muppets, dressed in stereotypical Roma dress. One of the songs she performs is the song "Golden Earrings" from the 1947 film of the same name.[83] The episode was made available on Disney+, with a content advisory attached to the episode: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”[82]
• Katitzi (1979-1980), A Swedish mini series, which aired on SVT2. It was an adaptation of writer and civil rights leader Katarina Taikon's autobiographical children's books, about Katitzi (played in the series by Sema Sari), a young Roma girl in Sweden (during the first half of the 20th century). Janne ”Loffe" Carlsson portrayed Katitzi's father, while Monica Zetterlund portrayed her stepmother. Taikon co-wrote the scripts, with Roma singer (and fellow activist) Hans Caldaras providing the music.
• In Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock (1983-1987), the sentient anthropomorphic Trash Heap refers to herself as a 'gypsy Trash Heap' when she performs her only act of magic. The character "The Old Gypsy Woman" appears in several episodes.
• In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Speckled Band" (aired 29 May 1984), the vandering Roma tribe (that Dr. Grimesby Roylott allows to stay on the grounds of his estate) plays a bigger role than in the original short story. In the short story, they are only mentioned, and briefly serve as a red herring in regard to the death of Helen Stoner's sister. In the episode, the tribe is introduced as thieves, and shown moving around the grounds of the estate with shotguns. Dr. Watson, rather than Sherlock Holmes, speculates that the Roma tribe might've had some involvement in the death of Helen's sister. Unlike in the short story, this theory does not spark instant objections from either Holmes or Watson.[84]
• In the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest" (aired 13 October 1985), MacGyver goes to Budapest to get information from a Russian double-agent named Grotsky (in the form of a pocket watch, that contains a list of Soviet spies in the U.S.). While waiting for Grotsky, MacGyver catches a young Roma girl named Jana (Kelly McClain) try and pick his pocket (and take his Swiss Army knife). A few minutes later, Jana picks the pocket of Grotsky (taking the pocket watch), right before Grotsky is run over by a truck, when the KGB shows up and tries to arrest him (and prevent the information from ending up in American hands). When the KGB realizes that Jana stole the pocket watch, they have her father and brothers arrested (sending them to a prison for political prisoners, wanting Jana's family to tell them where Jana (who was away and busy trying to run from MacGyver when the police showed up) is). McGyver helps Jana get her family out of the prison. Afterwards, MacGyver seeks out a Roma fence named Reena (Sue Kiel), whom one of Jana's brothers had sold the pocket watch to. At first, Reena wants money for the pocket watch, but ends up giving it to MacGyver for free (and shows him a way out her establishment, away from the police and the KGB). Due to Jana and her family having helped him, MacGyver helps them out of the country (and arranges for them to go to the United States). When MacGyver and Jana says goodbye, he gives her his Swiss Army knife (and she gives him her necklace). While at the prison, one of Jana's brothers is harassed by an antiziganistic guard, who compares Roma to mongrel dogs and says that it is a public service to kill the Roma. Seeing this from a distance, Jana asks MacGyver "Why do they hate us?". He answers: "Some people are scared of anybody who runs free". Jana's family are depicted as street musicians. In her first scene, after MacGyver catches her, she asks him if he's Roma (because "It takes a Gypsy to catch a Gypsy". A similar line is later said by Reena). He answers: "Not that I know of".[85]
• In the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Seer No Evil" (aired 15 November 1989) the Rangers head to a carnival. While there, they meet an old friend of Monterey Jack, a Lymantria dispar (called "gypsy moth" by Monterey Jack) named Cassandra, who is based on the stereotypical Roma fortune teller. At one point, the episode seemingly mixes up "Roma" and "Roman".[86]
• In the Round the Twist episode "Lucky Lips" (aired 8 June 1990), Pete encounters a beautiful young Roma fortune teller (who in fact is an old lady) at a carnival, who gives him a magic lipstick that will attract any female.[87]
• In the TaleSpin episode "Destiny Rides Again" (aired 8 February 1991), Baloo and Kit encounter a stereotypical Roma fortune teller.[88]
• In the 'Allo 'Allo! episode "René of the Gypsies" (aired 9 March 1991), René and Edith visit a stereotypical Roma camp outside of the village, where they ask the Great Romany (the tribe's leader and a fortune-teller) to hold the tribe's annual fair in the village (intended as a cover for a Resistance operation). When the Great Romany reads Edith's palm, he becomes convinced that Edith is the long-lost Roma princess Romana (who, like Edith, had been left on a doorstep, and had an identical mark on her palm). However, he quickly changes his mind, upon hearing Edith's terrible singing voice (while Romana's mother had a great voice). He concludes that Edith's probably a distant cousin of Romana (noting that the tribe have left a lot of babies on doorsteps). The Roma tribe agrees to do the fair, but cancels after seeing a bad omen (a cat walking backward). Still needing the cover for the Resistance operation, the Resistance members dress up as Roma and hold the fair themselves. 'Allo 'Allo! is set during the German occupation of France during World War II, with the episode making no reference to Nazi antiziganism. The occupying Germans both gives permission for the fair, and happily attend it. Upon learning that she was likely born Roma=, Edith expresses an attraction toward the Roma= way of life, which she sums up as "Living here in the open air, singing round the campfire every evening".[89]
• In the Married... with Children episode "Psychic Avengers" (aired 1 March 1992), the Bundy family sets up a scam psychic hotline called Madame Zelda. When their business grows large, they come into conflict with Madame Inga (Candice Azzara), a stereotypical Roma fortune-teller from Sweden, who is a real psychic. Madame Inga places a curse upon the Bundy family. Transforming them into monkeys, while their dog is transformed into a human.[90]
• Heartbeat (1992–2010):
  • In "Outsiders" (aired 29 May 1992), a Roma circus family arrives with their trailer in Aidensfield. The father of the family had been a local man, who had fallen in love with a Roma woman, and left the village of Aidensfield with her. In the episode, the couple (and their two sons) have returned to Aidensfield, as the father is about to die from cancer, and they wanted him to die in his home. The arrival of the family is met with antiziganism from both locals and the police force, with exception of Police constable Nick Rowan (who have recently moved with his wife to the village from London). Rowan refuses to get rid of the family, on the grounds that they haven't committed any crimes. A local vicar describes the situation with the Roma, as the problem not being so much what they do, as much as the prejudice that they bring out in people. During their stay in Aidensfield, the oldest son (Milos), becomes close to the vicar's daughter, Anna. Anna is engaged to a young local, who dislikes the Roma. Anna's fiancé tries to frame Milos for a series of crimes, but Rowan uncovers the plot, and Milos is proven innocent. At the end of the episode, the Roma family leaves Aidensfield. Anna, who has fallen in love with Milos, leaves with them.[91]
  • In "Expectations" (aired 10 September 1995), an old Roma woman comes to Aidensfield with her caravan. She is subjected to antiziganism from the locals, and has her caravan burned down by a teenaged troublemaker. The old woman reveals that she had a baby, at a young age, but was not allowed to keep her baby. She had then spent much of her life in institutions.[92]
  • "In On The Act" (aired 7 December 1997), a traveling fair comes to Aidensfield. One of the attractions is a stereotypical Roma fortune-teller named "Gipsy Sarah".[93]
  • In "The Traveller" (aired 3 December 2000), an English Traveller named Johnny Lee (David Essex) arrives with his trailer in Aidensfield. At the same time, a group of Irish Travellers, who Johnny notes have nothing to do with him, also arrives with their own caravans, trailers, and trucks for a horse fair (which Johnny also has come for). When Police Sergeant Craddock meets Johnny, Craddock uses the term "Gypsies". Johnny corrects him: "We call ourselves Travellers. It's only very rude and ignorant people who calls us Gypsies". The presence of Johnny and the Irish Travellers spark prejudice from Craddock, and the Aidensfield Arms landlord Oscar Blaketon, while most other locals treat them with kindness. The plot of the episode has Johnny encounter a young, and comically inept would-be robber named Nathaniel Cooper (who screwed up his first attempt at a robbery, and shot himself in the foot, then shot one of the tires of his getaway car). Realizing that Nathaniel is no real criminal, Johnny decides to hide Nathaniel from the police. However, when Nathaniel steals money from the Aidensfield Arms (an act that Blaketon is quick to blame the Travellers for), Johnny changes his mind about Nathaniel. He tells Nathaniel that he had no right to steal that money (which Johnny gives back to Blaketon), and asks Nathaniel to turn himself in, but Nathaniel refuses and leaves. Johnny then helps the police track down and apprehend Nathaniel. Meanwhile, the Irish Travellers, and the show's "lovable rogue" Claude Greengrass, organise an illegal trap-racing meeting in the streets of Aidensfield.[94]
  • In "Danse Macabre" (aired 27 July 2008), a Roma group arrives in Aidensfield. A local shop owner spots one of them, and tells her daughter not to let him in. The shop owner says: "I'm not having Gypsies in my shop". When a 15-year-old girl named Natalie disappears from a house, the butler of the house blames the Roma and states that "Gypsies steal children". However, Police constable Joe Mason (Joe McFadden) dismisses that notion as something that only happens in fairy tales. In an ironic twist, Natalie is revealed to be a Roma child (her father's among the newly arrived group, and she had run away to see him), whom the butler had taken from her family years earlier (with Natalie's father having spent ten years searching for her).[95]
  • In "Living Off The Land" (2 November 2008), PC Mason visits a camp of Travellers, who the episode seemingly mixes up with Hippies (called both "Travellers" and "Hippies" onscreen). They are shown living in tents and buses (the latter painted in Hippie-style). One of them tell PC Mason that: "We're Travellers. All we want is to be free, and live off the land".[96]
• In the Dinosaurs episode "Little Boy Boo" (aired 30 October 1992), Robbie tells his little brother a scary tale, where Robbie becomes a werewolf-like creature called a "wereman". In the tale, their grandmother is cast as a stereotypical Roma fortune teller, complete with the caravan, crystal ball and tarot cards.[97]
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles/The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1992-1996)
  • In "Transylvania, January 1918" (unaired, later edited into the film Masks of Evil), the female lead is a woman named Maria Straussler (possibly roma), who works for Allied intelligence during World War I (though, out of the story's seven Allied agents, counting one double agent, Maria is the only one whose nationality is left unsaid). The story begins with a young Indiana Jones (then working for French intelligence) arriving in Venice, where he encounters an old fortune teller. The old woman reads Indy's future in tarot cards, but is harassed by police and arrested (for not having a license for her business), before she can finish her reading. Indy then travels to Transylvania with the American Colonel Waters, to investigate the Romanian General Mattias Targo (an adaptation of Count Dracula), where they meet Maria (and two other Allied agents). Maria is depicted as a skilled pick pocket, and an expert with knives (a skill she first uses the reassure the sexist Colonel Waters that she can take care of herself, then kill the double agent (when he reveals himself and shoots the man whom Maria loves), and finally to save the life of Indiana Jones). When they get to Targo's castle, Maria is for a few seconds possessed by a being, and calls attention to the old fortune teller's final tarot card (that Indy's been carrying with him, in his pocket). It is left unclear if Maria is supposed to be psychic, or if her possession is just another example of the castle being haunted (other examples include ball lightning, spontaneous human combustion, a bleeding ceiling, a frozen bedroom, along with Targo (a vampire) and an entire camp of the undead). Maria never becomes involved with Indiana Jones (like some sort of Bond girl), and is engaged to a French spy named François Picard (one of three agents previously sent to investigate General Targo, and disappeared). Maria and Indy are the only ones to make it out of the castle alive. They destroy Targo by driving a stake through his heart, and then head back to their superiors in Venice.[98]
  • In the television film Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (aired 15 October 1994), Indiana Jones and Claire Lieberman attend a Hollywood party in 1920, where they spot Pola Negri[lower-alpha 2] dancing with Rudolph Valentino.
  • In the television film Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father (aired 16 June 1996), a 10-year-old Indiana Jones visits Russia in 1909, with his family, and runs away with Leo Tolstoy. On their journey, the duo hitches a ride with a traveling Roma tribe, and spend the night in their camp. During the night, Imperial Cossack troops (that the government uses to rid themselves of undesirable ethnic groups) attacks the camp, setting fire to the tents and killing many of the Roma there. Indiana and Tolstoy barely make it away alive. They seek refuge at a church, only to almost be cast out by two antiziganistic priests, who mistake them for Roma.
• In the Frasier episode "Retirement is Murder" (aired 10 January 1995), Bulldog meets Niles Crane for the first time. Upon meeting Niles, Bulldog bursts out laughing and tells Frasier: "Whoa! Another one just like you. Some gypsy put a curse on your family?".[99]
• The Simpsons (1989–present):
  • In "Lisa's Wedding" (aired 19 March 1995), Lisa Simpson is shown her future by a Roma fortune-teller. The fortune-teller specializes in foretelling doomed romances.
  • In "Bart Carny" (aired 11 January 1998), a traveling carnival comes to Springfield. In one scene, Moe Szyslak has his fortune told by a Roma fortune-teller. The main plot of the episode revolves around a carny father and son duo (possibly Roma), who are depicted as con artists, and steals the Simpson house.
  • In "Simpson Tide" (aired 29 March 1998), Milhouse Van Houten comes to school with an earring. Principal Skinner tells Milhouse that earrings are specifically forbidden by the school's dress code. When Skinner notes that people of Roma heritage are excepted from this rule, Milhouse claims to be Roma, which Skinner asks him to prove. In a faux Transylvanian accent, Milhouse says: "I 'vant' to suck your blood!". Skinner corrects Milhouse: "That's a vampire. But, uh, they're also covered".
  • In "Treehouse of Horror XII" (aired 6 November 2001), the Simpson family visit a Roma fortune teller. After Homer destroys the fortune teller's business, she places a curse on him (causing Homer's loved ones to be transformed or killed). In retaliation, Homer sics a leprechaun on the fortune teller. To Homer's surprise, the leprechaun and the fortune teller fall in love. At the end of the story, Homer and Marge attend their wedding (other guests include Kang and Kodos, hobgoblins, fairies, dragons, hobbits, ogres, with Yoda officiating the wedding). Marge (whom the curse has left covered in hair from head to toe) remarks that "The best thing about a Gypsy wedding is I'm not the hairiest woman here". When the fortune teller and the leprechaun first meet, they instantly start having sex. After they've just gotten married, they start doing it again, in full view of the wedding guests.
  • In "Treehouse of Horror XIII" (aired 3 November 2002), The Simpson family and Ned Flanders hold a séance in the hope of communicating with the spirit of Maude Flanders. Marge dresses up as a Roma fortune-teller.
  • In "The President Wore Pearls" (aired 16 November 2003), Lisa is elected student body president at Springfield Elementary. She declares an intention to take back the playground from the Roma. The episode then cuts to a stereotypical Roma family, living on the Springfield Elementary playground. When two students are playing with a frisbee, a Roma man (Rom) takes it mid-air and says "Is our frisbee now".
• In the NYPD Blue episode "Don We Now Our Gay Apparel" (aired January 3, 1995), Detective Greg Medavoy goes after a Roma family, who have scammed his elderly neighbor out of $3,000. The family operates a stereotypical fortune-teller business, fronted by a young Roma woman. When Medavoy arrests her, and her two brothers, the Roma woman says something in a foreign language and spits on him. One of the brothers informs Medavoy that she has cursed him. When Medavoy later develops a rash (which one of his co-worker says is likely just brought on by one of his numerous allergies), he starts worrying that the curse might be real.[100]
• 1997 Greek television series Whispers of the Heart (Greek: Ψίθυροι Καρδιάς) features a wealthy architect who falls in love with a young Roma woman.[101]
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Roma in 19th Century Romania place a curse on the vampire Angelus to punish him for the murder of a teenage Roma girl (said to have been as "dumb as a post"), by restoring his human soul (and by extension, his conscience) and forcing him to feel guilt for his crimes.[102] Angel was doomed to misery until he could enjoy a moment of pure happiness. It is later revealed that these Roma were members of the Kalderash tribe and that the character Jenny Calendar, actually Janna of the Kalderash, is a member of the tribe, who was sent to ensure the continued suffering of Angel. Under orders from her tribe, Jenny sets out to break up Angel and Buffy Summers, manipulating Angel into leaving Sunnydale.[103] After Jenny's deception, and true identity, is exposed, the Scoobies turn against her.[104] Jenny is soon after brutally murdered by Angelus.[105] In an analysis of the treatment of the Roma in literature and media, Nikolina Dobreva asserts that the show deserves to be criticized for associating the Roma with curses and primitivism, for stereotyping the Roma as "irrevocably foreign" in clothing and speech, and for perpetuating the persistent air of mystery surrounding them. Dobreva, however, praises the character of Jenny Calendar, writing in 2009: "Jenny's character, despite the reversion to a few stereotypes, is arguably one of the most multi-faceted and positive representations of a female Gypsy in the past 20 years. In sharp contrast to all other Gypsy portrayals, she is technologically savvy, and, instead of resorting to incantations or obscure rituals, is able to create a computer algorithm that would make possible the restoration of Angel's soul."[106]
  • In the episode "The Girl in Question" (aired 5 May 2004), of the spin-off Angel (1999-2004), the character of Ilona Costa Bianchi (Carole Raphaelle Davis) comments on the Roma. She says that "The Gypsies are filthy people", who uses spells. Angel makes no objections to Ilona's comments. Whenever she mentions the Roma, Ilona spits out of disgust.[107]
• Futurama (1999-2013) features a recurring character called "Gypsy-Bot" (voiced by Tress MacNeille), a fortune-telling robot, whose design is based on the stereotypical image of a Roma fortune-teller (and is shown living in a stereotypical caravan). In the episode "Godfellas", the character is hinted at not really being psychic (and is shown trying to con money from Fry), when she responds to a question with "What am I, psychic?".[108] In the episode "The Tip of the Zoidberg" (aired 18 August 2011), the incompetent Doctor Zoidberg subjects the employees of Planet Express to (among other things) "Gypsy curses".[109]
• The Chilean telenovela Romané (2000) features the life of the Roma in the north of Chile.
• In The Twilight Zone "Cradle of Darkness" (aired 2 October 2002), a woman named Andrea Collins (Katherine Heigl) travels back to 1889, with the intent of assassinating the infant Adolf Hitler (thus preventing World War II). Andrea drows herself and the infant Adolf. However, a housemaid working for the Hitler family, sees Andrea's actions, and decides not to inform the family. The housemaid encounters a homeless Roma mother. She buys the Roma woman's infant son, whom housemaid passes off to the Hitler family as baby Adolf Hitler. The episode's closing narration establishes this baby as historic Adolf Hitler, the very monster that Andrea had attempted to destroy.[110]
• The television series WB television series Charmed episode "The Eyes Have It" (aired 20 October 2002), depicted the Roma, referred to as "gypsies", as practicing a magical craft similar to those of modern-day witches. Much like the star witches in the series, the Roma possess supernatural powers and pass down family Books of Shadows.
• In the HBO series Carnivàle (2003-2005), the characters of Sophie and her mother Apollonia are said to be Roma.
• Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), part of the Stargate science-fiction franchise, features a recurring race of humans named "Travelers". The Travelers are depicted as a nomadic people, who have lived in space for generations, and travels between planets in their own fleet of spaceships (they are one of the few human races in the franchise to possess their own spaceships).[111]
• In the House episode "Needle in a Haystack" (aired 6 February 2007), Dr. House and his team must treat a 16-year-old Roma boy with respiratory distress. The boy's parents (who are established as having made their son drop out of school, and work for them) are played up as being anti-science and hostile towards outsiders (to the extent that they can't touch people who aren't Roma). The Doctors have to lie and distract the parents, in order to be able to examine and treat the boy. Dr. Foreman is critical of the parents, whom he feels are wasting their son's potential, and offers to help him get a job at the hospital. The boy rejects the offer, because none of the Doctors treating him are married (convincing the boy that the same would happen to him, unless he goes home with his family).[112]
• Ashes to Ashes (2008-2010) main cast includes WPC/DC Sharon "Shaz" Granger (Montserrat Lombard), who is part Roma.[113] The show centers around Detective Inspector Alex Drake, a woman from 2008, who is shot by a criminal and wakes up in 1981. The show's ending reveals that all of the main characters are cops, who suffered traumatic deaths, and are now in Limbo (where their souls have a chance to lay their inner demons to rest). In the case of Shaz: she had been a WPC in 1995, who had attempted to apprehend a car thief, and gotten stabbed.[114] Her Roma heritage was revealed in the second episode of Series 2 (aired 27 April 2009). The plot has Alex trying to clear her name when she is involved in the accidental death of an English Romanichal. She uncovers a premeditated plot to murder him. The episode does include some stereotypical elements as the plot unfolds; namely the plot device of an old Roma clairvoyant and friction between the police and the Roma camp. However these stereotypes are turned on their head as the local doctor who was obsessed with the victim's wife is found guilty of poisoning and elements of police corruption. When Shaz hears one of her co-workers make antiziganistic remarks, she confronts him and reveals to him (and the rest of their co-workers) that her mother was Roma. The episode ends with Shaz being proposed to by her boyfriend, Chris Skelton, whose feelings for her has been left unchanged by the revelation of her ethnic background.[113] In the show's finale, Shaz (along with the others) is able to leave Limbo and move on to eternal happiness.[114]
• Lark Rise to Candleford, Series 2 Episode 1 (aired 21 December 2008) – A BBC costume drama. The village is haunted by the spirit of a young English Romany girl who drowned in the local lake.
• In the television show Criminal Minds, the fourth-season episode "Bloodlines" (aired 21 January 2009) depicts a family of Roma who kidnap little girls to marry their sons. During the abductions, the family also murders the parents of the girls. Penelope Garcia discovers that they've been doing this since, at least, 1909. In addition to kidnapping little girls, the Roma family is depicted as being highly superstitious, nomadic (living out of an RV), and as being thieves (with David Rossi stating that a lot of the Roma make their living as petty thieves). The Roma family are apprehended by the FBI, but the episode ends with another Roma family (the father of which is implied as being one of the first family's sons) getting ready to commit the same acts as them.[115]
• In the Family Guy episode "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" (aired 29 March 2009), a cutaway gag references Stephen King's Thinner. In the cutaway, Britney Spears is cursed by a Roma man (Rom), who touches her cheek and says "Thicker".
• In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Lost Traveller" (season 13, episode 9. Aired 30 November 2011), the detectives investigate a missing Roma boy.
• The character Willa Monday on the TV show The Finder (2012) is a Roma juvenile delinquent.
• In the Once Upon a Time episode "The Doctor" (aired 28 October 2012), there is a young Roma witch-in-training, named Trish (played by Paula Giroday), who wears clothes similar to Esmeralda in the 1996 Disney animated film. In a flashback, Rumpelstiltskin is attempting to teach Regina magic. He tries to make her crush the heart of a unicorn, thus killing it. However, Regina cannot do it, and leaves Rumpelstiltskin. She later returns, and learns that he has taken on a new apprentice: Trish, a Roma woman. Without hesitation, Regina takes Trish's heart and crushes it, killing her instantly.[116]
• In the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode "Dead Man's Folly" (aired 30 October 2013; an adaptation of the novel of the same name), the character of Sally Legge dresses up, and plays a Roma fortune teller (called "Madame Zuleika") for a summer fête. She pretend reads Poirot's future over a crystal ball, but quickly drops the theatrics, due to a mix of Poirot's questions (regarding the murder hunt, where Sally was originally going to play the murder victim, until others insisted that she'd tell fortunes instead) and Sally's own disinterest in doing this activity.
• In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Coming Back" (aired 23 September 2013), Barney Stinson reveals why he is constantly horny: the Stinson Curse. In 1807, in Moscow, his ancestors ran over an old Roma woman. The Roma woman pointed at them and said: "hornier". Cursing the male members of their family to constantly be horny (and unable to find satisfaction in committed relationships). After she's cursed them, the old Roma woman is shown magically transforming into a seductive young Roma woman, whom Barney's ancestor is unable to resist.
• The television series Hemlock Grove (2013–2015) features a family of Roma.
• The BBC television series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) revolves around protagonist Tommy Shelby and the Shelby crime family who are of Roma heritage. It also features the Roma Lee family which includes main character Esme Lee, who marries one of the Shelby brothers.
• The television series Legion (2017–2019) centers around protagonist and mutant David Haller (based on the Marvel Comics character), whom the show depicts as being half-Roma. David is the son of mutant Charles Xavier and his wife, Gabrielle (Stephanie Corneliussen), a Roma Holocaust survivor. Charles and Gabrielle met in a mental hospital, after World War II, where they were both patients. Gabrielle had been rescued from the camps, but had lost her entire family and the trauma of the Holocaust had left Gabrielle catatonic. With his telepathy, Charles managed to get her out of that state. The two became close (helping each other get better), fell in love, and left the hospital together. Afterwards, they got married and had their son David. Gabrielle is depicted as a loving wife and mother (and a regular 1940s housewife), who struggles with the trauma of the Holocaust, when Charles leaves her alone for a while, to seek out the mutant Amahl Farouk.[117][63] In the comics, Gabrielle was a Jewish Holocaust survivor.[64]
• On the television Series What We Do in the Shadows (2019–present) the character of Nadja is a Roma Vampire.
• In the Father Brown episode "The Numbers of the Beast" (aired 13 January 2020), Mrs. McCarthy and her sister, Roisin, visit a Roma fortune teller named Trafalgar Devlin, who lives in a caravan. Devlin reads their tea leaves, and supplies them with what turns out to be the winning numbers in a charity bingo game. When it gets out that the winning numbers came from Devlin, many of the locals come to him for winning numbers and betting results. Father Brown and Penelope "Bunty" Windermere drops by his caravan for tea. While there, Father Brown drops his spoon on the floor, picks it up, and puts it back on the saucer of his teacup. Noting no reaction from Devlin, Father Brown realizes that Devlin is not actually Roma, but a con artist, as no true Roma man would permit such an unclean act. The cause for the winning bingo numbers are explained away, as another person having rigged the numbers.[118]
• The television series 1883 (2021–2022) centers on a wagon train led by Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott), in the 1880s. Most of the people taking part in the wagon train are European immigrants, who have come to start a new life in Oregon. Among the immigrants is Noemi (Gratiela Brancusi), a young Roma woman, who has come to America with her husband and their two sons. When bandits attack the wagon train's camp, Noemi's husband is among the people killed, leaving her a widow.[119] Out of desperation (scared and fearful of her, and her sons, future), Noemi offers herself up as a wife to the widowed Brennan, but he turns her down. Together with Thomas (LaMonica Garrett), Brennan does set out to help Noemi, seeing her struggling without her husband and facing antiziganism from some of the other immigrants.[120] Over the course of the journey, Noemi becomes more self-sufficient, teaching herself how to hunt and use a rifle. She also becomes close to and romantically involved with Thomas,[121] despite some initial reservations from Thomas (due to him being a black man, thus unable to marry Noemi).[122] After two of the other immigrants, Josef and his wife, are injured and unable to drive their wagon, Noemi offers and drives their wagon for them. Together with Josef (whose wife dies), Noemi and her sons, are the only ones of the immigrants to make it to Oregon. Noemi, her sons, and Thomas settles in the Willamette Valley.[123]
• No Mundo da Luna (2022–present) is a television series centered around a young Roma woman named Luna Lovari (played by Marina Moschen), who is an aspiring journalist. Luna attempts to get a reporter job at a newspaper. However, the editor (who has found out that Luna is Roma) only offers Luna a position writing horoscopes for the magazine (as she assumes that all Roma women are fortune tellers, and is surprised to see that Luna is not wearing a stereotypical skirt). A reluctant Luna takes the job, despite not knowing the first thing about tarot cards. She goes to her grandmother, who does. The grandmother becomes upset and says that the non-Rom think that all Roma are the same. She also tells Luna that she won't let her use their culture without knowing anything about it, while it would take her years of study to use the cards. Without her grandmother's permission, Luna takes some tarot cards that have been in the family's possession for centuries. Fleeing from her grandmother's house, Luna is followed to her car by her brother and grandmother. The grandmother says something in the Romani language (Luna, who never learned it, doesn't understand), which prompts Luna to declare that her grandmother is putting a curse on her (likely sarcastically, as Luna's shown to not believe in psychic powers) and drives off. Luna's brother remarks that Luna missed the class about "Gypsy curses" not existing. When Luna later starts using the cards, the artwork becomes animated and the figures seemingly speak to her, as if through magic.[124] In one episode, an entertainment company sees a video from the wedding of Luna's cousin, whose wedding dress caught fire. This inspires them to plan a movie called "The Curse of the Gypsy Bride" (intended to use all clichés about the Roma), much to the annoyance of Luna. A reluctant Luna takes part in a press event for the movie, together with the two (non-Roma) actors cast to play the leads. The lead actress expresses a fear of the Roma, and asks if they still live in tents (and travels around Europe). Eventually, Luna has had enough and tells everyone off for reducing the rich Roma culture to stereotypes. The planned film is shot down, after a video of the event leaks online, and results in the entertainment company being bombarded with allegations of racism and cultural appropriation (with the internet not being too happy about them not even casting real Roma actors for the two leads).[125]

Roma characters are frequently depicted in werewolf films, including Maleva the fortuneteller (Maria Ouspenskaya) in The Wolf Man and the Roma clan of female werewolves in Cry of the Werewolf.

• Gypsy (term)
• Antiziganism