The portrayals of pansexuality in the media reflect existing societal attitudes towards pansexuality and current media portrayals. Although pansexual characters are not often characters in mass media, they have appeared in various films, TV series, literature, video games, graphic art, and webcomics, sometimes embodying certain tropes in cinema and fantasy. Musicians, actors, and other public personalities have also, in recent years, come out as pansexual, and are focused on with this page.

Pansexual people have a sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their biological sex or gender identity. While pansexuality is at times viewed as a sexual orientation in its own right, at other times it is viewed as a branch of bisexuality, to indicate an alternative sexual identity.

For more information about fictional characters in other parts of the LGBTQ community, see the pages about homophobia, intersex, non-binary, and gay characters in fiction, or about media portrayal of bisexual, lesbian, asexual, and transgender people.

Animated series Animated series such as Cardcaptor Sakura, American Dad!, Rick and Morty, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, Big Mouth, and gen:LOCK have featured pansexual characters.

In February 2001, the creators of Cardcaptor Sakura (1998–2000) and Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (2018), and the associated manga with each series, stated that one of the protagonists, Sakura Kinomoto, did not see gender as a barrier for her romantic attraction because she has a "desire to befriend everyone she meets." As such, some have described her as bisexual. She confesses she has a crush on a beautiful female teacher, Kaho Mizuki, with the dubbed version of the anime removing many of these themes. Sakura has a crush on Yukito/Yue and later begins a relationship with Syaoran Li.

One of the protagonists of American Dad! (2005–Present), Roger, has been referred to as "omnisexual". Roger's personas have become a major plot device, with his myriad alter egos frequently being the subject or facilitator of an episode's main story or subplot. This also helps to amplify his pansexuality and androgynous nature, which varies dependent on the plot situation and persona he has adopted. Aside from catalyzing the plot or subplot with his various personas, and despite his increasingly evident self-interest, he often serves to counsel the show's main characters, by humorously affirming or bluntly disregarding their opinions.

On July 10, 2015, at Comic Con, Justin Roiland, the creator of Rick and Morty (2013–Present), described the character Rick Sanchez as pansexual while voice actor Ryan Ridley described Rick as "gay". His pansexuality was criticized by Nerdist as translating to nothing more than a "planet-wide orgy", a leap from "anything viewers are expected to digest as sincere", and an indication that pop culture is not taking pansexuality seriously while using stereotypes. His character was further criticized for thriving on "traditional masculinity" like Lando Calrissian and Wade Wilson of Deadpool.

In July 2018, Caroline Cao of IndieWire asserted that Rose Quartz, in Steven Universe (2013-2019) and Steven Universe Future (2019-2020), was coded as pansexual because she "experiments with romances with Pearl and human men and women alike."

In August 2019, in response to a fan, Ian Jones-Quartey, creator of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (2017-2019), an all-ages animation, confirmed Lord Boxman, the founder and CEO of Boxmore, who is obsessed with destroying the plaza and a villain of the series, as pansexual. It was later confirmed that Boxman had feelings for his former loving partner in the past, Professor Venomous. On October 13, 2020, Jones-Quartey said that Venomous and Boxman were married at the end of the series.

On October 6, 2019, the Season 3 episode of Big Mouth (2017–Present), "Rankings", aired on Netflix. It introduced a new character at Bridgeton Middle School, Ali, who is openly pansexual. However, Ali's explanation of her pansexuality, as compared to bisexuality, was criticzed by various LGBTQ people on social media as not understanding the differences between pansexuality and bisexuality, engaging in negative stereotypes in the process. Also printed on Salon. On October 8, the co-creator of Big Mouth, Andrew Goldberg, apologized on behalf himself and the other creators of the show (Nick Kroll, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin), on Twitter, saying they missed the mark, saying it is challenging and that they "could have done better". He also thanked the "trans, pan, and bi communities" for opening their eyes about these issues, adding they are listening, looking "forward to delving into all of this in future seasons." This statement was praised by Bustle as a step "in the right direction". In later episodes, Ali begins dating a quiet female student named Samira.

On the November 25, 2021 episode of gen:LOCK, Val/entina Romanyszyn is revealed to be pansexual. Val is also genderfluid, going by the name "Val" when male-presenting and "Valentina" when female-presenting. Romanyszyn is voiced by Asia Kate Dillon, who is a pansexual and non-binary actor, and the character was written as genderfluid, but is feminine-presenting, altering their gender performance several times. In September 2017, when accepting a Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award, Dillon openly discussed their non-binary identity, stating that they were grateful to be the first non-binary actor to "play a non-binary identified character on a major television show" and noted that they are "out as non-binary, trans, and pansexual."

Film In November 2015, Tim Miller, director of Deadpool (2016), said that Wade Wilson was pansexual. However, this is never explicitly portrayed on-screen, with the character's interest in men being used as the source of humor. Megan Townsend of GLAAD criticized the representation, noting that most of the film's references to this "are in service of proving how outrageous his character is." In 2013, a Deadpool writer, Gerry Duggan, said that Deadpool was attracted to "anything with a pulse" while in 2015, Gail Simone, another writer for the films, tweeted that she "always thought of Deadpool as pansexual." This prompted one fan to write an essay about it, sending it to the creator of Deadpool, Fabian Nicieza, who said that Deadpool was created to be fluid, in general, conflating "sexuality and sex", bemoaning questions about the sexuality of Deadpool. S.E. Fleenor of Syfy argued that in the comics Deadpool engages "in pansexual attraction" toward Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Thor, even though he only has "sexual relationships... in the comics...[and] films... [with] women" or people who present as women. Deadpool's gender identity was also reflected in the comics.

In May 2018, one of the co-writers of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jonathan Kasdan, stated that Lando Calrissian, who appeared in the film and other Star Wars films, was pansexual, adding that there is a "fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee's [portrayal of Lando's] sexuality," while admitting that he would have liked to get a "more explicitly LGBT character into this movie." He further said that Lando "doesn't make any hard and fast rules" when it comes to his sexual attractions. Some took this to be a "deeply regressive" move by suggesting this to fans without delivering on it, a "piss-poor shot at representation" which reinforces stereotypes, while others said that the fact that Lando "could be pansexual is more than just groundbreaking for mainstream sci-fi films." Donald Glover (who voiced Lando in the films Solo and The Rise of Skywalker) supported Kasdan's interpretation, describing Lando as a character who "doesn't have hard and fast boundaries about everything" when it comes to sexual attraction. Others stated that Lando's pansexuality is never seen on screen.

On February 15, 2020, the romantic comedy television film The Thing About Harry premiered on Hulu and Freeform. In one scene, Sam learns that his former school enemy and new love interest, Harry, is pansexual. The director of the film, Peter Paige told Variety that he loves the "notion of pansexuality not being about male or female but about 'I am looking for the soul that speaks to me no matter what body it comes in'" and thought that this was lovely enough that he "instantly reevaluate[d] the character of Harry." He also said that this the way the Millennial generation "talks about sexuality" is new and opened up "the landscape of the storytelling." Ty Gamble-Eddington, a GLAAD Campus Ambassador, positively reviewed the film, saying it is "all too rare to see a character who is pansexual" in television and film, especially having a character who uses the word, "pansexual". Gamble-Eddington also noted the film discusses "the experience of fluidity" that people have when they "as they grow into their identity" and praised Harry's character for breaking the "stereotypical characterization of queer men in media."

Live-action television

In August 2008, Alan Ball told GLAAD that his new series True Blood would have "pansexual vampires" because, in his mind, for vampires "feeding and sexuality are combined." The series was renewed in September 2008.

On June 24, 2011, the creator of Torchwood, Russell T. Davies, said that he considered the time-traveling captain, Jack Harkness, in Doctor Who and Torchwood "omnisexual and not just gay" and added that the character was not "calmed down, or censored, or compromised in any way." Harkness is said to flirt "with anything that moved" as he has relationships with women, men, and non-humans.

On March 17, 2014, Sophia, in the fifth episode of Star-Crossed, came out as a "pansexual alien gal" who has a huge crush on a human girl. Her voice actor, Brina Palencia confirmed this on a tweet the following day.

In a March 2015 Season 1 episode, "Honeymoon", of Schitt's Creek, David Rose came out as pansexual. Daniel Levy, who plays the character, called it a "special thing" and said that for some people his character is a point of entry toward understanding homosexuality and pansexuality. His character has relationships with a woman named Stevie Budd and a man named Patrick "Pat" Brewer, the latter who becomes his fiance. The show was later nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. While Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, praised the show for "expanding representation of the spectrum of idenities within the LGBTQ community," saying that other creators should model this, others criticized the show for making a misstep when it came to pansexuality, like Big Mouth in describing a trans man, adding that "pop culture still has a way to go when it comes to properly representing gender identity."

One review in Flare noted that Rose joined, in January 2016, pansexual characters in Game of Thrones, Penny Dreadful, Halt and Catch Fire, Transparent, Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, Teen Wolf, Scream Queens, Broad City, How to Get Away with Murder, American Horror Story: Hotel, Sense8, and Other Space, calling it "about time" that pansexual characters get a turn to tell their stories, with pansexuality "treated as merely part of somebody's story, not the story." Articles in NewNowNext, The Independent, and on GLAAD's blog confirmed this assessment.

In June 2015, YouTube personality and television personality, Jazz Jennings, known for the reality show I Am Jazz (2015–Present) came out as pansexual. She defined the word as meaning that "you are attracted to anyone, no matter their sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, everything," saying that sometimes she is attracted to girls and other times she is attracted to boys and would date anyone. She later won GLAAD Media Awards for the show I Am Jazz. She later asserted her pansexuality in a January 2018 tweet, saying her pansexuality means she is "attracted to people at a level that surpasses gender identity or sexual orientation."