Niki Stevens, The L Word

Niki Stevens (Kate French)

Niki Stevens was introduced in season 5 as a famous closeted movie star, picked to play the lead in the movie “Lez Girls”. She began an affair with main character Jenny, who was directing the movie. After pictures of her mud wrestling with women and being outed on a TV talk show, Niki attended a movie premiere with her male co-worker Greg as damage control. She later ended up having sex with him, but told Jenny that it “meant nothing” to her and that she had been drunk at the time and was feeling a lot of pressure to appear straight.

In the season finale Niki bonded with Shane and the two of them had sex, Jenny found them in the act and said it was the “ultimate betrayal, you’ve broken my heart,” before leaving.

In the Season 6 premiere it was revealed that Jenny had been found dead. As the season unfolded, each of her friends’ motivations to kill her were revealed. Niki’s motivation was Jenny inviting her over to have sex, only to reject her in the morning for the sole purpose of hurting her, in revenge of Niki sleeping with Shane. Niki was enraged and threatened Jenny.

In episode 7, Niki once again slept with Shane, who was dating Jenny at the time. In the series finale Niki was spotted lurking around the house where Jenny’s body had been found. The series ended with most of the characters, including Niki, being taken to the police station to make their statements.

Appearances:

• 15 episodes. 5x04 - 6x08

Female love interests:

• Jenny Schecter 💀 (Mia Kirshner, bisexual, regular)
• Shane (Katherine Moenning, lesbian, regular)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

Male love interests:

• Greg (Dominic Zamprogna, recurring 6 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Regular), Male (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.