The portrayals of asexuality in the media reflect societal attitudes towards asexuality, reflected in the existing media portrayals. Throughout history, asexual characters have appeared in television series, animated series, literature, comics, video games, music, and film.
Asexual representation in the media is limited and rarely openly acknowledged or confirmed by creators or authors. Representation for asexual people in fiction has been mixed, with strong prejudice against asexuals, asexual erasure, and few asexual characters in media. This is because many characters are "suspected to be asexual" but are not explicitly stated as asexual, while other asexual characters are secondary and are not protagonists. Lauren Jankowski, for Bitch, stated, in 2015, that while more characters have appeared in TV and films, their asexuality is often portrayed as a fixable problem, as tropes for asexual and aromantic people are common. Jankowski further argued that not having asexuals engage in media portrayals of asexuality has resulted in "grossly inaccurate and damaging depictions of this orientation."
Animated series
In 2014 and 2019, it was confirmed that Owen Burnett in the 1990s series, Gargoyles was asexual.
In 2017, GLAAD started counting, for the first time, non-binary and asexual characters, noting that in the past, characters of these identities were "often relegated to one-off episodes, which did not allow for nuanced exploration." In the same report, they noted that while Jughead Jones is arguably asexual in his depictions by Archie Comics, the series by The CW is not making him asexual, adding that "the ace community remains nearly invisible in media." They pointed to Raphael Santiago in Shadowhunters as the "only asexual character...on all of cable television" and Todd Chavez in BoJack Horseman, describing him as "the only asexual character on streaming originals," adding that he is the first GLAAD counted since they began counting streaming services in 2014. Chavez was revealed, at the end of the show's third season, to be asexual, which was further elaborated in the 4th season of the series and has been generally well accepted by the asexual community for its methods of positive representation. The following year, GLAAD found one asexual character, Todd on BoJack Horseman, on American cable television and streaming platforms while Vox reported that asexual characters in popular media has a large impact on the asexual community, and described the history of asexual representation as "short and shallow." This was also reflected in GLAAD's reports in 2018 and 2019, noting that no additional asexual characters had been added, with Todd as the only asexual characters in broadcast and streaming services in 2019. This did not account for Yolanda Buenaventura, an asexual friend of Todd.
Todd Chavez in Bojack Horseman is one of the most prominent examples of asexual characters in popular culture. Alastor in the mature adult animation, Hazbin Hotel, Peridot in Steven Universe, and SpongeBob SquarePants in SpongeBob SquarePants have also been confirmed as asexual. Hazbin Hotel series creator Vivienne Medrano confirmed him as asexual and aromantic. On her Twitter, storyboard artist Maya Petersen stated that Peridot is asexual and aromantic on her Twitter, even though she said her word is not "the ultimate authority" on the matter. This asexual identity was never expressed in the show directly. It is complicated by the fact that fans shipping Peridot with various other characters, specifically Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst, some reviewers even seeing Peridot and Lapis in a "close, loving relationship" in the past. In an interview with Stephen Hillenburg in 2002, he stated that SpongeBob, who was under speculation (2002) and later controversy (2005) because of claims that he and his best friend, Patrick were gay, is neither gay or straight but in fact is asexual. This was once again clarified in 2005, because of controversy about SpongeBob and Patrick's sexual orientations. Hillenburg also instructed that SpongeBob should never have a love interest or romantic relationship, since he is asexual (as all real-life sea sponges are) and too innocent for it.