Marc St. James, assistant to Wilhelmina Slater, the Creative Director of the magazine MODE, on the television series Ugly Betty is a role model. Marc is gay, and does not hide the fact from anyone but his mother, until Betty Suarez, Daniel Meade's assistant, convinces him that he has to be honest with her. He is shunned from his mother but he knows he has other people who he can consider his family. One of those people is his best friend Amanda Sommers, the receptionist, and secret daughter to Fey Sommers.
He has known Amanda Sommers for along time. He is working with her to try to find out who her real father is and help her rise to the fame she feels she belongs to in the fashion industry being Fey's daughter. Amanda use to pretend that she was Marc's girlfriend for his mother. They have known each other more than three years.
Working for Wilhelmina Slater is no easy task for him but he does her bidding. He may work for Wilhelmina Slater but he is not anything like her. Slater has threatened to replace him on occasion, but so far even after getting rid of him, Slater misses him and takes him back. She wants to stop but Alexis Meade and Daniel Meade and MODE.
Marc has also taken fondly to Betty's nephew Justin, who must behave exactly as Marc did when he was Justin's age. They get along very well together. Marc loves it that Justin is so much into fashion and has become his mentor.
He is dating Cliff St. Paul, a photographer, who is not the pretty, but surely cleans up heavenly. Cliff is by no means shallow, and he is not beautiful. Marc loves him because of his personality.
Marc knows what friendship is, you see it when he is with Amanda, and even though he may tease Betty, he is secretly her friend too.
