Personages

Major characters

• Patrick Bateman - The narrator of the novel
• Evelyn Richards - Bateman's girlfriend
• Timothy Price - Bateman's best friend and colleague. Later appears as a teenager in Ellis' novel The Informers
• Paul Owen - Bateman's colleague who is later murdered by Bateman
• Jean - Bateman's secretary, whom Bateman refers to as "Jean, my secretary who is in love with me"
• Luis Carruthers - A closeted homosexual co-worker who is in love with Bateman, something that disgusts him
• Courtney Lawrence - Luis' girlfriend who is having an affair with Bateman
• Craig McDermott - Bateman's colleague, part of a social foursome alongside Bateman, Timothy Price and David Van Patten
• David Van Patten - Bateman's colleague, also part of Bateman's main social group.

Minor characters

• "Christie" – A prostitute, employed and abused sexually on multiple occasions by Bateman before he eventually murders her. Bateman gives her this name; her real one is never revealed.
• Elizabeth - A dinner date of Bateman's, drugged and coerced into having sex with "Christie" before being murdered.
• Marcus Halberstram – Bateman's colleague; Paul Owen repeatedly mistakes Bateman for Marcus.
• Donald Kimball – Private detective hired to investigate Paul Owen's disappearance.
• Alison Poole – Sexually assaulted by Bateman; created by Ellis' friend Jay McInerney in his novel Story of My Life^[13] and based on McInerney's former girlfriend Rielle Hunter; reappears as a main character in Ellis's later novel Glamorama, where she is involved with the lead character, Victor Ward.
• Sean Bateman – Younger brother of Patrick Bateman and also the lead character of The Rules of Attraction.
• Paul Denton – Friend of Paul Owen, who also appears in The Rules of Attraction where he is possibly romantically involved with Patrick's brother Sean.
• Christopher Armstrong – Bateman's colleague at Pierce & Pierce.
• Bethany – An old girlfriend of Patrick's whom, after a date, he murders in a particularly heinous manner.
• Stash – Evelyn's friend, is HIV positive.
• Vanden – Evelyn's friend from the East Village who attends Camden College, the main setting of The Rules of Attraction.
• Al - A homeless man whom Bateman blinds and disfigures with a knife.