Tamaki is a half-Japanese, half-French Ouran High School second-year student and the president of the Host Club, the founding of which was his idea. He is sometimes referred to as the "King" of the Host Club and is by far the most popular host, with a 70% request rate. The usual instigator of all of the Host Club's antics, Tamaki is prone to dramatics and often acts without thinking or overreacts to trivial things; the other members of the club, particularly Hikaru and Kaoru, often take amusement at his expense. However, they also almost always follow his lead, and staunchly support him when it's needed.
Despite his foolish behavior, Tamaki is very generous and easily moved by the distress of others, even strangers. Once aware of others peoples' problems, he will do all he can to help them and "ascertain justice". He often makes elaborate plans or "strategies" to fix many solutions. His family is involved mostly with the business market, but also handles the school administration. In fact, Tamaki is the son of the superintendent so in effect his family is financially supporting Haruhi as a scholarship student.
Tamaki's grandmother, the true head and decision-maker of the Suoh family, bears a grudge against him over the fact that his father had an affair with Tamaki's mother and divorced his legal wife when Tamaki was born. Because there is no other heir to the Suoh family, his grandmother acknowledges Tamaki as a Suoh, but refuses to allow him to live in the family's main residence and forbids him any contact with his mother in France (In the manga, his mother ran away from home after his return to Japan, although Kyoya commented that given his father's influence, he (the father) should know where she is). In spite of this, Tamaki appears to hold no hard feelings against his grandmother, and retains an almost excessively positive outlook on life.
For all his immaturity and silliness, Tamaki proves to be a naturally excellent student, routinely placing second in his class (behind Kyoya) without making any particularly great effort towards studying. He is a talented piano player, and unlike the other members of the Host Club (such as Kyoya and the Hitachiin brothers) there is surprisingly little artifice in his treatment of the club's customers. In his profile at the end of volume 1 of the manga, Hatori notes that despite his apparent glibness with the girls, he genuinely means what he says. Haruhi, however, finds his behavior more troublesome than charming - much to Tamaki's chagrin, as he quickly developed a romantic infatuation with her which she has yet to show any signs of reciprocating. He himself seems oblivious to his infatuation with Haruhi, confusing it with fatherly feelings. In fact, he fell ill after he thought that his attempt to kiss Haruhi made him a "pervert"; he "solved" the problem by kissing the girl on her forehead.
