Geek boys have been a Hollywood staple for as long as we've been gawping at cinema screens. From Charlie Chaplin to Seth Rogen, Hollywood loves an awkward loser.

But geek girls have been a relatively untapped market. It seems that every other flick these days features at least one tech-expert, fat best mate, or cool nerd... whereas we reckon less than one in ten puts a geeky girl character front and centre.

And even when the roles come up, we don't get to see actual nerds take the parts - producers preferring to stick a pair of glasses on a sneering actress, hoping that no-one notices.

But Fanboys might be about to change all that. Kristen Bell is a definite dork. She loves Comic-Con and seems to pick her roles based almost entirely on their potential to inspire internet devotion.

If it's a hit, maybe Hollywood will start to look beyond the beaches for new talent, hitting the libraries instead.

But what about some of the other geek characters from days past? Were they the real deal, or fangirls in disguise? totalfilm.com investigates...