Saartjie “Sara” Baartman
Saartjie "Sara" Baartman is the protagonist of Black Venus. Saartjie performs in London and Paris as the Hottentot Venus, acting as a wild, animalistic savage. She earns money for her performances but is dismayed at audiences slapping and pinching her backside. She is frequently alone, even when surrounded by people, and descends into depression and alcoholism. Saartjie refuses early attempts to view and analyze her genitalia, but by the end, she is forced by circumstance into prostitution.
Hendrick Caezar
Hendrick Caezar is Saartjie's first manager who convinces her to travel with him to London from South Africa where she has worked for his brother and his family for years. He dreams of earning fame and fortune from their show and considers Saartjie as a member of his family. Throughout the film, he grows resentful of her for the shame he feels is unjustly placed on him by other people who disapprove of the Hottentot Venus shows. Hendrick thinks that Saartjie should obey him when he tells her to let people touch her and view their private areas. When she refuses, he sells his contract with her to another manager, Reaux, and walks out of her life.
Réaux
Réaux is a French performer who befriends Hendrick and convinces him to travel to France to perform. He seduces Saartjie and begins to make her shows for the French audiences more sexualized and more animalistic. He eventually abandons Saartjie in a brothel when she begins crying during a performance where he forced her to expose her private parts for guests to touch.
Jeanne
Jeanne is a French performer and assistant to Réaux. She drinks heavily and understands how Saartjie is hurt by the way men like Hendrick talk about her. Jeanne collaborates with Saartjie in the brothel to earn more money. When Saartjie must leave due to disease, Jeanne is visibly upset and shows genuine concern for her, clinging to her and telling her to go to a hospital.
Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier is a preeminent zoologist who is determined to study Saartjie as a non-human specimen. He is obsessed with analyzing what he refers to as the Hottentot Apron, Saartjie's genitalia, and is shown to be uncaring and cold in his efforts to view her private anatomy.
Alexander Dunlop
Alexander Dunlop is a former British Naval surgeon who befriends Hendrick in South Africa and encourages him to bring Saartjie to London to put on shows. In London, he frequently focuses on the particulars of business, like bookkeeping and bringing in new audiences, but shows some reserved concern when newspapers and courts begin to protest the Hottentot Venus show.
Zachary McCaulley
Zachary McCaulley is a representative of the African Institute. He becomes concerned with Saartjie's treatment when he hears about protests to the Hottentot Venus show. He gets the courts involved when Hendrick refuses to show his certificates allowing them to perform. He is concerned that the shows are ruining Saartjie's life.
Jean-Charles Mercailler
Jean-Charles Mercailler is a French journalist interested in writing Saartjie's story. He hopes to find a titillating story from her about tribal royalty and massacres by whites but is disappointed to find she was a poor servant who lost her family members to illness. He expresses some sympathy for her but focuses on writing a story that his readers will enjoy rather than the truth of Saartjie's past.
