<P> The series was created and executive produced by Rich Eustis and Michael Elias . Rich Eustis had previously worked as a New York City substitute teacher while hoping to become an actor . </P> <P> Head of the Class deals with an entire classroom of academically gifted high school students . The IHP students comprised a diverse range of personalities, ethnicities, and academic specialties . </P> <P> For the first three years of the show, the IHP class had ten students . Arvid Engen (Dan Frischman) was a skinny, bespectacled nerd, mathematics expert, and budding scientist . Arvid's best friend was the overweight, wisecracking cynic Dennis Blunden (Dan Schneider), a computer whiz whose fields were chemistry and physics and who had a knack for getting the socially inept Arvid involved in various schemes . Alan Pinkard (Tony O'Dell) was an ultra-conservative preppy and egotist; his area of expertise was political science and he was a devout fan of Ronald Reagan . Alan competed for the highest grades in the class with Darlene Merriman (Robin Givens), a spoiled rich girl who was probably even more self - centered than Alan and whose specialties were speech and debate . Both Alan and Darlene held the ambition of being named class valedictorian . Sarah Nevins (Kimberly Russell) did not have any one particular area of expertise; she was the most down - to - earth of the IHP class and was once cited as having the lowest G.P.A. Maria Borges (Leslie Bega) was very passionate about getting A's (going as far as grounding herself in the pilot episode for getting a' B'), and Jawaharlal Choudhury (Jory Husain aka Joher Coleman) was an exchange student from India whose expertise was natural science . Eleven - year - old Janice Lazarotto (Tannis Vallely), despite her young age, was in high school and the IHP class because of her advanced intellect . Arts student Simone Foster (Khrystyne Haje) was a quiet, sensitive redhead with a particular fondness for poetry . A notable development in the show was the relationship between Simone and Eric Mardian (Brian Robbins), an aspiring writer and, outwardly, the most unlikely member of the IHP - Eric wore black leather, drove a motorcycle, acted tough, and ostensibly disliked anything academic (to Dr. Samuels's delight, he was the only one in the class not on the academic team, although he would never leave the IHP). Eric constantly hit on Simone (on whom he had a crush) and the two eventually had an on - again - off - again romance . </P> <P> There was some turnover in the cast in seasons four and five . Janice left for Harvard, Maria went to Performing Arts High School, and Jawarhalal moved to California . New students included Aristotle McKenzie (De'voreaux White), described by Dennis as "this reject from Do the Right Thing" for his dreadlocks, Vicky Amory (Lara Piper), a new - ager interested in quantum physics and skin - revealing clothing, and Alex Torres (Michael DeLorenzo), who had transferred from parochial school . T.J. Jones (Rain Pryor) and Jasper Kwan (Jonathan Ke Quan), who had appeared as potential IHP members in earlier seasons, were eventually added to the program and the cast . </P>

Who played eric in head of the class