While on stage, Tess sees her mother in the crowd, but her joy is quickly ruined when T.J. During rehearsal for her performance, Tess begins to verbally abuse Ella and Peggy for failing to follow the dance steps to the letter, which proves to be the final straw Peggy loses her temper and gives Tess a verbal scalding before walking off in a huff, and Ella quickly follows suit, leaving Tess to perform her number alone. As a way to further keep Mitchie out of her way during the Final Jam, Tess frames her for stealing her charm bracelet. The plan succeeds, turning most of the campers against her. When she sees that Mitchie and Shane are getting closer, she hatches a plan to tell the camp that Mitchie's mother is, in fact, the camp cook, and not the president of Hot Tunes China as Mitchie has been claiming. Tess also has a crush on Shane Grey, who has been sent to camp to get his act together. Asking Mitchie to join her girl group, Tess casts her as a backup singer to stop her light from shining. However, when Tess hears Mitchie sing, she immediately sees her as competition, which she hates. Tess first meets Mitchie when she arrives at camp and be friends with her, inviting her to stay in the cabin that she shares with her "followers", Ella and Peggy. The reason for this behavior is because her mother is often too busy with her career to spend time with or even notice her. Tess aspires to be a singer like her mother and often tries excessively hard to make everything she does perfect, even if she hurts other people in the process. Tess Tyler has attended Camp Rock every year, and is known as its "diva", partially due to her renowned talent, but also due to her arrogant behavior.
Tess serves as the main antagonist in the original film.