Private is the smallest and dearest of the penguins. In contrast to the other penguins, he does not hold much of action and violence. He likes things for children, like eg. Children's series like The Monde horns (he also has a Mondeinhorn doll), sweet animals and kitschy stories. Private is very sensitive and compassionate and when he realizes that someone else feels bad, he usually does everything to change (see The Madagascar penguins in pre-Christmas mission). His greatest hero, as he mentioned in a sequel, is Kowalski.
As can be seen in the wake of sleep, birds, sleep, Private can also be very popular with the classical theater, and sentences such as Shakespeare's "Henry IV" quote.

His name is rather unusual. It is derived from the Latin, where it means "separated, standing alone", and is as appropriate as it is still to integrate properly into the group. In English, "private" is also a military grade of service, which corresponds approximately to the corporal in Germany.

Private has a British accent in the English original, presumably because it grew up in a different place than the other penguins.