To write effectively about a character, you need to know as much as possible about them: their past, their inner life, their appearance, their proclivities, what irritates them, what unsettles them -- the list is endless, but it is ground you have to cover in order to be able to bring them to life on the page.
The million-dollar question is how to convey all the knowledge you have garnered. Although there are many facts you need to know about your hero or heroine, you don't necessarily have to write them all down for your reader, as it would slow the action immeasurably and have them wandering off to put the kettle on (and find a better book to read).
Rather than swamp them with fast flowing torrents of information, occasionally it can be productive to leave them guessing about some things, to suggest significance without spelling it out too much. To put this to the test, write yourself a list of a dozen or so important facts about your main character and then choose one that offers most scope for ambiguity, one that raises more questions than it answers. Start writing about this and see where it leads you. It's the ambivalent parts of human nature that are usually the most interesting.
Think how a door which is open a crack, rather than flung wide, inflames your curiosity:
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