Characters / Billions Axe Capital

Billions Character Index
Main Characters | Axe Capital | Taylor Mason Capital | Department of Justice | Recurring Characters

Axe

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Wags

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Dollar Bill

"Dollar" Bill Stern

Played By: Kelly AuCoin

"I'm Keyser Soze, motherfucker."

"...I am not uncertain."

Stern is a trader at Axe Capital, and one of the guys who have been with Bobby the longest. His loyalty is beyond question.

• Berserk Button: He will move heaven and earth to find the person responsible for stealing his lucky dollar.
• Crime After Crime: When his Chicken Man insider trading scheme backfires, he has a Villainous BSoD and decides to escalate all the way to bio-terrorism by infecting a chicken farm with bird flu.
• Evil Is Petty: In "Flaw in the Death Star" he plumbs the very depths of pettiness, stealing a newspaper from a vending machine and then destroying Spyros's car because Spyros inconvenienced him.
• Flanderization: Zig-zagged. In season 1, Bill is just your basic amoral trader. By season 3, he descends briefly into self-parody (see Evil Is Petty above) before forming a pragmatic alliance with Spyros in order to make more money.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Dollar Bill's fund with Mafee proves to be short-lived when he drives away the rest of the staff, Mafee included, which ultimately leads him to return to Michael Prince Capital.
• Hidden Depths: Seeming at first like the epitome of the ruthless, macho, double-dealing lifestyle of their firm, with nothing more than his (very well-compensated) loyalty to Axe as a redeeming feature, his changing conduct towards Taylor in Season 2 shows there is more to him than that.
• Large Ham: Not one for subtlety or a plain tone. As seen in the right image, "over the top" is his default state.
• Manipulative Bastard: His out-gambitting of Chuck Rhoades: "I'm Keyser Soze, motherfucker."
• Paper Tiger: Bill loves to yell and scream and bluster, but it's mostly noise.
  • Has a tantrum when Axe gives the second Alpha Cup seat to Taylor, but Axe shuts him down fast.
  Bill: That's my fucking seat!
  Axe: It's my fucking seat! I paid for it! I can give it to whoever the fuck I want!
  • In "Icebreaker" (s03e09), gets shown up by three lower-ranking employees at different times. Only one pays for it, and that one is punished by Wags, not Bill.
  • In "Fight Night" (s04e08), getting his ass handed to him by Bonnie (who is half his size) during an impromptu training session turns him into a weeping, blubbering mess. His big boxing match with Mafee ends in an underwhelming draw.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: At the start of Season 2, he very nearly calls Taylor a freak for identifying as non-binary, and only a sharp look from Axe stops him. To give him his due, once Taylor proves to be a major asset to the company, he shows genuine respect and loyalty.
• Pet the Dog: Despite his earlier contempt towards Taylor, once they have shown their worth to the company and proven willing to engage in the cut-throat aspects of the Wall Street lifestyle, he treats them as a valued colleague, gives them a large off-the-books cash sum and some completely sincere advice about how it's always a good idea to have cash hidden away in case all hell breaks loose. At the end of the season when Taylor is made CIO instead of him, he accepts it as a good call and asks them what he can do to help.
• Pride: Takes great pride in being "not uncertain" and has an ego the size of the Moon. Hurting either will cause him to go overboard. Being forced to publicly apologize to Spyros causes him to wreck Spyros' Porsche. Finding himself unable to rig the chicken pricing scheme causes him to steal an H1N1-infected chicken and attempt to plant it in a chicken farm, which would have caused a serious health crisis if Bobby and Wags hadn't stopped him in time.
• The Rival: In "Flaw in the Death Star", he and Ari Spyros' mutual dislike spills into genuine hatred, with Bill eventually ramming his car into Spyros' prized Porsche.
• The Scrooge: His nickname comes from the fact he's a tightwad despite being a multi-millionaire hedge fund analyst.
  • His frugality begins to make more sense with the post-arrest revelation that he's supporting two families.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Is one of two employees who walk away after Prince takes over Axe Capital.
• Stupid Crooks: Usually averted, as his schemes are well thought-out and tend to insulate him and Axe Capital from the main criminal activity. However, when the Chicken Man scheme backfires, he has a Villainous BSoD and in desperation attempts to infect a chicken farm with bird flu. He does the deed personally and seems unconcerned about fingerprints and security cameras. He also seems completely oblivious to the fact he is engaging in bio-terrorism and could kill people.
• Undying Loyalty: To Axe. In Bill's words "they fuck you, they fuck me!". He is the only one of Axe's loyalists to quit on the spot after Prince takes over Axe Capital.
  Bill: I worked for a legend. I'm out.
• Villainous BSoD: Has one after he fails to rig the chicken pricing scheme in Arkansas.
  Bill: I'm the guy who DELIVERS!

Bach

Orrin Bach

Played By: Glenn Fleshler

"There's a reason you retained me: me. I look far enough down the road to let you avoid the speed traps."

"You do your three or five or ten years here, then you flip to our side, cash seven figures from the same big funds you're trying to bring down."

Bach is the in-house lawyer for Axe Capital, and used to teach law at NYU.

• Amoral Attorney: As Bobby's attorney, he advises Bobby on how to deal with Chuck's investigation and is often privy to his client's schemes to dodge scrutiny.
• Affably Evil: Maybe not "evil"...at least compared to people like Hall. But he is probably the most level-headed person on Axe's team, and remains cordial with his former student Bryan Connerty even though they are on opposite sides of the Axe-Rhoades feud.
• Face–Heel Turn: He taught Connerty that a lawyer's calling was about serving the spirit of the law beyond mere recompense, but one day he sold out and started playing for the defence and its seven figures per year.
• Honest Advisor: Is this to Bobby.
• The Mentor: Interestingly enough, to Connerty, who was his law student.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Does not waver from his support of Bobby, through investigations and allegations and all the might of the U.S. Attorney's office gunning for him. His loyalty is to Bobby and Bobby alone, even when Lara tries to bribe him and consult him for divorce advice. He turns her down flat, reminding her Bobby pays him well enough that she'd have to triple the bribe just to get his attention.
• Put on a Bus: Vanishes from the show after Axe's exile to Switzerland. He returns at the start of season 7.

Spyros

Ari Spyros

Played by: Stephen Kunken

"The Answer Man is here!"

SEC official who is a thorn in Chuck's side at the Attorney General's office. He later becomes the compliance officer at Axe Capital.

• Brick Joke: In season 2, he bullies Chuck with the Cortado Gambit (see Evil Is Petty below). In his first appearance in season 3, he swaggers into Axe's office holding... a cortado.
• Cool Car: Owns a sleek red Porsche convertible. Which Dollar Bill totals.
• Evil Is Petty: Makes Chuck send his secretary out for a cortado, then refuses to drink it.
• Face–Heel Turn: From the Securities and Exchange Commission to Axe Capital, a major rules violator. He tries to present his role there as responsible of compliance as enforcing good practice, with little success.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Ari gets on the nerves of everyone in Chuck's office by butting into their investigations, and is especially loathed by Chuck after he finds out that Ari raped a classmate in college. When Ari leaves the SEC for Axe Capital, his new co-workers also regard him with disdain.
• Glory Hound: This is really what all his Jerkassery is about.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
  • "This is a case of what I like to call... The Prisoner's Dilemma." Chuck immediately snaps and retorts that's just how it's called.
  • Bursts into Axe's office warning of a "DEFCON 6" situation, only for Taylor to correct him about how the DEFCON scale really works.
• Inciting Incident: He's the one who brings Axe's insider trading into Rhoades' attention. Chuck initially refuses to take action because he doesn't want to mess with a Bobby who is like "Tyson in his prime."
• Irony: As an SEC representative, Ari was the person who originally put Bobby on Chuck's radar and set the whole premise of the series into motion. By the start of the third season, he has left the SEC and become one of Bobby's advisors after his indictment.
• Jerkass: A colossal stuck up, ridiculous asshole.
• Karma Houdini: Sure, Chuck manages to get the better of him, eventually. But Spyros just moves over to Axe Cap, where, ironically, Chuck can't do much to him.
  • Subverted in "All the Wilburys." Bobby fires Ari for backstabbing Wendy, but Dollar Bill gets Ari his job back when he finds a useful moneymaking scheme.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Triumphantly announces himself to Axe Cap: "The Answer Man is here!" Cue eye-rolls from the actual smart people in the room.
  • Becomes a B plot in Season 5, when this tendency by Spyros (including wearing a fake Mensa lapel pin) tanks Axe's meeting with the SEC chairwoman. Spyros becomes determined to show off his intellect by taking Mensa's online questionnaire so that he can join for real. Mafee rigs the questionnaire so that Spyros passes (knowing that he would spitefully flag Axe Cap's trades if he flunked) but immediately regrets it when Spyros rubs his apparent triumph in everyone's faces.
• Must Have Caffeine: If there is one characteristic Spyros has besides his douchiness, it's his love of exotic coffee.
• The Rival: Hates Dollar Bill and everything he stands for, but must work with him after being ordered to by Bobby. After Ari gloats over Bill's forced-apology, Bill rams his car into Ari's prized Porsche. Subverted in that Dollar Bill helps get Ari his job back after Bobby fires him, but he makes it clear that it's a one-time deal.
• Smart Ball: Despite his asinine obnoxiousness, he can come up with an useable idea every now and then.
• Spanner in the Works: Hoping to help out Axe and impress him, he tells the NSA about the trade Wendy made during the Ice Juice ICO, giving Connerty what he needs to go after Chuck and Wendy.

Ben Kim

Ben Kim

Played by: Daniel K. Isaac

• Extreme Doormat: Constantly struggles with his lack of ability to stand up for himself in the pressure cooker of Axe Capital.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Declines to join Taylor's new hedge fund, remaining with Axe Capital.
• Nice Guy: Along with Mafee, he's the only one of the top traders who considers the ethics of some of the fund's moves. He is also one of the few people who isn't celebrating Heidecker's death.
• Took a Level in Badass: After two and a half seasons as a doormat, he finally grows a spine when Dollar Bill tries to bully him.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Is delighted to have Taylor and Mafee back in Axe Capital, at the end of season 4.

Donnie

Donnie Caan

Played by: David Cromer

• The Atoner: Believes he owes everything to Axe Capital (and Bobby in particular).
• Bury Your Gays: Dies of cancer by the end of the season for plot purposes
• Fake Defector: He's the double-agent in the Southern District, with Bobby feeding him information to distract Chuck.
• Nice Guy: One of the few genuine ones in Axe Cap, and a big reason why everyone in the firm loves him.
• Straight Gay: No one would have pegged him for gay, until his husband shows up.
• Tagalong Kid: On paper, not a great fit at Axe Cap: too little machismo and too much conscience. But the entire firm loves him and is distraught when he dies. Even Rhoades shows up to his funeral.

Danzig

Mick Danzig

Played by: Nathan Darrow

• The Bus Came Back: Returns to Axe Cap in Season 4 after interviewing for Taylor's fund.
• Hidden Depths: Initially seems to be a macho jerk just like the other traders at Axe Capital, but is horrified when Axe Cap considers inflicting crippling austerity measures on Sandicot to get Bobby's money back after the casino snafu. It eventually causes him to quit.
• Ignored Epiphany: Left Axe Cap because of moral qualms over the Sandicot debacle, only to come back over a season later.
• Put on a Bus: Quit Axe Capital over the Sandicot issue in Season 2 and wasn't seen again until Season 4.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Is arrested during the first season for firing his machine gun at deer on his front lawn in the middle of the night. Bobby helps cover up the incident.

Rudy

Peter "Rudy" Miranda

Played by: Chris Carfizzi

Consistently the worst-performing trader at Axe Capital.

• Butt-Monkey
• Hidden Depths: Is a magnificent singer.
• Idiot Ball: Grabs it when he steals Dollar Bill's lucky dollar in "Icebreaker." Does it again by attending a Mase Cap party without Bobby's knowledge, which gets him fired.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Taylor catches him doing it, because "Nessu Dorma" is about somebody hiding something.

Victor

Victor Mateo

Played by: Louis Cancelmi

• The Bus Came Back: A few times. After lying low for a while, he reappears to open a satellite fund where Axe can profit from his dark dealings; after Victor gets in trouble with the SEC, he reappears again when Axe shuts down the satellite and punishes him by bringing him back in house to work off his debt.
• You Have Failed Me: Gets publicly fired by Axe after making one shady trade too many.

Bonnie

Bonnie Barella

Played by: Sarah Stiles

"I hit like the Purple People Eaters, so be careful what you wish for."

"Take one more step toward me, Bill, and I will fuck you up."

• Characterization Marches On: Is introduced near the end of Season 3 without much characterization beyond being The Lad-ette on the Axe Cap trading floor. During Season 4 she evolves into Wendy's female confidante at Axe Capital, and someone who is both mentally and physically formidable for her size.
• Lust Object: Has a history of being hit on or pursued by men, which she is not comfortable with. Spyros in particular has a creepy infatuation with her. Which makes it all the more surprising when she reciprocates Dollar Bill's advances and starts an affair with him.
• Team Mom: While Wendy is a combination of The Shrink and The Heart for Axe Capital, Bonnie is this for the traders. It is Bonnie who organizes a labor action amongst the traders to protest the Flagship fund, which turns out to be the result of a psy-op by Taylor Mason Capital partly designed to recruit her. Axe recognizes Bonnie's qualities and, to keep her at Axe Cap, includes her in the fund.
• What Does She See in Him?: Her affair with Dollar Bill.

Ayles

Sean Ayles

Played By: Jack Gilpin

Something between an IR man and a fixer for Axe Cap.

• Amoral Attorney: Not an attorney, but certainly amoral.
• The Fixer: A very specialized kind. Whereas Bach focuses on legal matters and Hall focuses on espionage, blackmail, and general skullduggery, Ayles handles donations, endowments, and outright bribery.
• Honest Advisor: In his own words, "You're paying me enough so that I have to be."
• I Am What I Am: He has no illusions about who and what he is, nor any ambition to be something more. This means that even though he's a pretentious Jerkass, his paradoxical humility makes him easy to work with.
• Upper-Class Twit: Tweed suits, elaborate diction, patrician demeanor, etc.

Steph

Stephanie "Steph" Reed

Played By: Shaunette Renée Wilson

...

Bobby's Chief of Staff in season two, brought in as part of Bobby's obsession with tightening security and transparency.

• Beware the Honest Ones: Has no qualms about telling Bobby precisely what she thinks of his decisions, and reminding him of past boneheaded decisions.
• Black Boss Lady: To the employees at Axe Capital, as Bobby's new chief of staff.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Bobby treats her terribly, causing her to have no qualms becoming a witness for the Southern District.
• Mook–Face Turn: Bobby's firing of her causes her to turn state's witness against Axe Capital, and point the finger straight at Taylor for the current illegal goings-on.
• Only Sane Employee: Steph frequently mediates between the volatile traders and Bobby.
• Put on a Bus: Gets fired and leaves Axe Capital, with only a single fleeting appearance thereafter.
• Sexy Secretary: Only a secretary in the sense that she functions as a legal check on Bobby doing any more insider trading and therefore must attend and take notes at every meeting.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: All the possibilities for her helping Bobby go legit go out the window when he fires her, saying he's a Terminator and he needs Wags, not her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Isn't seen or referred to again after she agrees to turn state's witness for Connerty in Season 2.

Hall

Hall

Played By: Terry Kinney

"You don't have to outswim the shark. You just have to outswim the guy you're scuba diving with."

Bobby's "fixer". You listen to him, or you go down in flames.

• Beard of Sorrow: Grows one while he hides out in Nova Scotia. He gets rid of it when he returns to Bobby's service.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever went down with him and Bobby in Reykjavik, it affected all of their dealings afterward. Bobby trusts him implicitly, and has Hall's number in his phone listed as "Iceland".
• Fetish: Hall is seen taking a phone call at a sauna while a dwarf woman with a riding crop waits for him to follow her somewhere. It's stated that not even Wags can stomach to guess what Hall does in his off-hours.
  Hall: "What gets me off would disturb you on such a deep level, you'd be best served never to think about it again."
• Only One Name: "Hall" is the only name we have for him. Bobby seems to address him as "Neil" in the Season 3 finale.
• Put on a Bus: Quickly makes himself scarce when the Ice Juice scandal breaks at the end of season 2. He is not seen for the first half of Season 3 and Bobby takes on two new fixers dubbed "the new Halls". However, The Bus Came Back in "Not You, Mr. Dake" to help Bobby beat Connerty's charges against Wendy and sabotage his case. He disappears again after Axe's permanent exile.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the season two finale, Hall disappears without a trace, apparently reading the writing on the wall in regards to the Ice Juice scandal, the U.S. Attorney's office heading for Axe Capital, and Bobby's impending arrest.
• The Spook: We initially know nothing about his background, personal life, qualifications - just that he's Bobby's "fixer" and that he has pull in every corner of the globe. It's strongly implied he was on Langley's payroll in the past.
• Worf Effect: To a degree. Hall is such an intimidating figure that Wags, Wendy and Boyd are all wary of him. But when Andolov backhands him with no repercussions, it shows who the real badass is between them.

The New Halls

The New Halls

Played by: Tom Lipinski & Brian Wiles

Axe's anonymous new fixers and counter-intel experts, derisively dubbed "the new Halls" by Wags. Younger, sleeker, and higher-tech than their predecessor.

• Ambiguously Gay: They're joined at the hip and seem to share a very close relationship, but it hasn't been explicitly shown that they're a couple. It's rather telling that they introduce each other rather than themselves when first establishing their bona fides.
• Continuity Nod: As Hall was "Iceland" in Bobby's phone contacts, the new Halls are dubbed "Greenland".
• Deadpan Snarker: Wags tries to bully and intimidate the New Halls. They are unimpressed.
  Wags: Why should I trust you to do anything other than point me to the nearest avocado toast?
  New Hall no. 1: Smashed spring pea toast is the new avocado toast.
• Genius Bruiser: They're both highly intelligent and combat-trained spies for hire.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: They're also referred to as "the Winkelvii", due to their physical resemblance to the Winklevoss twins.
• The Spock: They're not even Red Oni, Blue Oni; it's more like Blue Oni, Bluer Oni.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: They disappear from the narrative completely after Hall comes back.

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