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    Koen 

Koen West

Played By: Hunter Page-Lochard
A mid-twenties half-Aboriginal bartender who is bequeathed the powers of the Cleverman. Having rejected his heritage, it takes time for him to understand the weight of this responsibility and the consequences of his actions.
  • The Atoner: He eventually realizes what harm he's caused by turning in Hairypeople for rewards and embraces the power of the Cleverman to right them.
  • Cain and Abel: Abel, as he was often a victim of his brother's bullying and on the receiving end of his treachery.
  • Child of Two Worlds: Koen was born to an Aboriginal father and white mother. She died before he was born (Koen was delivered by emergency C-section) and Koen got bullied for being her son by Aboriginal boys who called her a whore. His half-brother Warru is among those who's held her against him, and so unsurprisingly when grown up he's estranged from the Aboriginal community, with only white friends. He slowly embraces his Aboriginal side on learning he's the titular Cleverman, a heroic savior in Aboriginal culture, abiding by their customs more.
  • Death Seeker: He's nigh-immortal as the Cleverman, but urges Djukurra to pull the trigger during their confrontation.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Even after he has the nigh-immortality and telepathic powers of the Cleverman, he still brushes the supernatural off as stories.
  • Half-Breed Discrimination: Aboriginal boys used to call his mother a "white whore" while bullying Koen because he's her son. Even his half-brother Warru echoes this, saying she must have been for having him, never mind that they share the same (Aboriginal) father.
  • Healing Factor: He's nearly immortal, with the only things that can hurt him being supernatural.
  • Missing Mom: This is an immense sore spot for him. She was killed in a car accident while pregnant with Koen, and he had to be delivered by emergency C-Section. Because of her being white (his father was Aboriginal), many Aboriginal buys bullied him over this and called her a whore, his half-brother Warru included.
  • Opportunistic Bastard: Made extra money by selling out Hairypeople he smuggled from the Zone.
  • Refusal of the Call: When the powers of the Cleverman are pushed on him, he doesn't do much with it and brushes it off as nonsense.
  • Time Master: His abilities are connected to time, with his energy powers being connected to the past, his prophetic visions to the future, and his healing abilities to the present. That said, he can't manipulate time itself yet.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: A downplayed example, as Koen starts out as a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk but eventually becomes a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. With much cajoling.
  • Touch Telepathy: With a dash of Fainting Seer. When he grabs someone by the wrists, he can see glimpses of their future.
  • Traumatic C-Section: His mother died before he was even born; he was pulled from her womb.

    Warru 

Warru West

Played By: Rob Collins
An Aboriginal community leader within the Zone and Koen's half-brother. He's ambitious and has wanted to be the Cleverman since he was a child.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Desperately wants to have leadership and the power of the Cleverman. This drives him down a dark path.
  • Animal Motifs: Crows
  • Berserk Button: If he think he's being disrespected or looked down on, he will boil over.
  • Big Brother Bully: Was cruel to Koen about his multi-ethnicity when they were children; later, he doesn't seem to understand why Koen wouldn't want anything to do with his indigenous heritage.
  • Cain and Abel: Cain, as he's abusive and more than happy to let Koen die and sell him to Slade.
  • Driven by Envy: A big part of his character, almost exclusively surrounding Koen.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: His answer for snapping a prison guard's neck. Neithr he nor Nerida believe it.
  • Sanity Slippage: After taking Slade's serum, it's pretty clear he's off his rocker.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Warru or Waruu?
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: He just wants the best for the people in the Zone, but things get out of hand.

    Linda 

Aunty Linda

Played By: Deborah Mailman
Estranged mother of Waruu and adoptive mother of Koen; dying of cancer and is knowledgeable of the Dreaming.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: She abused drugs in the past (she smokes now because she's in pain). During their confrontation, Waruu says that if she hadn't been high, she wouldn't have caused the crash that killed Koen's mother and their father.
  • Damaged Soul: Koen accidentally destroys her muya, leaving her with no essence to be passed on after her death. He has to go to some lengths to get it back.
  • My Greatest Failure: Waruu speculates that she neglected him and favored Koen because of her guilt about killing Koen's mother.

    Jarrod 

Jarrod Slade

Played By: Iain Glen
The president of the Channel 8 television network. Is immensely wealthy and obsessed with Hairypeople.
  • Bio-Augmentation: When his Super Serum is deemed a success, he takes it himself.
  • The Chessmaster: He's playing everyone.
  • Domestic Abuse: He appears to be Happily Married at first, but after Charlotte's pregnancy he slowly becomes more and more controlling of her, until she runs away just to keep herself and her baby safe. It culminates in him physically wrestling her onto an examining chair, preparing to cut the child out of her body while telling her to stop resisting, leading to her accidentally killing him.
  • Fiction 500: He's immensely wealthy and has a hand in everything from genetic research to the company that tracks Hairypeople.
  • Karmic Death: Twofold. Not only does the wife he's been abusing kill him, if by accident, but thanks to his attempts to control the Dreaming, his soul vanishes after his death.
  • Playing with Syringes: Experiments on Hairypeople and the Cleverman for his own purposes.
  • The Social Darwinist: Jarrod gives this as his motive for experimenting with DNA from Hairypeople to use in enhancing humans (including himself and his child, without his wife's knowledge), while claiming humanity's near a tipping point and only the fit will survive as a result of climate change related disasters.

    Latani 

Latani

Played By: Rarriwuy Hick
A 15-year old Hairy person refugee who goes into hiding after her family is taken into custody. She makes it to the Zone after some time.
  • Pass Fail: Her male disguise is successful (from a distance) but the only time she disguises herself as human, she doesn't get the chance to test it out.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: She binds her chest and wears clothes designed for men when she's on the run through the city.

    Djukurra 

Djukurra

Played By: Tysan Towney
Latani's older brother, a member of the family captured by the CA. His actions inadvertently lead to his sister Jirra's death.
  • Idiot Ball: Insists on not shaving his face, even when he plans to venture out of the Zone (as a fugitive, no less) and find his father. He's quickly convinced otherwise.
  • I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: While incarcerated, the sadistic warden puts a shock collar on his father and presses the button when Djukurra does something he doesn't like.
  • Traumatic Haircut: To humiliate him, the prison guards strip him naked and shave his body and head.

    Araluen 

Araluen

Played By: Tasma Walton
Mother of Latani, Djukurra and Jirra. After being separated from her family, she is enslaved, but eventually escaped.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Seems to be a very nice woman and a loving mother and wife, even risking her life to save another Hairyperson she didn't even know. She's also immensely protective of her family and has the Super-Strength to back it up.
  • I Have Your Wife: The threat of her family coming to harm keeps her in line.
  • Mama Bear: Telling her that you're gonna wipe her people out as images of her daughter flash on TV will get you strangled.
  • Sex Slave: She doesn't spend much time in prison, as she is bought by a brothel owner named Frankie.
  • Spanner in the Works: Whatever plan Slade had in mind for Matthews was destroyed when Araluen strangled him.

    Charlotte 

Charlotte Slade

Played By: Frances O'Connor
A doctor who runs a clinic within the Zone. She has much compassion for the Hairypeople and is completely unaware of her husband's machinations.
  • Accidental Murder: Maybe. When Slade tries to forcibly remove her child, she grabs a scalpel and stabs him in an artery, causing him to bleed out. It's not clear if she was aiming for something else and missed or if she just reflexively killed him, but either way she seems very shocked.
  • Guinea Pig Family: She just wanted a child, but instead Jarrod made her into the first member of his Super Breeding Program.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Even with IVF treatments, she can't get pregnant. That is, until her husband mutates an egg with Hairypeople DNA.

    Nerida 

Nerida West

Played By: Jada Alberts
Wife of Waruu, she is less of a political advocate for the Hairypeople but still cares for them. She is deeply concerned with her husband's actions over the course of the first season.
  • Mama Bear: She cares for Latani like she's her own.

    Uncle Jimmy 

James West

Played By: Jack Charles
Uncle to the West family and the Cleverman who bestows the power to Koen. His actions kick start the series plot.
  • Enigmatic Minion: He worked with Slade in the past, using his powers to help him in the experiments, then intentionally screwed him over by giving his power to Koen and summoning the Namorrodor. It's possible he was using him for something.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: The Namorrodor takes his heart first, as he is the one who summoned it.

    Kora 

Kora

Played By: Alexis Lane
A young woman who is actually an ancestral spirit bound to the woman's corpse. Doing this was Uncle Jimmy's second to last act as the Cleverman.
  • Ambiguously Human: Her body is human, but her spirit is implied to be something more than that.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Blair gave her the name Kora, as she doesn't speak English and isn't entirely human.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's initially cold, but that's largely because she's interacting with Koen and Blair. She's much kinder around Aunty Linda and Ash, and when Koen and Blair develop into nicer people she warms to them too.
  • Whispering Ghosts: She makes psychic contact with Koen after he becomes the Cleverman.

    MP Matthews 

Hon Geoff Matthews

Played By: Andrew Mc Farlane
A politician who is against the Hairypeople. A client of Frankie's who is regularly serviced by Araluen.
  • Hypocrite: Despite his hardline anti-Hairy policies, he still engages the services of a Hairy prostitution ring.
  • Smug Snake: Slimier than most politicians.
  • Too Dumb to Live: He openly gloats about the imminent extermination of the Hairies in the Zone while Araluen is massaging him, and actually seems surprised when he is then strangled to death.

    Character Info, under construction 
The following list to be formatted properly:

Main Characters

  • Hunter Page-Lochard as Koen West, Waruu's half brother, owns pub 'The Couch' with friends Blair and Ash. Has ensured his business by giving up Hairypeople to the CA for rewards. Koen becomes the titular, yet initially reluctant Cleverman.
  • Rob Collins as Waruu West, Koen's older half brother, activist for equal rights amongst humans and subhumans who initially hoped to be chosen to be the next Cleverman. Married to Nerida and father of Alinta; having an affair with Belinda Frosche. Lives in the Zone.
  • Deborah Mailman as Aunty Linda, estranged mother of Waruu and adoptive mother of Koen; dying of cancer and is knowledgeable of the Dreaming. Lives in the Zone.
  • Iain Glen as Jarrod Slade, married to Charlotte and an enterprising man whose agenda involves the Hairypeople and Koen.
  • Frances O'Connor as Dr Charlotte Cleary, married to Slade yet is unsuspecting of his agenda. A humanitarian, she runs a free clinic in the Zone.
  • Ryan Corr as Blair Finch, Koen's childhood friend and the boyfriend of Ash.
  • Tasma Walton as Araluen, a Hairy woman, caring wife of Boondee and mother of Djukara, Latani and Jyra. Was captured and forced to work in Frankie's brothel, servicing Geoff Matthews.
  • Tony Briggs as Boondee, a Hairy man, protective husband of Araluen and father to Djukara, Latani and Jyra. Still held in containment.
  • Stef Dawson as Ash Kerry, Blair's girlfriend who is in a complex relationship with Koen.
  • Jada Alberts as Nerida West, Waruu's wife and Alinta's mother. Has a strong relationship with Linda and knows of her husbands adultery. Lives in the Zone.
  • Tamala Shelton as Alinta West, Waruu and Nerida's daughter. An ally to the Hairypeople and resentful of her adulterous father. Lives in the Zone.
  • Rarriwuy Hick as Latani, a young Hairy woman, daughter of Araluen and Boondee, sister to Djukara and Jyra. The only member of her family to avoid capture. Makes her way to the Zone and befriends Alinta.
  • Tysan Towney as Djukara, a young Hairy man, son of Araluen and Boondee, brother to Latani and Jyra. Very hot-tempered, vengeful and easily influenced. Makes his way to the Zone with Mungo and Kulya.
  • Andrew Mc Farlane as Geoff Matthews, a politician who is against the Hairypeople. A client of Frankie's who is regularly serviced by Araluen.
  • Marcus Graham as McIntyre, in the employ of Matthews who directs the Containment Authority. A sadist.

Recurring Guests

  • Alexis Lane as Kora, a Dreaming spirit who was summoned by Uncle Jimmy prior to his death; needs Koen to send her back to her dimension.
  • Leeanna Walsman as Belinda Frosche, a Channel 8 reporter; having an affair with Waruu.
  • Jack Charles as Uncle Jimmy West, the original Cleverman who chose Koen to succeed him over Waruu. Was in league with
  • Jarrod Slade before he had himself killed by a Dreaming creature called "Namorrodor."
  • Adam Briggs as Maliyan, a violent-minded Hairy man who clashes with Waruu. A community leader in the Zone.
  • Lynette Curran as Virgil, a reclusive yet inventive woman who aids Latani, making her human contact lenses.
  • Robyn Nevin as Jane O'Grady, a talkshow host who discusses the Hairypeople with Waruu and Matthews.
  • Josh Mc Conville as Dickson
  • Mansoor Noor as McIntyre 2IC
  • Rhondda Findleton as Frankie, a vicious brothel madam who purchases Araluen.
  • Isaac Drandic as Harry, a Hairy man and Waruu's right hand. Lives in the Zone.
  • Katie Wall as Rowena, a drug addict working as Frankie's assistant.
  • Miranda Tapsell as Lena, a Hairy woman who defeats several would be attackers on a bus.
  • Rahel Romahn as Ludo
  • Sam Parsonson as Taki
  • Val Weldon as Jyra, a Hairy girl, daughter of Araluen and Boondee, sister to Djukara and Latani. She is killed following her family's capture; her spirit possesses another Hairy child until Koen releases her, earning her forgiveness.
  • Aileen Huynh as Dr Everick, a scientist in Slade's employ, experimenting on Kora and Hairypeople.
  • Nancy Denis as Eve, a nurse working with Charlotte.
  • Trevor Jamieson as Uncle Max, an Aboriginal elder who runs a gym in the Zone.
  • Kamil Ellis as Mungo, a Hairy boy who escapes capture with Djukara and Kulya and hides in the Zone.
  • Waverley Stanley Jr. as Kulya, a Hairy boy who escapes capture with Djukara and Mungo and hides in the Zone.

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