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open/close all folders Main Cast Tobias BeecherPlayed By: Lee Tergesen Reporter: So, how would you describe your time in prison? Tobias Beecher: You ever read the story of Job? A Harvard-educated lawyer who fell to alcoholism, killing a young girl while driving drunk. Spends the first season of the show being repeatedly raped by his cellmate, which he suffers without complaint due to his belief that he deserves to be tortured this way as punishment for his crimes. However, he ultimately stands up for himself and ends up spending the rest of the series fighting to survive.
Ryan O'ReilyPlayed By: Dean Winters "I'm like the lord of the fucking dance. I got moves." An Irish-American career criminal who serves as an Iago-figure, pitting the various gangs and cliques within Oz against each other for the purposes of surviving. The embodiment of the Magnificent Bastard, ANYONE is expendable in the eyes of O'Reily; even his brain damaged brother Cyril, who ends up in jail after killing a man for Ryan, and later sentenced to death for killing another.
Augustus HillPlayed By: Harold Perrineau "People are defined by three things. Their heads- how they think. Their hearts- what they feel. Their dicks- who they fuck. At the end of the day, each of us has to answer one question. One, not so simple question. Who am I?" A prisoner who uses a wheelchair who also serves as the show's surrealistic narrator, breaking the fourth wall by talking to the audience about the themes of each episode (often serving as a vehicle for beliefs of the show's creator). He also introduces every prisoner, and informs us of their crime and sentence. Note that Hill the narrator is a separate entity from Hill the in-show character, as they apparently aren't the "same" person; as the last season implies that narrator-Hill is * Hill's ghost, narrating the show from the afterlife after dying. In the final season, other deceased characters, including Dino Ortolani, Antonio Nappa and Jefferson Keane take turns narrating episodes as well.
Kareem SaïdPlayed By: Eamonn Walker "You wanna save this place, right? And I want to destroy it. Brick by hypocritical brick." The leader of the Black Muslims. Said starts out as a rabble-rouser, whose disdain for the poor treatment of blacks within society puts him at odds with the staff of the prison, but after triggering a riot that leads to many deaths within the prison, Said finds himself having to reconcile his beliefs with his faith and consequences of his shit-stirring.
Vernon "Vern" SchillingerPlayed By: JK Simmons "My turn now. Sieg Heil, baby! SIEG FUCKING HEIL!" The sexually sadistic leader of the Aryans, whose incredibly heated vendetta against his former rape victim Tobias Beecher drives a lot of the conflict during the show's run.
Simon AdebisiPlayed By: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje "I have everything. Everything I need. Every love satisfied. But it's not enough." A low-level gangster who through his friendship with Ryan O'Reily (and several deaths) takes over the main black gang within Oz. Originally amoral, Adebisi slides into total villainy after his attempts to reform are squashed by his underlings and he is framed for the murder of an elderly inmate he befriended. Soon enough he begins a massive plan to become the undisputed kingpin of the entire prison and pretty much succeeding until Said exposes his scheme and has to kill him.
Miguel AlvarezPlayed By: Kirk Acevedo "I'm so tired. I'm tired of trying. I'm tired of the walls. The lies. The fear. The death. I'm so tired." The main Latino prisoner of the show. A loser whose father and grandfather are both imprisoned in Oz, Alvarez spends most of the series being driven to madness by the prison staff via being put into solitary confinement (though he pretty much deserves it, seeing as he gouged out the eyes of a prison guard in a desperate bid to avoid being expelled from the main Latino prison gang, due to his light skin and semi-Caucasian looks.
Tim McManusPlayed By: Terry Kinney "I may be blind but I'm not dumb." The idealistic creator and manager of Em City, who strives for a perfect rehabilitation system without conflict or violence, despite the concerns of others who feel that that may be an impossible dream.
Leo GlynnPlayed By: Ernie Hudson "This is different. This is OZ." The warden of the prison. Though presented as the fair and honest caretaker of the prison, over the course of the series Glynn goes slowly mad with power as his political ambitions, family crisises (most notably his daughter's rape), and various other conflicts pop up in his job as warden.
Sister Peter Marie ReimondoPlayed By: Rita Moreno "Don't think of me as a psychologist. Don't think of me as a nun. Think of me as your mother." The prison psychologist and nun who runs the prison's drug rehabilitation program. Though a truly good person, she suffers from various crises of faith over the course of the show, over issues such as the death penalty and her personal life (mainly the unresolved mystery of the murder of her husband and, after several tense sessions with Chris Keller, her vows as a nun after Keller tries to seduce her).
The Aryans/Bikers Scott RossPlayed By: Stephen Gevedon Jaz HoytPlayed By: Evan Seinfield
James RobsonPlayed By: RE Rodgers "It's funny, here I am, 36 years old I got nowhere to run. You know, and I—I guess what...what I want to know is, is it okay to do whatever is necessary... to survive?"
Wolfgang CutlerPlayed By: Brendan Kelly "You and me? We're gonna spoon."
Andrew SchillingerPlayed By: Fred Koehler "I gotta tell you something Dad, my whole life you’ve crammed into my head how superior we white folks are. I don’t see the truth in that."
The Homeboys Jefferson KeanePlayed By: Leon
Kenny WanglerPlayed By: JD Williams
Johnny PostPlayed By: Tim McManus
Malcolm CoylePlayed By: Treach
Arnold "Poet" JacksonPlayed By: muMs the Scehemer
Omar WhitePlayed By: Michael Wright "I ain't no drug abuser. Truth is, I treat my drugs better than most." Burr ReddingPlayed By: Michael Wright "I take a shit in this world, I see reality and I make the best of it." A half-crazed Vietnam vet who ran the streets where Augustus Hill grew up in, and acted as a foster father to the boy. He eventually controls the Homeboys post-Adebisi. A lot of what befalls Augustus is Burr's fault.
The Italians Dino OrtolaniPlayed By: Jon Seda
Nino SchibettaPlayed By: Tony Musante "What the fuck's wrong with this country? In the old days, murder was murder. You killed someone, it was business." A mostly-generic mob boss character in the first season.
Peter SchibettaPlayed By: Eddie Malavarca "You tell 'em I'm gonna handle Adebisi. I'm gonna get my honor back by the end of the day. Either that fucking moolie or me is gonna be in a bodybag."
Antonio NappaPlayed By: Mark Margolis "Like God, man can finally create man in his own image and then sit back and watch all sorts of shit hit the fan." Replaces Nino, and is far more old-school and philosophical about things.Chucky PancamoPlayed By: Chuck Zito
The Irish Cyril O'ReilyPlayed By: Scott William Winters Ryan O'Reily's mentally-retarded younger brother, who suffered a head injury protecting Ryan and now requires constant supervision. An honest and good-hearted person, he is prone to outbursts of complete rage and is easy to fool — a bad combo in a place like Oz, which is full of Manipulative Bastard types.
Timmy KirkPlayed By: Sean Dugan
The Latinos Raoul "El Cid" HernandezA legendary Latino gangster, he takes over the gang from Alvarez and immediately ostracizes him for his Caucasian-like features. He controls his third of the drug trade with a respected iron fist, but eventually lack of success in offing Alvarez gets to him, and he goes nuts. Enrique MoralesCarmen "Chico" Guerra
The Christians Jeremiah CloutierPlayed By: Luke Perry
William CudneyPlayed By: Will Cote
Robert SippelPlayed By: David Lansbury
The Others Chris KellerPlayed By: Christopher Meloni "At first I wanted unconditional surrender, then I wanted unconditional love." A bisexual sociopath who is obsessed with controlling and manipulating others. Recruited by Vern, who he once had a sexual relationship with, to seduce Beecher for the express purpose of breaking his heart (and arms and legs). However, Keller ends up falling for Beecher and the two spend most of the series either together or apart due to Keller's possessiveness.
Shirley BellingerPlayed By: Kathryn Erbe The sole female inmate of Oz. She sparks quite a few romance attempts, notably from Adebisi. Cunning and manipulative, she seduced many guardians to obtain small favors.
Bob RebadowPlayed By: George Morfogen "God told me." An elderly inmate serving a life term after being convicted for murder committed in a fit of rage in the 1960s. As a survivor of a botched execution and prison veteran, he is considered to be quite wise and often provides fatherly advice to Beecher and others.
Agamemnon BusmalisPlayed By: Tom Mardirosian
Yuri KosyginPlayed By: Olek Krupa
Donald GrovesPlayed By: Sean Whitesell Prison Guards Diane WittleseyPlayed By: Edie Falco The token good-guy prison guard who ends up involved in a relationship with Tim McManus. Was played by Edie Falco, who left the show to go onto "The Sopranos", resulting in her character being Put on a Bus at the start of season four, via an impulse marriage with a guard at Buckingham Palace. Her role as the good-guy prison guard was later filled by Sean Murphy.
Claire HowellPlayed By: Kristin Rhode A sexually aggressive and sadistic prison guard, who soon begins dominating and even raping the inmates.Sean MurphyPlayed By: Robert Clohessey
Karl MetzgerPlayed By: Bill Fagerbakke Prison Staff Father Ray MukadaPlayed By: BD Wong "Eternal rest grant unto him, Oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine down upon him." A Catholic priest who was assigned to Oz as punishment for pissing off a high ranking Cardinal over church corruption. Along with Sister Peter Marie, Mukada provides spiritual guidance to the inmates, often serving as good cop to Sister Peter Marie's bad cop.
Gloria NathanPlayed By: Lauren Velez An accomplished Latina doctor who is the main provider of medical care for the inmates. Throughout the series, she develops a love-hate relationship with Ryan O'Reily, most notably when Ryan becomes obsessed with Gloria and has her husband murdered so that they can be lovers.
Governor James DevlinPlayed By: Zeljko Ivanek
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