American Crime Characters
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Season 1 Characters
Skokie Family
Barbara "Barb" Hanlon
Played By: Felicity Huffman
Mother of Matt and Mark Skokie.
- Double Standard: Under the belief that her son was killed by a black man for being white, she calls out the double standards of hate crimes in the media with the statements that if her son was black and his killer white it would be considered one.
- Heel Realization: After it is revealed that the lady she was talking to who wanted to support her trying to get justice for her son is part of a hate group who wants to bring segregation back, Barb in a conversation with Nancy asks herself "am I a racist" because the lady assumed that she would be okay with her group because of the way she talks in public and in the media.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Throughout the season she refuses to believe that her son was a drug dealer and continually paints him as a war hero and an innocent victim to the police and the media.
- Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: She is generally a mother trying to get justice for her son's murder but in doing so she causes racial tensions with her claims that her son's murder was a hate crime and it is shown that she has some opinions when it comes to race and because of this she comes off racist. Though it is stated that her opinions come from once living in a neighborhood where she and her family were harassed for being white.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being told about Aubry's confession to her son's murder, she gives up on the case and decides she wants nothing to with it anymore.
Russ Skokie
Played By: Timothy Hutton
Barb's ex-husband and father of Matt and Mark Skokie.
- The Atoner: He is trying to make up for his past by helping Barb bring their son's suspected killer to justice and he his attempting to reconnect with his other son Mark for not being their when he was younger because of his addiction.
- Despair Event Horizon: He reaches this after Carter is released because of Aubry's confession and Barb and the rest of the family giving up on trying to bring him to justice and all deciding to move on with their lives and move away leaving Russ alone with his grief as they refuse to speak to him and answer his calls. This leads to him killing Carter and killing himself.
- Disappeared Dad: He wasn't in his children's lives because of his attempts to deal with his addiction.
- Driven to Suicide/ Murder-Suicide: He kills himself after he kills Carter.
- Killed Offscreen: He isn't shown killing himself and it is only revealed that he did when Barb go to identify his body in the morgue.
- The Gambling Addict: He has a past with gambling addiction and his addiction caused him to steal leading to him getting arrested and later being estranged from his family.
Mark Skokie
Played By: David Hoflin
Brother of Matt Skokie and son of Barb and Russ.
- Asian Gal on White Guy Drama: He is engaged to Richelle who is of Asian descent and because of this he didn't tell his mother about them even being together for 3 years because he assumed that she would have a problem with the race difference because of her opinions and he didn't want to hear it.
Matt Skokie
Played By: Grant Merritt
War veteran who was brutally killed in a home invasion robbery.
- Asshole Victim: It is later shown by evidence from police that he was a drug dealer and that his murder may be drug related. Also if Aubry's confession to his murder has any truth to it, he was killed in self defense and he was abusive to his wife.
- Posthumous Character: The season revolves around his family dealing with his death and trying to bring his suspected killer to justice.
Nix Family
Carter Nix
Played By: Elvis Nolasco
A drug addict who is the suspect in the murder of Matt Skokie and the assault of his wife.
- Ambiguous Situation: It is never really made clear if he was innocent or really did commit the murder as throughout the season there are implications to both theories as it is shown he is capable of violence when he beat up that drug dealer but is also shown trying to avoid violence when he can and having a problem with killing as he didn't approve of Aubry slashing a drug dealer's throat and was worried if he died.
- Boom, Headshot!: He is shot in the head by Russ Skokie.
- Clear My Name: He is trying to prove his innocence in the murder of Matt.
- Destructive Romance: His relationship with Aubry because of their drug addiction and it is shown that they are a bad influence on each when she takes off his ankle monitor when he was sleeping convincing him to skip on bail and later convincing him to buy her drugs which leads to her overdosing and forcing him to call the ambulance getting him arrested again.
- False Confession: Implied when he confesses to Aliyah about doing the murder and assault in his despair and desperation to get her to help get him out of prison as she has told him before that he must confess his sins if he wants her help.
- Interrupted Suicide: He reveals to Aliyah that he once attempted to kill himself and that Aubry saved him.
Aliyah Shadeed
Played By: Regina King
Born Doreen Nix she is Carter Nix's sister and a convert to Islam who is determined to get her brother out of prison.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": She doesn't like it when her brother calls her Doreen and she only answers to her Islamic name.
- Malcolm Xerox: She disapproves of her brother's relationship with a white woman and she assumes that he is being accused of the crime because of being black and that he is on drugs because of his girlfriend and "them". Her general attitude is tied to her Islamic group's beliefs when it comes to the oppression of their people by society.
- This is subverted later on when she generally wants to get her brother out of jail for being her brother and is shown that she is willing to work with white people and even helps Aubry's mother who also disapproves of Carter's relationship with her because as both of them see that Aubry and Carter are bad influences on each other because of their drug problems.
- Miscarriage of Justice: She believes that this is what is happening to her brother because of the color of his skin.
Gutiérrez Family
Alonzo Gutiérrez
Played By: Benito Martin
Single father to Tony and Jenny who is dealing with his son getting arrested in connection to Matt's murder.
- Boomerang Bigot/ Double Standard: Alonzo who is an Mexican-American throughout the season is shown to have the opinion that Mexicans who entered the country illegally are all criminals and that only Mexicans who entered the country legally like him and his family or those born in America are the only ones who have the right to call themselves Mexican-American.
- Category Traitor: Alonzo stating his opinion on illegals when being interviewed by the news earns him the hatred of the people in his community and neighborhood which leads to his shop being vandalized and the pastor of the catholic church his family attends telling him that him and his family shouldn't attend Sunday Mass anymore because of complaints from other members who don't approve of his presence.
- He later also finds it hard to find support for help in getting his son out of jail because of this.
Anthony "Tony" Gutiérrez
Played By: Johnny Ortiz
Son of Alonzo and brother of Jenny who gets arrested in connection to Matt's murder.
Jennifer "Jenny" Gutiérrez
Played By: Gleendylis Inoa
Daughter of Alonzo and sister of Tony who is rebellious and dealing with the fallout of her brother's arrest.
- Paranoia Fuel: Jenny goes through this when Tony gets arrested and put in jail with the assumption being that this happened for merely talking to the police and being Mexican which causes her to fear the police which is shown when she refuses to comply to a police officers orders to show her I.D when she is at a party being afraid that she will get arrested for nothing like her brother and she doesn't even report to the police when a boy from school beats her up.
Carlin Family
Thomas "Tom" Carlin
Played By: W. Earl Brown
Father of Gwen Skokie and husband to Eve Carlin who is dealing with his daughter's assault and the revelations about her while she is in a coma.
Eve Carlin
Played By: Penelope Ann Miller
Eve Carlin is the wife of Tom Carlin and the mother of home invasion robbery victim Gwen Skokie.
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Skokie
Played By: Kira Pozehl
Daughter of Eve and Tom Carlin and wife of Matt Skokie who was shot and assaulted in the home invasion and put into a coma.
Taylor Family
Aubry Taylor
Played By: Caitlin Gerard
Other Characters
Hector Tontz
Played By: Richard Cabral
Gang member who claims to have witnessed Matt's murder.
Nancy Straumberg
Played By: Lili Taylor
Attorney who is helping Barb with the case because of her past where her child's suspected killer was set free.
Richelle
Played By: Gwendoline Yeo
She is the fiance of Mark Skokie.
- Asian Gal on White Guy Drama: Mark didn't want her to meet his mother because of her being of Asian descent and his mother's opinions on race.
- Only Sane Woman: She is very insightful on the Skokie family's problems and even calls out Mark on his.
Season 2 Characters
Students
Taylor Blaine
Played By: Connor Jessup
Like most high school juniors, Taylor is searching for a purpose. Unsure of his ultimate direction, Taylor fills his time with social networks and streaming movies. However, when hazy recollections of a wild night at the Leyland basketball Captains’ Party come into focus, Taylor’s life takes an unexpectedly sharp turn. With the help of his concerned mother, Anne, Taylor is forced between two extremes: getting back to a normal life and exposing the truth of an assault he is absolutely sure was visited upon him on the night of the party.
- Ambiguously Bi: When it is exposed that he is attracted to men, he refuses to answer to being gay and it is implied that this may be because he really is attracted to women and he is struggling with bisexuality not homosexuality.
- Examples of this are that he seems to really care about Evy but being exposed makes her think that he was pretending that she was a boy so that he can be with her. Then their is when he buys drugs from Becca Sullivan and he asks her to stay with him because he just wants to be with somebody and she responds with the statement "anybody turns you on" and she kisses him, but the kiss doesn't seem to affect him but this may be because of what he was planning on doing that day. Finally their is his fascination with a poster of an samurai woman and when he is high he has a fantasy of her disemboweling him but its played out like a sex dream.
- False Rape Accusation: The school doesn't take his accusation seriously because they believe it might be this since he didn't originally have evidence of this and at first it was his mother saying that he was assaulted because of the fact he wasn't saying much about what happened to him. Then the school and other people really start believing this when it is revealed that he is attracted to men and went to the party to have sex. The show itself makes it ambiguous if his accusation really is false.
- Questionable Consent: This becomes apart of his case when it is revealed that he was originally going to meet up with Eric for sex calling into question if he was raped but even before this Taylor claims that he was drugged and after this information came out he claims that he didn't consent after being drugged and to the things that Eric did to him.
Eric Tanner
Played By: Joey Pollari
For Eric Tanner, basketball is his life. Having escalated to co-captain of the Leyland Knights basketball team, Eric pours everything he has into the sport. Excelling on the court also offers a brief escape from struggles at home. His mother, Lilah, and his father, Curt, are separated, leaving Eric and his younger brother, Peter, left to fend for themselves more often than not. Once the shocking pictures from the Captains’ Party spread around social media, both Eric’s public and personal life are exposed to further scrutiny.
- Academic Athlete: His dad mention that he does good in school, and is also co-captain of the basketball team.
- Armored Closet Gay: He is revealed to be this during the season as it is shown that he secretly meets men on the side of the road and he haves sex with them in their cars and he attempts to kill himself when Taylor's accusations get close to exposing him.
- Badass Gay: He manages to stab the man that tried to rape him in the car with a sharp object.
- Big Brother Instinct: He has a tight relationship with his little brother Peter, showing interest and concern for him.
- Momma's boy: Averted. His mom said that she would rather have him die, before finding out he's gay, because she can't take him to church anymore.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: He doesn't consider what he did to Taylor rape because of the fact that Taylor sent him messages showing interest in doing rough stuff and because of this he assumed that he was enjoying it and that he is accusing him of rape because he is in denial about it.
- Straight Gay: He doesn't show the typical behavior associated with gay men. May be enforced by himself to hide his orientation, since he always talk about "Bitches" and showing pics of girls to his friends, trying to be masculine as much as possible.
- Trauma Conga Line: He's been closeted, tried to kill himself, forced out of the closet, accused of rape, rejected by his friends, his brother and mom and was almost raped.
Evy Dominguez
Played By: Angelique Rivera
Evy Dominguez is weighted with more responsibility than most high school students. With both of her parents suffering from health problems, she was forced from a young age to fend for herself and her family. As accusations begin to fly against her boyfriend, Taylor, Evy chooses to stand by him rather than abandon him. When Evy is then dragged into an incident of her own, she finds herself alone in defending herself.
