Characters / Atlanta

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Earnest 'Earn' Marks

Earnest 'Earn' Marks

Played by: Donald Glover

• Author Avatar: Admittedly to a cynical amount.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Deconstructed. While Earn is best at finding shortcuts and scraping by, there isn't much he's good at. In Season 2, Al starts to entertain the idea of firing Earn because he's not a good manager.
• Broken Ace: Handsome and intelligent (he attended Princeton) but can't seem to get his act together and better himself. He frequently makes poor choices and is fairly irresponsible.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: From Alfred's perspective. Much like his barber, Earn takes a lot of unnecessary detours on what should be straight forward work, frustrating Alfred and pushing him to consider dumping him as a manager. Thing is, even with all the frustrations, at the end of the day Earn knows Alfred and more importantly what Alfred wants.
• Butt-Monkey: Homeless, broke, and is treated like a doormat by everyone including his family. 9 times out of 10, Earn just can't get a break. Averted in the later seasons, where his management of Alfred starts to pay off and Earn becomes a respected figure in the music industry.
• Determinator: Zigzagged. He'll always push forward to survive, but he's ultimately too stuck in a rut to pull himself together. He does start to pull himself together more in Season 3, however.
• Didn't Think This Through: Earn is very impulsive, and most of his plans fall through due to a lack of foresight and experience. Most notably seen in his "fight" with Tracy.
• Dumbass No More: Earn has always been a relative "dumbass"; he got into Princeton, which would imply a strong degree of intelligence, but was shown throughout Season 1 and 2 to be massively out of his depth, impulsive, and kind of a dick to compensate for this lack of experience. By Season 3, he shows himself to be a much more competent, pulled together, and intelligent manager.
• Homeless Hero: To an extent; he lives in a garage. Averted completely by the end of the series, where Paper Boi's success (and Earn's own success by extension) affords him an upscale home.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Had he stood at Princeton and completed his education he could be far more successful than he is now.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Attended Princeton University (the only cast member to have been explicitly mentioned to have gone to college), but dropped out for unspecified reasons.
• Jaded Washout: Earn had a great deal of potential as he attended Princeton, but his insistence upon regarding himself as this generally shows up as being one of his largest flaws.
• The Load: As Alfred finally tells him in "North of the Border", Earn is a terrible manager. Finally averted in Season 3, when Earn has more experience and is much better at navigating the European music scene.
• Loser Protagonist: Though sympathetic, he is a textbook definition of this trope, being an irresponsible college dropout who usually piggybacks off of his more successful friends just to survive.
• Manchild: Although an unusually sympathetic version, Earn is still pretty irresponsible, immature, and relies on his girlfriend, Van, and Alfred for almost everything.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The "nice" to Paper Boi's "mean" and Darius's "in-between". However, Earn's issues, especially in Season 2, and Darius's ability to more easily strike up friendships means they swap roles on occasion.
  • Flip-flops in the later seasons as Earn’s newfound wealth and power starts to go to his head, making him the Mean, Darius the Nice, and Alfred the In-Between.
• No-Respect Guy: Illustrated perfectly in the episode "Money Bag Shawty" where even though he has money, no one respects him enough to let him spend it properly.
• Only Sane Man: At times, notably in "Alligator Man".
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 2, Paper Boi's success along with his own misfortunes have made him increasingly self-centered and apathetic to Vanessa's feelings. He also becomes noticeably more volatile to the point where a weekend of bad decisions culminates in him challenging ex-con Tracy to a fist fight. It doesn't go well for him. He gets better in Season 3.
  • Zig-zagged in Season 4. He's attending therapy and working through his issues, but he also gaslights and destroys a woman's life over an (admittedly racist) interaction at the airport.

Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles

Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles

Played by: Brian Tyree Henry

• Berserk Button: Do NOT try to skip out on paying Paper Boi if you owe him money. When a club manager refuses to pay him for an appearance, Alfred corners the guy in his office and beats the hell out of him. Similarly, when denied his winnings from a high-stakes poker game he takes a chainsaw to the loser's favorite tree.
• Big Brother Instinct: Despite his misgivings, he's pretty protective of Earn.
• Blessed with Suck: A running theme in the show is Alfred's rise in the rap scene, with everyone considering him the next big thing. He's shown many times to be uncomfortable with the trappings of fame, and seems most content at his house, smoking weed and playing video games.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's the biggest and strongest of the main cast; if there's a fight he's often leading it. But he's often quite shaken by it, and is frequently shown to be a sensitive and thoughtful person.
• Butt-Monkey: Not as frequently or to the same extent as Earn, but he's been put through a lot of shit over the series. He's more willing to get physical to deal with it, however.
• Call to Agriculture: By the end of the series, his success affords him the opportunity to buy a farm. Although he continues in his music career, it's implied he will be spending more time there due to his discomfort with fame.
• Fat and Skinny: The "fat" to Darius's "skinny".
• Feet of Clay: Played with. He makes a point to appear more badass than he is, but he can back it up occasionally, though it seems he would prefer not to.
• Informed Ability: We hear a few of Paper Boi's songs on the radio, but Alfred is never actually shown rapping once in the entire series. It becomes a Running Gag that whenever Alfred is about to actually perform, either something happens to interrupt it or the camera cuts away.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Easily the most aggressive and mean of the main characters, but has his fair share of moments that show how much he cares about Earn and Darius.
• Lonely at the Top: Played with. He has a lot more friends due to his fame, but he struggles with finding genuine friends.
• Mama's Boy: They were very close, and Alfred is still deeply struggling with his mom's death between Seasons 1 and 2, going so far as to hallucinate a stand-in for her in Lorraine in Season 3.
• N-Word Privileges: Much of his dialogue is peppered with this.
• Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: To the point of seeking a music career.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The "mean" to Earn's "nice" and Darius's "in-between" but even then, Paper Boi isn't exactly mean, he mostly just puts it on for the sake of his career. Most of the time.
  • He’s more of the in-between as the show goes on. He can be short-tempered and gruff, but is shown to be a pretty reasonable guy who seems somewhat uncomfortable with being a celebrity. Meanwhile, Earn becomes pettier and more vengeful after becoming a successful music manager.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's a pretty laid back guy but after the shooting in the pilot he's developed a status as a thug. As seen in "The Club" he's got no problem switching into thug-mode on the spot, slapping around a stingy club owner to get his earnings.
• Scary Black Man: Plays up this image in his rap career. In reality, while he's the scariest of the main trio, he's overall a reasonable guy and is content to keep to himself.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He shoots a man in the pilot during an escalating argument and is notably shaken in the next episode, which only makes people lauding over his "gangster cred" more incredulous.
• Sherlock Scan: Pulls an especially noticeable one in "The Jacket", but he also has to be very alert due to his career.
• Smarter Than You Look: Due to his size, career, and reputation, many people dismiss Alfred as nothing more than a thug, when in reality he's highly intelligent, perceptive, and introspective.
• Stout Strength: He's a husky guy, but he's very strong and not to be messed with in a fight. He even successfully grapples a feral hog.
• The Stoner: Many of the episodes involve Paper Boi smoking or searching for weed.
• Voice of Reason: Seems to be this to Earn at times.

Darius X

Darius X

Played by: Lakeith Stanfield

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: It's not clear whether his odd behavior is the result of drugs, or if his lucid moments are.
• Conspiracy Theorist: He believes that the "Florida Man" mentioned in news stories is one person.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Teddy Perkins" focuses exclusively on him with only momentary appearances from Earn.
• Erudite Stoner: He smokes quite a bit and you can often hear him musing on a variety of topics, from Steve McQueen to mortality.
• Fat and Skinny: The "skinny" to Alfred's (relative) "fat".
• Gun Nut: Downplayed, but he goes to the gun range in his spare time and seems excited to see the "gun room" in a fraternity. He even admits to considering joining the N.R.A.
• Hidden Depths: One may be tempted to write him off as a moronic stoner but he can be quite deep when he wants to be. Also, he knows who Steve McQueen is, while Earn, a former Princeton student, had never heard of him. He's also a surprisingly good judge of people.
• Nice Mean And In Between: "In between", befitting his stoner Cloud Cuckoo Lander personality. Though his ability to strike up friendships with people quickly might have him leaning closer to "nice."
  • He’s cemented in the “nice” role by the series finale, where his friendly and grounded nature is fully on display.
• The Stoic: Despite all the craziness he faces every day, he's rarely more than bemused. Possibly due to being high all the time.

Vanessa 'Van' Keefer

Vanessa 'Van' Keefer

Played by: Zazie Beetz

• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': In "Value", she shares a joint with her old friend Jayde, then realizes she has to take a drug test for work the next morning. She tries to smuggle her baby's urine into the test with a condom, but it breaks. She then decides to come clean to her boss, who informs her that she knows how common weed is, and that due to budget shortfalls her sample wasn't even going to be tested... but since she admitted the use of an illegal substance to a superior, she has to fire her anyway.
• Closer to Earth: Van isn't involved in the rap industry and generally just wants Earn to become more stable. At least, at first; by Season 3, she's arguably the most out of it.
• Cool Teacher: She was an elementary school teacher and she's pretty cool as a person.
• Commuting on a Bus: In Season 3. She goes to Europe with Earn, Darius, and Alfred, but she disappears on them for days.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Value" and "Champagne Papi", which only briefly shows Earn and Paperboi, and "Juneteenth" and "Helen" both focus on her and Earn's relationship.
• Not So Above It All: Seems annoyed with her friends' interest in social media at times...while also spending an evening trying to get a picture with Drake.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only regularly-appearing female character.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Van goes from being very intelligent, competent, and generally cool-headed in Season 1 and 2 to being a sharp tongued kleptomaniac who strings Earn along.
  • Made even worse in season 3, where she turns into a cannibalistic maniac who beats up people with a stale baguette. She gets better.
• Twofer Token Minority: The only woman in the main cast who's also Half-German and Half African-American. Doubles as Actor Allusion, since Zazie Beetz is as well.
• Women Are Wiser: Downplayed, as she does get fired after making the huge mistake of admitting to smoking weed, but she isn't involved in the level of corruption and dodgy dealings as the rest of the main characters, and rightly scorns them.