Characters / Graceland

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Graceland Residents as a Whole

• The Infiltration: As undercover agents, this is their job. Goes double for Mike.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Putting people with different personalities from three different sectors of law enforcement in the same house can cause some clashing. Briggs himself called them a "little island of misfit toys."

Mike "Levi" Warren

Portrayed by: Aaron Tveit

The central protagonist and the newest addition to the team. At the moment he's more by-the-book-smart than Street Smart: he came first in his class back at Quantico, but has little experience out in the field.

• Badass Bookworm: Mike is one of the highest scoring graduates from the FBI academy, second only to Briggs himself.
• Good Is Not Nice: He has become noticeably less idealistic in the second season, and is willing to allow crimes to go on and people to suffer as part of an investigation rather than to try to rush in and set things right.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Mike is a very good shot and he regularly demonstrates his ability to make very accurate shots under difficult circumstances.
• In-Series Nickname: Nicknamed "Levi" since his first assignment had him confiscating a truck full of counterfeit jeans.
• The Infiltration: Worth noting a second time, because Mike is going undercover in a house full of undercover agents.
• Mr. Fanservice: "Guadalajara Dog" features some gratuitous close-ups of his butt in boxer briefs.
  • Not to mention the Pilot, which had him manhandled into custody such that the viewers are given a shot of his shirt being pulled up◊.
• New Meat: Mike has literally graduated straight out of the FBI academy and has no experience in undercover operations.
• Quick Draw: Faced with an opponent who already had his gun drawn but not pointed, Mike is able to draw his gun out of its holster and fire multiple shots from the hip before the bad guy can even take aim.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the second season. He's noticeably less idealistic, sleeping with multiple colleagues, focused more on his prestige and reputation within the Bureau instead of solving cases for their own sake, and he acts like a somewhat uncaring and hardass boss to his friends in Graceland.

Paul Briggs

Portrayed by: Daniel Sunjata

A senior FBI agent is assigned to train Mike. He's a legend back at the Bureau, with incredible test scores and an impressive track record. He and Mike have a lot in common, but after taking a mysterious leave from the job, Briggs is said to have returned with a more "enlightened" outlook on life. The real reason Mike was assigned to Graceland was to get close to Briggs and report his findings.

• Broken Pedestal: He's a lot less heroic than Mike had expected.
• The Chessmaster
• Consummate Liar: At all times. Anything he says has a strong chance of being part of a deception. One of the signs that Juan Badillo's killing is really effecting him is when he's unable to spin a lie for once to Mrs. Badillo after she begins guessing that Briggs knows something about Juan or his death.
• Dark Secret: What happened to make Briggs take a leave of absence seems to have made the FBI extremely suspicious of his actions. Turns out that he was captured by a ruthless Mexican cartel, forcibly addicted to drugs under capture, and then inadvertently led the Cartel's best hitman to an earlier version of Graceland, resulting in the deaths of everyone there, including a woman he loved. Yikes...
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: In the second episode of the second season, he sits down with the head of the Caza cartel and has dinner with him, while having a civil, if decidedly antagonistic, conversation.
• Dirty Cop: The Bureau (or at least Agent Juan Badillo) suspects him of being this, and it's Mike's job to figure out if he is.
• Gambit Roulette: Apparently likes to employ these to pick off multiple criminals at once.
• Manipulative Bastard: He knows how to manipulate everyone from his fellow agents to his enemies. Justified in the latter case since it's his job as an undercover agent to maneuver criminals into situations that give the authorities enough evidence for an arrest. In the former case, Briggs' manipulation has gone so far that in one episode, Mike's frustration at being manipulated has led Mike to punching Briggs in the face.
• Must Make Amends: The death of Juan Badillo turns out to be haunting him much more than he lets on.
• Omniglot: Speaks multiple languages and dialects within those languages well enough to sell various undercover backgrounds to suspicious criminals.
• Recovered Addict: Paul Briggs is a recovering heroin addict, although given that he makes money selling heroin, it's unclear how committed he is to his recovery.
• Survivor's Guilt: Graceland isn't the first house of its kind, and a previous one was inadvertantly destroyed by Briggs, with him as the Sole Survivor.
• Suspicious Spending: Episode Three reveals that the Bureau suspects him of skimming money because of this. His clothes and possessions, plus his general spending habits, suggest to the higher ups that he has more money on hand than what they pay him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: It would appear to be rum.
  • Also heroin.
• Unscrupulous Hero: On the lighter side of this trope, but still very much there.

Catherine "Charlie" De Marco

Portrayed by: Vanessa Ferlito

Charlie is a strong-willed undercover FBI agent. She's a chameleon on the job, easily turning herself into anything from a believable junkie to a classy businesswoman. Whatever her guise, she's brimming with attitude and determined to take the bad guys down.

• Action Girl
• Broken Bird: The season one finale has her state that she's lost her confidence as an agent after everything in season one, and she would have turned in her badge if Briggs hadn't convinced her not to.
• The Lad-ette
• Mama Bear
• My Greatest Failure: Whistler's death became this for her for awhile in Season 1. Being played by Jangles and blaming herself for everything that happened as a result of that, (including things he didn't actually do but were pinned on him) has been haunting her in Season 2.
• Properly Paranoid: Played straight when she immediately realizes that there is something off about the story Briggs tells her and she quickly suspects that he is actually Oden Rossi. Averted when she completely fails to suspect that the Mexican cop who is helping her is Jangles, although to her credit she kept him at arm's length for quite awhile.

Joe "Johnny" Tuturro

Portrayed by: Manny Montana

The fun-loving prankster of the house, Johnny is Briggs' right hand man and the heart of Graceland. Growing up, Johnny almost followed in his brother's footsteps and joined a gang. Instead he became part of the US Navy, and later became a Navy SEAL trainee, where he learned everything from undersea recoveries to defusing bombs. After an injury in training prevented him from becoming a full fledged SEAL, he left the military and joined the FBI.

• Boisterous Bruiser: The most high spirited of the agents, and the one most likely to regard a dangerous investigation or a fight as fun.
• Butt-Monkey: Jakes outright tells Johnny that nobody takes him seriously, Briggs treats Johnny as a helper monkey, and he has the least luck with the ladies of the men in the show. And of all of the agents, Johnny's most likely to get caught up in an operation gone wrong.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Qualifies as this when it comes to convincing Mike to get out of bed by telling him that Paige is trying out a new bikini - sure, they've got terrible reasons for spending time with her, but he knows it'll make Mike feel better. On his own, he's not so much a pervert as he is just a guy that really knows the game of undercover dating.
  • Also, for all lewd interest he shows in getting strippers to attend Jakes' party, the main interaction Johnny has with them is a quiet, emotionally open conversation that he has with one of the strippers.
• The Heart: Easily the one who cares most for everyone in the house and tries to keep them together.
• Ladykiller in Love: He's in love with a lady bartender that 'won't date bangers,' a reference to one of his personas as a gang member. Unfortunately, he can't really just tell her the truth about his real job. The second season has shown signs of this happening again, this time with Lucia, the sister of his target Carlito Solano.
• Lovable Jock
• Really Gets Around: He likes to imply he does, but Ashika Pearl is the only time we've actually seen him going to bed with someone thus far.
• Undying Loyalty: While Briggs' loyalty and primary concern is to keep Graceland as an undercover location functioning, Johnny carries the most loyalty to Graceland's agents as people and treats the others as his family, an attitude that Jakes disapproves of. The best example of his loyalty to the other agents is exemplified in his immediate offer to help Charlie while she's recovering from shooting heroin without judgment and his hesitation to investigate Briggs' CI's place when Charlie asks him to help her.
• Would Hit a Girl: He seemed to have zero qualms about knocking Ashika Pearl upside the head with a metal bucket. Of course, she was already locked in a Mexican Standoff with Paige and had Jakes hostage as a Human Shield.

Dale "DJ" Jakes

Portrayed by: Brandon Jay McLaren

A rather surly and somewhat standoffish U.S. Customs agent, Jakes is the most territorial of the roommates. What's his is his, and he'll make sure everyone knows it. He's a tough nut to crack, but underneath his shell is a truly dedicated agent with a lot of experience and insight. Jakes is a bit of a lone wolf, but he is always there to help the team when they're in need.

• The Alcoholic: After his ex strips him of his visitation rights to his son, Jakes starts hitting the bottle really hard, and almost blows an operation because of it.
• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't hesitate to tell off anybody about their behavior or what he sees as their mental/psychological/emotional weaknesses.
• Defrosting Ice King: Like Lauren, he doesn't like Mike when he first moves in to Graceland. He's slowly warming up to Mike. Very slowly.
• Hidden Depths: Jakes had to choose between his job and his family. He chose the job, and as a result his ex-girlfriend has never let him see his seven-year-old son. It's for these reasons that he becomes the only one supportive of Mike staying his relationship with Abby.
  • He also has a long running connection with Briggs that is deeper than it appears. He doesn't even hesitate to help Briggs cover up killing an FBI agent!
• Secret-Keeper: He's the only one who knows that Briggs really did kill Juan.
• Sour Supporter: Like everyone else in the house, he's willing to participate in the others' operations, but that doesn't mean he won't complain, especially when whatever he's just agreed leads to more complications.
• The Stoic: Jakes is the most serious and businesslike of the agents, and the least likely to join in on games or frivolities.
• Tell Me About My Father: Inverted, he is desperate to know about or somehow be a part of the life of his biological son, to the point of engineering a chance to befriend the boy's stepfather and getting the man to talk about the boy.

Paige Arkin

Portrayed by: Serinda Swan

Outspoken and confident with her place at the house, Paige is a DEA agent that takes her job very seriously, evident in her determination and thrill when it comes to catching bad guys. She becomes Mike's confidante both in relationship advice and in the issues regarding Briggs.

• Action Girl: Not as outwardly tough as Charlie, but just as capable.
• Brutal Honesty: With Johnny, she's very upfront about her opinions of Mike's relationship with Abby.
• Car Fu: Willing to employ it in order to get Johnny and DJ out of a desperate situation.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mike is unable to save Lina as per a promise he made with Paige in Season 2, and Lina ends up tragically killed under circumstances that weren't under his control. Paige, in return, very willingly reveals Mike's location to the officer that Mike is trying to expose as a connection to the Solano cartel to have Mike killed as payback for not being able to keep his promise.
• Ms. Fanservice: While its difficult to pick a Ms. Fanservice in a cast this gorgeous, she does seem to be seen in bikini tops most often.
• Second Episode Introduction: Paige was involved in an operation that kept her from the house during the time Mike was introduced.
• Secret-Keeper: Was the first to learn about Mike's investigation of Briggs and, despite being furious at the betrayal of trust, nonetheless keeps it from the house until Mike sends agents after Briggs.
• That One Case: She is quickly heading towards an obsession with the human trafficking ring and saving the girls regardless of the consequences in the second season.

Jeremiah Bello

Portrayed by: Gbenga Akinnagbe

Jeremiah Bello is a Nigerian immigrant who is attempting to build an empire in Southern California. Obsessed with Westerns and convinced that he's a cowboy on the frontier, he is seen as an easy mark for Mike Warren's first investigation at Graceland, but proves to be more volatile than expected.

• Eye Scream: Apparently routinely does this as a punishment.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he can be bothered to put effort into the front.
• It's All About Me: Fitting in with his general Lack of Empathy. He even claims that his obsession with cowboys stems from the fact that unlike other idealized warriors (knight, samurai, etc.) the cowboy is the only one who's in it purely for himself rather than a country or lord. He also expresses disappointment in Mike when Mike shows signs of loyalty to someone else.
• Lack of Empathy: He doesn't care who gets hurt or killed in his schemes as long as he gets what he wants.
• Leave No Witnesses/He Knows Too Much: Planned to kill Johnny if Johnny had successfully recovered the Caza drug submarine for him, using this as his justification.
• Kick the Dog: Shrugging off the deaths of customers when he intentionally cuts his drugs with a chemical likely to cause death if used in conjunction with other drugs or alcohol, and his decision to kill Johnny if Johnny can pull off the job he was hired for.
• Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: He was on the losing side of a coup attempt in his home country, but his surface charm and talk about the savagery of Los Angeles and his recruits from LA might briefly make one think that a subversion might be in the works... but the more that is seen of him, the more he deserves to be classified under this trope.
• Scary Black Man: Bello is not someone you want to piss off.
• Torture Technician: In the middle of being tortured by Jangles, Bello laughs, says that Jangles' reputation is overblown and Bello is the better torturer.

Carlos "Carlito" Solano, Jr.

Portrayed by: Erik Valdez

The son of Carlos Solano, the leader of the Solano cartel, Carlito was sent across the border to handle the Los Angeles end of the family business.

• Armoured Closet Gay: Carlito puts a lot of effort into hiding the fact that he's gay.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In one of his first appearances, Carlito shoots one of his own bodyguards and nearly kills him. His subsequent behavior isn't much better.

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