Characters / On My Block

The Main Cast

Monse Finnie

Monse Finnie

Played by: Sierra Capri

• Be Careful What You Wish For: See I Wished You Were Dead below. Jasmine tells her to never want something like that.
• But Not Too Black: Monse is biracial and suspects that her mother left because she couldn't handle having a half-black child.
• Calling the Old Man Out: With her mother Julia. In Season 2, she gives a scathing one to her mother Julia after finding out that Juila lied about her marriage and is ashamed of her background.
• Death Glare: While the group is discussing a plan to get Chivo's DNA in "Chapter 22", we get this exchange.
  Jamal: So, as the leader, Ruby and I will handle this. Lady and...
  Monse: (dares him to finish the reference)
  Jamal: ...Monse, stand down!
• Girliness Upgrade: She dresses in a more feminine way in season 2.
• I Wished You Were Dead: In "Chapter 22", she tells Jasmine she wishes her mother was dead. She gets that wish two episodes later with the episode after showing her deal with the grief (specifically, her lack thereof).
• Missing Mom: Her mother abandoned her when she was little. She later finds out that Julia, a wealthy woman who lives in Brentwood, is her biological mother.
• Motor Mouth: She’s prone to doing this.
• She's All Grown Up: When she returns home after writing camp, several people remark that her breasts are larger.
• Slut-Shaming: She worries what will happen to her reputation if word gets out that she slept with Cesar.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Olivia and Jasmine's Girly Girl. Monse has such little feminine influence in her life that she once went to a school dance in a hoodie and jeans.
• Undying Loyalty: She is very loyal and protective of Cesar.

Ruby Martinez, Jr.

Ruben "Ruby" Martinez, Jr.

Played by: Jason Genao

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Subverted. His older brother Mario admits he used to feel this way, but now sees that Ruby was actually a pretty great kid and wishes he had been nicer to him.
• Big Brother Worship: When he was little he idealized Mario. Though Ruby's more aware of Mario's shortcomings now, they're still close.
• Embarrassing Nickname: He tries (in vain) to get people to call him by his full name because "Ruby" sounds like a girl's name.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Masturbates a lot, watches porn, is very horny, and masturbates into the marmalade made by his mother (to Jamal's horror).
• Odd Friendship: With Oscar, briefly, in season 2.
• The Perfectionist: When planning Olivia's quinceañera and Mario's baby shower.
• Survivor's Guilt: Over the fact that he survived being shot by Latrelle, but Olivia didn't. He blames himself for her death because he's the one who insisted on having a big, fancy party for her quinceañera, but Cesar tells him that none of it was his fault.
• Trauma Button: Sudden loud noises, like the fireworks going off on New Year's Eve, cause him to relive the night he and Olivia were shot.

Cesar Diaz

Cesar "Lil Spooky" Diaz

Played by: Diego Tinoco

• Important Haircut: Oscar shaves off Cesar's hair after he supposedly kills Latrelle, marking him as an official Santo.
• Jerkass Ball: He has done some pretty douchey things throughout the show, such as giving Monse an ultimatum when she wants to go to Brentwood to get to know her mum, insulting Jamal when Spooky goes missing and cheats on Vero with Monse
• Parental Abandonment: His mother is neglectful and his father isn't in his life. He was raised by his older brother, Oscar.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Cesar is reluctant to kill Latrelle, a member of a rival gang, and that causes him a lot of problems.

Jamal Turner

Jamal Turner

Played by: Brett Gray

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is very eccentric and melodramatic but he knows a lot about wilderness survival and his theories lead to the truth most of the time.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Jamal's fixation with finding the RollerWorld money, eccentric behavior, and tendency toward melodrama qualify him as this. Even his father admits he's pretty weird.
• Crazy-Prepared: He packs lots of go-bags for different situations, mostly wilderness survival. When setting a "Country" and "City" Go-Bag for Cesar, he includes water purification pills, jerky, snacks, and a small Confederate flag to the chagrin of Ruby, Jamal (a black teenage boy) states that if he ever been to the country, he would know why the flag was necessary.
  • In the Season 3 finale, when Monse is going away to a all-girl prep school across the country, he packs her a go-bag specially made for fitting in a hoity-toity environment.
• Determinator: That's no extreme he won't go to in order to find the RollerWorld money.
• Loose Lips: Jamal is terrible at keeping secrets, but not from lack of effort.
• Playing Sick: He quits the football team without telling his parents and pretends to have various injuries to explain why he isn't on the field.

Olivia

Olivia

Played by: Ronni Hawk

• Berserk Button: Racist taunting of her community from rich white kids.
• Death of a Child: She was shot and killed on her fifteenth birthday.
• The Lost Lenore: Olivia and Ruby had a Relationship Upgrade right before she was killed, and he's traumatized from losing her.
• Nice Girl: She is very sweet and open, even allowing Jasmine to hang out with her and Monse because "everyone deserves a second chance".
• Pink Is Feminine: Her quinceañera dress has pink embroidered blossoms.
• Sixth Ranger: Monse, Ruby, Jamal, and Cesar had already been friends for years before Olivia joined their group.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Monse's Tomboy. Compared to Monse, Olivia is always very femininely styled.

Jasmine Flores

Jasmine Flores

Played by: Jessica Marie Garcia

• Abhorrent Admirer: At the start of season 1, she's completely infatuated with Ruby even though he wants nothing to do with her. They eventually become friends in season 2 after Jasmine gets over her romantic feelings and Ruby starts to appreciate her more as a person. Then in Season 3 Ruby starts noticing he is attracted to her.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She is a very buxom, heavy-set and tall girl who isn't shy about her curves being showcased in shorts (as she takes lunges for her nalgas, Spanish for butt), Seasons 2 and 3 reveal she attracts boys like Ruby (who fantasizes about her).
• Broken Pedestal: Jasmine is pissed off when she is told that a cop she works with, Hammel, is under Cuchillo's payroll.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She is revealed to be very savvy with strong investigative techniques, all that she owes to her Police Explorer experience, and even knows a lot about what the gang is going through despite only being a interloper.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She is very large-busted and flaunts her sexuality, in Season 3 Ruby fantasizes about her in a black lingerie set that shows off that area of her body.
• Daddy's Girl: Jasmine is revealed to be very close to her severely disabled father, entertaining him and even taking care of his needs. It's implied that he was either in an accident or had a condition that impaired most of his faculties and it had affected her.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Due to the fact that she's loud, extroverted, and at times crude, the main characters only hang out with her when they can't get rid of her. However, in season 2 this develops into a genuine friendship.
• Hidden Depths: She's revealed to have a severely disabled father that she takes very good care of. She said that she chooses to be happy because no matter how messed up things can be, the only thing she can control is herself.
• Large Ham: She is very outgoing, expressive and theatrical.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Clearly aspires to be this as a "body-pos, sex-pos, nalgalicious" girl, in Season One she is dismayed when the school dance dress code is announced and the principal intones "No one wants to see your lower buttcheeks" and Jasmine makes it clear she does enough squats to show off her back cheeks.
• Sixth Ranger: Though she already knew everyone except Olivia when the first season began, she only occasionally played this role until season 2 and then becomes more fully integrated into the group for the third season.
• Spicy Latina: Played with, on one hand she is exaggerated with her open lust for Ruby and other guys and she is very outspoken but she is a cheerful person who is very intellectual regarding investigations.
• Stalker without a Crush: In Season 3 she reveals she has been spying on Monse, Cesar, the gangs, and Monse's dad and even reveals that Lil Ricky is likely alive.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: She's noticeably taller and heavier than the very short and skinny Ruby.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Monse's Tomboy. She critiques Monse for not playing up her femininity; though interestingly, Jasmine is loud and extroverted to the point of vulgarity while Monse is more quiet and thoughtful.

The Finnie Family

Monty Finnie

Monty Finnie

Played by: Reggie Austin

• Defector from Decadence: He was raised in the world of the Prophets, but left that world as soon as "crack came in and the 'S' changed to a dollar sign".
• Good Parents: He's patient with Monse, but sets reasonable boundaries to ensure that she's safe. Although he doesn't like Julia, he lets Monse stay with her so she can get to know her mother and be in a safe environment.

Julia Whitman

Julia Whitman née Selena

Played by: Lisa Marcos

• Back for the Dead: In Season 3, she appears to be trying to reach out to Monse and when Monse accepts a call, she learns that Julia had died.
• Driven to Suicide: She dies in Season 3 and it's implied that she might have committed suicide.
• Internalized Categorism: Implied. She's from Free Ridge and is implied to be Latina, but she made every effort to scrub away her past. That includes leaving behind her daughter and changing her name. She moved to Brentwood, married a white man, and appears to only have white friends. When she briefly has Monse come live with her, the first thing Julia does is straighten Monse's hair.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: She and Monse started getting to know each other after Monse began babysitting for her. Then Julia confessed to being Monse's mother.
• Missing Mom: She abandoned Monse as a toddler, though she eventually came to regret it. In Season 3, she literally is out of all three of her childrens' lives as she died.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Monse learns that Julia had been lying about Monty being abusive to her friends.

The Whitmans

• Nice Guy: Julia's husband immediately accepts Monse as his stepdaughter and tells her he's glad to have her around.

The Martinez Family

Geny Martinez

Geny Martinez

Played by: Paula Garces

• Intergenerational Friendship: Applied between her and Jasmine, a teenager, when they gang up on Cesar over Amber.
• My Beloved Smother: Very much so, often riding Ruby's back, when she referred to Mario's incoming supposed baby as "half mine" Ruby calls her out for how questionable it sounds and she has a hard time when Ruby tells her that he doesn't feel like God exists at this point.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: She looks a bit young to be the mother of a college freshman and high school freshman, both of whom are the eldest of her four children.
• Parents as People: Her coldness toward Cesar in season 2 is due to fear that his gang affiliations will bring danger to her family. Understandable considering his rivalry with Latrelle already left Olivia dead and Ruby wounded (physically and mentally).
  • In Season 3, she and Ruben Sr. have money issues due to having to pay Ruby's medical bills and they try to keep it from him only for him to find out and she breaks down crying when he tells her what he is aware of.

Ruben Martinez, Sr.

Ruben Martinez, Sr.

Played by: Eric Neil Gutierrez

• Exiled to the Couch: He starts the third season in the twin bed in Ruby's room after an argument with Geny.
• Henpecked Husband: It's rare his wife lets him get a word in edgewise.
• Outliving One's Offspring: He was close to seeing his son die, for the boy to in a coma for a couple of weeks and recover from a gunshot wound. The young girl he and his wife had been caring for was killed in the same shooting.

Abuela Marisol

Marisol Martinez

Played by: Peggy Blow

• Combat Medic: She knows how to patch up people like Oscar's bloody wounds after he killed Cuchillos and she also reveals she used to be a guerrilla.
• Cool Old Lady: She smokes marijuana, eagerly helps Jamal search for RollerWorld, and helps the kids in their various misadventures. After Olivia dies she helps Ruby get high so he can let off a little steam.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She lived in a hut with dirt floor, implying poverty, and was a guerrilla in The Dirty War (which can refer to the Mexican one in the 1960s and 1970s or the more famous Argentinian one).
• Don't Ask: Averted, she first claims she won't ask but then shows she is very aware about Oscar killing Cuchillos and why, but she won't tell.
• I Was Quite a Looker: When asked how she knows about "Pimp Lane", an alley where people go to make out or have sex, she cheekily reminds the kids that she wasn't always old.
• Secret-Keeper: For the kids activities, both things like making out or hunting for the Rollerworld money, and for Oscar after he killed Cuchillos.
• Stay in the Kitchen: The Season 3 premiere introduces her and Geny having an argument over Abuela taking Ruben's side because Geny's job is to "support him" and not argue, mostly partly due to the fact the Martinez family is dealing with financial issues and as Geny put it, she also pays the bills.

Mario Martinez

Mario Martinez

Played by: Danny Ramirez

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Subverted. He used to feel this way about Ruby, but now admits he thinks Ruby is awesome and wants Ruby to do better in life than he did.
• Big Brother Mentor: Before leaving for college, he gives Ruby, Monse, Jamal, and Cesar advice on how to survive high school.
• Tragic Dropout: After finding out his girlfriend is pregnant, he has to drop out of school to help raise the baby and they move in with his parents. When the baby is actually born, it's clear to everyone that Mario isn't the father.

Louis and Louisa

• Bratty Half-Pint: A tag team of them, they are more gross than bratty but their habits disgust Rudy.
• Hypocritical Humor: After picking each other's noses and doing disgusting habits, they complain about how gross it is to share a room with Ruby to their Mother.

The Turner Family

Dwayne Turner

Dwayne Turner

Played by: Eme Ikwuakor

• Good Parents: He is genuinely concerned about Jamal's mental state and wants the best for him.

Fran Turner

Fran Turner

Played by: Raushanah Simmons

• Good Parents: She is very tolerant of Jamal's eccentricities.

Free Ridge High School

Coach Ron

Ron

Played by: Rob Murat

Free Ridge Residents And Other Characters

Oscar Diaz

Oscar "Spooky" Diaz

Played by: Julio Marcias

• Big Brother Instinct: Subverted. He loves Cesar more than anything, but he believes that if he always steps in to protect him, it'll leave Cesar weak. He even kicks Cesar out to pacify the Prophets after Cesar accidentally started a gang war; though Oscar did team up with Cesar to take down the Prophets and welcomed Cesar back home at the first chance he got.
• The Chessmaster: He comes up with a plan to get a great number of Prophets, including Latrelle, arrested, thereby effectively naturalizing the gang and ending the war, and it goes off without a hitch.
• The Dreaded: He's a high-ranking member of Los Santos and everyone in the neighborhood is terrified of him.
• Hidden Depths: Oscar used to be a straight-A student and spelling bee champion who was adored by all his teachers. Instead of continuing his education, he stayed behind to take care of Cesar. Additionally, he's a fantastic chef.
• Odd Friendship: Briefly forms a friendship with Ruby in season 2.
• Promotion to Parent: He had to raise his younger brother because their mother was neglectful and their father wasn't around.
• Would Hit a Girl: In the Season 3 finale, it's revealed he killed Cuchillos, though given that she was threatening him, his younger brother, Cesar's friends and their families; no one is sorry.

Ray Diaz

Ray Diaz

• Dark and Troubled Past: He took the fall for Cuchillos in the past and she threw him under the bus, getting him in jail, then forcing Oscar to have to take care of Cesar and grow up quickly and join the Santos.
• Disappeared Dad: He left Cesar's and Oscar's mother with two sons a long time ago and returns in Season 3.
• Fall Guy: He took the fall for Cuchillos when his sons were young, forcing Oscar to raise himself and Cesar.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The main reason Oscar is so angry at him is he went to jail to spare Cuchillos but actually left two young sons with a sick and negligent mother, forcing Oscar to join the Santos to provide some level of stability for Cesar and raise him.

Latrelle

Latrelle

Played by: Jahking Guillory

• Arch-Enemy: He's a member of the Santos' biggest enemy, the Prophets, and he's out for Cesar's blood specifically. He's so determined to kill Cesar that he attacks Olivia's quinceañera, killing her and wounding Ruby in the process.
• Dirty Coward: He first threatens Cesar, then when Cesar tries to corner him he starts to beg for his life, and after Cesar lets him off free Latrelle shoots at Olivia and Rudy and is still after Cesar.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Cesar lets him off free and alive and as a thanks he still threatens Cesar and even shoots at Cesar's two friends, killing one of them.
• Would Hit a Girl: He murders Olivia at her own quinceañera.

Rosé Westbrook

Rosé Westbrook

Played by: Angela Elayne Gibbs

• Cool Old Lady: She used to be a dancer on Soul Train in the Eighties and happily gives relationship advice to Monse.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Rose went to school with Cuchillos a.k.a. Stacy in 1979.
• Genre Savvy: Savvy enough to get why two teenagers are so interested in her life story despite not knowing her.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: She was on Soul Train when she wasn't hanging around gang leaders and was working on a pop music career only for her song to not be released due to the song being openly offensive to Cuchillos and Cuchillos was jealous of Rose and Ricky.

Chivo Ramirez

Chivo Ramirez

Played by: Emilio Rivera

• Cloudcuckoolander: He has a huge collection of miniature garden gnomes that he believes are alive and can talk to him. When Jamal smashes one, he has a stroke. He also sets up a wild goose chase for anyone trying to find Roller World- not to throw them off the trail, but because he thought they'd have fun solving the puzzle.

Lil Ricky

Angelica

Angelica

Played by: Kendra Michelle Marquez

• Betty and Veronica: Played with, outwardly she appears to be a Veronica what with her savvy demeanor and how familiar she is with the Santos and her on-again off-again relationship with Mario when they were in high school; when Mario comes back with the pregnant Amber and Angelica makes out with her, she goes from the hometown Betty to a Veronica, she is not pleased to hear that he has a girlfriend.
• Relationship Revolving Door: It appears that she and Mario went out in high school and that they would break up a lot, she makes out with him at a party with the Santos after he comes back, and smacks him when she hears that he has a pregnant girlfriend.

Amber

Amber

Played by: Shoshana Bush

• Betty and Veronica: Played with, she is not from the neighborhood (traits of a Veronica) for sure but she is naive, sweet, simple-minded (traits of a Betty) girl from an outside racial group in contrast to the savvier, Free Ridge resident Angelica (the Betty).
• Brainless Beauty: She doesn't come across as particularly bright.
• Dumb Blonde: Vapid, blonde, and her lack of intellect grates on the Martinez family.
• Has a Type: She fell for the Latino Mario and mentioned having a Black boyfriend in high school, it is likely she has a thing for men of color.
• Political Overcorrectness: Amber is white and dating Mario, who's Latino. She goes so far in trying to convince his family and friends she's not racist that it actually makes them all uncomfortable.

  Amber: And as a beneficiary of white privilege, these kinds of tragedies are, like, foreign to me. So, on behalf of my people, I'm sorry for keeping your people down.

  Monse: (whispering) Is she for real?

Cuchillos

Cuchillos

Played By: Ada Luz Luna

• Asshole Victim: The gang finds her dead in the forest, at her side was a gas tank, obviously to cover up the graves prepared already (before being killed by Oscar). But given that she was the biggest antagonist of the season, not a lot of people are missing her.
• Ax-Crazy: She'll cut you apart... she was threatening enough for Rose not to release a song that would have made her career and to threaten a families and teenagers.
• Big Bad: She becomes a huge threat to the gang even threatening Ruby's family and stealing their knives.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Played for drama She was pissed off when she found out Ricky and Rose were an item.
• Lady Macbeth: Played with she was never mentioned being part of the master plan Lil Ricky was a part of but she takes full credit for masterminding it and was his girlfriend.

  Because behind every great man, is a better woman.

• Only Known by Their Nickname: The gang knows her as Cuchillos but an episode reveals her name was Stacy Jaramillo back when she was in high school.
• The Queenpin: She is the grand leader of the Santos gang.
• Silver Vixen: She is an attractive, curvaceous, middle-aged woman whom Jamal describes as "a scary sexy old lady" and clearly went to high school with Rose in the late 1970s, making her about 50 something at the time of Season 3.

Kendra

Kendra

Played By: Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson

• Homeschooled Kids: She reveals to Jamal that she is homeschooled and her education is very hands on (like visiting Hoover Dam for physics and the cemetery for philosophy).
• Literal-Minded: When Jamal texts that she's hot, she argues she isn't because the AC in the rooms she's at is a bit too high.
• Stalker with a Crush: Her appearances included showing up whenever Jamal was and imitating his movements, to the point he thought she was a Prophet out for revenge, when she reveals that she just has a crush on him he seems more okay. Then she admits she is stalking him.
• Their First Time: When she has sex with Jamal, it was both their first time.
• Wrench Wench: She is last seen handling a blowtorch.