Antoine Batiste
- Played by: Wendell Pierce
Trombone player who lives from gig to gig. In season 2, he's brought in to help teach the jazz band at the local junior high school, and while he's reluctant to dive in too deeply with the job at first, he grows to like it and become a real mentor to the kids there.
- Amicable Exes: With LaDonna. Antoine admits her new husband Larry is a better father to their two boys than he ever was.
- Big Fun
- The Casanova: Though he's Happily Married to Desiree, that doesn't stop him from flirting with other women, and even sleeping with some of them. It's implied this is what led to his first marriage breaking up.
- It's a Long Story: Why he no longer has a case for his trombone.
- Running Gag: The fact he's always short with cash whenever he takes a cab ride to a gig, and he always argues the route they take. In Season 4, when he not only doesn't argue the route, but he has enough cash to pay the fare plus a tip, the cabdriver (whom Antoine has stiffed before) is stunned.
Desiree
- Played by: Phyllis Montana Le Blanc
LaDonna Batiste-Williams
- Played by: Khandi Alexander
Larry Williams
- Played by: Lance E Nichols
Toni Bernette
- Played by: Melissa Leo
Lawyer who works in New Orleans. She's filed lawsuits against just about everyone in the police and sheriff's department at one point or another. Despite that, she usually has a friendly demeanor. She also has represented just about every musician on the show at one point or another whenever they get in any trouble.
- Berserk Button: Do not try to get to Toni through Sofia.
- The Determinator: Once Toni has the bit between her teeth on a case, nothing will stop her from pursuing it until she finds the truth.
- Heroic BSoD: Suffered this after Creighton's suicide, and she's also suffered this from time to time when it comes to her cases, especially in Season 4, when she runs into the police detective she targeted but escaped without being prosecuted - in her work, oftentimes, Failure Is the Only Option.
- Mama Bear: She's fiercely protective of Sofia, to the point that when the police start harassing her, she sends Sofia to Florida until things die down.
Creighton Bernette
- Played by: John Goodman
- Big Fun
- The Eeyore: Increasingly over time.
Sofia Bernette
- Played by: India Ennenga
Creighton and Toni's teenage daughter.
- History Repeats: After Creighton's suicide, she takes up the mantle of doing his rants on YouTube.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Does this in Season 2 after Creighton's suicide, since she was the last to know, especially towards her mother. She gets better at the end of the season, though.
Albert Lambreaux
- Played by: Clarke Peters
- The Ace: Builder, musician, seamster, troupe leader.
- Honor Before Reason: Pretty much everything he does. Notably, he engineers his own police beating with a three-day Batman Gambit, just to make a point.
- It's All About Me: While he really does love his family, his city, and his Indian gang, it's really his pride that drives most of his decisions.
- The Determinator
Delmond Lambreaux
- Played by: Rob Brown
Davina Lambreaux
- Played by: Edwina Findley
Janette Desautel
- Played by: Kim Dickens
Chef who lives in New Orleans. While she had a restaurant in Season 1 that was popular, after Katrina, she couldn't afford to pay all of her expenses and had to sell it. She eventually moved to New York City to get a job, and while she was happy for a time, she missed New Orleans, and when Tim Feeney offers to partner up with her for a restaurant of her own in Season 3, she decides to take the chance, only to find out she's made a Deal with the Devil. This causes Janette to leave and, in Season 4, start up with her own place again.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Jacques, her sous chef. When he gets arrested because of his immigrant status, she takes leave from her new job in New York City whenever she can to help him out.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: In Season 2, after Alan Richman, a well-known writer, wrote a piece insulting New Orleans, she became upset enough to throw a drink in his face while she was on the job. A season later, people in the industry are still talking about it.
- Supreme Chef: Everyone who eats where she works loves what Janette cooks. In Season 4, when Nelson eats at Desautel's after she's left, he can immediately tell the food is nowhere near as good. He makes a deal with Tim Feeney in the series finale to allow Janette to keep her name on her new restaurant, just so she can get the clientele he knows she deserves.
Jacques Jhoni
- Played by: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Janette.
Davis McAlary
- Played by: Steve Zahn
- Green-Eyed Monster: To his consternation, every project he starts out on to promote himself ends up benefiting other people he brought in, and not him.
- No True Scotsman: He has opinions about who is a true resident of New Orleans and who is a filthy gentrifier.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the last episode, when he becomes more straightlaced, both in his manner and in the way he dresses, everyone who knows him is freaked out. It doesn't last; he's back to being a DJ at the end.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He's utterly convinced he's a great, hip musician, when in reality he's just another DJ.
- The Stoner: As he tells Janette at one point (and as she repeats to him when he changes in the final episode), in his opinion, any job where he can't smoke a joint at any time isn't a job he wants.
Sonny Shiller
- Played by: Michiel Huisman
Piano and guitar player who usually plays on the streets, at first with Annie, and then, after they split, with whomever he can. Becomes a drug addict in Season 1, but gets better in Season 2 and starts working for a Vietnamese shrimper. He also becomes attracted to Linh, the shrimper's daughter.
- Amicable Exes: Becomes this way with Annie starting in Season 2.
- Descent into Addiction: We see this with Sonny in Season 1, especially when Annie starts to leave him behind musically and personally.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason for Sonny's Descent into Addiction is he can't handle the fact Annie is becoming a better musician than him.
- Happily Married; Becomes this way with Linh.
Annie Talarico ("Tee")
- Played by: Lucia Micarelli
Starts out as a street musician, with Sonny, before growing in ability, confidence, and exposure as the series goes on.
- Amicable Exes: Becomes this with Sonny starting in Season 2, and then with Davis in Season 4.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Harley, until he's killed near the end of Season 2.
Harley Watt
- Played by: Steve Earle
Terry Colson
- Played by: David Morse
Detective in New Orleans.
- Friend on the Force: To Toni, though that friendship becomes strained at times when she (mistakenly) thinks he's dirty.
- The Last DJ: Is the only detective we see in the homicide unit who is dogged and honest at his job.
Arnie Reyes
- Played by: Jeffrey Carisalez
Nelson Hidalgo
- Played by: Jon Seda
A financier who comes to New Orleans in Season 2 to make profit off of the rebuilding that goes on. However, he grows to love and appreciate the culture down there.
- Affably Evil: "Evil" might be too strong a word, but he definitely does not have the best interests of most of the people in New Orleans at heart. However, he's friendly and polite to everyone he meets.
- Affectionate Nickname: LaDonna calls him "Antonio Banderas" when she first meets him.
- The Casanova: Gets involved with quite a few women while he's in New Orleans.
- Irony: While he definitely comes down to New Orleans to exploit the situation, he grows to love the real culture of the place, from the music to the food. He even helps Janette by making a deal so she'll be able to put her own name on her restaurant after she quits working under Tim Feeney.
L. P. Everett
- Played by: Chris Coy
Reporter working for ProPublica who comes down to New Orleans in Season 3 to investigate the deaths of people in police custody, and he works with Toni on this throughout the season.
- Intrepid Reporter: Follows the story doggedly, no matter how often the police threaten or follow him.
Aunt Mimi
- Played by: Elizabeth Ashley
- Cool Aunt: To Davis; she's just as colorful as he is, she loves the music he does, and she helps finance all of his business ventures even when it looks like they won't make money.
Marvin Frey
- Played by: Michael Cerveris
David Chang
- Played by: As Himself
Linh
- Played by: Hong Chau
Cindy
- Played by: Taryn Terrell
