The Wire/Characters

This is a list of the major characters of The Wire. This list will contain spoilers.

Major Characters Introduced In Season One
Jimmy McNulty

"What the fuck did I do?"

The closest thing to a main character in The Wire. A detective in Homicide, he is an alcoholic womanizer, something of a deadbeat, insubordinate toward his supervisors, and known for coming up with creative solutions to hard cases. His disrespect for the chain of command makes him many enemies, while his self-destructive behavior alienates his peers and friends. He is reassigned to remote positions in the Baltimore police department a couple times over the course of the series, most notably in the second season when he's "put on the boat".

Keep in mind, he never actually receives a McCloud Speech to his face during the show (well, with the exception of ), but other characters give descriptions of him that almost fit the trope.

"Oooh, you need somethin' outside of this here."
 * The Alcoholic: It has been observed that he's one of the most realistic portrayals of a high-functioning alcoholic on television.
 * Antagonist in Mourning: After, as McNulty wanted to bring him down himself.
 * Anti-Hero: Shifts between Type III and Type IV on the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
 * Badass
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Discussed Trope at length.
 * Byronic Hero
 * Cowboy Cop: Deconstructed. McNulty plays by his own rules and goes against his superiors, and while he backs it up by being a brilliant detective, his antics end up destroying both his career and his family life.
 * Defective Detective: Lampshaded; Freamon observes that despite his excellent police work, the rest of his life is a train wreck.
 * Drunk Driver: At times.
 * Fake American
 * Good Is Not Nice: Unlike many in the Baltimore Police Department, he has a deep emotional investment in bringing the bad guys to justice. He's also, as Rawls puts it, a gaping asshole.
 * Handsome Lech: A drunken womanizer prone to banging floozies in bar parking lots.
 * Heel Realization:
 * Heroic BSOD: Briefly goes into one in the first season after including acting out the Vomiting Cop trope. Rawls of all people snaps him out of it.
 * Hows Your British Accent
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: He may be a womanizing asshole, but he does care about being a good cop, and his screw-ups hit him VERY hard.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:
 * The Last DJ
 * Last-Name Basis: Even Russell's kids call him McNulty.
 * Married to The Job: As Freamon says in this scene.

"Bunk: There you go. Givin' a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck."
 * : In season 5.
 * Pet the Dog: Going to, the implication being that he's going to get him help.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: Twice. The second time he actually prefers it though.
 * Red Oni: To Bunk's Blue Oni.
 * Sympathetic POV
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Receives these on a regular basis from somebody.

Cedric Daniels

"Comes a day you're gonna have to decide whether it's about you or about the work."

Lieutenant in charge of the Narcotics Unit of the western district who spends most of the series in charge of the special details that would become the model for the Major Case Unit. He is fiercely loyal to those under his command and demands similar loyalty in turn. He works to rein in the excesses of McNulty, Herc, Carver, and Pryzbylewski, while resisting the bureaucratic rot that has corrupted the district command. There is only so much he can do, given his superiors' impatience for in-depth police work, and the existence of a dossier implicating him in past corruption that Ervin Burrell holds over his head.

He begins the series as a career-minded officer who is pliant to the demands of his superiors, but when he's confronted with the deeds and scale of the Barksdale drug crew, realizes the inefficacy of the limited investigative measures that his bosses will allow, and is pressured by McNulty, Greggs and Freamon to commit to the case, ultimately he jumps in with both feet. Daniels's renewed commitment to quality police work costs him much throughout the series, but in seasons 4 and 5,.


 * Bald Black Leader Guy
 * The Beard: A non-sexuality version, after he and his wife split up in the third season he keeps up the act of them still being married so as not to damage her public image while she's running for office, including pretending to come home when she has company over, and he explains that after all she gave up to help his career it's the least he can do.
 * Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word
 * Chekhov's Gun: His law degree. This is Truth in Television, as one of the detectives David Simon shadowed when writing Homicide, Terry McLarney, was a law school graduate. Another gun of a much higher caliber is.
 * Honor Before Reason: Several times, particularly toward the end of the series.
 * The Last DJ
 * Noodle Incident: The precise nature of the corruption allegation he faced earlier in his career is never revealed, though it is implied to have been something along the lines of skimming drug money.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Reassigned to Antarctica
 * The Stoic

Shakima "Kima" Greggs

"I mean, I know you don’t like it. But shit, I was proud."

Detective in Narcotics. One of the more competent cops on the team, she does much work in surveillance and recruiting informants, particularly Bubbles. She is, but recovers and returns to duty in a desk job (under pressure from her girlfriend, who doesn't like Kima's dangerous job). Ultimately, Daniels lures her back into the fray and she eventually earns an assignment to Homicide. Beholden to her conscience and strong sense of ethics (which doesn't make her nice; while she'd never look the other way at a crime or lie to her superiors, she doesn't think twice about beating the crap out of a suspect), in the fifth season, she is the one who.


 * Action Girl
 * All Lesbians Want Kids: Averted; Kima is much more interested in her career than in being a mom.
 * Babies Make Everything Better: Averted; Kima's girlfriend having a baby makes their relationship worse, and eventually contributes to their breakup. Kima does come to care for her son however.
 * Blood Knight: Though she doesn't fight, she doesn't find policework satisfying unless she has the chance to confront and bust criminals face-to-face.
 * Bruiser With a Soft Center: The soft center comes out when children are involved.
 * Butch Lesbian: Personality-wise.
 * By-The-Book Cop: The closest thing to one on this show, as evidenced by her in Season 1 and her   in season 5; however, she still gets in on a little extracurricular brutality and other inappropriate conduct at times.
 * Cliff Hanger:
 * Henpecked Girlfriend: A consequence of being the masculine half of her relationship. Lampshaded by Herc.
 * Honor Before Reason: Arguably, her refusal to.
 * The Ladette: She enjoys drinking, screwing, and busting heads as much as any of her male co-workers; conversely, she doesn't have much interest in "feminine" activities like shopping or homemaking.
 * Married to The Job: Her partner begins to resent her dedication to policework when it detracts from her willingness to be a parent to their child.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: The sting.
 * Twofer Token Minority: As a mixed black/Korean lesbian, she ought to count as a threefer, but in this case it's an aversion since the show realistically portrays the demographic makeup of Baltimore and she's not the only black, the only lesbian, or the only female detective around.

Bunk Moreland

"A man must have a code."

Highly competent detective in Homicide. Bunk has a dry sense of humor, is almost always dressed in pinstripes, and enjoys his cigars. Bunk and McNulty often partner up to drink and cruise for women -- in spite of the fact that they are both married. As a detective, Bunk is generally perfectly happy to work within the confines of the system in Homicide. In the fifth season, his tolerance for McNulty's cowboy antics is put to the test when, which puts a deep strain on their friendship.


 * Blue Oni: To McNulty's Red Oni.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Gay Bravado
 * Happy now, bitch?
 * Mr. Vice Guy
 * Sharp Dressed Man
 * Smoking Is Cool
 * Spell My Name With a "The"
 * Third Person Person: "The Bunk."
 * Your Cheating Heart: He's generally a good guy, but has issues staying faithful to his wife.

Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins

"How y'all do what y'all do every day and not wanna get high?"

A homeless heroin addict. He mentors Johnny Weeks from seasons 1-3, and Sherrod in season 4, teaching them the life of scheming and scrounging that's necessary to support a life on the streets. When Weeks is attacked by members of the Barksdale crew, Bubbles renews his duties a police informant, providing critical information to Greggs and McNulty. In season 4, Bubbs is repeatedly beaten and robbed by another drug addict, but as, Bubbs must settle for , who twice. Bubbles pays back for his incompetence by.

By the fifth season, he.


 * Anti-Hero: Type I
 * Blue Oni: To Johnny Weeks', and later Sherrod's, Red Oni.
 * : Over the course of the series he endures as much hardship as any other character, and he's one of only a few "street" characters who  in the end.
 * Guile Hero: He manages to inform on various drug dealers for the better part of five seasons without ever being suspected of being a snitch, mostly because he's very clever in his information-gathering.
 * The Informant: Partially earns his living working as one for the BPD.
 * Mobile Kiosk: Starts telling t-shirts and other items from a shopping cart to support himself in season 3.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: After.
 * Only Known By Their Nickname: His real name is revealed only through incidental references to legal documents and the like; he's almost always called "Bubbles" or "Bubbs" in conversation.
 * Those Two Guys: With Johnny Weeks.
 * Trauma Conga Line:
 * Tropaholics Anonymous: Bubbles drifts in and out of various recovery programs and addiction support groups until he finally sobers up for good in season 5.
 * Tropaholics Anonymous: Bubbles drifts in and out of various recovery programs and addiction support groups until he finally sobers up for good in season 5.

Thomas "Herc" Hauk

"I say we go down to the terrace and fuck some people up."

One of Those Two Guys in Narcotics. Herc is probably the dumbest working detective on the show. To him, the job is all about the "rip and run" and banging heads on the corners (often literally). What little active detective work he does do often involves cutting corners (such as placing bugs and pulling a surveillance camera without proper authorization) or bumbling his way through ineffective interrogations. He's also not above stealing confiscated drug money.


 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Cowboy Cop: Like McNulty, a deconstruction; in his case of the "cut corners and rough up the suspects" variety.
 * The Ditz
 * Jerkass
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: For all his failings, when
 * The Load: At the beginning of the show he and Carver are far and away the least competent detectives among the major characters; Daniels only trusts them to do surveillance work and half the time they can't even manage that. Carver eventually gets better, Herc doesn't.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: More than once, but his interrogation of, is the worst.
 * Not Even Bothering With the Accent: His Bronx accent sticks out like a sore thumb; he's finally acknowledged as originally from New York in season five.
 * Police Are Useless: You could fill several pages detailing his many screw-ups over the course of the show.
 * Police Brutality: Most of the cops on the show engage in at one point or another, but Herc deserves special mention - brutality complaints are one of the main reasons he's not promoted to sergeant despite scoring well on the exam.
 * Those Two Guys: With Carver.
 * Those Two Guys: With Carver.

Ellis Carver

"I don't need to chase these fucking knuckleheads. I know half of 'em. Shit, I know where they hang."

The other of Those Two Guys in Narcotics. He starts out almost as stupid and corrupt as Herc, but begins to mature under the tutelage of Daniels, and later, Bunny Colvin. He is instrumental in keeping running in Season 3. He tries to, but makes the mistake of , out of guilt for. In one of the series' biggest Tear Jerkers, cannot. Later, he is shown to regret the cavalier attitude towards policework that he and Herc had taken earlier in his career,.


 * The Chains of Commanding: After he's promoted to sergeant, most notably when  in season 5.
 * Character Development: Goes from a hot-headed and inexperienced rookie to a seasoned, streetwise veteran cop over the course of five seasons, and the transformation is entirely believable.
 * Heroic BSOD: Has a truly heartbreaking one after.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Evolves into this in Seasons 3 and 4.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: Has a hilarious moment of this in Season 2, when he and Herc are left watching a townhouse all day for a guy that had already turned himself in.
 * Those Two Guys: With Herc.
 * Took a Level In Badass: He starts out incompetent but develops into a genuinely good cop by the end of the show.

Lester Freamon

"...and all the pieces matter."

Detective transferred in to Daniels' unit from the Pawnshop Unit. At first he keeps to himself, spending much of his time applying his meticulous nature to making miniature furniture instead of doing police work, causing McNulty and others to write him off as a worthless hump. After watching the other detectives fail to secure so much as a photograph of the detail's intended target, Freamon comes off the bench and shows himself to be true "natural police" (in fact, he is a former Homicide detective), proving himself knowledgeable and adept at many of aspects of running a wiretap investigation (including an understanding of the legal and political nuances that even the other competent detectives lack), and serves as a mentor to Kima, Prez and Sydnor.

He is almost as insistent as (and at times, MORE insistent than) McNulty when it comes to pressing an investigation beyond what the department brass has tolerance for, but has more wisdom about how and when to fight for a case. While he's not above crossing his superiors and manipulating his coworkers, and goes along with Jimmy's, he still lacks Jimmy's more self-destructive tendencies.

"and 4 months"
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Eccentricities such as his habit of painting dollhouse furniture at his desk lead the others to assume he's a hump; he's anything but.
 * The Chessmaster: Probably the smartest of the police on the whole show.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Cowboy Cop: Though he's much smarter and more careful about it than McNulty or Herc.
 * Guile Hero
 * Insistent Terminology: Worked the pawn shop unit for 13 years.


 * The Last DJ
 * May-December Romance: Starts up a relationship with  which continues through the end of the show.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: Pawnshop unit. Thirteen years (and four months).

Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski

"You juke the stats, and majors become colonels."

Roland begins the series as dead weight that's dumped on the Barksdale detail from Auto, who only still has a career in the department thanks to the aid of his father-in-law, Major Stanislaus Valcheck. Prez is unhappy in his job and has a hard time keeping his head while in the street. Early in the series he accompanies Herc and Carver on an ill-conceived recon mission in the high-rise projects, where he pistol-whips a youth (which results in permanent blindness in one eye for the kid). Daniels coaches Prez on how to answer IID's questions, and he is removed from street duty.

While indoors, he takes to Freamon's wiretapping, showing a real knack for codebreaking, deciphering the street talk through the tinny audio of the wiretap, following the paper trail and organizing the accumulated info on their targets. In the third season, when responding to a distress call while out making a food run, he.


 * A Father to His Men: The version,.
 * Author Avatar: Series co-creator Ed Burns was also a Baltimore cop who later.
 * Character Development: He's initially incompetent, but he gets better.
 * : Season 4 onwards.
 * Hidden Depths
 * I Just Shot Marvin in The Face
 * Leeroy Jenkins: One of the reasons he's a poor street cop is his tendency to panic and rush in without a plan in dangerous situations.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: After he Officer Waggoner.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: After.
 * Reckless Gun Usage
 * The Smart Guy: He's not much good as a street cop, but he turns out to be highly adept at cracking the Barksdale gang's various codes and figuring out how their organization fits together.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Twice - first as a cop, then.
 * The Unpronounceable: Lampshaded.
 * What an Idiot!: Practically the Catch Phrase of anyone working with him. He eventually gets better.
 * What an Idiot!: Practically the Catch Phrase of anyone working with him. He eventually gets better.

William Rawls

"You, McNulty, are a gaping asshole."

An intelligent, hardass police commander and bureaucrat, once described by a fellow police commander as being "as ruthless a fuck as we have in this department." He begins the series as a major in charge of the Homicide department, and over the course of the series enjoys promotions to colonel, deputy commissioner, commissioner and state police superintendent. Rawls achieves this by mainly by doing everything in his power to produce good stats (murder clearances, lower crime rates, etc) -- though what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily shine so bright in reality. For example Rawls is not above making an arrest that has no real prayer of producing a conviction, even though it means severely compromising a major investigation -- all to make the crime stats look better on paper. While serving as a colonel and deputy commissioner, he applies severe pressure on subordinate officers, much of which is quite deserved, that causes most of his colleagues to "juke the stats" by reclassifying crimes (felonies are downgraded to misdemeanors, etc) -- a practice that he strongly encourages without actually being explicit about it.

Rawls has no patience for insubordination, or anything that might threaten his stats. As a result, McNulty makes himself an enemy of Rawls, who orders another cop to spy on him (in an attempt to get him fired), kicks him out of homicide and blocks his transfer to another, more desirable unit that could put McNulty's skill as a detective to work. Still, there are limits to Rawls' animosity towards McNulty; when McNulty feels responsible for, Rawls steps in to assure him that his guilt is misplaced.


 * Ambiguously Gay: Appears in the background in a scene at a gay club, among other hints. Confirmed by Word of God.
 * "Rawls Sucks Cock"
 * Bad Boss: He's not particularly helpful to his underlings at the police department.
 * Da Chief
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Heel Face Turn: A subtle one. For most of the first season it seems he's nothing more than a Bad Boss with somewhat of a personal grudge against McNulty. After  he appears less of an outright Jerkass. From that episode throughout the subsequent seasons, we see a lighter side of him much more often.
 * Jerkass
 * Pet the Dog: His speech to McNulty where he tells him that  wasn't his fault. Done with Rawls' usual bluntness, of course.
 * Straight Gay: If he's in the closet, then he's a rare television non-armored closet case, as there's no obviously-false-front of homophobia or womanizing. Truth in Television since there are a lot of gay cops in real life whose sexuality is basically a non-issue in their professional lives.
 * Word of Gay: His sexual orientation is strongly hinted at in the show, but David Simon has confirmed it in interviews.

Ervin Burrell

"It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you."

Deputy commissioner (later, commissioner). Burrell is a career-minded officer, more skilled at playing politics than actual police administration. He proves to be a major roadblock time and again for Daniels' unit, which has a tendency to run investigations that could implicate Burrell's politically connected friends. Eventually, when, his fixing of crime statistics gets him.


 * Jerkass
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat
 * Office Golf: He's quite fond of it.
 * Smug Snake

Rhonda Pearlman

"Your client walks away now, or the both of you don't walk at all."

Assistant State's Attorney. She handles the cases brought in by Daniels' department. Rhonda tries to walk a fine line between bringing in quality casework and protecting/advancing her own career, and a few times gets blindsided by Lester (and his tendency to issue subpoenas against politically connected individuals, like her boss) and Jimmy (who browbeats Maurice Levy in defiance of the professional deference that Rhonda wishes to show him). She had an affair with McNulty, which is what caused his marriage to end, though by the start of the series, the romance has cooled off. Later in the series, she, which is still ongoing as of the series finale.


 * Hello Attorney
 * Heroes Want Redheads: McNulty, Daniels and Judge Phelan certainly do.
 * Matzo Fever: Provokes this reaction frequently, though her Jewishness is never especially emphasized.
 * Show Some Leg: She uses Judge Phelan's attraction to her to get favorable rulings out of him a few times.
 * Where Da White Women At?: She and Daniels must initially keep their relationship a secret because it becoming known that Daniels was divorcing his wife Marla and dating a white woman instead would harm Marla's political career.
 * Working With the Ex: She and McNulty carried on an affair prior to the events of the show, which causes some awkwardness in their professional relationship.

Jay Landsman

"It's all about self-preservation, Jimmy. Something you never learned."

Sergeant in Homicide who enjoys his pornography and food. Like Rawls, he has little patience for anything that threatens his squad's clearance rate, and spends much of his time belittling McNulty. While he appears aloof, he truly does care about his subordinates, and he demonstrates when he lobbies Rawls on McNulty's behalf (although this partially comes from Jay's desire to keep the clearances that Jimmy brings in) and when he gives wakes to fallen officers.


 * A Father to His Men: The above mentioned wakes.
 * Big Eater
 * The Danza: Averted. The real Jay Landsman plays Lt. Mello.
 * Deadpan Snarker: At times.
 * Dirty Old Man: Not particularly old, but middle-aged and definitely unattractive.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Though he is often overbearing and obnoxious to his subordinates, he genuinely does care about them and attempt to protect them whenever the homicide unit comes under attack.
 * Name's the Same: He's emphatically not based upon the real-life Jay Landsman, who plays Lt. Mello.
 * Porn Stash: More often than not seen reading a girlie mag.

Avon Barksdale

"I'm just a gangster, I suppose."

West-side drug kingpin, head of the eponymous Barksdale Organization. A vengeful but calculating gangster, he is very much concerned with his reputation for toughness. He starts the show at the peak of his influence, outwitting police surveillance. Influential even in prison, he attempts to run his criminal empire while behind bars, but Stringer ends up making a couple major decisions behind Avon's back. He manages to orchestrate a scheme that gets him early parole (serving only a couple years of his seven year sentence), but when he's released, he finds that much of his best territory is in the hands of a rival drug crew.


 * Batman Gambit: In season 2, he ensures his early release from prison by, then offering to.
 * Big Bad: For season 1
 * Blood Knight: "I bleed red, you bleed green."
 * Demoted to Extra: After season 3.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a bloodthirsty kingpin with no compunctions about killing people who threaten his profits, but even so he's appalled by Stringer's decision to order a hit on while the latter is escorting his elderly grandmother to church on Sunday morning.
 * Kingpin in His Gym: In one scene in the first season, he and Stringer are seen playing basketball in a gym.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Might As Well Not Be in Prison At All: He's sent away to prison in season 2, but manages to maintain control of his business, take over the supply of drugs flowing into the prison, and spend his free time playing video games and eating KFC.
 * Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters: He sponsors a local charity basketball game, among other community activities.
 * Pet the Dog: His interactions with Cutty in season 3.
 * Sympathetic POV
 * Worthy Opponent: Comes to view Marlo Stanfield as one after being repeatedly surprised by his ruthlessness.

Russell "Stringer" Bell

"Nigger, is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?"

Second in command to Avon Barksdale. Seeing himself as analytical and precise, he takes economics and business classes in hope of legitimizing the Barksdale Organization through real estate, a stance that eventually alienates him from Avon. He is not arrested when Avon and D'Angelo get hauled off at the end of Season 1, and becomes effective head of the organization. Immediately, he must deal with encroachment from Proposition Joe's crew, and becomes suspicious of D'Angelo and  When his redevelopment plans take longer than expected, he bribes state senator Clay Davis to get the proper permits, but is rainmade by him instead. Soon afterwards,


 * Badass
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass in A Nice Suit
 * Cultured Badass
 * Big Bad: Season 3, and arguably season 1.
 * Blue Oni: To D'Angelo's Red Oni.
 * The Chessmaster:
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 * Curse Cut Short: "WELL GET ON WIT IT MOTHERFU-
 * Dragon Ascendant
 * Fake American: Played by Idris Elba, from the UK.
 * Hidden Depths: When McNulty and Bunk look in his apartment after and find it immaculate and very tastefully decorated (complete with a copy of Adam Smith's On the Wealth of Nations, McNulty remarks that he had no idea who he was chasing all this time.
 * Number Two / The Consigliere: To Avon.
 * Man of Wealth and Taste
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Only implied, but his arranging for death might've had something to do with the fact that he was also busy screwing, in addition to other factors.
 * Properly Paranoid: So much so that even Lester Freamon is impressed.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Telling Avon that.
 * Surrounded By Idiots: Through most of season 3 you can tell this is going through his head as he tries to use his business smarts to reform the Barksdale gang.
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Villainous Breakdown: Basically almost all of his scenes in "Middle Ground", leading up to.
 * Surrounded By Idiots: Through most of season 3 you can tell this is going through his head as he tries to use his business smarts to reform the Barksdale gang.
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Villainous Breakdown: Basically almost all of his scenes in "Middle Ground", leading up to.

D'Angelo Barksdale

"It ain't like that. See, the king stay the king, a'ight? Everything stay who he is. Except for the pawns. Now, if the pawn make it all the way down to the other dude's side, he get to be queen. And like I said, the queen ain't no bitch. She got all the moves."

Lieutenant in the Barksdale Organization, and nephew of Avon. He is acquitted for murder in the premiere episode, by means of witness tampering. In charge of the low rise projects, and the dealers Poot, Bodie, and Wallace, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with the drug game. When Wallace wants to leave the game, he is supportive, which places him under the suspicion of Stringer Bell. The news of Wallace's murder turns him against the organization, and he begins the process of becoming a witness against the Barksdale organization, but is convinced by his mother to keep quiet and serve the years for the sake of his family.

In prison, D'Angelo is distances himself from his family and seems to want little more than to be left alone so he can do his time in peace. Avon tries to insert himself into D'Angelo's life, offering to make him a part of the scheme which results in Avon's early release, but D'Angelo doesn't bite, not wanting to be party to the harm his family does, nor wishing to be beholden to them. Meanwhile, Stringer still fears that D'Angelo may turn on the organization, and has an additional motive for wanting D'Angelo out of the picture in the form of his romance with D'Angelo's girlfriend, Donette. Stringer arranges.


 * Anti-Heroic BSOD: After.
 * Anti-Villain: On the darker side of a type IV, but still a type IV.
 * Armor-Piercing Question:
 * Chess Motifs: In a memorable early scene he explains the game to Bodie and Wallace; this scene receives a Call Back much later in the series when Bodie.
 * Decoy Protagonist: Seems like the main character during the street settings.
 * Despair Event Horizon:, which shakes his belief in the whole system of "family" that he's been taught to rely on. In the following season, his general apathy and the fact that he's actively avoiding associating with Avon makes it that much easier to.
 * Deuteragonist: In season 1 the workings of the Barksdale gang are seen mostly through his eyes.
 * Guilt Ridden Accomplice
 * Lying to The Perp: In the pilot Bunk and McNulty trick him into writing a letter of apology to the non-existent family of a Barksdale clan murder victim; this later causes him to refuse to believe it initially when he's told that.
 * : McNulty thinks so, and he's right.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: After returning from prison he's demoted to overseeing dealing in the Pit.
 * The Reveal: Early on D'Angelo claims to have been the killer in the murder of a former girlfriend of Avon's who had agreed to cooperate with the police; it is revealed that.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Used and abused, but eventually subverted.
 * Sympathetic Adulterer: Cheats on his girlfriend Donette with Shardene in season 1, but Donette being revealed to be a rather unpleasant person it is portrayed sympathetically.
 * Sympathetic Criminal: Most of the criminals on the show receive at least some sympathy, but D'Angelo in particular stands out.
 * White Sheep: Played with. While he's not exactly an angel, D'Angelo does not share the ruthless, cold-blooded nature of his uncle and his mother, which causes friction among them since the family business often requires cold-blooded ruthlessness.

Brianna Barksdale

Avon's sister, and a quiet partner in the family's drug operation. She is the mother of D'Angelo and attempts to protect and promote his interests within the organization. Later, after, she takes over as the leader of the organization.


 * Alliterative Name
 * The Dark Chick
 * Evil Matriarch: Fulfills the "matriarch" part better than De'Londa, though she's arguably not as evil.
 * Mama Bear: Say what you will about her, she does care about her son.

Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice

"Look at me up in here. Who the fuck would wanna be that if they can be anything else, De'Londa?"

The Barksdale Organization's most trusted soldier. We see him assassinate a state's witness and murder Omar Little's boyfriend Brandon, as well as several untrustworthy members of the organization, and let a stripper die from an overdose. .


 * Affably Evil: Wee-Bey is very friendly and quite personable. But he's STILL a ruthless killer and the best soldier the Barksdale Organization ever had.
 * The Brute: Serves this role for the Barksdale organization, though he's an unusually friendly example.
 * Demoted to Extra: After he's sent to prison.
 * Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Unlike his wife, he doesn't want his son Namond to follow in his footsteps, and  as a result. See the page quote above.
 * Hidden Depths: See the above quote.
 * Pet the Dog: He keeps a tank full of tropical fish, of which he takes excellent care, in his apartment.
 * Letting Colvin  is an even bigger example, to the point of being a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * Only Known By Their Nickname: Even his own wife calls him "Bey".
 * Taking the Heat: When he's arrested, he attempts to spring the Barksdale organization's other enforcers by pleading guilty to every murder the crew had committed.
 * Xanatos Gambit: When he is caught for a murder, he gets the DA to agree to take the death penalty off the table, then confesses to every murder the Barksdales had committed.

Preston "Bodie" Broadus

"We like them bald-headed bitches on the chessboard."

Drug dealer in the low rises. Bodie fully buys into the mystique and glamor of gangsta lifestyle, believing that as a loyal, competent, ambitious soldier, he can eventually rise up through the ranks of his world and become a kingpin like Stringer and Avon. He does indeed catch Stringer's eye and is promoted to a mid-level position, but is also meets with a fair amount of rebuke due to his gangster mentality and his propensity to deal with problems through violence -- qualities that Stringer sees little value in. Once the Barksdale organization disbands, he struggles as an independent dealer, and manages to build up a quiet corner into a decent piece of real estate (at least, if you're a drug dealer) but is muscled off the corner by the Stanfield crew, and is ultimately forced to become a part of that organization. Ultimately, Bodie is disillusioned by the casual, often excessive violence perpetrated by the Stanfield gang and. However, he is.


 * Even Evil Has Standards: He's an unrepentant drug dealer willing to kill as part of his job, but even so he's disgusted by Marlo's callousness and brutality. When he sees, he just loses it.


 * Good Cop Bad Cop: He sees right through it. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Go Karting With Bowser: Or Playing Pool With The Police.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: "We had to do Wallace!"
 * The Pawn: "We just like those little bitches on the chessboard"
 * Those Two Guys: With Poot.
 * The Pawn: "We just like those little bitches on the chessboard"
 * Those Two Guys: With Poot.
 * Those Two Guys: With Poot.

Malik "Poot" Carr

"World going one way, people another."

A drug dealer in the low rises who is obsessed with women -- an obsession that results in many trips down to the clinic for treatments for various venereal diseases. He serves Bodie well when the latter is promoted, and stays loyal to him even after the disintegration of the Barksdale organization, up until the attack on their corner, when he flees for his life. .


 * Demoted to Extra: In season 5.
 * Heel Face Turn: His leaving the game.
 * I'm a Man, I Can't Help It: Even when it results in an STD infection.
 * Really Gets Around
 * STD Immunity: Averted.
 * Those Two Guys: With Bodie.
 * Those Two Guys: With Bodie.

Wallace

"Cuz' this shit. This is me, yo. Right here."

Drug dealer in the low rises. He takes care of the younger members of the drug crew he's not dealing. Leads Stringer Bell to Brandon, but feels guilty afterwards and starts snorting heroin.


 * Free-Range Children: He takes care of several younger children who live in the Towers with him.
 * Guilt Ridden Accomplice
 * I Coulda Been a Contender
 * Idiot Ball: It's really pretty stupid of him to, but it's justified given that he's very naive about the true nature of "the game".
 * My God, What Have I Done?: When he informs Stringer Bell about Brandon's location he wasn't aware that he'd be tortured to death. He feels so guilty about it that he must resort to taking drugs in order to cope.
 * Parental Abandonment: His drug-addicted mother doesn't know where he is, and doesn't even care.
 * Token Good Teammate: Brutally deconstructed.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: He has a very naive view of both friendship and the nature of the drug trade..
 * Token Good Teammate: Brutally deconstructed.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist: He has a very naive view of both friendship and the nature of the drug trade..

Omar Little

"Don't get it twisted, I do some dirt, too, but I ain't never put my gun on nobody who wasn't in the game."

Robber who targets drug dealers. Omar is successful in this dangerous trade because he not only has the fearlessness that the job requires, but is also a meticulous planner, an effective leader, and is willing to devote long hours of surveillance work that even many cops would balk at, and by cultivating a reputation that discourages most of his victims from even thinking about putting up a fight.

He starts a war with the Barksdale Organization when his boyfriend, Brandon, is tortured and killed. Occasionally he is manipulated into taking up jobs that serve the interests of Proposition Joe, but Omar eventually earns a payday at Joe's expense. Even still, Joe is willing to let sleeping dogs lie (and even buys some of his stolen product back from Omar at a discount price) out of respect for Omar's lethality. While Omar adheres to a strict code (he refuses to ever pull his gun on a "civilian" -- someone not involved in the drug trade), unlike most criminals, he is willing to act as an informant for the police if it serves his interests (such as getting revenge on the drug crew that savagely murdered his boyfriend).

Omar's exploits never fail to entertain.


 * Anti-Hero: Mostly falls into Type III, but sometimes approaches Type IV when dealing with a personal vendetta.
 * Badass: In so, so many ways.
 * Badass Beard: Sports one from Season 3 onwards.
 * Badass Boast: "'Ey, yo, lesson here, Bey: You come at the king, you best not miss!"
 * Badass Gay: Shown holding up a group of heavily armed drug dealers in his very first scene, kissing his boyfriend in one of his other first scenes.
 * Badass Longcoat: He wears one.
 * : For the latter half of season five.
 * : Omar twice suffers this condition in the series.
 * Memetic Badass: Both in-universe and out.
 * Battle Couple: With each of his boyfriends.
 * Breakout Character: Initially slated to appear in only seven episodes before being killed off, Omar proved so popular with fans and critics alike that the writers changed his arc to make him a major character throughout the show's run.
 * Although David Simon denies that there was ever any plan to kill him off in season 1
 * Byronic Hero
 * Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He robs drug dealers for a living.
 * : Done deliberately. He's such an epic Badass that other hardened criminals are terrified of him, so of course, right? Wrong..
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He got his strict moral code from his grandmother and goes to church with her once a month.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: "a man must have a code"
 * Gayngster
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: The only character who doesn't like profanity.
 * Guile Anti-Hero: While he can handle himself in a fight, Omar mostly survives on his intelligence, his tough nature, and often dumb luck.
 * It's Personal: On multiple occasions.
 * Manly Gay
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 * Sawed Off Shotgun: His signature weapon.
 * Sir Swearsalot: Inverted. On a show where almost everyone drops f-bombs at the slightest provocation, he's the only one who refuses to swear and complains when others do. If anything, this only enhances his "force of nature in a duster" status.
 * Smoking Is Cool
 * Straight Gay
 * Unpopular Popular Character: He's hated by the dealers and cops alike, but loved by the fanbase (and some people on the street).
 * Screw the Money, I Have Rules
 * Shrouded in Myth:
 * Throw It In: The trademark facial scar is real.
 * Shrouded in Myth:
 * Throw It In: The trademark facial scar is real.

Brandon Wright

"I'm the king of this shit."

Omar's boyfriend and fellow thief. Drives the white van that their crew use for recon in season one. After the crew robs a Barksdale stash house, he is spotted by Wallace and, but he does not give Omar up.


 * Battle Couple: With Omar.
 * : Notably averted. Omar is still actively  until at least the end of season 3.
 * Idiot Ball: First, he uses Omar's name in front of people he's robbing. Then, he goes out to play pinball alone despite there being a bounty on his head, and one of his crewmates having just been killed.
 * The Twink: To Omar's Straight Gay Gayngster.
 * : Notably averted. Omar is still actively  until at least the end of season 3.
 * Idiot Ball: First, he uses Omar's name in front of people he's robbing. Then, he goes out to play pinball alone despite there being a bounty on his head, and one of his crewmates having just been killed.
 * The Twink: To Omar's Straight Gay Gayngster.
 * The Twink: To Omar's Straight Gay Gayngster.
 * The Twink: To Omar's Straight Gay Gayngster.

"Proposition" Joe Stewart

"Got a proposition for ya."

East-side drug kingpin. Has a mellow temperament. Dislikes common squabbling and turf wars (and the ensuing police attention), preferring instead to arrange alliances and cut deals between rival gangs. His group is the first to fill the vacuum left by the disruption of the Barksdale Organization in Season 2, chipping away at their territory and influence. An alliance between the two groups, the New Day Co-Op, is eventually formed. He keeps Stringer Bell powerless and under his control, but he can't contain the ascendant Marlo Stanfield, nor his mercenary-in-all-but-name, Omar Little.

"Don't believe we've met; Proposition Joe. You ever steal from me, I'll kill your whole family."
 * Affably Evil:


 * Batman Gambit: To try and persuade Marlo of the security benefits of the Co-Op, he gets Omar to rob the poker game Marlo attends to show Marlo how he needs the extra security. This backfires by setting in motion a chain of events leading to.
 * Brief Accent Imitation: He uses three different accents during the course of one phone call to the BPD while trying to gather information on Herc.
 * Catch Phrase: "I've got a proposition for you."
 * The Chessmaster
 * Deal With the Devil: Faced with an incursion of New York drug dealers into the East Side in Season 4, he turns to Marlo to get rid of them. This does not end well.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: He prefers to avoid violence and confrontation when he can, as it's bad for business.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: He frequently speaks like this.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: He prefers to avoid violence and confrontation when he can, as it's bad for business.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: He frequently speaks like this.

Leander Sydnor

"Torn cammies by Versace, stained sweatshirt by Ralph Lauren. Haven't showered in two days, haven't shaved in four. I am one ripe, nasty son-of-a-bitch."

Young detective assigned to Daniels' unit early on. Does surveillance and undercover work alongside Greggs and Bubbles. He agrees to help Freamon work his illegal wiretap in season 5, and in the finale, is shown going to Judge Phelan to get a case worked on, demonstrating his willingness to disregard the rules and chain-of-command to bring in a good case.


 * The Generic Guy: Probably the least distinctive and well-developed among the police of the cast.
 * History Repeats: In the finale, he asks Judge Phelan to help him circumvent the rules to advance a case in a way that closely echoes a similar scene featuring McNulty in season 1.
 * Out of Focus: Even when he is around, he gets less screen time and character development than most of the other cops.
 * Put On a Bus: For pretty much all of season 2. Lampshaded when Sydnor reminds the other detectives that he doesn't remember the details of the port case because he didn't work it with them.

Maurice Levy

"Maurice Levy: You are amoral, are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off..."

"Omar Little: Just like you, man."

"Maurice Levy: ...the culture of drugs. Excuse me? What?"

Drug lawyer for the Barksdale organization, and later, Marlo Stanfield. Very good at his job, getting cases scuttled and sentences reduced for his clients. Most Definitely Not A Jewish Stereotype.


 * Amoral Attorney
 * Evil Genius: Functions as this for the Barksdale and Stanfield crews, helping them set up fronts and side businesses to hide their activities from the police and evade prosecution.
 * Greedy Jew: At one point he gleefully remarks that he likes seeing his clients busted by the cops, because it means more billable hours for him.
 * : Although thanks to Freamon's work Pearlman does hold a sword over his head in the form of.
 * Psychotic Smirk
 * Smug Snake
 * Yiddish As a Second Language

R. Clayton "Clay" Davis

"Fool, what do you think? That we know anything about who gives money? That we give a damn about who they are or what they want? We have no way of running down them or their stories. We don't care. We just cash the damn cheques, count the votes and move on."

Maryland state senator. Corrupt doesn't begin to describe him. He takes bribes from many sources, including the Barksdale organization under Stringer Bell, and does patronage and fundraising in return, when he doesn't simply fleece them. Two simultaneous investigations, one by the Major Crimes department of the Baltimore Police, the other by the FBI, are focused on him.


 * Affably Evil
 * Catch Phrase: "Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiiit."
 * Corrupt Politician: "Corrupt" doesn't begin to describe him.
 * Manipulative Bastard: When he is put on in Season 5,.
 * Rainmaking
 * Sleazy Politician: In addition to his criminality, he's pretty scummy in his personal life as well.
 * Smug Snake
 * Villain With Good Publicity: So good that.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: So good that.

Stanislaus Valchek

"You want to do it your way, fine. But you ain't gonna use my people to fuck me."

Commander of the Southeastern district. Father-in-law of Pryzbylewski, he uses his connections to get him out of trouble several times. Gets into a feud with Frank Sobotka over a stained glass window, leading to. Later, he becomes a supporter of Carcetti.


 * It's All About Me
 * Jerkass
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: Quite possibly the worst example of this in the entire show, which is saying something.
 * Police Are Useless: He's far more concerned with furthering his own career and pursuing petty personal vendettas than he is with doing a good job policing the city.

Johnny Weeks

"I'm brown."

A homeless addict, taken under the wing of Bubbles. A counterfeiting operation brings down the wrath of Bodie and Poot, leaving him in the hospital, where he learns he has HIV. Bubbles' informing the police produces a rift between the two, and Weeks leaves and goes to Hamsterdam.


 * Red Oni: Unlike Bubbles, who is more restrained and cautious in his drug use, he uses impulsively and recklessly.
 * White Gang Bangers: Comes off as one at times.
 * Red Oni: Unlike Bubbles, who is more restrained and cautious in his drug use, he uses impulsively and recklessly.
 * White Gang Bangers: Comes off as one at times.

Major Characters Introduced In Season Two
Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos

"They have my name. But my name is not my name."

The Greek's soft-spoken right hand man who oversees his operations in Baltimore, which most notably includes acting as the wholesaler who supplies Prop Joe with drugs. He takes a liking to Nick Sobotka, facilitating the young man's descent into a life of crime.


 * Affably Evil
 * The Dragon: To The Greek.
 * Evil Mentor: To Nick Sobotka.
 * Fake Nationality: Spiros' actual nationality is unknown, but he's not American. Paul Ben-Victor, the actor who plays him, is.
 * Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Evil, clearly; he rarely appears without a cigarette in his hand.
 * I Have Many Names: As he says himself, "many names, many passports".
 * Number Two
 * Pragmatic Villainy: He prefers to avoid violence if he can, not out of moral conviction but because it tends to make a mess and draw attention from the police. When it becomes necessary, he is perfectly willing to cut a throat or two, as learns.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: He prefers to avoid violence if he can, not out of moral conviction but because it tends to make a mess and draw attention from the police. When it becomes necessary, he is perfectly willing to cut a throat or two, as learns.

Beatrice "Beadie" Russell

"What they need is a union."

Officer for the Port Authority and single mother of two. She discovers thirteen dead women in a shipping container, kicking off the events of Season 2. While at first she treats the job as little more than a paycheck, as the investigation progresses she develops a knack for policework and becomes invested in the case. She reappears late in season 3, when, though Jimmy's behavior in season 5 tests Beadie's patience.


 * Action Mom: Eventually.
 * Demoted to Extra: After season 2.
 * Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: She initially views working as a port cop as a good gig because the pay is decent and it doesn't involve much actual policework, though she proves pretty good at the latter when major criminal activity does start happening at the port.
 * Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She gets together with McNulty after he stops drinking and gets his act together, but their relationship is strained when he falls off the wagon in season 5.
 * Took a Level In Badass: When she's introduced at the beginning of season 2, she doesn't take her job very seriously. By the end of the season she's developed into "real police".

Frank Sobotka

"You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket."

Treasurer for the stevedore's union in Baltimore. Needing to keep his workers paid in the face of declining port traffic and the juggernaut of gentrification, he arranges to lobby and bribe local politicians in exchange for projects to keep the docks alive. He gets the money by an arrangement with The Greek, who uses the port for smuggling. He runs afoul of Major Valchek, who starts investigating into his finances. Things start unraveling when thirteen dead prostitutes are found in a shipping container, and he has to deal with both the police and The Greek. When his son, Ziggy, murders the Greek's fence, and the plans for expanding the docks collapse, he.


 * A Father to His Men
 * Anti-Villain
 * Dartboard of Hate: Has one on his wall.
 * I Did What I Had to Do
 * Suspicious Spending: While he repeatedly warns Ziggy and Nick about this and seems to generally avoid it (until you look closely at it, his union seems to have constant financial issues, he generally pays his personal bills late, etc.) he initially attracts Valchek's suspicion by making an extravagant donation for a church window which he shouldn't be able to afford.
 * Sympathetic Criminal
 * Tragic Hero
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * Tragic Hero
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist

Nick Sobotka

"I don't know how to tell you this without hurting you deeply, but first of all, you happen to be white."

Nephew of Frank Sobotka and cousin of Ziggy. He acts as a go-between for his uncle towards Vondas, often bringing Ziggy along. Seeking a steady income so he can support his girlfriend, he makes an arrangement with The Greek to obtain chemicals used for drug processing. He is paid in heroin, which he sells to local dealers in lieu of Ziggy. The police catch on and send out a warrant for his arrest, and he turns himself in. In exchange for identifying The Greek, he is sent into the witness protection program.

He is seen briefly in Season 5, jeering the opening of the Granary condominiums.


 * He Knows Too Much: The Greeks end up deciding this about him.
 * Put On a Bus: Despite supposedly being sent away from Baltimore for his own protection, he reappears in season 5 as a heckler at Carcetti's harborside photo-op.
 * Sympathetic Criminal
 * Witness Protection: Where he ends up, but according to David Simon, he opted out of it after a while.

Ziggy Sobotka

"Let me show you old gents some bulk cargo that none of you could ever handle. Who says they don't make 'em like they used to?"

Son of Frank Sobotka. He is stupid and impulsive, failing at both legitimate work in the docks, as well as drug dealing. He convinces his cousin Nick to make a deal with The Greek to sell drugs. Nick's success where he failed sends him into a depression, which drives him to kill one of The Greeks' frontmen when a deal goes sour. He is apprehended and sent to prison. Both the police and the Greek try to use Ziggy's situation to apply leverage to Frank and Nick.


 * Butt Monkey
 * Chaotic Stupid: Tends to act this way.
 * Conspicuous Consumption: $2000 on a new coat. After Nick advises him not to flash too much money around.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me: He very much resents his cousin helping him.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Among the first things he does is flash his penis at a room full of bar patrons.
 * Gag Penis
 * Leeroy Jenkins
 * The Load: Managing to get a better deal on some stolen cameras is about all he manages to help his uncle or cousin with.
 * Male Frontal Nudity: On a couple of occasions.
 * Money to Burn
 * The Precious Precious Car: His Camaro, Princess, which first gets stolen, then torched.
 * Ted Baxter: Talks quite a lot about taking down Cheese, Maui, and anyone else he thinks has wronged him, but generally gets punked whenever he actually tries anything.
 * What an Idiot!: Just about everyone who interacts with him comes to think this.

"The Greek"

"Business. Always business."

Head of a smuggling operation running out of the Port of Baltimore, specializing in drugs, prostitues, and stolen goods. Tends to hide in plain sight, sitting at the bar while his Number Two ostensibly takes care of business. He is the main supplier for Proposition Joe, and later, Marlo Stanfield. No relationship, as far as we know, to "The Greek's", the restaurant in season one, where Brandon Wright played pinball.

The police just know him as "The Greek", and he's not even Greek.


 * Big Bad: For season 2.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Devil in Plain Sight: Everyone who meets with Spiros wonders who his mysterious boss is, with relatively few people ever figuring out that he's the quiet elderly gentleman who sits at the counter drinking coffee while Spiros does the talking.
 * The Don
 * Evilly Affable
 * Fake Nationality: He's not actually Greek, but he's clearly foreign; the actor who plays him, Bill Raymond, is American.
 * The Man Behind the Man
 * Mistaken Nationality
 * Only Known By Their Nickname: Even Spiros only ever refers to him as "The Greek". His real name is never revealed.
 * The Spook
 * The Spook

Sergei Malatov

"Did he have hands? Did he have a face? Yes? Then it wasn't us."

A Ukrainian (not Russian) who serves as a driver and enforcer for the Greek's organization. He's first seen waiting in a truck for the shipping container in which the dead girls are later found, and after committing several brutal crimes becomes a primary target of the police's investigation as season two goes on. When the combined police/FBI operation moves on the Greek's operation, he is arrested. In season 5, he.


 * Badass
 * The Brute
 * Fake Ukrainian: Played by American actor Chris Ashworth.
 * Husky Russkie: Close enough.
 * The Mafiya: It's not stated explicitly that he's a member, but with his brutality and penchant for cutting off the hands and faces of his victims he clearly fits the trope.
 * Mother Russia Makes You Strong: He mentions that he spent four years in prison in the Ukraine, and that American prisons are nowhere near as harsh.
 * Never Heard That One Before: "Boris. Why is it always Boris?"

Howard "Bunny" Colvin

"There's never been a paper bag for drugs. Until now."

Major in command of the Western District. He is respectful towards his subordinates. Sick of seeing so much death related to the drug game, he comes up with the "Hamsterdam" free-zone experiment in Season 3.

""I thought I might legalize drugs.""
 * Bald Black Leader Guy
 * Cool Teacher: In Season 4.
 * A Father to His Men: To McNulty and Carver in particular.
 * Happily Married: We don't see a great deal of his home life, but he and his wife appear to be this.
 * I Did What I Had to Do: His reason (in a nutshell) for  in Season 3.
 * Nice Guy: Oh, hell yes. Probably one of the kindest people in the whole series.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Sarcastic Confession: When asked how he plans to lower the crime rate in his district:


 * Save Our Students: Makes this his goal once he takes a job doing research work with the troubled "corner kids" at the school in season 4.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: In season 3, he goes against police department policy and essentially because he believes it will reduce the amount of violent crime and make it easier for social services to reach out to addicts, and thus accomplish what he views as the ultimate goal of policework - making people safer. It works,.

Blind Butchie

"Conscience do cost."

A bar owner and quiet drug dealer who serves bank and go-between for Omar Little. Legally blind.


 * Bad Guy Bar: Runs one.
 * : Subjected to it by.
 * : One of the more extreme ones in this show.
 * Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Actor S. Robert Morgan actually is blind (though as a result of macular degeneration rather than a gunshot wound).
 * Retired Badass: Proposition Joe reveals that he was once a feared enforcer who got (mostly) out of the drug game after losing his sight due to a gunshot wound.
 * Retired Badass: Proposition Joe reveals that he was once a feared enforcer who got (mostly) out of the drug game after losing his sight due to a gunshot wound.

Calvin "Cheese" Wagstaff

"There ain't no back in the day, nigga. Ain't no nostalgia to this shit here. There's just the street, and the game, and what happen here, today."

Co-op lieutenant. Has gotten to where he is by virtue of being Proposition Joe's nephew, though Cheese's mercenary nature overrides any blood loyalty he might have to Joe. Word of God is that he is Randy Wagstaff's biological father, though the two never come in contact with each other.


 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 * Dumb Muscle
 * : By Slim, after denouncing Joe and Marlo.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal:  in the middle of a speech by Slim.
 * Smug Snake: Not a single season goes by without him being completely owned by someone.
 * The Starscream

Brother Mouzone

"Let me be emphatic: You need to take your black ass across Charles Street where it belongs."

Gunman hired by Avon Barksdale to intimidate rival dealers working for Proposition Joe. Set up by Stringer Bell to preserve his alliance with Prop Joe, he is attacked by Omar Little, who believes him to be the one who tortured Brandon.

While not stated outright, his manner and dress suggests that he is a member of the Nation Of Islam.


 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass in A Nice Suit
 * Bow Ties Are Cool
 * Big Applesauce
 * Cultured Warrior: When he's not working as a ruthless killer-for-hire, he's reading intellectual magazines like "The Nation" and "Harper's".
 * Dissonant Serenity
 * Let's You and Him Fight
 * Malcolm Xerox: To the point that Cheese initially thinks he's a recruiter from the Nation of Islam until he gets a very rude surprise in the form of a bullet to the shoulder.
 * Professional Killers: The "hitman" type.
 * Put On a Bus: He disappears after  and is never seen again; presumably he returns to New York.
 * Shrouded in Myth: Has a reputation that makes even hardened drug bosses fearful of crossing him. When Cheese demands they try to kill him, Prop Joe launches into a tale of a whole group of hardened heavy hitters that failed to kill him.
 * Sophisticated As Hell
 * Strange Bedfellows
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Wicked Cultured

Dante

"Just you and me, then. Like we was."

Omar's new boyfriend, whom he meets sometime in the year after Brandon's murder. He joins his stick-up operation, but is shown to have a problem with jealousy, and there is a noticeable rift between him and Omar's other associates, which worsens when. Kidnapped and beaten in season three, he sells Omar out to Brother Mouzone (unlike Brandon, who endured much more without caving). It is heavily implied that this is why he and Omar part ways, as he is not seen again after this.


 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Vanishes between seasons three and four without explanation. It is probable that Omar dropped him after he sold him out to Mouzone, but this is never made explicit.
 * Club Kid / The Twink: seems like a rather manipulative form of The Twink at first, but after he and Omar split, he's seen drinking a Cosmopolitan in one of the most extravagant gay bars in town.
 * Green-Eyed Monster
 * I Just Shot Marvin in The Face:

Kimmy and Tosha

"I'm in it for the money. There's easier out there than that."

The other two members of Omar's crew, whom he picks up in season two. There is a substantial rift between these two and Dante, as Dante is openly jealous of their relationship with Omar; made worse when. Kimmy blames Omar for putting them in the situation in the first place, eventually leaving the crew because his obsession with the Barksdale gang has become too risky. Kimmy apparently later forgives Omar -- or at least, tolerates him well enough to participate in the theft of Prop Joe's heroin resupply at the end of season 4.


 * Battle Couple
 * Dirty Harriet: Non-police version - Kimmy poses as a cheap whore in order to distract Cheese during a raid.
 * Sassy Black Women

Major Characters Introduced In Season Three
Thomas "Tommy" Carcetti

"Yummy, my first bowl of shit."

City Councilman. He dreams of supplanting the current mayor, Royce, and cleaning up Baltimore. He gets his chance with the rise in violent crime, and when a key witness is killed due to the lack of proper witness protection. When Hamsterdam is exposed, he starts campaigning in earnest, pulling off an upset and becoming mayor. Once in office, with his advisors Norman and Steintorf, he seeks out people he can trust within city government, particularly the police force. Promising a reduction in crime, he is undermined by the revelation that financial legerdemain had been used to to hide a massive deficit in the school budget. Deciding not to seek the Maryland governor's help in bailing out the schools, he takes the money from the police force instead. He is unable to fulfill most of the promises he made to his allies and constituents, but manages to get elected governor by attacking his Republican opponent's positions on homeless and the poor, which works as a high-profile issue due to McNulty's fake serial killer.


 * Ambition Is Evil: Played with. When forced to choose between helping the city he was elected to save and his own political ambitions, he chooses the latter, by . However, the series makes the argument that it is the political system which corrupts politicians rather than the other way around.
 * Big Good: At first he's set up as possibly being this, but it's ultimately subverted.
 * Establishing Character Moment: In the end of the third episode in which he appears Carcetti committs adultery with an unnamed woman he meets at a political event, staring at himself in the mirror as he does so. Though it seems at the time to be a throwaway scene, it actually serves to highlight Carcetti's narcissism and willingness to break promises for personal gain, both character traits which play a role in his later tenure as mayor. The scene actually receives a Call Back in season five, when Carcetti watches news coverage of himself making a grandstanding political speech with a similarly rapturous expression on his face.
 * Face Heel Turn: Mildly and realistically so. He doesn't so much go from good to evil as go from an idealistic crusader to just another self-interested politician.
 * Fake Nationality: An Italian-American played by Irish actor Aidan Gillen.
 * He Who Fights Monsters
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: He bears some resemblances to real-life former Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley, though Simon has said the character was based on a number of Baltimore politicians, most of whom are too obscure to be recognizable to viewers.
 * Pet the Dog: On an epic scale during his Baltimore cleaning spree.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure:.
 * Rousing Speech: He gives a few of them, usually of the self-serving variety.
 * Sir Swearsalot: While everyone except Omar swears a lot in this show, Tommy is particularly foul-mouthed.
 * Sleazy Politician: Eventually turns into one.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: He becomes more and more of a Jerkass as the stress of campaigning and then running the city wears on him.

Clarence Royce

"Next year? For some things, that's a long time to wait."

Deeply corrupt mayor of Baltimore. His administration has seen a dramatic rise in violent crime, which he seeks to patch over as best he can. Major Colvin's experiment in establishing drug-free zones causes crime to drop, and he makes the mistake of delaying action in bringing them to an end. When exposed, Carcetti campaigns against him for allowing them, and beats him in the mayoral election.


 * Cultural Posturing: During the Democratic primary campaign against the white Carcetti his staff prints up posters using African colors in an effort to appeal to racial solidarity.
 * Mayor Pain: Subverted; at first he's presented as too venal and incompetent to do anything about Baltimore's problems but Carcetti's arc reveals that it's the system rather than the person at the top of it that's most responsible for the city's plight.
 * Sleazy Politician: Not nearly as bad as Clay Davis, but still pretty unethical.

Marlo Stanfield

"I wasn't made to play the son."

Up-and-coming west-side drug kingpin, head of the eponymous Stanfield Organization. He starts out small-time, operating in the vacuum left by the Barksdale Organization, and fights his way to supplant them and merge with Proposition Joe's New Day Co-Op. He works to eliminate his enemies and anyone who would betray him. A repeated theme in Marlo's characterization is his demand for respect, which trumps all other concerns. He frequently kills those who show him disrespect, or undermine his name on the streets however unwittingly. Marlo's obsession with respect ultimately proves to be his downfall.


 * Berserk Button: Though generally an eerily calm personality, Marlo does not take kindly to anyone questioning his street cred.
 * Big Bad: In seasons 4 and 5.
 * Dissonant Serenity
 * Kick the Dog: Many, many times.
 * Lack of Empathy
 * Pet the Dog: Keeps a roof coop for pigeons. Even hires a guy to take care of them.
 * The Sociopath
 * The Starscream:
 * The Stoic
 * Not So Stoic: Goes absolutely ballistic when he finds out about.
 * Tranquil Fury: Actor Jamie Hector comments on striving for a performance of "power and economy" using "minimalist movement and speech".
 * The Unfettered
 * The Unfettered

Dennis "Cutty" Wise

"The game ain't in me no more. None of it."

Soldier who has come to the end of his prison sentence. He is enlisted in the Barksdale Organization, but doesn't have it in him any more, and leaves. With funding from Avon, he opens up a boxing gym to keep youth away from drug dealing. He cannot keep Michael Lee from the streets, and takes a bullet to the leg trying, but keeps doing what he can for others.


 * Demoted to Extra: He's a fairly major character in the third and fourth seasons but his role in the final season is reduced to 1 short scene in which he gives Dukie some advice.
 * Handsome Lech: For a while. Eventually he grows into more of a Chivalrous Pervert because his dalliances (usually with their single mothers) are hurting his reputation with the boys he teaches; after being called out on it by Michael, he soon settles down with a real girlfriend.
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Hey It's That Voice: Left 4 Dead fans will recognize him as Coach from the second game.
 * Mistaken for Gay / Mistaken for Pedophile: Specifically by Michael. "He just too friendly, you know? That shit creep me out, man, like he some type of faggot or something."
 * This has more to do with Michael than with Cutty.
 * Parental Substitute / A Father to His Men
 * Pet the Dog
 * Reformed but Rejected: Subverted. Initially it looks like his efforts to go straight will be thwarted by bureaucracy and lack of means, but with the aid of the Deacon and Avon he manages to start up a successful boxing gym.
 * Reformed Criminal

Chris Partlow

"Don't fret boss, I got you covered."

Soldier under Marlo Stanfield. Under orders, murders many, many people. Tutors Michael Lee in the ways of the game, and is the one who slays his abusive stepfather. He is eventually sentenced to life without parole, and quickly makes friends with Wee-Bey Brice in prison.


 * Affably Evil: Chris isn't particularly outgoing or charming, but he's always quite polite and pleasant when he isn't murdering people in abandoned buildings. Ironically for someone who's killed as much as he has, Chris is probably the most reluctant to commit violence of the higher-ups in Marlo's crew, and takes little pleasure in his work..
 * Badass Beard
 * Berserk Button: He does not like child molesters, as evidenced by his flipping out and beating Michael's stepfather to death. Word of God confirms it was because he was molested as a child himself.
 * The Dragon: To Marlo Stanfield.
 * The Dreaded: Just the sight of Chris let's  know he should Prepare to Die. The Boys also speculate that Chris might be a "Zombie Master."
 * Even Evil Has Standards: He'll kill a man without batting an eyelash, but child molesters absolutely disgust him.
 * Evil Mentor: With Snoop, teaches Michael the ways of the game.
 * Family Values Villain: He takes good care of his family, even after he is arrested and sent away to prison for life.
 * The Grim Reaper: In a series full of deaths, Chris is responsible for more on- and off-screen deaths than any other character in the series.
 * Kick the Son of A Bitch: Kick the shit out of him.
 * Number Two
 * Pet the Dog: Takes a few minutes in the middle of a brutal gang war with Omar and his associates to visit his girlfriend and his kids, to whom he is warm and affectionate.
 * Scary Black Man: Not the only one, but as perhaps the most brutal killer in the entire series he deserves special mention.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson

"We will be brief with all you motherfuckers. I think you know."

Soldier under Marlo Stanfield. She devises a plan along with Chris Partlow to have people killed inside vacant houses, pour quicklime on their bodies, and seal them back up. When Marlo suspects Michael may be an informant, she is dispatched to assassinate him. Instead, Michael kills her.


 * Ax Crazy
 * Blood Knight
 * Butch Lesbian
 * The Danza: Snoop is played by Felicia Pearson, who was herself a member of a drug gang when she was young.
 * Dissonant Serenity: Part of what makes her such a terrifying villain.
 * The Sociopath
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Both In-Universe and out.

"Slim Charles"

"If it's a lie, then we fight on that lie."

Soldier for the Barksdale Organization who rose through the ranks when the group was disintegrating. A friend of Cutty, and respectful of his decision to leave the game. He manages to evade capture when the rest of the Barksdale Organization is raided at the end of Season 3, and goes on to join the New Day Co-Op, becoming a trusted member. When Marlo Stanfield takes over the Co-Op, he is a dissenting voice, eventually murdering Cheese and becoming effective head of the Co-Op at the end of the series.


 * Evil Sounds Deep
 * Number Two
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Shoots Cheese right in the middle of a speech and takes control of the Co-op.

Sherrod

A young dealer who is taken in by Bubbles. Bubbles tries to get him to go back to school, but Sherrod does not, and starts using. When they are attacked by another junkie, Bubbles puts poison in a dose of heroin, in the hopes that the junkie would rob them, use, and die. Sherrod takes the dose by accident.


 * Sacrificial Lion

Kenard

"It's my turn to be Omar!"

Very young friend of Namond Brice. Torments Dukie every chance he gets. He joins the Stanfield Organization as a dealer in Season 5, and goes on to assassinate Omar Little. Last seen in the final montage of the series being arrested by the police, presumably for Omar's murder.


 * Bratty Half Pint: Rare genuinely evil variant.
 * Early Bird Cameo: Albeit unintentionally - the actor who plays Kenard, Thuliso Dingwall, first appears as one of the children re-enacting the shootout outside the Barksdale stash house in season 3.
 * Enfant Terrible
 * Kids Are Cruel: His treatment of Dukie, not to mention his dousing a cat with lighter fluid. Don't worry, the cat gets away.

Major Characters Introduced In Season Four
Duquan "Dukie" Weems

"How do you get from here to the rest of the world?"

Eighth-grade student. Living in dire poverty, he is bullied by everyone, including his friends Randy, Namond, and Michael. The clothes he is given by the school get stolen by his parents to feed their drug addictions. He is the one who shows Randy and Michael the bodies in the vacants.

He comes to depend on his teacher. Mr. Pryzbylewski. He is compelled to graduate, even though he is not ready, so he drops out and starts dealing alongside Michael. When this falls through, he tries to find work, only to end up with a junkie scrap metal thief. We last see him asking Pryzbylewski for money, and then shooting up in the final montage, with heavy implications that he's set down the road that Bubbles is escaping.


 * I Coulda Been a Contender
 * Shrinking Violet
 * With Friends Like These

Randy Wagstaff

"You gonna look out for me?"

Eighth-grade student. Friend to Namond, Michael, and Dukie. He becomes known to the Stanfield organization when he sells them pigeons, and he is used to lure a disobedient dealer to his death. This, combined with the revelation by Dukie that the slain are sealed in abandoned rowhouses, eventually lead to him talking to the police. Rumors spread of his being a snitch, which causes him to be ostracized by his peers and makes him a target. Carver gives him police protection, which isn't enough to stop his house from being firebombed, hospitalizing his foster mother for the foreseeable future. Carver fights to find him another foster parent, even offering to adopt him himself, but nothing can be done to keep him from a group home. As we see in Season 5, the bullying and abuse break him until he is just another thug.


 * Break the Cutie
 * Demoted to Extra
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: By the time we see him in season 5.
 * Trauma Conga Line: Starts off mild. Taken Up to Eleven in the Wham Episode.
 * Young Entrepreneur

Namond Brice

"I love the first day, everyone all friendly and shit."

Eighth-grade student. Friends with Randy, Michael, and Dukie. The money given by the Barksdale Organization as a reward for Wee-Bey taking the fall means he is (relatively) well off. He starts out as a drug runner. When placed in Bunny Colvin's experimental classroom, he is the most disruptive student, but is recognized to be smarter than he looks. When his family forces him into dealing, it is understood by all that the game will take his life. He is given permission by Wee-Bey to be adopted by Colvin, and becomes an excellent student.


 * Demoted to Extra: Is a central character in season 4 but only appears briefly in one episode of season 5.
 * Happily Adopted: From the end of season 4 onwards.
 * Heel Face Turn: When we see him in season 5 Namond has turned his life around and become a good student, winning an urban debate championship.
 * Jerkass
 * Jerkass Facade: He acts tough due to feeling pressured to live up to the reputation of his father Wee-Bey.
 * The Scrappy: Arguably he is this In Universe. He's kind of The Load of the Barksdale organization; he's not a very good dealer, but Wee-Bey's influence is still strong enough to see him taken care of by Bodie.

Michael Lee

"Yo look, I'm not tryin' stand around and let some chump ass niggas think I'm shook, I aint."

Eighth-grade student. Friends with Dukie, Randy, and Namond. An introvert, he lives with his junkie mother and abusive stepfather. It is strongly implied that he was sexually abused when younger. Starts boxing in Cutty's gym, but feels put off and starts dealing. He is taken under the wings of Chris and Snoop, and is trained to be a soldier. He works to take care of his brother and Dukie. His frequent questions of the necessity of murder place him under suspicion, and Snoop is sent to assassinate him. He recognizes what's going on and kills her first. He is last seen on the run from Marlo's people, having split from Dukie and his brother permenently, and become a stick-up boy like Omar.


 * Beware the Nice Ones
 * Chekhov's Skill
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
 * Promotion to Parent
 * Shrinking Violet
 * Unwinnable Training Simulation

Norman Wilson

"Everybody's gettin' what they need behind some make believe."

Tommy Carcetti's deputy campaign manager, and later, his right hand man. He is brutally honest, keeping Carcetti in line and his feet on the ground.


 * The Consigliere
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Servile Snarker

Nerese Campbell

President of the Baltimore City Council. When Carcetti is elected mayor, she is immediately hostile to him because she was understood to be next in line after Royce. He proves to be pliable, and she comes around to pulling strings for him, though she scuttles many of his planned projects. She is elected mayor after Carcetti.

De'londa Brice

"That boy need to get hard."

Wife of Wee-bey and mother of Namond. Forces her son to become a drug dealer after no longer getting any money from the Barksdale Crew.


 * Abusive Parents
 * Evil Matriarch

Michael Steintorf

Mayor Carcetti's chief of staff. A realist, he lets Carcetti know that many of his plans are infeasible. Later, he pressures Daniels to alter crime statistics.

Renaldo

Omar's boyfriend after Dante. The first major Hispanic character on the show, he seems fairly new to the stick-up game, as he is unused to the amount of time Omar spends in reconnaissance. His being an unknown to the drug dealers means he can go places Omar can't in order to pick up information. He owns a taxi, which the two use for surveillance.


 * Gratuitous Spanish
 * Latin Lover
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Renaldo fills a very similar story role to his predecessor Dante (and though it is implied, the reason for this replacement is never explicitly stated), despite having a rather different personality.

Major Characters Introduced In Season Five
Augustus "Gus" Haynes

"Our job is to report the news, not to manufacture it."

Editor for The Baltimore Sun, who does his best to keep the paper alive and relevant during bad times for the industry.


 * Author Avatar: Runs into many of the same problems David Simon dealt with during his time at the Sun.
 * Da Editor
 * Hey It's That Guy: Apparently after retiring from the Baltimore homicide department Det. Meldrick Lewis changed his name and went into journalism.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: His fate after the higher-ups side with Templeton's sensationalized drama pieces.

Alma Gutierrez

A young reporter who has the bad luck to come onto The Baltimore Sun as it is downsizing.


 * Break the Cutie
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * Reassigned to Antarctica
 * Wide Eyed Idealist

Scott Templeton

"Every last word is in my notes!"

A young reporter who falsifies his stories. He is roped into the fake serial killer story, and ends up winning a Pulitzer while his more scrupulous colleagues are demoted.


 * Consummate Liar
 * Karma Houdini: Arguably the worst in the series, his unethical practices win him a Pulitzer Prize.
 * Smug Snake
 * Start of Darkness: Frustrated by the mounting pressure from the paper for big stories and his own incompetence, he starts fabricating and eventually hits it big by pretending to by kidnapped by McNulty's nonexistent serial killer.

Michael Olesker

A reporter at the Sun who writes a character piece on Bubbles. He enjoys a promotion to senior line editor when Gus is demoted at the end of the series.


 * Character As Himself