List of Homeland characters
This is a list of characters appearing in the Showtime drama Homeland.
Main characters
The following is a list of series regulars who have appeared in one or more of the series' five seasons. The characters are listed in the order they were first credited in the series.
Carrie Mathison
Played by Claire Danes, Carrie Mathison is a CIA officer who grapples with bipolar disorder. While deployed in Iraq, Carrie receives information leading her to suspect rescued American POW Nicholas Brody of being a terrorist. During a lengthy unauthorized investigation into Brody, she becomes obsessed with him, and the two even have a brief romantic relationship. Her suspicions ultimately being correct, she loses her job when her investigation is exposed by Brody. Carrie successfully stops Brody's suicide bombing attempt, but is unaware she was successful and is instead made to believe that Brody was innocent. Now completely demoralized, she submits herself to electroconvulsive therapy as she is no longer confident in her skills.
When Brody's confession video is discovered, Carrie is brought back into the CIA. She successfully interrogates Brody, getting him to admit his complicity and to agree to work against al-Qaeda rather than be exposed to the world as treasonous. Carrie acts as Brody's handler and their romance is eventually rekindled. She is kidnapped by Abu Nazir on American soil but is instrumental in his subsequent capture and killing by FBI forces. When Brody is framed by al-Qaeda as the perpetrator of the Langley bombing on 12/12, Carrie helps Brody flee to Canada and promises to clear his name.
Nicholas Brody
Played by Damian Lewis, Nicholas Brody is the husband of Jessica Brody and father to Dana and Chris. He is an ex-Marine who was captured by al-Qaeda and held as a POW for eight years in Iraq. Brody, after years of brutal treatment, becomes sympathetic to Abu Nazir's cause during his captivity and agrees to return to the United States as a sleeper agent. Once back in the U.S., Brody has a turbulent relationship with his family, partly due to Jessica's having had an affair with Brody's best friend Mike. Brody has an affair of his own with Carrie Mathison, the CIA officer who suspects him of working for al-Qaeda. According to plan, Brody successfully gets himself into a bunker with the Vice President while wearing a suicide vest, intending to detonate it, but he aborts when Dana calls him, begging him to come home. He leaves the scene with nobody being the wiser.
Brody takes advantage of his public popularity, and support from Vice President Walden, to win a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He continues to secretly work for Abu Nazir until he is discovered by the CIA. Carrie, using her emotional connection with Brody, is able to convince him to turn against al-Qaeda. Using Brody's inside information, a major al-Qaeda terrorist attack is thwarted by the CIA. However, Brody is made to look like the perpetrator of a second bombing at CIA Headquarters on 12/12, making him the most wanted man in America. He goes into hiding in Canada.
Saul Berenson
Played by Mandy Patinkin, Saul Berenson is Middle East Division Chief of the CIA. Saul recruited a young Carrie Mathison into the CIA, and is a friend and mentor to her. His measured approach to his job often clashes with Carrie's drastic, impulsive methods.
Saul is instrumental in getting cooperation from captured terrorist Aileen Morgan, which leads to information that implicates Tom Walker. Saul later runs afoul of CIA Director Estes when he discovers that Estes and then-CIA director William Walden ordered a drone strike that hit a school in Iraq and have been taking measures to cover up the incident. After an operation with Carrie in Beirut, Saul finds a copy of the confession tape that Brody recorded. This leads to Saul, Carrie, and Estes forming a task force attempting to use Brody as a re-doubled agent against al-Qaeda. Saul discovers that Estes' plan is to have Brody killed once the operation is finished, and tries to put a stop to it which leads to further friction with Estes, almost losing his job. However, Peter Quinn, the black ops operative hired by Estes to kill Brody, decides not to go through with the plan once Abu Nazir is killed. When Estes is killed at the bombing of the memorial service for William Walden at Langley on December 12, Saul becomes the acting director of the CIA.
Once he is director, Saul and Carrie almost immediately put into action a plan to lure out the mastermind behind the 12/12 attacks in which Carrie is outed to the press as having bipolar disorder and having had an affair with Brody. Appearing vulnerable, Carrie is contacted by representatives of an international bank with ties to the middle east, as Saul predicted, who ask her to inform on CIA operations to their client, Majid Javadi, Iran's Deputy Intelligence Chief and the orchestrator of the 12/12 attack who Saul has a troubled history with. When they were both getting their starts in their respective nations, Saul and Javadi worked together during the Iranian hostage crisis, but Javadi betrayed Saul by having several hostages who Saul was going to extradite back to the states killed. In response, Saul helped Javadi's wife and son escape to America. Saul, with the help of Fara Sherazi, finds that Javadi embezzled millions from his own nation to fund the attack, making him an enemy of the Iranian state should this ever be revealed. Using this as leverage to make Javadi a CIA asset, Saul sends Javadi back to Iran. At the same time, Saul clashes with Senator Andrew Lockhart, who is soon to replace him as director, and he discovers that his wife is having an affair with a man named Alan Bernard.
Saul manages to bring Brody, now a heroin addict after his captivity in Caracas, back to the United States before revealing the entirety of his master plan to Carrie. He intends to send Brody to Iran where he will tell the government that he wishes for asylum there. Once in Tehran, Brody is to kill Danesh Akbari, leader of the Revolutionary Guard, who will be replaced by Javadi, ushering in a regime change in the nation. Brody is brought back to health, overcoming his addiction and training with several members of a special ops unit in preparation of the assignment. Meanwhile, Saul finds that Alan is an Israeli intelligence agent hired by Lockhart to spy on him, and Saul uses this info to give himself more time in office to see through the mission to the plan. Brody manages to make it into Tehran, where his first attempt to kill Akbari fails, forcing Brody to keep his cover until another opportunity arises, though this makes Lockhart and Dar Adal believe that Brody has no intention to go through with the mission. However, Brody arranges a meeting with Akbari, and kills him in his office before fleeing. Carrie takes him to a safe house, but Lockhart gives Brody up to the Iranians in order to ensure Javadi's public image. Brody is executed in Tehran, but despite this, Saul's plan is a success. He is fired from the CIA once Lockhart takes office, and then begins work in the private sector.
Jessica Brody
Played by Morena Baccarin, Jessica Brody is the wife of Nicholas Brody and mother of Dana and Chris. In the eight years her husband is gone and presumed dead, Jessica does not remarry but does engage in a serious relationship with Brody's best friend Mike Faber, which is abruptly ended when Brody returns home. The reunited couple struggle with their marriage. He resents Jessica's relationship with Mike. Jessica, in turn, learns of Brody's affair with Carrie. As his behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jessica suspects further infidelity. When Brody is off on a CIA-sanctioned mission, Jessica and Mike's relationship is rekindled. Nicholas and Jessica eventually come to a mutual agreement that their marriage cannot continue.
David Estes
Played by David Harewood. The director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. He has a tense relationship with Carrie, partly due to a past affair with her which led to the end of Estes' marriage. He fires Carrie upon learning of her bipolar disorder and her multiple contraventions of CIA protocols, but later on must reinstate her when she is proven to have been right about Brody. Saul discovers that Estes and then-CIA-director Walden ordered a drone strike launched in Abu Nazir's homeland, resulting in the destruction of a nearby school, and that his efforts to undermine Carrie were actually an attempt to cover up the incident. Estes makes plans to have Brody assassinated once Abu Nazir is neutralized, and when Saul opposes this action, he threatens Saul's job. He is among those killed when a bomb explodes at the CIA building.
Mike Faber
Played by Diego Klattenhoff, Mike Faber is Nick Brody's best friend—they served in the Marines together. While Brody is being held as a prisoner-of-war, he is presumed to be dead. Mike gets involved in a long-term relationship with Nick's wife Jessica, becoming very attached to her and the Brody family. The relationship is abruptly ended when Brody returns. The Brody family still comes to depend on Mike when they are neglected by Nicholas. Mike and a fellow Marine, Lauder Wakefield, feel that Brody may have had something to do with the murder of Tom Walker and investigate the matter. He eventually confronts Jessica with his theories.
Chris Brody
Played by Jackson Pace, Chris Brody is the son of Nicholas and Jessica and younger brother to Dana. Chris is too young to remember Nicholas before he went into service, and struggles to connect with his returned father at times. When his father's behavior becomes more erratic, Chris finds comfort in the familiar presence of Mike Faber.
Dana Brody
Played by Morgan Saylor, Dana Brody is the daughter of Nicholas and Jessica and older sister to Chris. Intelligent and strong-minded, Dana is the member of the family with whom Brody feels most comfortable after his return home. She is the only one to whom Brody admits his conversion to the Muslim faith. Dana exhibits some resentment towards her mother for having had an affair with Mike. When Brody is about to detonate his suicide vest at the State Department, Carrie convinces Dana to call him and "talk him down", which convinces Brody to not go through with the attack, though Dana is left not having any clue what Brody was planning to do.
While she is on a date with her boyfriend Finn Walden, Finn is driving recklessly, fatally strikes a pedestrian, then drives away. Dana is overcome with guilt. Her relationship with her father deteriorates when she wants to report the accident to the police, but her father doesn't allow it (his hand is forced by the CIA), much to her disillusionment.
When she watches the news showing that her father was turned in Afghanistan, Dana attempts suicide and is eventually placed in a psychiatric hospital, where she meets Leo Carras. The two begin a relationship and eventually run off together until Dana learns that Leo was possibly involved in the death of his own brother, which Leo told her was a suicide. After this, Dana changes her last name to disassociate herself from her father and moves out of the house. Psychologically ruined and disillusioned, she ends up cleaning motel rooms, seeing Brody one final time before he goes to Iran. Her father tries to reconnect with her, but Dana rejects him and claims to never want to see him again.
William Walden
Played by Jamey Sheridan, William Walden was the Vice President of the United States and a former director of the CIA. Both Brody and Abu Nazir hold him accountable for the drone strike that killed Nazir's son Issa. He is killed during a meeting with Brody when Nazir's associates tamper with his pacemaker. Brody agreed to provide the pacemaker's serial number for Nazir in exchange for releasing Carrie as his hostage. Walden attended the University of Notre Dame and was an All-American football player there.
Virgil
Played by David Marciano, Virgil is a freelance surveillance expert and former CIA employee. He is one of Carrie's few friends. Carrie sometimes enlists him to help her with surveillance operations.
Abu Nazir
Played by Navid Negahban, Abu Nazir is a high-ranking operative, possibly the operational leader, of al-Qaeda. Nazir oversees the captivity of prisoners of war Nicholas Brody and Tom Walker, and over a period of years is able to persuade them both to turn on the U.S. and align with al-Qaeda. Issa, Nazir's son, is killed by a CIA-sanctioned drone strike. The incident is pivotal in shifting the allegiance of Brody, and also leads Nazir to swear revenge on the CIA and its director. He sends Brody and Walker back to the U.S. with a plot to kill Walden and many other officials but it is thwarted by the efforts of Carrie Mathison.
Brody is captured by the CIA and forced to work with them against al-Qaeda. Nazir infiltrates the United States himself with a new plan. First, he orchestrates the assassination of Vice President Walden, forcing Brody to assist by holding Carrie as a hostage. He then sacrifices himself (killed by SWAT team), along with his cell (captured by CIA forces), in order to give the appearance that the terror threat has been neutralized. However, Nazir had planted a bomb in Brody's car, and one of his associates detonates the bomb at the CIA's headquarters, killing 219 people and wiping out much of the CIA's infrastructure, and setting up the innocent Brody as the culprit.
Peter Quinn
Played by Rupert Friend, Peter Quinn is originally introduced as a CIA analyst brought in by Estes to head up the Brody task force. He clashes with Carrie as she is not very willing to take orders from him, but they come to respect each other's skills. Quinn is later revealed by Saul to be a black ops officer hired by Estes to assassinate Brody once Abu Nazir is neutralized. He ends up refusing to kill Brody, realizing that carrying out the job would only be advancing Estes's interests, and knowing the effect it would have on Carrie.
Mira Berenson
Played by Sarita Choudhury. Mira is the wife of Saul Berenson. She leaves Saul to move to New Delhi, but she promises to return to the U.S. after the Walden memorial service bombing.
Andrew Lockhart
Played by Tracy Letts. Senator Andrew Lockhart leads the committee investigating the bombing of the CIA. At a hunting retreat led by the White House Chief of Staff, Lockhart is revealed to be the nominee for director of the CIA to replace Saul. Lockhart clashes with Saul while the latter is still director, and hires an Israeli intelligence agent, Alan Bernard, to spy on him, a scheme which Saul uncovers.
Dar Adal
Played by F. Murray Abraham. He is a black ops specialist who had been a friend of Saul 18 years prior. He is the handler of Peter Quinn, who is lent to David Estes to terminate Nicholas Brody. After the 12/12 bombing, Saul, in his remaining time as director of the CIA, keeps Dar Adal as a close ally, helping him during the course of Saul's plan to instigate a regime change in Iran. Dar Adal grows to great prominence during season three. Dar has Carrie detained and is primarily responsible for keeping her locked up in a psychiatric facility. He was also behind the operation to kill or capture the Langley bomber, who was still residing in the United States. Carrie wanted to ensure the survival of the perpetrator to exonerate her beloved Brody, who had been blamed for the 12/12 bombing, and nearly compromised the mission. Dar gave the order to Quinn to have Carrie shot in order to prevent the missions failure, which landed Carrie back in the hospital. Later in the season, Brody is brought back to the United States from Venezuela and experiences heroin withdrawals. Saul only has six days before Lockhart is confirmed as the new director of the CIA and must get Brody back to full recovery to implement his regime change plan. Dar recommends they use ibogaine, a drug that speeds up the withdrawal process while also causing violent and severe hallucinations. In the season finale, Saul promised Carrie that he would have her and Brody extracted from Iran immediately after Brody completed his objectives. However, Javadi believed that the capture and execution of Brody would give further credence to the plot. Unbeknownst to Saul, Dar informs Lockhart and gets approval from the president to take command of the CIA 11 hours before he is to be confirmed. Lockhart gives the orders to Javadi to have Brody arrested and publicly executed.
Fara Sherazi
Played by Nazanin Boniadi, Fara Sherazi is a young professional Persian analyst, who assists Saul in linking the Langley bombing to Majid Javadi. She lives with her father, who was for a time unaware that she worked for the CIA. She has an uncle in Tehran, who assists Carrie when she goes there.
Martha Boyd
Played by Laila Robins, Martha Boyd is the United States ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Allison Carr
Played by Miranda Otto, Allison Carr is CIA agent at Berlin station.
Recurring characters
Danny Galvez
Played by Hrach Titizian. He is a Muslim-American CIA officer with a Lebanese mother and a Guatemalan father who assists Carrie in most of her cases. He is attacked in one of his missions and shot, and takes a few weeks to recover. He is then believed to be a mole by Carrie, but her suspicions are proven wrong when he shows his excuse for leaving the compound.
Max
Played by Maury Sterling, Max is Virgil's brother. Max works with Virgil in his security consulting business. He is depicted as socially awkward.
Tom Walker
Played by Chris Chalk, Thomas Patrick Walker is a Marine who was in active duty along with Nicholas Brody when they were both captured by al-Qaeda forces. Walker, like Brody, becomes loyal to al-Qaeda after several years as a prisoner-of-war. Both men are dispatched to the United States with roles in an impending terrorist attack. Walker's cover is blown when he is identified by Aileen Morgan, triggering a national manhunt. Walker successfully carries out his part in the attack, assassinating Elizabeth Gaines and causing a mass evacuation into the State Department. Afterwards, Abu Nazir commands Brody to kill Walker, due to Walker's exposed identity.
Roya Hammad
Played by Zuleikha Robinson, Roya Hammad is a television news reporter who secretly works for al-Qaeda, acting as an intermediary between Abu Nazir and Brody. She is eventually arrested, along with her cell, when Brody gives the CIA information regarding their planned attack on a soldiers' homecoming event.
Finn Walden
Played by Timothée Chalamet. The son of Vice President Walden, he dates Dana. He perpetrates a fatal hit and run on a date with Dana when he is driving recklessly, and then insists that Dana keep it a secret. He is listed among those killed when a bomb goes off outside his father's memorial service.
Maggie Mathison
Played by Amy Hargreaves, Maggie Mathison is Carrie Mathison's sister. Maggie is usually the person that Carrie goes to for support when having personal problems. As a psychiatrist, Maggie secretly obtains medication for Carrie to control her bipolar disorder.
Frank Mathison
Played by James Rebhorn, Frank Mathison is Carrie Mathison's father. Like Carrie, Frank also has bipolar disorder.
Cynthia Walden
Played by Talia Balsam, Cynthia Walden is the wife of Vice President William Walden. When Brody is elected as a U.S. Representative, Cynthia befriends and takes Jessica Brody under her wing. When her son Finn causes a car accident that results in the death of a pedestrian, Cynthia orchestrates a cover-up.
Raqim Faisel
Played by Omid Abtahi, Raqim Faisel, along with his girlfriend Aileen Morgan, are low-level al-Qaeda operatives living in the United States. He is a professor at Bryden University in Washington D.C. As part of an al-Qaeda plot, Morgan and Faisel are assigned to purchase a house within sniper range of a Marine One landing pad. The CIA discovers the house, sending them on the run. Faisel is murdered by unknown assailants while he and Aileen are hiding out at a motel.
Aileen Morgan
Played by Marin Ireland, Aileen Margaret Morgan, along with her boyfriend Raqim Faisel, are low-level al-Qaeda operatives living in the United States. Morgan was born in the U.S. but took on an anti-American perspective while living her teenage years in Saudi Arabia. As part of an al-Qaeda plot, Morgan and Faisel are assigned to purchase a house within sniper range of a Marine One landing pad. The CIA discovers the house, sending them on the run. Faisel is killed, and Morgan is arrested in Mexico by Saul Berenson. In exchange for Raqim Faisel receiving a Muslim burial, she identifies the al-Qaeda accomplice who had been sent to her house as ex-Marine Tom Walker. Morgan ultimately commits suicide during a lengthy stay in solitary confinement.
Lauder Wakefield
Played by Marc Menchaca, Lauder Wakefield is a disabled, alcoholic ex-Marine who served in the same platoon as Nicholas Brody, Tom Walker, and Mike Faber. When Brody returns, Lauder is antagonistic towards him. He comes to suspect that Brody was involved in the death of Tom Walker.
Alan Bernard
Played by William Abadie, an apparent friend of Mira Berenson who it was later revealed she was having an affair with. He was later found to be an Israeli intelligence agent working for Lockhart, using Mira to get close to Saul, who he was spying on.
Majid Javadi
Played by Shaun Toub, Majid Javadi is the Deputy Intelligence Chief of Iran, who engineered the bombing on the CIA. Javadi had worked with Saul in the past but betrayed him when he killed several American hostages who Saul was attempting to extradite from Iran. In retaliation, Saul helped Javadi's wife and son escape to the United States. After the bombing, he attempts to turn Carrie against the CIA, but the plan fails and he is blackmailed into becoming a CIA asset when Carrie and Saul find that he had embezzled millions from his own nation to fund the attack.
Michael Higgins
Played by William Sadler, Michael "Mike" Higgins is the White House Chief of Staff. At a hunting retreat, Higgins announces that Senator Lockhart will become the new director of the CIA.
Tertiary characters
Prince Farid Bin Abbud
Played by Amir Arison, Prince Farid Bin Abbud is a Saudi Arabian prince who Lynne Reed was a consort for. He was seen talking to Abu Nazir and was thought to be connected to his terrorist network.
Latif Bin Walid
Played by Alok Tewari, the majordomo for Prince Farid who was an agent for Abu Nazir.
Afasl Hamid
Played by Waleed Zuatier, Asfal Hamid was an al-Qaeda fighter who was the sole survivor of the compound Brody was rescued from.
Issa Nazir
Played by Rohan Chand. Issa was Nazir's young son, to whom Brody was assigned the job of teaching English. Brody witnessed Issa's death in a drone strike ordered by V.P. Walden.
Xander
Played by Taylor Kowalski. He was the boyfriend of Dana whom she broke up with when she met Finn Walden.
Lynne Reed
Played by Brianna Brown, Lynne Reed works as a consort to Farid bin Abbud, a Saudi Arabian prince. Reed also is a CIA informant recruited by Carrie Mathison. She observes Farid meeting with Abu Nazir and reports it to Carrie, leading to a CIA investigation. Reed is eventually killed by an associate of Latif bin Walid (the prince's second), who is involved in an al-Qaeda plot independent of the prince.
Mansour Al-Zahrani
Played by Ramsey Faragallah, Mansour Al-Zahrani is a Saudi diplomat stationed in Washington D.C. He is also secretly affiliated with al-Qaeda and acts as a handler to Nicholas Brody and Tom Walker. He is discovered by the CIA and then killed in a bombing attack engineered by Tom Walker.
Helen Walker
Played by Afton Williamson, Helen Walker is the wife of Tom Walker. Aware of his terrorist affiliations, Helen Walker initially agrees to cooperate with the CIA to apprehend her husband Tom. However, at a critical moment, she tips off Tom, allowing him to narrowly escape.
Elizabeth Gaines
Played by Linda Purl, Elizabeth Gaines is Chief of Staff to Vice President William Walden and his most trusted advisor. She is assassinated by Tom Walker during the attack on the State Department.
Fatima Ali
Played by Clara Khoury, Fatima Ali is the wife of Hezbollah district commander Abbas Ali, and a former asset of Carrie Mathison. She approaches the CIA with new information but is only willing to speak to Carrie, forcing the CIA to summon Carrie back into action.
El Niño
Played by Manny Perez, El Niño is the leader of a band of Venezuelan mercenaries who capture Brody after he is shot by Colombians crossing the border. El Niño and his men take him to the Tower of David, an aborted housing project in Caracas, where Brody is nursed back to health and given heroin to make him dependent on El Niño's men, forcing him to stay with them. He has a daughter named Esme (played by Martina Garcia) who accompanies Brody on an attempt to escape the tower.
Leland Bennett
Played by Martin Donovan, Leland Bennett is a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm who represents a bank that has ties to Iranian terrorists. Bennett attempts to convince Carrie to inform on the CIA for a client of his (who turns out to be Majid Javadi), which she agrees to in order to lure Javadi out.
Paul Franklin
Played by Jason Butler Harner, Paul Franklin is an associate of Bennett's law firm, who arranges a meeting between the two parties. When he and Bennett are led to believe that the CIA has discovered the Langley bomber, Franklin arrives at the motel where he had been hiding out, and kills him.
Danesh Akbari
Played by Houshang Touzie, General Danesh Akbari is the Intelligence Chief of Iran who Brody is sent to Tehran to kill.