List of Dirt characters
This article is a list of fictional characters as featured in American serial drama television series Dirt.
Main characters
Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox) - Lucy Spiller is the pivotal character of the show. She runs the magazine DirtNow, (previously two separate magazines), which is marketed as a respectable tabloid. Lucy is a workaholic with a brilliant eye for a story and little remorse about the lives she tangles with. She is constantly burdened with the guilt of the suicide of her father and the feelings of loneliness which stem from this. She does however, truly love her best friend Don Konkey and her brother Leo. For Don, she goes to great lengths to keep him healthy - on his medication, and she and her brother are also close. She finds herself unable to reach orgasm with anything other than her vibrator until she meets Holt McLaren.
Don Konkey (Ian Hart) - Don Konkey was in the journalism club with Lucy during college, and as such is the only character revealed she has a true bond with. Don does exceptional photography work, and is so committed to Lucy that he severed one of his own fingers to get a shot. He suffers from manageable schizophrenia, and is often reluctant to take medication, even at the request of Lucy.
Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) - At the beginning of the series, Holt McLaren was a has-been actor whose only claim to fame was his long past blockbusters and his girlfriend, Julia Mallory. After telling Lucy about Kira Klay's pregnancy in episode one, she agreed to do a profile about him in her magazine "Now" when it was still a single entity. After that, he received multiple offerings from movie studios and is currently working under contract on a big-budget action film. He is also Lucy's love interest.
Willa McPherson (Alex Breckenridge) - Willa McPherson is a reporter under Lucy who is frequently on thin ice with her and definitely the most important recurring character. She goes to great lengths to get stories for Lucy, much as Don does to get photos. In various episodes, she takes drugs, submits to sexual advances and befriends the mentally unstable to further the goals of the magazine. She was involved in a casual relationship with Brent Barrow in season 1 and a romantic relationship with Farber Kauffman late in season 2.
Julia Mallory (Laura Allen) - At the start of the series, Julia Mallory is "America's sweetheart", but as DirtNow destroys her career, the series tracks her character's degeneration, pain and corruption. Julia is an actress dating actor Holt McLaren. She hurt her back in episode one after Holt crashed their car at 90 miles an hour following the news of Kira Klay's death. She has since suffered various problems - narcotic, sexual, physical and mental, which lead to the collapse of her career and her eventual death. Julia was hit by Leo in his car, which killed her and gave Lucy her first cover after returning from the hospital.
Leo Spiller (Will McCormack) - Leo is Lucy's younger brother, to whom she is reasonably close. He appeared to cope with their father's suicide slightly better than she has, and is closer to their mother than her. He finds his sister's line of work destructive and shallow. He identifies himself as bisexual, although his sister argues that he is gay and in denial. He has a search for peace and disapproves very much of his sister's career, especially after an incident with a closeted A-list celebrity, Jack Dawson. Along with Brent Barrow, Leo was a central character in Season One but remains a mostly unseen character in season two.
Supporting characters
- Brent Barrow (Jeffrey Nordling) - DirtNow's publisher. He is very constricting when it comes to content and schedule issues. Throughout the series he has threatened Lucy with termination from her position as their interests conflict. Brent is rarely seen in season two, and dies in the season 2 (and series) finale.
- Sharlee Cates (Ashley Johnson) - An obvious parody of Britney Spears, she soon begins a friendship with Don Konkey during the Breakdown of her marriage.
- Tina Harrod (Jennifer Aniston) - A rival magazine editor. She is Lucy's arch rival, former friend and brief lover when they were younger. Though she has been mentioned several times in the first season, Tina's only appearance was in the season 1 finale.
- Prince Tyreese (Rick Fox) - A basketball star who gets photographed and later blackmailed after committing adultery. After Brent Barrow (under the threat of having his penis cut off, cooked and fed to him by Tweetie McDaniel) reveals that it was Prince Tyreese that leaked the information of how Tweetie killed music artist Aundre G, he is badly beaten by Tweetie and his men. In the second season, he returns and appears to have written a book about how his loss of a basketball career helped him open his eyes to what is important in life.
- Gibson Horne (Timothy Bottoms) - Lucy and Brent's boss and owner of DirtNow, he is in charge of publication and seems to be the highest ranking character introduced on the show so far. He has little to do with DirtNow, only stepping in occasionally as Brent has a more hands-on job of overseeing the magazine.
- Garbo (Carly Pope) - A high-profile lesbian drug dealer for many actors and actresses. She and Julia Mallory had a short-lived sexual relationship prior to her rehab visit but Garbo falls in love with Julia. Her name is possibly a reference to bisexual 1920s superstar actress Greta Garbo.
- Jack Dawson (Grant Show) - A famous actor who is in the closet and secretly seeing Leo Spiller. After Leo catches him with his personal trainer he retaliates by taking the information regarding the relationship to Lucy who in turn outs him in DirtNow.
- Johnny Gage (Johann Urb) - Johnny is a celebrity who worked alongside Julia and Holt. Johnny was labeled as the bad guy when it was revealed that he had made a sex tape of himself and Julia. Johnny was also involved in the hostage situation at the Dirt Now studio.
- Kira Klay (Shannyn Sossamon) - A troubled young drug-addicted actress who died of a brain injury. Her death happens in the pilot, where that is the only episode she is "alive." Kira appears in later episodes as a ghostly figment of Don's imagination and becoming a sort of love interest.
- Farber Kauffman (Ryan Eggold) - A reporter, whose penchant for rule bending got him a job at Dirt. In the second season, he has a sexual relationship with Willa.