The Best ‘Oz’ Characters, Ranked (2024)

It can be a good deal of fun to rank certain main characters from acclaimed TV shows based on how likable they are, but that's difficult to do with a show like Oz, which ran for six seasons between 1997 and 2003. Certain characters may have some likable qualities here, but this HBO drama is undeniably dark, even by the production company's standards, and takes place in a violent setting where most characters do terrible things. Sometimes, these actions are out of necessity, and sometimes because the people doing them are genuinely evil.

Oz's setting was the Oswald State Correctional Facility, a high-security prison, with the show following the lives of the (oftentimes brutal) prisoners who were being held there, as well as various staff who worked at the prison. It was a show with a high mortality rate, and dozens upon dozens of characters, though only 10 were credited as being part of the main cast. Those characters are roughly ranked below not necessarily by likability, but by how memorable they were and how compelling their seasons-long arcs were. Order aside, it can't be denied that these are all good characters played by a talented cast, with Oz's confined setting meaning that it's the kind of show that lives or dies based on how good its characters are.

10 Miguel Alvarez

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Miguel Alvarez was a supporting cast member during Oz's first season, and then became a member of the main cast for the next five seasons. He's a key member of the prison facility's Latino gang, one of several factions within the prison, with these various groups frequently clashing throughout the series.

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Alvarez is a complex and interesting character, but perhaps not quite to the extent of other main characters in the show. His arc is a fairly simple and downbeat one, with him often going in and out of solitary confinement, and ending the series alive, sure, but an entirely broken man. He blends into the background a little sometimes, but does play his part in this show, filled with other flawed and sometimes unusual characters.

9 Ryan O'Reily

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Ryan O'Reily's in the same position as Alvarez, when it comes to his status as a main cast member. He was a supporting character in season 1 and a main character from seasons 2 to 6, and is most memorable for the bond he had with his brother, Cyril O'Reily, who also ended up being a key part of the show between seasons 2 and 6.

He's cunning and mostly looks out for himself, usually protecting his brother but occasionally exploiting him. He certainly has value as one of the show's most pervasive wild cards, but his chaotic and inconsistent series-long arc does make him feel a little less memorable than some other key characters.

8 Tim McManus

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Oz isn't just about the prisoners, as a main character like Tim McManus demonstrates. He's effectively the manager of the Oswald State Correctional Facility, and generally tries to be more empathetic (or arguably softer) than various other staff who work within the prison, sometimes with unforeseen consequences following.

His insistence on rehabilitation over punishment is admirable, though the frequent violence and chaos seen throughout Oz does suggest he might not always be doing the best job, or actualizing his lofty ambitions. He appears in all but one episode as a member of the main cast, and is one of the more interesting non-prisoner characters on the show.

7 Simon Adebisi

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Some years before he played a character who quite abruptly left the TV show Lost prematurely, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje also played Simon Adebisi, an Oz character whose departure from the show felt sudden. Adebisi was a guest star in season 1, a supporting character in season 2, and then became a member of the main cast in seasons 3 and 4.

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It works for the show, given Oz is one where no one is safe, but it's still a pity that such a memorably intimidating character didn't last a little longer, and it's the only factor that holds Adebisi back from being one of the very best characters on the show. While appearing in Oz, he's one of its most fascinating and terrifying characters, and continually becomes more violent and psychotic from season to season, until he's written off the show.

6 Leo Glynn

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Standing as one of the few characters to appear in every episode of Oz, Leo Glynn is a staple of its main cast, and arguably the most significant non-prisoner character on the show. It's fitting, given he's the Oswald State Correctional Facility's warden, and oversees the prison and its huge, frequently dying population.

He's played well by Ernie Hudson in what might be the actor's best-known non-Ghostbusters role. He's a more complex and interesting staff character than Tim McManus, with their different approaches to running aspects of the prison and views on punishment vs. rehabilitation being engaging sources of conflict throughout the show's six seasons.

5 Kareem Saïd

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Kareem Saïd is Oz's most prominent Muslin character, and is in charge of that particular group/gang within the prison. Calling them a gang feels a little off, given they're not quite as likely to engage in conflict as the other factions, like the Latino or Aryan gangs, but by no means do they sit out all violent conflicts throughout the show.

Saïd stands out for being one of the most peaceful and non-violent characters in Oz, with his one kill - done in self-defense - shown to trouble him deeply over the course of multiple episodes. He's certainly one of Oz's most compelling and interesting cast members, and one of the few prisoner characters to be a member of the main cast throughout all six seasons.

4 Sister Peter Marie Reimondo

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Sister Peter Marie Reimondo is arguably the best of all the non-prisoner characters in Oz, and is the only female character who appears in the show's main cast. This makes sense, to some extent, given the prison population is male, and most of the staff members are male, too, considering the way many of the prisoners have been known to treat women before their imprisonment.

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She's played by Rita Moreno, who's had a long and accomplished career that dates back to the 1940s, and includes an Oscar win for her role in the crime/musical/romance film that was 1961's West Side Story. She's also fantastic in Oz, standing out not only for being one of its few female characters, but also for being one of the few genuinely good (for the most part) characters on the show, working at the prison as a drug counselor and psychologist, and doing her best to help people in often hopeless situations.

3 Augustus Hill

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Oz was a show that got a little weirder and more experimental in its later seasons, but even early on, it wasn't without its quirks. This is established from the start with the character of Augustus Hill, who is both a character within the show and its narrator, interacting with characters when being the former, and breaking the fourth wall when serving as the latter.

His involvement in the show gives Oz a ton of personality, and his genuine decency compared to most other prisoners makes him likable, compelling, and sometimes sympathetic. He's consistently a great part of the show, and deserves to be considered one of its best characters.

2 Tobias Beecher

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With a huge cast and multiple storylines going on at any given time, Oz doesn't have as clear a main character as some other TV dramas, though Tobias Beecher is the closest thing it has to a protagonist. He's in the show from the first episode to the finale, and stands out for being less extreme than his fellow prisoners, given it was a vehicular manslaughter charge that put him there, rather than a more malicious/vile crime.

He's sympathetic and often targeted by more violent prisoners, though becomes more intimidating and hardened as the show goes on. Seeing him gradually yet surely change over six seasons is very compelling, and gives him undeniably one of the show's best character arcs.

1 Vernon Schillinger

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Some years before terrifying movie fans with his Oscar-winning performance in 2014's Whiplash, J.K. Simmons cemented himself as an actor to be reckoned with from his role in Oz. He plays the show's most vile yet fascinating character, Vernon Schillinger, the leader of the prison's Aryan gang and debatably Oz's most fearsome inmate.

Schillinger is an absolute monster, responsible for horrific acts both outside and inside the prison, and serving as the show's closest thing to a main antagonist. His clashes with Beecher give the show its most compelling drama throughout, and for better or worse, his personality coupled with Simmons's great performance make him Oz's most hard-to-forget character.

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The Best ‘Oz’ Characters, Ranked (2024)

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