List of Sleeper Cell characters

The following are a list of descriptions for characters on the Showtime television series "Sleeper Cell".

Main characters

Darwyn al-Sayeed

Darwyn al-Sayeed (played by Michael Ealy) is the protagonist of "Sleeper Cell". An African-American Muslim FBI agent, Darwyn was assigned to infiltrate an Islamist terrorist sleeper cell.

Faris al-Farik

Saad bin Safwan (played by Oded Fehr) is the charismatic leader of the terrorist cell. Though his real name is Saad, he is more well-known as Faris al-Farik (the "deadly knight"), one of his aliases.

Ilija Korjenić

Ilija Korjenić (played by Henri Lubatti) is a Bosnian who became a terrorist after his entire family was killed in the Bosnian Genocide. He is the cell's resident math and science expert and Farik's right-hand man.

Gayle Bishop

Gayle Bishop (played by Melissa Sagemiller) is a single mom who falls in love with Darwyn. She has a four year old son named Marcus.

First season characters

Christian Aumont

Christian Aumont (played by Alex Nesic) is a former skinhead from Paris who converted to Islam after falling in love with a Moroccan Muslim.

Tommy Emerson

Thomas "Tommy" Allen Emerson (played by Blake Shields) is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed son of two liberal college professors from Berkeley, California. A Muslim convert, he may be inspired by John Walker Lindh.

Ray Fuller

Ray Fuller (played by James LeGros) is an FBI agent and Darwyn's supervisor.

Patrice Serxner

Patrice Serxner (played by Sonya Walger) is the FBI agent who takes over Fuller's position after he is killed.

econd season characters

alim

Salim (played by Omid Abtahi) is a young Iraqi-born Muslim who was brought up in the UK after his family left Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. After being sent to an Islamic boarding school when his parents found out he was gay, he found his way to militant extremism. The combination of his homosexuality and his Islamic fundamentalism have made him self-loathing and violent. He is the cell's resident engineer.

Mina

Mina (played by Thekla Reuten) is a Dutch woman and former prostitute who converted to Islam after falling in love with and marrying an Islamic Extremist man. When the two went to Iraq to join the insurgency, he was killed by American forces while she survived, although miscarrying their child in the process. In America, she serves as a nanny to a family, taking care of their two children. She is the cell's explosives and demolitions expert.

Benito Velasquez

Benito 'Benny' Velasquez (played by Kevin Alejandro) is a Latino gang member who converted to Islam and befriended Darwyn while in prison. His gang connections make him valuable to the cell.

Warren Russell

Warren Russell (played by Jay R. Ferguson) is Darwyn's latest supervisor, who replaces Serxner after she is killed in Sudan. Young and inexperienced, he got the job only because his uncle is a powerful Deputy Director of the FBI, and his incompetence causes him to clash with Darwyn.

upporting characters

Bobby Habib

Abdullah "Bobby" Habib (played by Grant Heslov) was a member of the original Los Angeles sleeper cell and Gayle's next-door neighbor. Farik had the other terrorists stone him to death because he had talked about their plans to an uncle, putting them in danger as someone else could have overheard. Darwyn ultimately shot him in the head as a mercy killing to save him from being killed by the stoning. Because Habib had still been loyal, Farik made sure his family was looked after.

The Librarian

The Librarian (played by Albert Hall) is a "lifer" in prison where he preaches radical Islam to fellow inmates, preparing them to join terrorist groups upon their release. He was responsible for recruiting both Darwyn and Benny.

Eddy Pangetsu

Eddy Pangetsu (played by Jeff Mallare) is an Indonesian-American biochemical student at USC who moved to America when he was young. He reluctantly helps Farik's operations but refuses to get directly involved. Farik orders him to drive a shipment of anthrax from Canada to America. FBI agents capture the anthrax and claim that it had been on its way to Indonesia. Farik kills Eddy, believing that Eddy tried to steal the anthrax.

Zayd Abdal Malik

Zayd Abdal Malik (played by Marc Casabani) is a sheikh and a Koran scholar from Yemen. A moderate Muslim, Malik believes that Islamic extremists have hijacked his religion for their political agenda. He often debates captured terrorists in prisons on the Koran, hoping to convert them. Because of this, many extremists consider him an apostate. He travels to America to deliver a fatwa denouncing all terrorism done in the name of Islam but before he can, he is assassinated by Christian.

Jamal

Jamal (played by Jerrith J. Merz) is an imprisoned Islamic extremist who first appeared at the beginning of the episode "Scholar". He is visited by Zayd Abdal Malik, who challenges him to a debate between their two views on the Koran. Malik says that if Jamal can prove that the Koran supports the actions of the extremists, then Malik will join their cause. But if Malik can prove that the Koran forbids terrorism, then Jamal must renounce his extremist ways. After Malik's death, Jamal takes over his work of debating captured extremists.

Ken Walls

Ken Walls (played by John Siciliano) is a former mujahid who fought in Bosnia, earning him Ilija's respect. He trains mujahideen in an undercover facility in Los Angeles and sends them to join the Iraqi insurgency. Farik wants to use Ken's sophisticated facility as his base of operations. Ken refuses because, while he has no problem fighting the American military, he refuses to kill civilians. He is killed when he attempts to destroy his facility. The cell members give him a proper burial.

Khashul

Khashul (played by Luis Chavez) is a young man from Afghanistan. When the United States offered rewards for information on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Khashul's family was accused by a personal enemy. Khashul was sent to Gitmo but managed to escape and return home. His farm and family gone, Khashul is taken in by his sheik who teaches him to hate America. Khashul goes to Ken Walls' facility, now run by the cell, hoping to join the insurgency in Iraq. Darwyn looks after him, hoping to convert him to moderate Islam and help him escape. However, the FBI finds out about Khashul, who they see only as an escaped prisoner. Khashul is killed in his attempted escape.

Carli

Carli (played by Angela Gots) is Ilija's American girlfriend. She is strongly anti-American and believes that the government was behind the September 11th attacks. After the failed attack at the end of Season 1, Ilija escapes to Canada and brings Carli with him. When Ilija seeks to leave Canada, he reluctantly kills Carli to tie up loose ends. Ilija is greatly angered when the terrorists offer him a position in Canada.

Hassani

Hassani is an out-of-work arms dealer turned halal butcher. He obtains a missile launcher for the cell through his son, who is in the United States Marine Corps. However, due to Warren Russell's meddling, the missile launcher he gives the cell is defective. Salim calls Hassani a thief and, in accordance with sharia law, cuts off his hand. Hassani bleeds to death.

Erskine

Erskine (played by Patrick St. Esprit) is the "bad cop" of Farik's interrogators. He is very violent and not afraid to mock Islam mercilessly. In turn, Farik gives him sarcastic answers to his questions. Later, Erskine helps Darwyn and Samia get past airport security on their way to meet Farik.

Bob

Bob (played by Chris Mulkey) is one of the CIA interrogators who questions Farik at Gitmo. As a child, he died in an accident and was revived a few minutes later. Because he saw no afterlife while he was dead, Bob rejected his family's strict Christianity and became an atheist. He is killed in Saudi Arabia during Farik's rescue.

Al-Hajjaj

Al-Hajjaj is the nickname of the Saudi Arabian interrogator who tortures Farik. He is named after Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef who, according to him, was very brutal but saved Islam from the extremists. He is killed during Farik's rescue.

amia

Samia (played by Susan Pari) is Farik's wife.

Khalid

Khalid (played by Aasif Mandvi) was the leader of the second Los Angeles sleeper cell. Darwyn killed him when he discovered Darwyn was a law enforcement agent.

Jason

Jason (played by Michael Rady) is a gay man who Salim starts a relationship with after the two meet in a health club.

Asma

Asma (played by Jasmine Di Angelo) is Farik and Samia's daughter.

Karrar

Karrar (played by Saïd Taghmaoui) is a Muslim terrorist who Farik has replace Darwyn as the new leader of the second Los Angeles sleeper cell. When the cell's attack starts, Darwyn reveals that he's a member of the FBI and tells Karrar to surrender. Calling him a hypocrite, Karrar tries killing Darwyn. When Darwyn manages to subdue him, Karrar tries to get Darwyn to kill him by revealing how he was involved in Serxner's death, but Darwyn refuses to.