List of Succession characters
The following is a list of characters who appear in Succession, an American satirical comedy-drama television series created by Jesse Armstrong centering on a super-rich and dysfunctional family who own a global media conglomerate.
Cast timeline
; Key; Notes
Roy family members
Logan Roy
Logan Roy is the billionaire founder of media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar RoyCo. He is a brash leader whose primary focus was his company rather than his four children Connor, Kendall, Roman and Siobhan.Logan was born in 1938, to abject poverty in Dundee, Scotland. His mother Helen died when he was four years old, and he and his elder brother Ewan fled Dundee shortly afterwards during World War II in a convoy traveling to Canada. The two were then raised in Quebec by their aunt and uncle, who sent Logan to boarding school, during which Logan and Ewan's infant sister Rose was brought to Canada. Logan detested boarding school and eventually returned home; Rose died of polio shortly afterwards, which Logan's aunt and uncle blamed on him - Logan continued to carry the guilt into his adulthood. Logan's uncle Noah subjected him to vicious physical abuse throughout his childhood. In his adulthood, Logan used money bequeathed to him by his father to buy an advertising business, which formed the seed for the family holding company he started with Ewan. He then bought out Ewan's shares in the company and purchased the Waystar newspaper in 1967, going on to grow his company into a global media and entertainment empire under the name Waystar RoyCo. His leadership of the company estranged him from Ewan, who despises his politics.
Logan has a son, Connor, with his first wife, and three children with his second wife, Caroline. While married to Caroline, he had a passionate affair with a woman named Sally-Anne; eventually, he divorced Caroline and went on to meet his third wife, Marcia. Logan is shown to have been emotionally withdrawn and abusive to his children to varying degrees throughout their upbringing, leading all of them to continue clamoring for his approval as adults. As a business leader, Logan is shown to be extraordinarily shrewd, ruthless and well-connected; he holds significant influence over the sitting President of the United States, who won election in large part due to support from Waystar's right-leaning news network, ATN.
Across the series, Logan serves as the domineering patriarch and long-serving CEO of Waystar, repeatedly manipulating succession plans to retain control. At the outset, he shocks his family by refusing to step aside on his 80th birthday before suffering a stroke, after which he recovers and aggressively reasserts authority, thwarting Kendall’s attempted vote of no confidence and later neutralizing a hostile takeover by Stewy Hosseini and Sandy Furness through coercion and leverage, including covering up Kendall’s role in a fatal car accident. As pressures mount from declining legacy media, shareholder unrest, and the exposure of systemic sexual abuse within Waystar’s cruise division, Logan resists relinquishing power, instead attempting to acquire Pierce Global Media, and ultimately has Kendall take the fall for the cruises scandal, only for Kendall to publicly implicate Logan at a press conference. Logan weathers the scandal through legal settlements, and later accepts a sale of Waystar to streaming giant GoJo without his children’s consent, stripping them of their voting power with the help of Caroline. Estranged from his children and preparing to finalize the deal, Logan dies suddenly of a pulmonary embolism while flying to renegotiate terms in Sweden. After his death, an ambiguous succession document naming Kendall is discovered. Logan appears posthumously through recorded messages.
Connor Roy
Connor Roy is the eldest son of Logan's first marriage. Prone to delusions of grandeur, Connor is mostly removed from corporate affairs, residing at a ranch in New Mexico with his young girlfriend Willa, a former call girl, and deferring to his siblings on most firm-related matters. In season 2, he announces his bid for President of the United States, running as an independent candidate.In the first season, Connor divides his time between New York and Austerlitz following Logan’s stroke. He lives with Willa, whom he financially supports while she pursues a career as a playwright. After Kendall’s failed vote of no confidence against Logan, the family gathers at Austerlitz for a staged therapy retreat that quickly collapses. Connor later persuades Willa to move to the ranch full-time. During Shiv’s wedding, Connor announces his intention to run for President of the United States as a libertarian candidate.
In the second season, Connor relocates to New York with Willa, establishing a base for his presidential campaign while Willa produces her play. His anti-tax platform alarms the family, who fear it could interfere with Waystar’s political relationships. Shiv attempts unsuccessfully to dissuade him from running. After Willa’s play fails critically and commercially, Connor faces severe financial losses and asks Logan for a $100 million loan; Logan agrees on the condition that Connor suspend his campaign.
In the third season, Connor reacts to Kendall’s public denunciation of Logan by acknowledging the family’s complicity in the cruises scandal, though he remains aligned with Logan. He postpones his presidential ambitions and seeks a role at Waystar to bolster his credibility. When the sitting president declines to run for reelection, Connor briefly attempts to revive his campaign but fails to secure donor or family support. At Caroline’s wedding in Tuscany, Connor proposes to Willa, who accepts after recognizing his vulnerability following Logan’s decision to sell Waystar to GoJo.
In the fourth season, Connor and Willa marry aboard a yacht in New York on the same day Logan dies en route to Sweden. After receiving the news from Tom, Connor proceeds with a small ceremony and later purchases Logan’s apartment from Marcia, taking responsibility for organizing the funeral. As the election concludes, Connor concedes the race to Jeryd Mencken in exchange for a promised ambassadorship to Slovenia.
Kendall Roy
Kendall Logan Roy is the second son of Logan from his second marriage. The presumed successor to Logan, Kendall struggles to prove his worth to his father amid bungling major deals and battling with substance abuse, as well as toiling to maintain a relationship with his estranged wife Rava, his siblings, and his children.Kendall studied at the Buckley School, then both Harvard and Columbia University, which he attended alongside his best friend Stewy Hosseini. He also spent time in Shanghai learning the fundamentals of the family business. With his wife, Rava, he has an adopted daughter, Sophie, and a son, Iverson. Kendall's substance-abuse issues eventually led to the breakdown of his marriage, and he went on to spend months in rehab before the start of the series. Throughout the series, Kendall is shown to be well-versed in business principles but emotionally insecure and lacking in authenticity and people-skills. He is an avid lover of hip hop and a strong believer in the technology industry and new media.
Kendall begins the series as the presumed successor to his father but is immediately destabilized when Logan announces he will remain CEO. Kendall negotiates Waystar’s acquisition of online news startup Vaulter and, after Logan’s stroke, serves as acting CEO while secretly relying on financing from Stewy, who is secretly aligned with Sandy Furness. When Logan returns and fires him following a failed vote of no confidence, Kendall relapses and conspires with Stewy and Sandy on a hostile takeover, which collapses after an intoxicated Kendall gets involved in a car accident at Shiv's wedding that kills a waiter; Logan covers up the incident to force Kendall's withdrawal from the takeover. Traumatized, Kendall becomes loyal to Logan, helping dismantle Vaulter and facilitating Logan's attempted acquisition of left-leaning news conglomerate Pierce Global Media. Amid a scandal involving historic sexual abuse on Waystar's cruise line, Logan has Kendall take the blame for the cover-up to appease shareholders, only for Kendall to reverse course at a press conference and publicly implicate Logan. His ensuing campaign against the company falters amid legal settlements and his own erratic behavior. After being rebuffed from a buyout by Logan, Kendall attempts suicide while at his mother's wedding in Italy, later confessing his role in the accident to his siblings. When Logan secretly sells Waystar to GoJo, Kendall joins Shiv and Roman in a failed attempt to veto the deal. Following Logan’s death, an ambiguous document naming Kendall as successor leads him to serve as co-CEO with Roman and attempt to block GoJo’s acquisition under Lukas Matsson, including delivering a high-profile investor presentation and attempting regulatory maneuvers. Despite briefly uniting with his siblings to install himself as CEO, Kendall loses the deciding board vote when Shiv defects, enabling the sale and Tom Wambsgans’s appointment as CEO, leaving Kendall without a purpose.
Roman Roy
Roman Roy is Logan's third and youngest son. Roman frequently seeks Logan’s approval, which contributes to strained relationships with his siblings Kendall and Shiv and affects his standing within Waystar. Although shown to possess sharp instincts and occasional business acumen, Roman often undermines himself through his immaturity and avoidance of responsibility. As a child, he was physically abused by Logan often humiliated by his siblings, experiences that recur in his adult behavior and personal relationships. Prior to the series, Roman performed poorly while running Waystar’s film studio in Los Angeles, with Frank assigned to oversee him.After Logan suffers a stroke during his 80th birthday, Roman is appointed COO under Kendall’s interim tenure as CEO. He largely neglects his responsibilities, and his girlfriend Grace ends their relationship. When Kendall attempts a vote of no confidence against Logan, Roman initially agrees to support it but withdraws after Logan confronts him, contributing to the vote’s failure. Logan fires Kendall, retains Roman as COO, and assigns him oversight of a satellite launch. Roman pressures the team to proceed despite safety concerns so the launch can coincide with Shiv’s wedding; the rocket explodes on the launchpad, injuring several workers but killing no one.
Following a hostile takeover bid by Stewy Hosseini and Sandy Furness, Roman and Kendall are named co-COOs. Roman resents the arrangement and, at Gerri Kellman’s suggestion, enrolls in Waystar’s management training program. He develops a close professional relationship with Gerri and increasingly defers to her judgment, and the two develop an unexpected sexual dynamic involving verbal humiliation. During the cruises scandal, Roman attempts to secure funding from Azerbaijani aristocrat Eduard Asgarov. While negotiating in Turkey, Roman, Karl and Laird are briefly held hostage by anti-corruption militia. After returning, Roman advises Logan that the proposed investment is likely illegitimate.
After Kendall publicly accuses Logan of overseeing the cruises cover-up, Logan temporarily steps back and Gerri is appointed acting CEO, a decision Roman supports. Roman remains loyal to Logan despite Kendall’s overtures and gains favor by backing far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken and helping initiate talks with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson. He later damages his standing by accidentally sending Logan an explicit photo meant for Gerri, who distances herself from him, and loses influence as Matsson proposes a full acquisition of Waystar. Roman joins Kendall and Shiv in attempting to block the sale, but Logan neutralizes them by renegotiating his divorce settlement to strip their voting rights.
Six months later, the siblings are estranged from Logan, and pursue an independent media venture, which they abandon after outbidding Logan for Pierce Global Media. Roman and his siblings plan to use the Pierce acquisition to force a higher GoJo offer, but Logan dies en route to meeting Matsson in Sweden. A draft succession document found in Logan's estate leads Roman to serve as co-CEO with Kendall, and the brothers attempt to undermine the GoJo deal. Increasingly insecure, Roman fires Waystar entertainment head Joy Palmer as well as Gerri after they question his authority. On election night, he pressures ATN to call the race for Mencken in exchange for regulatory support against GoJo, despite unresolved vote counts. Roman later breaks down while attempting to deliver Logan’s eulogy, and after Mencken abandons him in favor of Shiv’s alliance with Matsson, an ashamed Roman provokes an assault by protesters. Subsequently, Roman initially supports Kendall for CEO but turns against him Kendall claims he lied about his role in the fatal car accident at Shiv's wedding. Roman ultimately votes to approve the GoJo acquisition and is last seen alone in a bar, finally free of the fight for control of Waystar.