Gina Bellman: Leverage's lovely grifter, Sophie
I knew Gina Bellman from her stint on the British comedy Coupling as the narcissistic, crazy character Jane -- a role that's worlds apart from her portrayal of the sexy, commanding grifter Sophie Deveraux on Leverage. Sophie is a confident con woman, a thief, and a virtual chameleon, affecting different mannerisms and accents in a totally convincing way. She's also the one that holds the crew together, as we discover when she takes some time away from the team in Season 2. (Promotional photo...

Leverage's Aldis Hodge plays Hardison, the expert hacker
Hardison handles the team's tech needs
Alec Hardison is the Leverage team's "tech support" -- the go-to guy for anything and everything related to technology and information retrieval. Hardison can hack his way into any system, including government records, and he provides information about the crew's targets as well as fake identities for the team. He also preps spy cameras and listening devices whenever they need evidence to put a bad guy away for good. And his bantering with the people around him -- particularly Eliot -- brings...

The criminal masterminds of Leverage
Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys
The strength of Leverage is its ensemble of unique, compelling characters. Each one has a surprising angle, from Sophie's desire to succeed as an actress to Eliot's love of cooking, Hardison's talent with violin, and Parker's budding feelings for Hardison. Most surprising may be the ringleader, Nathan Ford, a former insurance investigator who now circumvents the law in the name of helping people the system has failed. These characters have great chemistry and form more than a team: they're a...

Christian Kane plays Eliot, Leverage's lovable hitter
Eliot: the Leverage team's muscle
I liked Christian Kane on Angel as lawyer Lindsey McDonald -- but I like him even better as Eliot Spencer, the muscle for the team of con men fighting for the little guy on Leverage. The humor Christian brings to the character made Eliot stand out for me right from the start, and my affection for Eliot only grew as we began to see his protectiveness of women and his compassion for everyday people who had been cheated and wronged by everyone from big corporations to the mafia. Even though Elio...

Leverage's Beth Riesgraf plays Parker, the quirky thief
I admit, Parker seemed a tiny bit creepy to me in the Leverage pilot: she has an unhealthy obsession with money and no discernable social skills. (Of course, as a master thief, neither trait is much of a problem.) But within a few episodes, I began to notice something: Parker surprised me -- and she made me laugh. I quickly started warming up to the character and by mid-season, she was rivaling Eliot as my favorite on the show. Get to know Beth Riesgraf's character and you might find out you ...

Timothy Hutton leads Leverage
Nathan Ford brings the Leverage crew together
Right from the start, Timothy Hutton established Nathan Ford as the most complex and interesting character on Leverage. Ford is an ex-insurance investigator with a chip on his shoulder and a desire to hurt his former employer. the company that wouldn't pay for a cancer treatment that could have saved his son's life. His first attempt at revenge leads him to discover that there are people out there who need him -- including four individuals who live on the wrong side of the law. Hutton shows o...