Early 30s, single, former Venice Police Chief hand picked by Abbot Kinney and forced into early retirement by city’s merger with Los Angeles. His police career stalled by merger and racism in the LAPD, Vargas becomes a Private Detective.

Orphaned as a child and raised by Abbot Kinney, Vargas was a precocious kid - a quick learner and very smart, earning the nickname “Spanky”. He’s street smart, not afraid to get his hands dirty – or bloodied – and can easily slide between the worlds of the have’s and have not’s.

He struggles between the optimism, idealism and high moral standards his mentor Abbot Kinney espoused and the reality of life on the street. A pensive man.

Early 30s, single, co-founding member of the Temple Of Angels church. While her sister is the “voice” of the church, Mildred is the brains behind the radio ministry’s success. She’s a savvy businesswoman in an era dominated by men that frown on such things.

She’s best defined as pulchritudinous: a difficult, hard word to describe beauty. Uncomfortable with the social norms defining femininity, she’s savvy enough to use those norms to her advantage. She’s shrewd, calculating and formidable.

50s-60s, wealthy, refined and world traveled, Abbot hails from old East Coast money and has been raised at the finest boarding schools of the day. He epitomizes the rugged Yankee idealism of the day.

He is American manifest destiny personified, building the American west in his own image; that work hard, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, ethos mixed with the Puritan sense of responsibility and towards one’s fellow man.

Abbot is a man of vision as well as a man of action. While he’s inherited his fortune, he fancies himself a self made man, using that fortune to build a fantastic city by the sea to rival it’s cultural namesake in Europe.

Early 30s, mobster and bootlegger, Tony the Hat is a self made man. Uneducated and street smart, he was orphaned when his father was shot during a card game and his mother died of syphilis. He is a survivor.

He’s made a fortune bootlegging Canadian whiskey to upscale hotels and nightclubs and trafficking Chinese laborers and prostitutes.

He is a ruthless and brutal mobster that fancies himself part of the Hollywood elite. He craves legitimacy. He is a depraved wolf in the finest imported Italian silk money can buy.

Early 30s, married, Irving is a decent, hardworking and caring family man. He was a trusted confidant and friend of Abbot Kinney’s.

Disillusioned and frustrated by racism and double standards, he is angry and saddened by a world that is far from Kinney’s ideals. He helped Kinney build Venice, but is forced to literally live on the other side of the tracks, just outside of Venice in Oakwood.

He is pragmatic, entrepreneurial and down-to-earth. He is also a cautious and cynical realist.

50s, flamboyant and a bit of a rapscallion, Arthur is a proud Cajun, with the map of New Orleans seared in his soul. A natural showman, he’s breezed through life and managed to make himself a fortune along the way.

His morals are dubious, his credentials impeccable, and his charm irresistible.

Early 20s, she’s “the most famous voice in America.” She’s the co-founder of the Temple of Angels Church. She’s traveled the world, been seduced and abandoned one time too many.

Aimee is a passionate, charismatic woman, easily enticed by the allure of fame, power and wealth. She is brash and heedless, an impetuous creature of the moment.

There was a time she fervently believed the gospels. But fighting the injustice of the world has taken its toll.