GTA 5 Characters: Names, Roles and How to Switch

Grand Theft Auto V tells its story through three playable leads instead of one hero: a retired bank robber, a young street hustler and a dangerous drifter from the desert. Around them is a large supporting cast of family, friends, rivals and crooked agents. This page covers every major name, what each person does in the story, their skills and voice cast, and how to switch between the three heroes on PC and console.

The three-hero setup is what made GTA 5 stand out from earlier entries in the Grand Theft Auto series. Each protagonist has his own home, money, cars, skills and signature power, and the plot jumps between them during missions and heists.

The Three Playable Protagonists

Michael De Santa

The oldest of the trio is a former bank robber who faked his death after a job in North Yankton and made a secret deal with FIB agent Dave Norton. Nine years later he lives in a Rockford Hills mansion with his family, rich but bored and unhappy. After a run-in with a cartel boss, he’s pulled back into crime and becomes the planner of the crew. His signature power slows time while aiming, which makes him the strongest shooter.

Franklin Clinton

The youngest lead grew up in South Los Santos and repossesses cars for a shady dealer, Simeon Yetarian. He wants a bigger life than street gangs, and meeting the older robber gives him the chance. He is the best driver of the three, his ability slows time behind the wheel, and he looks after a loyal Rottweiler named Chop.

Trevor Philips

Trevor is the old partner from the North Yankton days who believed his friend was dead. He lives in a filthy trailer in the desert and runs a small criminal business, Trevor Philips Enterprises, dealing in meth and guns. He is violent and unpredictable, but also the funniest person in the story and a skilled pilot. In rage mode he deals double damage and shrugs off most hits.

Friends, Family and Rivals

A big part of the fun is the wider cast. These short character profiles cover the people you’ll run into most often, grouped by the hero they’re closest to.

The De Santa family

• Amanda De Santa: the wife, who fills her days with tennis lessons, yoga and shopping, and argues constantly with her husband.
• Jimmy De Santa: the lazy son, who spends most of his time playing online shooters and getting into trouble.
• Tracey De Santa: the daughter, who dreams of being famous and tries out for a TV talent show.
• Dr. Isiah Friedlander: the expensive therapist whose sessions you can attend throughout the story.

Friends from the neighbourhood

• Lamar Davis: the best friend, loud and loyal, who keeps dragging the young driver back into gang business.
• Denise Clinton: his aunt, who shares the small house on Forum Drive at the start of the story.
• Stretch: a gang member fresh out of prison who turns out to be a dangerous enemy.
• Tanisha Jackson: his ex-girlfriend, who wants him to leave the street life behind.
• Simeon Yetarian: the dishonest car dealer who gives him his first job.

The desert crowd

• Ron Jakowski: a nervous conspiracy theorist who handles the business side of the company.
• Wade Hebert: a simple, good-natured drifter who follows the boss everywhere.
• Floyd Hebert: Wade’s unlucky cousin, whose apartment gets taken over.
• Patricia Madrazo: the cartel boss’s wife, who forms an unlikely friendship with her kidnapper.

Lester Crest and the heist crew

Lester Crest is the brilliant but reclusive hacker who plans the biggest jobs in the story. Before each heist you also hire specialists, and their skills improve every time they survive a job:

• Gunmen: Packie McReary, Gustavo Mota, Chef, Karl Abolaji, Norm Richards, Daryl Johns and Hugh Welsh.
• Drivers: Karim Denz, Eddie Toh and Taliana Martinez.
• Hackers: Paige Harris, Christian Feltz and Rickie Lukens.

Villains and Government Agents

The three robbers spend most of the story being used by people more powerful than they are.

• Steve Haines: a corrupt FIB agent who forces the crew to do his dirty work while starring in his own TV show.
• Dave Norton: the FIB agent who protects the old witness-protection deal, caught between loyalty and his career.
• Devin Weston: an arrogant billionaire who hires the crew and then refuses to pay.
• Martin Madrazo: a cartel boss who demands payment after his mistress’s house is pulled down early in the story.
• Wei Cheng: leader of a triad gang that clashes with the desert gunrunner.
• Don Percival: head of the Merryweather private military company.

How the Trio Works Together in the Heists

In GTA 5, the heists are where the three-hero design shines. Lester plans each job, you choose an approach and a crew, and during the mission you switch between the leads as each one handles a different task: one drives, one covers from a rooftop, one flies the helicopter. The main heists are:

• The Jewel Store Job: the first heist, a raid on the Vangelico jewellery store.
• The Merryweather Heist: stealing valuable cargo from the private military company.
• Blitz Play: an ambush on an armoured security truck downtown.
• The Paleto Score: robbing the small bank in Paleto Bay, ending in a famous shootout with the army.
• The Bureau Raid: breaking into the FIB headquarters to steal sensitive files.
• The Big Score: the final job, a huge gold robbery from the Union Depository.

Most heists offer a choice between a quiet approach and a loud one, and the crew members you hire change the result. A skilled driver or hacker costs more but keeps more of the take safe, while a cheap gunman may get killed and lose part of the money. Playing the game twice with different choices is a good way to see every version of these missions.

Backstory: How It All Began

The game opens in 2004 with a botched robbery in the snowy town of Ludendorff, North Yankton. Michael and Trevor are part of a crew with a third partner, Brad Snider. The job goes wrong, and the older robber is believed dead while Trevor escapes. In reality, the “dead” robber has made a deal with the FIB and quietly moved west with his family under a new name.

The main story jumps nine years ahead to 2013. When Franklin crosses paths with his future mentor during a car repossession, the two start working together. Trevor sees a news report about one of their robberies, recognises his old partner’s style and drives to the city to find him. The tension between the two old friends, and the truth about what happened in North Yankton, drives much of the plot from there.

Skills, Stats and Side Activities

Every GTA protagonist in this story has the same eight skills: special, stamina, shooting, strength, stealth, flying, driving and lung capacity. Each starts at a different level, which shapes how the three feel to play in the game. The robber starts with strong shooting, the getaway driver with the best driving, and the desert criminal with the best flying.

Skills go up through practice. Driving fast or completing stunt jumps improves driving, the shooting range improves shooting, and flight school lessons improve flying. Running, swimming and cycling build stamina and lung capacity.

The three GTA V heroes also have their own side activities. The oldest has therapy sessions and yoga, the youngest can take Chop for walks or help Tonya with towing jobs, and Trevor has rampage missions and bail bond jobs for Maude Eccles. There are also “Strangers and Freaks” missions with odd characters such as Barry, Mary-Ann Quinn and the paparazzo Beverly Felton.

How to Switch Characters

Switching is done through the character wheel, which shows all three heroes plus your online character. Every playable character in the story mode of GTA 5 can be reached this way once he is unlocked.

1. On PC: keep Left Alt down to open the wheel, move the mouse or arrow keys to highlight a hero, then let go of Alt. Shortcut keys F5, F6 and F7 select each lead directly, and F8 switches to the online mode.
2. On PlayStation and Xbox: keep the down direction pushed on the directional pad, pick a hero with the right stick, then release the button.

This works the same in the Enhanced and Legacy editions of the game on PC. The wheel is disabled when you have a wanted level, during most missions and side activities, and before a hero is unlocked in the story. Lose the police, finish the activity or move away from a mission marker, then try again.

When you switch in free roam, the others carry on with their own lives, so you might find the desert criminal waking up somewhere strange or the young driver out walking his dog. Each hero also starts in a different part of the GTA 5 map, which makes switching the fastest way to travel between the city and the countryside.

Voice Cast

Rockstar cast relatively unknown performers for the leads, and their voice acting and motion capture are a big reason the trio feels real. Each performer also acted out the body movements on set, so the facial expressions, walks and fights you see in the game come from the same person you hear.

• Ned Luke plays the retired robber.
• Shawn Fonteno plays the young repo man.
• Steven Ogg plays the desert criminal.
• Slink Johnson plays Lamar, and Jay Klaitz plays Lester.

The casting paid off. Shawn Fonteno is the real-life cousin of Young Maylay, the actor who voiced Carl Johnson in GTA San Andreas, which gives Franklin a nice link to the series’ past. As an actor, Steven Ogg went on to TV roles in The Walking Dead and Westworld, and Ned Luke became a fan favourite at conventions. Fans of the game still quote lines from all three, more than a decade after the game came out.

The story itself pokes fun at the entertainment industry, from reality TV to film studios, so many side characters satirise celebrities, producers and influencers. Michael’s work with movie producer Solomon Richards is a good example: one of the GTA heroes ends up helping to make a film in Los Santos.

If you only remember a few names from this characters guide, make them the three leads, Lester and Lamar. They are the characters GTA fans talk about most, and you’ll spend the most time with them. Michael and Franklin also share some of the best car rides in the series. There are no cheats that change which hero you play; the wheel is the only way to switch.

The Leads in GTA Online

In GTA Online you create your own character instead of playing as one of the three GTA 5 leads, with up to two character slots per account. Many story faces, including Lester, Lamar, Simeon and Ron, appear as contacts who give you jobs. The youngest hero returns as a grown-up businessman in The Contract update from 2021, working alongside Lamar.

Which Hero Should You Play, and Who Survives?

Pick Michael for shootouts and planned missions, Franklin for street races and car chases, and Trevor for flying, off-road driving and chaos in the desert. At the end of the story you make a choice that decides the fate of the three leads. Two endings cost one of them his life, while the third, known as “Deathwish”, keeps all three alive. If you want to keep playing with every hero after the credits, Deathwish is the ending to pick.

Frequently Asked Questions

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