Scandal Cast and Characters - Will Olivia Pope Prevail?

Scandal, on ABC, is the latest lawyer type TV show to hit our screens in 2012. It has met with some success and audiences seem open to the premise of the show.

This is no ordinary legal department. Scandal is about a group of lawyers that work for Olivia Pope as "fixers". Their job is to fix their clients problems before the problem ever gets to court. How do they do this you might be asking? Well the answer is anyway they can that their client won't object to.

Olivia Pope and Associates will negotiate, blackmail and try a number of sneaky tactics to get the outcome they are looking for. However, somehow by the end of the episode they always seem to be standing on the morale high ground.

Find out more about the Scandal cast and characters and what drives these people to crisis management.

Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope.

Everyone in Washington has heard of Olivia Pope. She was previously the Communications Director at the White House, but left to set up her own crisis management firm. Olivia left as she was having an affair with the President of the United States. She decided to put distance between them when he told her he wanted to try to work things out with his wife; only to find out he can't keep his trousers zipped up and had a fling with another aide in the White House.

Olivia is well connected in Washington and is the go to girl when people are in trouble. Nothing is too big for Olivia to deal with; be it kidnapping, extortion or problems with the law, she'll take care of it. However, you have to pass her tests for her to take you on as a client. Never lie to her as she takes no prisoners.

Olivia bases her important decisions on her gut. According to those around her, her gut is never wrong.

Kerry Washington has starred in some interesting movies. She played the sexy Nikki in I Think I Love My Wife, where she tried to tempt Chris Rock's character to cheat on his wife. She also played the wife to Ray Charles in Ray and The Last Kind of Scotland. And this isn't the first time she's worked in a legal drama. Kerry Washington had a reoccurring role on the hit legal drama Boston Legal. On top of that, she's also the face of L'oreal and appears in a number of hair ads with other well known actresses.

Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins

Quinn is lost and not really sure what she's doing. She's been hired by Olivia Pope and has been thrown in at the deep-end. She's still trying to gather her wits and figure out the lay of the land.

Although she's a lawyer, working for Olivia is a dream come true for her. However, it's not what she expected and is currently stuck doing small jobs, without being given the whole picture.

Later in the series we find out Quinn Perkins has a secret. This secret leads us to wonder just who is Quinn Perkins.

Katie Lowes has appeared in a number of TV shows, but had very few re-occurring roles until Scandal. She has appeared in The Sopranos, Ghost Whisperer, Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy.

Henry Ian Cusick as Stephen Finch.

Stephen Finch has a problem. In fact, everyone that works for Olivia has a problem. Most of them are broken, but it's most obvious with Stephen.

Stephen has struggled in the past with female relationships. He is well known for sleeping with prostitutes and generally dates much younger girls. Olivia is in the process of fixing him and is helping him tie the knot with his current girlfriend. She is very appropriate for him in terms of age and status. Olivia sees them as the perfect couple. Stephen is scared he'll mess it up and it won't work.

Henry Ian Cusick is a British actor. Most people will know him but may fail to recognise him as he has shaved off all his facial hair. Henry was actually in Lost for 5 years. He played the character Desmond Hume.

Columbus Short as Harrison Wright

Harrison Wright believes that he is slaying dragons while wearing a suit. He's all about taking the big corporate guys down, while defending the little guys.

He takes Quinn under his wing and tries to ease her into the office politics a little more gently.

Columbus Short was in The Losers, Death at a Funeral and Armoured.

Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan.

Abby works as the Private Investigator for the Associates. She goes to crime scenes, takes pictures and tries to figure out what actually happened.

Moreover, Abby also seems to have a number of issues with Stephen. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they had a past relationship, or will have a future relationship. She sends a lot of covert glances in his direction that could mean a whole host of things. Also, when she found out he was into hookers she seemed affronted.

Darby Stanchfield has been in NCIS, Mad Men and Jericho.

Guillermo Diaz as Huck

Huck is the computer genius in the group. He previously worked for the CIA, but the pressure got to him. He does seem a bit unhinged at times or withdrawn. Although relatively quiet he pays attention and picks up on the finer details. He understands the inner workings of Olivia's mind and realizes why they are all working together.

Guillermo Diaz was one of my favorite characters from Weeds. He was also in Mercy and No Ordinary Family.

Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene.

Cyrus Breene works for the President of the United States. He's on the Presidents side and does his best to manage his schedule. He only recently found out about the affair with Olivia and the aide. He is doing is best to come to terms with this revelation. He seems to know where all the bodies are kept.

Jeff Perry has cleaned up since his last popular role as drunkard Thatcher Grey in Grey's Anatomy. You might also recognize him from his short role on Prison Break and his long standing role as Inspector Harvey Leek from Nash Bridges.

Tony Goldwyn as Fitzgerald Grant, President of the United States.

The President is a cheating dirt bag. He is married and claims to love Olivia. Every time they have any kind of alone time, he can't fail to try and make a move on her. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get her to cave into her feelings and makes things progressively worse each time.

When I was watching the premiere episode of Scandal, all I could think was Tony Goldwyn looked really familiar. For some reason, I kept thinking of the guy, Carl, that kills Patrick Swayze's character in Ghost. Turns out he did play that character in Ghost. He was also in the Pelican Brief, Kiss the Girls, The Last Samurai and The Good Wife.