The rich and powerful, they take what they want. We steal it back for you.

And
sometimes, bad guys make the best good guys. We provide... leverage.

Timothy Hutton stars as Nate Ford, an insurance investigator known for his ability
to recover stolen goods for his employer. However, after the firm denies insurance
claims for his dying son, Ford decides to go against the corporate world taking
freelance jobs. Ford is soon hired by an aeronautics executive in order to recover
stolen designs. He enlists the help of the best thieves and grifters in the
business, and with their help, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor to
help balance the crooks in high power positions. He and his team help
provide...leverage. Helping Ford are Parker (Beth Riesgraf), a thief; Alec Hardison
(Aldis Hodge), an Internet specialist; Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), a "retrieval
specialist" and martial artist; and Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a grifter
whose acting skills play an important part in setting up difficult scams. Together,
this group of con artists have the ability to target the greediest and most unjust
people.

Main cast

Timothy Hutton as Nathan "Nate" Ford ("The Mastermind" or "The Brains" in the
opening credits of later seasons): A former insurance fraud investigator for IYS
Insurance operated by Ian Blackpoole and the team's mastermind. The son of South
Boston numbers runner Jimmy Ford,[14] Nate originally intended to become a Catholic
priest prior to becoming an insurance investigator. While Ford was working for IYS,
Blackpoole decided on a policy of denying every medical treatment especially those
experimental (Blackpoole claimed the policy was implemented to cut costs, but in
fact to turn a bigger profit), his young son Sam became fatally ill and IYS refused
to pay for an experimental procedure, resulting in his death. The aftermath led to
Nate's divorce from his wife Maggie, his subsequent dismissal from the company and
his descent into alcoholism. Ford swore vengeance on Blackpoole and IYS which would
come to pass years later. After meeting the team for the first time and running a
con against their first mark, instead of disbanding as intended, Nate is asked to
continue working with them and is given the privilege of leading the team and
selecting what clients the team will help. A skilled planner, Nate draws on his
experience as an insurance investigator to anticipate the moves of his team's
marks. Nate is at first very affable, but is unwilling to discuss his own problems
with friends or others. His tendency to change objectives in the middle of a job,
his alcoholism, and his often-tenuous relationship with his team has on occasion
put the client and the team at risk. Since moving to Portland, he and Sophie are
now an established couple, but he is working on a project with Hardison's help
which is being kept secret from the other team members and only revealed to them
and the audience in the series finale as "the Holy Grail" of all scores.

Gina Bellman as Sophie Devereaux ("The Grifter"): British actress and

accomplished grifter with a taste for art theft. Multi-lingual and particularly
adept at the use of accents, Sophie is seen to portray many characters in various
cons, usually making direct contact with a mark to draw them into the con. Sophie
has a collection of aliases, which includes "Sophie Devereaux", but her real name
remains unknown. Comically, her attempts to make a career as an actress lead to
nothing but failure, as she proves woefully untalented and over-the-top onstage. It
is only during a con when she can disappear effortlessly into a character, where
ironically she can actually act well if she is pretending to be an actress. She has
a long history with Nate, dating back at least ten years to when he pursued her
with IYS as an art thief. At some point, they recognized an attraction to one
another, leaving Sophie alternately frustrated, angry, and disappointed. They have
on occasion tried to further the relationship, but for various reasons one or the
other resisted. Nate asks Sophie (using her real first name) to marry him in the
series finale, and she accepts.

Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison ("The Hacker"): The team's computer specialist and
hacker. He is a self-proclaimed geek and science fiction fan, with an easy going
manner and dry, unusual wit. Hardison was raised by a foster parent, an older woman
he refers to as "Nana". Hardison can hack into most forms of electronics and is
rarely caught. Hardison designed and assembled the computer and television systems
in the team's headquarters, and is responsible for the two-way earpieces used by
the team on each episode. He is also very attached to his electronics (and in
particular his van) and shown to become very depressed when the con takes a turn
for the worse and requires they destroy his electronics to make their escape.
Hardison and Parker's relationship develops into a romantic one as time goes on but
it is fraught with personal (and physical) complications.

Christian Kane as Eliot Spencer ("The Hitter"): The team's highly skilled
martial artist, weapons expert and self-described "retrieval expert". A former
black ops soldier, his role in cons is often to play small roles while protecting
the team, often leading him into hand-to-hand combat that draws on his martial arts
skills. Eliot once worked for crime financier Damien Moreau, and has a long history
as a hired gun and bodyguard, then a retrieval specialist. Eliot is skilled with
firearms, but dislikes guns. While merely presumed as the muscleman, he
demonstrates a subtle intelligence in conversation, often taking advantage of the
underestimations of others and later in the series performs as a grifter along with
Sophie. In contrast to the other characters Eliot prefers to keep his romantic life
private, as well as much of his background. Over the course of the series, he
displays an extraordinary talent for cooking, and is now in charge of the kitchen
of the microbrewery in Portland where the team has set up headquarters (despite
clashes on the subject of food with Hardison).

Beth Riesgraf as Parker ("The Thief"): An expert thief, cat-burglar, pickpocket

and safe-cracker. The product of an abusive childhood spent in several foster
homes, Parker is socially awkward and relates poorly to most people but has come to
regard the other members of the team as her family. Sophie (and in Season 5 Elliot)
has attempted to improve gaps in her social skills on numerous occasions with
limited success. Parker also has affection for Hardison, but finds it hard to
convey what she feels when confronted by others. While emotionally impulsive, she
can demonstrate great physical self-control in her work using acrobatics, strength
and concentration to her advantage. Her obsessive focus on theft is to the point
that her safehouse is filled with gear and rappelling equipment to help her in
various jobs, and during one con, she was put through a rehab to address it. Parker
was trained at a young age by expert thief (and recurring character) Archie Leach,
who found her proficient with the physical demands of burglary as well as safe-
cracking and lock-picking, skills she uses in many of the cons. In Season 5's "The
Broken Wing Job", she proves that she can handle problems on her own while the
other team members are away and seems to be, with Nate's guidance, developing her
ability as a planner.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1103987/?ref_=sr_2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leverage_%28TV_series%29