Ben Hawkins (Carnivàle)

There are several main characters in Carnivàle, an American television serial drama set in the United States Depression-era Dust Bowl between 1934 and 1935. It aired on HBO between 2003 and 2005. The show traces the disparate storylines of an ensemble of fictional characters revolving around two main characters: young Ben Hawkins working in a traveling carnival, and a California preacher named Brother Justin Crowe.

Carnivàle has a large cast, amounting to eighteen main cast actors over its two-season run. Most characters are introduced in Ben's storyline: Samson, a dwarf co-running the carnival with Management; Jonesy, Samson's right-hand man with a crippling knee injury; Apollonia and Sofie, two fortunetellers working a mother-daughter act; Lodz, a blind mentalist, and his lover, Lila the Bearded Lady; the cootch (striptease) Dreifuss family; snake charmer Ruthie and her son Gabriel, a strongman; and many other sideshow performers. The supporting characters of Brother Justin's storyline are his sister Iris, his mentor Reverend Norman Balthus, radio show host Tommy Dolan, and convict Varlyn Stroud. Several characters appear in mysterious dreams and visions connecting the slowly converging storylines.

Show creator Daniel Knauf's original story pitch to HBO included elaborate character biographies, which he gave to the actors, the writers and the studio as an overview over the series' intended plot. These biographies were rewritten before the filming of the first season began. Receiving little to no mention in the series afterwards, the original character backgrounds were summarized on the official HBO website. After the show's cancellation, the writers revealed future character arcs and forwarded all original biographies to fans as part of the show's so-called "Pitch Document". Due to their nature, these sources do not offer canon information per se, but provide a frame for the characters' motivation throughout the series.

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