Mellie Grant

Scandal is an American television political drama series created by Shonda Rhimes, broadcast by ABC.

The show features an ensemble cast of regular characters, with eight main characters in its first season. Since the first season, two characters have left the show or have been written out, and several new main characters have been written in or upgraded in the series. Following is a list of characters who have appeared over the various seasons since the drama's premiere.

Olivia Carolyn Pope, portrayed by Kerry Washington, is a former White House Communications Director who is widely regarded as the best "fixer" in Washington. Olivia worked on the presidential campaign of then-Governor Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, with whom she began an affair. After Fitz became President, and named Olivia Director of Communications, they continue the affair. Although she still had feelings for him, Olivia knew that it would be best to resign from her position and as a result she started "Pope & Associates", a crisis management company. Throughout Season one, Olivia demonstrates that she is very dedicated to her work and to the people she helps and that she's surrounded by staff who are very loyal to her due to her saving each of them a problem in their past. At the beginning of Season two, it is revealed that Olivia had something to do with Quinn Perkins's past and that she made a call that eventually got Quinn's case thrown out of court, saving her from the death penalty. Olivia is shown to have a contentious relationship with Mellie, the First Lady; the two women cannot stand each other, but tolerate each other for the sake of the presidency. Olivia's father, Eli Pope, was the leader of a secret government organization titled B613. At the beginning of season five, it is leaked to the public that Mellie was thrown out of the White House and Olivia is in fact Fitz' mistress. She eventually makes a deal with her father and Mellie to keep the Senate from impeaching Fitz. However, she leaves Fitz by the end of the fall finale and moves on. She's currently running Mellie's bid for president.

Stephen Finch, portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick, is a litigator who worked with Olivia and is one of her good friends. He is Scottish-born and became a U.S. citizen in 1995 shortly after graduating first in his class from Yale Law School. He was a top litigator for a firm called Chase and Howard, but suffered a nervous breakdown in the middle of defending a client in a class action lawsuit against Bromquest, a chemical manufacturer that poisoned children in West Virginia. He spent two months recovering in a facility in Florida before quitting the firm and then began working with Olivia. He is shown to be a womanizer, even though he gets engaged to his girlfriend, Georgia, in the first season. By the second season he left the firm and moved to Boston, "married Georgia and is living a normal life". In the fourth season, he is revealed to be living in St. Petersburg and working for the Russian oligarchy.

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