Roman Roy is a fictional character in the American HBO satirical dark comedy-drama television series Succession. He is portrayed by Kieran Culkin and was created by showrunner Jesse Armstrong, as with the rest of the show's characters. Armstrong initially conceived the series as a feature film about the Murdoch family, but the script never went into production. He later decided to create a new script centered on original characters loosely inspired by various powerful media families.

The character and Culkin's portrayal received acclaim from critics.^[1]

Roman Roy is Logan's third and youngest son, born from his marriage to Caroline Collingwood. Roman frequently seeks Logan's approval, which contributes to strained relationships at times with his siblings Kendall and Shiv, as well as his mentor and romantic interest Gerri Kellman, and affects his standing within Waystar.

Although shown to possess sharp instincts and occasional keen business acumen, Roman sometimes undermines himself through his immaturity and avoidance of responsibility. As a child, he was physically and emotionally abused by Logan and humiliated by his siblings, experiences that recur in his adult behavior and personal relationships. Roman is often an unreliable narrator about these early memories of abuse and potential abuse; for example, he recalls a pastime called “dog pound” from his childhood, where he would be locked into a cage and forced to eat dog food. Roman’s siblings, however, recall “dog pound” differently, portraying it as a game that Roman willingly participated in, and suggesting that the “dog food” was chocolate cake.

Roman began wetting the bed around the time of the dog pound incidents, which he believes is the reason why he was sent away to military school.  His brother Connor believes that Logan had sensed Roman was the “weaker dog” and sent him away for that reason.

He later attended the University of Southern California, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Prior to the series, Roman ran Waystar's film studio in Los Angeles, with Frank Vernon assigned to oversee him. While in Los Angeles, Roman frequently butted heads with other studio executives, taking particular issue with the fact that his screenplay, Robot Olympics, was not greenlit while films he despised, such as the Thanksgiving-themed family film  The Biggest Turkey in the World, became substantial hits.

Season 1

After Logan suffers a stroke during his 80th birthday, Roman is appointed COO under Kendall's interim tenure as CEO. He seems overwhelmed by his new responsibilities, and largely neglects them.

His girlfriend Grace ends their relationship at Thanksgiving after a fight kicked off when Roman finds her showing her daughter and his niece and nephew The Biggest Turkey in the World. Grace cites Roman’s apparent lack of interest in sexual intercourse as one of the reasons why they are incompatible. Roman later begins dating Tabitha, a woman who had a sexual encounter with Tom Wambsgans at his bachelor party. While personality-wise Roman and Tabitha seem well-matched, Roman continues to have erectile dysfunction when they try to have sex.

When Kendall attempts a vote of no confidence against Logan, Roman initially agrees to support it but withdraws after Logan confronts him, contributing to the vote's failure. Logan fires Kendall, retains Roman as COO, and assigns him oversight of a satellite launch in Japan. Roman pressures the team to proceed despite safety concerns so the launch can coincide with Shiv's wedding, thinking that it will be a nice gift for her; the rocket explodes on the launchpad, injuring several workers but killing no one.

Season 2

Roman and Waystar Royco General Counsel Gerri Kellman, one of his father’s top lieutenants and a longtime Waystar employee, travel together to Japan to do damage control about the rocket launch disaster.

Following a hostile takeover bid by Stewy Hosseini and Sandy Furness, Roman and Kendall are named co-COOs of Waystar. Roman resents the arrangement and, at Gerri’s suggestion, enrolls in Waystar's management training program under a pseudonym to strengthen his leadership skills and show Logan that he is taking his responsibilities seriously.

Roman develops a close professional relationship with Gerri and increasingly defers to her judgment. In parallel, their relationship takes a kinky, sexual turn following a phone call while Roman is at management training where Gerri discovers that Roman is aroused by her verbally berating him.

The Roys, their partners and Waystar executives go to have dinner, meetings and stay overnight at Tern Haven, the country home of the Pierce family who own rival media corporation Pierce Global Media. At dinner, Tabitha lets it slip that she and Roman are “eunuch besties”, alluding to their intimacy problems and humiliating Roman. After dinner, they attempt unsuccessfully to have sex, after which Roman leaves their room and goes down to the room Gerri is staying in. Gerri intuits that he wants to do one of their “special conference calls” in person, sends him into her en-suite bathroom and berates him through the door while he masturbates.

The Roys and the Waystar executives travel to fictional business conference Argestes, hoping to finalise their acquisition of PGM on the margins of the conference. However, before the deal can be signed, a major exposé comes out about Waystar’s longstanding cover-up of sexual exploitation on their cruise lines.

Roman, Kendall and Shiv represent the company at a panel discussion which does not go well; during an argument after the panel, Logan hits Roman in the face, knocking out one of his teeth. Later that night, Roman goes to Gerri’s room, where he proposes a close professional partnership he refers to as “the rockstar and the mole woman”,  in which he will be the face of their collaboration and she will be the brains, with the eventual goal of one of them becoming CEO of Waystar and the other becoming Chairman.

During the cruises scandal, at Gerri’s encouragement, Roman attempts to secure funding from Azerbaijani aristocrat Eduard Asgarov, with whom he also invests in the Heart of Midlothian football club, mistakenly believing that Logan is a supporter of the club. (Logan in fact supports the Hearts’ habitual rivals, the Hibs.)

When the Roys and the Waystar top brass travel to Logan’s hometown of Dundee, Scotland, Roman proposes marriage to Gerri, though when Gerri seems incredulous at his proposal, he quickly says that he will also accept an “alternative”.

While negotiating a funding deal in Turkey, Roman, Karl and Laird are briefly held hostage by anti-corruption militia. When they are released and Roman joins the family on their yacht off the coast of Croatia, Roman advises Logan that the proposed investment is likely illegitimate, underlining how despite his immaturity, Roman often has solid business instincts.

Season 3

After Kendall publicly accuses Logan of overseeing the cruises cover-up in an explosive press conference, Logan decides to temporarily step back and appoint one of his children or one of the Waystar old guard as temporary CEO.

Roman and Gerri await Logan’s decision in a hotel room; Roman takes the opportunity to proposition Gerri, who attempts to argue that nothing unprofessional has ever happened between them. While still discussing Roman’s proposition, Gerri gets the call that Logan has chosen her as acting CEO.

As interim CEO, Gerri tries to put some personal distance between her and Roman, while maintaining their professional “apprenticeship”. Roman becomes keenly jealous when Gerri begins dating Laurie, an ex-DOJ prosecutor, in order to get inside information about the investigation into the Waystar cruises scandal, and begins to send her intimate pictures of himself.  

Roman remains loyal to Logan despite Kendall's overtures and gains his father’s favor by backing far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken and helping initiate talks with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson.

While in Italy for his mother Caroline’s remarriage to Peter Munion, Roman later fatally damages his standing by accidentally sending Logan an explicit photo meant for Gerri, shortly after she had warned him to stop sending them, and further loses influence as Matsson proposes a full acquisition of Waystar.

Roman joins Kendall and Shiv in attempting to block the sale, but Logan neutralizes them by renegotiating his divorce settlement with Caroline to strip their voting rights. Roman begs Gerri to help the siblings, but she refuses, asking him how it would serve her interests, echoing earlier professional advice she had given him to always keep sight of what would advance his personal position.

Season 4

Several months later, Kendall, Shiv and Roman are estranged from Logan, and mostly living in Roman’s mansion in the Pacific Palisades. They are pursuing an independent media venture, The Hundred; Roman seems more devoted to the project than his siblings, and they abandon it after outbidding Logan for Pierce Global Media.

Roman and his siblings plan to use the Pierce acquisition to force a higher GoJo offer, but Logan dies en route to meeting Matsson in Sweden. Right before boarding the plane to Sweden, Logan demands that Roman fire Gerri. Gerri knows Roman well enough that she very quickly realises something is wrong when he won’t meet her eyes, and she clearly is unconvinced by Logan’s argument that she hadn’t handled the cruises situation adequately and is manifestly hurt and furious with both Logan and Roman.

Immediately following the altercation with Gerri, Roman calls his father and leaves a voicemail about having been handed the unpleasant task, but Logan is already unconscious or dying at this point.

A draft succession document found in Logan's estate leads Roman to serve as co-CEO with Kendall, and the brothers attempt to undermine the GoJo deal.

Increasingly insecure, Roman fires Waystar entertainment head Joy Palmer as well as Gerri after they question his authority.

On election night, he pressures ATN to call the race for Mencken in exchange for regulatory support against GoJo, despite unresolved vote counts.

The next day, Roman breaks down while attempting to deliver Logan's eulogy. Videos of Roman sobbing at the funeral go viral online; Karl plays one clip out loud at the wake, mocking Roman, and Gerri, clearly perturbed by Roman’s breakdown despite her anger at the tailgate party, asks Karl to turn it off.

After Mencken also abandons him in favor of Shiv's alliance with Matsson, a grief-stricken  and ashamed Roman leaves the wake and wades into an anti-Mencken protest out on the street, provoking the protesters into an assault.

Roman goes to his mother’s house in Barbados to recuperate from his head wounds from the protest. His siblings come to find him there, and they discuss the upcoming board meeting that will vote on the potential GoJo deal. They agree finally to form a voting bloc against the GoJo acquisition, and share a moment of levity in Caroline’s kitchen, with Shiv and Roman “anointing” Ken as their pick for CEO with a smoothie of random ingredients they found in the refrigerator.

Roman, Kendall and Shiv return to New York, where they first go to Logan’s old apartment, where Connor and Willa are dividing Logan’s assets. The siblings become emotional while watching a home video of Logan, Connor, Kerry and the Waystar old guard having dinner, presumably taken during the summer that the siblings had been out in California.

Before the board meeting, Roman sees Gerri walking into Waystar to discuss her settlement package. He breaks down, and Kendall pulls him into a hug so tight that some of the stitches on Roman’s forehead burst.

After Shiv has second thoughts about Kendall’s competency as potential CEO, the three siblings hold a last-minute parlay in a side room. The situation becomes heated after Kendall claims he lied about his role in the fatal car accident during Shiv's wedding, and even more so after Kendall asserts that he deserves to be the CEO as the “eldest boy” (leaving out Connor) and Roman remarks that Logan would consider Shiv’s unborn child the only “legitimate” Roy heir, as Kendall’s children are presumably adopted and/or conceived with the assistance of a sperm donor. An enraged Kendall physically attacks both Roman and Shiv; Roman tries to defend Shiv and tells Kendall that they, the family, and the company, “it’s all bullshit.”

After Kendall leaves the building, Roman signs the acquisition papers on behalf of the family, then is last seen in the show having a moment to himself at a bar, sipping a martini, Gerri’s habitual drink, and nursing a brief half-smile, finally free of the conflict for control of Waystar.

Culkin received critical acclaim for his performance, winning a number of prominent awards including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, the corresponding Golden Globe Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and two ensemble prizes at the Actor Awards.