List of recurring Orange Is the New Black characters

Orange Is the New Black is a comedy-drama series, created by Jenji Kohan and airing on Netflix. Set in the fictional Litchfield Correctional Facility, a woman's Federal prison, it has featured a diverse ensemble of recurring or minor characters - including inmates, prison guards and staff, and non-prison characters. Many of these characters are expanded upon through a series of flashbacks told over the course of an episode, or over the course of the series. Many are subsequently upgraded to main characters as their roles are expanded and they feature more prominently in storylines.

Litchfield inmates

Sophia Burset

Sophia Burset (played by Laverne Cox and M Lamar in flashbacks) – A transgender woman who went to prison for credit-card fraud that she committed to finance her sex reassignment surgery. Previously a firefighter named Marcus, Sophia was unhappy with living as a man and decided to transition with the support of her wife Crystal. She has a young son named Michael, who had difficulty with her transition and turned her in to authorities. In the prison, she works as a hairdresser and spends the first half of the first season railing against a reduction in her hormone dosage, which is stated to be over concerns about liver damage, but she is convinced it is discrimination (in fact, it is hinted at being due to Figueroa's embezzlement). She becomes a friend of Sister Jane, originally in an attempt to convince the nun to give her some of her hormones. Jane convinces her to try to reconcile with her son, and also to let Crystal move on. Sophia is, overall, kind and understanding, albeit a little stubborn. Early on, she trades with Piper for a lock of hair, in return for some cocoa butter Piper needs to create her lotion for Red. They later develop an amicable relationship, often trading gifts or advice. She, like Piper, also seems to be more educated than many of her fellow inmates, being concerned about issues such as healthcare and benefits. During the second season, she is shown being visited by her son in prison for the first time, and they are seen making amends. Sophia also develops friendships with Red, who goes to her for a makeover when she learns Vee has returned, and surprisingly, Tiffany, who has mellowed out considerably. During the third season, Sophia agrees to allow Gloria's son ride with her son for weekly visits. The two start a friendship that results in her son acting out, causing Sophia to rescind her offer and cause a rift between Gloria and her that culminated into a violent confrontation. She later finds out that her son was the instigator of a violent attack of another child, but refuses to apologize to Gloria. Sophia ends up being attacked by other inmates in her beauty salon, during which the CO on duty runs away to fetch Caputo rather than intervening herself. Sophia tells Caputo that she is willing to bring a lawsuit against the prison if they don't take appropriate measures. When this is reported to MCC, they respond by throwing Sophia in the SHU claiming it is for her protection, when in reality she is being punished for her threat to sue. In the fourth season, Sophia spends most of the season in the SHU, and makes numerous efforts to get Caputo's attention, such as flooding her cell, setting fires, and bashing her head against the walls of her cell, while Crystal, with Gloria's secret assistance, repeatedly confronted him at the prison and his house. Eventually, she is released from the SHU when Caputo uses Jane's smuggled phone to take a picture of her and leaks the picture to Danny Pearson. Upon her release, she initially rebuffs Gloria's attempts to make amends, but eventually warms to her when she helps her fix her wig, which had been damaged in the previous season.

Janae Watson

Janae Watson (played by Vicky Jeudy) – A gifted former high school track star that was arrested after she became involved with a criminal boyfriend and was caught robbing a check-cashing establishment. Flashbacks reveal that her downward spiral was mostly her own fault, as her boyfriend's superior, the local gang leader, had made numerous efforts to persuade her to stay out of the criminal life, and to take advantage of her track scholarship, including ejecting her from his parties. She is initially very rude and standoffish toward Piper and has problems with authority, confronting Miss Claudette and the prison guards. Janae is assigned to the tool crib in the electrical shop and loses a screwdriver on her first day. After refusing to be searched by a male prison guard, Janae is sent to the SHU by Caputo. She blames Piper for this since Piper lost the screwdriver that started the whole confrontation. Piper is able to make it up to her later by convincing the prison to reopen the running track so that Janae can run again. After getting out of SHU, Janae takes out her anger on Yoga Jones, who slaps her in the face after a confrontation when Janae mocks her about why she is in prison. However they later talk it out and are able to form a trusting relationship. In the second season, she joins Vee's gang as she gets a cut of the cigarette money. She is sent down to SHU again after being caught with the cigarettes in her bunk. She is visibly affected by her second time in the SHU, and once again her relationship with Yoga Jones becomes strained when she rejects Yoga Jones' compassion. Later, she is convinced by Vee to pin Red's beating on Suzanne, but has a change of heart and attempts to recant her testimony along with Black Cindy. During the third season, she is shown working on the lingerie detail with several of the other inmates. She is the only member of her group to object to allowing Brook to join their group after her suicide attempt. In flashbacks, it is shown that her father was a member of the Nation of Islam, and that she was raised in an observant Muslim household. Upon receiving her track scholarship for college, her father forbade her from running track due to her uniform not being modest enough and going against her Muslim faith. In their subsequent argument, her hint that she would renounce Islam resulted in a slap from her father. She punches Kasey in the face after she overhears her making a disrespectful remark about Poussey when her body is being removed from the prison. At the end of the fourth season, she joins in the riot after Poussey's death.

Yoga Jones

Erica "Yoga" Jones (played by Constance Shulman) – An older Caucasian inmate who teaches yoga. She has an unusually calm, peaceful demeanor, completely out of place in the prison environment, and as such gives no indication about why she might be in prison. Her calmness shatters, however, when she has a fight with an angry Janae, who deduces that her commitment to spirituality and yoga stems from her having committed a particularly heinous crime, and cruelly suggests that she may have killed a child — leading to Jones snapping and hitting her across the face. Later, while the two are working in the rec room, Jones explains that while she was a marijuana farmer in California, she accidentally shot and killed an 8-year old child she mistook for a deer, and is therefore in prison for manslaughter. Watson realizes, as she had thought, that Jones is indeed using her yoga and commitment to spirituality to cope with the intense emotional pain and guilt that she feels as a result of her crime. During the second season, she is seen participating in a hunger strike with Brook, to protest prison conditions. This is also her attempt to protest Janae having been thrown in the SHU, but her efforts are met with indifference by Janae herself, who coldly rebuffs her. During the fourth season, she is selected to be Judy King's roommate after she gets a private cell. She frequently criticizes Judy's special treatment, while not completely abstaining from some of the benefits. When Aydin's remains are found, she ends up having a threesome with Judy and Luschek while high on Esctacy. When she discovers that Judy is being released early due to Poussey's death, she tries to convince her to either refuse to leave in protest, or to inform the media of the circumstances of Poussey's death.

Brook Soso

Brook Soso (played by Kimiko Glenn) – A younger inmate of Japanese and Scottish descent who first appeared in the second season, and landed in prison due to political activism. Chatty and somewhat ditzy, Brook attempts to befriend a non-reciprocating Piper, who had been kind to Brook on her first night in prison. Brook assumes that Piper wants to be friends due to her kind treatment, but finds out it was a ruse when she attempts to sell Brook out to Big Boo in order to get her blanket back. Later, Brook has sex with Nicky as part of Nicky's sex game with Big Boo, but manages to annoy her by constantly talking during the entire experience. Due to her initial refusal to shower, she annoys many of the inmates and is eventually ordered to be forcibly showered by Figeroa. In response to the prison's cruel treatment she attempts to stage a hunger strike, which inspires others to join her cause. In the third season, she attempts to join a group led by Norma but is pushed away by Leanne, who then starts bullying her. Feeling that she was suffering from depression, Healy attempts to prescribe her antidepressants, but this is rebuffed by her new counselor Berdie Rogers. After Rogers is suspended, Healy refers her to a doctor to see if a prescription is necessary. During her evaluation, she steals a handful of pills — later discovered to be Benadryl — and attempts to overdose on them. Brook is saved by Poussey, Suzanne and Taystee, who look after her while she recovers, and subsequently take her into the African-American gang, with the approval of Black Cindy and the reluctant approval of Janae. Following her failed suicide attempt, she tells Healy that she feels that he is horrible at his job and that he just makes her feel worse whenever they talk. In the fourth season, Brook starts dating Poussey, but their relationship gets off to a rocky start when she makes inadvertently racist assumptions about her (believing her to have been poor and the daughter of a crack addict). During a flashback, when she was participating in a door to door petition to prevent a Walmart from being built in her neighborhood, she made a bet with her ex-boyfriend to get a registered sex offender to sign her petition. After she discovered that the sex offender had to register because he was caught having sex on an empty public beach by another man recording the encounter, she told her ex-boyfriend that he was a child molester that harassed her during her visit to garner sympathy. Eventually, Brook and Poussey form a loving romance, but Poussey is killed during a scuffle in the prison cafeteria. The grieving Brook subsequently saves Suzanne's life after she pulls some bookcases on top of herself in the library.

Gina Murphy

Gina Murphy (played by Abigail Savage) – A member of Red's crew in the prison kitchen, it is implied that she was incarcerated for murder and embezzlement. She is often seen with Norma Romano. When Red's scheme to sabotage Gloria backfires, Gina's arm is set on fire when an oven which Red had sabotaged explodes in flame. During the second season, she is seen with shorter hair, several severe burn marks on the side of her neck, and a more sullen demeanor. She angrily rebuffs several of Red's attempts to win back her friendship, but eventually forgives her when Red finally realizes that she hasn't given her the one thing she was looking for, an apology. Later, she notices Nichols contemplating taking a hit of heroin that she got from Vee's gang, and harasses her about it for days, eventually pressuring her to take the heroin to Red.

Sister Ingalls

Sister Jane Ingalls (played by Beth Fowler and Aubrey Sinn in flashbacks) – She is a former nun who is in prison for chaining herself in place at a nuclear facility during a protest, and she helps with services in the prison chapel. When Sophia finds out she is getting hormone pills, she tries to cozy up to her to obtain some. Instead, she tries to convince Sophia to reconnect with her son. In line with her faith, Jane accepts Sophia as a close friend and strongly disliked Tiffany's religious fundamentalism during the first season. She is shown to be rather modernistic and "hip" in her faith and views, and can be very blunt and angry when she needs to be. The second season reveals her past as a nun who first became an activist during the Vietnam War, but seemed more interested in her fame than doing genuine good works. It is revealed that she was dismissed from her order by the Catholic Church for her actions, but that she has neglected to tell any of the other inmates. After joining Brook's hunger strike, Jane gets carried away and takes over, cutting out Leanne and Angie, before being hospitalized. After the incident, a number of nuns gather at the prison and stage a sit-in while Caputo tries desperately to negotiate with Jane. She only relents after reaching an agreement with Red in the prison hospital—she would eat, but only if Red told the truth about the attack against her. In the third season, she is one of the inmates that pretends to be Jewish in an effort to gain Kosher meals and was able to convince a rabbi that was screening the "Jewish" women for possible fakers that she was really Jewish, since her Christian teaching gave her enough knowledge of the Jewish faith to be able to persuade him. During the fourth season, she devises a plan to get sent to the SHU in order to use a smuggled cell phone to take a picture of Sophia and smuggle it to the outside, eventually slapping Gloria in the cafeteria in front of a guard. On her way to the shower, the phone fell out of her vagina and Caputo reprimands her for possessing it, but then Caputo himself takes the picture and smuggles it out of the prison, resulting in Sophia's release from the SHU.

Norma Romano

Norma Romano (played by Annie Golden and Kristin Parker in flashbacks) – Norma is a member of Red's crew who refuses to speak due to insecurity, as she has a severe stutter (revealed in flashbacks). She works in the prison kitchen, and a flashback reveals that she was the first inmate Red interacted with upon her own arrival. She is often seen with Gina Murphy, as the two of them work in the kitchens together and cater to all of Red's needs. In the first-season finale, Romano steals the show at the Christmas pageant, revealing a beautiful singing voice. After Red's attempt to sabotage Gloria hurts Gina, Norma expresses frustration and angrily storms away from Red, leaving her in tears. She and Red eventually reconcile, and she attempts to create arsenic to kill Vee after Red's beating. Gloria convinces her that it is a futile effort and that they should hex Vee instead. During the third season, it is revealed that, in her younger days, she became one of the many wives of a hippie cult leader, warmed by his compassion and kindness to her — it was, in fact, he who suggested that she did not talk if she didn't want to. Years later, after all of the other wives had long since abandoned him, he had become bitter, twisted and verbally abusive. Eventually, he had berated her for staying with him for so long. In a surge of anger, she pushed him off of a cliff to his death. Back at the prison, she ends up being the focus of a cult inside of the prison. She eventually throws Leanne out of the cult after being confronted by Poussey over Brook's failed suicide attempt. At the end of the third-season finale, Norma is the first inmate to run out of the prison yard towards the lake when the fence is taken down, which inspires all of the other inmates to follow her lead. In the fourth season, she is once again at Red's side. In the season finale, she is seen singing to and consoling the grieving Brook Soso, following the death of her girlfriend, Poussey.

Leanne Taylor

Leanne Taylor (played by Emma Myles) – An inmate who was often seen with Tiffany during the first season. She almost fanatically followed everything Tiffany says and was her groupie, or right-hand woman. She is also addicted to drugs and has been seen exchanging sexual favors with Mendez. In the second season, she stands up against Tiffany and is shown to break off into her own character with her friends, leaving Tiffany by herself. She also was one of the inmates that joined Brook during her hunger strike and attempted to politely suggest that she needed to start bathing before Tiffany interrupted her by bluntly telling Brook that she stank. During the third season, it is revealed that she was Amish and that she became addicted to drugs during her Rumspringa. After choosing to be baptized, she was arrested after a bag with her ID in it was found with drugs. She was convinced to go undercover for the police in exchange for immunity and later leaves her community after overhearing her father wondering what to do with her. Back at the prison, she joins, and eventually spearheads, a cult based on Norma being able to perform miracles. She soon reveals herself to be cruel, bigoted and mean-spirited, when she starts bullying and discriminating against Brook, who in turn attempts to commit suicide. After learning of this, Norma dismisses Leanne in anger, leaving her in the same position she left Tiffany — isolated and friendless. During the fourth season, she is at the meeting Piper was holding to counter Maria's influence and was the first to misinterpret Piper's intentions by saying a racist remark about the Dominicans. After Poussey's death, she was drunk from the last of her hooch with Angie, and expressed all of the problems she believed were caused by Lolly's time machine, before the two proceeded to destroy it.

Angie Rice

Angie Rice (played by Julie Lake) – Leanne's best-friend, and another former follower of Tiffany. During the second season, she was one of the inmates that joined Brook's hunger strike in an attempt to improve prison conditions. During the third season, she starts beveling that Norma is able to perform miracles after a stash of heroin Nicky hid in a light fixture in the laundry room fell out. After finding the drugs, she shares them with Leanne and finds herself getting threatened by Luschek if she says anything about them. Later, she joins Norma's cult and is accidentally released months early due to a mistake caused by MCC's new computer system and the incompetence of the new staff. Believing a miracle has occurred, Angie leaves, but the error is quickly spotted and a low-key search is conducted. Caputo finds Angie at the bus station. He sits and talks with her, and she apologizes for escaping, admitting that she has nowhere to go. Sympathetic, Caputo drives her back to the prison in his car, promising her that a short stint in SHU will be her only punishment. During the fourth season, she starts smuggling drugs into the prison by swallowing the drugs while being kissed during visiting hours and defecating the drugs in the shower. At the end of the season, while she is drunk on the last of Poussey's hooch, she decides to destroy Lolly's time machine after Leanne describes all of he harm that it has done.

Maria Ruiz

Maria Ruiz (played by Jessica Pimentel) – An inmate of Dominican descent who acts as the Hispanic representative for WAC, and was pregnant at the beginning of the series. When she goes into labor she is taken to a hospital, and later returns to the prison after having her newborn taken away from her, which elicits sympathy from her fellow inmates. She describes Daya and Aleida's relationship as a "cautionary tale" and states that a minute with them is better than Plan B, as she would never talk to her daughter the way Aleida does toward Daya, or allow her daughter to talk to her the way Daya does Aleida. During the second season, she is visited several times by her stoic, quiet boyfriend Yadriel and her child. When it appears she will be transferred to a prison in Virginia, she begs him to be a good, proactive parent and speak to their child more, and later confides in Piper that she is afraid he will be too weak to be faithful during her entire sentence. However, in the second-season finale, she is last seen being visited by her boyfriend and her daughter, happy to see that he is taking a deeper role as a father and apparently plans to stay true to her. During the third season, she is devastated when Yadriel decides not to bring her daughter to the prison anymore, with him saying that he doesn't want her to think that is normal for her mother to be in prison as she got older. In the fourth season, it is revealed that her father was a drug dealer who cared for her enormously in the early years of her life. She first met Yadriel when she saw him throwing his drugs into a bush while being pursued by the police, and later returned them to him. Their subsequent relationship angered her father, both because Maria was effectively dating his competition, and because, as an intensely patriotic Dominican, he did not approve of his daughter dating a Mexican. Eventually, after an explosive argument, the two permanently fell out. In the present, Maria began to organize a new gang amongst the other Dominican inmates, in order to fight back against the overt racism of the guards. After attempting to get involved in Piper's business, Maria was angered by her rude response, and formed a rival business of her own, which immediately snapped up many of Piper's employees. When Piper blows the whistle on her, Piscatella recommends that her sentence is extended, and Maria responds by having her gang seize Piper, take her to the kitchen and brand her with a swastika, which also serves as retaliation for her accidental creation of a White Power prison gang. Maria'a gang start distributing drugs instead, and secures her a position of power in the prison. However, as the guards begin to get increasingly violent and draconian, Maria starts to use her power to help protect and rally the other inmates. Upon the discovery of Aydin's body, she is separated from the other inmates, along with Ouija and Blanca, for further questioning. She is initially amused by Officer Humphrey's prank on Kasey Sankey, but is shocked when he then escalates it into a fight between Suzanne and Maureen Kukudio. When Suzanne becomes unhinged and beats Maureen almost to death, Maria finally has enough and, with Ouija's help, manages to pull Suzanne off Maureen and comforts her.

Maria lived with Yadriel after her family disowned her for associating with him.^[1] According to Pimintel Maria originally "She kept her head down, did her work and didn’t get too involved" while she had visits with her child, but once those were taken away she became "a gangster with an -er".^[2]

Maritza Ramos

Maritza Ramos (played by Diane Guerrero) – A Hispanic inmate. In contrast to her rougher, more hardened cellmates, Maritza is quite demure, and has a playful, sassy personality. She is often seen with Flaca, with whom she has a rivalry and close friendship; she is generally portrayed as somewhat more intelligent than her friend. On Valentine's Day, she and Flaca are having an intimate conversation in the kitchen, and when Flaca gives her a friendly peck on the lips, the two end up passionately kissing. They initially laugh in shock, before Flaca breaks down in tears, and Maritza consoles her, looking visibly shaken herself. She has a child on the outside. In the third season, she is distraught when Flaca is accepted to another work detail, but reunites with her friend when she joins Piper's used panty business. At the end of the season, she replaces Tiffany as the prison van driver after Tiffany faked a seizure to get away from Officer Coates. In the fourth season, it is revealed that before her incarceration she was a small-time con artist who worked at an upscale nightclub, wherein she would fill empty bottles of expensive vodka with water, deliberately drop them and then panic about being fired in order to claim the price of the original drink from the people that she convinces had tripped her. One of her victims sees right through her and offers her in to his own, more elaborate confidence trick to steal expensive cars, which involved pretending to be a car saleswoman to entice middle aged men to go on a test drive, while simultaneously pretending to be their trophy wife to get the keys, and stealing the car once the drive was over. On her first attempt, a salesman gets in the car with them, and when both men grow suspicious, she improvised by pretending to be travel-sick, before getting into the car without them and driving off. Back in prison, when Maria starts a rival panty-smuggling business to Piper's, she uses Maritza to smuggle the panties out of the prison by hiding them in the wheel arches of the van and transferring them to Maria's cousin when she drops the COs off at their house. She also becomes friendly with McCullough, the CO who supervises her. When the COs spot the smuggler, she pretends he is a gardener and says "Follow me" in Spanish to him, not knowing that CO Humphrey can understand her. He reveals that he knows she's up to something, so she decides to draw the attention of the COs to her contact, threatening him into not returning. Humphrey overhears her talking with Flaca about whether she would rather eat ten dead houseflies or one live baby mouse, so during a later shift change, he takes her in his house, holds her at gunpoint, and forces her to partake in a real-life version of that choice. Maritza eventually chooses the live baby mouse, and later shares the horror of the experience to Flaca. After Poussey's death, her and Flaca overhear the white supremacist inmates discussing retaliation against Poussey's friends, following this, the two decide to practice how to react to the press if they are interviewed. During the uprising at the end of the season, she sees Humphrey attempting to unholster a gun, and she pushes him to the ground before he can use it.

Stella Carlin

Stella Carlin (played by Ruby Rose) — A young Australian inmate introduced in the third season, assigned to the prison's new garment factory with Piper. Strikingly beautiful, androgynous and intelligent, but also somewhat mysterious, she takes an immediate shine to Piper, and the two become fast friends. Stella is the first to volunteer for Piper's new used panty business and provides her with additional support in its management, all the while openly flirting with her. As Piper and Alex's relationship starts to suffer due to Alex's paranoia and Piper's darker personality, she and Stella become closer, and eventually kiss, although Stella continues to maintain a respectful distance at Piper's request, to spare Alex's feelings. Later, when Piper and Alex decide to break up, she asks Stella to become her partner (both professionally and personally), despite the fact that Stella's release date is imminent. Shortly before Stella is released, however, she steals all of the money Piper has made from the business. Piper quickly deduces (based on the fact that only three people knew where the phone she used to transfer the money was kept) that it was Stella, and confronts her. Stella begs for forgiveness, justifying herself by the fact that her family are all back in Australia, she has no money left, and that she will have no place to go upon her release. Piper at first appears to forgive her, and states that she can keep the money. Shortly afterwards, Piper turns up at Stella's cubicle and gives her a kiss goodbye, which confuses Stella, as she still has a couple of days left. At that moment, the COs arrive and search her bunk, discovering some contraband items that Piper had planted. As Stella is removed with the possibility of facing an extended sentence in maximum security, Piper gives her a final, cold smile, showing her the "Trust No Bitch" tattoo that Stella herself had given her. In season 4, she is briefly seen in Max, with Nicky. In their brief interaction, it is shown that they are engaging in physical intimacy, although Nicky promptly dumps Stella when she takes delivery of heroin from a guard, revealing that Stella is a drug addict.

Anita DeMarco

Anita Demarco (played by Lin Tucci) – An older inmate who was one of the first to befriend Piper. Piper learns that when DeMarco first arrived in prison many years earlier, she had a heart attack, and now sleeps with a face mask and CPAP machine. DeMarco is a constant roommate of Miss Rosa, and they seem to have a steady stream of newbies who stay in their room until the newbies are assigned permanent bunks.

Blanca Flores

Blanca Flores (played by Laura Gomez) – A Hispanic inmate. The other inmates thought she was insane, as she appeared to have animated conversations in Spanish with the Devil while inside a restroom stall. Piper later discovered that Blanca is actually of sound mind, and had actually been speaking to her boyfriend, "Diablo," with a cell phone that she had hidden behind a tile in the stall, while feigning madness so nobody would suspect anything. Upon discovering the phone is missing, however, her grief and anger leads to a violent tantrum that is mistaken for a breakdown, and she is taken away to psych. She has finally returned by the second season and stopped pretending to be insane, revealing herself to be plain-speaking, blunt and low key, and later attempts to blackmail Bennett into getting her a new phone. During the third season, against Gloria's orders, she attempts the test which will get her into the new work detail, and is forced to put up with Flaca's constant pestering and fidgeting. Later, she is embarrassed when Flaca reveals her participation to Gloria in anger. During the fourth season, she joins Maria's Dominican gang. When the guards stated frisking the Latino inmates for contraband, she discovers that the guards wouldn't frisk her if she stank, and as a result the other Latina inmates would follow suit. Officer Stratman orders her to bathe, and when she refused he ordered her to stand on a cafeteria table for several days. During flashbacks, she was working as a carer for Millie, an old woman, who misread her name as "Bianca" and continued to address her by that name. While working for Millie, she met her boyfriend Diablo, who was working as her gardener. After their relationship stated to grow, Millie fired Diablo, stating that she thought he was a distraction for Blanca. Sometime after Diablo was fired, Blanca had sex with him while Millie was in the same room. At the end of the season, she represented the Latina inmates in expressing condolences for Poussey's death to the black inmates.

Maureen Kukudio

Maureen Kukudio (played by Emily Althaus) – A younger inmate introduced in the third season, Maureen becomes an obsessive fan of Suzanne's new erotica series, which she began writing in the drama class they both attended. She perpetually irritates Suzanne by offering her ideas for her upcoming chapters and writing her own fan-fiction. As time progresses, however, it becomes clear that Maureen is romantically interested in Suzanne, who becomes nervous, as she has never actually had a girlfriend or any sexual experience — she writes her erotica almost entirely from imagination. She backs out of a sexual liaison with Maureen in one of the storage closets, due to her apprehension and lack of sexual experience, but the two continue to flirt, and they are brought closer in the final scene, when Suzanne retrieves a terrapin that Maureen threw away after it bit her foot. At the beginning of the fourth season, she attempts to get closer to Suzanne, but Suzanne turns her away. She decides to stay in the woods and is discovered hiding in one of the houses by Caputo later that night. Later on during the season, she appears to reconcile with Suzanne and meets her in the cleaning closet. As revenge for leaving her in the woods, Maureen sexually stimulates Suzanne in the closet, but intentionally stops short of bringing Suzanne to orgasm. During the lockdown after Aydin's remains were found, she volunteers to fight Suzanne and after repeatedly taunting Suzanne, she is brutally beaten and is sent to medical.

Mei Chang

Mei Chang (played by Lori Tan Chinn and Teresa Ting in flashbacks) – An irritable, laconic Chinese woman who runs the prison commissary. In the first and second seasons, she is shown to be somewhat ill-tempered and antisocial, though widely accepted. In the third season, her secretive everyday routine and murky past is revealed. Chang emigrated to the U.S. from Hubei province in the early eighties with the intention of marrying a businessman. However, he rejects her upon seeing her, mostly because of her skin disorder. To pay off her debts, Chang worked in a Chinese herbal medicinal shop for her brother. Stating that he has no better use for her and that she is practically invisible, Chang's brother sends her out to accompany the gang members who purchase and distribute illegal medicines to shops like theirs. During a transaction with a Korean smuggler, Chang revealed herself to be sharper and more ruthless than she let on when she discovered that the products were fake, prompting the smuggler to attack the gangster who had accompanied her. She saves the gangster's life by knocking out the smuggler with a tire iron, and he promises to repay her. She has the gangster and his associates bring her the businessman who spurned her. During the confrontation, the businessman curses and spits at her, prompting her to order the gangsters to cut out his gallbladder as she leaves. In prison, she maintains a set of rituals which confuse the other inmates, and makes her own food using what she can smuggle out of the canteen and obtain from commissary. She spends her afternoons watching Chinese TV shows on a smartphone she keeps hidden in one of the prison sheds, and keeps a bag of tangerines hidden in the long grass near the prison fence. Despite her solitary behavior, she appears to enjoy observing the other inmates around her. At the beginning of the fourth season, she declines to go to the lake with most of the other prisoners, and instead uses the incident as an opportunity to take a private shower.

Jimmy Cavanaugh

Jimmy Cavanaugh (played by Patricia Squire) – One of the "Golden Girls," Jimmy is an elderly woman with severe dementia or Alzheimer's. She wanders out of the prison and is seen at a bar by Caputo, whereupon she is returned to the prison. Later, she jumps off the raised stage in the chapel, thinking she is jumping into a swimming pool, and breaks her arm. The prison system decides that her care is too expensive and grants her a "compassionate release," which amounts to their dropping her off at a bus stop to be left to her own devices, completely senile and incapable of caring for herself.

Lolly Whitehill

Lolly Whitehill (played by Lori Petty and Christina Brucato in flashbacks) – Lolly is first seen on the plane that is taking Piper to Chicago in the beginning of the second season. While in Chicago, she is attacked in the prison yard after getting in a confrontation with another prisoner. During the third season, she is transferred to Litchfield and starts a trend of inmates requesting kosher meals. She seemed to have an obsession with Alex and is seen keeping notes of her daily routine. During a work detail, she breaks a window and keeps a piece of glass from the window. She is confronted by Alex in the bathroom and attempts to use the glass shard to defend herself before being overpowered and nearly strangled by Alex in a panic. During their struggle, Lolly claims that she is being framed for treason by the NSA and that the prison is bugged, and is revealed to be paranoid and delusional. At the beginning of the fourth season, she finds Aydin attempting to choke Alex to death in the prison greenhouse, and pushes him off of her and knocks him unconscious. The following day, she helps Alex and Frieda chop up his body and bury it in the garden. She becomes extremely paranoid and believes that Aydin was a government agent, later believing that a drone she sees flying over the prison is the government targeting her in retaliation for killing him (in reality, the drone was the paparazzi taking pictures of Judy behind bars). Flashbacks to her time before prison show her as a young reporter. While young Lolly was gifted and enthusiastic, she frequently pestered her boss with allegations that various local businesses were involved in high-level schemes, which clashed with her low-level community news assignments. Her paranoia began early in her professional life, which caused her to distrust and unnerve her boss. It is also shown that she began hearing voices in her head. Eventually, she was fired from her job and offloaded from her family, who attempted to move her into a halfway house. Terrified and paranoid of her new surroundings, Lolly runs away, eventually becoming homeless, where she functions as a generally good-natured, but highly paranoid person. She is arrested after threatening two police officers that asked her to leave the area. She is taken under Healy's wing and confesses that she killed Aydin to him, but her confession is dismissed as a delusion. Healy was able to convince her that Aydin's death was a delusion, before putting her on a treatment plan. She tries to build a time machine, which other inmates used as a makeout area. After Aydin's remains are found, Healy gets her sent to psych.

Frieda Berlin

Frieda Berlin (played by Dale Soules) - a blunt, curmudgeonly German American woman who is a member of the "Golden Girls," (the collective nickname of a group of seniors in the prison who befriend Red in season 2) alongside Irma, Jimmy and Taslitz. When the group threatened Gloria's kitchen staff, Frieda mentions that she is in prison for cutting off her husband's penis, demonstrating her tougher edge over the staff, whose crimes are drug and larceny related. Later, when Red rebuilds the prison greenhouse and garden, Frieda assumes primary authority over it, often having to fend off inmates trying to help themselves to the produce. In the fourth season, after finding Aydin's body in her greenhouse, Frieda advises Alex and Lolly to dispose of it by chopping it up into pieces and hiding it in the soil beneath the garden. Seeing that Lolly is becoming extremely erratic, she later tells Red and Alex that she plans to kill her to prevent her from accidentally exposing them, but is prevented from doing so when Red reminds her that doing so will likely lead to her being returned to max, also revealing that Frieda is a former biker. In Officer Bayley's flashback, Bayley and his friends threw eggs at her while driving by her outdoor work detail near the prison after he was fired from his ice cream job.

Judy King

Judy King (played by Blair Brown) — A TV personality with a culinary show, her character is loosely based on Martha Stewart and Paula Deen.^[3][4][5] Judy was shown throughout the third season on trial for tax evasion and was eventually convicted of the charges. Originally opting to go to an alternative prison, she decides to spend her time in prison at Litchfield. At the end of the third season, she is shown reporting for her sentence, but she becomes upset after she finds the reception room empty due to most of the guards going on strike prior to her arrival. At the beginning of the fourth season, she turns herself in to Luschek in the prison mailroom and starts a friendship with him. Due to her celebrity status, Caputo starts giving her special treatment under orders from MCC, to include giving her a private room and looking the other way when she possessed contraband. Charming, charismatic and generally quite friendly, Judy quickly manages to make friends amongst the other inmates despite the special treatment she receives. Against her wishes, Healy decides to make her teach a cooking class, and she used Poussey as an assistant. Impressed with Poussey, she gave her contact information so she can seek a job with her company after she got out. While in prison, a racist puppet show she did in the 80s was leaked onto the internet, and as a result, she believes that the black inmates are planning to jump her in retaliation. She later finds out that they were just trying to get a picture of her to sell to the paparazzi. Deciding to go along with it, she takes a picture of herself kissing Black Cindy, and then pretends to be in a relationship with her. After learning about Luschek's guilt for getting Nicky sent to max, she uses her money and influence to get Nicky returned to minimum security and demands that Luschek has sex with her for her trouble. When the prison was put on lockdown after Aydin's remains were found, she gets Yoga Jones, Luschek, and herself high on Ecstasy and has a threesome with them. At the end of the season, MCC decides to release her early due to Poussey's death, and backdate her release so it would appear she was already gone when Poussey died. Before she could get out of the prison, she was caught in the uprising that started after Taystee informed the other prisoners that Bayley wasn't being arrested for Poussey's death.

Kohan had personally asked Brown if she could be on OITNB. One consideration was that Brown, raised by her Southern mother, was able to use a Southern accent.^[6]

Alison Abdullah

Alison Abdullah (played by Amanda Stephen) — An African-American inmate and observant Muslim who becomes one of Black Cindy's new roommates. The two quickly clash over their shared space in the bunk, which escalates into a turf war, all the while trading barbs over their respective religions, which leads Cindy to give her the nickname "Jihad." They eventually overcame their differences, due to their mutual hatred of Scientology, and formed a truce in an attempt to take a picture of Judy to sell to the paparazzi with her smuggled cell phone she hides in her hijab. She was previously shown texting her child, Farrah, on the phone. At the end of the season, while the black inmates are grieving Poussey's death, she lowers her hijab and reveals her hair (shown to be bright red), which brings some comic relief for her friends.

Kasey Sankey

Kasey Sankey (played by Kelly Karbacz) — A new inmate with neo-Nazi leanings who immediately antagonizes the non-white inmates. She first causes trouble when she leads a group of white inmates in an attack on Blanca following an argument over the TV. Following this, Kasey is jumped by a group of Blanca's friends, consisting of Maria, Ramona and Ouija. Later, when Piper was attempting to start a watch group to counteract Maria's takeover of the prison, she misinterpreted Piper's intentions as a desire to start a white supremacist group, and started a "white lives matter" chant with the other inmates in the room. During a gang activity meeting led by Officer Dixon, she told him about the used panty business, which eventually resulted in both Piper and Maria's businesses being shut down. After Aydin's remains are found, she is taken to the visitor area to await further interrogation. The guard monitoring the group, Officer Humphrey, plays a cruel prank on her by pulling her chair out from under her. She is laughed at by most of the inmates in the room, but when Humphrey tries to instigate a fight between her and Suzanne, she declines, and watches in obvious dismay as Suzanne becomes unhinged and violently beats Maureen to within an inch of her life. Disgusted by the incident, Kasey and some of the other white supremacists approach Suzanne's friends in the African-American group, and later Maria's gang, to enlist them in going after Humphrey, admitting that her hatred of him far outweighs her racist beliefs. She is hit in the face by Janae after she makes an insensitive remark while Poussey's body is being removed from the prison. At the end of the season, she is at the front of the crowd of white inmates in the riot, and loudly tries to encourage Daya to shoot Humphrey.

Stephanie Hapakuka

Stephanie Hapakuka (Jolene Purdy) — A Hawaiian inmate who becomes Piper's new bunk mate in the fourth season. Due to her somewhat imposing demeanour, Piper hires her as "muscle," although she is actually quite peaceable and non-violent. She takes an immediate dislike to Piper, considering her to be inauthentic and self-centred, and later lures her into a trap set up by the Dominicans.

Purdy, who in real life is often questioned about her ethnicity, stated that portraying Hapakuka "has been so great for me" as the character is "the closest to my own ethnicity that I've ever played" and that Hapakuka herself is, like Purdy, questioned about her ethnicity.^[7]

Ramona "Pidge" Contrares

Ramona "Pidge" Contrarea (played by Miriam Morales) - A Hispanic inmate who is amongst the new clutch of inmates that arrive at the prison at the start of season 4. She is usually seen with her friend, Ouija. Early on in the season, she, Ouija and Blanca get into a dispute with inmate Kasey Sankey over watching a scoreless FIFA world cup qualifier rather than a travel documentary. This results in Blanca being attacked. Under Maria Ruiz's leadership, Ramona and some other inmates violently beat Kasey in Sophia's old salon. They then form a gang consisting of the new contingent of Dominican Americans that has arrived at the prison. Later, Maria tries to persuade Piper to take Ramona along with Ouija, on as employees for her used panty business, which only leads to an explosive fight between them. Ramona, who had previously been told that Piper was the "boss," of the prison, warns her that Maria's comments that she was getting too big for her boots were a threat. Later, the group make good on their threat when they take Piper by surprise, drag her into the kitchen and brand her with a swastika.

Ouija Aziza

Ouija Aziza (played by Rosal Colon) - A Hispanic inmate who enters the prison at the start of season 4. She is usually accompanied by Ramona, who arrived at the prison with her, and the two appear to be close friends. She has three teardrop tattoos under her left eye, which she claims is to indicate that she has killed three people (contemptuously remarking that she is in prison for WIC fraud). Upon her arrival in the prison, Ouija immediately chats up Flaca, upon noticing the teardrop under her own eye, which she is disappointed to learn is just makeup, and questions her about the balance of power amongst the inmates. Later, following an argument with Kasey Sankey, Ouija joins Maria Ruiz's new gang, and later offers her services to Piper's business at Maria's suggestion, which is rebuffed. Upon the discovery of Aydin's body, she is among those separated from the other inmates for further questioning. Upon witnessing Suzanne beat Maureen Kukudio almost to death, Ouija helps Maria drag Suzanne off.

Other inmates

• Loretta FFisher (played by Cristina J. Huie) – Leanne's friend, and another former follower of Tiffany.
• Weeping Woman (played by Tamara Torres) – This unnamed inmate is frequently seen in the background while Piper is on the phone. During the third season, she becomes a part of the cult that follows Norma.
• Jeanie "Babs" Babson (played by Danielle Herbert) — An African-American inmate who is a member of Norma's cult.
• Ginsberg (played by Jamie Denbo) — A Jewish inmate who helps Black Cindy convert to Judaism.
• Rhea Boyle (played by Yelena Shmulenson) — A Jewish inmate who helps Black Cindy convert to Judaism.

Tricia Miller

Patricia "Tricia" Miller (played by Madeline Brewer) – An inmate who grew up on the streets and one of the youngest inmates. She is a drug addict and lesbian who sports a tattoo on her throat and trademark blonde cornrows. While outside prison, Tricia showed kleptomaniac tendencies, often taking things that she promised herself she would later pay for, reasoning she would not be a thief if she did so. She kept a list of all the things she ever stole with the intention of settling all her debts when she had the money. She is caught by Miss Claudette attempting to plant drugs in her girlfriend Mercy's bunk so she would get more time, but ultimately backs down and lets her girlfriend get released. She asks Piper to help her in writing her letter of appeal so that she can get out faster and be with Mercy, although she has not been able to contact her. Tricia gets drugs from the prison guard Mendez in exchange for sexual favors. When he is late with his deliveries, she goes into drug withdrawal and is taken to the SHU. Due to Red's intolerance for drugs and it being her "second offense," Tricia is ejected from Red's "family." Red later admits that she had only intended Tricia's ejection to be temporary, and to force her to learn her lesson. Mendez tries to blackmail her into selling drugs for him again, though she tells him she wants to be clean again. Later, Mendez notices that she is in a drugged out state, and realizing that she has helped herself to some of his stash, and that this might reveal the presence of drugs in the prison, he quickly hides her in an empty broom cupboard. After discovering she was specifically requested for a Scared Straight visit with delinquent kids, he returns to get her, and discovers that she is dead, revealing that she had in fact taken the entire bag — most likely in a final act of sacrifice to protect Red and her family. In a panic, he manipulates the situation to make it look like a suicide by hanging. A grieving Red blames herself for driving Tricia away. The truth of her death is never discovered by the administration, although Nicky quickly deduces what happened and tells Red.

Mercy Valduto

Mercy Valduto (played by Katie Iacona) – Tricia Miller's girlfriend and Big Boo's ex-girlfriend. During the week of her release she antagonized Big Boo, but they still departed on good terms. Tricia was prepared to plant drugs on Mercy to extend her sentence so they could stay together, but Miss Claudette talked Tricia out of it, determined not to let her screw up Mercy's life. Mercy leaves the prison intending to stay out of trouble and stay in contact with Tricia. Tricia later reveals she has lost contact with Mercy, but remains optimistic.

Vee Parker

Yvonne "Vee" Parker (played by Lorraine Toussaint) – The main antagonist of the second season. Described as a street-tough inmate who used to run a drug business, using kids as runners, she returns to jail after a long stint outside. She has a long history with many of the inmates, particularly Red, whom she had had beaten ruthlessly when attempting to take over her smuggling business, and Taystee, whom she had taken under her wing from an early age. Vee is ruthless, manipulative and something of a sociopath, more than willing to take on any naive young inmate or criminal and drop them when they are no longer of use to her. Upon returning to prison, she builds up a gang among the black population, many of whom are manipulated by her charming and maternal influence, with the exception of Poussey, who is one of the only inmates with the courage to take her on. She then forms a tobacco operation, and after Red rejects her attempted takeover of her smuggling operation and one of her friends attempts to kill her, begins a gang war with the Caucasian gang. Red almost succeeds in killing her by strangling, but she relents at the last minute and decides to call a truce. However, Vee was only pretending to give up, and instead violently beats Red with a slock (a lock in a sock), sending her to the prison infirmary. Her arrogance and ruthlessness ultimately leads to her downfall when Nichols, Red's second-in-command, steals her supply of heroin, causing her to become paranoid. Her attempt to frame Suzanne for Red's beating causes all of her girls to turn on her, and she manages to escape through Red's supply tunnel. When Vee reaches the main road, Miss Rosa, who has just hijacked a prison van, sees her at the side of the road and, remembering an earlier incident with her, deliberately veers off the road and runs her over, killing her.

Miss Rosa

Rosa "Miss Rosa" Cisneros (played by Barbara Rosenblat and Stephanie Andujar in flashbacks) – An older Latina inmate who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the second-season episode "Appropriately Sized Pots," flashbacks reveal that as a young woman, Rosa was part of a ring of professional bank robbers. After making clean getaways from three successive heists, she made the mistake of impulsively robbing a fourth bank at random which ultimately sent her to prison. The flashbacks also reveal that most of the men she's loved died moments after she kissed them when a job has been successful, which has led her to believe she is cursed. Throughout the second season, she routinely goes to the nearby hospital for chemotherapy, and befriends a teenager who is also on chemo. Eventually, she is told that her cancer is aggressive, and she has between three and six weeks left to live. When they return to the prison, they discover the place is on lockdown. As Officer Ford goes to investigate, Lorna decides to give Rosa the opportunity to steal the prison van and escape, urging her not to die in prison. As she drives away, Rosa sees the escaped Vee at the side of the road and runs her over in revenge for having treated her so rudely. In the opening of the third season, a CO reveals that, after running Vee down, Rosa committed suicide by driving into a nearby quarry. She appears in a flashback of Caputo's first day working in the prison and is one of the first inmates that he talks to.

The Golden Girls

Irma, and Taslitz (played by Yvette Freeman and Judith Roberts) – "The Golden Girls" are a group of seniors in the prison who befriend Red. They help Red set up the greenhouse and help to grow the plants and with Red's smuggling. Despite appearing to be harmless old ladies, they are actually quite dangerous and hardened — unlike the other inmates, they possess and carry shivs. In one scene, when tasked with taking back Red's merchandise from the kitchen, they calmly threaten Gloria's staff with these weapons. Later, when Red abandons the greenhouse, they feel it's because of Vee, so they plot to kill her. Taslitz volunteers to do the job, and tails a woman she thinks is Vee as she leaves the showers. Upon reaching an empty corridor, she brutally shanks the woman, but it turns out to be the wrong person. Taslitz is sent to the SHU, and Vee takes it as a declaration of war. She is later seen in max.

Litchfield staff

Joel Luschek

Joel Luschek (played by Matt Peters) – The sarcastic, uncaring, and barely competent young prison guard who runs the electrical shop. He displays blatant racism, and generally doesn't care what the women in the shop do as long as they leave him alone, though he is good friends with Nicky. His method of teaching repairs tends to consist of handing his inmates a printed manual for the broken appliance and giving them a few minutes to read before sending them off. He buys a new screwdriver and replaces it in the tool crib to cover up his mistake in failing to properly train Janae, thus ending the search for the missing screwdriver, and endangering the prison population by allowing a dangerous object to remain at large. During the second season, he enters a relationship with fellow staff member Fischer, but his nonchalant attitude toward her causes it to end. In the third season, he agrees to help Nicky smuggle heroin out of the prison so he can sell it on the outside. Before he can smuggle it out, Angie and Leanne find it and attempt to keep it for themselves. Luschek finds it on them and threatens to kill them if they tell anybody else about it. During a surprise inspection of his shop, drugs are found under his desk, and to protect himself he blames Nicky, causing her to be transferred to max. In the fourth season, new celebrity inmate Judy King turns herself in to Luscheck after the other guards walked out. Striking a friendship with her, he ends up letting Judy know about his guilt for turning Nicky in and getting her sent to max. After receiving multiple letters from Nicky, he visits her at max, and is promptly berated for his actions. Later, he discovers that Judy pulled some strings to get Nicky out of max, and ends up being forced to have sex with Judy as payment. During lockdown, when Luschek is sent to guard Judy, he ends up having a threesome with her and Yoga Jones while high on ecstasy.

Charlie Coates

Charlie "Donuts" Coates (played by James McMenamin) – One of the new correctional officers hired after MCC lowers the prison's employment standards. Previously working at a donuts store frequented by O'Neill and Bell, he comes to the prison and becomes friends with Tiffany after being introduced to her for a van errand. During one of their errands, he takes her out to feed ducks and ends up treating her like a dog before kissing her against a tree. He stops kissing her after it is apparent she isn't into it and that it was crossing some boundaries. During another van errand, Coates is late returning to the prison and misses count, causing him to be reprimanded by Caputo and put on probation. Tiffany apologizes for making him late, but he throws her into the prison van and rapes her while repeatedly stating that he loves her. Later, he wakes up in the laundry room, after (unknown to him) being drugged by Tiffany and Big Boo. During another van errand, he tells Tiffany to drive under an underpass (presumably to rape her again), but she fakes a seizure and runs off of the road. Tiffany is relieved of her van duties and Coates meets Maritza, who will be Tiffany's replacement as the van driver. During the fourth season, he becomes fed up of Tiffany's cold, hostile attitude towards him, he confronts her over what her issue with him is. She asks him whether he is having sex with Maritza, and thinking that she is jealous, assures her that Maritza isn't his type. Tiffany responds by saying that she is making sure he is not raping her. Coates reacts with shock at the meaning behind her statement, and initially attempts to justify himself by saying that he had told her he loved her when he did it, but she replies that this didn't make it any different and leaves. Subsequently, Coates struggles to come to terms with the reality of his actions, and at one point lashes out at and then kicks Luschek out of his house for his less than caring attitude to Gina when she injures her hand. Eventually, he offers Tiffany an apology, and she decides at the cost of her friendship with Boo to accept, and to forgive him, and the two make amends. Later, while guarding the inmates following Poussey's death, he confesses to Tiffany that he is dissatisfied with his job and planning to quit. She attempts to talk him out of it, and kisses him, and though he returns the kiss, he stops himself from initiating sex with her, not wanting to make the mistake he made previously, and tells her that he will still go through with his plan to quit.

Baxter Bayley

Baxter "Gerber" Bayley (played by Alan Aisenberg) – One of the new COs hired after MCC took over the prison. He is nicknamed "Gerber" by Alex upon first seeing him due to his young age. On one of his first days on the job, he overreacted when two inmates started arguing over an Uno game and pepper-sprayed them. He ends up accidentally spraying himself and Donaldson when Donaldson attempted to stop him. Piper enlists him into her used panty business, using him to sneak underwear out of the prison so that her brother Cal can sell them on the outside. Later on, he decides that he cannot smuggle underwear out of the prison anymore, which causes Piper to assume that he was waiting for an implied sexual favor from her, when it was actually due to stress. Intending to offer Bayley a handjob in exchange for his continued cooperation, Piper is interrupted by Stella, who convinces him to continue smuggling panties out of the prison for the bragging rights on the outside. At the end of the third season, he is shown running for help when all of the inmates are leaving the prison to swim in the lake and most of the other guards have left for the strike. During the fourth season, he expresses fear of the new guards and their methods. Flashbacks to his time before working at the prison revealed that he was once arrested for drinking and smoking marijuana on a water tower near the prison, and that he was fired from an ice cream shop for giving women he found attractive free ice cream. After telling Caputo about Humphrey forcing Suzanne and Maureen to fight, Caputo recommends that he considers quitting before working at the prison breaks him. Later, while attempting to help the guards quell an uprising in the cafeteria, Bayley gets involved in a scuffle with an unhinged and erratic Suzanne, and when Poussey gets involved, Bayley attempts to restrain her and accidentally traps her underneath the ruck, causing her to suffocate and die. While the inmates are put under lockdown, the traumatized and guilt-ridden Bayley is taken to a quiet corner of the prison with a blanket, and Caputo later gives him a Valium pill to help calm him. Later, while going to the bathroom, Piper finds the remorseful Bayley heading to Poussey's dorm to apologize to her friends, and convinces him that he is the last person they need to see at that moment. She pretends to agree to pass on a message from him, and he is then driven home by Officer Dixon.

Danny Pearson

Danny Pearson (played by Mike Birbiglia) – The Director of Human Activities in the prison, which held most of the same responsibilities as the warden before MCC took over the prison. Pearson received the job due to his father's senior position at MCC and as a result had no real experience or qualifications for his job. One of his first acts was to force Caputo to rush the new hires on the job with inadequate training as a cost-saving measure. Later on in the third season, he confronted his father about Sophia's situation after she was attacked and MCC ordered the prison to put her in the SHU due to her threat to sue. Disgusted with the company's actions, he quits his job, and Caputo is promoted into his former position as a result. During the fourth season, he reappears during a prison show to protest MCC's treatment of the prisoners and to bring attention to their treatment of Sophia. He starts a website to show the corruption that MCC is involved with, to include posting a story stating that MCC bribed a judge to send more people to prison so that they could profit from their incarceration. He helps Crystal get Sophia out of the SHU by posting a picture of her smuggled out of the prison anonymously by Caputo.

Desi Piscatella

Desi Piscatella (played by Brad William Henke) – A guard that previously worked in max. Piscatella responded when the other guards from Litchfield walked out, and his performance impressed Caputo enough to get him appointed as the new captain of the guards. Piscatella is shown to be very strict with his methods, and becomes very unpopular with the inmates. He calls Piper into his office, and after encouraging her to create a task force to counter suspected gang activity in the prison, he makes it a point to inform her that he is a homosexual in order to discourage her from trying to flirt with him to get her way with him. When Aydin's body is found, he promptly disobeys Caputo's order not to interrogate any of the inmates until the FBI arrived, and took a blind eye to the abuses the other guards performed. When Caputo attempted to suspend Humphrey for forcing Suzanne and Maureen to fight, Piscatella threatened to pull all of the guards. When the inmates protested his actions in the cafeteria by standing on the tables, he ordered the guards to pull them down, which eventually resulted in Bayley accidentally killing Poussey of asphyxiation. Afterwards, Caputo angrily berates Piscatella for allowing an inmate to die on his watch, and for his flagrant disrespect when he notices that he is chewing gum in the presence of the body. When Piscatella gives his usual arrogant response, Caputo tells him that he has done some digging, and that he knows the real reason why he was removed from the men's prison he used to work at, before dismissing him for the weekend, threatening to expose him if he tries to pull his guards.

Thomas Humphrey

Thomas "Humps" Humphrey (played by Michael Torpey) – One of the new correctional officers hired under MCC's veterans program. A sadistic, mean-spirited bully, he enjoys playing pranks on and otherwise causing trouble with the inmates. After getting wind of Maria's smuggling operation (he can understand Spanish, and overheard a conversation between Maritza and the outside man), he starts paying more attention to Maritza, who was using the prison van for the smuggling operation. He overhears Maritza and Flaca talk about a scenario where they would have to choose between eating dead flies or a live baby mouse, and decides to take Maritza into his house and forces her to take part in a real life version of that choice at gunpoint. During the lockdown, after Aydin's remains are found, he is assigned guard duty over the inmates that are being interrogated. While in the waiting room, he pulls Kasey's chair from under her while she was sleeping, causing her to fall onto the floor. Then, as Suzanne laughs at her, he tries to goad Kasey into fighting her, before Maureen volunteers to fight Suzanne instead and ends up going to the hospital. He was almost suspended by Caputo for instigating the fight, but was saved when Piscatella threatened to pull all of the guards if he was suspended. At the end of the season, he smuggles a gun into the prison, claiming that it was for protection after Poussey's death. When the inmates start rioting, he attempts to unholster his gun, and is pushed over by Maritza, resulting in his gun falling to the ground and being picked up by Daya. He is last seen being held hostage by his own gun.

Artesian McCullough

Artesian McCullough (played by Emily Tarver) – A female correctional officer hired under MCC's veterans program. Despite her serious, laconic demeanor, she is considerably kinder and more compassionate than the other veterans. On several occasions, she looked on with disgust at the actions of the other guards against the inmates. She becomes friendly with Maritza, and during a shift change, she gives her some tampons. Later, they discussed Maritza giving her makeup tips. Following Maritza being forced to swallow a mouse by Humphrey, she sees her vomiting and becomes concerned about what may have happened between her and Humphrey, although she later decides to let the matter rest because she has no real idea or knowledge of what happened. When Aydin's remains were found, she offered to help question the inmates about his death, by using some of the extraction techniques she learned while in the military, before being told to stand down by Caputo. At the end of the season, while she is escorting Judy out of the prison, she finds herself being surrounded by inmates reacting to the news about Bayley not being charged with Poussey's death. Following this, she is ordered to lay face down on the floor next to Humphrey by Daya, after Daya picks up the gun Humphrey smuggled into the prison.

Lee Dixon

Lee Dixon (played by Mike Houston) – Another correctional officer hired under MCC's veterans program. Shown to be uncaring about the inmates, he loudly suggests to Coates that he should have sex with Maritza while she is driving them to their housing, only to find himself being insulted by her in return. He catches Piper attempting to feed Blanca while she is being forced to stand on the cafeteria table, and he orders her to stand next to her on the table as punishment. During the lockdown caused by the discovery of Aydin's remains, he is approached by Taystee, and after he asks her for the watch Caputo gave her, he dropped it to the floor and crushed it before giving it back. After Bayley accidentally kills Poussey, he was instructed to drive Bayley home. During the drive, in his attempt to console Bayley, he openly admitted to committing several war crimes during his service in Afghanistan he wasn't caught for, to include murdering civilians both in retaliation for the deaths of other troops at the hands of insurgents as well as to cover up other crimes.

Other prison guards

• Kowalski (played by Hamilton Clancy)
• Erin Sikowitz (played by Eden Malyn) – A CO introduced during the third season after MCC takes over the prison, she is first seen participating in sexual harassment and self-defense training with the other new hires. Later, when Sophia is attacked in the prison salon, Sikowitz is the first CO on the scene. Due to her inexperience, she flees after telling Sophia that she was going to get Caputo, allowing Sophia's assault to continue. Despite demands from Sophia for Caputo to fire her, her job is spared.
• B. Stratman (played by Evan Hall) – Another correctional officer hired under MCC's veterans program. He confronts Blanca, after complaining about how she smelled, and ordered her to bathe. After discovering that she still stunk in the cafeteria, he ordered her to stand on a table in the cafeteria, where she remained until the prison was put on lockdown after Aydin's remains were found.

George Mendez

George "Pornstache" Mendez (played by Pablo Schreiber) – A corrupt, perverted, and seemingly psychopathic correction officer, who frequently abuses his authority. During the first season, he seems to be the most ruthless of all the COs, and is seen sexually assaulting and humiliating the inmates at every opportunity. His personality can be both laughably exaggerated as well as frightening. Mendez uses his position as a guard to smuggle drugs and contraband into the prison until the prison begins to search the guards as well. He tries to strike a deal with Red to use her connections to smuggle drugs in, but she refuses until he puts more pressure on her. He often trades contraband for sexual favors with the inmates and is the one who supplies Tricia with the drugs that eventually kill her via an overdose. He covers up Tricia's death to make it look like a suicide. He is put on unpaid leave after he is caught having sex with Daya in a closet. Mendez is shown to be in love with Daya and often sends her love letters anonymously after he leaves Litchfield. In the second season, Figueroa rehires Mendez to fill in for Fischer after she was fired and he immediately continues his arrogant and antagonizing demeanor toward the prisoners. When Bennett tells Caputo that Daya is pregnant, Caputo assumes Mendez is the father and uses it as an excuse to have him arrested in front of the inmates and reporters. During the third season, Mendez is seen in a men's prison talking to his mother Delia about his love for Daya and how it is keeping him going in prison. She tells him that he isn't the father of Daya's unborn child, but he is in denial, stating that he knows that he is the father. Following this, Delia decides to drop the subject.

John Bennett

John Bennett (played by Matt McGorry) – A correction officer and a former soldier. He starts a secret friendship with Daya that eventually turns into a romantic relationship. He has an artificial leg, which Daya discovers before performing oral sex on him in a utility closet. Although the other inmates believe he lost his leg while in combat, he admits to Aleida and Daya that he lost his leg to an infection he got from a cut in a dirty hot tub. He eventually gets Daya pregnant, and he finds out that Daya seduced Mendez to have sex with her so Mendez can be blamed for the pregnancy. During the second season, when Mendez is returned to the prison after his suspension for having sex with Daya, Bennett becomes outraged and uncharacteristically takes out his rage on Vee's gang. He then drags one of Daya's friends to the SHU when she tries to blackmail him. He attempts to continue his relationship with Daya in secret, but she believes that he should confess the relationship and serve time in prison for it, so that they may be together when they both complete their sentences. Regardless, the two share a number of sweet and romantic moments together, despite the situation. Eventually, he confesses to Caputo that he is the father of Daya's child. Caputo, not wanting another scandal two days into his trial period, tells him not to tell anybody else, or he will send Daya to max, where she may have to give birth in shackles. During the third season, Caputo continues to berate him for getting Daya pregnant. Despite this, Bennett proposes to Daya and intends to marry her after she is released. However, he is shaken from his intentions after a visit with Cesar, during which Cesar reveals himself to be abusive and points a gun at his son during dinner. Cesar gives Bennett Daya's childhood crib, but later Bennett ends up abandoning the crib on the side of the road before driving off and moving away. In flashbacks to his deployment in Afghanistan, he befriended Farzad, a member of the Afghan National Police, while filming a humorous parody video of Hollaback Girl with his unit to pass time. Later, Farzad discovered that some of his colleagues were about to execute an insider attack on Bennett's unit. He rushed into Bennett's tent to warn him, only to be shot dead by another soldier after yelling "bomb" and being mistaken for an attacker. Following this, the real attackers throw a grenade in Bennett's tent and he is last shown laying in the corner while another soldier jumps on top of the grenade.

Natalie Figueroa

Natalie "Fig" Figueroa (played by Alysia Reiner) – The former corrupt executive assistant to the warden. Figueroa claims to be a women's advocate for the prisoners, but is generally unconcerned with them and refuses to get involved in their problems. Arrogant and condescending, she puts on a tough facade to disguise her own insecurities and somewhat fragile personality. Sometimes, she shows odd displays of humanity and sensitivity, usually when the rest of the prison staff are being insufferable. Figueroa tries to avoid any scandals or media attention about goings-on at the prison, and her desire to cover up incidents allows Mendez to get away with his schemes, although it later works in favor of the inmates. She is revealed to have been embezzling funds from the prison's budget for her husband's state senate campaign, a secret which is in danger of being exposed due to the publicity the prison is getting from Larry's articles and radio interview. She spends the second season a step ahead of Larry and a reporter's hunt, focusing on her husband's campaign to become state senator and on getting pregnant. She is shown to be particularly uncaring during the second season, brought on by the stress of keeping the embezzlement under wraps, and her marriage is generally loveless and lacking physical affection. She is devastated and heartbroken when she sees her husband kissing his male campaign manager, and she is taken completely by surprise that her husband is a closet homosexual. Shortly after, Caputo confronts her with evidence of her embezzlement. She performs oral sex on him in an attempt to buy his silence, only to find out afterward that Caputo has already given copies of the evidence to the warden. Figueroa manages to avoid being fired or charged, resigning with a commendation for her services by the warden because he didn't want a scandal from the embezzlement and didn't want to make a political enemy of her husband. During the third season, she helps Caputo by giving him information on a private contractor that would take over the prison when it is being threatened with being closed down. She also begins an affair with him. Near the end of the fourth season, she speaks to Caputo, and ends up letting him know that MCC is planning to put even more inmates into the prison after building a new facility to house them.

Susan Fischer

Susan Fischer (played by Lauren Lapkus) – A rookie prison guard, Fischer used to bag groceries at a shop that Piper frequented in college, and recalls how Piper used to be a difficult customer. However, she is friendly toward Piper, informing her that she does not think any less of her for being in prison, since the only difference between them is that Fischer didn't get caught making mistakes. Piper appreciates her kind words and convinces her to suggest the reopening of the prison track. She displays a perpetually naive and cheerful demeanor, which endears some (especially Caputo) and irritates others. She struggles to come across as authoritative and strict, and her attempts to appear tough do not appear to intimidate any of the inmates in the slightest, on occasion, they even admonish Susan in return. Caputo seems to have a romantic interest in her, but it is revealed in the first-season finale that Susan has a boyfriend. In the second season, Nicky, while having a competition with Boo, begins hitting on her. Susan is initially oblivious, believing Nicky is just being friendly, until she makes her move and directly offers to have sex with her. Caught completely by surprise, she angrily brushes her off. Caputo, meanwhile, tries repeatedly to impress her with things like his hobby of playing in a band, but when he realizes she will never return his feelings, he gives up, and when Susan lashes out at him for enforcing Figueroa's harsh measures, he fires her in frustration. Before she leaves, she finds Nicky smoking in the chapel, but declines to admonish her since she was already fired. Seeing she is upset, Nicky offers her sympathy, and she jokes that she did consider her suggestion to have sex, before ultimately deciding against it. Nicky, in turn, advises her that getting fired may be the best thing that happened to her, since being a prison guard did not suit her. The two part on good terms.

Scott O'Neill

Scott O'Neill (played by Joel Marsh Garland) – An overweight and generally good-natured prison guard in a relationship with Wanda Bell. He is frequently shown eating, despite claiming to be on different fad diets. During the second-season finale, he is assigned to watch a group of nuns protesting outside the gate and taunts them with songs and insults about his own unhappy Catholic-school upbringing. In the third season, he gets into a verbal confrontation with Coates in his donuts shop after being offered red velvet donuts. Later, he becomes upset when he sees that Coates is applying to work at the prison. At the end of the third season, he was one of the guards that walked out after Caputo shut down the guard's union. During the fourth season, Donaldson mentions him when confronting Caputo at a restaurant, telling him that he heard O'Neill failed to seek treatment for kidney stones due to not having health insurance and is on dialysis as a result, with the possibility of losing a kidney.

Wanda Bell

Wanda Bell (played by Catherine Curtin) – A prison guard in a relationship with O'Neill, Bell is gruff, apathetic, and has little patience for inmates who waste her time, are unreasonable, or annoy her. Nonetheless, she tends to be the most professional of the guards and takes her work seriously, especially the occasional visits from the Scared Straight program. During these visits, she displays a much deeper insight into individual inmates' histories and personalities than the other guards. For example, she specifically requests Tricia and later Piper to scare an unusually resistant, wheelchair-bound delinquent adolescent, aware that their more philosophical natures will be more effective in reaching the girl. At the end of the third season, she walks out of the prison along with the other guards protesting Caputo's attempt to shut down their union. During the fourth season, she gets a job as a school crossing guard.

Eliqua Maxwell

Eliqua Maxwell (played by Lolita Foster) – The first guard Piper meets when she arrives at the prison in the first season. She was on duty as the receptionist for new prisoners turning themselves in. She was one of the COs that subdued Miss Claudette when she was choking Fischer. At the end of the third season, she was one of the guards that walked out on Caputo when he attempted to shut down the guard's union created in response to the benefits that were cut when MCC took over the prison.

Charles Ford

Charles Ford (played by Germar Terrell Gardner) – One of the COs at the prison. He was shown escorting Miss Rosa to one of her chemotherapy appointments and he escorted Christopher out of the visitor's room after he began to yell at Lorna during a visit. During the third season, he was one of the COs that confronted Caputo about the reduced benefits and hours the other guards were getting when MCC took over the prison. When Caputo was promoted to replace Pearson when he quit, he was the first CO to walk out when Caputo tried to shut down their union.

Wade Donaldson

Wade Donaldson (played by Brendan Burke) – A somewhat cranky and curmudgeonly guard who is perpetually worn-out by the antics of the inmates that he has to deal with. Nevertheless, he is surprisingly compassionate and good at dealing with difficult situations - on one occasion, he manages to help Daya recover from a panic attack almost immediately after discovering that she is having one, despite Bennett having spent ages trying to calm her. In the third season, he was assigned to help train new guard Baxter Bayley on the job when Pearson orders Caputo to cut their mandatory 40 hours of training short and ends up accidentally being pepper-sprayed when Bayley overreacts to a confrontation between two inmates. Later, he becomes embarrassed at the discovery that he is the basis for one of the characters in Suzanne's erotic tales. At the end of the season, he joins most of the other veteran guards by going on strike when Caputo shuts down the newly organized staff union. During the fourth season, he is seen working as a busboy at a restaurant Caputo and Linda visited. After Caputo tried to give him an anonymous tip, he confronted him, claimed that he was working three jobs, and told him he didn't want his money, only for Caputo to scold him and state that the walkout put the town in danger.

Berdie Rogers

Berdie Rogers (played by Marsha Stephanie Blake) – A prison counselor introduced in the third season. She takes a different approach than Healy in counseling troubled inmates and starts a drama class, which causes friction between her and Healy. She tells Alex that she wants to make a difference in the prison system, which Alex considers noble but futile. During drama class, Rogers pairs Alex and Piper together to perform an improv in a grocery store and the scene ends up causing them to release some of their tensions they were holding in. She also helps Brook and encourages her not to take antidepressants that were prescribed to her by Healy. She encourages Suzanne to write stories, which results in her creating erotic stories based on Donaldson that circulated around the prison. Caputo finds out about Suzanne's stories and puts Rogers on probation, which eventually turns into an indefinite suspension.

Aydin Bayat

Aydin Bayat (played by Juri Henley-Cohn) – One of Kubra Balik's enforcers. He is first seen in flashbacks featuring Alex in a nightclub. Later, he is seen killing Fahri, another one of Kubra's employees in his drug cartel, for allowing a professional working for Kubra to get arrested in Paris after failing to pick her up from the airport. Following Alex's return to Litchfield after her parole violation, Aydin applies for a job at Litchfield as a CO in order to get closer to her. Aydin confronts Alex alone in the prison greenhouse and attempts to choke her to death, under orders from Kubra to punish her for her testimony at his trial in Chicago, but is knocked unconscious by Lolly. Later that night, he is smothered to death by Alex after she finds him still breathing and his remains are buried in the prison garden the following morning.

Other characters

Polly Harper

Polly Harper (played by Maria Dizzia) – Piper's best friend of many years on the outside. Polly and Piper started a business together, which Polly ran while Piper was in prison. Polly is pregnant at the beginning of the series and is upset at Piper for getting herself locked up. She begins cutting Piper out of their business after Piper ignores a conference call they were supposed to make together. Flashbacks reveal that Polly was supportive of Piper exploring her sexuality, but disliked Alex and found Piper's taste in romantic partners of either sex horrendous. After Piper and Larry's break-up, she is seen to spend more and more time with Larry, as her husband Pete leaves her alone with her newborn. She eventually begins an affair with Larry, and she leaves Pete for Larry.

Pete Harper

Pete Harper (played by Nick Stevenson) – Polly's Australian husband and a friend of Larry and Piper. A running gag is that most characters dislike him to varying degrees and are confused about why Polly married him. He is seen to be somewhat annoying, selfish, and flighty, especially when he leaves on a trip of self-discovery shortly after his son was born. He also has a macho streak, shown when he punches Larry for having sex with Polly. Soon afterward, he leaves Polly, who states that Pete is happy to be relieved of the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood.

Carol and Bill Chapman

Carol Chapman and Bill Chapman (played by Deborah Rush and Bill Hoag) – Piper's affluent, appearance-conscious parents. Carol, catty and seemingly humorless, doesn't seem as supportive as Piper thinks she should be, and their visitations are usually awkward. She is rather formal and conventional, treating Piper's prison stay as a shame upon the family (and herself). On the other hand, Bill is outwardly supportive of his daughter but causes a rift with Piper when he refuses to visit her in prison, because "he doesn't want to see his daughter that way". In the third season, it is revealed that Bill had an affair with another woman during Piper's childhood, but the family glossed it over and he remained married to Carol.

Cal and Neri Chapman

Cal Chapman and Neri Chapman (played by Michael Chernus and Tracee Chimo) – Piper's younger brother and sister-in-law. Piper and Cal's parents long favored the high-achieving Piper and let Cal become a sarcastic, underachieving slacker. Since Piper's incarceration, their parents have begun expecting more of him, much to his dismay. Cal is friends with Larry, who often visits him at his trailer in the middle of nowhere, which he eventually shares with his hippie girlfriend (and later wife) Neri. In the second season, he and Neri marry at his grandmother's funeral. In the third season, Cal agrees to help Piper with her used panty business as her partner on the outside. Later, he admits to her that Neri is trying to make extra money by selling knock-off panties using a solution to simulate the odor along with the ones coming from the prison, which causes Piper to become upset and claim that his wife is "diluting" the brand. During the fourth season, Cal tells Piper that Neri is pregnant and that he started a new business to supplement their income after Piper's used panty business fell through.

Howard and Amy Bloom

Howard Bloom and Amy Kanter-Bloom (played by Todd Susman and Kathryn Kates) – Larry's parents. Though he is her lawyer, Larry's dad dislikes Piper and feels that Larry is making a mistake by being with her. They own the home where Larry is living, and let him slide on the rent. Howard wants Larry to find a real job and encourages him to lie to Piper about who really named her in her criminal case. In the second season, Howard advises Piper to tell the truth about the kingpin in her and Alex's case, but she does not heed his advice, and instead lies for Alex

Crystal Burset

Crystal Burset (played by Tanya Wright) – Sophia's wife Crystal was initially supportive of Sophia's transition, but encouraged her not to have gender confirmation surgery. In any case, Crystal felt it was better that her son have a father who was there for him, even if it was in a dress. She sometimes visits Sophia in prison and updates her on their son. Crystal refuses to smuggle in hormones for Sophia when the prison cuts her dosage. Later on, Crystal becomes close to the new pastor of her church, sparking Sophia's jealousy. Sister Ingalls convinces her that this is about Crystal's needs and not about Sophia or their son, and Sophia eventually gives her blessing for Crystal to act on her interest. During the third season, she agrees to allow Gloria's son to ride with her for their weekly visits with Sophia but she ends this practice after it appears that Gloria's son is a bad influence to her son. During the fourth season, she repeatedly seeks out Caputo, in an attempt to find out what is going on with Sophia after all communication is cut off when she is sent to the SHU. Eventually, she finds herself being forced off of Caputo's property at gunpoint by his girlfriend and MCC employee Linda. After Danny received a photo of Sophia in the SHU, she appeared with him at MCC headquarters and used copies of the photo to force the company to release Sophia from the SHU.

Cesar Velazquez

Cesar Velazquez (played by Berto Colon) – Aleida Diaz's boyfriend and a drug dealer. He is shown using Diaz's kitchen to cut/package drugs for sale. Aleida admits that she is in prison for taking the rap for him, and sometime after she was arrested Daya started sleeping with him. Despite this, it is clear he cares deeply for Daya and Aleida. In the first season, after Aleida contacts him about Daya's pregnancy, he immediately comes upstate, turns up unexpectedly at Bennet's house and vets him for fatherhood, warning him that he will need a larger house with more room, and to start saving his money. In the third season, he invites Bennett to his house for dinner and shows him his new girlfriend Margarita and his baby with her. He then gives Bennett a crib for his unborn child with Daya, which Bennett ends up abandoning on the side of the road. Several weeks after Bennett disappears, Cesar breaks into his house to look for him and he promises Daya that he will kill him if he ever sees him again. After Daya gives birth, he takes custody of her child, but the child is taken by Child Protective Services after the DEA raids his house. During the fourth season, it is revealed that he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Margarita

Margarita (played by Karina Ortiz) – Cesar's girlfriend and the mother of his youngest daughter. She is first seen when Bennett comes to visit Cesar, and Bennett is instructed not to mention her to Aleida or Daya. She is present when Cesar's house is raided by the DEA at the end of season three. During the fourth season, she picks up Aleida from prison when she was released on parole, and took her out to a restaurant before telling her that Cesar got her pregnant. She got into an argument with Aleida in a clothing store after she admitted that she wasn't going to stay faithful to Cesar while he was in prison. Despite the argument, she ends up allowing Aleida to stay with her, and at the end of the fourth season she is watching Caputo's announcement of Poussey's death with her.

Jean Baptiste

Jean Baptiste (played by James McDaniel) – Jean originally brought Miss Claudette to the U.S. and set her up at the cleaning company. He later broke her heart by marrying another woman but briefly reconnected with Miss Claudette after his wife's death.

Delia Mendez-Powell

Delia Mendez Powell (played by Mary Steenburgen) – Mendez's mother. She comes to the prison at the request of Aleida to discuss Daya's child under the assumption that she is the child's paternal grandmother. She plans to adopt the baby after she is born and mentions that Mendez was the "bad" child, with her other two sons growing up to be a dentist and an art historian. Eventually, Daya tells Delia that Mendez isn't the baby's father, but that she still wants to give the baby up for adoption. Delia tries to tell her son during a prison visit, but he is immediately in denial, refusing to accept the fact that he wasn't the father of Daya's child. Shortly after the baby is born, Aleida calls her and tells her that the baby died during childbirth, although this was a ruse in order to give the baby to Cesar instead.

Vince Muccio

Vincent "Vince" Muccio (played by John Magaro) – Lorna's pen pal and later husband. During their first encounter, Lorna confuses details about Vince with some of the other men she was writing, causing an awkward situation before Vince states that he is okay with her writing other men. As the two come closer, Lorna tells him about her former obsession Christopher, causing Vince to take some of his friends to his house to teach him a lesson. Vince comes to the prison intending to break up with Lorna and she proposes in response, which he accepts. The two get married in the prison's visiting center and have sex for the first time on a vending machine while Officer Bell is standing guard in the other room. During the fourth season, he admits to Lorna that he still lives with his parents. He starts to communicate with Lorna less frequently, sometimes going several weeks without visiting. Eventually, he finds himself being accused of cheating due to his lack of communication with Lorna.

Kubra Balik

Kubra Balik (played by Eyas Younis) – Alex's former drug boss. In the second season, he was in Chicago on trial, and despite Alex testifying against him he was set free. After gaining his freedom, it was presumed that he would seek revenge on Alex for her testimony. In the third season, it was shown that he sent Aydin into the prison as a CO in order to punish her, and is led to believe that Alex is dead when he received posed pictures of her feigning death after Aydin is knocked unconscious at the beginning of the fourth season.

Fahri

Fahri (played by Sebastian LaCause) – One of Kubra Balik's employees. Fahri first meets Alex shortly after she meets with her father and he ends up introducing her to Kubra's drug cartel. During the third season, he offers Alex a ride after she attended her mother's funeral, later telling her that Kubra sent him to the U.S. to look for more business. In Paris, Fahri was supposed to pick up a professional at the airport, but Alex convinces him to stay at a nightclub with her instead. Later, he finds out that the professional was arrested and he becomes fearful of Kubra's retaliation for the arrest. While in a hotel room with Alex and Aydin, he is shot to death by Aydin after Aydin received orders from Kubra to kill him from an hotel employee. Kubra later reveals to Alex that he did not kill Fahri solely for his mistake at the airport, which was merely his tipping point, but because he was becoming careless, lazy and a liability.

Linda Ferguson

Linda Ferguson (played by Beth Dover) – An MCC employee that works in purchasing. During a meeting at MCC, she agrees with Caputo's suggestion of using veterans to replenish the shortage of guards because of the tax breaks the company would receive. She starts a relationship with Caputo, and frequently showed him that she is more concerned with financial breaks she can get for the company than the welfare of the prisoners, and later admits that she never stepped foot in a prison. During a night at Caputo's house, when Crystal came over to ask about Sophia's well-being, she forced her off of Caputo's property at gunpoint. At the end of the fourth season, she visits the prison for the first time when Caputo is about to do the press release announcing Poussey's death, and she is in the bathroom when the women start rioting.

Grace Warren

Grace Warren (played by Sarah Rish) – Suzanne's adoptive sister, and the biological daughter of Suzanne's adoptive parents. She was born when Suzanne was five years old, and is shown allowing her to participate in parties with her friends. When Grace is 23, she lives with her boyfriend Brad and Suzanne, and always spends the weekends home with her due to Suzanne being afraid to be home alone. She is happy when she hears that Suzanne was named employee of the month at her job, and then lets her know that she and Brad decided to spend a weekend away. After reassuring her that she would be fine and giving Suzanne a list of things to do while they are gone, they leave for the weekend, not knowing what Suzanne would eventually end up doing while she was gone.

See also

• List of Orange Is the New Black characters

References