“	Age of the geek, baby!	”
— Alec Hardison

Growing up in a foster home, Alec Hardison knows two things best: computers and technology.

A geek of the first order, Hardison (as he is usually called) handles the team's electronics and monitors the team's communications through modified bone conduction earbuds.

He also modified the team's cellphones, which the team can use for a variety of uses. While not a grifter like Sophie, as a hacker (and through his foster grandmother), Hardison has developed excellent social engineering skills. Always quick with a joke or snide remark, his lack of maturity has caused the team problems, but he always comes through in the clutch. Hardison's natural charm allows him to get along easily with most people.

His relationships with the team vary. He has special relationships with two members of his team. With Eliot Spencer, it's more of a friendly rivalry. With Parker, it's more akin to romantic attraction. As of episode one of Season 5 Hardison is dating Parker. Hardison is not to be underestimated whether in cyberspace or the real world.

It is through Hardison's expertise that Leverage Consulting & Associates gains the technologies around the earbuds and cell phones. Hardison is also the handler of the various vans that the team has used.

At the end of The Panamanian Monkey Job Hardison went to Sri Lanka to prevent total economic collapse. Before leaving he created a new base for Leverage International in New Orleans.

History

Early Life

Hardison grew up in the foster system. At eight years old, he had a foster mother who was a Jehovah’s Witness who made him knock on doors to spread the word. Hardison credits this experience as what taught him how to talk to people. ^[1]

When Hardison was young, he was brought into a foster home run by Nana. ^[2]

Hardison played the violin till he was 14, but gave it up when he discovered the internet. ^[3]

He started working with technology in high school. ^[4]

Hardison hacked the bank of Iceland to pay off Nana’s medical bills. ^[5]

Became one of the world’s best hackers, wanted for many crimes. He was known for working alone.

In 2003, Hardison was pretending to be Mick Jagger in a hotel room filled with girls dressed as Princess Leia. ^[6]

Season 1

Victor Dubenich recruits Hardison, along with Eliot Spencer and Parker, to do a con run by Nathan Ford. The team is tasked with stealing back intellectual property, which Victor claimed had been stolen from him. However, the team discovered that Victor wanted the documents for himself, having never belonged to him. Nate recruits Sophie Devereaux to help them to work together to get back at Victor. Hardison takes an immediate liking to Parker during the job. The team, having all previously worked alone, agrees to do the one job, but after realizing how good it felt to take down the bad guy, they agree to do another job together with Nate leading them. ^[6]

Hardison calls the team to a new job. In the time since their last job, Hardison together with Nate’s funding, set up a base in an apartment building in Los Angeles. Hardison sets it up as a business called Leverage Consulting & Associates. Hardison also created fake identities for the team and cover stories for them as associates of the fake business he created. Hardison also equipped the place with high tech, for him to work with and help the team. The crew agrees to take on the job, but they begin to get worried once they realize people could get hurt. After they finish the job, the team agrees to keep working together. ^[7]

Due to Nate’s increased drinking, the team stages an intervention. The team tells Nate he needs to take down Ian Blackpool, the head of IYS, who denied Nate’s son’s hospital bills. When the con goes sideways, Hardison is forced to blow up their headquarters. ^[8]

Three months after the team’s covers were blown, each of them individually stakes out the art gallery with the intention of robbing it. None of them felt good having not finished the job. During the job, Hardison finds them a new safe house that the IRS foreclosed on for the team to hide out in. After taking down Ian and IYS, the team agrees to scatter for a few months till the heat has died down on them.^[9]

Season 2

During the team’s break, Hardison hacked the White House servers. ^[10]

Sophie invited the team to watch her performance in The Sound of Music. After Sophie’s performance, they all go back to Nate’s place, which is above a bar. With Sophie feeling horrible due to negative reviews on her performance, Parker suggests they steal something to cheer Sophie up. The team takes on a case Nate accidentally got involved in. After the job, Hardison buys Nate’s building, becoming his landlord and begins setting up the new Leverage HQ in Nate’s apartment with Parker and Eliot’s help. ^[10]

The team gets themselves into some high stakes, taking down a corrupt mayor. Nate makes a deal with Sterling offering himself up to let his team go free. ^[11]

Season 3

The team wants to break Nate out of jail during his trial, but Nate wants to do his time and thinks it’s too risky. While in jail, Nate finds the team a job. During the job, the team manages to get Nate out of jail. The team attracted the attention of a woman who forces the team to take Damien Moreau, or else she’ll make sure Nate goes back to prison. ^[12]

In The Scheherazade Job, Hardison reveals to Nate that he wants to run his own crew one day.

During The Double Blind Job, Hardison gets close with one of their clients. Parker gets jealous, and Sophie encourages her to tell Hardison her feelings. Parker, getting scared, tells Hardison she has feelings for him by saying she has feelings for pretzels. Hardison understands and tells her that the pretzels (him) will be right there when she wants them.

When the team learns that Damien Moreau is coming to Boston, they realize it’s the perfect opportunity to take him down. In order to take him down, they need to destroy a bomb he was planning on selling for a huge sum of money. After defusing the bomb on a train with Parker’s help, Parker tells Hardison she’s in the mood for pretzels. ^[13]

Afterwards, the team chased Damian down to San Lorenzo and made the politician he had “bought” lose the race, even leading to convincing that man to have him arrested, making Moreau no longer a threat. ^[14]

Season 4

Hardison finds that Nate’s place is bugged. ^[15]

In The Carnival Job, Hardison makes a safe-cracking robot in Parker’s honor.

Hardison is buried alive in a casket in The Grave Danger Job.

During The Boys’ Night Out Job, Hardison begins to worry and question his and Parker’s blooming relationship. Hardison asks for Eliot’s advice, and Eliot tells Hardison that he thinks Hardison is going too slow with Parker.

Hardison takes the lead during The Gold Job. Nate doesn’t think Hardison is up for it but eventually allows Hardison to take full control when realizing they can’t do the con without him. Hardison makes an over-complicated plan that ultimately backfires, but luckily Nate was prepared for Hardison’s plan to fail. Nate tells Hardison he did a good job and that everyone flails their first time.

The reappearance of Nate’s father, Jimmy, leads to a final confrontation with Latimer and his secret partner, Victor Dubenich. It takes a team of old friends and rivals to bring the two down. ^[16]

Season 5

Hardison contacts Sophie, Nate, and Eliot. He and Parker picked a job. Hardison has opened a new leverage HQ in Portland, Oregon. He bought the Bridgeport microbrewery as a part of their cover. He equipped their new HQ with the latest tech and high ceilings for Parker. Portland was originally just supposed to be a stopover while things cooled down. But Nate’s place is being surveilled by law enforcement of all types, so Nate’s apartment is burned. The team’s old aliases are also burned, so they have to start over from scratch. Parker reveals to the team that she and Hardison are dating. It is later revealed that Nate had them stay in Portland for a reason that he has Hardison hiding from the rest of the team. ^[17]

The reason Nate had them stay in Portland was that he was after the black book, a record of all illegal transactions made by bankers and wealthy people that led to the financial crisis of 2007–08 that Interpol has. They successfully pull off the con, and Nate decides to retire, proposing to Sophie. Sophie and Nate say their goodbyes to the others. Hardison tells them his plans to expand the team to Leverage International. Nate tells Hardison not to get too cocky. Hardison, Eliot, and Parker continue to take on cases, with Parker leading the team. ^[18]

Leverage: Redemption

Season One

In the time after Sophie and Nate left, Hardison, Parker and Eliot set up 12 international Leverage teams

Eight years later, the team meets up at Nate’s grave on the one-year anniversary of Nate’s death. Hardison is working with refugee groups. Sophie hasn’t been keeping in contact with the team, and Parker suggests she needs to steal something. Hardison has equipped some of Eliot’s food trucks with tech equipment so they can do the cons on the move. ^[19]

While helping Sophie steal a painting from the Boston Museum of art, they find out that someone else is going to steal a painting. Eliot knocks the guy out, and they bring him back to Sophie’s. The team learns that his name is Harry Wilson, and he is a lawyer that worked for the Fletcher Maxwell. Harry wants to redeem himself for his wrongdoings and get back at Maxwell. The team agrees to help Harry and manages to discredit Maxwell, but he goes on the run, escaping punishment for his crimes. ^[19]

The team follows Maxwell to Panama, New Orleans. During the con, Hardison is distracted buy his work with the NGOs. Eliot realizes they’re being watched by a drone, and they follow it back to his food truck, finding Breanna, Hardison’s foster sister, inside. Breanna asks to help them, wanting to be a part of the team. Parker is hesitant at first, but Hardison convinces her to let Breanna join. He tells her that Breanna’s getting into the same stuff he was at her age and that she just needs someone to help point her in the right direction. Harry found them a building to use while in town. At the end of their con, Hardison buys the building as a new HQ for the team. Hardison tells them he has to leave to go help out in Sri Lanka. While Parker is sad, she understands that he has to go. ^[20]

Harry and Eliot go to Brunei to help Harrison with an extradition. ^[21]

Hardison is in Yamen, moving a satellite to provide internet for the people. ^[22]

Hardison sent library kid, Maurice to the team.  ^[23]

While undercover, Harry was working secretly with Hardison to take down RIZ. Hardison rejoins the team, along with Harry, to work together to take down RIZ. ^[24]

Season Two

Hardison shows up to stop a car after Bradley Smikov gets kidnapped and thrown into it. After putting Bradley into a safe house, Hardison goes to the New Orleans headquarters, surprising the team and asking for their help.^[25]

While the team is having troubles on a con, Hardison sends them a failsafe he created that will deactivate any of their code which he named the T-1000, after his and Parker’s 3rd date.^[26]

Hardison and Parker go on a dinner date on a rooftop, where she worries about Hardison going to space to fix a satellite. After their date, they break into the Safe Haven free port. They had planned the experience with the team’s help as one big adventure to last the entire time they were apart. The pair end up getting locked in the vault, and the rest of the team has to rescue them. At the end of the episode, Hardison assures Parker they’ll be fine while apart because they are Parker and Hardison.^[27]

While in space on the satellite, Hardison video chats with the team and learns that Eliot is adopted.^[28]

In “The Work Study Job”, Hardison plays the eccentric billionaire while in space on the satellite.

In "The Crowning Achievement Job", Hardison video calls the team to tell them he’s stuck in space. He asks if they can rescue him. The team jokes, pretending that they’re going to leave Hardison stranded, but then they return to hear his plan.

Relationships with Other Characters

Hardison's overconfidence comes out in Season 3 as he gains experience with the team. He is unique in the sense that he is put into multiple situations where he had to be a thief (Parker) and a grifter (Sophie). This leads him to believe he is ready for the next level, planning for his own crew although Nate believes otherwise.

Parker

Hardison often works closest with Parker, as their two skill sets compliment one another. As a result, Hardison develops a crush on Parker. Parker was originally either oblivious to this or ignored it. (In The Stork Job, he expressed some of his feelings toward her in the description of the Leverage Team, "We're more than just a team." In The First David Job, she makes out with Hardison to elude physical security, which leaves him even more confused as to their relationship, as she doesn't mention it again.) Season 3 has definitely shown that the two have become very close, and now Parker has shown she has feelings for Hardison. They dance together at the end of The Reunion Job. At the end of The Double Blind Job, after a feeble attempt on Parker's part at trying to express her feelings for him, Hardison made it clear he will be there when she is ready. In The Big Bang Job, Parker tells Hardison she is in the mood for pretzels, referencing their conversation at the end of The Double Blind Job. In The Carnival Job, he makes Parker a robot, naming it Parker 2000. At the end of the episode, Parker changes the name to 'Hardy'. In The Long Way Down Job, it seems like they might be dating when Parker says, "I should meet your nana." to which he answers "Yeah you should, she's really... Wait, what?" In the The Grave Danger Job, they showed how much they care for each other when Hardison was almost killed. The two were on the phone when he said, "Parker, don't hang up the phone. Please, I need you." He kisses Parker on the cheek/neck at the end of the episode.

In The Boy’s Night Out Job, Hardison tells Shelly that Parker’s not his girlfriend despite his trying. He’s worried that Parker’s getting second thoughts. Hardison gets worried and jealous when Parker sends Hardison a picture of a known thief who’s very attractive. When Hardison asks for Eliot’s advice, Eliot tells him that he thinks Hardison is going too slow with Parker. ^[29]

As of season 5 episode 1, the two are dating. In season 5 episode 2, Parker is seen wearing Hardison's shirt, and in the next episode Parker climbs on top of Hardison inside an air vent and whispers to him, millimeters from his lips, "see, vents are better", to which Hardison replies, "this isn't that bad". At the end of this episode, Hardison and Parker's plan to go on a picnic under the stars is foiled when a big thunder storm cuts in. Parker is disappointed, but Hardison cheers her up by electronically creating stars so they can have the picnic inside. She then whispers to him, "I'll be right here", and points to his heart, then the two hug. ^[30] The pair are dating throughout the rest of the season.

By Leverage: Redemption, it's clear the pair have cemented their relationship. The pair are always shown wearing correlating necklaces; Parker a lock and Harrison a key (referencing their conversation in The Beantown Bail Out Job, where Parker used an analogy of a lock). These necklaces could be a symbol of their relationship and possibly commitment to each other.

Sophie Devereaux

Sophie is a teammate to Hardison. It is clear to him that she and Nate have a deeper relationship and he respects her as much as he respects Nathan. In Sophie's absence during Season 2 ("The Ice Man Job"), Hardison calls her for help. It is slowly revealed through the episode Parker and Eliot also called for help, each making Sophie promise she wouldn't tell Nate.

Nathan Ford

As the team leader, Hardison respects Nate. When Nate rebukes Hardison in "The Mile High Job", Hardison buckles down and manages the "impossible", which eventually helps him save the day. In "The Nigerian Job", Hardison is quick to realize that Nate is a good influence on him. Also, Hardison is Nate's landlord after he secretly buys the apartment building used for Leverage Headquarters in the second season.

Eliot Spencer

At first, Hardison and Eliot are combative, as their disciplines oppose and often clash. (Hardison is the covert backdoor electronic type, while Eliot is the physical and less subversive operative). Eventually, each sees the need for the other, and when they work together, good things happen. The pair settle into a healthy, friendly rivalry and become very protective of each other. Eliot says in "The Office Job", "nobody throws Hardison off a building. ...except maybe me." In Season 5, they are seen singing a short duet together (called "Lucille" after Hardison's van).

Breanna Casey

to be added from the Leverage 2.0 announcements

Skills

• Hacking - He gathers all the recon material the team needs for the case (S02EP06) and because of this he usually does the mission briefings for each job. Hardison erases the electronic paper trail so they cannot be tracked after each job, and is similarly able to track and trace anybody who leaves an electronic trail (S01EP04). He taps into all the banking and CIA systems, regularly uses computer viruses, and managed to hack the San Lorenzo email system to send a message to every citizen in just an hour (S03EP16), and hacked into the White House email in 3 days (S02EP01). On the job, he is usually behind the scenes, operating from one of the team's vans, as the main contact amongst the other Leverage members — analyzing footage, monitoring comms, scanning police frequencies... (S02EP07).
• Inventor/Technician/Engineer: Hardison is a skilled inventor, having developed the team's Earbuds and built the E.M.P. Gun.
• Electronics
• Social network engineering
• Limited pickpocketing skills (while the team was held prisoner inside a hospital, Hardison was able to lift a cell phone from one of the doctors, and he was also able to use a claw to lift two sets of car keys from U.S. Marshals' pockets.)
• A pedestrian appreciation for art, as he is an amateur painter, but confesses that he is not well versed in "Dead Guy Art".
• Improvisation, Hardison was an attendee of Second City in Chicago.
• Plays the violin. He was a very good violinist when he was a teenager, and he gained standing ovations after his performance in The Scheherazade Job, although it was revealed that Nate had hypnotized him.
• Grifting (with the help of Sophie) — Not a good grifter because he tends to oversell himself. In his titular role in The Ice Man Job he overdoes it and ends up kidnapped by the Russian mobsters instead. Impersonating a real estate lawyer in The Gold Job he scares the marks away by trying to get them to close a deal immediately.
• Bomb making.
• Forger (as seen in The King George Job)
• Creating CIA level cover stories and IDs — these are so extensive that Parker’s alias Alice White gets called up for jury duty. (SE01EP11).
• Very financially savvy, he earned the team a windfall by buying the right shares and even more than expected because he knows how to play the markets (S01EP01). According to Kung Fu Monkey, he was the financial mastermind in complicated insurance scams which in turn led to him meeting Nate.
• Chemistry - he knew enough to create the miracle that made the statue cry in The Miracle Job (S01EP04)
• People skills - He attributes his people skills to being raised a Jehovah's Witness and going door to door to speak with strangers when he was young. This experience paid off at least once when he won a losing case with a touching closing statement while pretending to be a lawyer.
• Disguises

Weaknesses

• Overconfidence at times and a lack of confidence when things go south.
• Completely useless with firearms.
• Claustrophobic.^[31]
• Is afraid of heights and rappelling, often landing upside down whenever he goes rappelling with Parker.
• It took him a while to become an adept physical combatant.
• Is a lightweight in terms of alcohol.

Trivia

• He has a catchphrase, "age of the geek", that repeats everytime he does something impossible with his computer.
• For unknown reasons, he is almost always called by his last name, rather than his first.
• He is left handed as seen in The D.B. Cooper Job.
• He was able to crack the Pentagon servers when he was only 12 years old (S05EP09).
• Used his hacking skills to go to the Oscars every year since he was 15 (S04E02). Was shown supposedly sitting next to Halle Berry.

• According to James Sterling's people, Hardison is wanted in Iceland. This was later revealed in the Season 3 episode, The Reunion Job when Parker asked whether he went to his prom night, he said that he was busy, while actually at that moment, he made The Bank of Iceland pay his nana's medical bill which is presumably what landed him on the list in the first place.
• After Leverage Consulting & Associates moved to Boston, Hardison frequently used a van which he named Lucille. It was destroyed in the episode "The Three Strikes Job" as a diversion. Afterward, he was very mad at Nate, saying that he killed Lucille while telling Nate to go kiss his ass.
• Has a residence in Chicago which was used initially by the Leverage Team as a base of operations in The Nigerian Job.
• Hardison is a fan of various genres of Science Fiction, making references to: Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, and Star Wars. He was caught impersonating Mick Jagger in a hotel room with 3 Leia wannabes holding lightsabers and tried to use the Jedi mind trick to escape (S01EP01). He tries to get Eliot to use a code that references odd numbered Star Trek films as meaning everything is ok, and references to even numbered Star Treks meaning something is wrong. He used Ralph O'Khan (Wrath of Khan) to hint to Eliot he was in danger (S02EP03). Fan of Doctor Who – watches the show regularly (S01EP05), also uses the names of past Doctor Who actors as aliases, like Tom Baker and Sarah Jane (S01EP08).
• Has been confused by fans for being the tailback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
• Favorite beverage is Squeeze Orange Soda, and his favorite snack is gummy frogs.
• Is religious but is non-denominational.
• Has a dog named Megabyte (Reboot reference).
• Played violin until he was 14, then he picked up computers.
• Various clues in the third season suggest his birthday is between February-July (he is stated as being 24 in both The Scheherazade Job and The San Lorenzo Job). The Big Bang Job takes place 5 months after the Jailhouse Job, placing the time frame as August to January respectively.
• Has aspirations to run his own crew; however, Nate thinks he lacks the quality to do whatever it takes to make his crew work (S03EP04).
• According to Parker, he touches his chin once every 2.4 minutes.
• Has a fear of heights (S01EP01) or at the very least jumping off heights with just a harness.
• His way of inflicting revenge on a person is sending them 1000 porno magazines (S01EP01)
• Unbelievably bad shot, evidenced when he shot the paintball gun (S01EP04) and when he accidentally shot out a car's engine when he said he was aiming for the person's leg (S01EP10).
• Enjoys playing World of Warcraft - in fact, he enjoys it so much he overslept for a job because he was up the previous night playing the new expansion pack much to Nate's strong disapproval. (S01EP08).
• Has a tell in Rock-Paper-Scissors, according to Eliot (S01EP09).
• Most susceptible to hypnosis, according to Sophie (S03EP04).
• Owns a Green Lantern action figure.
• Is known to blow large sums of money on a whim. Bought large mansion that was rumored to have belonged to MC Hammer, in an attempt to "lay low" after him and the crew split up for a brief period after The First David Job (S01EP12). Also bought a red Ferrari (mentioned below) just for a big-shot character he was portraying in a grift (S02EP08). Also bought Nate's entire apartment complex, becoming his landlord, just so he could move in his equipment against Nate's wishes.
• He is 24 in S03EP16.
• He has a younger foster sister.
• CIA file in S04EP11 indicates he was once arrested in a nightclub in Washington DC. However, the file contains information inconsistent with previous facts - indicates age of 33 when he would have been 25 according to information in other episodes. The file also indicates that he is divorced, was born in Los Angeles, and is a business owner.
• His alias (Alistair Lethbridge Stewart) in Redemption S01E02 is a major background character in Dr Who, a British Sci-Fi show that Hardison showed heavy interest in.
• Hardison spends his weekends making their cover uniforms^[32]
• Hardison painted a painting of an older version of Nate, implying that he’s a pretty good painter^[7]. It’s revealed in The Bottle Job that Hardison hide money in the painting, which is why he always moved the painting with them to various headquarters.
• Hardison and Parker created a flowchart with cue cards to help Parker with conversation while grifting. ^[33]

Vehicles

• His personal vehicle is a Black Hyundai Genesis sedan, equipped with GPS tracking.
• In "The Ice Man Job", Hardison buys a red Ferrari
• Hardison owns many black vans over the course of the series, which are equipped with tech for the team to use while on the con. He dubs the van Lucille. Many get blown up

Notables Episodes

Season 1

• "The Nigerian Job"
• "The Mile High Job"

Season 2

• "The Three Days of the Hunter Job
• "The Ice Man Job

Season 3

• "The Scheherazade Job"
• "The Double Blind Job"
• "The Gone Fishin' Job"

Season 4

• "The Van Gogh Job"
• "The Grave Danger Job"
• "The Experimental Job"
• "The Boys' Night Out Job"
• "The Gold Job"

Season 5

• "The Rundown Job"
• "The Long Goodbye Job"

Leverage: Redemption

Season 1

• "The Too Many Rembrandts Job"
• "The Panamanian Monkey Job"

Season 2

• "The Date Night Job"

Season 3

• "The Weekend in Paris Job"

Links

• earbuds
• Character page for Hardison on the TNT website (archived)