The first season of Oz stars Ernie Hudson as Warden Leo Glynn, Terry Kinney as Emerald City Unit Manager Tim McManus, Harold Perrineau as inmate and narrator Augustus Hill, and Eamonn Walker as new inmate and devout Muslim Kareem Saïd.
The season showed how the different gangs fight each other as well as the prison system, culminating in a riot in which the inmates take over Emerald City.
It also starred Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as inmate and Homeboys gang leader Simon Adebisi, Edie Falco as correctional officer Diane Whittlesey, George Morfogen as long-term inmate Bob Rebadow, Lauren Vélez as prison doctor Gloria Nathan, and BD Wong as the prison chaplain Father Ray Mukada.
Tony Masters played by Steven Wishnoff, Fiona Zonioni and Kiki Dowling are introduced as The Gays when Emerald City reopens in episode 2.
Season two of Oz continued to show the aftermath of the riot and the lessons each character learned from it.