Raymond Santana, Jr. (Teen)

Raymond Santana Jr. is fourteen, a Harlem kid who draws and hangs around with friends after school, nothing more remarkable than that. One night he's swept up with a group of boys near Central Park and pulled into a police station, confused and frightened, insisting he's done nothing wrong to detectives who have already decided otherwise.

Marquis Rodriguez plays the unraveling of a child under pressure with unbearable precision — the way politeness curdles into panic, the way a kid tries to be cooperative with people determined to destroy him. Ava DuVernay's writing refuses to let Raymond become a symbol; he stays specific, stubborn, and terribly young throughout.