The Atlanta Character You Are Based On Your Zodiac Sign

Donald Glover's mercurial FX comedy "Atlanta" is a tough show to pin down. On paper, it seems relatively simple: An intelligent but aimless man named Earn (Glover) finds himself managing the career of his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry), AKA Paper Boi, an up-and-coming Atlanta rapper and part-time drug dealer. From that starting point, Glover and his collaborators — most notably his brother Stephen and director Hiro Murai — create a kaleidoscopic portrait of Black life in America and beyond in the 21st century. Hilarious and haunting in equal measure, the show's style is expansive enough to include both the absurdist comedy of a rival rapper's invisible car and the Southern Gothic horror that is Teddy Perkins.

Beyond its central quartet — Earn, Alfred, their stoner-philosopher friend Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Earn's off-and-on girlfriend Vanessa (Zazie Beetz) — "Atlanta” hosts a wide cross-section of its titular city's citizens, from mooching ex-cons to wealthy businessmen. But which character best fits your personality? We can look to the stars for guidance, but be warned: Like in the show itself, the results may not be pretty, but they will be honest. Here's the "Atlanta" character you are based on your zodiac sign.

Competition is in Aries' blood. If they weren't already the first symbol of the zodiac calendar, they'd hustle until they were. Fierce independence, passion, excellent leadership — all of these are positive and strongly desired traits. But there can often be too much of a good thing, and Aries needs to watch out for the darker side of these qualities as well: Selfishness, a short temper, and a tendency to use people.

All of these traits can be found in Clark County, the rap star played by actor RJ Walker in "Atlanta" Season 2. For Alfred, he's an idol, a competitor, and a bit of a cautionary tale at the same time. Al and Darius witness Clark's Aries energy firsthand while visiting his studio in the episode "Money Bag Shawty." Clark makes a big show of welcoming them in, but the good vibes soon curdle, first when he politely refuses their gifts of weed and Hennessy, and again when he blames and berates his sound engineer for technical difficulties. Crafty and confident, Clark County is a perfect choice as the Aries of "Atlanta."

Tauruses are homebodies — creatures of comfort. They enjoy the finer things in life, which you might not expect from a sign with a symbol as large and reckless as the bull. But underneath that rough exterior, bulls can be surprisingly gentle, and a Taurus' stubborn nature can likewise be soothed with sensual pleasures. Touch and taste are what they seek.

Alfred's friend Tracy, played by Khris Davis, shows up in the first episode of "Atlanta" Season 2 — fresh out of jail and making himself right at home on Al's couch, much to the chagrin of Earn. Like the symbolic bull, Tracy's size and swagger conceal a taste for beauty and self-care, exemplified by the titular hairstyle in the episode "Sportin' Waves." He describes the process he takes to get the perfect waves in his hair so lovingly that Darius can't help but try to peek under Tracy's durag to see how they're coming along. Later in the same episode, Tracy heads to the mall for a pedicure to remedy his "vampire toes." He's comfortable in his own skin and unapologetically himself, with a confidence that seems custom-designed to rub Earn the wrong way. The two are compelling opposites, as demonstrated in the episode "Money Bag Shawty" when Tracy claims that he, not Earn, is Alfred's manager in order to impress some dancers at a strip club.

The classic drag against Gemini is that, like their symbol of celestial twins, they are two-faced. While that can certainly be the case at times, the full truth is more complicated. A Gemini is rarely duplicitous, and what you see is usually what you get. Their duplicitous reputation really comes from their competing priorities, passions, and social circles. There's so much for a Gemini to do, and life's just too short to get hung up on one thing or another.

The key Gemini in "Atlanta" is someone the show has only featured once, but whose role in the overall narrative is pivotal. Van's jet-setting childhood friend Jayde (Aubin Wise) breezes into town in the Season 1 episode "Value." Their dinner date turns from loving to tense and back again at the drop of a hat, as Jayde flaunts her lifestyle and not-so-subtly looks down on Van's domesticity. "We used to make fun of girls like you," she tells Van, whose beauty and talent she claims could bring her so much more than co-parenting with Earn. Van defends her life choices, but Jayde's comments stick with her. The night also proves consequential in a more tangible way, as a surprise drug test at work the next day leads to Van losing her job as a schoolteacher.

Cancer is represented in the zodiac by the crab, a creature whose insides are protected by a hard outer shell. This manifests in human Cancers as self-preservation, cautiousness, a preference for staying at home, and a powerful intuition. But like real crabs, what lies underneath a Cancer's exterior can be much softer and more vulnerable.

Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles, played by Brian Tyree Henry, is "Atlanta's" resident Cancer. Alfred has many protective layers, from his Paper Boi persona to his seemingly perpetual marijuana high. But there's also a fierce intelligence that sits behind Alfred's eyes — a constant skepticism about the world that he's found himself in. One of Henry's many gifts as an actor is how well he's able to convey Alfred's shifting moods with little more than his subtle facial expressions, as when a would-be tryst in Amsterdam at the start of Season 3 ends with two Dutch women destroying Alfred's hotel room. He's often as much of an audience surrogate as his cousin Earn. Put together, the two make a pretty perfect pair, with Glover's verbal comedy matching Henry's physical comedy. Season 3 finds Alfred touring in Europe, enjoying his rising fame as the layer between himself and his Paper Boi persona grows thinner. Hopefully, his intuition will always stay as sharp as his lyrics.

The celebrity of the zodiac, Leo is a preening lion. Everywhere they go is an event, every room is a stage, and every light is a spotlight. Leos are well-liked for their passion and dedication, for their energy, and for the warm feelings they inspire in others. And sometimes, they're well-liked just for being themselves, no matter how much that can rub other people the wrong way.

That's how it goes for megastar Justin Bieber, who shows up in the Season 1 episode "Nobody Beats the Biebs," sort of. In one of the show's first truly surreal touches, the Bieber in the world of "Atlanta" is not a scrawny white Canadian, but rather a scrawny African American played by Austin Crute. Bieber is in town to participate in a charity basketball match that Alfred has also been invited to play in (alongside erstwhile Steve Urkel Jaleel White, playing himself). Immediately, the Biebs' antics get on Alfred's nerves, while Earn is as annoyingly starstruck as everyone else. The young star is a showboat during the game, and eventually, his tensions with Al boil over into a fight right there on the paint, which Bieber then apologizes for at a press conference that becomes a performance of his latest single. Typical Leo.

To be a Virgo is to be a perfectionist – exacting, studied, and systematic. But while that description may make one sound like an unfeeling robot, Virgos often have a deep well of emotion inside. They yearn to make a difference in the world the best way they know how, through tangible, real-world action. Perhaps that's why a barber is such a fitting job for a Virgo: Focused and calculating down to the very last follicle, yet warm enough to make customers comfortable in their chair.

A good barber inspires loyalty, but that loyalty can be a double-edged sword, as is the case in the "Atlanta" Season 2 episode "Barbershop." Alfred has an ostensibly easy errand: Get a haircut from his barber Bibby (comedian Robert S. Powell) in advance of a photoshoot later that week. But the task soon goes from simple to Herculean when Bibby is called away to his girlfriend's house mid-cut. Before he knows what's happening, Alfred is whisked away from the barbershop to accompany Bibby across town. They visit the barber's girlfriend, steal lumber and Zaxby's leftovers from a construction site, pick up Bibby's son, and commit a hit-and-run. After a long, infuriating day, Al finally gets his $20 haircut. Was it worth the trouble? Alfred's pained look when trying out a new barber at the end of the episode says it all.

A Libra is a collector — of things, experiences, and ideas. High-minded and intellectual in their pursuits, Libras are ruled celestially by Venus, the planet of love, beauty, and perhaps not coincidentally, money. Connoisseurship isn't always cheap, after all. Even without the trappings of wealth, though, Libras can be counted on to be gracious hosts who're usually eager to please. However, they must also be careful so that their collective tendencies don't blind them to the feelings of others, and so that they don't just end up "collecting" people along with everything else.

Craig Allen (Rick Holmes), the wealthy white husband of Van's friend Monique (Cassandra Freeman) from the "Atlanta" Season 1 episode "Juneteenth," is a Libra through and through: Conscientious, ingratiating, and a collector of very specific tastes. Craig is enamored of Black culture, far more so than one might imagine of a middle-aged white optometrist, and often in ways that can best be described as problematic. He has a painting that was commissioned based on a Malcolm X quote; he serves Earn Hennessy and chides him for never having visited Africa; he writes and recites slam poetry about Jim Crow. His pursuit of Black American identity even extends to his wife, a fact that Monique is all too aware of. "I get this big-ass house and he gets the Black wife he always wanted," she confides to Van.

Like their scorpion symbol, a Scorpio will bide their time quietly before striking. While its strength and passion often get it confused for a fire sign, Scorpio is actually a water sign, governed by intellect and intuition — a calculating predator whose ruling planet Pluto (yes, still a planet as far as the zodiac is concerned) represents both constructive and destructive transformation.

It's that transformative force that marks the grotesque Teddy Perkins as the key Scorpio of the "Atlanta" universe. Introduced in Season 2, Teddy is a former musician who lives in a decrepit Georgia mansion — a place that he believes will one day become a museum dedicated to himself, his shut-in brother Benny, and the memory of their monstrous father. Into this house of horrors walks Darius, lured there by the promise of a free piano but finding much more within. By the time he leaves with his new piano, Darius has witnessed the destruction of the Perkins family from within by murder-suicide. 

Transformation rules the "Teddy Perkins" episode outside of its narrative as well: First, in the creation of Teddy himself — a high-voiced cross between Michael Jackson and Howard Hughes played by Donald Glover under heavy makeup — and second, in the way that this horror-steeped episode helped transform the series into something even more ambitious than it already was.

Sagittarius is an archer, half man and half horse, his arrow blazing through the heavens in search of a target that's never quite within reach. Here on Earth, that arrow takes the form of knowledge and experience. A Sagittarius is a searcher, an explorer. Endlessly adaptable to new circumstances, there's little that can rattle these fire signs.

LaKeith Stanfield's Darius is a quintessential Sagittarius; their names even rhyme. Introduced in the very first episode as Alfred's frequently-high right-hand man, Darius often finds himself traveling down strange, surreal rabbit holes — most notably, his journey into the dark heart of Teddy Perkins. More than just a stoned philosopher, though, there's an almost childlike quality to Darius' outlook on life — a guilelessness that can often puncture unspoken societal rules. This can be seen in Season 1 when Darius angers his fellow shooting range customers by using a picture of a dog, rather than a man, for target practice. His social flexibility also makes him a perfect partner in crime, whether he's traipsing around Amsterdam in Season 3 and witnessing the possible second death of Tupac Shakur, or talking a friend of Van's down from an edible-induced freakout at Drake's New Year's Eve party in Season 2.

There's a lot going on inside a Capricorn. Like Scorpio, it's a fundamentally misunderstood sign, often thought of only in terms of conservatism and restraint. That prudence is certainly an element of the Capricorn spirit, but there's more to it than that — a wild side that's ready to burst forth at a moment's notice. As astrologer Aliza Kelly once wrote, "Capricorns are said to age backward: They become increasingly youthful, optimistic, and playful as they mature" (via Allure).

That description certainly applies to Van, Earn's co-parent and sometimes partner, played by Zazie Beetz. Van begins the series as the responsible yin to Earn's insecure yang, the mother of his child with a stable job and a stable home. It's only after she's shocked out of her routine in the Season 1 episode "Value," first by an emotional night out with her Jayde and then by losing her teaching job the next morning, that Van begins to grow beyond the role that she previously assigned to herself. A lesser show might have kept her as a symbol of domesticity, or as a motherly killjoy for Earn and the guys, but Van eventually becomes as much of a searcher, a lost soul, and a wild child as anyone else.

Contrary to its name, Aquarius is not a water sign, but rather an air sign symbolized by the water bearer. There's often something larger-than-life about an Aquarius — something mysterious and unknowable about their ways compared to, say, an outsized extrovert like a Leo. Aquarius is deeply emotional, but can also come off as thick-skinned and aloof, sort of like an alligator being kept indoors as a pet.

"Atlanta" Season 2 introduces Uncle Willy, played by stand-up comedy legend Katt Williams with little of his onstage flamboyance but every bit of his no-nonsense attitude. Earn is asked to check up on Willy as a favor to Alfred. What he and Darius find upon their arrival is Willy brandishing a solid gold handgun and holding his girlfriend Yvonne (Monique Grant) hostage over a missing fifty dollars. When the police show up, Earn becomes an inadvertent negotiator. Meanwhile, Willy slips out through the back door and takes off for parts unknown, leaving Yvonne and his pet alligator Coach on their own. Like the water-bearing Aquarius, Uncle Willy is both enigmatic and heavily symbolic in the episode, making him a perfect bearer for the air sign.

Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac calendar, and as such, it contains all the wisdom collected by the eleven signs preceding it. At least, that's the idea, but as often happens, the truth is more complicated. A Pisces' strong intuition and visionary qualities leave them a little less suited to handle adversity. Mystical connections and romance abound, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty, the water sign is often at sea.

Donald Glover's Earnest "Earn" Marks is the Pisces of "Atlanta," a young man dreaming of ... something. He just doesn't quite know what yet. That indecisiveness, that striving for a goal that isn't always clear, is Earn's calling card, especially in Season 1, when he becomes Alfred's manager mostly by repeatedly claiming to be. Earn was raised in Atlanta but went to school at Princeton. He returns to ATL as a stranger in many ways and must reinsert himself back into the community. Of course, his on-and-off relationship with Van and the raising of their daughter Lottie is also a textbook example of Pisces' preference for fantasy over reality. Earn is very smart, though, and as Season 3 begins, we see him growing into himself as Alfred's manager, channeling his visionary energy into actual, tangible results.