Angels & Demons characters

Appears from the start

A Harvard professor of religious iconology and symbology, awakened by an urgent call concerning a disturbing symbol. A strong swimmer with a habit of careful visual analysis, he is an authority on the legendary Illuminati but doubts that the historical brotherhood could still exist.

Also known as Kohler

First appears in chapter 2

The director of CERN, a formidable physicist who uses a wheelchair. Severe, private, and openly hostile to organised religion, he urgently summons Langdon to the research centre after one of its scientists is murdered.

First appears in chapter 15

An Italian scientist at CERN whose work joins advanced physics with a personal religious faith. She is also a trained athlete and Leonardo Vetra's adopted daughter and research partner. The theft of their antimatter experiment and her father's murder draw her into Langdon's search.

First appears in chapter 5

A CERN physicist and Catholic priest found murdered and branded in his laboratory. His combination of scientific work and religious faith makes the apparently anti-Church symbol on his body especially significant.

Also known as the camerlengo

First appears in chapter 30

A young priest who served as the late pope's closest aide and now administers the Vatican during the vacancy before a new pope is elected. Calm in public and deeply devout, he must respond to the antimatter threat while the cardinals are sealed inside the conclave.

First appears in chapter 31

Commander of the Swiss Guard, responsible for protecting Vatican City during the conclave. Disciplined and suspicious of outsiders, he initially regards Langdon and Vittoria's arrival as an intrusion into a tightly controlled security operation.

First appears in chapter 45

A senior Swiss Guard officer who works under Olivetti. Forceful and security-minded, he helps manage the Vatican's response to the stolen antimatter and the threat against the conclave.

First appears in chapter 48

A young Swiss Guard lieutenant assigned to the unfolding emergency. Earnest and less rigid than some of his superiors, he carries out security duties while trying to understand the unfamiliar scientific and religious dimensions of the threat.

First appears in chapter 35

An elderly Spanish cardinal serving as the Great Elector in the papal conclave. He presides over the voting after the four leading candidates disappear and tries to preserve the conclave's rules amid signs of a wider attack.

First appears in chapter 20

A professional killer hired to carry out a sequence of ritual murders in Rome. He believes he is serving the Illuminati and treats the assignment as both paid work and a campaign against the Church.

First appears in chapter 51

A BBC reporter in Rome who receives an anonymous tip about the Vatican emergency. Ambitious and alert to the value of an exclusive, he pursues the story with his camerawoman, Chinita Macri.

First appears in chapter 51

A BBC camera operator working with Gunther Glick. Practical and composed, she records the rapidly escalating events in Rome and helps turn a secret Vatican emergency into a global broadcast.