The 10 Best Hackers on TV

Over the years, there have been a ton movies and TV shows about hacking. And while these series and films date back decades, we are seeing them pop up more and more on the small and big screens nowadays as we become completely dependent on computers and technology.

Virtually every police procedural, drama, or other similar series has that one character — the person who sits behind their computer and can pull up whatever information you need, security camera footage, details on a potential criminal, hack into the government or a private business, or find dirt on a suspect, all with some coding and a few clicks. These I.T. characters are great at what they do. And while some use their hacking skills for good, others have more nefarious intentions. Here are The 10 Best Hackers on TV.

10 Elliot Alderson (Mr. Robot)

Anyone who can take down a massive conglomerate like E. Corp. is a world-class hacker. Not only did he single-handedly start a revolution, rendering bank accounts, debts, and world financials essentially meaningless, but Elliott did it all so cleverly and effortlessly.

Alongside his major moves against the corrupt society, Alderson (Rami Malek) also used his expert hacking skills to accomplish smaller tasks. He hacked into anyone he was suspicious of doing illegal activities and if he could confirm it, he would blackmail them to make them stop.

9 Chloe O’Brien (24)

One of the most recognizable hackers from popular TV series, Jack Bauer could not have accomplished half of what he did without Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) sitting by his side. Dutifully in the office clacking away at a computer, she was his eyes and ears from afar while he was on the ground fighting the bad guys.

Chloe didn’t just do whatever needed to be done for Jack and for the safety of the nation, but she was a friend and confidant to him too. She was, almost literally, always in his ear.

8 Walter O’Brien (Scorpion)

Getting on the FBI’s radar as a young child for hacking into the government, O’Brien (Elyes Gabel) was as genius as they come when it comes to computers and hacking. Based on the real-life Walter O’Brien, he could do complex mathematical equations in his head and hack into any system without batting an eye.

It’s no surprise, then, that the character and his team were recruited by the U.S. government to help defend the country against cyber threats. O’Brien’s hacking skills, quick thinking, and dedication to the job led him to succeed every time.

7 Harold Finch (Person of Interest)

Played beautifully by Michael Emerson, Harold Finch was a reclusive billionaire who faked his own death to hide amidst the shadows and conduct vigilante justice using an elaborate “Machine” he built that could pinpoint threats and potential victims. He enlisted the help of John Reese to stop perpetrators in their tracks before they could commit whatever crimes they had up their sleeves.

He could hijack any security feed, infiltrate any government machine, and build a machine so robust and feature-rich that he had to go into hiding to prevent sinister organizations from getting their hands on it to use it for spying and profiling.

6 Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. Skye (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

This character was not only a proficient, genius-level hacker, but she also possessed special powers. Portrayed by Chloe Bennet, Daisy realized after growing up as an orphan that her biological mother was actually an alien.

Her special abilities to generate earthquakes combined with her computer hacking skills made her an invaluable member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and one of the most important agents. Her look on the series was actually modeled after that of Angelina Jolie in the movie Hackers.

5 Chuck Bartowski (Chuck)

Chuck (Zachary Levi) was just your average computer sales guy until top-secret data was implanted into his brain from a seemingly harmless e-mail. He then found himself at the center of a global espionage case in this comedy drama.

The agents who first sought to take him down discovered that Chuck had become a human form of the supercomputer known as the Intersect and he could see rapid images and get flashes of intelligence from the machine. He’s arguably the most valuable hacker on the list because, well, he himself was the computer.

4 Huck Finn (Scandal)

Sure, Huck (Guillermo Diaz) was a reclusive and dangerous man who, after spending many years in the clandestine B613 organization, came to enjoy killing and torturing people. But he was also a highly skilled hacker who could find out anything about anyone with just a few clicks.

He was Olivia Pope’s go-to when she was in a pinch. And while he spent most of his time behind a computer, as a former CIA operative, he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

3 Aram Mojtabai (The Blacklist)

Quirky and funny, Aram (Amir Arison) isn’t like most hackers. While he lives and breathes computers and is more comfortable behind a scree,n tapping into some useful information or gathering important data, he is also not afraid to wield and gun and get out into the field. And he prefers to be included and have friends versus being on his own.

Having worked for the NSA prior to his role on the FBI team, Aram is not only a proficient hacker but also a skilled and analytical thinker who is always the first to figure out a roundabout way of getting information — often just in the nick of time.

2 Bertram Gilfoyle (Silicon Valley)

Having just wrapped up the series after six seasons, we’ll miss this character, the surly, sardonic Satanist network engineer who worked for a start-up called Pied Piper. While Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) didn’t really do a lot of hacking for sinister purposes, he totally could if he wanted to.

He hacked into a smart refrigerator for fun, and even built his own A.I. to converse with his frenemy Dinesh so he himself wouldn’t have to. Gilfoyle was skilled at keeping the technology protected, but if he wanted to, he could infiltrate pretty much any system. And he constantly made sure everyone knew it.

1 M.K. (Orphan Black)

One of the many clones on the series, M.K. (Tatiana Maslany) was a reclusive computer hacker who was also paranoid about being watched and followed all the time.

She got started in computer hacking at a young age and discovered the truth about the clones through her hacking abilities. She might not like to meet and talk to people in person, but rest assured that before you ever see her, or even know of her existence, she knows everything there is to know about you already.

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