the team wrote each character to embody a game protagonist archetype; michael represents greed, franklin ambition, and trevor insanity. houser felt michael and trevor were written to juxtapose each other, with michael "like the criminal who wants to compartmentalise and be a good guy some of the time" and trevor "the maniac who isn't a hypocrite". he considered that the three lead characters helped move the game's story into more original territory than its predecessors, which traditionally followed a single protagonist rising through the ranks of a criminal underworld. ned luke portrayed michael, shawn "solo" fonteno portrayed franklin, and steven ogg portrayed trevor. fonteno first became aware of the acting job through his friend dj pooh, who worked on "san andreas" and was involved in "grand theft auto v"s music production.