Earnest "Earn" Marks is an Atlanta, Georgia native, the manager to his rapper cousin, Paper Boi, and the main protagonist of Atlanta.
History[]
Prior to season 1, Earn dropped out of Princeton University for reasons he has yet to explain to his family, including Alfred. Another thing revealed is that he hadn't gotten in touch or spoke with Alfred since they both attended the funeral of Alfred's mother.
In Season 1, the story begins 3 years after Earn drops out of Princeton University as he works at a dead-end job trying to sell credit cards at an airport. He tries to co-parent with his best friend, Van, who is the mother of their daughter Lottie, and is managing the career of his estranged cousin Alfred, a rising new rap star known as "Paper Boi" in Atlanta.
His own parents will not let him into their house in fear that He will ask them for money, his father even going so far as to say that they "can not afford" to let him in the house.
Throughout the season, Earn is shown to be visibly depressed due to his financial circumstances (especially in episode 1.04 where Darius, Alfred's best friend and roommate, set up an investment but he has to wait months to receive it) and run-ins with the law but he still is optimistic about managing Paper Boi's career.
In the season finale, Alfred gives Earn a generous 5% of their career earnings, most of which he gives to Van. It is revealed when Earn is not staying the night over Van's apartment, he is squatting in a storage unit.
Months later, in Season 2, Earn has been "evicted" from his storage unit and is officially homeless. Following a visit to his Uncle Willy on Alfred's behalf, he asks to stay at Alfred's house but his homie Tracy beats him to it so he chooses to leave (even though they offer to let him stay). Tracy helps Earn flip money that Darius set up for him (in season 1) to $8000, but he blows it all on a shopping spree rather than housing. He ends up losing the money when they are caught for fraud. Over the course of Robbin' Season, Earn's relationships, both personal and professional, begin to crumble, with Van breaking up with him after attending Fastnacht in Helen, which he reviled as stupid even though it is her culture. Since he was not willing to contribute more to their "relationship" emotionally, Van told him not to talk to her anymore unless it was about Lottie or child support. Later, during a disastrous stay in Statesboro, Alfred also questions Earn's ability to manage his career, putting his position in jeopardy.
Personality[]
Earn is shown to be cynical and highly intelligent yet strikingly foolish. Even though he and Van are off and on, he is shown to be a loving father to their daughter Lottie. From a young age, Earn has always lacked the confidence of his cousin, Alfred. As a consequence, he demonstrates poor management skills over the course of Alfred's career.
At times frugal, Earn often feel due to past experiences of being flexed on then he should as well with his money which ends up not succeeding for him even when trying to save (North of the Border).
Loyal to his cousin, Earn strives to make Alfred a big success whilst bringing him and Darius up alongside him and over Robbin' Season makes a bigger effort to keep them from failing even at the risk of causing misfortune to others (such as moving his gun at the airport to Clark County's bag to prevent their arrest and missing the European tour)