Roman Pearce is a childhood friend of Brian O'Conner. Originating from Barstow, California, Roman grew up alongside O'Conner. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian says that he and Roman had met in juvenile detention. Two months after Brian finished Police Academy, Roman was arrested when he was found in a garage with eight stolen cars and sent to prison for three years, and after release, was prohibited to go more than a hundred yards from his home. Although O'Conner had no prior information for Roman's arrest, Roman overall blamed O'Conner for the simple fact that he was a cop. Roman and O'Conner later mended their ways when Roman agreed to participate in a sting operation on Miami drug lord Carter Verone and later talked about opening their own high performance garage using pocketed amounts of Verone's drug money. However, when O'Conner became an FBI agent, Roman started spending time and money gambling in Las Vegas, according to his Fast Five profile. Roman appears again in Fast Five as part of Dominic and Brian's team as a "fast-talker" (i.e. someone who can lie their way through anything) in their attempt to steal a vault from a corrupt Brazilian businessman. He is reluctant at first, thinking the mission is personal and not being good business until Dominic utters the vault is full one hundred million dollars in cash which is enough to change his mind. With his cut of the money he buys a Koenigsegg CCXR Edition sports car and travels around the world in his own private jet. He helps Dominic take down Owen Shaw and returns to the U.S. with him afterward. He is portrayed by Tyrese Gibson.