Fan Casting Damien “Holt” Ward (35) in Empire Divide: Streets of Red & Blue

Affiliation: The London Mob Role: Leader / Crime Syndicate Mastermind / Media Manipulator Nickname Origin: “Holt” comes from “hold” — he grew up being told he could “hold” anyone’s fate in his hands. BACKGROUND Holt was raised in Peckham, South London, in a rough environment but with sharp intelligence and a taste for power early on. His father, Elliot Ward, was a mid-level enforcer for a British syndicate that dealt in weapons smuggling through European ports. When his father was killed in a double-cross, Holt was only twelve — but he witnessed it all. Instead of breaking him, it molded him. He spent his teenage years learning systems — not just violence, but commerce. He studied economics by day, ran scams by night, and built a small empire reselling contraband tech. By twenty-one, Holt had turned his father’s old crew into a modern criminal network — one that focused on image and infrastructure as much as muscle. He used social media to glamorize the lifestyle — tailored suits, underground clubs, luxury cars — while quietly building one of the most organized drug and arms pipelines in Europe. But Holt wasn’t satisfied with Europe. He saw America as the birthplace of street culture — the global brand he could hijack. To him, the Bloods, Crips, and every gang that came after were “dinosaurs with diamonds” — powerful, but outdated. So he formed the London Mob, a mix of ex-military mercenaries, hackers, and street enforcers with one mission: “Colonize chaos.” SAINT KILLED HOLT BY STABBING HIM IN THE STOMACH WITH A GLASS SHARD