truTV: Not Reality. Actuality.

Gerald runs a tight ship. Ever since a rig accident took his left thumb, he preaches safety. Gerald has been working in the oilfield for decades and has the scars to prove it. He's broken his back falling 10 stories off the derrick and lost part of his thumb and one of his toes in separate drill pipe accidents.

This teenage dad-to-be is on thin ice. Work starts at 5:30 a.m. and Peanut is not a morning person. At barely five feet tall and just 120 lbs, Peanut struggles with the physical demands of working as a roughneck. What he lacks in size and strength he makes up by working harder than the rest of the crew.

Wayne's 27 years of experience earn him the respect of his roughneck crew who call him "Dad." Despite the fact that it costs $40,000 a day to run the rig, Wayne is very laid back and not a huge fan of management (to say the least). Being 20 years older than any of the roughnecks on his crew makes Wayne protective of his boys. He understands the dangers of a rig all too well; one of his close friends was recently crushed to death on another rig. He feels it's his responsibility to make sure that never happens to any of his guys.

Steve is Wayne's protégé. According to Steve, "All the best technology in the world can't fix stupid." Steve is ambitious and wants to make a career on the oilfield. He always works hard and does everything he can to learn the ins and outs of the rig.

Justin's all-kidding-aside approach to wrangling roughnecks makes little difference when he drills into "a well from hell," as he describes some of the more difficult jobs. Justin is young to be a driller, but he's got an old-school mentality – he expects his crew to work hard and follow orders. When that doesn't happen, Justin quickly lets them know who is boss.

Derek is one of the few roughnecks who attended college, but like his father, he decided the fastest way to big money was on an oil rig. At the time of filming, Derek had been working in the oilfield for seven months. He's young and single and enjoys spending his oilfield money in the bars of Odessa.

Two of the three rigs featured in "Black Gold" are contracted by Mike's company, ExL Petroleum. On weekends, Mike is a Catholic deacon. With an oil boom going on, Mike and his partners are ready to launch their new company among intensely fierce competition. Mike's religious background gives him faith that his company will make it.

A celebrity in Midland, Autry owns the 10^th largest producing company of Texas oil. He has more than 4,000 wells producing approximately $1.5 million of oil every day. From his exploration and production efforts, Stephens has branched out into virtually all facets of production, including drilling, well servicing, welding, plugging, gas gathering, water disposal and both crude oil and bulk transportation.

Rooster was born in Houston. His real name is Michael Patrick McConaughey, and his company, DGM Pipe (named for his ex-wife), supplies pipe to the rigs. His father owned a gas station and was also in the pipe business. He has been working with Mike LaMonica since 1989 when Mike was at a different company. Rooster has supplied the pipe to Mike's new company, ExL Petroleum, since they opened for business two and a half years ago. When the oil business was going through a bust, Rooster lost everything and renamed his company Chapter 11 Pipe, but people in town told him that was "too depressing." He named his second son "Miller Lyte" after his favorite beer. His brother is actor Matthew McConaughey, with whom he appeared in the 1998 movie "The Newton Boys."