Carl "CJ" Johnson

Updated 28 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Carl "CJ" Johnson is the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). In 1992 he returns to Los Santos after his mother is killed, rebuilds the Grove Street Families and is pushed out of the city by corrupt police. His journey takes him across the whole state of San Andreas. Young Maylay voiced him.

Who is the main character in GTA San Andreas?

Carl Johnson, known as CJ, is the playable lead of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He grew up in Ganton, a neighbourhood of Los Santos, and is second-in-command of the Grove Street Families street gang. His older brother Sean "Sweet" Johnson leads it.

CJ's family is at the heart of the story. His mother is Beverly Johnson. His father left when he was young. He has a sister, Kendl, and had a younger brother, Brian, who died in 1987. Sweet blamed CJ for Brian's death, and CJ left for Liberty City, where he spent about five years stealing cars.

Story

In 1992 Sweet calls with bad news: their mother has been killed in a drive-by shooting. CJ flies home. Almost at once he is picked up by three officers of the CRASH unit, Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez. They are corrupt, and they force CJ to do their dirty work.

CJ sets about rebuilding Grove Street. He wins back turf, reunites the gang's scattered sets and makes an ally of Cesar Vialpando of the Varrios Los Aztecas. Then the floor falls out. His old friends Big Smoke and Ryder turn out to have helped hide the car used in the attack on his mother, and they are working with Tenpenny. Sweet is arrested, and Tenpenny drives CJ out to the countryside.

Exile turns CJ into a businessman. In San Fierro he wins a garage, sets up a car-theft operation, teams up with Wu Zi Mu of the Triads and brings down the Loco Syndicate. He later learns that the syndicate's leader, Mike Toreno, is really an undercover government agent. In Las Venturas CJ helps Woozie open a casino and robs Caligula's Palace. He also helps Ken Rosenberg get free of the Leone family.

CJ returns to Los Santos for the finale after Tenpenny turns on him. He confronts and kills Big Smoke, then chases Tenpenny, who dies after crashing a fire truck off a bridge. The family watches him die. The garage CJ won earlier came from a silent racer who turns out to be Claude, the future hero of GTA III.

Gameplay: how CJ changes as you play

San Andreas added role-playing systems that made CJ feel personal. Players choose his clothes, haircut, tattoos and accessories. What he eats and how often he trains changes his body: he can become heavy, lean or muscular, and his stamina and strength change with it. Dan Houser said this helped players connect with him.

The game spans three cities and the countryside between them. See our page on the state of San Andreas for more.

Who voiced CJ?

Young Maylay, real name Chris Bellard, voiced CJ and did some of his motion capture. It was his first acting role. Rockstar heard him talking with co-writer DJ Pooh and cast him. Sam Houser told Edge that using an unknown actor made CJ feel "very, very human", and CJ's look was based on Maylay himself.

Wikipedia says the choice was partly a reaction to Vice City. Sam Houser had found the star casting of Tommy Vercetti difficult, so for San Andreas the famous names went into supporting roles. Maylay recorded for about a month in New York. CJ ended up with more than 7,700 lines of dialogue. The GTA Wiki notes that Maylay is the younger cousin of Shawn Fonteno, who later voiced Franklin Clinton.

Reception and legacy

Critics praised CJ as one of the most believable game characters of his era. He was named Hero of 2005 at the Golden Joystick Awards, and in 2011 readers of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition placed him 22nd among the best video game characters of all time.

His legacy reaches outside the series. CJ's model became a running joke in the modding world, dropped into many other games. In 2010 a former backup singer sued Rockstar and Take-Two, claiming CJ was based on his life. The court dismissed the case in 2011, and an appeals court upheld that ruling in 2012.