Alphas is an American superhero drama television series created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow. It follows a group of people with superhuman abilities, known as "Alphas", as they work to prevent crimes committed by other Alphas.

The series was broadcast in the United States on the cable channel Syfy and was a co-production between BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions. It premiered on July 11, 2011. After initial reports that the show was canceled,^[2] on September 7, 2011, Alphas was renewed for a 13-episode second season,^[3] which premiered on Monday, July 23, 2012, at 10 p.m. ET.^[4] On January 16, 2013, Syfy announced that the program would not be returning for a third season,^[5] ending the series with an unresolved cliffhanger.

The series follows five people, known as "Alphas", led by noted neurologist and psychiatrist Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), as they investigate criminal cases involving other suspected Alphas.

Rosen and his team operate under the auspices of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. While investigating these crimes, it does not take the team too long to discover that a group known as "Red Flag", which was thought defeated and eliminated long ago, is using other Alphas to commit crimes.

• David Strathairn as Dr. Lee Rosen – A specialist in the study of people with super abilities, whom he has dubbed "Alphas". He leads a government-sponsored team of Alphas that identifies others of their kind—helping those in need and stopping those that are dangerous. Rosen himself has no super abilities, but is good at understanding and dealing with people. He swims two miles per day in his pool and grows his own herbs.
• Ryan Cartwright as Gary Bell – A young, autistic man who is socially lacking but very functional. A prodigious savant, his ability is transduction: he sees electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths and can process information as fast as any computer. In season two, he develops the ability to find the wavelengths of forks, trees and other non-electrical items when faced with no technology.
• Warren Christie as Cameron Hicks – A former Marine with "hyperkinesis", meaning his brain can process movement at a much faster rate than normal. He can achieve amazing athletic feats of timing, and has superhuman reflexes and perfect accuracy with firearms or thrown objects: he can accurately predict trajectory by eyesight alone. His abilities are vulnerable to duress. In the first episode he is found to have an abnormal growth in his brain. He is approached by the team in a supermarket after they find video of him as a child pitching a perfect baseball game. He has one child who is rarely in his life. In season one, he has a relationship with Nina. In season two, he develops a relationship with Dr. Rosen's daughter, Dani. He becomes obsessed with the idea that his son has an Alpha ability, and constantly puts him in situations to test for such an ability.
• Azita Ghanizada as Rachel Pirzad – A former CIA linguist with the ability to "heighten" any of her five senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch) to extreme levels by disabling the others. She can, for instance, view things at a microscopic level or analyse chemical composition by scent. The permanent heightening of her senses, along with her synesthesia, makes it hard for her to interact socially, and she has difficulty maintaining relationships with the opposite sex. In season two, she learns how to further control her senses.
• Laura Mennell as Nina Theroux – A young woman who can mentally "push" people into doing whatever she verbally asks of them. Her diagnosis is "hyperinduction". Before joining the team, she used her power for personal gain. Consequently, she believes she (unintentionally) pushed her boyfriend and father into committing suicide. She hopes to redeem herself by helping Dr. Rosen. Her character seems to have been with Rosen the longest. A running gag in the first season is that she always has a different car that she has apparently "borrowed" by pushing someone. Pushing too hard or much on a person can cause brain death. Nina has good control of her ability; people with her ability have difficulty controlling how they use it, and can become power-hungry. FBI agents who interview her refuse to make eye contact, or insist on wearing dark sunglasses, in fear of being pushed. During Season 1, Gary mentions that her ability to push does not work on him. Her memory of her past is haunted by her pushing. Her father committed suicide after being pushed one too many times to not want to leave his wife when Nina was a child. In an episode in season two, Nina succumbs to her power-hunger, and later tries to make up for her mistakes. She is shown to be reluctant to use her ability.
• Malik Yoba as Bill Harken – A former FBI agent who can activate his endocrinal fight or flight response at will, resulting in increased durability, endurance, speed and strength. His diagnosis is enhanced strength from flight-or-fight response. He cannot keep this up for long due to the stress caused to his body. He was suspended from the FBI due to anger issues resulting from the stress of using his ability. Initially, he is rude and pushy with his teammates, especially Rachel and Gary. As season one progresses his relationship with the team improves and he is no longer known as "mean Bill".
• Erin Way as Kat (Season 2) – A mysterious, free-spirited young loner whose enhanced procedural memory allows her to pick up any skill at a glance, but at the cost of her long-term declarative memories. Due to the information she constantly processes, she forgets whatever information she has learned after one month, although she retains the skills she has acquired. Dr. Rosen gives her a video camera to help her remember. She struggles in particular with a memory involving a lady in a blue dress.^[6]

In episode 21 of season six of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory entitled "The Closure Alternative", the unresolved cliffhanger ending of Alphas causes character Sheldon Cooper distress about not having 'closure', as a lead-in to one of that show's plot lines.