Joshua Hardaway

Joshua Hardaway is the protagonist of the 2009 film Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, He is a district attorney who was engaged to the film's antagonist Linda Davis. 
He is played by Derek Luke.
==Overall==
We first see Josh, his fiancee Linda and members of their wedding party and other attorneys watch as the head district attorney goes over Madea's case files which includes hilarious mugshots of her through out her life, no one volunteers to take her case so the boss gives the case to Linda since she's won previous cases. In court he's assigned the case of his childhood friend Candace "Candy" Washington, a prostitute and a drug addict.
Since he knows the defendant, he gives the case to Linda. After court, he meets his friend Ellen, a former prostitute who is now a minster, who helps prostitutes get off the streets and he introduces her to Candy. but Candy snaps at her and Ellen tells her off and leaves. Candy questions Josh about why he bailed her out of jail and he says that she's a friend and he wants to help her.
But Candace thinks that the reason Josh bailed her out was he wanted to have sex with her, but he didn't want to, so he takes her out for to eat and at a diner when Linda, her best friend/maid of honor Tanya and his best friend/best man Chuck walks in. He introduces Candy to Linda and her and Candace can see that Linda wouldn't make a good wife for Josh, so she says to him in front of her "you're marrying her? It'll never work." Linda is offended by Candace's words. Interestingly enough, Candace's comment makes sense: Linda is a spoiled brat who considers people who have a lower status than her as inferior, while Josh cares about helping anyone he sees in trouble no matter their class.
Candace leaves with her friend Donna, it's clear that Linda wasn't happy to see Josh with her. Linda questions why he was with her, Chuck tries to tell Josh not to answer but he does anyway, telling her he's trying to help her out. Josh and Chuck try to find her relatives online, when Linda comes in and asks if he's finding a place where they can spend their honeymoon online, but he tells her that he's searching for Candace's family online and Linda becomes furious.
Linda says ugly things about Candy and threatens to leave Josh but convinces her to stay. When they're asleep in bed, Josh gets a call from Candy from a pay phone calling for help, Josh leaves the apartment he shares with Linda and goes to get her and brings her back home with him. Linda wakes up to find Candy asleep on the couch and wearing her robe, Linda is upset by this, and she and Josh argues which includes her insulting Candace, the argument continues until Linda leaves slamming the door.
Candace retaliates by calling Linda "a princess" after she left (another word for spoiled brat), Josh and Candace continue to catch up. Cadence tells him how she got into prostitution after dropping out of college, Josh feels sympathy for her and starts to cry but she tells him not to cry for her and at least she gets paid for what she does. The next morning, Josh gets Ellen to help Candace find a job but it doesn't go well with her. Linda forgives Josh and they walk to their apartment after seeing a movie, only to see Candace on their doorstep.
He carries her into the apartment and lays her down on the couch and puts a blanket on her. Linda becomes jealous and calls Candace a drug addicted prostitute then leaves. Josh holds Candace as she is struggling, but the next morning he wakes up to find Candace gone. Josh and Ellen talk outside the courthouse, and he tells her that Candy was a classmate of his in both school and college, he would defend her against bullies until one night in college, the football team threw a party. He had to leave the party early because he had a date leaving Candace at the party.
When he came back from the date, he found that the football team gang raped Candace and left her in his room which is why he kept himself busy all those years and tried to make it up to her once he saw her again in court. He felt guilty over what happened and Candace reminded him 3 times in the film that it happened but anyway Ellen tries to calm him down after he told her his story. Meanwhile Candace didn't show up for her court hearing and because Linda falsified her, Madea and 5 other women's cases. The judge sentences her to 17 years in prison.
During a lesson about forgiveness led by Ellen, Madea notices that some of the inmates would rather play victim instead of taking responsibility for their crimes. She tells the class they need to stop seeing themselves as victims and forgive those who led them onto the bad paths they've been on. Josh visits Candace in prison and she tells him that she forgives him for that horrible night in college, having been moved by Madea's words. She wishes him well on his upcoming marriage to Linda and walks back to her cell. On his wedding day, Tanya catches him reviewing Candace's file and then Chuck comes in and notices the same thing. Josh tells Chuck that after reviewing Candace's file that something doesn't add up. Chuck, tells Josh that Linda falsified Candace's file to deliberately get her sent to prison and away from him, a practice she has engaged with other defendants as well, including Madea. Linda had blackmailed Chuck to keep his mouth shut under the threat of telling their boss, the head A.D.A. that he cheated on his bar exam to get his law license. At the Alter, after Linda recites her wedding vows, Josh tells her that he's appalled by her deceit and fraud then tells the congregation, including their boss, the Mayor and the Governor what she has done and jilts her at the altar, to Chuck’s satisfaction.
Josh visits Candace in prison, he gives her a kiss and says he loves her and that he'll do anything to get her and the other women Linda had wrongfully convicted out of prison. Josh calls popular radio stations like Tom Joyner and Rev. Al Sharpton and the story spreads like wildfire not only in the state of Georgia but across the nation. As a result, Candace, Madea and five other women that Linda prosecuted have their convictions overturned and are released, while Linda is indicted on multiple charges including fraud, evidence tampering and providing false legal documents and inevitably faces arrest, trial and imprisonment for her crimes. The film ends with Madea doing a dance called the Soulja Boy and walks out of prison a free woman while Candace and Josh walk out of the prison hand and hand.
Category:Male
Category:Honorable
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Lawful Good
Category:Officials
Category:In Love
Category:Truth-Seekers
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Comedy Heroes