Abstract: Contemporary social movements can be understood as rhizomatic,growing laterally without a central structure. In thismixed methods study, we investigate the stable roles that activistsdevelop based on their personal and professional identitiesand carry with them through the dynamic landscape ofrhizomatic social movements on Twitter. We conduct interviewswith self-identified social justice activists and analyzeseven weeks of their Twitter timeline and retweets. We findthree activist roles–organizer, storyteller and advocate–anddescribe the professional identities, approaches to activism,behaviors on Twitter, and the relationship to social movementsfor each role. We use these roles as a lens to betterunderstand how movement identities are constructed, lay outan agenda for future research on roles in rhizomatic movementsand suggest design directions.