Uncensored

Laz Alonso‘s path to Hollywood is the kind of story that doesn't follow the expected route. Born and raised in Washington D.C. to Cuban immigrant parents, he graduated from Howard University's School of Business, then went straight to Wall Street as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Not exactly the standard acting origin story.

Wood Harris has spent over thirty years moving between projects with a consistency that doesn't always get its due. The Chicago West Side native got his start in Above the Rim alongside Tupac Shakur in 1994, held his own in Remember the Titans opposite Denzel Washington in 2000, and then landed the role that defined him: Avon Barksdale in The Wire, the Baltimore drug kingpin whose controlled, deliberate menace became one of the defining performances of the HBO era. He's been alongside Michael B. Jordan through all three Creed films as trainer Tony "Little Duke" Burton. 

Wendy Raquel Robinson grew up in South Central Los Angeles, which meant navigating gang culture from an early age before dance and acting pulled her toward a different path. That contrast, between the environment she came from and the career she built, is at the center of her Uncensored episode.

Most people know Robinson as Principal Regina "Piggy" Grier from The Steve Harvey Show, a role she held for six seasons on The WB, or as sports agent Tasha Mack across the long run of The Game. Those are comedy parts, and Robinson has been consistently nominated and eventually won an NAACP Image Award for her work in the genre. But the Uncensored format gives her room to talk about the setbacks that don't make it into the highlight reel, the parts of the journey that don't fit neatly into the success story version.