J.D. Williams (born May 22, 1978) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Newark Arts High School, a performing arts public school in Newark. He portrayed a
biracial
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
15-year-old dealing with
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
and his father's infidelity in the play ''A.M. Sunday'' in late 2003 at Baltimore's
Centerstage
''Centerstage'' is a Philippine television reality talent competition show broadcast by GMA Network. Hosted by Alden Richards and Betong Sumaya, it premiered on February 16, 2020 on the network's Sunday Grande sa Gabi line up. The show conclud ...
theater. He had a number of cameos and leading roles in R&B and hip-hop music videos between 2002 and 2005.
Career
Williams appeared in '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', a show based on a book by '' The Wire'' creator David Simon, where he guest-starred as Casper in the episode "The Why Chromosome". He had a small guest starring role in ''
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
'' episode "
46 Long
"46 Long" is the second episode of the HBO original series ''The Sopranos''. It was written by David Chase, directed by Dan Attias and was originally broadcast on January 17, 1999, in the United States.
Starring
* James Gandolfini as Tony Sopran ...
" as
Special K
Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal and meal bars manufactured by Kellogg's. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1955. It is made primarily from grains such as lightly toasted rice, wheat and barley. Special K used ...
Brendan Filone
The Soprano family (originally the DiMeo family) is a fictional Italian-American crime family featured in the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' and the prequel film ''The Many Saints of Newark''. Based in New Jersey, the family consists of an administr ...
's goons. He went on to play series regular, inmate Kenny Wangler, in the first four seasons of ''Oz''. He then appeared in HBOs '' The Wire'' as Bodie Broadus, a Barksdale Organization drug dealer who slowly rises through the ranks throughout the seasons. In preparation for the role, he walked around
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
's inner city during the middle of the night a few days before the first taping; talking about this to AllHipHop, Williams stated "it was like 12 or 1:00 in the morning. I just threw on a black hoodie and walked around. I went to one of their hoods and watched that night. I learned not to do that no more, I was lucky I made it back that night." He is older than his character by 8 years.
According to his original HBO bio, he is credited with appearing in the film ''Graffiti Bridge'', but a 2003 interview with AllHipHop revealed that Williams was not in the movie. The page no longer exists, however.
Tevin Campbell
Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to Warner Bros. Re ...
filled the cameo role with which Williams was credited.
Williams has had leading roles or cameo appearances in a number of R&B and hip-hop
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s. He has appeared as himself, a love interest, and characters resembling his role as a drug dealer on ''The Wire''.
In 2012, Williams had a major supporting role in the indie film '' Surviving Family'' as the ex-boyfriend of the main character. His character was a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq who had lost an eye in an IED attack and suffered from PTSD.
He has starred in a number of commercials, and played a delivery man in a
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...
commercial. He appeared as Lemond Bishop's Lieutenant "Dexter" in episodes of '' The Good Wife''.