‘My Name Is Earl’ Star Nadine Velazquez Joins ‘Major Crimes’
Nadine Velazquez, who played Catalina Aruca on My Name Is Earl, has joined the cast of the TNT drama Major Crimes.
Velazquez will play Deputy District Attorney Emma Rios in the series’ upcoming second season.
“Newly assigned to the Phillip Stroh case, Emma interviews Rusty [played by Graham Patrick Martin] about his involvement as a key witness in the murder case,” a synopsis of Velazquez’s character says. “She immediately causes a stir within the department, coming into conflict with Captain Raydor [played by Mary McDonnell] when she questions Raydor’s intentions as Rusty’s guardian and challenges her authority.”
Robert Gossett, who recurred as Assistant Chief Russell Taylor on the first season of Major Crimes, has been promoted to series regular for the second season.
Major Crimes is a spinoff of The Closer, which starred Kyra Sedgwick and ran for seven seasons before getting canceled. McDonnell’s character Captain Raydor was introduced in the fifth season of The Closer and took over the Major Crimes Division after Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Sedgwick) left the LAPD. As her officers try to recover from the shock of Johnson’s departure, Raydor must find a way to earn their trust and loyalty, as well as solve the division’s high-profile cases.
Nadine Velazquez recently appeared opposite Denzel Washington in the Robert Zemeckis film, Flight. Velazquez played Katerina Marquez, a flight attendant whom Washington’s character, Whip Whitaker, has relations with at the beginning of the film. The film received mostly positive reviews and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Writing (Original Screenplay) and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. It lost in both categories; Django Unchained took home the award for Best Writing, and Daniel Day-Lewis scored his third Best Actor award for his role as Abraham Lincoln.
Will you be watching Nadine Velazquez on Major Crimes?
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