I grew up in East Flatbush in Brooklyn which was an intense neighbourhood filled with different West Indian cultures.

Addiction is a health issue, not a social issue, not a crime, not a legal issue.

When you love someone unconditionally, you go to war for them, and they do that for each other. They know they can call each other when they need each other. In this day and age, everyone needs a friend like in Hap and Leonard.

I grew in a community where I saw the process of how one becomes a drug dealer or a gang banger or a stick-up kid. There's a series of events that happen. People don't just wake up and decide they wanna be that.

My only goal is to stay focused on my craft and make sure my life is as sharp as it can be to attack any character that is given to me.

I'm totally comfortable today with the success that Omar and 'The Wire' have brought me - living with that character, being recognized and remembered for that character.

Our criminal justice system has swallowed up too many people I love. I am proud to join the ACLU in the fight to make mass incarceration a thing of the past.