Long before she was wowing TV critics as Camilla Marks on Fox’s music drama series “Empire,” or as Claudia Bankson on one of the best seasons of “American Horror Story,” Naomi Campbell was menacing Malik Yoba’s Detective J.C. Williams on “New York Undercover.”
Created by legend of the police procedural world, Dick Wolf, alongside writer and producer Kevin Arkadie, “New York Undercover” made TV history as the first American police drama to feature two people of color as its leads. Yoba’s Williams was joined by Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torres, and the two answered to the no-nonsense Lt. Virginia Cooper, played by Patti D’Arbanville. Campbell was not a regular on the series, which ran for four seasons on Fox, but she played a substantial role on Season 2, appearing on six episodes as Simone Jeffers.
Introduced as a book editor, Campbell first appeared as Simone on the episode “Student Affairs.” Simone was soon wrapped up in a romance with Detective Williams, but all was not as it seemed. Over the course of her time on the series, it was revealed that Simone was harboring a dark secret. Manipulated by a vicious drug kingpin, Danny Cort (Ice-T), whose brother was killed by Williams in a shootout, Simone had been seducing Williams as part of Cort’s devastating revenge scheme. Simone helped Cort destroy Williams’ life from within, as well as allowing him to abduct the detective’s son. This all came to a head when Williams was finally forced to kill Cort.
New York Undercover featured several surprising guest stars
While the series isn’t as remembered as the best police procedurals of all time, “New York Undercover” boasted some seriously impressive casting choices. Naomi Campbell was, of course, already a huge name when she was cast. Regarded as one of the first supermodels, Campbell became the first Black model to appear on the cover of “Time,” as well as the French and Russian editions of “Vogue” – all before her first appearance on “New York Undercover.”
Ice-T, who played her partner in crime on the series, was also already a well-established figure in American pop culture when he was cast. He would later go on to re-team with Dick Wolf on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” where he played Detective Fin Tutuola. Other notable guest stars on “New York Undercover” included Giancarlo Esposito, who played Adolfo Guzman in three episodes, a character with ties to organized crime, unintentionally foreshadowing his star-making role as drugs kingpin Gus Fring on “Breaking Bad.” J.K. Simmons also appeared as two different characters in Seasons 2 and 4, just a few years before his iconic turn as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” movies.
Simmons’ second appearance on the series was particularly noteworthy, as he played Dr. Emil Skoda – a character he also portrayed on Wolf’s most iconic procedural, “Law and Order,” seemingly confirming the two shows existed in the same universe.
