Andre Braugher

An intense, classically trained character actor who approaches his screen projects with the same seriousness with which he does Shakespeare plays, Braugher honed his craft on the New York stage before making an auspicious film debut in Glory as a bespectacled bookworm who enlists in the Civil War. But his five-season, Emmy-winning stint as a seemingly infallible detective humbled by a stroke on the gritty Homicide: Life on the Streets is what made him a star. Although the role brought him myriad accolades and allowed him to work opposite his real-life wife, Ami Brabson (who played his on-screen spouse), he left the series in 1998 to pursue big-screen roles. Unfortunately, the movies rarely utilized his palpable energy. So he reprised his Homicide role in a TV-movie and appeared in two more critically acclaimed but short-lived series — Gideon's Crossing and Hack — before snagging his second Emmy on the other side of the law, as a cool criminal in the miniseries Thief.