Don't let his intense television persona fool you, J.D. Williams is truly a funny cat. After five minutes of conversation, you feel like you've known him forever. Maybe an old friend you haven't spoken to in awhile or the guy next door you grew up with. But as part of the drug running Terrace crew on HBO's smash hit The Wire, J.D. is definitely no joke as the ill-fated Bodie, a character he calls "pure evil."

At just 25 years old, J.D. has completed two seasons on The Wire, a show garnering critical acclaim, while achieving a somewhat underground cult following. With its extensive layers, intricate storylines, and numerous characters, watching The Wire is the television series equivalent to reading a novel Ð if you skip a page, you miss a plot line. The show requires and deserves your undivided attention. There is a lot of good and a hell of a lot of bad going on in this series. "And me, I've been a troublemaker from the beginning," says J.D. of his sensitive deprived character Bodie. "He's one of these people that like to be bad." He just likes to be in trouble. That adrenaline rush, that power, just being involved in things. He does not care."

J.D. is no stranger to playing the dramatic in cop shows. He's worked on NY Undercover, Law and Order, and Homicide. But it was another extremely popular HBO series, Oz where he played inmate Kenny Wangler, which helped launch J.D. to television stardom. To this day, he finds it hard to believe that he actually has a successful career. "An old man pointed it out to me one day. He was like, you got a career. I was like, I do? Damn, you're right!" he laughs.

Growing up in North New Jersey, J.D. says he kind of always knew that he wanted to be an actor. Well, sort of. "The first thing I ever wanted to be was a corporate layer and then I found out how boring that was," he jokes. But once in school, the acting bug took a bite. "Ever since kindergarten, I was always the lead in the plays or the narrator. I always had a presence," he states. That presence stayed with him and was so on point that following his high school graduation one of his teachers reached in their own pocket to pay for his headshots and hooked him up with an agent who started calling him the very next day for auditions. "I knew I was going to be on TV one day, but I didn't think I was going to be as productive as I am, thank God."

His productivity extends beyond The Wire. He's become a "video ho" as he puts it with turns in Mariah Carey's "Through The Rain", Lumidee's "Never Leave You" and Aaliyah's "Miss You". "I got these shirts airbrushed, went down there for 8 hours and waited. I was the last person to go," he says.

Right now J.D. is getting ready to dive into filming for the third season of The Wire. "The first year was great. That's what e're going to try to do, is take it back to the essence of the first year," he says. He's also working on putting together his production company, Nork Projects. "Hopefully it will be up by the summertime and I can just do things at home and just have a cottage industry here," he states. And how does his family feel about his success? "My dad is the talker and my mom is the smiler. She can't smile enough and my dad can't talk enough."

- [ JF ] -