{"id":31451,"date":"2013-06-02T17:28:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T17:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=31451"},"modified":"2013-06-03T01:28:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T01:28:27","slug":"mixed-ethnicity-hidden-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=31451","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Ethnicity, Hidden Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/26\/arts\/television\/mixed-ethnicity-hidden-identity.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mixed Ethnicity, Hidden Identity<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Times<\/a><br \/>\n2013-05-24<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kathryn Shattuck<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With his long-lashed chocolate eyes and inviting lips, used to seductive effect in \u201cRescue Me,\u201d \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daniel_Sunjata\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Sunjata<\/a> has the kind of face not easily forgotten, or so you\u2019d think<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I\u2019m exposed to crowds repeatedly, I could count on my hands the number of times people are going to say, \u2018Hey, aren\u2019t you Adam Rodriguez from \u201cCSI: Miami\u201d?\u2019 \u201d he said, his laughter tinged with what might have been a touch of ruefulness. Especially since Mr. Sunjata, 41, a high school linebacker in Chicago who traded in dreams of business school for the stage, has supported himself by acting ever since he earned an M.F.A. from New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts in 1998. No waiting tables. No tending bar.<\/p>\n<p>He might finally kiss Mr. Rodriguez\u2019s ghost goodbye with \u201cGraceland,\u201d a new series that premieres on June 6 at 10 p.m. on the USA Network. Mr. Sunjata stars as Paul Briggs, a legendary undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation living in a Southern California beach palace with a motley crew from the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Then Mike Warren, a rookie played by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aaron_Tveit\" target=\"_blank\">Aaron Tveit<\/a>, arrives from Quantico where, like Briggs, he graduated at the top of his class. Soon Mike discovers that his assignment \u2014 to infiltrate the local underworld with his housemates \u2014 is camouflage for a more important task: to investigate Briggs himself.<\/p>\n<p>Recently Mr. Sunjata \u2014 his casual outfit in contrast to his elegant, thinking-man\u2019s demeanor \u2014 spoke with Kathryn Shattuck about living large and letting it all hang out. These are excerpts from their conversation&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;.With roles ranging from a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nuyorican\" target=\"_blank\">Nuyorican<\/a> firefighter on \u201cRescue Me\u201d to a fashion designer in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d you seem to have defied stereotyping.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I was coming out of graduate school, I wasn\u2019t really sure if my ethnic ambiguity [Irish, German and African-American] was going to be a help or a hindrance, but I think that ultimately it has helped me. It\u2019s set me apart from other guys who might be considered leading-man types in the sense that I don\u2019t necessarily look like everybody else. But a lot of it depends on the open-mindedness of the casting director&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire interview <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/26\/arts\/television\/mixed-ethnicity-hidden-identity.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mixed Ethnicity, Hidden Identity The New York Times 2013-05-24 Kathryn Shattuck With his long-lashed chocolate eyes and inviting lips, used to seductive effect in \u201cRescue Me,\u201d \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d Daniel Sunjata has the kind of face not easily forgotten, or so you\u2019d think \u201cIf I\u2019m exposed to crowds repeatedly, I could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,13743,8,20],"tags":[14831,14830,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-31451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-daniel-sunjata","tag-kathryn-shattuck","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}