Darnell "J.D." Williams (born May 22, 1978 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American actor with starring roles in the HBO television programs Oz and The Wire, in which he appeared as Preston "Bodie" Broadus. He has also appeared in Homicide: Life on the Street, a show based on a book by The Wire creator David Simon, where he guest starred as Casper in the episode "The Why Chromosome". He played inmate Kenny Wangler in the first four seasons of Oz. He had a small guest starring role in The Sopranos episode "46 Long" as Special K, an incompetent stickup man and one of Brendan Filone's goons. He appeared in the pilot episode ("Welcome to Camelot") of Third Watch as Pee-Wee, an errant street kid.
Williams has also had leading roles or cameo appearances in a number of R&B and hip-hop music videos. He has appeared as himself, a love interest, and characters resembling his role as a drug dealer on The Wire.
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Williams attended Newark Arts High School, a performing arts public school in Newark, NJ.[1] He portrayed a biracial 15-year-old dealing with racism and his father's infidelity in the play A.M. Sunday in late 2003 at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE theater. He walked around Baltimore's inner city during the middle of the night a few days before "The Wire"'s first taping in order to get a feel for Baltimore; he is older than his character on The Wire by 8 years. He is a self proclaimed "Video Star", as a result of cameos and leading roles he had in R&B and hip-hop music videos between 2002 and 2005.
According to his HBO bio, he is credited with appearing in the film "Graffiti Bridge", but a 2003 interview with AllHipHop.com revealed that Williams was not in the movie. Tevin Campbell filled the cameo role with which Williams is credited.
Williams has been in print ads for defunct clothing lines Live by Karl Kani and Def Jam University clothing. Both lines were spin-offs from Karl Kani clothing and Phat Farm, respectively. He has starred in commercials promoting Hershey's chocolate, Pizza Hut, Fedex, the Maryland Lottery, Doritos and most recently, as a delivery boy for FedEx.