If you think you’ve seen “Euphoria” star Colman Domingo on several episodes of “Law & Order” and its spin-offs, you’re not mistaken. However, they aren’t all the same character. Like so many actors who have used a single episode of “Law & Order” as early-career income, Domingo did it a total of five times.
Domingo — who considers joining the Dick Wolf universe a major milestone — kicked off his multi-episode journey across the franchise in 2004 on the original “Law & Order,” guest-starring as defense attorney Ronald Gumer. “When I moved to New York, I knew that the gig to get was ‘Law & Order,'” Domingo recalled during an interview with Collider (via YouTube). “You weren’t an actor worth your salt if you didn’t get a ‘Law & Order.’ … When you do, it does feel like that rite of passage.”
By 2006, he jumped to the short-lived spin-off “Law & Order: Trial by Jury,” landing the role of Gus Johnson. Though he originally auditioned to play an attorney, a British director shifted his path. Domingo told Collider, “I went in there with my suit on and my shirt and tie, and I delivered the dialogue, and the director looked at me and says … ‘Would you mind reading these other sides?’ And I was like, ‘schizophrenic heroin addict?’ And I thought, ‘What in me, where did he see “schizophrenic heroin addict”?'” Still, Domingo embraced the change because, he said, “That’s the role that I’m usually more drawn to than the straight and narrow attorney.”
Colman Domingo also frequently appeared in Nash Bridges
Domingo continued to remain in the franchise’s casting system. Later in 2006, he appeared on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” as Sergeant Ev Sides. In 2008, he returned to the flagship “Law & Order” to play a witness named Donnie. And he would wrap up his franchise run back with “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” in 2010, playing Andre Lanier.
“Once you do a ‘Law & Order,’ you won’t do one for a while because that’s the way they do [it],” Colman Domingo explained to Collider. “You have to cycle through. So you hope it’s a really great guest star.”
But “Law & Order” wasn’t the only TV crime drama Domingo frequently appeared in. The actor also had an extended affair with “Nash Bridges.” He told Entertainment Weekly that both franchises allowed him to flex his theatrical acting chops: “Besides the ‘Law & Order’s, I was also on ‘Nash Bridges’ … like five different times. Why? Because I always came back, every season, as a very different person, so you couldn’t even recognize me.” He added, “They always knew I was game.”
