After The Wire, some of its stars had trouble finding acting work because they weren't viewed as actors

Los Angeles Times

"It was so authentic, people thought we weren't actors," says Gbenga Akinnagbe in a Los Angeles Times article on the post-Wire careers of the stars of the classic HBO series. "At industry events, people would ask, 'What are you doing here?' And I'd say, 'What do you mean?' and they'd say, 'What are you doing out of Baltimore?'" Jamie Hector, who played Marlo Stanfield, had to remind industry people that he trained at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Still, he says, "I'd rather be pigeonholed than no holed. At least I was working." Other Wire stars found success by joining shows run by Wire fans, such as The Walking Dead and Teen Wolf, or shows by The Wire creator David Simon.