‘Fargo’ Breakout Bokeem Woodbine to Star in A&E’s L.A. Riots Drama (Exclusive)

Fargo season-two breakout Bokeem Woodbine has landed his next role.

The actor, who most recently starred as Mike Milligan on the FX anthology, has been tapped to co-star in A&E’s The Infamous, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

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Picked up to pilot in July, The Infamous centers on two complicated men on a collision course: an ambitious reformed gangster poised to break out of South Central (Woodbine) and the LAPD detective hell-bent on taking him down. The drama, which hails from A+E Studios and Color Force, is set against real events in turbulent 1990s Los Angeles and leading up to the L.A. Riots that tore the city apart. Sources tell THR that there is a musical component to the potential series.

Woodbine will play Shannon, a former gang member turned successful hip-hop producer who is poised to break out of South Central but becomes the target of an LAPD detective.

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Gambit‘s Joshua Zetumer will pen the script and executive produce alongside Color Force’s Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games, FX’s American Crime Story) and Brad Simpson (World War Z, American Crime Story).

Woodbine, who has fielded multiple offers this pilot season, broke out thanks to his turn in Noah Hawley’s Fargo. The veteran actor, who counts Saving Grace and Southland among his TV credits, told THR in December that his approach to working changed after his Fargo experience.

“It’s spoils you. There’s no question about it,” he said. “I’ve been on only a few auditions since Fargo, because it’s something that Noah and I discussed and he said, not quoting him verbatim, but he said basically, ‘After this, you have to be really smart about picking only the good stuff.’ … Since I’ve been back I’ve turned down or not even gone to probably about 15 auditions because even though I could always use more screen time and more money, I said, ‘This is not the kind of opportunity that you squander by just jumping into whatever else comes your way.'”

Woodbine, who earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for best supporting actor in a miniseries for his role on Fargo, is repped by Gersh.