CASTING: CW's 'Flash' Adds Jesse L. Martin

He'll play Detective West, a surrogate father to Grant Gustin's Barry Allen in the Arrow spin-off pilot from Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns.

Martin -- who played Det. Ed Green for nearly 200 episodes on the Dick Wolf procedural -- will portray Det. West, an honest, blue-collar cop who is a surrogate father to Barry. A soulful, funny and caring father to Iris -- Barry's potential love interest -- West came up through the foster care system and took Barry in after his mother's slaying and father's imprisonment. He believes in Barry and supports his efforts to prove his father's innocence.

The Flash project, from Warner Bros. Television, started as a backdoor pilot, with the third episode slated to air in the back half of Arrow's second season. The CW now will film Flash as a standalone pilot in a bid to launch "with a bang like we launched Arrow," CW president Mark Pedowitz told reporters last week.

See The Hollywood Reporter for the full article.

PROJECT NEWS: New Movie?

According to IMDB.com, Jesse L. Martin has joined a film titled Nebraska Horizon (2014) that is currently in pre-production. Others starring in the movie include Kevin Corrigan, Yul Vazquez, Zachary Booth and more.

Stay tuned for more details!

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT: Fences

Jesse L. Martin will join a fantastic list of actors and directors in a historic event that will see the ten-play American Century Cycle by August Wilson, which captures 100 years of African American life decade by decade during the 20th century, recorded. They will be presented and recorded Aug. 26-Sept. 28 at The Greene Space in Manhattan.

Dramatic readings of each play will be presented in front of a live studio audience and recorded for the NYPR archives. The recording sessions will also be available as live video webcasts on NYPR websites, and the audio recordings will be preserved in NYPR’s archives for future research and educational purposes.

Tickets are $40, and may be purchased at www.thegreenespace.org.

Viewers across the country and around the world will be able to watch via live video webcasts at www.thegreenespace.org.  Cultural partner Two Rivers Theater in Red Bank, NJ, home to many productions of August Wilson plays, will also offer live video webcasts at www.trtc.org.

WNYC 93.9 FM will broadcast select recordings on Sundays beginning in January 2014. WNYC will also make the recordings plays available for radio broadcast on other public radio stations.

All readings start at 7 pm at The Greene Space, 44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street),Downtown Manhattan.

Fences–Wednesday, August 28

Directed by Kenny Leon

Eugene Lee………………………………… Jim Bono
Jesse L. Martin………………………………….Lyons
Ray Anthony Thomas………………………….Gabriel
Jonathan Majors………………………………….Cory

More information: The Greene Space, Playbill.com, NY Times, WSAV

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT: Jesse L. Martin to Portray Marvin Gaye

After several years of waiting, Jesse L. Martin fans can finally celebrate! It was announced today that Martin will replace Lenny Kravitz in Julien Temple's biopic about the legendary singer Marvin Gaye.

The movie will be set during the period that Gaye spent in Europe in the early 1980s, "when the soul singer attempted to get his addictions under control and career back on track with the help of British music promoter Freddy Cousaert (Gleason)."

Production is scheduled to start at the end of this month.

Source.

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT

TVline.com has confirmed that Martin will be joining the pilot for NBC's The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives. He will be one of the leads, in the role of Greg Cooke, a former hedge fund manager whose dire financial situation forces him into partnering with an unsavory business associate. Source

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT: SMASH

NBC announced on September 14th, that Martin would be joining the cast of SMASH during season 2 for a six-episode arc as Scott Welker, the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Workshop. Martin joins Sean Hayes, Jeremy Jordan and Jennifer Hudson, who were also recently announced to be joining the show during its second season.