With the success of Empire and How to Get Away With Murder this TV season, network executives seem to be finally opening their eyes to a more diverse range of talent to put in front of the camera. Yaya DaCosta is the latest to advance the cause of diversity on the airwaves. The actress has landed the lead role in Chicago Fire spinoff Chicago Med.
DaCosta, who recently starred in Lee Daniels' The Butler and as Whitney Houston in the Lifetime biopic Whitney, will play a nurse who dates Chicago Fire's Kelly, played by Taylor Kinney, who in real life happens to be dating Lady Gaga. 
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On the big screen, RZA has joined Orange Is the New Black's Taryn Manning and Sopranos star Drea de Matteo for the upcoming biopic of porn star Vanessa del Rio. The Wu-Tang Clan frontman will play "a character who works the doors at the burlesque club where Vanessa dances. After hours, he secretly uses the club's audio gear to pursue his true passion of music, laying down tracks and rhymes in what was then a fledgling form of music called rap," according to producers.
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(Photos from left: Angela Weiss/Getty Images, Rommel Demano/Getty Images)