Today's Guest: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, actor, "Castle" One of the delightful surprises of last spring’s crop of replacement TV shows was a quiet little romantic comedy called “Castle” on ABC. It stars Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, a police procedural novelist who gets permission to hang around with an NYPD homicide detective, Kate Beckett, played by the beautiful Stana Katic. The show, which may remind viewers of a certain generation—mine—of “Moonlighting” and younger viewers, perhaps, of “Bones,” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. (And it was recently renewed for a full second season.) Also in the cast are a number of strong supporting character actors, including Susan Sullivan, Debi Mazar and my guest today, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who plays Beckett’s boss, Captain Roy Montgomery. RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON podcast excerpt: "Halle is gorgeous with her makeup, without her makeup. I've had breakfast with her;I've had dinner with her. She was as gorgeous in the morning as she was when she gets out of makeup...It is rare to find someone that kind and that beautiful. Vanity is something; she does not have it." Santiago-Hudson brings some heft to what could be a walk-by role in someone else’s hands. A Tony and Obie winning actor, writer and director, Ruben Santiago-Hudson made his debut as a screenwriter with Lackawanna Blues, for which he received the Humanitas Prize, a Christopher Award, National Board of Review Honors, an NAACP Award and Emmy, Golden Globe and a WGA nomination. I don’t usually like to just read credits, but this guy’s got some outstanding ones: on film, Santiago-Hudson starred opposite Halle Berry in Their Eyes Were Watching God; Denzel Washington and Russell Crow in American Gangster; Demi Moore and Kevin Costner in Mr. Brooks; Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft; Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate; and John Travolta in Domestic Disturbance. He’s also got a cameo in the new Ricky Gervais film, The Invention of Lying. Ruben Santiago-Hudson •