Larenz Tate’s acting career has been extremely low-key in the past few years. For those who don’t remember him, Tate played the handsome love interest to Nia Long in “Love Jones.” Or his name may ring a bell when you think of the rambunctious O-Dog in “Menace II Society.” Nevertheless, the veteran actor continues to land roles in film and television. His latest role is the character of Shawn Polk on NBC‘s “Game of Silence.” The show airs on Thursday nights a 10pm Est. The season premiere episode (embedded above) and episode 2 were aired this week for the official roll-out. Tate’s character is the stand out in that he plays the lead (and only) African-American role on the show. Here’s the show’s synopsis: Five best friends have a dark secret they thought was buried 25 years ago, but they soon discover that you can’t hide your past forever. From the executive producers of “CSI” and “Friday Night Lights” comes a gripping new drama about friendship, love, revenge and the moral dilemma of how far one will go in the pursuit of justice. Jackson Brooks (David Lyons, “Revolution”) is a successful attorney who seems to have it all. He’s engaged to his boss, Marina (Claire van der Boom, “Hawaii Five-O”), and he’s on the fast track to becoming partner at his firm, but his world is turned upside down when his long-lost childhood friends unexpectedly reappear after 25 years. Jackson, Gil Harris (Michael Raymond-James, “True Blood”), Shawn Polk (Larenz Tate, “Rush”) and Boots (Derek Phillips, “Friday Night Lights”) always stuck together, like brothers. They spent their boyhood summers in the small town of Dalton, Texas, swimming in the quarry, shooting bottle rockets and doing everything they could to mine the fun out of small-town life. But their idyllic world turned chaotic one fateful summer afternoon when a well-intentioned and heroic attempt to save their friend Jessie (Bre Blair, “Last Vegas”) from her alcoholic mother ultimately cost the 13-year-old boys nine months at Quitman Youth Detention Facility, where their lives were changed forever. Now 25 years later, the nightmare of the worst nine months of their lives has resurfaced, uprooting a mystery even deeper than their buried past. The brotherhood must now band together to right the wrongs of their shared past – a journey that will push the limits of their loyalty and ignite in them an unquenchable thirst for revenge. “Game of Silence” is executive produced by Carol Mendelsohn, David Hudgins, Julie Weitz, Tariq Jalil, Timur Savci, Deran Sarafian and Niels Arden Oplev (Pilot). The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television.
