Even when it's an act, Jamie Hector keeps it real.  On HBO's brilliant crime drama The Wire, Hector's honest depiction of calculating 22-year-old Baltimore drug lord Marlo Stanfield is so convincing that some viewers can't separate the two.  "This one cat told me he catch bodies for a living," recalls the actor.  "He's like, anytime I need to lay something down, holla at him."  Of course, a God-fearing vegetarian and classically trained thespian isn't in the market for contract killers.  Aside from the impressive scar that snakes up from his jaw, Hecor shares little in common with his ruthless character.

When not mentoring youth at the Stay Strong Foundation or his own Give Back University, Hector devotes himself to his craft-even refusing to disclose his age (or the story behind his scar) for fear it would distract viewers from the characters he presents. The Brooklyn native was studying "sense memory" at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute when his performance in Seith Mann's 2003 short Five Deep Breaths caught the eye of HBO casting director Alexa Fogel. After an audition in which he humanized a gangster who kills coolly and employs adolescent runners to mask his operation, Hector joined The Wire in its third season. "There's a difference in seeing somebody sell drugs and feeling the way they feel, and doing it," explains Hector, who has written three pads of notes on his character. "Somebody else could say, ‘That's a beast,' but the dude that's doing it don't think he's a beast. He's like, I'm making a living, supply and demand."

When the series returns September 10 (the third season DVDs drop in August), Marlo Stanfield will be the power on the streets, having successfully defended his business against the now imprisoned Avon Barksdale and slain Stringer Bell. Hector won't reveal how the limelight affects the once surreptitious hustler as the season progresses, but his portrayal will undoubtedly give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Home » CELEBRITIES » Complex Men » The Hustler: Jamie Hector