Oscar Award nominee Barkhad Abdi is set to appear in one of the upcoming episodes of CBS' police procedural drama remake "Hawaii Five-O."
The Somali-American actor-director will portray the role of Roko Contee, a notorious Congolese warlord who was once the world's most wanted man. The manhunt for Contee was halted after he was reportedly killed by the Zaire Air Force during a bombing in 2011. However, Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin), Danno Williams (Scott Caan) and the rest of the team find out that the warlord's death was a hoax, and he is now in Hawaii working as a cab driver.
"Hawaii Five-O" executive producer Peter Lenkov teased about the upcoming episode where Abdi is set to appear.
"He plays basically Kony, that African warlord who was in the news a few years ago," Lenkov said. "He plays a character like that hiding on the island here, and somebody discovers that he's here. And our guys end up confronting him."
"It's a big, big episode. We were so lucky to get him, and we wrote it with him in mind. We were able to get him to the island and that was a big coup for us," the executive producer added.
The 29-year-old actor became famous after he played the role of pirate leader Abduwali Muse in Tom Hanks' celebrated film "Captain Phillips" back in 2013. He bested all 700 audition-goers for the coveted role when the casting call was staged in Minneapolis in 2011.
Abdi was nominated for best supporting actor during that year's Oscars, Screen Actors Guild, as well as the Golden Globe Award, and he won that year's BAFTA Award in the same category. The actor will also be seen in the upcoming comedy film "Trainwreck" and the international thriller movie "Eye in the Sky" together with Aaron Paul and Helen Mirren, which are both expected to be released in 2015.
"Hawaii Five-O" season 5 returns on CBS starting Jan. 2.
