Giancarlo Esposito has been acting for more than four decades, but it's been a career of peaks and valleys. He began with supporting roles (or very minor ones) in a variety of TV shows and great movies (Trading Places, The Cotton Club) before appearing more prominently in several fantastic Spike Lee films (School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) and the landmark show, Homicide: Life on the Street. But there were pockets of his career completely obfuscated by Hollywood, especially in the early-to-mid-2000s, where he could only get single-episode gigs on TV shows or smaller roles in low-budget movies.