Khandi Alexander, of “Treme”, “CSI:Miami”, and “ER” fame, also known from “NewsRadio”, if you remember that far back, has been tapped to join the cast of the immensely popular show, “Scandal“. She will start today, to play the role of Maya Lewis, who is Olivia Pope’s (Kerry Washington) mother, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This will be a unique role, in that it will be in flashback form. It was revealed during last week’s episode that Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Jake (Scott Foley) discovered that Maya Lewis apparently died on a civilian airliner that was shot down by Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) before he became President.

Goldwyn had this to say about the plot line, “The audience can imagine what that must be like to find out that your mother was murdered along with hundreds of other people. So the fact that her father was behind it is incomprehensible. It’s going to really complicate [Olivia and Rowan’s relationship] because Rowan remains a very dangerous person. It’s not like everyone can just expose him or take him out. It becomes a very volatile and dangerous situation. You can imagine how devastating it is for Olivia.”

The choice ended ongoing speculation about who would take on the coveted role, with other guesses including such names as Phylicia Rashad, Lynn Whitfield, and Jenifer Lewis.

Khandi Alexander is a very highly-respected actress in TV land. She won a Vision Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the “Treme” role in 2011, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2012. Not too shabby.

Scandal airs tonight and every Thursday at 10pm on ABC.

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