BEST OF TASTY CLIPS: After 8 seasons, Rolando Boyce and ‘The Chi’ set to end

By Bill Vaughan

Entertainment Writer

ROLANDO BOYCE is the real deal. For eight seasons, the Chicago native has been warming hearts and eliciting smiles as Darnell, the track suited, earpiece wearing, old school player on Showtime’s “The Chi.”

The former army soldier who served during Desert Storm, told TASTY CLIPS he strives to make his characters come from a natural place. At that, he wins.

As for his stint in the military, Boyce fortunately wasn’t in battle, but says he worked his butt off.

“There were some things I saw that hopefully I don’t have to see again,” he confided. “I was 20 at the time but was smart enough to know when I got back that it was enough and I got out. Don’t know how I got out, but I did.”

Upon returning to Houston, he found himself waiting tables, with a fizzling young marriage producing two kids, before deciding to return to Chicago with his family, where a chance encounter moved him to the stage.

“I never met anyone who was acting,” he said. “It was always in the back of my head, but I thought it was Hollywood and out of reach.”

After a suggestion to take some classes and act in some plays, he started picking up the pieces and ran with it. Years of theater roles followed until his Chicago agent suggested he go on an audition during his lunch break for an R. Kelly video. He got the part that launched his face globally.

As Boyce tells it: “I was like this is not for me. I don’t like to sing and dance. To this day, I’ve never been on an audition with so many people and was almost about to leave. I go in the room and do the scene. One of the producers saw my theater credits and told me they wanted a strong actor and to come back the next day.

“There were about 15 people then,” he continued. “When I left out, she pulled me aside and told me it would be revealed later that the character was gay and asked am I OK with it. I’m like, Yeah, I know who I am.

“Now here’s the interesting thing about it,” Boyce added. “The producer who pulled me to the side. Her name is Shelby Stone. She [became] one of the producers of The Chi.’ Isn’t that something?”

That video was “Trapped in the Closet,” the viral sensation that launched numerous chapters, before being pulled due to the singer/songwriter’s conviction on racketeering, sexual exploitation of minors and other charges.

“In the process of doing it, we knew it was something special that had never been done before,” he added. “It was iconic. People all over the world knew those videos. The woman that plays my wife on there — that’s my wife. We got married after that. Maybe years to come, it will be out again but it’s hard to find that sucker now.”

But did he know something was amiss?

“When we shot, the allegations were already out,” Boyce said. “I didn’t really hang with [Kelly]. A lot of times he’d invite folks to play basketball. I kind of just kept it on set.

“He traveled with an entourage,” he added. “That’s just not me. Growing up in Chicago, you heard about it for years. So, I felt like it could be, but I never put myself in a position where I saw anything.”

He was recognized a lot when it came out because the videos were huge.

“At the time I had a regular job at Marshall Field’s which was a retail store,” he said. “I would drive my car, hop on the bus and go downtown. If there were some kids on there, forget about it. I would get on the bus and put my hand over my head. The adults would be cool, but the kids would go berserk. I mean, one girl made me write on her shirt. I was like, Girl, your mama’s going to be mad at you!”

He has since worked on “Ray Donovan,” “P-Valley” (the infamous car wash scene) and had guest turns on OWN’s “All Rise,” HBO’s “South Side,” ABC’s “High Potential,” and on stage, but this week marks the premiere of the final season of “The Chi.”

Episodes of this lot subtitled “Coldest Winter Ever” begin May 22 on Paramount+ before running in its regular Sunday night slot on Showtime.

For 12 years, Bill Vaughan has kept Wave readers up to date with the latest news in entertainment. Now, we are collecting some of those past columns into what we call the Best of Tasty Clips. To contact Vaughan, visit his social media pages on Facebook and Instagram or @tasty_clips, on X @tastyclips, and on LinkedIn to William Vaughan.