Photography by Danielle Levitt
With his portrayal of Huck, an ex-assassin and Olivia Pope's merciless gladiator on the ABC breakout Scandal, Diaz has confirmed that he's a master at channeling bad-boy complexity. The series' past two seasons have seen Huck coming to terms with his tormented past, and Diaz's performance, much like his turn as the malicious, drug-dealing ruffian Guillermo on Showtime's Weeds, has proven to be as nuanced and mesmerizing as it is twisted. In this great age of television antiheroes, Diaz's villains are dark, terrifying, unpredictable -- and yet, despite their menacing rough edges, impossible to hate. Just the way we like them.
Photographed at Fast Ashley's Studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., on October 2, 2013