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Then: Dominic West

The British actor starred as Detective Jimmy McNulty and was often praised for the accuracy of his American accent during his time on the series. He told Absolute Radio that it took "a lot of coaching" to hide his lifelong British accent and adapt to his role as a boozy Baltimore detective.

"Whenever I open my mouth in a room full of Wire fans, I'm used to a sort of deflation of like, 'Oh dear, he's not McNulty,'" he said. "It's nice that people thought I was American, otherwise, it wouldn't have worked, would it?"

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Now: Dominic West

West landed the lead role as philandering novelist Noah Solloway on The Affair in 2014. Next, you can find him in the immigration-themed drama, Stateless, with Cate Blanchett. But no matter what new project he works on, he told Vanity Fair he's still most recognized as McNulty.

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Then: Sonja Sohn

Sohn starred as Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs on all five seasons of The Wire, often outsmarting McNulty and making him question his disdain for women in the police force along the way.

Sohn confessed to NPR that playing a police officer initially proved difficult for her, because of conduct she'd witnessed growing up: "My own perception of cops was that they came into your neighborhood, they roughed up people that you loved for no reason and took them away," Sohn said. "So I had to overcome all of that to play this cop."

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Now: Sonja Sohn

Sohn's work on The Wire inspired her to give back to the city of Baltimore. While many of her costars left for Los Angeles after the finale, she stuck around to launch ReWired for Change, a nonprofit that aids young parolees in improving their lives upon their release from prison. The Wire creator David Simon serves as an honorary chairman of the organization, while Wendell Pierce and Michael K. Williams each have a seat on the board.

She's also continued acting, appearing in Body of Proof, The Originals, The Chi, and more.

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Then: Wendell Pierce

Wendell Pierce was a fan favorite as Detective Bunk Moreland, the department's affable, obedient foil to the often-insubordinate McNulty. The duo shared the iconic "f-word" scene in season 1, which Pierce told HBO was his most memorable scene he filmed for the series.

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Now: Wendell Pierce

Wendell Pierce has kept himself busy with roles on Numb3rs, Treme, The Michael J. Fox Show, Ray Donovan, Chicago P.D. and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. He was also the father of Meghan Markle's character, Rachel Zane, on Suits.

He says he still watches The Wire from time to time, telling HBO: "I remember one time in particular—I was actually in Zimbabwe. I walked into my hotel room, turned on the television, and thought, 'Wait a minute, that sounds like me.'"

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Then: John Doman

John Doman was ultra-convincing as career cop William Rawls, who climbed the ranks of the Baltimore Police Department to eventually become Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

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Now: John Doman

Doman has worked consistently since his time on The Wire, with roles on Gotham, Madam Secretary, House of Cards, and Damages. His most recent role was alongside West in The Affair as bestselling author Bruce Butler.

Still, he's most recognized for The Wire: "I can be in the middle of a bazaar and someone will come up and start talking to me in a language I don't know, but I'll recognize 'The Wire!' 'The Wire!' every time," he told Indie Wire

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Then: Lance Reddick

The Baltimore native was cast as Cedric Daniels, a motivated but conflicted and career-minded police officer. Reddick says he auditioned four times—three of which he actually read for Bunk Moreland and Bubbles. He didn't find out he landed the part until and after his agent had been told that he didn't get the part.

"I still don't know what happened. I thought it was a dead issue when I got the call. Literally, I thought I was dreaming. It’s the only time in my life I really wondered, 'Am I dreaming this?' Because, it was like my life changed after that," he told Hobo Trash Can.

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Now: Lance Reddick

Following his success, Reddick appeared in Lost, Fringe, American Horror Story, and Bosch. He'll appear next in the upcoming Angel Has Fallen with Gerard Butler and Godzilla vs. Kong.

He's also appeared on the big screen work in the John Wick franchise as the titular hero's loyal hotel manager, Charon, which he told SlashFilm gave him a chance to flex his action muscles: "I love doing action and it's so funny because I've played so many cops, and I rarely get to shoot guns and fight people. Fringe, Bosch, The Wire…"

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Then: Clarke Peters

During his tenure are Lester Freamon on the series, the British thespian said he learned a great deal about American politics, history, and life in general. "Although this was centered in Baltimore, it was easy to see in a very short period of time how Baltimore was just every major city in America,” he told Maxim.

Costar West revealed to The Guardian that Peters was such a hardworking actor that his nickname on set was "Four Jobs."

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Then: Clarke Peters

Since then, Peters appeared in David Simon's New Orleans-based drama Treme. He's also had recurring and starring roles on Damages, Jessica Jones, Person of Interest, Bulletproof, Love Is, and landed a role in the Oscar-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Despite his seemingly bottomless well of work, it's still Lester Freamon that he wishes he could reprise someday: "We tried to put out a rumor there would be a movie version, but that didn't fly. We talked up some spin-off possibilities—I really fancied The Freamon Files. Some of us are still pretty devastated it's all over," he told The Scotsman.

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Then: Jim True-Frost

True-Frost played the trigger-happy and often incompetent Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski, who leaves the Baltimore police force to become a middle school teacher. His character's career transition brought True-Frost closer to his own wife.

He told Vulture, "My wife, Cora, had taught for two years as a Teach for America corps member in a Baltimore city school, teaching students exactly like the ones Prez taught. We would watch early episodes together and my wife would be slack-jawed, saying, 'Oh my God, those are my kids.' So we had this deep connection with these kids long before I knew that I was going to play the identical role she had lived."

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Now: Jim True-Frost

True-Frost followed a lot of his colleagues to David Simon's Treme, then dabbled in various TV and stage work. Though he said his time on The Wire was "fantastic," he's since taken a step back from acting to live a normal life in upstate New York with his family, which he told Syracuse.com was a "tradeoff": "It's not exactly convenient. It adds a lot of time and effort seeking and going to work and remaining involved in the business. But at mid-career I felt if I didn't make a choice to prioritize other aspects of my life I might just burn out," he said.

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Then: Wood Harris

Harris played Baltimore drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on The Wire, but admitted that he didn't know if the show would be a hit when he signed on for the iconic role. "With film, you can feel confident that you're doing good work, but never know what it's going to look like," he told Broadway.com. "Now The Wire is regarded as the greatest show ever, and we're all like, 'Yeah, what's up!'"

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Now: Wood Harris

In 2010, Wood Harris narrated a documentary on Nathan Barksdale (the inspiration for Avon Barksdale), called The Avon Barksdale Story. He's also had recurring roles in Southland, Justified, The Breaks, and Empire, and appearedon the big screen in Bladerunner 2049 and Creed II.

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Then: Idris Elba

Elba starred as Russell "Stringer" Bell for three seasons, but the British actor feared he might not get the part when a casting director told him the show's creator wanted an exclusively American ensemble.

"Alexa Fogel was a casting director that was really into seeing new talent. She said 'I love you, I gotta bring you into this audition, but you have to promise that you can't tell him you're from East London,'" he told Hot Ones. By Elba's fourth audition, he came clean about his East London roots and begged not just for the job, but for Fogel to keep hers. Spoiler alert: It worked.

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Now: Idris Elba

Afterwards, Elba transitioned predominantly to film work, with supporting roles in The Reaping, 28 Weeks Later, and American Gangster, before his starring role alongside a certain Beyoncé Knowles-Carter in Obsessed. After that, it was blockbusters like Thor, Avengers, Prometheus, and Pacific Rim—and we'd be remiss to forget that he was People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2018.

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Then: Michael B. Jordan

Jordan got his start in television as a 16-year-old drug dealer named Wallace. It was his first recurring role, but he almost quit acting after he was written off the show—that is, until costar Andre Royo talked him out of it.

"He was stressed out," Royo told Vanity Fair. "He was like, 'Yo, I'm not working enough, s—t is crazy, I think I'm going to go back to New York.' And he was really on some 'boo-hoo' s—t. And I was like, 'Yo dog, are you kidding me right now? You in your early 20s and you're around motherf—kers trying to feed families who ain't working. Snap out of it.'"

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Now: Michael B. Jordan

Jordan nabbed the role of Reggie Porter on All My Children after The Wire, then moved on to hits like Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. He's since gone on to star as the son of Apollo Creed in the Creed franchise, and his most notable role to date was that of criminal antihero Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.

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