Hollywood, CA -- It can occasionally be difficult to get noticed as a television series regular when the title character in the series projects as magnetic a presence as Golden Globe-winner Kyra Sedgwick’s Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the TNT police drama, The Closer. Now in her third season as LAPD Detective Irene Daniels, San Francisco-born Gina Ravera feels her character is beginning to establish herself. “Daniels is smart and cool-headed,” affirms Ravera. “She comes up with ideas and answers that elude other people on the squad, even Deputy Chief Johnson. I am very comfortable portraying her.”

During a set visit by a group of television journalists from around the nation, Ravera exudes a zesty graciousness, as if she were conducting a tour through her home. Pointing to a desk, she chuckles, “I sit right there. Don’t touch any of my stuff.” With a small group of journalists trailing in her wake, Ravera moves about the faux police squad room with a sensuous grace that gives every evidence of her classical dance training and her love for Salsa music. “My mother is African American and my father is Puerto Rican,” she declares. “The rhythm is in my bones.”

And them bones have been very marketable. Since her 1990 TV debut on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Ravera has worked almost non-stop on television, feature films and in live theatre. On TV, Ravera has enjoyed guest-starring and recurring roles on such diverse fare as ER, Boston Legal, Everwood, NYPD Blue and Frasier. Ravera recently starred as Jennifer Pryor, the wife of the late comedian Richard Pryor, in Showtime’s bio drama, Pryor Offenses, opposite Eddie Griffin.

“After we wrap Season Three, I am ...