‘OITNB’ Star Samira Wiley Heads to ‘Will & Grace’ for Guest Arc

One former Orange Is The New Black star will be heading over to Will & Grace for a new guest arc.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, actress Samira Wiley will turn up in three episodes when the Will & Grace revival comes back in 2019.

She will reportedly play a woman named Nikki, “a cool and confident woman working in the same building as Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). When the pair get snowed in at the office, Nikki gets the newly divorced Karen to open up about her love life.”

Wiley is most well-known for her time on Orange Is The New Black, where she played Poussey Washington for four seasons. Her performance on the series earned her a Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along with the rest of her castmates.

Afterwards, she took on the role of Moira in Hulu’s A Handmaid’s Tale, where she has earned even more award nominations, including a Screen Actors Guild award nod for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She also won a Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

During an interview with Uproxx, Wiley spoke about her two major roles, elaborating on how she approaches portraying a character who has suffered great trauma.

“I think a lot about staying healthy, meaning that going into these places as an actor, it’s a very intense place to step into,” she explained. “It’s a practice that I have to be diligent about, in terms of at the end of the day making sure that I sort of really leave, sort of extract myself, from Moira. Because it’s so much that she’s dealing with.”

“It’s a lot to really fully go into these characters, into these headspaces, because Moira is pretty f—ed up. I mean, she needs to be in constant therapy, and she’s not,” Wiley continued. “And I think that, just for me every day, I’m just trying to remember to fully exit, fully leave Moira behind on stage at the end of the day so that I can function in my life.”

“It’s something that I think that needs to be explored, and I’m glad that we’re exploring it, especially even her own mental health,” she added.

Fans can catch Wiley when Will & Grace returns from its winter break on Jan. 31, 2019 at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC.