Sandi McCree

Actor played Dèlonda Brice #TheWire @HBOMAX Improviser V.O. Follow me IG @SandiMcCree She/Her

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

Glowing up..favor up..Saying goodbye to the mess, hello to peace...Boundaries set, balance secured. Love, light, and gratitude—always ✨🌊 #SandiMcCree #GlowUp #BoundariesAndBalance #LoveAndLight #2GBTG #GratefulHeart #SoftLife #HawaiiVibes #Oahu #Mahalo #BD💥💥💥💥

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🚨 DAMN.

Ruby Bridges said the moment she finally understood what was happening during school integration was when a little white boy told her:

“My mom said I can’t play with you because you’re a nigger.”

She was SIX.

And she said hearing that felt like “a huge weight lifted,” because suddenly everything made sense.

Why the classrooms were empty.
Why adults were screaming.
Why U.S. Marshals had to escort her to school.
Not because of anything she did.

Just because of the color of her skin.

A six-year-old child realizing an entire country was angry at her for existing.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Rolling Stone ranks The Wire the second-best TV show ever made. Entertainment Weekly named it the best in 2013. The man who made it spent six years fighting HBO to keep it on the air. They were trying to cancel it after every single season.

The ratings never came. Season 2 peaked at 3.71 million viewers an episode. By the final season the average was under a million. The 2008 series finale pulled around 1 million, against The Sopranos finale's 11.9 million nine months earlier.

After Season 3, HBO was ready to end it. Two of the show's biggest characters had been killed off or sent to prison. To the network, that was a natural finish. David Simon disagreed. He spent two years pushing HBO to renew, which is why Season 4 didn't premiere until 21 months after Season 3 ended. He'd wanted Season 4 to cover immigration in Baltimore. By the time HBO finally said yes, there was no time to research it, so he switched to the public schools, where his writing partner Ed Burns had taught for years.

He also pitched HBO a spinoff about Tommy Carcetti, the politician character. Simon later said HBO boss Chris Albrecht looked at him like, "Dude, I'm trying to figure out how to cancel the one show."

Season 5 was supposed to be 13 episodes. HBO cut it to 10. The first episode of the shorter season is called "More with Less."

The casting almost fell apart for another reason. Idris Elba faked an American accent through four auditions to get Stringer Bell. He's from East London. The casting director coached him to lie. Dominic West, who played lead detective Jimmy McNulty, was also British, from Yorkshire. Simon didn't find out until the actors first read the script together. He'd specifically asked for Americans.

Carolyn Strauss, the HBO executive who approved The Wire (and The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under), also saved one of its main characters. Simon had written Detective Kima Greggs to die in Season 1, episode 10. Strauss told him no.

The awards did nothing for it. Two Emmy nominations across five seasons, both for writing. Zero wins. None of the actors were ever nominated, not even Idris Elba, Michael K. Williams, or Michael B. Jordan. Zero Golden Globe nominations either. One HBO executive said the network blamed the East Coast setting and the LA-based Emmy voters. The show that beat it every Sunday in the ratings was Desperate Housewives, originally pitched to HBO and turned down by Carolyn Strauss.

Two things kept The Wire alive. Simon refused to give up. The show built a reputation that only paid off after it had ended. People bought the DVDs and told their friends. The show that almost died five times became the one everyone said you had to watch. The greatest show in television history got five seasons out of a network trying to cancel it after every one.

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

@SerieFilmAfroUS OUTSTANDING ♥️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥so far! ( first 2 episodes) 🙌🏾 I'm on a slow binge.

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

@ComingOfAge___ Leave Florida alone

[Ziggy_Sobotka @Ziggys_Duck]

Season 3 Ep6: Homecoming
Rewind to #TheWire 24th anniversary

“Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell.” -The Bunk

[The Day Warrior @thedaywar90]

I miss the days of having class in the White House!

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

D. L. Hughley on Trump: “I’m very proud I’ve never voted for a president who raped women and children. I never voted for a president who defrauded charities. I never voted for a president that celebrated the death of somebody. And half this country can’t say that”

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

We heard this post made Donald Trump VERY angry! OOPS!

[Venus Williams @Venuseswilliams]

“I don’t know how you walk through a door and not bring others with you.” @shondarhimes breaks down why diversifying crews matters and how Bridgerton helped open doors for more people of color behind the camera.

More from this conversation on @stocktonstpodcast.

[Governor Newsom Press Office @GovPressOffice]

NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING IF SHE WAS IN OFFICE

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

On July 3, 1976, Tina Turner waited until her husband, Ike, fell asleep in their Dallas hotel room. Her face was swollen and bruised from another beating. In her pocket were just 36 cents and a Mobil gas card. Nothing more.

She slipped out of the Statler Hilton and ran. Not toward a car. Not toward help she could call. She ran straight across Interstate 30, weaving through traffic in the dark, nearly hit by a truck, driven by nothing but survival. On the other side stood the Ramada Inn. The manager recognized her instantly, even through the injuries. He gave her a room on the eleventh floor and placed a guard outside her door. For three days, Tina stayed hidden there, too injured to even eat properly, letting her body begin to heal.

Three weeks later, she filed for divorce. When asked what she wanted from sixteen years of marriage, her answer stunned everyone. She wanted nothing except her name. No house. No money. No royalties. Just “Tina Turner.” A name created to control her, now the only thing she could use to rebuild her life.

She walked away with debt, an IRS tax lien, and an industry that believed she was finished. Nearly forty years old, a Black woman in a business obsessed with youth, with no ownership of her past music. The odds were stacked brutally against her.

But Tina refused to accept defeat. She turned to Nichiren Buddhism, chanting daily for strength. She took every job she could find. Game shows. Hotel lounges. County fairs. Corporate events. She even cleaned houses between performances. While the world called her a has-been, she was quietly reconstructing herself piece by piece.

Then came 1984.

At forty-four, she released Private Dancer. It changed everything. The album sold more than twenty million copies. “What’s Love Got to Do with It” reached number one, her first solo chart-topper. She won three Grammy Awards in 1985, performed at Live Aid, and starred in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The world finally recognized her as the Queen of Rock and Roll.

Her second act lasted decades. Record-breaking tours. Twelve Grammy Awards. Over one hundred million records sold. A career rebuilt entirely on her own terms.

And love found her too. Erwin Bach met Tina at an airport in 1986 and never left her side. When her kidneys failed in 2016, he offered her one of his own without hesitation. In 2017, he kept that promise and saved her life.

On May 24, 2023, Tina Turner passed away peacefully in Switzerland at the age of eighty-three, with Erwin beside her. She left behind more than music. She left proof.

It is never too late to reclaim your life. You can begin again at forty. At fifty. At any age. All it takes is the courage to cross the road.

Thirty-six cents. A gas card. And an unbreakable will.

That is how legends are made.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. But right now, they’re under attack.

Several Republican-controlled states have redrawn their congressional maps to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterm elections.

Now Virginia has a chance to help level the playing field. If you live in the Commonwealth, early voting begins March 6, and Election Day is on April 21. Vote YES.

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

♥️🔥🔥🔥🔥

[Jesse Rican @JESSERICAN1]

The wire season 1 episode 1 recap with actor from show Kamal Bostic Smith @maestroharrell @SandiMcCree #thewire https://t.co/9L2QPmeXw7

[King Roy @RoyIsThaTruth]

Bad Bunny walked out in a #64 jersey with “OCASIO” on the back.

Not Bad Bunny.

Not Benito.

His real name.

His family name.

Then he grabbed the mic and said:

“My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. And if today I’m here at the Super Bowl, it’s because I never, never stopped believing in myself.”

In Spanish.
No translation.
Even the jumbotron was in Spanish.

And I watched the whole thing with a translator on.

Because the message was that important to me.

They said he was “un-American.”

They said nobody would understand him.

They said having him perform was “ridiculous.”

And he SHOWED OUT!

He brought out Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.

He staged a wedding on the field.

He recreated a bodega.

He gave us a whole scene of family and love.

He humanized an entire culture on the world’s biggest stage.

All in his native language.

And he didn’t flinch.

His lyrics were clear messages:

“They want to take the river from me, and the beach too. They want my neighborhood and for my grandma to leave.”

“I should have taken more photos when I had you. Hopefully my loved ones will never move.”

And that last line:

“Ojalá que los míos nunca se muden.”

Hopefully my loved ones will never move.

That’s about families being separated.

Forced to leave.

Displacement.

Yeah, he didn’t chase the mainstream.

He made the mainstream come to him.

He put his family name on his back and told 120 million people exactly who he is.

And I’m here for ALL of it!👏🏽

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Remember when Google dropped this Black History Month commercial in 2020?

That’s what honoring Black history looks like, telling the truth loudly, not sanitizing it when it makes people uncomfortable.

Happy Black History Month.

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

@JESSERICAN1 I’m def interested I’m in Paris will be back in LA in 2 weeks I also want to share how much I respect Debi Young♥️🙌🏾 Mrs. Debi is one of the best in the industry and was such a meaningful presence and support for me during Season 4 of The Wire!

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

Cleveland roots 🤎🧡
@Browns fan logic 🏈
49 mind changes later… 🤔
and I STILL believe in #ShedeurSanders 🙏🏾
@NFLonFOX Wrapped absolutely knew what they were doing 💯 😂

[FOX Sports: NFL @NFLonFOX]

What popped up on your "NFL Wrapped" for this season??

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

Mike you lifted me, protected me, & danced with me through some of the best nights of shooting Season 4 of #TheWire Thank you for seeing me...for holding space for me ♥️ You are missed and forever loved! #Omar #michaelkwilliams #sandimccree #DelondaBrice

[Sandi McCree @SandiMcCree]

You Vote? B4 l flew to Asia #VOTE My Mom lived through segregation Now we're watching this country destroyed bc they refuse progress bc a Black woman was on the ballot MAGA chose chaos over a qualified Black woman & now the consequences are LOUD #FOFO #ElectionDay #SandiMcCree

[Ziggy_Sobotka @Ziggys_Duck]

Everything you think you know about The Wire is wrong. De’Londa Brice was actually a good mom.