Khandi Alexander has been cast to play Kerry Washington's character Olivia Pope's mother in Scandal in a recurring role.
The Hollywood Reporter first revealed the casting news. The Treme actress will play Maya Lewis and will first appear in Thursday's episode. Alexander will also be seen in flashbacks as Pope struggles to deal with the news and her mother becomes a "major issue."
Pope and Jake discovered on the last episode that her mother was on a plane that President Fitzgerald Grant, played by Tony Goldwyn, had shot down. Pope's father Rowan had made the order.
Goldwyn said, "You can only imagine what that would be like to find out that your mother did not die in the way that you thought she died, in terms of it being a willful act. It's surreal for Olivia." He added, "The audience can imagine what that must be like to find out that your mother was murdered along with hundreds of other people. So the fact that her father was behind it is incomprehensible."
According to TheWrap, Alexander can be seen in the upcoming final season of HBO's New Orleans drama Treme as LaDonna Batiste-Williams. The actress has won an NAACP Image Award and has appeared on CSI: Miami, ER and Newsradio.
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