LA’s Finest
Season 2 e.tv (*194) 22:00 Action
On the surface, Detective Ben Baines (Duane Martin) is the wisecrack of his team at the LAPD in action series LA’s Finest. Behind his corny jokes and awkward handshakes though, is a man who’ll go above and beyond to protect his colleagues and their community. “Ben is the veteran of the team. He has seen a lot as a cop and he uses humour to overcome challenges that his job throws at him,” explains Duane. As season 2 develops, Ben jeopardises his job to defend a colleague from getting fired and it comes back to bite him.
Before Duane started acting in 1990, he played basketball at New York University where he was studying. He was selected to play for professional basketball team The New York Knickerbockers in 1989, but he was dropped after three months following an injury.
The 56-year-old didn’t completely leave basketball though. He owns sports management agency Impact Sports, in which he oversees careers of various athletes. “I’ve been a sports agent for over 26 years, and I enjoy working with the next generation of sportsmen and women,” explains Duane.
He’s best known for playing Robert in comedy series All Of Us, which aired between 2003 and 2007. In the series, Duane’s character was based on his actor friend Will Smith’s (Will in ’90s comedy series The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air) struggles as a single father in the 1990s.
Duane married Tisha Campbell (Carol in series Last Man Standing) in 1996 but the couple filed for divorce in 2018 and it was finalised in 2020. They have two sons: Xen (20) and Ezekiel (9).