Renato Powell

With her bright smile and pleasant good looks, African-American actress Renato Powell displays a reassuring and solid presence which has lent itself to frequently being cast in small but crucial roles demonstrating confidence and strength. Powell's feature film debut came with a bit part in the gritty 1993 drama "Poetic Justice," directed by John Singleton and starring singer Janet Jackson as a young woman who turns to poetry to handle her depression. Two years later, Powell had a small role in the crime drama "Out of Sync" directed by actress/choreographer Debbie Allen and starring hip-hop singer LL Cool J as a disc jockey working undercover for the police. After being cast as a nurse in the made-for-television science fiction thriller "Inhumanoid," Powell went on to work on "Crowned and Dangerous," a mystery-comedy about the murder of a beauty queen, starring Yasmine Bleeth and Jill Clayburgh. In 2002, Powell appeared as a gossip columnist in stand-up comic Martin Lawrence's autobiographical performance documentary "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat." In 2007, Powell appeared twice as a rescue worker on a storyline in the long-running daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless." Three years later, Powell appeared on the popular police procedural drama "Criminal Minds" in an episode titled ''Remembrance of Things Past.''