Kevin Arkadie, a screenwriter who was one of the creators of the popular police drama “New York Undercover” and a champion of representation for actors of color in the television industry, died on Wednesday. He was 68.
His death was confirmed by his cousin and producer, L. True Green, on Facebook, and also by Wolf Entertainment, the entertainment company led by Dick Wolf, the producer who created “New York Undercover” with Mr. Arkadie.
The cause of Mr. Arkadie’s death and where he died were unknown on Sunday. His representatives could not be reached for comment.
In July, Mr. Arkadie shared a video on Instagram about his failing kidneys and provided an update to his followers. He asked for help to find a potential living donor, as family and friends were not a match.
“With a living donor, my quality of life is supposed to be so much better,” he said.
Mr. Arkadie was best known for creating “New York Undercover,” a pioneering police drama that ran for 89 episodes on Fox for four seasons starting in 1994. The show, which follows two undercover detectives in New York City, was one of the first prime time police dramas to feature two actors of color in the lead roles.
“At a time when television rarely reflected the lived experiences of many communities, Kevin helped create a series that embraced contemporary culture and told stories that felt real,” Wolf Entertainment said in a statement on Friday.
The show was centered around the detectives J.C. Williams (played by Malik Yoba), a recently divorced father, and Eddie Torres (played by Michael DeLorenzo), a young detective born in the Bronx who struggles with his Puerto Rican heritage. It was an instant success and became a pinnacle of television for its gritty plot and trendy fashion.
Wolf Entertainment described the show as “the groundbreaking 1990s drama that redefined what a network police show could be.”
Much of Mr. Arkadie’s other work, including “Miracle’s Boys,” focused on Black Americans. The show, a mini-series that aired in 2005 about three orphaned brothers in Harlem, was adapted from a 2000 novel of the same name by Jacqueline Woodson, and included two episodes directed by Spike Lee.
“We all want to see a show that depicts young Black men in new ways,” Mr. Arkadie said in an interview with The New York Times. “That experience has been pigeonholed, misrepresented.”
Mr. Arkadie also worked on other popular police dramas, including as a supervising producer on “NYPD Blue” and as an executive producer of “The Shield.”
He was nominated for two Emmy Awards for his work on “Chicago Hope” in 1996, and “NYPD Blue” in 1998.
Mr. Arkadie was born on Dec. 10, 1957, and raised in Washington, D.C., where his mother had a government job and also ran a hair salon in her kitchen.
He was inspired by the conversations he had with the women who frequented his family kitchen for their hair appointments, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1997.
“All of that helped with my writing,” he said.
He moved to Dallas when he was 13, and attended Lake Highlands High School. He went on to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he began his theatrical career as an actor.
In the early 1980s, he moved to New York City to become an actor but said he found few satisfactory roles that defied racial stereotypes.
To find another route into the industry, Mr. Arkadie took writing classes at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, collaborating with other aspiring playwrights. He sometimes worked licking envelopes at the center to afford the classes.
He credited the center with giving him the confidence that spurred him to a successful career in which he worked on more than two dozen television shows and movies as a writer and producer from the late 1980s on.
His first writing role for television was in 1988 for “Knightwatch,” an ABC drama about a group of young vigilantes who become the neighborhood watchdog group.
Some of his other highly acclaimed works include “I’ll Fly Away” (1991-93), a drama about the evolving relationship between a progressive white lawyer and the Black housekeeper raising his children during the civil rights movement, and “The Temptations” (1998), a mini-series based on the true story of one of Motown’s most famous acts.
Information about survivors was not immediately available.
Johnny Diaz contributed reporting.
Jin Yu Young is a reporter and researcher for The Times, based in Seoul, covering South Korea and international breaking news.
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