Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Before he won the role of Mr. Eko, Lost's mysterious drug dealer-turned-priest, the Nigerian-born Akinnuoye-Agbaje was a model, then an actor in such African-themed kitsch as Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Congo. His best known role, however, was on HBO's prison drama Oz (shown), where he played Simon Adebisi, a drug dealer who'd decapitated a cop, and whose murderous ways continued behind bars. (It's also where he costarred opposite future Lost castmate Harold Perrineau.) ''He's an African warrior,'' Akinnuoye-Agbaje said of Adebisi in an EW interview. ''He must win, he must be in control, and he has no fear. That's why he's not dead.'' Sounds a lot like the monster-confronting Eko.