TV's Underrated of 2008

Nelsan Ellis
"True Blood," HBO

You know him as: The vampire blood-dealing, wisdom-dispensing Lafayette Reynolds.

Why we like him: "True Blood" could be wildly uneven, but the scenes involving Lafayette were consistently strong, regardless of what was going on around him.

Where else you've seen him: Ellis co-starred in "The Express" and was in the cast of FOX's "The Inside."