Veteran actors Courtney B. Vance and Rene Auberjonois have joined the Season 2 cast of the acclaimed Showtime drama series Masters of Sex. Vance will recur in the guest starring role of Dr. Hendricks, the head of an African-American hospital in St. Louis whose goal is to racially integrate his hospital, and Auberjonois will be guest starring as Dr. Papanikolaou, a former professor of Dr. DePaul (guest star Julianne Nicholson), who she and Johnson hope will endorse their screening program that uses the test named after him: the Pap smear. Production on Season 2 is currently underway in Los Angeles. Season 2 returns on Sunday, July 13th.
From studying history at Harvard to making history in Hollywood, Courtney B. Vance has carefully cultivated an exceptional career that showcases his passion, talent, and intellect. Vance was honored as the winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and received a Drama League Distinguished Performance Award nomination for his stellar performance as Hap Hairston in Nora Ephron's Graceland and Manhattan defense attorney Benjamin Barnes in Revenge. His other film and television credits include: The Preacher's Wife, Space Cowboys, Hamburger Hill, The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Hunt for Red October, Cookie's Fortune, The Last Supper, Hurricane Season, and Extraordinary Measures.
Rene Auberjonois received a Tony Award for Coco (starring Katharine Hepburn), and Tony Award nominations for The Good Doctor, Big River (which earned him a Drama Desk Award), and City of Angels with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Sly Fox with Richard Richard Dreyfuss. His many films include The Patriot, Eyes of Laura Mars, and five films with Robert Altman: MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Brewster McCloud, Images, and The Player. Auberjonois TV work includes Benson (which earned him an Emmy nomination), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Boston Legal.
Season 1 of Masters of Sex received both Golden Globe and WGA nominations and was honored as one of AFI's Top Ten Television Programs of the Year. Starring Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan as real-life pioneers of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the series chronicles their unusual lives, romance and pop culture trajectory. Their research touched off the sexual revolution and took them from a mid-western teaching hospital in St. Louis to the cover of Time magazine. The series is an adaptation of Thomas Maier's book Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, The Couple Who Taught America How To Love. Season 2 also stars Caitlin Fitzgerald, Teddy Sears and Annaleigh Ashford. Masters of Sex was created by Michelle Ashford (The Pacific) who also serves as an executive producer. In addition, the series is executive produced by Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman, Judith Verno and Amy Lippman. Michael Dinner, Michael Sheen, Tammy Rosen and Thomas Maier serve as producers. Masters of Sex is produced by Sony Pictures Television.