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Melissa de Sousa is part of the (extended) family in BET’s “Reed Between the Lines,” premiering this week

You’ll probably recognize Melissa de Sousa when you see her—in fact, you’ll probably recognize almost everybody in the cast of Reed Between the Lines, the newest weekly sitcom from BET. She’s been a part of half a dozen TV series and even more movies since she was a teenager, including The Street, One on One, and Second Time Around, and she’s done guest shots on everything from Ghost Whisperer to Castle. She was even in the extremely cool and sexy web series The Bannen Way a couple of years back. Her film credits are pretty cool, too: Miss Congeniality, Lockdown, and The Best man, that earned her a NAACP Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Best of all, Melissa—of Panamanian descent, by the way—is a Latina playing an actual Latina (not nearly enough of those this season!). She’s Gabriella Jimenez, the “childhood best friend and office suitemate” to Carla Reed, played by Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends). Carla’s husband is played by Malcolm Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show); her receptionist is Anna Maria Horsford from Amen. You see? It is all familiar faces, and sometimes that’s a good thing.

BET, like most of the cable channels, premieres shows at any ol’ time it feels like it, so Reed Between the Lines is getting its first show October 11 at 10P, with another new episode at 10:30. Then they’re showing them both again, right away, at 11:00 and 11:30. And if you miss that, you can catch them on Thursday Oct. 13 at 8P and 8:30P, or the following Sunday at 8P and 8:30P.

Nice to see another proud Latina in a supporting cast, anywhere on the dial!