David Zayas and Stephen Bishop have joined ABC’s R.J. Decker in key recurring roles, adding two more familiar faces to the drama built around Scott Speedman’s title character. The series, which is based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel Double Whammy, centers on RJ Decker, a former newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in South Florida.
Zayas will play Emi’s father, Victor Ochoa, a powerful and corrupt state senator who used his influence to make sure RJ went to prison. Bishop will portray Bruce Vinkour, a wealthy real estate developer whom Emi turns to for help when her father lands in RJ’s crosshair. The new casting places both men close to the series’ central conflict, with Jaina Lee Ortiz as Emilia “Emi” Ochoa and Speedman as the man trying to build a new life after prison.
The drama is produced by 20th Television, with Rob Doherty serving as showrunner, writer and executive producer. Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman are also executive producers, alongside Carl Hiaasen, Jason Tracey and Paul McGuigan, who directs and executive produces. Speedman is also a producer on the series.
R.J. Decker had already added Speedman, Ortiz, Bevin Bru, Kevin Rankin and Adelaide Clemens before Zayas and Bishop came aboard. The cast also includes Bru as Detective Melody “Mel” Abreu, Rankin as Aloysius “Wish” Aiken and Clemens as Catherine Delacroix, while the series has lined up guest stars including Dawnn Lewis, Rich Sommer, Tony Plana, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Rizwan Manji, Keith Powell, Olga Merediz, Johanna Braddy, Andy Favreau and Joseph Lee Anderson.
The new additions deepen a series that is leaning hard into the collision between crime, politics and reinvention in South Florida. Zayas, best known for playing Angel Batista in Dexter and Dexter: Resurrection, brings a senator with the power to ruin lives. Bishop, known for David Justice in Moneyball, enters as the kind of developer who can help Emi fight back. That makes the next phase of R.J. Decker clear: the fight around RJ is no longer just personal, but political and expensive too.
