The Parks And Recreation Star You Likely Forgot Appeared On CSI: Miami

That actor is Adam Scott, who joined the cast of “Parks and Recreation” in Season 2 as state auditor Ben Wyatt and stayed on until the series finale. As for Scott’s “CSI: Miami” tenure, it was considerably shorter and came nearly a decade before “Parks and Recreation” helped make him a household name. 

Scott made his lone appearance on the poorly regarded Season 2 of “CSI: Miami” in an episode titled “Stalkerazzi.” His role is pretty significant, too, as Scott plays the creep of the week, Danny Cato. That character is an A-list movie star who ends up killing a local woman in Miami. As the episode’s title portends, the murder is fatefully captured by a photographer eager to get a lucrative shot of Cato. Things naturally don’t go well for Cato once Horatio Caine and company are on the case. 

If you’re a fan of Scott in general, it’s a ton of fun to watch him break bad on the show. Serious fans of his work know that the “CSI: Miami” gig was just one of dozens the actor made prior to “Parks and Recreation.” In fact, the actor booked an impressive and widely varied string of film and television appearances in the 1990s and 2000s. Regarding the broad range of work, Scott told NPR that he took an “anything goes” approach to the early days of his career, saying, “As far as what types of roles, it was literally anything. Any way of getting a speaking role. I really didn’t care what it was …”

Considering the actor has since received his first Emmy nomination for his acclaimed performance in “Severance,” it looks like it all paid off in the end.