Who Is Tristan Wilds?

I'm sure that there are quite a few of you out there wondering who this fresh faced cutie is right? If you don't know him, then where have you been? Tristan Wilds is best known for his role on the hit HBO series "The Wire" as Michael Lee. But he's got a new gig now.

Ya'll remember “Beverly Hills, 90210,” from back in the day, where the whole cast was white and not one chocolate or cinnamon speck littered the bunch? Well those days are gone; Enter Tristan Wilds.

Tristan who is half Dominican and black says, "I get offered a lot of black roles, because apparently I don’t look Latino enough,” He made his debut last night in a lead role, as Dixon Wilson, in the CW revival “90210.”

The son of a Dominican mother and black father, Wilds, who is from Staten Island, NY, has been acting since he was seven but didn't start acting professionally until 2003. Next month, you can see him in movie theaters in “The Secret Life of Bees,” co-starring Queen Latifah, an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s book about racism and segregation in the ’60s.

Meanwhile, he’s having a blast working on the updated, more provocative version of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the show that all but invented TV teen drama.

“We are a close cast. It’s like a fraternity, like being back in school,” he says. His character, a teenager with behavioral problems, ends up adopted by an Irish family in Kansas and given a second chance. “They basically save him,” says Wilds. “And then he has to adapt to life in Beverly Hills when the family moves to California to take care of an alcoholic grandmother.”

Wilds, who stands 5 feet 11 and is beautifully tanned, can light up a room with his sunny smile and dimples ? just like his character.

The original “Beverly Hills, 90210,” which ran for 10 years, had kids dealing with a host of issues, including abortion, addiction, eating disorders, homosexuality — even mother/daughter fashion shows gone horribly wrong. To prepare for the role, Wilds had to watch the full run of the original show, but found it too female-oriented for his taste. “I keep my manhood intact,” he says, only half-joking.

Wilds says he expects the new show to be edgier, wilder and more in tune with the experiences of today’s teens. He is one of two nonwhite cast members. The other is half-Ecuadoran Michael Steger, who plays Navid Shirazi, a high-school journalist of Iranian descent.

Wilds says he likes the weather and the beaches out West, but there are some things about New York he just can’t get off his mind.

“I love L.A. — don’t get me wrong. But I miss everything about New York,” he says. “I don’t eat cheese, but I miss the smell of pizza in the city. I’m a really big fan of Latino food.” What he really wants, he says, is “to go back home and have some good arroz con pollo.”