With first big TV role, actress plays dirty in New York but keeps roots in Kansas City
Erika Woods’ life is a very much a tale of two cities.
When she’s in Kansas City, she lives in a small downtown apartment where she shares cookies and coffee with neighbors, visits with family and friends, and roots passionately for the Chiefs.
In New York, she goes by the name “Pop” and thrives as the matriarch of a powerful crime operation.
Of course, that is her acting alter ego. Woods has a recurring role in the Starz show “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” which is set and filmed in New York, her second home.
She plays Stephanie “Pop” Henry, wife and partner of street legend and former bank robber Ishmael “Snaps” Henry, portrayed by Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Suits,” “Elsbeth”). The pair joined the cast for the third season of “Raising Kanan.” The fourth season premiered March 7, with episodes continuing to drop through early May.
Woods, 52, spent about 20 years modeling — you might have seen her in one of many national commercials — before expanding into TV acting. She has appeared on “FBI,” “The Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods” and several other shows, but she calls “Pop” her first big role as well as her juiciest.
“She’s nice, but she’s not a good person,” Woods said. “I absolutely love it. I love characters with layers.”
Woods, who was born in Texas, grew up in Lenexa and Overland Park, developing her passion for acting with the Theatre for Young America. She graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School at the age of 16.
“To be honest, I was very eager to explore life outside of Kansas,” she said.
After attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., she landed in New York with the NFL’s Corporate Sponsorship Division. The job selling and managing sponsorship deals was a good fit because Woods loved sports and it helped pay for acting classes, but she was laid off after two years.
That turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to her career. Sitting on the steps outside the NFL headquarters after getting her pink slip, she pondered her future.
“I’m a planner, so I thought, ‘What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” she said.
That’s when fate intervened. A woman approached her and asked whether she had considered modeling.
Woods had her doubts about the stranger.
“I was probably quite rude to her,” she said.
But she gave the woman her contact information, then heard from her the next day with details about a PlusWhite toothpaste commercial. Woods got the job, which led to many others.
.JPG "ERIKA WOODS HEADSHOT (1).JPG")
She has been recognized in public for her commercials, especially one Duncan Hines spot, but her role on “Raising Kanan” has led to an entirely different level of fan interaction. The show is a prequel to “Power,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s popular series that ran from 2014 until2020 and has spawned two other spinoffs.
“‘Raising Kanan’ fans are a little bit different,” Woods said. “They’re really into the show. They recognize you, and then they want to have discussions on why your character is doing something. I’m like, ‘You know, that’s a character, right? It’s not me.’”
“Raising Kanan” is set in the 1990s, and one detail in particular hearkens back to her time here in KC: Pop and Snaps always wear matching clothes.
“That’s what we used to do back in the day,” she said. “Me and my boyfriend would dress alike. That was a big thing in the ’90s, with the hip-hop. We would dress alike and go to Worlds of Fun. .... We’d get the same shirts and go to a concert at Kemper Arena.
“It’s a tribute to the ’90s, and it’s wonderful to live that.”
Recreating that period makes Woods long for the good old days before cellphones when there was more sense of community.
“It’s just different how unsocial we have become,” she said. “That’s one thing I like about Kansas City. I feel like people still are social, to some degree. I know my neighbors. When I go there, they bring me cookies. We have coffee.”
Woods said she returns home at least once a month to see her father, brother and friends. She enjoys walking to the River Market, riding the streetcar and cheering for the Chiefs.
She makes as many games as she can at Arrowhead, and she’s attended the past two Super Bowls. Her allegiance dates back decades, unlike many fans who have jumped on the bandwagon during the Patrick Mahomes era.
“I’m not fly by night. I’ve stuck by them,” she said. “The bad days, I always rode the storm. We always just rode it out.
“I bleed red. I love it. Love, love, love the Chiefs.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 10:56 AM.
