Kate Moenning Cast As Lesbian Detective in Showtime Pilot, Praise The Lord

Shane, otherwise known as “Kate Moennig,” has been cast in Showtime’s Ray Donovan pilot as “Lena,” who is “second in command” to the titular Private Investigator. From TVLine:

Promising “a novelistic look at contemporary Los Angeles,” Ray Donovan stars Schreiber as a professional trouble-shooter who is regularly called on to solve the complicated, confidential and controversial problems of L.A.’s elite.

Other announced cast members for the pilot include Jon Voight as Ray’s father Mickey Donovan, Paula Malcomson as Ray’s wife Abby, Elliott Gould in the recurring role of Ray’s mentor and confidante, Dash Mihok and Marsan as Ray’s brothers, and Pooch Hall (The Game) as Daryll, a boxer in training.

I’m sure you were worried — I was — that Kate would retreat from playing further lesbian roles out of fear of being typecast. It’s fantastic to hear that she has embraced being typecast.

In fact, in one of the pilot’s very first scenes (and this is an Autostraddle exclusive), Lena (described as “dark, intense”) wakes up in bed with another woman, gets called in to work, and tells her bedroom companion, “I have to work. Get dressed.” HALLELUJAH, LADIES, OUR GIRL IS BACK!

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3238 articles for us.

70 Comments

  4. I absolutely HATE detective shows, usually, but I’m gonna have to watch this. Damnit, Kate Moenning!

  6. Why does this have to be on the same network as TRLW? It makes me conflicted about subscribing again.

    Who are we kidding, though? Shane will probably win.

  7. GASP. Jumping for joy over here. Seriously, I just did a really awkward little happiness wiggle. Eee!

  8. And with that a thousand new ships were launched.

    How long before the Ray Donovan/Rizzoli and Isles crossover fics reach critical mass destroying servers across the globe?

  10. this is the closest we’re getting to a Batwoman show eeeeeeeeee ! DELIGHT!!

    detective-y goodness and lesbianism, ahhhhh.

  15. YAY! I knew there had to be a reason that last night I dreamed Kate Moennig and I were slinking shadily through a shopping mall together, hiding from the thought police

  16. Well, that’s the best news we’ve had in a while. Now all that’s left to do is pray to the god of TV to make it a good show

    • If it goes to series, you best believe it’ll be a good show. Showtime has a really excellent track record for picking amazing series.

  19. I love that we all fancy Shane yet we pretend that we don’t because having a crush on Shane is really 15… but we all love shane. No shame.

    • it’s just a pilot, so it has to be picked up by showtime before it can be on showtime, let alone hulu

  21. Yayyyyy! I’ve been wanting a detective show with an actual lesbian instead of the ones on tv where they are freakin pulling my teeth by making two leading ladies have chemistry… and I have a crush on Kate (who doesn’t?). I totally squirmed, squealed, and jumped around when I had barely read the headline… People are staring now… lol

  22. Am I the only one who wants Kate to eat a sammich? The girl is skinny! Thin is ok, but she is skinny! I just always want to cook her something…

    • I would like to very politely point out that I think that body positivity applies to skinny people too… making judgements about people’s level of thinness based on ones’ own opinion about where that line between skinny and too skinny is is not really any different than saying that its ok if someone is fat as long as they’re not too fat, is it? “Too skinny” and “too fat” are subjective judgements placed on someone else’s body no matter which way it goes. I get that people have different types that they are attracted to, but that doesn’t make someone that you are not attracted to “too” anything. Just not your type. Just sayin’.

      • Amen, bro.

        I’m tall and lanky and I can out-eat everyone I’ve ever met because a) it’s just how my body works, and b) I have to replenish my body from biking everywhere because fuck downtown Atlanta’s gas prices and car insurance when my window would just be busted out every week. ANYWAY. And there are some people that are tiny in conjunction with just naturally having a small appetite. To each their own body.

  23. I just came back from an ah-mazing performace of the Vagina Monologues and my vagina is very happy to read that Shane, I mean Kate is playing a gay lady cop. My vagina is very pleased.

  33. This line “Shane, otherwise known as “Kate Moennig,”” made me laugh so hard i spit out out my soda. LMAO! And yay, my favorite skinny, androgynous wife (in my own head) is back. No matter what kind of role she plays, typecast or no, she really is a great actress. I’m glad to have the opportunity to see her on a series (and a consistent basis) again.

  34. This just made my week. I will watch anything with Shane in it. Pathetic . . . maybe? but I am ok with that. I watched Everybody’s Fine on my 20 hour flight instead of sleeping for the chance to see Kate for a hot second.

  37. 3 – one in Katherine, and two in Moennig. I’ve never heard Kate pronounce her name but since I know German grammar and spelling, I cringed when all my friends used to say Meh-nnig. ‘oe’ in a German name is the equivalent of an umlaut on top of an o – and the pronunciation should be en ur sound so, Mur-nig, like the bur in burn. Then again, it may’be become Americanized and her family may pronounce it differently. I’ve heard Kay-nig used by some American Koenig families, so. My girlfriend has a name that ends in wicz and her family pronounce it witz instead of vitz.

    • how did I miss this! aww she looks so young and OLP was my favorite back in the day. loves it thank you!

  45. Having only realized my gayness in the post-L Word era (I never even got to see reruns on Showtime, thus I resorted to Youtube; bless its heart), this is pretty momentous. Shane is like some mythical creature everyone wants to sleep with.

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