Angela Lewis is making a big impression with her co-starring role in FX's "Snowfall," the new drama about the rise of crack cocaine in 1980s Los Angeles.

The series centers on the kind, ambitious Franklin Saint (Damson Idris), who's described by the show's website as "a young entrepreneur on a quest for power." Lewis plays Aunt Louie, the tough but tender relative who's ready to help Franklin when he becomes involved in the dangerous criminal world of the drug that spawned a devastating epidemic.

"I like to say when we first meet Louie, she's in a dream-deferred state," says Lewis, who was born and raised in Detroit. "We kind of watch to see if she can pull herself out of that. She has big dreams and has not been able to live out those dreams, historically, in her life. She's a very explosive woman, but I think she has a very tender heart. We don't get to necessarily get to see that tender heart, not immediately."

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Aunt Louie is "a standout supporting character," according to the AV Club website. She's also a potential TV breakthrough role for Lewis, who has devoted most of her career so far to the theater.

Lewis was in Detroit last week for a "Snowfall" screening and panel discussion at the Royal Oak Emagine. It featured series co-creator John Singleton ("Boyz n the Hood") and several other cast members.

Lewis says acting is something she always has wanted to do.

"My parents encouraged me and supported me and always came to my dance recitals and school plays," she recalls. "They didn't say, 'Oh, you can't do that.' ... Nobody said, 'You can't do that.' "

Lewis studied acting at Cass Technical High School with Marilyn McCormick, the veteran drama teacher whose work in education was honored in 2016 at the Tony Awards.

After high school, Lewis was off to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, another incubator of onstage talent (and the alma mater of 2017 Tony winners Gavin Creel for "Hello, Dolly!" and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for their original musical "Dear Evan Hansen").

After graduating, Lewis moved to New York City and acted in many off-Broadway plays. She appeared in notable new works like "Hoodoo Love," the first major production for playwright Katori Hall, who later wrote "The Mountaintop" about Martin Luther King Jr.

Lewis moved to L.A. with her husband, actor J. Mallory McCree (ABC's "Quantico," the just-concluded season of Showtime's "Homeland"), who's also from Detroit. A couple of years after relocating and appearing on shows like TNT's "The Last Ship," Lewis got the audition for "Snowfall."

She says she has given much thought what motivates Louie, a former party girl. "I had to understand why is she this way. How did she get to the point where she's doing drugs and sitting around the house?" Lewis found the caring side of the character, even in moments such as when Louie gives her nephew a gun for protection in the first episode.

"Whatever judgments people have, and I include myself, on the decisions that she makes or the actions that she takes, they come from a place of love," says Lewis. "I think she really does not want her nephew to die. This is a very real environment that he's walking into that he doesn't know anything about. So she's helping him the best she can."

Lewis says she is encouraged that projects like "Snowfall" are bringing more diversity to Hollywood. But she says the movie and TV industry needs to do more.

"You look around and see the strides that we've taken, then you see the miles we have to go. ... I just hope that people don't get comfortable with 'Oh, but it's diverse now,' that we still make it mandatory and demand that it be more diverse, more diverse, more diverse. And it's not just in front of the camera; it's behind the camera."

As for what comes after "Snowfall," Lewis hopes it includes acting, writing and directing.

"I feel like the oyster is opening, the flower is blossoming, so I'm just accepting, receiving the divine yes," she says.