AGE: 28

HOMETOWN: Detroit

LATEST GIG: Caleb, the mystery man Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) keeps imprisoned on Wisteria Lane

•So who is he? Caleb's "a sweet person but he has a definite element of danger to him," says Kennedy. How dangerous? Sorry, fans. Though Caleb's background is revealed in the Oct. 23 episode, "I tell family, friends, everybody: 'You've just got to watch.' I don't want to spoil it for them."

•The winter of his discontent: As a college theater major, "I fell in love with Shakespeare," he says. "So I went to graduate school at the University of Delaware for Shakespeare. Seven months into that I realized I wanted to be an actor in movies and television, so I left to come to L.A." Roles in HBO's Six Feet Under and Show-time's Barbershop got him noticed, but "I still want to do Richard III," he says. "He's the richest character I can think of."

•Breaking out: Late for his Caleb audition last July, "I got there exhausted and sweaty," he says, just as the producers were leaving for the day. "I said, 'Please, please. I'm sorry. I'm here.' They all reconvened and gave me 30 seconds." On the second take, Kennedy nailed it. "He had an innocence about him we all liked," says creator-producer Marc Cherry.

•High-five: In his first scene, all they wanted to film was Caleb's shackled hand. Kennedy laughs. "All my attention, all my emotions," he says, "went into my hand."