By Lami makes Izaiah Hawthorne easy to root for, even when his choices make me want to reach through the screen and ask what he is thinking. On Beyond the Gates, he plays a man who believes he has changed but still has plenty to work through: resentment toward his father, loyalty to Joey and a relationship with Eva that can seem to demand all his attention. The challenge is making that patience feel sincere without erasing the contradictions. Lami’s easy charm helps sell both.
He also understands why viewers have questions. In our conversation, the actor was willing to consider where Izaiah gets it wrong, explain choices that look different from inside the role and laugh at the mess with me. We did not agree on everything. Eva, in particular, required some discussion.
Finding His Way Back to Lami
Before daytime viewers knew him as Izaiah, Lami was professionally known as David Lami Friebe. David was a name he chose as a child.
“When I was a child, I spent ten months traveling with my family to different churches. During that time, I woke up one day feeling I needed to be called David. My parents were okay with it.”
Lami explained that his given name had felt too distinctive for his environment. As his creative life developed, he gradually found his way back to it. His wife was already using Lami at home, and joining Beyond the Gates felt like the right time to make the professional change.
“I met my wife as a sophomore in college and I was going by David. She started calling me Lami and eventually said, I like Lami, I’m going to just call you Lami.”
Keeping Up With Daytime
Lami arrived with experience working at Tyler Perry’s demanding production pace. Recalling one of those productions, he said, “I came in season seven, and I filmed thirteen episodes in only two days.”
Daytime, however, presented a different challenge: keeping up with material that never stops arriving.
“You get the script for the week maybe on a Sunday, and you have a week to learn that. Then, the Sunday before you film, you get the next script. It’s a continuous thing.”
The distinction is the sustained preparation. Finishing one week’s work does not mean the next set of scripts can wait.
Resentment and Responsibility in the Hawthorne Family
Lami would not describe Izaiah as having a chip on his shoulder, but he does see resentment beneath the conflict with Elon (Malachi Malik). Father and son repeatedly butted heads, and Izaiah’s experience of those clashes shaped how he saw his family.
Understanding that resentment does not erase his responsibility. When I asked whether Izaiah had to own the part his choices played, Lami did not hedge.
“Yeah, he has to take full accountability.”
He has to. Izaiah was out here being a whole criminal and somehow expected his police chief father not to get upset. Elon may not have handled every moment perfectly, but asking his son not to participate in criminal activity was not an unreasonable standard.
Lami raised a question about how that cycle began: “What came first? Did Elon disapprove first, or did Izaiah act out first?”
That history could tell us more about how both men came to see each other. Was Izaiah reacting to his father’s disapproval, or did Elon become harder as his son’s choices grew more dangerous?
Jacob (Jibre Hordges), meanwhile, may be beginning to understand something his younger brother has been trying to tell him. I asked Lami whether jealousy played a part in their relationship.
“I’ve never thought about that, but there might be something to it,” Lami said. “To Jacob being the older brother and now he’s seeing shades of Elon that he never saw before, and maybe he understands part of what Izaiah saw.”
The brothers also seem to have different amounts of room to disagree with their father.
“When Izaiah disagrees with Elon, it’s not that big of a deal, but when Jacob has an issue with Elon, it’s massive.”
They may have been reacting to different versions of the same parent. I would rather see the show explore that history than keep hearing that Joey understands Izaiah best.
Who Gets Credit for Izaiah’s Change?
The relationship with Joey (Jon Lindstrom) raises a related question. Lami sees Joey as the person whose words finally reached Izaiah. My concern was how the story framed that breakthrough, particularly when Vanessa (Lauren Buglioli) suggested using what Joey did for Izaiah and the free clinic to improve Joey’s public image.
Izaiah is a Black man whose father, Bill (Timon Kyle Durrett) and Marcel (Darryl W. Handy) had all made efforts or taken risks to protect him from a criminal record. Elevating Joey as the man who saved him, without giving those Black men their due, invited a white-savior reading. I wanted to know how Lami understood that response.
“I understand what the writers were trying to accomplish, but I also understand why part of the audience received it differently.”
Lami acknowledged that a story’s intended message is not necessarily the one every viewer receives.
“The storytelling is intended to reach a broad audience and will inevitably be filtered through different experiences, and people will see the same material through different lenses. There are people from all walks of life watching this.”
In his interpretation, Elon, Bill and Marcel all helped. Joey delivered the conversation that finally broke through Izaiah’s stubbornness. That is an important distinction: Joey can be the person whose message reached him without becoming the sole architect of his redemption.
I appreciated that Lami engaged with the concern instead of dismissing it. We could discuss what worked for him as an actor and what troubled me as a viewer without pretending those responses had to be the same.
The Chemistry Was There, Even When the Story Went Elsewhere
When Izaiah first appeared, it felt as though the show was testing his chemistry across the canvas. I enjoyed that sense of possibility. His relationship with Eva (Ambyr Michelle) took shape quickly, before viewers had much time to explore the alternatives.
“I enjoyed being chem-tested, and I would have liked to see a little more of it, but at the same time, I understand why Izaiah was introduced the way he was.”
For Lami, the tornado aftermath required the audience to believe Izaiah was already capable of a different kind of connection.
“He needed to be able to make people feel his desperation in that moment to save Eva. I don’t think anyone would believe him in those tornado aftermath scenes if he was bouncing around in these streets for months.”
I also asked him to choose the woman who fit Izaiah best, stripping away fandom and intended pairings.
Before the serious answer, though, he gagged me by suggesting Heather (Ashley Jones).
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Lami joked. “But she already got your boy.”
“Free Carlton,” I responded. “He better get back to Nicole and quit playing.”
Yes, I still have thoughts about Carlton (Robert Christopher Riley) and Nicole (Daphnee Duplaix). Once we stopped playing, Lami returned to Izaiah and Eva.
“How he was introduced, and where he was in his life, I think Eva was the right choice. He had issues with his family, and he had just come off the breakup with Yolanda, and they just connected.”
He also understood why viewers noticed something in Izaiah’s early scenes with Naomi (Arielle Prepetit), especially that comment to Jacob about “holding on to what he couldn’t handle.”
Lami saw those beats too, but laughed off the suggestion that anything was happening there. According to him, there was nothing behind it. Intentional or not, Izaiah delivered that line with enough seasoning to make people look twice.
That ease with different scene partners is useful on a soap. The show does not have to pursue every spark, but the possibilities were part of the fun of his arrival.
As for what comes next, Lami suggested that more information could change the audience’s perspective and Izaiah’s view of certain people. He did not say those shifts would be romantic. One piece I still want is why Yolanda drop-kicked Izaiah to the curb. Maybe that answer only exists in our dreams.
Eva and Izaiah Are at Different Stages of Healing
Lami sees Izaiah and Eva at different stages of healing. He believes Izaiah is further along, while Eva’s grief and trauma are more recent.
“Eva needs friends,” he explained, “and Izaiah is patient. He wants to understand where she is rather than judge her for not being as far along in her healing as he is.”
I compared that patience to Carlton’s generosity toward someone he cares about. Izaiah also reminds me of Nicole: he can analyze other people’s situations far more clearly than his own.
As a viewer, I sometimes see an imbalance. He pours reassurance, attention and emotional labor into Eva without always seeming to get the same energy back. Lami, however, does not see every heavy conversation between them as evidence of trauma bonding. He pointed to the private conversations couples have beneath their happier public moments.
“Like me and my wife, we’re both happy people and we’re smiling and having fun, but we sometimes in private we have those moments where we just have the conversations that are deeper.”
That perspective shaped his reading of Eva’s reaction when Dani (Karla Mosley) asked Izaiah about modeling. From Lami’s point of view, Eva walked up to find her boyfriend being complimented by someone she already could not stand, who also knew about a new opportunity before she did.
“You ever have this person you just have beef with? If the first time you hear something like that about your partner and it’s coming off the heels of walking up to him with a person you just can’t stand, you might react that way too.”
I understood his point, but I was not letting Eva off that easily. Kat (Colby Nixon) was hyping Izaiah up, he looked excited by the opportunity, and Eva walked into the moment like a black cloud. The reaction felt childish to me.
We also debated Eva’s role in the anniversary-party reveal. I walked him through why I saw her as a participant in the plan with Leslie (Trisha Mann-Grant), rather than someone merely caught in it. Baby girl was a co-conspirator. Let’s say I won that round.
Compassion does not have to mean excusing her choices. If Izaiah is expected to answer for his past, I want that same accountability for Eva. Lami’s reading of him helps explain why he keeps trying.
“He is an understanding guy, and he doesn’t give up on people easily.”
Lami remains hopeful about their relationship and emphasized that characters and couples have to evolve. I want to see whether that evolution gives Izaiah room to be supported, too.
On one point, we agreed. When the conversation turned to Izaiah confronting Kat about her liver, Lami did not defend his character’s approach.
“He was absolutely wrong for the way he came at Kat. I get being passionate, but he handled that badly.”
Why Ted Has Not Heard the Same Criticism
Izaiah does not hesitate to defend Eva when he believes Leslie has wronged her. His relative silence toward Ted (Keith D. Robinson) stood out to me. If he has all that smoke for one parent, why has he not brought the same energy to Theodore’s doorstep?
Lami sees a relationship Izaiah is still learning how to navigate.
“The situation is still too new. Izaiah and Eva are a new couple, and Ted and Eva’s relationship is evolving, too. She just met the man.”
For now, Lami explained, Izaiah does not consider it his place to jump into that father-daughter dynamic with all his opinions.
“Even with the Eva and Kat stuff, and they’re going back and forth most of the time, he just sits back and lets them do their thing while it’s happening.”
He suggested that Izaiah and Ted might have that conversation once the relationship with Eva is further along. Fair enough, but when the moment arrives, Izaiah has to keep the same energy. He cannot lecture everywhere else and go quiet when it is time to eat Theodore’s ass up.
More Scenes With the Legends and Randy
Asked whom he wanted to work with more, Lami named Tamara Tunie and Clifton Davis. I told him I had heard that answer four times now and was starting to think they had all rehearsed it.
“It’s not a cop-out, I promise.”
He finds both performers inspiring. All jokes aside, the answer is understandable.
His other choice was Maurice P. Kerry, who plays Randy Parker.
“I had a quick scene with him about Deanna, but Izaiah’s connections to Joey could create an interesting dynamic with Randy.”
I would be interested in that dynamic, especially if it complicated Izaiah’s view of Joey. Randy could give him a different point of contact with a world he has been so willing to defend.
Could Izaiah Have a Creative Side?
For all the time we spend discussing Izaiah’s family and relationship, we still know little about what he enjoys when he is not trying to save, defend or explain himself to someone.
Lami is open to exploring a creative side of the character.
“That would be something cool to see. We don’t really know what his hobbies are at this point. I’d be open to that.”
He remembered an intriguing detail from his first days on the show.
“When I first arrived, props gave me a music composition book. I’m not sure if that choice was on purpose or just a prop that happened to land in my hands, but that was interesting.”
If that book was intentional, I hope the show follows the thread. A hobby, ambition or creative outlet would give Izaiah something that belongs to him, apart from Eva’s pain, Joey’s world and his family’s conflict.
For the Record, Izaiah Has a Home
One mystery could not go unresolved: Does Izaiah actually have somewhere to live, or has this educated, handsome man been moving from one Eva-sponsored location to another?
He has a place. Whether viewers will see it is another question. You know I had to ask the hard questions.
“I don’t know. I feel like there is a hierarchy of sets, and Izaiah is at the lower end,” Lami joked. “Ted lives in a hotel, so does Leslie, and it took a long time to even see Joey’s place.”
I made it clear that Joey’s place was not a priority for me and that Theodore could reside at the county morgue. But Vanessa opening important personal boxes with her daughter at Uptown because she does not have her own home was wild. I am rooting for Izaiah’s place, though finding water in the Sahara might be more manageable.
I explained that viewers had this man walking around being called a hotep with no visible residence, so we needed confirmation. Lami took the joke further.
“Could you imagine Izaiah under a bridge and a Dupree or somebody drove by and was like, ‘Boy, what you doing under that bridge? Ima tell your mama.'”
Not even under a bridge could this man escape somebody reporting him to his mother.
Then we addressed the meatless meal. Where was the meat? Lami revealed that Izaiah had planned to serve lobster but removed it because Ted was joining them.
I told him he would have become a legend in these streets if he had left it on the menu and let Theodore fend for himself. I also advised him never to serve another meal in a Black household with no meat. We do not play that.
Breaking News About That Restaurant Bill
Lami gave TV Source an exclusive I was particularly pleased to hear: “Izaiah is going to pay a bill at a restaurant.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Not Eva. Not Kat. Not Jacob. Izaiah.
I was thoroughly gagged.
“I asked the props department for an extra ten dollars so he could throw it on the table like a boss.”
Look at God. Izaiah is ready to stunt on these hoes. I was excited to see a young brother elevating.
We also revisited his heartfelt gifts to Eva. Lami insisted they came “from the heart,” but we joked about whether those gifts might eventually come with dividends.
He had a larger tease, too: a year-end event that impressed him even though he was not a major participant. He would not give up names or specifics.
“Watch out,” he said. “It’s going to be amazing. I’m not a big part of it, but I got to peep a few things.”
For Izaiah himself, there is still room for Lami to explore what change looks like beyond being the patient boyfriend or the son defending his past. I want to see the interests, choices and relationships that help him build a life of his own. Reaching for the restaurant check is a start.
Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS. Episodes are available to stream on Paramount+.
