Oz/Trivia

• The Danza: Chris Keller is played by Chris Meloni.
• Directed by Cast Member: Averted. Somewhat bizarrely, the show had a long list of actors show up in the director's chair, Steve Buscemi, Kathy Bates, Matt Dillon and Rob Morrow among others, none of whom ever actually acted on the show.
  • Well, Terry Kinney did direct that one episode.
• Fake American: Said is played by British actor Eamonn Walker.
• Fake Nationality: Adebisi is played by British actor Adewale-Akinnouwe Agbaje of Nigerian descent.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Very large overlap with contemporary series:
  • Rawls, Daniels, Burrell, Carver, Avon Barksdale, Brother Mouzone, Bodie, Lester and Herc from the cast of The Wire appear as prisoners, guards, community leaders or family members.
  • Detective Stabler and Cassidy, Dr. Skoda and Dr. Huang, and Forensic Tech Ryan O'Halloran from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, also many of the baddies.
    • Oh look, it's Chief Pope. And he's... oh my god... *whimpers*
    • Alternatively, it seems Jonah Jameson has finally redirected his hatred to someone else.
  • Wait, you mean to tell me an Aryan Correctional Officer is also.. PATRICK STAR?!
  • Ryan O'Reily is the embodiment of mayhem.
  • Cyril may not like apples anymore.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: According to the DVD commentary, Kristin Rohde, who plays Claire Howell, is a very sweet person, the exact opposite of Howell. The trope probably applies to several of the actors on the series.
• Playing Against Type: Zeljko Ivanek asked to play a villainous character in this because he was fed up with being type-cast as dull nice guys or Reasonable Authority Figures. His subsequent career proves that it worked.
• Real Life Relative: Resident Manipulative Bastard Ryan O'Reily (played by Dean Winters) and his mentally retarded older brother Cyril O'Reily (Scott William Winters) are brothers in real life.
  • Their eldest brother, Bradford Winters, was series creator/head writer Tom Fontana's main collaborator for most of the series' run, as well.
• Technology Marches On: In Season 3, one of the inmates writes his memoirs. He saves it on a disk, which is then intercepted. Today, the file would be sent via email or online submission form, and stored elsewhere.
• What Could Have Been: Tom Fontana said that Rick Fox would have been in more episodes if he'd played for New York Knicks instead of the Los Angeles Lakers.