Man Crush Monday: 13 things you didn’t know about Omari Hardwick

Hardwick started writing poetry as a teenager and has written thousands of poems since then.

“At the oddest hours of the day, whenever I can write,” he told Runway of how he makes time for poetry. “For example, I pulled over on an L.A. street at 1 a.m. a week ago and penned a poem. Poetry keeps me balanced and sane in the midst of the insanity often required to be an actor.”

He’s obviously an artist, but his physical talents earned him a football scholarship to the University of Georgia.

He might have gotten a scholarship for being a jock, but Hardwick was very serious about studying poetry and theatre at school.

For his role in the 2006 medical drama Saved, Hardwick spent two years training as a fireman and a paramedic.

“I watched a lot of The Cosby Show; I wanted to tap into the great father that he is,” Hardwick told The New Potato of his prepration to play Ghost on Power. “I’m constantly doing research while playing him.”

Before he had his big breakout, Hardwick was definitely a starving artist working odd jobs, and he even lived out of his car at one point.

“What is so crazy is that where I presently shoot my series Dark Blue is where I lived in my car when I first moved to Los Angeles. It is surreal at times,” he told Runway in 2010.

He is happily married to Jae Hardwick, and there’s no denying that they make a gorgeous couple.

He is a father to two kids, a daughter who is about 4 years old and a son who is still a baby.

Hardwick clearly respects his children’s privacy and there aren’t a ton of pictures of them on social media, but this pic of him and his son on a stroll is adorable.

Fans can’t picture anyone else as Ghost on Power, and neither could the show’s creators.

“He was one of the first people we wanted for the role, and I personally got on the phone with him to talk to him about playing Ghost,” executive producer 50 Cent told DuJour.

“I speak to him twice a week for two to three hours. He’s been a constant. He’s become a really good friend and we’ve learned a lot from each other,” Hardwick told The New Potato of his relationship with 50 Cent.

Hardwick says he wrote three or four songs for Estelle’s most recent album.

He’s also featured in her video for “Break My Heart.”

“I’m secretly a cowboy,” he told The New Potato. “I got my first boots from my grandfather when I was 5 years old. Our way of saying ‘Are you good?’ is to say, ‘You got your boots?’ I wear my cowboy boots a lot.”

Hardwick has a damn sexy bod, but it doesn’t come easy.

“I’m doing Bikram yoga this week, but I take a lot of boxing classes,” he said. “I also do sprints in the pool, a lot of hiking, sprinting up hills, meditation, and isometric work where I’m able to engage my core. I also play basketball when I can. My secret is drinking a lot of water, especially when I’m working.”