Kwasi "Kenneth" Randall, born Kwasi Tutuola, is the son of Special Victims Unit Detective Odafin Tutuola. Ken is gay, a fact that he hid from his father for much of his life. He has an half-uncle/half-brother named Darius.
History[]
Ken uses his mother's maiden name as his relationship with his father was strained. When Fin was shot, Ken was listed as his next of kin and visited by Olivia Benson. It was then that his strained relationship with his father was revealed. Ken has crossed paths with the SVU squad and his father by being involved (usually indirectly) with several cases. (SVU: "Haunted")
While Ken's relationship with Fin is still strained, it has been improving as Ken has been instrumental in assisting the squad with a case he's been involved in and was recruited in one case to go undercover at a gay rights group when a member was using vigilante justice against gay men. (SVU: "Strain")
Ken heard Darius confess to a murder when they were both out drinking at a bar. When Ken tried to find the mother and son Darius had murdered, he was arrested and beaten by two patrol cops, being slapped with several charges out of racial bias. The charges were vacated, and the officers were investigated, but not only was he suspected of the murders, but a charge of sexual assault was found in his sealed records. It was revealed a woman he knew tried to rape him out of hating him being gay, then ran to the cops out of spite, which led to the charges being thrown out. Ken was represented by a lawyer who kept him from giving up his DNA, but he volunteered when Fin reconciled and swore to be involved in his life. The DNA wasn't a match to Ken, but it was a familial match, which proved Darius to be the murderer, which revealed Ken didn't sell him out to protect him as his family. Darius was arrested when his guilt was revealed. (SVU: "Venom")
Ken started relying on Fin's team more when he needed their active response in cases. A student at his college, Ming Hao, was raped, and Ken pleaded with her to stop scrubbing evidence away and file a report, even in spite of her heavily restrictive family. Ming was forced out of the college dorm when her parents found out, but the rapist, Henry Chanoor, was taken into custody. (SVU: "Outsider")
During Darius' trial, he goes to his father to beg him to help his mother after she was arrested for her refusal to participate but Fin sends him off. At the trial, he is horrified by Darius using his knowledge of the detectives' past and learn of his brother's true paternity. After Darius is acquitted, Ken and his father mutually cut ties with Darius for his acts. (SVU: "Screwed")
Ken ran to the squad again and asked for help finding his friend Andrew Hingham, a kid he was trying to save from the streets, after his partner enlisting Andrew in cons, Jack Robinson, was murdered. Ken spoke with Andrew in interrogation before he got a lawyer, but Andrew anxiously confessed to the murder in his lucidity because he was fighting Robinson orally raping him, the killing justified as self-defense, which Ken tried to hurriedly emphasize. It was revealed Andrew's therapist Fran Stanton was drugging and raping Andrew, so she was arrested too, while Andrew was left to reconcile with his mother Joyce, who was fighting to keep sober, and his girlfriend Mallory Sidwell Stanton ripped him away from. (SVU: "Conned")
Fin even tells Detective Amanda Rollins that Ken is "the bravest man I know" for being an openly gay black man. (SVU: "Personal Fouls")
When his uncle Sam Randall was accused of assaulting a priest, Ken called his mother for an update and Teresa told him that she was talking to his father right now. (SVU: "Presumed Guilty")
Ken eventually became engaged to Alejandro Pavel, but was nervous about introducing him to Fin, so he invited John Munch to meet him first. Munch agreed to test Fin's mood but told Ken that he shouldn't worry. As he left the dinner, Alejandro was assaulted by Dominican gang BX9. Heedful of Munch's advice, he goes straight to Fin for help (rather than Olivia, who he usually called first) and is forced to reveal his relationship with Alejandro, who is in critical condition. Fin is able to catch the people responsible and send them away for a federal hate crime. When Alejandro's father, who cut off contact with him after he came out, visits the hospital, he declares himself next of kin and kicks Ken out. However, Fin is able to get Alejandro's father to see reason by talking to him, father to father, and Ken is let back in. (SVU: "Learning Curve")
Alejandro eventually recovers and he and Ken marry. They invite Fin to dinner with someone they want to introduce him to; Fin, to Olivia's amusement, takes them up on the offer. (SVU: "Sheltered Outcasts")
It is revealed that Ken eventually got a job as a social worker at a halfway house. Shortly thereafter, Ken, over dinner, reveals to Fin that he and Alejandro are starting a family and found a surrogate mother who is three months pregnant. To Ken's surprise and relief, Fin is delighted by the idea of being a grandfather. The moment is interrupted by a call from one of Ken's clients at the halfway house who exclaims that she was raped by her old CO. (SVU: "Intersecting Lives")
Ken and Alejandro eventually succeed in the adoption, gaining a son named Jaden. Ken brings his son to his father's workplace to celebrate his birthday, with Fin doting on him to his coworkers. (SVU: "Send In The Clowns")
Ken assists the Special Victims Unit in tracking down a serial rapist targeting gay black men visiting gay bars, after a singer claimed to have been raped by him. (SVU: "Down Low In Hell's Kitchen")
Ken and his family attended Fin's wedding to his fiancée Phoebe Baker until the pair called off the ceremony but announced they are staying together. Alejandro and Ken remarked that Jaden wanted to be the ringbearer. (SVU: "Wolves In Sheep's Clothing")
Appearances[]
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (8 seasons, 10 episodes):