Personality
New York politicos love a cameo
Indicted Eric Adams adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin isn’t the only one.
Zohran Mamdani, left, plays a chess hustler in a scene from the 2016 Disney movie “Queen of Katwe.” Disney
According to federal prosecutors, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, former chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, helped a pair of well-connected film executives stop a controversial Brooklyn street redesign project partly in exchange for help landing a cameo appearance in the Hulu series “Godfather of Harlem.” But Lewis-Martin, who has pleaded not guilty and denied that there was any quid pro quo, isn’t the figure in New York City politics to try their hand at acting.
Just ask these politicians, who scored cameos of their own without even agreeing to kill a bike lane:
Eric Adams made a cameo in the 2017 Turkish rom-com New York Masali where two guys ask him for political favors in Turkish. He says he can’t understand them, but they take a selfie.
— Jeff Coltin (@JCColtin) November 7, 2023
(h/t @nia_prater + @chasdanner) https://t.co/nDvKGMp6va pic.twitter.com/j894kpCaEI
Eric Adams in “New York Masali” (2017): Eric Adams, then the Brooklyn borough president, made a brief cameo appearance in this Turkish romantic comedy. In the scene, filmed outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, two men ask Adams in Turkish for political favors, but he can’t understand what they’re saying. “Brooklyn is the Istanbul of America. We love your food, we love your music,” Adams says. “But I don’t understand Turkish. We can take a selfie, though.” Years after the movie was released, Adams was accused by federal prosecutors of doing political favors for well-connected Turkish businessmen.
Zohran Mamdani had a brief cameo in the 2016 Disney movie "Queen of Katwe" directed by his mother, Mira Nair. pic.twitter.com/S4IKnRY5WI
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) August 27, 2025
Zohran Mamdani in “Queen of Katwe” (2016): Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the likely next mayor of New York City, put together the soundtrack for this Disney movie directed by his mother, Mira Nair. Mamdani, then 24 years old, also had a small cameo in the movie as “bookie student,” who is seen in a flashback confidently collecting a bet from a working-class chess player who challenges his friend, only to later hand over the money once the challenger wins in an upset.
Bill de Blasio in “The Simpsons” (2019): Former Mayor Bill de Blasio played an animated version of himself in a season 30 episode of “The Simpsons.” The six-second scene poked fun at the 6’5 mayor’s height, with the animated de Blasio hoisting Abe Simpson onto his shoulders and saying, “From my shoulders, you can see Rhode Island.”
Anthony Weiner in “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” (2015): Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner made a cameo in the third installment of Syfy’s campy disaster movie series. But rather than play himself, Weiner played the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – and got eaten by a shark.
Hillary Clinton in “Broad City” (2016): The former New York senator made a controversial cameo appearance on the Comedy Central show in an episode that saw co-star Ilana Glazer get a volunteer position on Clinton’s presidential campaign. “We need to drum up some excitement for the campaign, do everything we possibly can,” Clinton says in the scene, which upset some fans who felt it was just a thinly disguised campaign ad.
John Catsimatidis in “Marty Supreme” (2025): John Catsimatidis loves radio – he’s hosted the “Cats Roundtable” talk show on WABC for years and even bought the station itself in 2020 – but the billionaire businessman and former Republican mayoral candidate is set to make his silver screen debut later this year. The movie, which stars Timothée Chalamet, was inspired by the life of Marty Reisman, a table tennis star who played the game at a building that Catsimatidis happens to own.