By Karu F. Daniels, BlackVoices.com



Angela Bassett is revving things up with a slew of new projects, most notably an upcoming gig on the final season of 'E.R.'

The Academy Award nominated star of films such as 'What's Love Got to Do with It?,' 'Akeelah and the Bee' and 'Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns' will join the cast of NBC's long-running medical drama starting this fall.According to published reports, the Yale School of Drama trained actress will play a troubled physician who's coming back to The Windy City after a few years in Indonesia doing tsunami relief.

Her arrival in the second episode promises to shake County General's ER to the core, reported one news outlet.

Her work on 'E.R.' will mark the first full-time series gig for Bassett, who portrayed CIA Director Hayden Chase on the ABC action drama series 'Alias' in 2005.

Her long list of television credits also include 'Time Bomb,' 'Ruby's Bucket of Blood' and 'The Rosa Parks Story,' for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002.

Bassett, who turns 50-years-old in August, recently wrapped the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, 'Notorious,' in which she plays his mother Voletta Wallace.

Other projects in the can for the Olay spokesmodel include the Carl Seaton-directed independent family drama 'Of Boys and Men' and 'Nothing But the Truth,' starring Matt Damon, Kate Beckinsale and Alan Alda.