Barkhad Abdi, the break-out star of Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, has landed a major Tv role on island police drama Hawaii Five-0.

The Oscar-nominated Somalian actor will play a Congolese warlord who faked his own death during a 2011 bombing raid on his compound and fled to Hawaii, where he became a taxi driver.

Hawaii Five-0 executive producer Peter Lenkov tells Entertainment Weekly Abdi's character is loosely inspired by Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.

He explains, "He plays basically Kony, that African warlord who was in the news a few years ago. He plays a character like that hiding on the island here, and somebody discovers that he’s here. And our guys end up confronting him.

"It’s a big, big episode. We were so lucky to get him, and we wrote it with him in mind. We were able to get him to the island and that was a big coup for us."

Abdi's character will appear on an episode of the drama in the new year (15).