Katherine "Kay" Howard is a fictional character in the American TV series Homicide: Life on the Street. She was played by actress Melissa Leo. In the first two seasons of the show her character was the only female detective or member of the main cast. However, NBC president Warren Littlefield felt that the lack of other female characters was alienating the audience, so Megan Russert was added to the show. It was stated in a special edition of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, the non-fiction book that the film was based on, that the character of Kay Howard was based on Baltimore Police detective Rich Garvey. Howard is also influenced by Detective Bertina Silver, referred to as 'Bert' by her colleagues, thought by many in the unit to be the exception to the 'Secretaries-with-guns' fe