AnnaLynne McCord
In 2008, she was the eighteenth actress to be cast in The CW series "90210", portraying antiheroine Naomi Clark. Initially, the part of Clark was conceived as a supporting role. However, by the end of the first season, media outlets had begun referring to McCord as the series' lead. For the role of Naomi Clark, she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and received the "Hollywood Life" Young Hollywood Superstar of Tomorrow award in 2009. In 2010, she won a Breakthrough of the Year Award in the category of "Breakthrough Standout Performance".
Naomi Bennett
Naomi was created by Shonda Rhimes, who wanted the show's central character Addison to have a close friend from her college days. The character is based on a friend of Rhimes', who "married her college sweetheart and is strong and smart and funny." Naomi was played by Merrin Dungey in the backdoor pilot episode "The Other Side of This Life", but was replaced by Audra McDonald prior to the show's first season. Rhimes explained that the production team "wanted to put an edge on Naomi that we could define more clearly." McDonald assessed that Dungey's dismissal was hard as a result of its having been so public, but commented that she herself had once been similarly replaced, having played Bill Cosby's daughter in the pilot episode of "Cosby", only to be replaced thereafter.