The Handmaid's Tale author wants Drake for TV cameo

Author Margaret Atwood is hoping to persuade Drake to return to his acting roots for a guest appearance in the TV adaptation of her bestselling novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Former Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss leads the cast in the dystopian drama series, which is based in a fictional former U.S., where women are stripped of their basic human rights.

Atwood is intrigued by the idea of finding a part suitable for the Toronto native in the planned second season, suggesting he could play one of the refugee aids helping to get people out of Gilead and across the border into the safe haven of his native Canada.

"Wouldn't it be fun for him to have a cameo in Season Two of The Handmaid's Tale?" she posed to the Boston Review. "I'll drop that notion into the ear of Bruce Miller, the showrunner, and see what he can do with that, because of course the show is filmed in Toronto."

"Maybe Drake could help smuggle someone?" the 77-year-old smiled.

The Hotline Bling hitmaker has yet to respond to the casting proposal, but the rapper, fully name Aubrey Drake Graham, initially rose to fame as a teen star on TV drama Degrassi: The Next Generation.

The 30-year-old has since put his comedy skills on show in various appearances on U.S. sketch series Saturday Night Live, and he has landed cameos in films like Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and Think Like a Man Too. He also voiced the mammoth Ethan in 2012's animated hit, Ice Age: Continental Drift.