David Dastmalchian

Actor David Dastmalchian overcame personal demons to find acclaim as one of the best character actors of his generation. Born in Pennsylvania, he was raised in Kansas and went to college in Chicago. As a young man, he struggled with a heroin addiction before turning to acting. His break came when he was cast as one of the henchmen to Heath Ledger's villainous Joker in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" (2008). He spent the next several years working steadily in short films and indie productions, including "Sushi Girl" (2012), and making occasional appearances on television in shows such as "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009) and "Ray Donovan" (Showtime , 2013-). He caught the attention of critics when he wrote and starred in the indie drama "Animals" (2014), based in part on his own struggles with drug addiction. His profile jumped again thanks to another foray into the superhero genre. The actor appeared with Paul Rudd and Michael Pena as one of the criminals who assist the namesake hero in Marvel's "Ant-Man" (2015). Multi-episode appearances followed on the TV shows "12 Monkeys" (SyFY, 2015-18) and "Gotham" (FOX, 2014-19). He also made a memorable guest appearance on "The Flash" (The CW , 2014-) playing comic book villain Abra Kadabra, and was featured on David Lynch's reboot of "Twin Peaks" (Showtime, 2017). On film, he appeared in the big-budget sequel "Blade Runner 2049" (2017) opposite Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling. He landed a recurring role on the reimagining of the '80s hit "MacGyver" (CBS , 2016-) playing the assassin Murdoc. Playing the menacing Whispering Marauder, he appeared alongside Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich in the surprise hit "Bird Box" (Netflix, 2018). Building upon that buzz, he was then cast, along with Jason Momoa and Oscar Isaac, in the updating of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel "Dune" (2020).