David Dastmalchian’s Horror Streak Proves There’s No Genre He Can’t Conquer

The Big Picture

• David Dastmalchian had a breakout year in 2023, with roles in major movies including
  Oppenheimer
  and
  The Boogeyman
  . His rise has only continued in 2024, with his acclaimed festival darling
  Late Night with the Devil
  currently playing in theaters.
• He is a staple in superhero franchises, having appeared in both the MCU and the DC extended universe, showcasing his range as an actor.
• Dastmalchian is breaking past typecasting and taking on a variety of roles, from dark and unsettling characters to hilariously comedic ones.

We often talk of comeback years, with actors returning to the scene after an extended hiatus or an unintended drop in bookings, but just as worthy of celebration are the cases of a quiet, exponential rise. Sometimes, a name reaches household status by way of an explosive debut, while other names slowly incur credit after credit for commendable performances, until the subject of occasional recognizability becomes the frequent favorite. David Dastmalchian is the epitome of such a case.

He had the biggest 2023 of anyone around, and in the first quarter of 2024, Dastmalchian is showing no signs of slowing down. From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the latest Christopher Nolan banger, Dastmalchian has stretched himself across almost every genre and scale of production an actor could desire. You can spot him all over, the biggest blockbusters and the most niche independent ventures alike. Beyond keeping him busy, the past couple of years have put Dastmalchian’s unique sensibility and vast range as an actor further into the spotlight. Finally, Late Night with the Devil, a one-of-a-kind festival darling that’s now receiving a wide release, has come to show everyone that David Dastmalchian fits at the helm of a film, too.

‘Late Night with the Devil’ Proves David Dastmalchian Has the Chops of a Leading Man

Late Night with the Devil describes itself as found footage comedy horror, but that’s already too slim of a box to fit it in. Presented as an archived look at a 1970s talk show’s long-lost Halloween episode, the film features Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy, a competitor of Johnny Carson who’s looking to amp up his show’s ratings with a controversial extravaganza no one will forget. He invites several guests related to supernatural phenomena, including a parapsychologist named Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her subject Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), a young girl who survived a sacrificial Satanic cult and is now purported to be the host of a sadistic demon.

There truly has not been a film like Late Night with the Devil. Its innovative and bafflingly successful mix of terror and glee is not the only major milestone the film represents, however. It’s the first major leading role for Dastmalchian, and if there was ever any doubt that the top-billed spot is where he belongs, may those doubts forever be dispelled. Late Night with the Devil is an amalgamation of many genres, all of which Dastmalchian effortlessly juggles, instantly placing Jack Delroy into the pantheon of horror’s greatest characters.

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Marked a Powerful Collaboration

While Dastmalchian didn’t begin the year with a reprisal in Dune: Part Two, considering his character’s fatal demise in the first film, it’s safe to say that he would have if his character lived on. One of his greatest strengths is his evident desirability, with filmmakers inviting him back for project after project. His portrayal of Piter de Vries, one of the sinister House Harkonnen’s Mentats, was the third collaboration between Dastmalchian and director Denis Villeneuve. After first working together on 2013’s menacing thriller Prisoners, the pair reunited for two incredible blockbuster follow-ups: Blade Runner 2049 and Dune: Part One.

This is a common occurrence in Dastmalchian’s career and a key element of his well-earned success. Arguably the best example of this came last year with Oppenheimer, Dastmalchian’s second Christopher Nolan film. Arriving over a decade after their first outing together, the collaboration dominated both the box office and the Academy Awards. Most people who’ve had their “I know that guy” moment over the past few years could likely trace that thought back to 2008’s The Dark Knight, the crown jewel of Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the first feature film of Dastmalchian’s career.

David Dastmalchian Is a Staple of Nearly Every Superhero Franchise

Branching from his Nolan-Batman roots, Dastmalchian would join the MCU and continue on in the extended DC universe across multiple roles. In 2015, he would close out Phase Two of the MCU with Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man. Alongside Luis (Michael Peña), Dastmalchian played the role of Kurt Goreshter, a companion of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and a member of the cyber-criminal cohorts that made for the film’s charming comedic highlight. Reed would bring Dastmalchian back in 2018 for the sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and even when the third Ant-Man film had no room for his character Kurt, Dastmalchian would return. In 2023, he’d step into a new role as Veb in Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania, further solidifying the fact that filmmakers want Dastmalchian around whenever possible. Despite receiving a lukewarm, if not mostly negative, critical reception, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has its high points with fun Easter eggs and the chance to draw out an array of playfully creative supporting characters that dwell within the Quantum Realm. One of these colorful additions is Dastmalchian’s portrayal of Veb, a member of the Freedom Fighters opposing Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and an eventual ally of Scott Lang.

Introducing himself in the most off-the-wall manner possible, Veb and a group of Quantum natives repeat an indiscernible phrase at Scott before guiding him to drink a mysterious substance. Once it’s consumed, the chanting morphs into English. “Drink the ooze,” they’ve been shouting. The ooze, we discover, enables anyone who ingests it to linguistically understand anyone that they hear, and the substance is made within and excreted from Veb himself. Coupled with his perky friendliness and hilarious curiosity surrounding the number of holes that a human has on their body, Veb is reminiscent of when Taika Waititi‘s Korg was introduced to the MCU in Thor: Ragnarok. In the same way that Korg and Randall Park‘s Agent Jimmy Woo gained a devoted niche fandom, Dastmalchian’s Veb could easily be called to return to future MCU projects.

Aside from The Dark Knight and the Ant-Man franchise, Dastmalchian played a pivotal role as Polka-Dot Man in James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad in 2021 (collaborating with Gunn once again after working together on The Belko Experiment), and further adding to his gloriously bloated 2023, Dastmalchian had another superhero-centric entry with Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. Lending his vocal talents to the DC animated movie, this is Dastmalchian’s third performance in a Batman cartoon. When you remember that he appeared in The Flash television series and even reprised Kurt in the Disney+ series What If…?, it’s clear there’s no comic book universe that Dastmalchian can’t uplift.

No One Plays Dark Roles Like David Dastmalchian

Bolstering the massive year he had, 2023 saw Dastmalchian portraying one of the titular subjects of Keira Knightley‘s investigation in Boston Strangler. Then Dastmalchian took on the role of Lester Billings in The Boogeyman, playing the film’s harbinger of terror with an unsettling level of commitment. You’d think that delving so frequently into darker characters would inevitably take its toll, a reality to which Dastmalchian himself has admitted, but he’s reaching a point in his career when he can be selective about the jobs he accepts.

Speaking with Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff, Dastmalchian confessed his initial apprehension toward accepting his part in The Boogeyman. “Absolutely not,” was his immediate reaction upon reading the script. “No interest in portraying Lester Billings. I don’t care to go there. I’ve done too much stuff in the darkness. I need a break, and I can’t do it.” Thankfully, after further discussion with director Rob Savage, he agreed to what would become another laudable entry into his pantheon of unnerving gigs.

David Dastmalchian Is Breaking Past Typecasting

Dastmalchian, as you may have noticed, has a history of playing incredibly dark supporting roles, a track record that began with The Dark Knight. Dastmalchian is a well-trained actor, however, graduating from The Theatre School at DePaul University and paying his dues across all forms of media throughout his rise to stardom. He won’t be boxed into a singular form of typecasting.

On the other side of the doom coin, last year also gave us The Last Voyage of the Demeter, in which Dastmalchian plays the first mate of the ill-fated ship, and hidden among his endlessly hyped 2023 was an appearance in TBS’s Daniel Radcliffe vehicle Miracle Workers. In the second episode of the comedy series’ fourth season, Dastmalchian plays Ugulus Sleeze, a grotesque character in the post-apocalyptic world and a gloriously on-the-nose parody of Stellan Skarsgård‘s role in Dune: Part One, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Simply put, Dastmalchian is hilarious, and it’s the perfect garnish to place upon the sprawling couple of years he’s had.

To proudly surmise, whether it’s comedy, science fiction, drama, or action, Dastmalchian can do it all. Still, he’s always welcome back in the world of horror, and his absolute top-of-the-line performance in Late Night with the Devil proves it. The road from countless supporting spots and self-made indie vehicles like Animals has been long and arduous, but the David Dastmalchian renaissance has arrived, and we eagerly await what’s to come.

Late Night with the Devil is now playing in theaters in the U.S.

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