David Dastmalchian Biography
David Dastmalchian is an American actor best known for The Dark Knight (2008), The Flash (2017, 2021), Prisoners (2013), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Dune (2021). He rose to fame after appearing as Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad (2021).
David Dastmalchian Career
Dastmalchian completed his studies at DePaul University’s Theatrical School in 1999. He dealt with a heroin addiction for five years before he started his acting career. Dastmalchian continues to support mental health and drug misuse treatment programs. Moreover, he wrote about his experiences in his screenplay, Animals. He was employed at a Kansas City seafood restaurant not long after he became sober and also fished in Alaska for a short period.
In Chicago, Dastmalchian started his professional career in the middle of the 2000s by performing on stage and in advertisements. He won praise for his leading parts in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child and Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie at Chicago’s Shattered Globe Theatre. He was an artistic associate with Caffeine Theatre in addition to being connected with several theatrical companies in Chicago. In the late 2000s, he made his big screen debut in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight as Thomas Schiff, the psychotic sidekick of the Joker.
Dastmalchian won the South by Southwest Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize for Courage in Storytelling in March 2014. Collin Schiffli’s feature film Animals, which he both wrote and starred in, was released. Dastmalchian’s screenplay is credited by Ashley Moreno of The Austin Chronicle as “present[ing] an authenticity often lacking in films about drug abuse.” In addition, Brian Tallerico of Film Threat commends Dastmalchian for his breakthrough performance, pointing out that he was able to “capture that sense of self-loathing that comes through in the body language of an addict without overselling it.”
Moreover, he has made television appearances in the following roles: as Murdoc, the antagonist of MacGyver’s main character, over the course of eleven episodes; as Simon in the Fox science fiction series Almost Human’s “Simon Says” episode; as a chess expert and murder suspect in the CBS forensics procedural drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; and as Oz Turner in the BBC drama series Intruders. Additional TV appearances include the medical drama ER on NBC, the crime drama series Ray Donovan on Showtime, and the sitcom The League on FX. Dastmalchian played the villain Abra Kadabra from DC Comics in seasons three and seven of The Flash. Later, Dastmalchian plays Dwight Pollard in the second season of the television series Gotham.
He and Villeneuve got back together in 2017 when he made an appearance in Blade Runner 2049. He played Kurt again in Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sequel, the following year. Dastmalchian made his screen debut in The Suicide Squad in 2021 as Polka-Dot Man, a role he claimed he identified with because of the bullying he had as a child owing to his vitiligo. He made his third appearance alongside Villeneuve later that year, playing Piter De Vries in Dune. Dastmalchian featured in two horror movies in 2023: The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Late Night with the Devil and The Boogeyman. Furthermore, he played William L. Borden in Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer (2023).
David Dastmalchian Age
Dastmalchian was born on July 21, 1975, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States. He is 48 years old as of 2023 and he celebrates his birthday on the 21st of July every year.
David Dastmalchian Height and Weight
Dastmalchian stands at a height of 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 meters) and weighs 81 Kg (180 lbs).
David Dastmalchian Family
Dastmalchian was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and raised in Overland Park, Kansas. There, he attended Shawnee Mission South High School where he was part of the drama club. He graduated in 1994. Dastmalchian is the son of Priscilla and Hossein Dastmalchian, an Iranian-American engineer who worked at engineering firm Black & Veatch. He was raised alongside his two sisters, Holly Dowling and Heidi and a brother, Jeff.
After a “tumultuous” divorce, both of his parents remarried. According to him, growing up in the Kansas City metropolitan area was “very traditional in one sense, and a conservative community that also had a rad, fringe, artistic, progressive tribe of people who were finding connectivity through the arts and the culture of KC and the surrounding suburbs.” Dastmalchian, who was a comic book, theater, and football fan growing up, had vitiligo as a child, which caused his peers to make fun of him. As such, he was depressed all through his early years.
David Dastmalchian Wife and Children
Dastmalchian has been married to Evelyn “Eve” Leigh for nine years. The couple tied the knot in on August 23, 2013 and are blessed with two children, Arlo Dastmalchian and Pennie Dastmalchian.
David Dastmalchian Salary
Dastmalchian earns an estimated annual salary of about $100,000-$500,000.
David Dastmalchian Net Worth
Dastmalchian has an estimated net worth of about $1 Million – $5 Million which he has earned through his career as an actor.
David Dastmalchian Comic Book
Dastmalchian is a comic book writer. In 2019 he debuted his horror comic series Count Crowley, which was published by Dark Horse Comics.
David Dastmalchian The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan is a prime example of a superhero film that successfully combines genres to offer a novel and inventive interpretation of its adored source material. The story revolves around Batman’s journey to defeat the Joker alongside Commissioner Gordon and DA Harvey Dent.
Dastmalchian has a brief but memorable cameo as Thomas Schiff, a patient at Akrham who serves as a ruse for the Joker. Dastmalchian just has one scene, so his intervention is brief, but the actor does a chilling job portraying a man who is lured and controlled by the pandemonium of the Joker. Considering the caliber of actors Nolan brought together for the picture, Dastmalchian makes a powerful impression.
David Dastmalchian Ant Man
In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the little hero’s third solo film, Dastmalchian makes a comeback to the Ant-Man series, although in a new capacity. The Lang/Pym-Van Dyne clan embarks on a perilous voyage into the Quantum realm in the storyline, where they encounter the formidable Kang, the Conqueror. Many creatures live in the Quantum realm, one of which is the gelatinous Veb, voiced by Dastmalchian. The most hilarious parts of the movie are attributed to Veb, whose impromptu nature brings a welcome change of pace to an otherwise formulaic Marvel production. Dastmalchian’s Veb is one of the most endearing and valuable characters in Quantumania; he plays the function of comic relief without detracting from the main heroes.
Dastmalchian makes his Marvel debut in Ant-Man. The performer portrays Kurt, a Russian associate of Scott Lang notorious for his intense superstitious nature and his deep affection for Elvis Prestley and the movie Saturday Night Fever. In the 2018 follow-up, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Dastmalchian played the same role. To unseat comedy heavyweights like Paul Rudd and Michael Peña, an actor must possess exceptional comic skills. However, Dastmalchian pulls it off with such ease, giving Kurt a lively and funny character with his deadpan delivery, exaggerated Russian accent, and sharp remarks that add a lot to the pandemonium of the Ant-Man films.
David Dastmalchian The Suicide Squad
Dastmalchian plays Abner Krill or Polka-Dot Man, a man with severe mental illness who is one of the new members of The Suicide Squad in the 2021 blockbuster movie. A polka-dot outfit with an “experiment gone wrong” vibe. Polka-Dot Man’s dubbed “the dumbest DC character of all time” by movie writer James Gunn, who intended to make him into a tragic figure. In the movie, his mother infected him with an interdimensional virus in an effort to make him a superhero.
If Krill doesn’t vomit them up or expels the virus as polka-dot weaponry, it turns into colorful balls of acid that hurt beneath his skin. Dastmalchian, who has the skin condition, vitiligo, for which he was bullied as a child and called “polka dots”, had a personal connection to the character, something Gunn was unaware of. The ensemble cast of the movie stars Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Idris Elba, John Cena, and Margot Robbie.
David Dastmalchian Prisoners
The 2013 thriller Prisoners marked Dastmalchian and Villeneuve’s first joint project. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are the film’s main cast members. It centers on a police investigator and a bereaved father who are seeking justice for the Pennsylvania kidnapping of two young daughters. Prisoners is one of the best thrillers of the twenty-first century; it’s compelling and twisty. Dastmalchian portrays Bob Taylor, a menacing individual who admits to robbing the girls before taking his own life. Furthermore, Dastmalchian offers the epitome of a scene-stealing supporting turn that is both unsettling and captivating. His character’s memory lingers long after he passes away, evoking unease in each scene and adding a disturbing element to the movie.
David Dastmalchian Movies and TV Shows
- The Dark Knight
- The Belko Experiment
- Blade Runner 2049
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Bird Box
- Dune
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- CSI: Cyber
- 12 Monkeys
- MacGyve
- Gotham
- The Flash
David Dastmalchian Social Media Platform
Dastmalchian is very active on his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages. He has 26.3k followers on Twitter 244.7k followers on Instagram, and 9.6k followers on Facebook.