David Rysdahl

My wife Marijo and I were watching the new CBS courtroom drama “Bull” on Tuesday, as we usually do (she likes Michael Weathersly — a lot), but with a little more anticipation than usual this week.

We had heard that a local boy, David Rysdahl, was going to appear on the show. We didn’t know when or in what role, whether he was going to walk through the background, or actually have a line or two.

About three fourths of the way through the show, there he was! David was playing Wes, the ex-boyfriend of the hot young computer expert, Cable McCrory (what crime show these days does not have a hot young computer expert?).

She had left him due to his extreme e-game addiction, walking out while he was obliviously shooting bad guys on the monitor, chugging Red Bull and downing Cheetos.

In this episode, Bull and his merry crew of jury tamperers are helping a former e-game champion pursue a defamation suit against his former boss, who had accused him of throwing a big championship game. Cable now needs Wes, who has kicked his gaming  addiction, to help analyze the ex-champion’s game play in the match. He does, the champion is exonerated, and at the end of the show Wes and Cable meet in a coffeshop where she plants a big, wet smooch on him.

For a young actor, this is big stuff! Two big scenes in a major TV drama, lots of lines, and this is the kind of character that could possibly show up in future shows. I mean, he’s the ex-boyfriend of one of the major characters, who seems to be interested in rekindling the relationship. He’ll be back.

A lot of people in New Ulm will remember David Rysdahl. He’s the son of Dr. Scott and Gigi Rysdahl. He attended Holy Trinity Middle School and graduated from Cathedral High School in the same class as my son Matthew, and attended St. Olaf College, and then decided to pursue a career in the theater.

David said he decided to go into theater after St. Olaf, and he spent the next summer in Winona in a Shakespeare festival, playing Laertes in Hamlet. Some of the other actors were from New York and encouraged him to head out East. So he did, seven years ago.

It was tough going at first, waiting tables and doing what he could to earn money. But about three years ago things started to improve. He started doing improve comedy at the People’s Improv in New York, which got him noticed for other things. He’s had roles in about 100 short films and independent films being shot by students at Columbia and New York University.

He’s in a 2015 feature length film, “That’s Not Us,” on Netflix, and he wrote and plays in a short fim, “Black Swell.”

Last August he was in a play, “Playing With Fire,” byAugust Strindberg. The actress who plays Cable, Annabelle Attanasio, saw his performance and asked if he would read for a movie she was working on. Later, when the writers on “Bull” started working on the character of Wes, she suggested David, and he was cast. David said he could be a recurring role. Producers are talking about maybe bringing him back this season or next season.

Meanwhile, David is keeping busy. He and his girlfriend, Zazie Beetz, who has a lead role on “Atlanta” on the FX channel, are writing scripts. He’s written one script that is centered around New Ulm, and they plan to come here next summer and shoot it.

And it all started here in New Ulm. I remember David in his first role. He played Cain in the musical “Children of Eden,” partnered with my son as Abel, and I watched for five shows as David beat Matt to death with a rock in Act I. Who wouldn’t get stage struck after that?

You can look him up on the Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com) to see what he’s been in and what he’s working on.

Marijo and I are looking forward to see what’s in store for him.