Silver-throated thespian Keith David has been acting professionally since 1979. Yet with more than 450 credits across stage, film and television, he still has dream roles he wants to cross off his wish list. Joining the cast of FX’s neo-noir comedy, The Lowdown, as private investigator Marty Brunner in 2025 allowed him to check one of them off.
“One of the things as an actor that I’ve wanted to do my whole life, or at least in my adult consciousness, is play a TV detective,” says David. “I’m like, ‘Wow, here I am. This is it.’ ”
Sterlin Harjo’s screenwriting credits, which include the five-time Emmy-nominated comedy drama Reservation Dogs, are a collection of love letters to his home state of Oklahoma. His latest series, led by Ethan Hawke as Lee Raybon, a “truthstorian” and book dealer inspired by real-life Oklahoman citizen journalist Lee Roy Chapman, is another affectionate dispatch that honors Tulsa through absurdity and historicity.
According to David, his character, Marty, is a loose amalgamation of men in “Harjo’s purview.” The stoic detective with novelist aspirations is the Sherlock-esque straight man to Lee’s quirky, ruffian gumshoe. Season one of the series, which is part mystery, part crime thriller, follows the pair’s investigation of a land conspiracy involving the Washbergs, one of the city’s most powerful — and corrupt — families.
