Why David From Evil Looks So Familiar

If you're among the millions of TV lovers out there who prefer their small screen fare with sufficient scares, it's a safe bet you've already set aside an hour of your Thursday night viewing schedule for CBS's seriously spooky drama Evil. If you're a horror fan who hasn't yet caught up with the show, we'd encourage you to track down Evil's inaugural season, and binge all 14 episodes immediately. Just don't blame us when the nightmares start, because it's quite likely they will, not long after George (Marti Matulos) makes his first appearance.

If you are among those who've yet to bear witness to the evil energy of the show, we can assure you that George isn't the only being who might cost you a night or two of sleep. In fact, Evil's unholy narrative is so populated by sinister characters, it's likely to leave you pondering the state of the world itself. Essentially an X-Files-like procedural sans spacemen, Evil's narrative focuses entirely on the eerie, and follows a forensic psychologist-slash-supernatural skeptic, who's teamed with a would-be Catholic priest who has a taste for psychedelics to investigate cases regarding divine miracles, demonic possession, and other out-of-the-ordinary occurrences.

Along the way, Evil has used a pseudo "freak of the week" setup to bring a wave of fresh and familiar faces into the realm of the series' central characters. In and of themselves, those central players will no doubt seem a bit familiar to most, with stars Kristen Herbers (Westworld, The Americans) and Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest) in particular standing out among the strong cast. So too will the actor who plays the hallucinogenic-loving seminarian David on the series. He's portrayed by Mike Colter, who's been a regular presence on screens big and small for a couple of decades now. Here's why David from Evil looks so familiar.  

Before we dig too deep into Mike Colter's filmography, we should tell you if you don't recognize the actor from a prior role, all we can really do is shake our heads and muster the words "Sweet Christmas." If you're a fan of superhero stories of the Marvel persuasion, Mike Colter should need no introduction. That's because Colter played one of Marvel's mightiest supers for two full seasons of Netflix's mostly marvelous universe of streaming series.

Yes, Mike Colter was indeed "The Hero of Harlem" in Marvel's short-lived small screen venture. And yes, Colter was pretty much perfect for every single second of screen time he occupied as the O.G. bulletproof bad boy of the Marvel Universe. The actor made his first appearance as Luke Cage in a season 1 episode of Jessica Jones. When he did, Colter became the first actor to portray the Power Man in a live-action environment. While Colter certainly stole his share of scenes in eight appearances on Jessica Jones, he didn't fully step into the spotlight until he went solo. 

Colter portrayed Cage in 26 episodes of Luke Cage, and eight more times via Netflix's own crossover series The Defenders. And while Luke Cage never quite found the audience that Netflix's Daredevil or Jessica Jones did, it remains among the most underrated of Marvel's small screen ventures, and its cancellation after just two seasons continues to be a sour point for fans of the character. That's in no small part due to Mike Colter's powerfully sincere portrayal of the Power Man himself.

If Luke Cage mostly found Mike Colter fighting on the right side of the law (as much as a vigilante can), the actor's role on another series saw him working distinctly on the opposite. In fact, Colter's recurring role on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife not only found him bending the law to his will throughout, but doing so from atop a legit criminal empire.

The Good Wife saw Colter delivering one of the long-running series' most intriguing characters in Chicago-based drug kingpin Lemond Bishop. Colter appeared as the nefarious Bishop 21 times over The Good Wife's seven season run, and while he wasn't generally a focal point of the show's overarching narrative, there's little question he cast a long shadow over major portions of it. There's even less question that Colter's stoically imposing work in the role helped elevate Lemond Bishop from bad boy drug lord to something far more sinister and unsettling. In doing so, Mike Colter got to trade lines with a handful of screen greats, including Chris Noth and Wallace Shawn.

So good was Colter as the brooding Bishop on The Good Wife that series producers even brought the character back for a two-episode arc when the show's less-heralded spin-off The Good Fight debuted in 2018. 

It's been nearly a decade since Ryan Murphy first unleashed his ongoing genre anthology series American Horror Story, and in the years since, he's continued to baffle minds and stop hearts with creepy tales of haunted houses, bloodthirsty cults, dysfunctional freak shows, and more. Along the way, Murphy has also booked virtually every actor on the planet to appear on American Horror Story in some capacity. Yes, Mike Colter can slot his name in among the vast list of American Horror Story alums. And yes, even though he only appeared in three episodes of the series, his turn as an ambitious climber within the Corporation is among the series' more memorable cameos, if only because it featured one of AHS' more brutal exits.

That exit came in the third season, subtitled Coven. As a reminder, AHS: Coven unfolded in the steamy confines of New Orleans, and followed a coven of witches (descended from those slaughtered in Salem circa the 17th Century) as they fought for survival in the modern world. Of course, even in modern-day America, witches are still hunted. Colter's David is employed by the Corporation, who are among those tangling with the titular coven throughout the third season of American Horror Story. They organization — Colter's character included — meet a most dire end at the hands of the coven's aptly-named henchman, the Axeman (Danny Huston). 

Though Mike Colter has worked extensively in television over the years, he's had less frequent work on the big screen. Nevertheless, he's more than left his mark on the cinematic world via winning turns in films like 2013's Men In Black 3 and 2017's Girls Trip. The charismatic actor actually made his big screen debut in one of the best-loved movies of 2004, and did it opposite a pair or legit screen icons.

The movie in question is none other than the Oscar-winning boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, which means Mike Colter actually made his big screen debut alongside Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. If you're struggling to figure out who Colter played, he appeared in the film's early moments as Big Willie Little, the talented boxing prospect who ultimately spurned Eastwood's cantankerous trainer in service of getting a title shot. 

No, Colter is not in Million Dollar Baby for very long. But he still got a chance to show off his skills, and he even logged a little ring time with Eastwood himself. Most importantly, of course, he got to showcase his commanding screen presence in a prestige film of the first order. There's little question as to whether or not Hollywood took notice.