EXCLUSIVE: Stavros Halkias, a buzzy comedian recently making his way into acting with projects like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia and indie comedy Let’s Start a Cult, has come aboard for a role in Tony, the forthcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic from A24, Star Thrower and Zapruder Films, which has wrapped production.
Character details are under wraps. As previously announced, The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa leads the cast, which also includes Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, and Leo Woodall.
While pic’s logline is under wraps, sources say the film takes place during the summer of 1976, when a young Anthony Bourdain has a life-changing summer in Provincetown.
BlackBerry helmer Matt Johnson is directing from a script by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe. A24 is producing with Tim and Trevor White under their Star Thrower (The Post, King Richard) banner, along with Johnson and Matthew Miller through their Zapruder Films. Exec producers include Chris Stinson, Amy Greene, Lou Howe, Todd Bartels and Emily Rose, as well as Kimberly Witherspoon, who reps Bourdain’s estate.
Viewed by comedy insiders as one of the comics you’ll see break out as a star in film and TV, Halkias has in recent years been courted by a number of top-tier filmmakers, including Lanthimos (with Bugonia, premiering in Venice later this month) and Steven Soderbergh (with the recent sci-fi web series Command Z). He built his following with specials like the self-released Live at the Lodge Room, which reached a million views on YouTube in its first four days and currently sits at over 7M, and Netflix’s Fat Rascal, as well as podcasts like the hugely popular Cum Town, which ran from 2016-2022. Most recently, he wrote, produced and starred in indie comedy Let’s Start a Cult, also starring opposite Shane Gillis in Season 2 of Netflix’s Tires.
Currently on the international leg of his The Dreamboat Tour, Halkias at the same time hosts the podcast Stavvy’s World, which debuted at #3 on the iTunes comedy charts and garnered hundreds of thousands of subscribers in its first year. He is represented by UTA.
