David Dastmalchian

David Dastmalchian (; born July 21, 1975) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He has had supporting roles in a number of superhero franchises; he portrayed Thomas Schiff in The Dark Knight (2008), Kurt and Veb in the Ant-Man franchise, Abra Kadabra in The CW's The Flash, and Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad (2021). He has also appeared in three of Denis Villeneuve's films: Prisoners (2013), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Dune (2021). Dastmalchian wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical film Animals (2014). He had a supporting role in The Boogeyman and portrayed William Borden in Oppenheimer. Early life David Dastmalchian was born on July 21, 1975, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Priscilla and Hossein Dastmalchian. His father was an Iranian-American engineer who worked at engineering firm Black & Veatch. He has two sisters and a brother. His parents divorced, which he described as "tumultuous", and both remarried. He was raised in Overland Park, Kansas, where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School, becoming part of the drama club. He described growing up in the Kansas City metropolitan area as "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." In his childhood, Dastmalchian developed vitiligo, for which he suffered ridicule from his peers. Consequently, he experienced depression throughout his childhood. Growing up, he enjoyed football, theater, and comics. He would mow lawns, saving money to buy comics. He studied at The Theatre School at DePaul University and graduated in 1999. Prior to beginning his career as an actor, he dealt with a heroin addiction for five years. He wrote about his experiences in his screenplay, Animals, and continues to advocate for mental health and substance abuse treatment programs. Shortly after becoming sober, he worked at a seafood restaurant in Kansas City. He was also briefly a fisherman in Alaska. Career Dastmalchian began his professional career in the mid-2000s in Chicago, working on stage and in commercials. He has received acclaim for lead roles in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie and Sam Shepard's Buried Child at Chicago's Shattered Globe Theatre. He was involved with a number of Chicago theater companies and was an artistic associate at Caffeine Theatre.