{"id":23878,"date":"2024-10-29T10:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T14:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=23878"},"modified":"2025-10-27T11:43:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:43:46","slug":"essandoh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/essandoh\/","title":{"rendered":"With \u2018The Diplomat,\u2019 an Actor Alum Sees his Star Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Netflix\u2019s hit drama is the latest showcase for Ato Essandoh \u201995, veteran of Jason Bourne<\/em>, \u2018Blue Bloods,\u2019 \u2018Chicago Med,\u2019 and more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: This story originally ran in summer 2023; the third season of “The Diplomat” debuted on October 16, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Beth Saulnier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, Ato Essandoh \u201995 is famous enough that almost nobody thinks he was murdered by Leonardo DiCaprio anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Um \u2026 what\u2019s that again?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To clarify: about a decade ago, the prolific actor<\/a> had a small but pivotal role in the Quentin Tarantino drama Django Unchained<\/em>, playing an enslaved man named D\u2019Artagnan whose vicious owner (DiCaprio) punishes him for escaping by having him ripped to pieces by attack dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years after the film came out, an Internet meme persisted that Essandoh\u2019s on-screen death was real. As the rumor went: in service of his art, he\u2019d agreed to be killed on camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ato
Netflix<\/figcaption>
Essandoh faces danger on the sci-fi show \u201cAltered Carbon.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA friend sent me the link, and I thought it was the dumbest thing I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d Essandoh recalls with a laugh. \u201cBut as I was about to click away, I saw it had like 500 comments. \u2018That\u2019s against the law! They should throw Quentin Tarantino in jail!\u2019 And I thought, \u2018These people believe this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Essandoh decided to have some fun with it. He started tweeting responses from the afterlife, including the news that one of his neighbors in heaven was Jimi Hendrix. \u201cIt went on for a number of years,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery once in a while, somebody would be like, \u2018Hey, are you alive?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Essandoh, it was another twist in an unlikely journey that began on the Hill\u2014where he majored in chemical engineering and got his first taste of performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ato
Alex Bailey \/ Netflix<\/figcaption>
Shooting \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d with costar Ali Ahn (far left), who plays his colleague and love interest. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now in his early 50s, Essandoh is a veteran character actor<\/a> with dozens of film, TV, and stage credits\u2014and 2023 has brought his career to new heights, with a lead in Netflix\u2019s Emmy-nominated hit drama \u201cThe Diplomat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the evidence of his rising cachet: a spot in the weekly New York Times<\/em> series chronicling how notable city dwellers spend their Sundays<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that it\u2019s happening at 50 and not at 25,\u201d Essandoh says of the renown that now gets him regularly recognized in his Brooklyn neighborhood. \u201cI think at 25, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to understand or really appreciate it. This has been, for me, a slow burn\u2014and I\u2019ve enjoyed every step of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This has been, for me, a slow burn\u2014and I\u2019ve enjoyed every step of it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The son of Ghanaian immigrants who have since moved back to that country, Essandoh grew up near Albany and in suburban New Rochelle, NY. When he matriculated into the College of Engineering, the performing arts never crossed his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But during junior year, a girlfriend convinced him to try out for a play, a production by the Chinese Students Association that explored issues of diversity and assimilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget coming on stage and hearing people laugh, feeling them connect, hanging on every word we said,\u201d says Essandoh. \u201cThat\u2019s an amazing power, telling a story that they\u2019re listening to. I really think that\u2019s the core of\u2014dare I say\u2014human existence. We all tell each other stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Essandoh completed his degree but tossed out his grad school applications, taking a job in technical sales and contemplating what to do with his life. He studied French, took scuba lessons, traveled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActing,\u201d he says, \u201cjust kept coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Ato
Diyah Pera \/ Netflix<\/figcaption>
As an astronaut in \u201cAway.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A software consulting gig allowed a move to NYC, where he took classes at the Acting Studio under a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of legendary teacher Sanford Meisner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo my parents\u2019 credit, they didn\u2019t disown me,\u201d he says of telling his family that he was devoting himself to his craft. \u201cThey saw how much I wanted it and how hard I was working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first TV role came in 2001, as an injured bike messenger on the NBC drama \u201cThird Watch.\u201d (\u201cMy lines were like, \u2018Ahh! Ahh!\u2019\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ato
Diyah Pera \/ Netflix<\/figcaption>
Zero-G, behind the scenes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n

In 2003, he marked the New York actor\u2019s rite of passage: a role on \u201cLaw & Order.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year, he played Natalie Portman\u2019s adopted African brother in the hit indie film Garden State<\/em>; in 2006, he was a Sierra Leonean revolutionary in the Oscar-nominated Blood Diamond<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Around that time, he stopped having to take non-acting jobs to pay the rent\u2014but all in all, it took 15 years of pounding the pavement until he felt like he was truly a working actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLuckily, my career has always gone up,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s never been a real lull.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essandoh\u2019s first \u201cseries regular\u201d gig was as a doctor on BBC America\u2019s \u201cCopper\u201d; he had a recurring role on the Sherlock Holmes reboot \u201cElementary\u201d as the protagonist\u2019s Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, a master thief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He played an alien in Marvel\u2019s X-Men: Dark Phoenix<\/em>; in the action flick Jason Bourne<\/em>, he was the right-hand man to Tommy Lee Jones\u2019s malevolent spymaster\u2014and got offed by Matt Damon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The latter film put him at the center of another meme<\/a>, as jokesters mashed up his delivery of \u201cJesus Christ, that\u2019s Jason Bourne!\u201d<\/em> with a variety of comically unrelated clips.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ato
Alex Bailey \/ Netflix<\/figcaption>
Advising the ambassador (Keri Russell) as Stuart Hayford, deputy chief of mission, in \u201cThe Diplomat.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On \u201cVinyl,\u201d the HBO series set in the NYC rock scene of the 1970s, he played a blues singer; he also had a three-episode run as a grad student on the network\u2019s \u201cGirls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He landed another recurring role as an activist preacher on \u201cBlue Bloods\u201d and yet another on \u201cChicago Med,\u201d playing an Orthodox Jewish surgeon on the autism spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t

Stories You May Like<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"James\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tJames Larison \u201970, PhD \u201901, Reflects on his Career as a Nature Filmmaker\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Andrea\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tAndrea Savage \u201994 Makes \u2019em Laugh\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

And the series regular jobs kept coming, including as a former Marine medic avenging his family in Netflix\u2019s \u201cAltered Carbon\u201d; an astronaut in the streamer\u2019s \u201cAway,\u201d starring Hilary Swank; and a military attorney in CBS\u2019s \u201cThe Code.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meaty roles, one and all\u2014and far from the sorts of parts stereotypically offered to Black men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomehow, I lucked out,\u201d Essandoh observes. \u201cFrom the beginning, I\u2019ve played roles that are different. I dodged the stereotype bullet, the compartmentalization bullet. I feel like I\u2019ve ridden a wave that has now met this whole renaissance in roles available to people of color, as well as to women. There\u2019s much more work to be done, but I\u2019m happy to see that progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

From the beginning, I\u2019ve played roles that are different. I dodged the stereotype bullet, the compartmentalization bullet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Once the current writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes are resolved, Essandoh will be back in England to shoot the much-anticipated second season of \u201cThe Diplomat<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drama stars Keri Russell as a longtime foreign service officer who\u2019s tapped to serve as U.S. ambassador to the UK, navigating both international intrigue and the incipient end of her marriage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essandoh plays her closest aide, the deputy chief of mission\u2014a brilliant, fundamentally decent guy who\u2019s balancing a hugely demanding job with a covert workplace romance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ato
Dimitrios Kambouris \/ Getty Images for Netflix<\/figcaption>
On the red carpet with costars at the NYC premiere. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I read the script, I said, \u2018This is an adult show\u2019\u2014it\u2019s a show in which intelligence is respected,\u201d says Essandoh, whose preparation for the role included watching The Human Factor<\/em>, the 2019 documentary about Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to pay attention; you can\u2019t be washing the dishes or checking your email.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the show\u2019s intellectual demands and density of information remind Essandoh of a certain major on the Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChemical engineering was so hard, it gave me a work ethic that I still enjoy today,\u201d he observes. \u201cActors always get asked, \u2018How do you memorize all those lines?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Number one, that\u2019s the easiest part\u2014and number two, I went through organic chemistry at Cornell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Photo by Lelund Durond<\/em> Thompson.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published July 17, 2023; updated October 29, 2024 and October 27, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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