David Zayas is heading to Gotham City…
The 51-year-old Puerto Rican actor and Dexter alum has joined the cast of Fox’s Batman prequel drama series Gotham.
Zayas will portray DC Comics character Mob Boss Salvatore Maroni in a recurring role. He’s considered one of the city’s most dangerous gangsters.
In the Batman mythology, Maroni is a street operator who clawed his way into controlling the city’s drug trade and unions. He is second only to Carmine Falcone in power and reach, and second to none in his appetite for violence.
In time, Maroni will develop into one of Batman’s first enemies and become infamous as the man responsible for disfiguring district attorney Harvey Dent, leading to his transformation into Two-Face.
But for now, as he strives to increase his territory in Gotham, he’ll find himself on a crash course with his rival Falcone (portrayed by John Doman) for control of the city.
In the feature film The Dark Knight, the role of Maroni was played by Eric Roberts.
Zayas, a former New York police officer, segued to a career in acting in 1992, originally focusing on theater before expanding to film and television projects. While co-starring on the short-lived UPN cop drama The Beat, Zayas met the show’s executive producer Tom Fontana who went on to create the Enrique Morales character on his HBO series Oz for him. He’s best known though for his role as Angel Batista on Showtime’s Dexter.
He recently recurred on the FX comedy series Saint George. He also appeared in the features The Expendables, Skyline and Michael Clayton and will next be seen in the indie Ride and the Annieremake.
