Tony Shalhoub has joined the cast of the new CBS comedy “BrainDead,” TheWrap has learned.
The show is a comic-thriller set in the world of Washington, D.C. politics. A Capitol Hill staffer discovers that the government has stopped working, and alien spawn have come to earth and eaten the brains of a growing number of Congressmen.
Shalhoub will play Red Wheatus, a hard-drinking, fun-loving Republican senator who has spent decades in Washington making deals, until a radical transformation turns him into a health-conscious extremist who would rather destroy the government than compromise.
“We’re thrilled that Tony Shalhoub will be joining ‘BrainDead,’” said executive producers and “Good Wife” creators Robert and Michelle King. “He’s funny, dramatic, subtle, and broad when he needs to be. To our minds, he can play anything. We were thinking of making the character a 12-year-old blind girl hunting for her mother in Belgium to see what he did with that.”
Shalhoub is well known for his starring role as the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk in the popular television series “Monk,” for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards. His additional television credits include “Nurse Jackie,” “Too Big to Fail” and “Wings.”
As previously announced, Mary Elizabeth Winstead will star as Laurel, a young, fresh-faced Hill staffer. Also, “Grease: Live” star Aaron Tveit will play Gareth, the legislative director to a top Republican senator, who is smart, hard-working, and ultimately responsible for helping to save the world.
Danny Pino will portray Luke, Laurel’s older brother, the Democratic Whip Senator from Maryland, and Tony Award-winning actress Nikki M. James will play Rochelle, a medical resident whose father dies as the result of a mysterious infection. She and Laurel team up to learn what happened to her father, and protect others from the same fate.
“BrainDead” is produced by CBS Television Studios. the Kings, Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Brooke Kennedy and Liz Glotzer will serve as executive producers for CBS Television Studios, Scott Free Productions and King Size Productions. Judy Smith will serve as co-executive producer.
“BrainDead” is set to premiere this summer.