Luke Tennie is having the best TV season with roles in Shrinking, Abbott Elementary and The Pitt
NEED TO KNOW
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Tennie sits down with PEOPLE to talk about his rise to TV fame and what's next
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The actor decided to pursue acting after he was accidentally placed in an acting class in his senior year of high school
Turn on one of TV’s most popular, acclaimed shows this year, and chances are you’ll spot Luke Tennie.
First he stole hearts onShrinkingas Sean, a military veteran with a knack for Cajun cooking. Then he turned up onAbbott Elementaryas Dominic, an eager new teacher who was once a student. Dr. Crus Henderson, that new night-shift resident cracking wise and saving lives onThe Pitt? That’s Tennie too.
How did the 31-year-old actor pull off the ultimate prestige-TV trifecta? “I’m aware of what my tool bag is, and right now it’s playing someone that people trust,” he tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “The last thing I thought I’d be was someone people are familiar with.”
At first he thought he’d be a football player — despite his passion for TV storytelling.
Growing up in Florida, Tennie lovedThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,Full HouseandFamily Matters. “I was that kid who bathed in the TV light of sitcoms from the ’80s and ’90s. So that was what I wanted to do as soon as I learned acting was a viable job,” he says.
He figured that out when he was in high school. Hoping to earn a football scholarship for college, the 6'3" offensive lineman found that he wasn’t “big enough” or “fast enough,” he says. Because of a scheduling mishap, he was placed in an acting class in his senior year, and he fell in love with the craft."
I saw my acting teacher look at me the way my coach looked at my teammates, the talented ones,” he recalls. “Ms. Wright changed my life.”
Tennie went all in on acting: He attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy of the Performing Arts, where he met his wife,María Romero-Tennie. After graduating he made his movie debut in the lateRob Reiner’s 2017 dramaShock and Awe, then landed a main role in the 2019 Syfy seriesDeadly Class.
As he steadily built his career, he stepped into an even more important role: father to daughters Marilú, 2-and-a-half, and Catita, 5 months.
“My wife asked me after the birth of my first child, ‘How does it feel being a dad?’ And I remember exactly what I said: ‘I’ve wanted to be a father for so much of my life. Now that I am one, I feel more like myself than I ever have.’ ”
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Through it all Romero-Tennie, an actress herself, has cheered him along.
“Every self-tape, every audition, every scene I needed to memorize after putting the baby down at 1 a.m., she’s been there to run lines with me because she knows that eventually I’m going to be able to do the same thing for her,” he says. “We both know that what’s best for our family is if we both succeed.”
Tennie’s upbeat, family-oriented personality — and his ability to add warmth and depth to any character — shines through in his work.
On theAbbottset, he jokes, “I’m dadding up all over the place.” He also feels personally connected to the work, given his late mother’s career as a music teacher. “Every time I walk on those sets, it really reminds me of those summers where the school was empty, and my brother and I would help our mom get ready for the year.”
OnShrinking, he says working withJason Segel,Jessica WilliamsandTed McGinleytaught him to be open to the “spirit of comedy that needs to flow" on set, and notes how acting is very different between projects likeShrinkingandThe Pitt.
"There is an element of realism that is so necessary inThe Pittthat I think it kind of reeducates your motor as an actor," he says. "You need to prepare and let go onShrinking. OnThe Pitt, you need to prepare and hold on. There's a bit of freeness that you need to actually access the comedy. It's a weird thing where if you're rigid in any way, the scene's not gonna work. Whereas onThe Pitt, that rigidity, that specificity is where the freedom lies."
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Now he’s pitching a family movie that he wrote. “I’ve been working withNoah Wyle,Quinta Brunson, Jason Segel — I feel like I’ve been surrounded by these legendary creators who are inspiring me to follow in the same avenue,” he says.
He knows his breakthrough year has set him up for success. “I want more genres. I want more projects. I want more freedom,” he says. “I want it all.”
Shrinking,Abbott ElementaryandThe Pittare streaming on Apple, Hulu and HBO respectively.
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