Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the first couple of episodes of the new Netflix series.
There's a lot to love about Netflix's The Politician.
Sure, it goes in some fairly bonkers directions, but it's got Gwyneth Paltrow painting refugee children and falling in love with her horse trainer, while Zoey Deutch and Jessica Lange do their best impression of The Act and Ben Platt is giving us chills beyond chills with his cover of "River." It has also given us a new star that has many of us googling the name David Corenswet.
Corenswet, you see, plays River, the charismatic student and Mandarin tutor who goes up against Payton (Platt) in the election for student body president. He wins everyone over with his sympathetic tales of his struggle with mental health, but by the end of the first episode, he has committed suicide, and we've learned that he and Payton had fallen in love. His death prompts Payton to give us a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River" that we're still waiting to be able to stream (hello, Netflix?).
River then appears to Payton as a sort of encouraging and loving ghost as Payton continues his presidential campaign, and he's possibly the dreamiest ghost since Ghost.
Corenswet's character is one of the more serious characters in a show filled with snark and scenery-chewing, but Corenswet himself seems to be pretty funny if his Instagram is any indication. He's also got a thing for animals, even if he can't always identify them correctly.
He seems to be a particular fan of dogs.
Corenswet, who is 26, is one of the newer faces in the show. His first TV appearance was in 2015 on a show called One Bad Choice, and he appeared in an episode of Elementary in 2017. He also appeared in episodes of Instinct and House of Cards in 2018, and he's now officially in Ryan Murphy's pantheon of actors. He'll be starring in and serving as an EP on Murphy's Hollywood, alongside Darren Criss, Jeremy Pope, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello, Dylan McDermott, Holland Taylor, Patti LuPone, Samara Weaving, Maude Apatow, Laura Harrier, and Jake Picking.
Not much is known about the series, which takes place in the 1940s, but Murphy has called it "a love letter to the Golden Age of Tinseltown" that looks at "Hollywood and the sex industry, and how absolutely everything has changed and nothing has changed." Corenswet will play Jack. And all we know about the character is that his name is Jack.
"It's about Hollywood in the 1940s and young, optimistic people who are out to seek their fortune," he told E! News at the premiere of The Politician.
Corenswet could be on the verge of major stardom with two high-profile roles in Ryan Murphy shows, but he says he's taken a page out of the playbook of many actors
"I think a lot of actors, rightfully so, go through life thinking I got a job, wonderful, I'm gonna enjoy it, this is the last job I'm ever gonna get," he says. "And I still am feeling that way: "Surely, this is the last thing I'm ever going to get," which is great, because it means you cherish it, and you love it for what it is, and you drink in every moment on set and every moment with your castmates, so that's what I'm making of it."
Corenswet is also very much a fan of his castmate and frequent scene partner, Ben Platt.
"His acting and his singing are just...I always say I don't believe in God, but Ben Platt has a God-given talent," he says.
And we agree, so, once again, can we please get a recording of Ben Platt singing that tribute to River? Pretty please?
The Politician is now streaming on Netflix.