Community is heading into Season 6 with a much different cast than the one it started out with. Following the recent departures of Yvette Nicole Brown and Jonathan Banks – who left for personal and professional reasons, respectively – the quirky comedy series has found two solid actors to fill the void, as veteran actor Keith David (Platoon) and TV mainstay Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds) were added to the cast as series regulars. This season should be gravy with these additions.
According to TV Guide, David is joining the Greendale staff as a retired scientist named Elroy Patashnik, who finds work at the community college as a way of reinventing himself. Brewster will play Francesca “Frankie” Dent, a consultant who is brought in to try and bring Greendale up to a higher standard. Both characters are about positivity, which means they’re probably going to find themselves at the butt end of some comedic terror as they enter this particularly off-kilter work atmosphere.
Greendale isn’t always known for insanely strict hiring procedures when it comes to its faculty and its dean. John Oliver’s Ian Duncan is no pillar of morals, nor was Dr. Marshall Kane, played by Michael K. Williams. Hell, Jeff teaches law there, so there’s no telling what Elroy and Frankie will be like.
Keith David, who broke into Hollywood with John Carpenter’s classic The Thing, is no stranger to TV, having starred in series like the underrated comedy The Job, The Cape, and most recently the cancelled Fox comedy Enlisted, which looked like it might get picked up by Yahoo for a short amount of time. His super deep voice can be recognized from recent voice roles in Free Birds and Adventure Time (as the Flame King); he also narrated the super-successful miniseries The Bible. He’s set to appear in a couple of episodes of the DirecTV comedy Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight. While David is awesome in dramatic roles like his creep-tastic turn in Requiem for a Dream, I like that he flexes his comedic chops often.
Paget Brewster spent many seasons as Emily Prentiss on CBS’ Criminal Minds, but her stint in drama shouldn’t fool you as to what kind of projects she gets into most often. She’s voiced characters on Harvey Birdman and American Dad, starred in offbeat series like Huff and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and she most recently appeared on episodes of Drunk History and Key and Peele. Her next project is Oliver Thompson’s intriguing comedic drama Welcome to Happiness. Greendale will be lucky to have her.
Community is set to make its Yahoo debut in 2015.
