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Rookie takes lead in Fox's 'Boldly'

Ben Koldyke, Tony Hale join comedy pilot
By Nellie Andreeva
Oct 22, 2008, 12:00 AM ET

Fox is boldly going with a newcomer as the lead of one of its hottest comedy pilots.

After his first studio and network test, Ben Koldyke has landed the central role in "Boldly Going Nowhere," which also has tapped "Arrested Development" alum Tony Hale.

The high-concept comedy, from the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" trio of Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, is about what happens day-to-day on an intergalactic spaceship helmed by a rogue captain (Koldyke).

Hale, repped by ICM and Framework, will play the ship's robot, who thinks he's superior to the human race. He next appears in the features "The Informant," "The Goods: The Don Ready Story" and "The Dream of the Romans."

Koldyke's casting stems from a chance meeting two years ago at the Rose Cafe in Venice, Calif., where "Philadelphia" creator-star McElhenney regularly had breakfast.

That day, instead of the check, McElhenney was given an anonymous note -- "Hey, man, I think your show is fantastic" -- by someone who had picked up his tab and left.

A few days later, a waiter pointed out the mysterious benefactor to McElhenney, and McElhenney in turn covered his check. The man, Koldyke, introduced himself, and the two became friends.

Koldyke, who had been getting by doing bit parts in such movies as "Stuck on You" and "Thirteen Days," impressed McElhenney with his online short, "Osama Bin Laden: Behind the Madness," which he wrote, directed and starred in.

But several attempts to land a writing job with the "Philadelphia" guys fell through, a script he penned for ABC didn't get picked up and his acting career was going nowhere.

In December, Koldyke packed his bags to go back to Chicago, where he was planning to return to his early career as a high school English teacher. (While in Los Angeles, he also has been volunteering as an acting teacher at KIPP charter school in Inglewood.)

Koldyke's acting coach Gary Imhoff talked him into giving it two more years before quitting Hollywood. So he went back to acting classes and did one more digital short, "Jedi Gym," which put him back on McElhenney, Day and Howerton's radar.