Deadline has the scoop on the new villain for Paul Feig’s upcoming Ghostbusters reboot, and the New York comedy scene could not be more pleasantly surprised: It’s Neil Casey! Who? you may ask, if you’re not prone to spending lots of time in a small theater underneath a Gristedes. Well, here’s your answer: Casey, one of Vulture’s 50 Comedians to Watch in 2015, was a UCB comedy guru; before his move to L.A., he was widely regarded as the best improviser in the city, and he taught classes and directed shows for many of the people who make up the second comedy boom.
Like most of the new Ghostbusters cast, Casey’s got an SNL connection, as he wrote for the show during the 2012–13 season before moving on to Inside Amy Schumer and Kroll Show. He currently stars on Feig’s Yahoo sci-fi show Other Space, which probably helped him land the Ghostbusters gig. There’s no word on the nature of the new Ghostbusters bad guy, but in Feig’s leaked pitch for the film, the villain was described as a convicted murderer who turns into a ghost after his execution is hit by a “supercharged electrical storm,” which gives him the power to summon an army of evil ghosts to destroy the world. That breakdown mentioned Peter Dinklage as the ideal choice for the role, which means that in some alternate universe, Neil Casey is also appearing on Game of Thrones.
Here are a few videos of Casey being funny: