There are actors, and then there’s Brett Goldstein — a man whose career path is so delightfully unconventional that it reads like a writer’s dream pitch for a meta-comedy about breaking into Hollywood. Known to most as the gruff-yet-tender Roy Kent from Ted Lasso, Goldstein has layered his résumé with everything from managing a family-owned strip club in Spain to lip-syncing drunken monologues in a supermarket for Drunk History: UK. Now, with his puppet-filled HBO stand-up special The Second Best Night of Your Life hitting Max this April, Goldstein’s eclectic journey is front and center, and it’s nothing short of heroic.
Goldstein’s career is a masterclass in creative risk-taking and reinvention
Before Goldstein was winning Emmys and cracking hearts with “Ted Lasso” fans worldwide, he was living a real-life drama that sounds like it belongs in a Tarantino film — managing a strip club in Marbella that his dad bought during a midlife crisis. As he recounted to British GQ, the experience was “high drama and the underworld and darkness and love. It was never boring.” This brush with the surreal only adds to the mystique of a man who has never shied away from diving into the weird and wonderful.
Goldstein’s love for subverting expectations is evident in his 2015 mockumentary SuperBob, which he co-wrote and starred in. Playing a postal worker who gains superpowers, Goldstein aimed to flip the superhero genre on its head. In a way that Logan or The Boys might appreciate, he explored what it truly means to be an average person suddenly thrown into extraordinary circumstances. “Just because you’re suddenly strong doesn’t mean you’re suddenly confident or cocky,” he said. “If you’ve got to go into a burning building, even if you were invulnerable, I think it would be quite f***ing terrifying.” It's a grounded, human take on heroism that echoes the emotional core he later nailed in Roy Kent's arc.
His passion for storytelling extends beyond acting into writing, podcasting, and creating
While many know Goldstein from his on-screen persona, fans of his behind-the-scenes work recognize him as a creative force. He didn’t just act in Ted Lasso; he wrote for it. He co-created Shrinking and Soulmates, adding layers to his identity as a storyteller. And since 2018, he’s been hosting Films to Be Buried With, a podcast that cleverly uses people's favorite films as a lens into their souls. “What film scares you the most?” becomes a gateway to deeper fears, desires, and memories. It’s Goldstein at his best — using pop culture as a mirror to human experience, much like how comics delve into our psyches through metaphor.
From working with David Hasselhoff to starring as Marvel’s Hercules — Goldstein’s roles are delightfully varied
Goldstein’s eclectic career includes a personal fandom-fulfillment moment in Hoff the Record, where he played a personal trainer to a fictionalized David Hasselhoff. As someone who grew up obsessed with Knight Rider, he described it as a “dream come true.” Then there’s the utterly surreal fun of playing President James A. Garfield in Drunk History: UK, a role he only took because he didn’t even know Garfield existed — let alone that he was shot in the rear.
But perhaps nothing matches the shock and awe of his brief, yet impactful, cameo as a buffed-up Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder. Goldstein said he couldn’t believe he’d landed a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Are you f***ing with me? Is this a wind-up?” he recalled. The fact that Goldstein, a man known for his emotional grit rather than bicep flexing, now wears the mantle of a god in the MCU, adds a layer of mythic irony to his career — one that comic fans know all too well from characters like Peter Parker or Scott Lang.
His love for puppets led to a dream collaboration with Brian Henson and a scowl-off on Sesame Street
In a move that perfectly encapsulates Goldstein’s blend of childlike wonder and adult wit, his new stand-up special features puppets. Lots of puppets. And not just any puppets — puppets created by the legendary Brian Henson. A lifelong Muppets fan, Goldstein describes The Muppet Christmas Carol as “the greatest film of all time,” and he even performed a one-man version of it on stage for charity. When he got the chance to work with Henson, he seized it.
His episode on Sesame Street, where he has a scowl-off with Oscar the Grouch, wasn’t just a fun cameo — it was a personal milestone. “It was the best day of my life,” he said. And for someone who dreams of ending their career as a full-time cast member on Sesame Street, this puppet-loving, scowling interlude feels like a homecoming.
Lone Island showcases Goldstein’s ability to turn isolation into imaginative storytelling
During the pandemic lockdown, Goldstein created Lone Island, a dystopian dating reality show he filmed himself. In a world where he’s the only contestant, he ends up forming relationships with a ball, a plant, and a mop. What could have been a gimmick turned into a full emotional arc, with Goldstein admitting he wrote a “proper season arc.” It’s a testament to his creativity and his willingness to explore loneliness, connection, and absurdity — themes that resonate deeply in the superhero and human condition alike.
Goldstein’s stand-up is where his most honest, unfiltered self truly shines
In The Second Best Night of Your Life, Goldstein returns to stand-up, the medium where he doesn’t have to share the mic with 200 collaborators or compromise with execs. He calls stand-up “the only thing that keeps my brain sharp.” The special is filled with cultural observations, personal confessions, and a love letter to American stand-up culture — even as he critiques its relentless nature.
His affection for puppets, his visit to the White House, and his reflection on being misidentified as a CGI creation by Ted Lasso fans (he even debunked the theory via Memoji) — all these moments in the special reveal Goldstein’s paradoxical nature: he’s both deeply serious and playfully irreverent, a warrior and a jester, much like the best comic book characters.
Ultimately, Brett Goldstein is the real-life superhero of creative authenticity
Goldstein’s career may not be filled with explosive battles or galaxy-saving quests — but in its diversity, honesty, and fearlessness, it embodies a different kind of heroism. From strip clubs to superheroes, from puppets to presidents, Brett Goldstein has navigated his path with a blend of grit, humor, and heart that makes every role, every project, feel like part of a larger, meaningful mythos.
And just like the best heroes in Marvel or DC, he’s still evolving. He may have played Hercules, but in reality, Goldstein’s strength lies in being unapologetically himself — and that, in a world full of clones and committees, is nothing short of legendary.