D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai Is the Big Dog Now

D’PHARAOH WOON-A-TAI remembers exactly where he was when he found out he had been cast as Bear Smallhill on Reservation Dogs: in bed asleep.

- GABRIELLA PAIELLA

“My mom woke me up and was like, ‘You got the call! You got the call!’ ” he says. “I was like, ‘That’s sick.’ And then I just went back to bed.”

That’s not to say the exceedingly chill young actor wasn’t psyched to land his big breakout role in the irreverent FX comedy, the first-ever TV series to feature exclusively Indigenous directors and writers. Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, the acclaimed show is shot on location in the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma and chronicles the exploits of four mischievous teens who dream of ditching their rural reservation for California. Woon-A-Tai instantly connected to Bear, the conflicted not-quite leader of the gang. “I feel like Sterlin was spying on me,” he says. “After I read the pilot, I knew straight up: This is me. No one else could play the role.”

We’re at a restaurant he suggested that serves Indigenous cuisine outside of Tulsa, not far from where Woon-A-Tai is currently filming season two,