The Rise of Rahul Kohli, Hollywood’s Next Great Romantic Leading Man

Even among the internet’s many boyfriends, no one is doing it quite like Rahul Kohli.

In less than a decade, Kohli has become the guy who turns audiences into that meme of Leonardo DiCaprio from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, ecstatically pointing at their TV screen when he shows up in anything, eliciting an expression somewhere along the lines of “I love that guy!”

And what’s not to love? First courting attention as everyone’s favorite supportive medical examiner Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti in The CW’s iZombie, Kohli cemented his fan-favorite status as a repertory player in Mike Flanagan’s horror library with Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. For each of that trio of series, he shifted like a chameleon from tone to another. In Bly Manor, he was the savory, smitten chef of a dour English manor. In Midnight Mass, he wrangled the denizens of a sleepy island town gripped by religious fanaticism and prejudice. And just last year, he traded those two rather sympathetic characters for a vain, morally bankrupt rich boy who let his ego and a war with a ghost cat destory his life in House of Usher. He even pops in for an episode of the Flanagan-produced The Midnight Club as a kind but prophetic video game designer.

In all of these roles, Kohli proved that he can do anything because he embodies everything he does with a perfectly calculated (yet seemingly effortless) concoction of charisma, charm, and a healthy dose of chaos. There’s just something about him that casts a spell over the work and the role, and is hypnotic in a way that feels collaborative. In each of his Flanagan roles, every playful and often darkly comedic beat of his performances feels in tune with what the audience wants from him. Whether it is sweet or sour, he can deliver like the Willy Wonka of acting.

It’s so enchanting as a viewer that there seems to be only one logical next step for Kohli’s career — use that alluring swagger as the next great romantic leading man. Fortunately for his fans, Heidi Cole McAdams and Mike Weiss, the creators of Hulu’s murder mystery Death and Other Details, are already one step ahead.

In the Hulu series, which wraps its first season on March 5, Kohli plays Sunil Bhandari, the suave yet approachable owner of the SS Veruna, a restored mid-century luxury cruise liner whose (second) maiden voyage is interrupted by a handful of murders. Kohli first appears as a mysterious smooth talker to Imogene (Violett Beane), an amateur sleuth who is working through her past with world-renowned detective Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin) to solve the string of deaths. But as the cruise from hell journeys on, Sunil begins to break down Imogene’s fortified walls with an unexpected warmth on a ship full of cold-hearted people.

The role reaches its romantic apex in Episode 5, appropriately titled “Exquisite,” when Sunil and Imogene take a sojourn from the cruise to hunt down a lead in the case in Malta. Showing off some of his more deep-pocketed advantages, he slyly slips into Italian when booking them a room at the nicest hotel this side of the Sistine Chapel. He takes Imogene to an art gallery and talks about the timeless recognition of beauty, all the while staring deeply at her. Then he does the one thing that will drop the defenses of any man or woman in the midst of a whirlwind romance: he’s honest. Sunil became broke after restoring the Veruna, peeling back the curtain of a man whose dreams are built into the walls of a questionably profitable 70-year-old ship. Mix in a thrilling escape from a suspicious man surveilling them and a sunset kiss, and Sunil accomplishes the perfect first date.

A degree of romanticism is baked into all of Kohli’s roles, from courting his best friend’s best friend in iZombie, to the gentle (and ultimately tragic) romance between chef Owen and housekeeper Hannah (T'Nia Miller) in Bly Manor. But all of these are supporting roles and secondary stories to the bigger love stories of the leads. Yet, the fact that every single one of them was so magnetic and propulsive even in small doses shows just how ready Kohli was to tackle something like Death and Other Details. McAdams certainly saw the potential in him.

“We have been a fan of his for a long time, and I am one of those who has yearned to see him in a role like this,” she told Primetimer earlier this year.

But it was more than just taking a chance on his romantic lead potential. As production got underway on the series, Weiss says a special thing happened that neither of them expected. The character they created in their heads was suddenly alive and in person in front of them. It is something they have never experienced with an actor.

“He, himself, is a little bit mysterious,” Weiss says. “He doesn’t love talking about his process, and I don’t know how he does it, but it is kind of spooky. He hears the intonation and he, I swear to God, is performing hand gestures and facial expressions that you have only pictured in your head when you are writing it. They are effortless and believable, which are really the two things you are looking for in a leading man.”

Naturally, Death and Other Details complicates Sunil and Imogene’s relationship by throwing suspicion his way in the back half of the season. He even spends a good deal of time tied to a chair after Imogene questions his motives. But through it all and certainly by the end, when he is cleared of any complicity, Kohli never loses just how achingly perfect he wears the suit of a leading man. The best actors are those that can shine in any role, and Kohli has proven it time and again. But to see him live in these romantic overtures and watch as the innocent affection he has for Imogene be broken by her suspicion and revived by the truth just wets the appetite for what Kohli can do next.

We would all be lucky if he continues to let Flanagan challenge him with dark, yet tenderly beautiful roles in whatever he’s cooking up in the future. In fact, he’s already booked a spot in Flanagan’s next feature, an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck. But Kohli deserves more leading roles that let him depict the many emotions of love, loss and the kind of grandeur that McAdams and Weiss saw him capture in Death and Other Details.

His standing as the coolest and most interesting of the internet’s boyfriends remains stronger than ever, and fans can continue to bask in the sunrise of his journey as the hopelessly romantic Sunil, which is hopefully just the beginning of his tenure as a leading man.

“To the internet, you are welcome,” Weiss says proudly.

Hunter Ingram is a TV writer living in North Carolina and watching way too much television. His byline has appeared in Variety, Emmy Magazine, USA Today, and across Gannett's USA Today Network newspapers.