Scott Grimes as The Orville's Lt. Gordon Malloy. Photo copyright of FOX.

From portraying real-life World War II hero U.S. Army Technical Sergeant Donald G. Malarkey in HBO’s 2001 award-winning TV miniseries Band of Brothers, to providing forensic expertise as Special Agent Dave Flynn in NCIS: Los Angeles, and voicing the character of bespectacled geek of Steve Smith in American Dad! actor Scott Grimes has proven himself time and again to be an accomplished comedic as well as dramatic performer in dozens of roles in his over 30 years so far in the industry. Currently, the Lowell, Massachusetts native can be seen at the helm of The U.S.S. Orville as Lieutenant Gordon Malloy in FOX’s Sci-Fi TV dramedy The Orville. Under the command of Captain Ed Mercer, the Orville crew has already experienced quite a wild as well as unforgettable ride through the universe, and there is still more to come in season two. Having thoroughly enjoyed trekking through deep space during the show’s first season, Grimes was thrilled to step back onto The Orville’s bridge for a second year.

“I’ve worked on enough pilots in my life that I thought were amazing but didn’t make it to series; thankfully the latter wasn’t the case with The Orville,” says the actor. “When you do the first season of any show it’s very much virgin territory where you don’t know what’s going to happen, so you’re kind of throwing everything against the wall and waiting to see what sticks. We did all that with this show, and to then get the [positive] response we did from viewers was just incredible. On top of that, we were given the opportunity to get rid of all the cobwebs from season one along with all the nerves as well as questions and come back for a second season. People liked these characters, including mine. Seth Macfarlane, [series creator and executive producer who also plays Captain Ed Mercer] sort of wrote Gordon for me, so the character is kind of like me in some ways. Such a role is a real gift for an actor, as is getting to play him for more than one season.”

Grimes began honing his craft onstage in New York during the 1980’s, but never imagined one day making the jump to TV and feature films. “At the time I was doing a Broadway show every night, and during the day I’d audition for TV commercials,” he recalls. “Sometimes I had 10 auditions a day, and I was being paid good money to sell mustard, paper towels and lots of other stuff. However, I didn’t think that would eventually lead to acting because in my mind it wasn’t really acting. However, as the commercials continued, I learned to act through selling mustard and everything else. So that’s kind of what got me started in this business, but as a kid, I never thought about becoming an actor. I wanted to be a professional hockey player, but at 5’ 8 ½”, I just stopped growing, so that more or less prevented me from pursuing that dream,” jokes the actor. “So entertaining in general was something I always wanted to do, and hope to carry on doing so on many levels if people will keep hiring me.”

Critters, Critters 2, Crimson Tide, Robin Hood and Mystery, Alaska are among Grimes’ big screen appearances, while the actor’s numerous other TV credits include Hotel, Who’s the Boss?, 21 Jump Street, Party of Five, ER, Dexter, Suits and Justified. Prior to The Orville, he tested the genre world waters guest-starring in the 1980’s reboot of The Twilight Zone as well as the third season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Evolution.

“I loved doing The Twilight Zone,” enthuses Grimes. “I’m a huge fan of the original [1959-1964) series, and I was thrilled to be a part of this reboot. Funnily enough, although the episode I did aired, I believe, fourth, it was the first to be filmed, so the on-set energy coupled with the idea of redoing The Twilight Zone with new stories was awesome. Also, the title of the episode I appeared in, Little Boy Lost, was an homage to the original Twilight Zone story Little Girl Lost. In the new episode, Season Hubley played my ‘future mom’ and she was such a great person to work with. At the time I was just starting out as an actor, and she took me under her wing, which was really neat.

“With Star Trek, that keeps coming up more and more now as The Orville becomes more popular and, in fact, people are sending me my deleted scenes from the episode. As far as the story behind that, here goes. Wil Wheaton [TNG’s Wesley Crusher] and I are great friends and played hockey together as kids. He called me one day to tell me about this Star Trek episode they were writing and that included scenes where Wesley and his friends go skiing on the holodeck. Wil asked if I’d be interested in a part and I said, ‘Sure.’ I don’t quite remember, but I don’t even think I auditioned; it was kind of an offer because Wil suggested me, which was very kind of him.

“They eventually shot the episode, including the holodeck scenes where our characters go skiing, and one of them, a girl, breaks her leg. It was really cool and a lot of fun, but at the time I was more of a Star Wars fan, so I didn’t have the kind of, oh my god, I’m on Star Trek reaction until much later on. Unfortunately, the episode ended up going way overtime, so they had to cut the entire storyline that my character was a part of. However, if you watch the episode, there’s a scene in Ten Forward where Whoopi Goldberg [Guinan] is walking across the barroom floor and you can just see the back of my giant orange hair. That’s it, that’s what made it into the final cut. However, my deleted scenes are on the DVD release, and when I was asked if I wanted an episode credit, I told them,’ Yes, you’d better believe it.’ Also, if you go to Direct TV or other programming guides that have The Next Generation listed, this particular episode listing for some strange reason has me listed as the star,” notes the actor with a chuckle.

Looking back at his time so far working as an actor, what does Grimes feel makes a career in the industry rewarding for him? “First of all, I really believe that I don’t have a choice,” he says. “No matter what, I’m going to wake up in the morning and want to be goofy and entertain somebody in some way, shape or form. I don’t mean I’m a grandstander or that I need to be the center of attention, but it’s just my natural inclination to want to do this [act]. I don’t do it for the money, which is a lovely perk that comes with this, and, again, I don’t do it for the attention, but I do love meeting people. It’s my favorite thing in the world. I love talking to people at the grocery store, the airport, wherever, and breaking down that wall between being an actor and the person who’s talking to me. So the most rewarding part of my job is getting to see the world as well as meeting people, and also getting to play someone like Don Malarkey in Band of Brothers. That’s the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done when it comes to being a human being.”

Steve Eramo

The Orville airs Thursdays @ 9:00 p.m. EST on FOX. As noted above, photo copyright of FOX, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!