Exclusive: Catching Up With So Help Me Todd’s Tristen J. Winger
Currently airing on CBS is the legal comedy series, So Help Me Todd, starring Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin.
The series stars Harden and Astin as razor-sharp, meticulous attorney Margaret Wright (Harden) and Todd (Astin), her talented but scruffy, aimless son whom she hires as her law firm’s in-house investigator. As the black sheep of the well-heeled Wright family, Todd is a laidback, quick-thinking, excellent former private detective who fell on hard times after his flexible interpretation of the law got his license revoked. Margaret’s penchant for excellence and strict adherence to the law is at complete odds with Todd’s scrappy methods of finding his way through sticky situations: by the seat of his wrinkled pants. When Todd is offered a position as an in-house investigator at his mom’s extremely successful law firm as a way to get his act together. He reluctantly agrees, if Mom promises to let her adult son be who he wants to be.
Among the supporting actors in the series are Madeline Wise, Tristen J. Winger, Inga Schlingmann, and Rosa Arrendondo.
Winger plays Lyle, very high maintenance, difficult and always by-the-book, he is one of two in-house licensed investigators working in Margaret’s law firm.
In the latest episode airing on April 27 - When a stranger with a bomb appears at the law firm demanding Margaret reverse her efforts to free her client on death row or the bomb will detonate, Margaret and Todd must rely on their legal and detective skills to untangle the crime, uncover the intentions of the bomber and save everyone at the firm.
Winger is best known for his recurring role as Thug Yoda on all five seasons of HBO’s Insecure. He also did two seasons as a series regular on BET+’s Bigger, produced by Will Packer. He also was a regular on BETs sketch comedy show 50 Central. Additional TV credits include a guest role on Netflix’s The Brian Reagan Comedy Show, produced by Jerry Seinfeld. His first big break came with the comedy web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl opposite Issa Rae. Recently, he starred in the podcast “We Stay Looking” (6 episodes), which was produced by HBO Max.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Winger as he spoke about his role in So Help Me Todd.