In real life, the race for New York City mayor is between Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, current Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
On Hulu, however, it’s the Motor City’s own Keegan-Michael Key by a landslide.
Key has a co-starring role on the fifth season of “Only Murders in the Building,” the comedic murder mystery starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short as an unlikely trio of crime-solving podcasters who live in the same Manhattan building.
Key, who grew up in Detroit and is a proud alum of the University of Detroit Mercy and the bygone Second City Detroit troupe, plays the Big Apple’s Mayor Tillman, an opportunistic politician who shows up to speak at a memorial for deceased doorman Lester Coluca (Tony Coluca).
“I am here today because I loved Lester, who I did not know,” says Key’s character in the season premiere. (The first three episodes arrived Sept. 9 on Hulu.) “But I do love a great doorman. And even better, a collection of doormen. That’s a key voting bloc!”
It turns out Mayor Tillman is a huge fan of the podcast done by Mabel Mora (Gomez), Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) and Oliver Putman (Short), which sounds like a possible hook for Key’s storyline the rest of the season.
This time out, the fearless podcasters are asked by a mob widow Sofia Caccimelio (Tea Leoni) to find her missing husband, Nicky (Bobby Cannavale), who just happens to be caught on videotape handing an envelope to Lester shortly before the doorman’s death.
Key told People that working on “Only Murders” was a delight. “It’s a lovely thing in our business when you can walk onto a set where everything is run really smoothly and everybody is warm and welcoming. It was a wonderful project to work on.”
Other costars on this season’s 10 episodes include Renee Zellweger, Christoph Waltz and Beanie Feldstein.
“Only Murders” is nominated for outstanding comedy series at the Emmy Awards airing Sept. 14 on CBS. Short is in the running for lead actor in a comedy.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit star Keegan-Michael Key joins cast of Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’
Reporting by Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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