On May 5, 2026, while attending an event at Veritatis Splendor in Winona, Texas, Michael Iskander, who plays the titular character in Amazon’s hit show House of David, took part in an interview for the Catholic East Texas magazine.
CET: You play David in House of David. How did that happen?
MICHAEL ISKANDER: At the time, I was on Broadway where I was doing a musical called Kimberly Akimbo. We were running towards the end of production. I think at that point we had done 650 shows, close to 700, and we were going to close in April. I remember a few months prior, I got this audition and it was for David. It’s one of those things where you know a role comes around once in a lifetime. For me, David has always been my dream role. I called my mom and I told my family that David would be a character that I want to play. I submit the audition and every week, I check in with my team.
A month later, they came back and they said, “they sent off your tape to the producers, but we don’t know what happened, but I guess it’s not going to go your way.” It just didn’t work out, which happens all the time. That went on and I forgot about it. A few weeks later, I get a call from my agent. She says, “remember that David thing you auditioned for. Well, it’s back and they want you to reaudition.” Which is very rare. I talk to my mom again and she says, “don’t get too excited, because I want you to fast and I want you to pray. If you’re doing the show for God, this role for God, you must do it his way.” I fasted, prayed, I rehearsed my role, and I sent it in.
A week later, I got a call that Jon Erwin was going to fly out to New York and have a meeting with me. We ended up hanging out for four hours. They kicked us out of the table. It was a challenge to convince Amazon that this guy who has zero experience is the one that’s going to lead our show. It’s quite the ask. I appreciate Jon Gunn and Jon Erwin and everyone at Wonder Project for fighting for me, because they believed in me and they had my back. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. It’s the Lord’s blessing and the Holy Spirit that convinces people’s hearts. I’m thankful to God for this role and being able to tell the story.
CET: Praise God. Now you’re about to do a third season.
ISKANDER: Hopefully. Pray for us that we get a third season. We’re just waiting, but it’s up to the fans. We know that the market has needed a voice for Christ and people want to see their faith being represented on TV. Their views and clicks tell Amazon or Netflix that this is something that people are thirsty for and want to see this. If they don’t click, it’s just going to shut it down altogether. The support of the viewership and the support of the Church and the community is vital for this growth of faith-based media all around. It’s not just with House of David, but with The Chosen and The Passion of the Christ, and every project that is aiming to propel the faith into the world.
CET: How does a character like David resonate with people?
ISKANDER: Even as human beings, we can’t control someone’s conversion. It’s the Holy Spirit that encounters them. Our job is to represent the faith correctly and especially in media. It’s not just about accuracy, but it’s about the entertainment value. I think the story of David is so rich in that there doesn’t need to be a lot of creative liberty, but there are some liberties taken for the sake of TV storytelling or film storytelling. The story of David was the perfect story because, if you look at his life, he’s one of the most complex Bible characters ever.
He was a man who was chosen by God to be king in a country where there’s already a king. The political intrigue there provides such amazing value as an entertaining story. The most unlikely candidate to take down this giant since his youth is that same person. He goes down and takes the giant, then he becomes a commander. Then he becomes so famous and he’s a poet, and he’s handsome, and people love him. The king at the time becomes jealous, so he kicks him out of the kingdom, and then he’s being chased in the wilderness for years. Finally, he becomes king and has a huge downfall. He comes back up, has a downfall again, and comes back up.
David’s a whirlwind. That’s how good the story is. It was obvious as a next step in terms of faith-based storytelling. Of course, we’re going to tell the story of David, but David’s also important because the whole point of David is to point us to Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of that perfect priestly king who is promised. Everything about the heart of David is always pointing to God. This is not simply an amazing story. Many people have resonated with it, not just people in the Christian faith. For those in the Christian faith, David calls us for a deeper conversion and a deeper love for God.
CET: Walk me through what led to your conversion to Catholicism.
ISKANDER: I would say my conversion to Catholicism was a personal journey that I was on. I think for a long time I just felt thirsty for God. At a time where I didn’t go to church and I didn’t feel at home anywhere, I stepped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, saw the altar, and realized that’s where the Eucharist is every day. The Lord is with us in the Eucharist every day. That’s something that I haven’t partaken in in a long time. It was the Eucharist that planted the seed of thinking about joining an Apostolic Church.
It sent me down to a lot of research. I’m not just going to be Catholic for fun. I must know what I’m getting myself into here. I have to make sure it’s the truth above everything else. It was about following the evidence, learning about history, the early Church Fathers, and the sacraments in an almost reversion way. I was baptized in the Coptic Orthodox Church and, for a while, I left. God has always been a part of my life, but it was just about learning to love him the way he wants to be loved.
CET: How has portraying David changed your prayer life?
ISKANDER: I think when doing a project like this, we face these spiritual battles. I don’t think we can ever get away with doing something for the Lord on such a scale and go be by ourselves and do our own thing. That’s not how it works. We have to be constantly with the Lord, in relationship with him, seeking his advice and wisdom, and be in prayer. Prayer is the communication between us and God. David influenced me in that he showed me the importance of prayer without ceasing. More importantly, loving God in a whole new way that I never understood before and I look to David to show me what it truly means to love God. David’s heart is so precious and so pure that God chose him out of everyone else to be king. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, he’s known as the Son of David, so this is a man that we need to pay attention to. We can’t just overlook him. There’s something about him that God wants us to focus on, something in his heart that God wants us to focus on. I learn from that daily in my spiritual life.
CET: What is your favorite prayer or scripture verse that you gravitate towards?
ISKANDER: There’s one that I like from the Book of Psalms. It’s Psalm 8:3. It begins with, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them. Mortals that you care for them. Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under their feet. This is David speaking, looking at the moon and the stars, the same ones that we look at today, in the same form and the same shape and the same light. They haven’t changed. He saw God in all of these little things. This moment shows his humility and how he’s a king. He is the highest of the high. Yet, he looks at God’s creation and is humbled by it and recognizes, “thank you, Lord, for all this beauty and thank you for all the honor that you have given us as humans even though we fail you.” This psalm is on the top of my list right now.
CET: One of my favorite lines in House of David is from season 1, when David says to God, “Lord, show me your purpose. Show me who I am.” How does that resonate with you?
ISKANDER: That’s a great point to bring up, and it was a point of discussion between me and the creative team because a huge sign of humility is the submission of one’s will even in the mundane. In season 1, David, as a young shepherd, is asking God, “Lord, is this it for me? Is this your will for me? Or is your will for me something greater?” David’s really asking, “Lord, what is it that you want me to do?” For me, I wanted to add a moment. The last line of season 2 is “Lord, show me your will. Show me your purpose for your kingdom.” I wrote that bit. There was already a prayer there. Then I switched it up and told the creative team that there must be some level of growth here for David. Maybe if he’s younger, he’s seeking God and asking, “what do you want from me? What is it that I’m supposed to do?” But then later, as he goes through all these challenges and all these battles, he realizes that it’s not actually about him. He’s there to serve, and God is going to lead him out of it. In a way, this prayer shows how far he has come in terms of maturity, intelligence, and his ability to submit to God’s will. In that specific moment, it is the same kind of prayer but tweaked a little bit for who he is later at the end of season 2. That was a very poignant moment that I wanted to point out so I’m glad you noticed it.
CET: What advice would you give to Catholics who struggle with their spiritual life?
ISKANDER: Sometimes when someone is struggling with their spiritual life, there’s an amount of love there that is either not seen or not felt. We want to be around the things that make us happy and make us full and feel alive. The reason I came back to the Church is because I felt alive. In comparison to what I felt before where I felt dead. It was like a man in a car crash, his heart stopped, and the EMTs are shocking him, and they finally get a heartbeat, and he takes his first breath. That’s what the Catholic Church is to me.
Worshiping the Lord is what I’m gravitated to. If someone is not feeling that, I would say, it’s sad because I think there’s so much to explore in the faith. I urge them to pray from the heart and ask the Lord to encounter them in a way that they haven’t before. That way, they can serve and love him, feel this love that he has for all of us, and experience it because it’s life-changing.
The faith isn’t just about feelings, but it’s about eternal life. Everything that is good in the world comes from God, whether we realize it or not. It’s a hard question because many people struggle with it. I’ve struggled with it and it wasn’t until God broke me down that He was able to build me back up. Often, for us to grow with him, he has to destroy everything that we have made our idols, everything that we have built that’s not on the rock. Then when we ask him to intervene, He will destroy and it will be painful, but He will build again. Be careful how you pray because of the way it can be answered.
CET: For Catholics trying to break into a career in acting, what advice would you give them?
ISKANDER: I would say don’t compromise on your morals. Don’t compromise on God. Honor him first. If this is something that He wills for you, it’ll happen in his time. I recognize that my situation is very rare. I’m 24 years old and to get an opportunity like this is not something that I ever take for granted. I know it’s a tremendous blessing, but that’s not the situation for everybody. Even in the industry, if you “make it,” that’s not how it works there. It’s a constant battle and struggle. The people who are truly successful in this industry are the ones who put their heads down, do the work, and are humble. They just care about the story most of all. Be skilled at your craft. The Lord doesn’t want you to come and show up haphazardly. Do the work, work hard, and be excellent for him. He will bless the rest.
CET: What were your favorite movies growing up?
ISKANDER: My favorite movie ever is called Meet the Robinsons. I saw Project Hail Mary recently, so it’s Project Hail Mary and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in second place right now. The Passion of the Christ is a pretty fantastic film. Seven with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is a good one. It has these biblical themes throughout about how the seven deadly sins lead to death. It’s also a very complex situation. It was very well-acted, very well-produced, and I think it’s the perfect noir type of storytelling. It was very well done. It’s very difficult to watch, but it was worth the story for sure. There’s a film that came out recently called Triumph of the Heart about St. Maximilian Kolbe. That one also has some tough scenes, but I think sometimes, without those tough scenes, it’s hard to grasp the gravitas of what’s actually happening.
CET: The best kind of movie is the kind that impacts you in a positive way and helps you grow in your relationship with God.
ISKANDER: Absolutely. It’s asking the question: why are we storytellers? Why do we tell different stories? In ancient times, it was to hold tradition. The oral tradition was passed down that way. Film and TV are just fancier versions of that. They hold these themes of virtue. For Meet the Robinsons, it’s adoption and how adoption is an amazing story and how family is not just by blood, but family is the people you love unconditionally regardless of whether they do anything for you or not. With The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, it’s about how we already have everything we need, and we don’t even realize it. It’s not until we go through the journey of life and we go through our ups and downs that we realize that we had it all along right next to us. I tend to gravitate towards those films that are virtuous in nature.
CET: Regarding season 3 of House of David, what are you allowed to talk about?
ISKANDER: We are just waiting for season 3. There’s nothing for me to say. I think we can guess if you read the Bible what’s up next for David. It follows this theme of shepherd, poet, king. I think we’re definitely going to see David become king in this next season. If people don’t know that, just read your Bible (laughs).
CET: What would get you most excited about a potential season 3?
ISKANDER: What gets me most excited is following the theme of a priestly king. As we’ve seen David grow in his relationship with God, this is David in his prime, not only in his stature and his leadership, but in his relationship with God. Hopefully, we see David embrace God’s will for him and revel in the unknown. Because there is so much unknown up until he becomes king, and a lot of growing with God, I don’t know what the next steps are. Until God reveals that to me, I’m going to wait on the Lord and those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. I don’t know much about season 3.
CET: Any upcoming projects that you’ve got going on?
ISKANDER: Maybe. There might be some stuff that’s upcoming. Maybe a mobile in the mix. A pope mobile in the mix. There might be a little tour happening.
At the end of June, Michael Iskander will host the pope mobile across the United States to help children affected by war, travelling to thirteen cities. Each city will commemorate an American Catholic hero and have a Catholic celebrity. The event will be documented on YouTube.
House of David seasons 1 and 2 are now available to stream on Amazon Prime.
