On tonight’s Silicon Valley episode The Blood Boy, will Bertram Gilfoyle rescue Dinesh from the drudgery of identifying “dick pics”?
Bertram Gilfoyle — who professes his love for the dark lord often times in a random “Hail Satan” — is played by actor Martin Starr,.
But what else do you recognize him from?
Starr, born Martin James Pflieger Schienle, is adept at playing the outlier, the nerd and the bristly brainiac who keeps people at arm’s length.
He’s been the highly allergic gawky outsider on Judd Apatow’s cult one season wonder Freaks and Geeks, he’s played a beardo stoner in Apatow’s film Knocked Up and now he is a deeply disdainful and deadpan programmer on Silicon Valley.
Most fans were introduced to Starr’s poignant turn as the sweet latch-key kid Bill Haverchuck on the short-lived Freaks and Geeks on NBC.
His existence was beautifully wrought in one episode titled Dead Dogs And Gym Teachers that showed him at home, alone.
He continued his work on the 2009 Starz comedy series Party Down portraying Roman DeBeers. He has also been featured in such films as Knocked Up, Adventureland and Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead, as well as guest-starring in TV comedy Life in Pieces.
Martin can also be found on Adult Swim’s NTSF and NBC’s Community and Parks and Recreation, Fox’s New Girl and film roles including Save the Date, Lawless and This is the End.
In 2016 film Operator, he was cast as Joe Larsen. Now he has four films and counting for 2017 which include Lemon, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Grow House and Infinity Baby.
But Starr’s continued work on HBO’s Silicon Valley has cemented him as one of our favorite actors.
The critically acclaimed award-winning HBO show is loaded with wit, twists and gifted with a perfect ensemble magic that reveals Starr’s character as one to watch.
Gilfoyle never breaks a sweat and preserves his demeanor when the wheels come flying off the Pied Piper cart.
Gilfoyle is a gifted computer coder and architect of platforms along with Richard (Thomas Middleditch) and his biggest comedic nemesis, Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani).
Gilfoyle lives and works in the Hacker Hostel owned by Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller) along with Richard, Dinesh, Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti (Josh Brener) and Donald “Jared” Dunn (Zach Woods) and Erlich’s nightmare squatter Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang).
Starr’s character Gilfoyle lives to take down Dinesh and question every decision Richard proposes. Gilfoyle’s nature is nihilistic, masterfully insulting, and a tad pompous as he purports to be the best on their team at system architecture, networking, and security.
Undoubtedly, despite Richard’s wild genius, fans of Silicon Valley have the sneaking suspicion that Gilfoyle is the true brains of the operation.
When he’s in a scene with Dinesh, the acerbic bro banter is taken to stratospheric heights of hilarity.
Even Erlich has a hard time besting a scene with Gilfoyle in full condescending deadpan sassitude.
On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley, problems arise with Richard’s latest partnership with the introduction of an “unexpected interloper”.
As Dinesh’s relationship heats up he looks for a way out. And at Raviga, Monica is in peril of losing her corporate footing and enlists Erlich to help.
But our Gilfoyle is with Richard who is trying to save the remnants of his peer-to-peer internet company with Gavin.
Will Gilfoyle save Dinesh from his “dick-pic” work with Jian-Yang See-Food-turnt-penile imagery app?
Last week, Periscope bought it for $4million making Jian-Yang a mogul while Erlich’s corvette swap goes down as the worst business move of the season.
Silicon Valley airs on Sundays at 10pm on HBO.