Cooper KochStephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty ImagesCooper Koch is nothing if not tenacious!
The 28-year-old actor broke out in 2024 for starring in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story as Erik Menendez. His impassioned performance led to a Golden Globe nomination, a spot in Variety's Actors on Actors interviews, and millions of fans.
In his Actors on Actors interview — a web series hosted by Variety — Koch was paired up with The White Lotus star Sam Nivola. The two discussed playing characters defined by their relationships to their brothers, working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and how they got their breakout roles.
Fans already knew that Koch was passionate about the Menendez brothers, speaking out about their real-life case and even visiting them in prison. Now, we know how deep that passion goes.
During his appearance on Variety's "Actors on Actors," Koch revealed that he had actually — literally — auditioned for the 2017 limited season dubbed Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders that centered on the Menendez brothers (Koch's second audition ever). And Koch had also auditioned for the 2017 Lifetime movie Menendez: Blood Brothers, once again not booking the role.
"I just felt like this insane cosmic, universe-y thing that was like, 'I have to play this part,'" Koch told Nivola in their one-on-one interview. "It was just that immense empathy that you feel for a person, and I had to do it."
Koch eventually earned his chance to play one of the Menendez brothers on Ryan Murphy's Monsters series on Netflix. The series was so successful that it propelled Koch to become a household name around the world, and a legitimate Emmy contender, too.
However, Koch's revelation did some spark a curiosity within us: Who the heck were the other actors who beat him in those auditions for the Lifetime movie and the limited season of Law & Order?
Nico Tortorella
Nico Tortorella starred as Lyle Menendez in Menendez: Blood Brothers when he was 29 years old. The Shield star Benito Martinez played the Menendez patriarch José, and musician Courtney Love played the mother, Kitty Menendez.
Tortorella was already a rising star at the time, having played Trevor Sheldon in Scream 4, and starred in the TV shows The Beautiful Life, Make It or Break It, The Following, and Younger.
After those shows, Tortorella has often appeared as himself, including on RuPaul's Drag Race and Legendary as a guest judge, and RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race as a competitor.
Over the years, Tortorella came out as bisexual, genderfluid, and polyamorous. The actor also got married to Bethany C. Meyers in 2018, and they have two kids together.
Myko Olivier
Before playing Erik Menendez in Menendez: Blood Brothers, Myko Olivier had many small roles in television and short films, including the MTV series Awkward, Zendaya's Disney series K.C. Undercover, Nickelodeon's Sam & Cat with Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande. He also starred in Glee as one of the Warblers.
Since then, Olivier has continued to steadily work on shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Code Black, Doctor Odyssey, and Good Trouble, where he played Tyler Banks for nine episodes.
Gus Halper
Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders aired in 2017 and starred Edie Falco as defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Actor Gus Halper played Erik Menendez in the series. Before Law & Order, he had landed roles in TV shows such as Power and Chicago P.D.
Halper's career took off after this performance on Law & Order, and he was soon starring in shows like Happy!, Madam Secretary, Ramy, Dickinson, Evil, Fear the Walking Dead, and Law & Order: Organized Crime. In 2023, he appeared in the Oscar-nominated film Rustin as civil rights activist Tom Kahn alongside Colman Domingo (who played the title character).
Miles Gaston Villanueva
On Law & Order, Lyle Menendez was played by actor Miles Gaston Villanueva. Villanueva made his name in Hollywood starring in 87 episodes of The Young and the Restless, while also appearing in shows like NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Bones, and Jane the Virgin.
Villanueva has continued his successful TV career, starring in eight episodes of The Resident, seven episodes of Nancy Drew, and seven episodes of Bosch: Legacy. He also appeared on the gritty superhero show The Boys as Supersonic, where he played a hero with sound-based powers. Supersonic was formerly a member of an all-super boy band called Super-Sweet — and he even dated Starlight.
