Travis Kelce has a big year ahead of him in 2024. The NFL player won the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in February and can be seen in the new FX horror series Grotesque.

Although he appeared in the 2016 E! played along. Reality TV dating show Catch Kelce and hosted Saturday Night Live in 2023, this is his first significant acting role.

Details about which character Kelce is playing on the series are still under wraps – in fact, his castmates said they don’t even know what will happen – but he teased on his podcast: New heights, that it is a significant part.

Grotesque, The film premiered on September 25th and follows Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts) as she investigates a gruesome series of murders as her problems with her family and her addiction worsen.

Nash-Betts told Yahoo Entertainment that Kelce followed instructions well on set — and was “charming, well-prepared (and) a professional.” She even offered him guidance.

“In the huddle when they say, ‘Get in there, boys’ – I don’t know what they say in football, but here I was the coach,” Nash said. “I say, ‘Listen, you got this, trust your gift, go out.'”

Raven Goodwin, who plays Tryon’s daughter, told Yahoo Entertainment she worked “very closely” with Kelce.

“He showed up for work!” she said. “We welcomed him with open arms and he was gracious and great. He did his thing.”

“We couldn’t go on the football field and … do the opposite,” Courtney B. Vance, who plays Tryon’s husband, told Yahoo Entertainment. “I was just in awe of what he did.”

Star player in “Grotesquerie”

The cast all had the same reason for committing to the project: they wanted to work with creator Ryan Murphy, known for shows like Joy And 9-1-1.

Goodwin said she was a big fan of his work American horror story.

“When I came grotesque — which was labeled Snow globe (At the time) I was fascinated,” she said. “I was five months pregnant, but I said, ‘I’ll do it, I don’t care!'”

When Vance got the call from Murphy about his role, it wasn’t fully fleshed out, but he trusted him – even though he knew that many of his scenes would only involve him lying in bed.

“It was fascinating for me to be in a coma for a few episodes,” he said. “The last time (Murphy and I) did something together, I got an Emmy, so I’m good. … I had to tell my representatives it’s not on the page yet, but let’s sign it.”

Nash-Betts also won an Emmy for her role in one of Murphy’s productions: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. She called him “a genius.”

“I love him so much,” she said. “I always wonder what’s going on in his head, like, ‘How did you come up with that?’ How do you feel about something like that?’”

Nash-Betts knows she has played many roles in law enforcement throughout her career Reno 911 To scream queens, but she had “never played a character like that.”

“This detective is on the hunt for a serial killer. The serial killer taunts her. “She struggles with her own addictions… and her difficult family life,” Nash-Betts said of the role she co-created with Murphy. “She was just so many things.”

Nash-Betts, who is also one of the series’ executive producers, is excited about her starring role, the Emmy win and her work as a “coach” for actors like Kelce. It took a long time.

“You eat the elephant one bite at a time. There is always something to strive for. The goal post…remains moving,” she said. “And to be honest, I love it here.”

The newbies

Micaela Diamond and Nicholas Alexander Chavez, who play a nun and a priest Grotesque, also said Murphy was the reason they signed on to the series.

Diamond, best known for her appearances in Broadway productions of The Cher Show And Parade, said she was also drawn to the horror genre.

“There’s such a variety of choices that can be justified because it’s over the top and campy,” she said. “And I think nuns are kind of inaccessible, so you as an audience or as an actor can let your fantasies about them run wild.”

Diamond and Murphy talked about how the character was inspired by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a member of the Manson family cult who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975.

Chavez said Murphy tapped him for it grotesque role while he played the lead role Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.

“For me, it was an opportunity to bring my own inventiveness and creativity to a role since I wasn’t playing a real person,” he said. “I had the chance to explore a different part of my artistic abilities in this other project.”

For a while he had “double duty” filming both shows.

“(He) is a full-fledged priest one day and Lyle Menendez the next day,” Diamond joked.

grotesque airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX and streams the following day on Hulu.