Now on Netflix: The Sitcom Star You Loved Just Became Netflix’s Most Twisted Villain Yet
Guns, power plays, and one hell of a dark turn — his role in this coastal crime saga will leave you stunned.
He’s not here to make you laugh. He’s here to burn it all down.

Topher Grace as Grady in The Waterfront

Topher Grace’s villainous role in Netflix’s family crime drama series The Waterfront is exactly what I’ve been waiting for after his memorable performance in a 2018 Oscar-winning movie. Grace doesn’t appear in The Waterfront, which has held Netflix’s number one spot in English-language TV shows since its release on June 19, 2025, until roughly halfway through the series. When he arrives, however, his drug-supplier character, Grady, is truly unforgettable and unhinged. Like the Joker to Holt McCallany’s Batman, Grady is twisted, maniacal, and has a hell of a time wreaking havoc in the fictional coastal town of Havenport, North Carolina.

Grace, who is immortalized for playing Eric Foreman on the classic TV sitcom That 70’s Show, has since taken on a variety of film and TV characters, although most of them have been relatively good guys. He appeared in a 2019 episode of Black Mirror as a tech guru named Billy Bauer in an antagonist-adjacent role, and recently appeared as the morally ambiguous mafia rat Winston in Mel Gibson’s action thriller Flight Risk. Overall, Grace has graced the screen with characters that are mostly likable and funny, but his roles in The Waterfront and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman allowed the actor to perform from the dark side.

The Waterfront Gives Topher Grace Another Fantastic Villain Role After Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman

Grace Has A Particular Knack For Playing Unhinged Yet Charismatic Villains

Topher Grace in The Waterfront Harlan and Cane standing on the dock in The Waterfront Netflix's-8-Year-Old-Crime-Show-With-82%-On-RT-Is-A-Must-Watch-Once-You're-Done-With-The-Waterfront-v2 Harlan and Belle in The Waterfront Belle in the Waterfront season 1's ending Topher Grace in The Waterfront Harlan and Cane standing on the dock in The Waterfront Netflix's-8-Year-Old-Crime-Show-With-82%-On-RT-Is-A-Must-Watch-Once-You're-Done-With-The-Waterfront-v2 Harlan and Belle in The Waterfront Belle in the Waterfront season 1's ending

It may come as a surprise to some that Topher Grace is truly great as a villain. It was first established back in 2009’s Spider-Man 3, when Grace played Venom / Eddie Brock against Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man. He hasn’t played too many villains in big projects since that superhero blockbuster, but did play a formidable foe in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman in 2018. Grace played David Duke, a real-life former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in the Spike Lee movie. Grace gave a standout performance in that film among a stacked cast led by John David Washington, Adam Driver, and Alec Baldwin.

Now, with 2025’s The Waterfront, Grace is back in his first villainous role since playing David Duke in BlacKkKlansman, which serves as a good reminder for those who enjoyed him in The Waterfront to check out that instant Spike Lee classic.

The Waterfront makes Grace’s Grady a clear antagonist from the second his character is introduced.

Although Grace made an appearance in 2024’s horror thriller Heretic, he was not cast in a villainous role, but The Waterfront makes him a clear antagonist from the second his character is introduced. Grace will also star as part of the ensemble cast of Huntington, written and directed by John Patton Ford, in an unknown role alongside Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Bill Camp, and Ed Harris.

Topher Grace’s The Waterfront Villain Role Being Written Specifically For Him Makes It Even Better

The Waterfront Creator Wanted An Actor Who Could Play a Likable Villain

Topher Grace as Grady and Holt McCallany as Harlan shaking hands in The Waterfront (1)

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The Waterfront creator Kevin Williamson, known best as the writer behind Scream and Dawson’s Creek, wrote the character of Grady with Topher Grace in mind. Williamson told Ash Crossan in an interview for Screen Rant, “I wanted someone who was so darn likable, and someone that we knew to be so darn cute and funny and winning in all those ways in which you don’t usually see a psychotic psychopath, a horrible person.” This is certainly a testament to how great Grace is in these kinds of villain roles in which the antagonist is unpredictable and zany and yet brutal and dangerous.

Williamson also dove into what type of villain he was looking for in Grady and how he knew Grace could match that energy. “I like when really, really, really nice, funny people do really evil things. He really plays the duality very well.” Unfortunately, Grace won’t be able to return for The Waterfront season 2 if it happens, considering Grady’s fate. His performance should, however, continue to lead to more outstanding villain roles for him in future projects.

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