Who Plays Joe on ‘Dark Winds’? Zahn McClarnon Is a Hollywood Veteran

Native American actors and creatives haven't always been given the representation they deserve in Hollywood. But the tide seems to be turning as more Native-backed television shows and films are gracing the big screen than ever before.  

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And with the second season of the hit AMC western thriller Dark Winds set to premiere this July, that slow but persistent change in the entertainment industry has never been more clear. 

The buddy cop genre gets a Native spin with Dark Winds, which follows two members of the tribal police in the 1970s serving the remote Navajo Nation outpost near Monument Valley in Arizona. Based on the popular novels Leaphorn & Chee by Tony Hillerman, Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) must investigate gruesome crimes in their community that challenge their own spiritual and moral beliefs. 

The first season debuted its six episodes in 2022 and grabbed more than two million viewers. The show's nearly all-Native cast and crew captivated viewers with their authentic, heartfelt and sincere storytelling about a group of people who are often cast aside. It was quickly renewed for another six-episode second season, which will be released on July 30. 

The show's star Zahn McClarnon has seen Hollywood become increasingly more diverse and accepting of alternate viewpoints firsthand. The Lakota and Standing Rock Sioux actor - infamous for his piercing stare and sharp cheekbones -  has been an iconic Native presence in Hollywood for decades. He's landed roles in more than 80 television shows and films during his career, but was never offered a leading role. 

But with Dark Winds, McClarnon is finally in the driver's seat. He's taking what he knows from Hollywood and his own childhood growing up on and around reservations to bring an originality and earnest portrayal of Native Americans to the silver screen. 

So who is the man behind those iconically intense eyes? Here's everything about Zahn McClarnon and where you might've been haunted by that stare before. 

Always the Guest Star, Never the Star

Though McClarnon has been a mainstay on television for the last three decades, he first fell in love with acting after earning a small part in a local production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Iowa. 

He moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s with almost nothing in his pockets. At a time when there were very few roles out there for people of Native descent (or really anyone who wasn't white), McClarnon took refuge in his community. The young actor joined the First Americans in Arts, a collective of Indigenous actors that encouraged each other despite all competing for the same roles. 

But McClarnon told Vanity Fair in April that the sparse number of roles for Native Americans may have worked to his advantage. 

"Because there's such a small pool of Native talent, it wasn't like I was going up against 150 people at an audition," he said. "It was more like a half a dozen or a dozen depending on the age range. It wasn't as tough as I think most people had [it]. I wasn't going up against the Tom Cruises."

However, the downside was that he was typecast almost right away. McClarnon, with his brown skin and dark eyes, was often cast as the bad kid or the gangbanger. 

"It was stereotypical Native stuff, but that's all that we really had back then," McClarnon told Vanity Fair. "Unfortunately at that time, as a guest-star actor, you weren't allowed to really voice your opinion on these things."

McClarnon believes his career was really kick-started when he was cast in one episode of Baywatch alongside Pamela Anderson in 1992. After that, he began to amass recurring roles and guest roles on other 90s shows like NYPD Blue, Chicago Hope and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. 

He landed a large part on the Sarah Michelle Geller show, Ringer, and then picked up a six-season role in the Western crime drama Longmire. 

And finally, after proving himself over and over again in Hollywood for years, McClarnon began to get roles that allowed him to stretch his talents and steal scenes from the project's main characters. 

He was cast in a seemingly small role in the hit show Fargo as Hanzee Dent, an enforcer for the criminal Gerhardt family, in the second season. But he soon became the season's pivotal plot point, no doubt thanks to McClarnon's charismatic and gripping performance, despite his character's near-silent demeanor. His tenure on the show ended with a literal bang - a violent and emotional killing spree that shocked fans.  

"Every week we'd get a script and all read it, wondering if we were going to die or not," McClarnon told Vanity Fair. "And Hanzee kept living and kept living. Next thing you know, he's killing everybody."

Notable Career Highs

Finding his stride, McClarnon then grabbed a role as the mysterious leader of the fictional Ghost Nation, Akecheta, on the second season of the award-winning science fiction series Westworld. 

His character even got the eighth episode all to himself, Kiksuya (which means 'remember' in the Lakota language), where McClarnon narrates the episode and most of its dialogue is spoken in Lakota. The actor delivered a heart-wrenching, romantic performance to the show's most emotional episode, despite never working in romance before. 

The actor told The Hollywood Reporter after the episode premiered in 2018 that he was able to bring his own cultural experiences to the pivotal installment. 

"It's not like the old days, when they're making stuff up and casting white people as natives," McClarnon said. "They're bringing real natives in for native parts. It's a beautiful thing. We've progressed quite a bit."

And that progress has only accelerated in recent years with debuts of shows like FX's Reservation Dogs and Peacock's Rutherford Falls, which offer rare glimpses into the modern lives of Indigenous people and are staffed by many Indigenous creators and crewmembers. 

McClarnon earned a recurring spot on the Native comedy Reservation Dogs, which follows four Native teenagers growing up on a reservation. The 56-year-old actor plays the sometimes suspicious, sometimes patient but always funny Officer Lighthorman Big. His character often bumps into the rebellious teenagers, bringing some quippy comedic relief to the show. 

McClarnon's talents were further stretched when Officer Big also got a standalone episode, This Is Where The Plot Thickens, when the rule-following cop accidentally takes a wild trip on psychedelics. The actor says he was nervous to take on a comedic role for the first time.

"Luckily on Rez Dogs, they allow us to take risks and improv stuff and give us free rein," he told Vanity Fair. "You throw yourself into it and you try not to be scared of taking risks and going over the top. And a lot of it is way over the top!"

Finally, the Lead

All those indelible performances helped pave the way for McClarnon to finally be offered a lead role in the psychological suspense Dark Winds. In fact, the veteran actor was cast as Lt. Leaphorn before the show was even greenlit by a production studio. 

"It's exciting to finally be asked to be a lead," McClarnon said to Vanity Fair. "It was unexpected, to be honest with you. It's what we as actors want - we dream of doing things like this."

As one of the show's executive producers, McClarnon has proved indispensable to the show, helping with casting and hiring to ensure "the right people get hired." The majority of the cast, crew and writer's room are people of Native descent, which McClarnon says helps to upend the very stereotypes he used to portray decades before. 

"You're seeing the show from the perspective of people who have grown up around their culture and understand what it's like to live on the reservation," McClarnon said to the New York Times in 2022. "They understand the nuances, the relationships, the humor."

Now, given the opportunity to push beyond his conceived limits, McClarnon's acting is reaching new heights as his character is forced to grapple between his morals, his community's needs and white federal law enforcement's competing interests. And the best part is that McClarnon is telling the stories he's always wanted to tell. 

Dark Winds Season 2

"It's fantastic we are finally getting our own voice, Native peoples," he said to Deadline in April. "I hope that Dark Winds opens up that door a little bit more."

With the second season set to drop in just a few weeks, fans will get to see more of McClarnon's layered portrayal of the cop as he's pushed to his limits. The trailer indicates it will be even more ominous than the first season, but for McClarnon, it's another opportunity to represent Indigenous people. 

"It's kind of a dream come true, it really is, to finally see a different representation of our people on TV," he told Vulture in 2022. 

And hopefully, the success of Dark Winds will pave the way for additional seasons or more opportunities for Native people to tell their own stories. 

"We didn't have any Native writers when I first started doing this," the actor told Variety in 2022. "I think people are hungry for these unique and different stories being told from the perspective of Native writers. We still have a long way to go, but doors are continuing to open up."

Stream the first season on Prime Video or Apple TV in time for the second season to premiere on July 30.

READ MORE: Where Is 'Dark Winds' Filmed? 13 Epic Southwest Landscapes Featured in the Thriller Series