Tulsa King Season 4 Recruits Mayor of Kingstown Star, a Real-Life Former Gang Member, for Gritty New Role

If you told me a few years ago that a real ex-gang member would be muscling his way into the cast of Tulsa King, I might have thought you were pitching a spinoff. But here we are: the gritty Sylvester Stallone-led crime series on Paramount+ has just hired Richie Stephens—a guy who actually lived the life, before swapping it for TV villainy—to play a new adversary in Season 4.

Who is Richie Stephens?

Stephens isn’t just another tough-guy actor doing a mobster accent. He legitimately used to run with a gang, a chapter of his life he’s been surprisingly upfront about. In fact, in 2022, he published a memoir, The Gangster's Guide to Sobriety, where he detoxed his past, talked about turning things around, and even co-wrote it with the creators behind Silicon Valley. And yes, they’re apparently working on bringing that story to television too—because apparently, Hollywood can never have too many redemption arcs.

Stephens' Role on Tulsa King

For Season 4, Stephens will step in as English Dan—a rival supplier and mid-level crime boss. If you’re thinking you recognize the guy, that’s probably because he’s popped up everywhere: Russian psycho Dmitri on Mayor of Kingstown, plus appearances on NCIS, Blue Bloods, Lore, MacGyver, Criminal Minds, and apparently even Days of Our Lives (they let anyone be a villain on that show).

The Cast Keeps Growing

Let’s not forget, Tulsa King started out as the Sylvester Stallone show—Sly plays Dwight 'The General' Manfredi, a New York mafia capo, out of prison after a quarter century and shipped off to Oklahoma by his own mob family (they’re not exactly sending him a fruit basket either).

The ensemble is kind of wild, so here’s a breakdown of the key faces we’ll be seeing (or continuing to see):

• Sylvester Stallone (Creed, Giant) as Dwight, the mob capo trying to build a new crew—because why retire when you can run Tulsa?
• Scarlet Rose Stallone (Gunslingers)
• Andrea Savage (Look Both Ways)
• Garrett Hedlund (Triple Frontier)
• Neal McDonough (Homestead, The Last Rodeo)
• Samuel L. Jackson (Secret Invasion, What If...?, The Unholy Trinity)
• Bella Heathcote, Tiana Lia Zappardino, and Frank Grillo (Boss Level, Werewolves)

Where the Show is Heading

Just to catch you up: by the end of last season, Dwight’s Tulsa experiment is getting more chaotic, not less. Since his own mob family basically washed their hands of him, he’s been forced to build a misfit enterprise from scratch.

The guy running all this mayhem behind the camera is showrunner Dave Erickson (also exec producing, if you’re counting), with a long list of other heavyweights: Taylor Sheridan, Sylvester Stallone (multitasking as always), and David C. Glasser. There are about half a dozen more producers, which seems like the norm these days: Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Jim McKay, Sheri Elwood, Ildy Modrovich, and Keith Cox all get a piece of the pie.

'The Gangster's Guide to Sobriety' is Stephens' real-life rehab story, written with the guys behind Silicon Valley. Apparently, they're now turning that into a TV show, too. Not too shabby for a guy who used to sit in the back of a police cruiser.

When Does Season 4 Drop?

If you’re waiting for a release date, keep waiting—Paramount+ hasn't circled anything on the calendar just yet. The show was renewed for its fourth run back in September, but there’s zero word on when Season 4 will actually hit the service.

One thing’s for sure: between Stallone’s grizzled mobster, a legitimately rehabilitated gang member playing a new foe, and the usual parade of character actors, Season 4 of Tulsa King is shaping up to be equal parts ridiculous and can’t-look-away entertaining. Stay tuned—this show knows how to keep its surprises coming.