'Girls' New Character is Making Things Tough

Get ready to head to Iowa this week on Girls: The premiere episode may have ended with Hannah in the backseat, embarking on a cross-country road trip (with plenty of Fig Newtons to eat on the way, of course), but we haven't really gotten a glimpse of what's soon to be a large part of the show's new universe: the ever-prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop. Hannah will have some high-profile classmates, including Marin Ireland (who I will forever remember as *SPOILER ALERT* the terrorist lady from Homeland who committed suicide with a pair of reading glasses), but alongside Ireland is another of Hannah's new classmates, played by Peter Mark Kendall.

So we know Kendall's playing one of her classmates, but what kind? A rival? A suitor? Someone who despises her and mocks her relentlessly? All of the above? We can't be sure, but he appears in the Girls Season 4 promo in which Hannah is getting a talking-to from her classmates and, thanks to a Lena Dunham interview with TV Guide, we do know that Hannah's about to get a lot of pushback regarding her signature navel-gazing writing style. It would seem safe to assume that we can probably expect a little of that pushback from him.

It's hard to know too terribly much about the character this early (getting to know him is half the fun, right?), but the actor is an open book. Kendall's a relative newcomer to the scene, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have some serious experience under his belt...

He's Classically Trained

He has an MFA from the prestigious Brown/Trinity Rep program (he graduated last year), which is a notoriously hard to get into program (they only accept a small handful of MFA candidates out of thousands of applicants), so it sets the bar pretty high.

He's Done a Lot of Regional Shakespeare

A partial list of his Shakespeare credits include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors, andThe Taming of the Shrew. Pretty cool, eh?

And a Lot of Workshops in New York

His resume is peppered with appearances in quite the handful of high-profile workshop productions.

You Might Have Seen Him on Your Favorite TV Show

He guest starred on an episode of the critically-acclaimed The Leftovers, and he's got upcoming appearances on the Victoria Justice-helmed serial killer drama Eye Candy , and FX hit The Americans. If television isn't your game, you may also have seen him on the big screen, because...

He Snagged a Supporting Role in Time Out of Mind

He appeared in the high-profile indie film alongside names like Richard Gere and Jena Malone (not to mention Danielle Brooks — another Girls alumni).

Images: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO; Giphy (3) eyecandy-mtv/Tumblr