In the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, we meet a major new character in the TWDU: Ash Patel. But who is Ash? And who is the Manish Dayal, the actor who plays him? Great news, we’ve got answers to both things.
That said, spoilers for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2, Episode 1 “The Book of Carol: La gentillesse des étrangers” past this point.
Who Is Ash Patel On The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2?
The official character description for Ash, per Deadline, is “an engineer from Boston who moved to the family weekend house in Maine after the onset of the apocalypse. Ash lives by a strict schedule based mostly around his daily flights in a retrofitted single engine plane and mysterious visitations to his backyard greenhouse.”
That only really tells half the story, though, as we discover over the course of the premiere episode. We first meet him when Carol (Melissa McBride) realizes she needs his plane to get to France, to find Daryl (Norman Reedus). One wonders if Carol knows how big France is? But I digress.
As the two strike up a friendship, Carol tells one of the most messed up lies ever when she “reveals” that her daughter Sophia and husband Ed might still be alive in France. They’re not, they died long ago… And Ed was an abusive horror show. But she thinks that’s the right way to manipulate Ash into taking her to France. Versus, you know, just saying “My friend Daryl is stuck there.”
Thanks to some investigation in Ash’s greenhouse, she discovers he has a shrine to his dead son, Avi Patel, who died early in the zombie apocalypse. Ash flies the plane as a way to honor the memory of his son, who loved airplanes. Ultimately this, along with Carol’s lie, is what convinces him to fly her along the coast, through Greenland, and over to France.
So while Ash does have other things going on, by the time we’re done with this premiere hour, Ash’s main function is as Carol’s pilot and current second, who is being grossly lied to by her and is gonna flip out (rightfully) when he finds out the truth. If he survives, of course.
Who Is Manish Dayal, The Actor Who Plays Ash On The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon?
The 41-year-old actor was born in South Carolina and kicked off his career starring in commercials for McDonald’s, Nintendo, and Domino’s Pizza. His real name is Manish Sudhir Patel, but he uses Dayal, his grandfather’s surname, for acting purposes.
Dayal is probably best known for his long run as Dr. Devon Pravesh on The Resident, where he also directed two episodes. Genre fans might know him for three appearances as Vijay Nadeer on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And AMC fans might know him as Ryan Ray from Halt and Catch Fire, or Hal on Rubicon.
In film, he appeared in The Hundred-Foot Journey, Viceroy’s House, and most recently Rise.
Socially, he’s pretty active and excited about his role on TWD:DD-TBOC, and posting about it actively. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter), where as of this writing he has 31.6k followers. On Instagram, he has 249k followers. And on Facebook, he’s got 57k followers.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiere on Sundays on AMC and AMC+. The episodes premiere at 3 am ET / 12 am PT on AMC+, and 9 pm ET on AMC.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2 with premiere dates:
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 1 – “The Book of Carol: La gentillesse des étrangers”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 2 – “The Book of Carol: Moulin Rouge”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 3 – “The Book of Carol: L’Invisible”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 4 – “The Book of Carol: La Paradis Pour Toi”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 5 – “The Book of Carol: Vouloir, C’est Pouvoir”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 2, Episode 6 – “The Book of Carol: Au Revoir Les Enfants” *Season Finale*
