EHT NATIVE DOMINIC SESSA TO STAR AS ANTHONY BOURDAIN IN UPCOMING BIOPIC

Egg Harbor Township, N.J. — A rising actor from South Jersey has landed the lead role in an upcoming film about renowned chef and television host Anthony Bourdain. Dominic Sessa, a 22-year-old Egg Harbor Township native who broke out in the 2023 film The Holdovers, has been cast as Bourdain in a new biopic titled Tony. The film will explore Bourdain’s early life and formative years in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the mid-1970s. Production is scheduled to begin next month.
Directed by Matt Johnson and produced by A24, the project will feature a screenplay written by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe. Sessa’s performance in The Holdovers earned him widespread acclaim, including a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Young Performer and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His next appearance will be in Tow, a drama set to debut at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Joining the cast is Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas, whose role has not yet been disclosed.
Bourdain, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, rose to fame with his 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential, later becoming a household name through his Emmy-winning travel show Parts Unknown. He worked as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York before transitioning to writing and television. Bourdain died in 2018 at the age of 61 while filming in France.
The film aims to capture the early influences that shaped Bourdain’s voice, personality, and rise in the culinary and media worlds.