Pawel Szajda

Pawel B. Szajda ( ; born January 13, 1982) is an American screen and stage actor. He is best known for his roles in Under the Tuscan Sun, Generation Kill, Tatarak, and as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Poletov in the third season of the Apple TV+ original science fiction space drama series For All Mankind.

Early life and education Szajda was born and raised in Farmington, Connecticut.

Szajda's maternal great-grandfather left Poland for Chicago in 1912, two years prior to the outbreak of World War I. He married Szajda's Polish grandmother, had children, and, after the war ended, moved to Poland. In 1964, the family moved back to the United States, which is where Szajda's mother graduated from college and then returned with the family to Poland. In Poland, she met Szajda's father, and they had Szajda's older sister, Barbara, and two older brothers, Marcin and Adam. Following the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981, Szajda's family relocated to the United States. Szajda also has a younger brother, Phil.

Growing up in the United States, his family spoke Polish and sent Pawel and his siblings to Polish-language school every Saturday. He was a Polish Boy Scout. Szajda plays a Polish immigrant handyman named Pawel, disapproved of by his Italian girlfriend's father.

Szajda appeared in the 2008 HBO mini-series Generation Kill (2008) as Corporal Walt Hasser. in New York City and Makor/Steinhardt Center at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.

Personal life Szajda's interests include traveling, photography, drawing, and playing the trumpet. "When we were filming Tatarak in Grudziądz, I took some wonderful photos of the sky—it’s amazing there! Maybe that’s why I’d like to act more in Poland—to be able to visit the country."

Filmography 1996: Furby Commercial 1996: Pablow, An Olympic commercial in the United States 2003: Under the Tuscan Sun - Pawel 2004: Hope & Faith (TV series) - College Guy 2005: Venom - Ricky 2007: Death Without Consent - Sean 2008: Generation Kill (TV mini-series) - Cpl. Walt Hasser 2009: Tatarak (Sweet Rush [English title]) - Bogus / Marta's lover 2011: Blue Bloods (TV series) - Sergei Sokoloff 2011: Wygrany (The Winner) - Oliver Linovsky 2012: 3 Days of Normal - Trent Callender 2015: Agent Carter (Episode: "Snafu") - Ovechkin 2016: Our Kind of Traitor - Blue Eyed Killer 2016: Imperium - Vince Sargent 2018: Dynasty (Episode: "Twenty-Three Skidoo") - Nikolai Dimitrov 2019: The Haunting of Sharon Tate - Wojciech Frykowski 2019: Above the Shadows - Marjus 2022: For All Mankind (TV series) - Alexei Poletov

Stage work 1990s: Charlie Baker, The Foreigner by Larry Shue, at Farmington High School