Warren Thomas Swenson is a happily married, gay Episcopal priest with an “ordinary” routine. As a former associate priest serving small mission churches in southeast Tennessee, he has preached, presided over the Eucharist, made pastoral visits to homebound and hospitalized parishioners, and led Bible studies and Sunday school sessions.
Understanding Swenson’s ordinary life was just what writer and executive producer Dan Levy needed to create the co-protagonist of his latest sitcom, Big Mistakes, for Netflix. In the crime comedy show, which is now streaming, Levy portrays Nicky Dardano, an openly gay pastor of an unspecified Protestant denomination who gets blackmailed into the world of organized crime after his sister steals a diamond tennis necklace. Swenson consulted with writers to create a convincing religious character and settings for the show’s eight-episode first season.
“The show is, of course, unconventional and bizarre because it’s a comedy, but Dan and the writers wanted to be as faithful as they can and bring authenticity to depicting a religious life,” said Swenson, who is currently a doctoral student at the University of Chester’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies in England and an incoming homiletics professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
