The Director, The Fictional Drug Dealer, and The Dink: Inside Kyle Newacheck's Wild Ride and Pickleball Obsession

If you spotted Kyle Newacheck on the street a decade ago, you might have instinctively checked your wallet. With his wild hair, unkempt beard, and frantic energy, he was the spitting image of Karl Hevacheck — the grimy, van-dwelling drug dealer he played on Comedy Central's cult classic Workaholics.

But appearances are the ultimate illusion. Behind the scruffy exterior is one of comedy's most in-demand directors — and, more recently, a Selkirk-sponsored pickleball obsessive with a fully serious, if distantly scheduled, plan to go pro.

The Ultimate Group Project

Born January 23, 1984, Newacheck's route into Hollywood wasn't a lucky break — it was built alongside his best friends. He graduated from the Los Angeles Film School in 2004 and was proficient enough in the editing bay to stay on as an Avid Editing instructor at the school starting at age 22.

Off campus, Newacheck teamed up with Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine, and Anders Holm to form the sketch group Mail Order Comedy, churning out low-budget web series that eventually caught Comedy Central's attention. In 2011, Workaholics was born — a series that ran 86 episodes across seven seasons, with Newacheck co-creating, directing the majority of them, and occasionally stepping in front of the camera as Karl.

A Director in Demand

When Workaholics wrapped, Newacheck moved straight into directing episodes of Community, Parks and Recreation, and Happy Endings. The crew reunited for 2018's Game Over, Man!, which he directed and produced, and a year later he stepped into much bigger-budget territory: Murder Mystery, the 2019 Netflix comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, which became one of the platform's most-watched original films.

Today he's a co-executive producer and director on FX's What We Do in the Shadows, balancing visual effects, elaborate costuming, and improvised dialogue on a show he's said pushes the budget further than the money allows.

"Hi, My Name Is Kyle..."

The obsession started on the Toronto set of What We Do in the Shadows, where Newacheck needed something to fill the gaps between shooting days. Someone introduced him to a court, and that was that. He later posted a deadpan confession video on Instagram: "Hi, my name is Kyle Newacheck and I'm addicted to Pickleball."

It wasn't a bit. He's kept a steady stream of pickleball content flowing on Instagram ever since — court sessions, gear, and running commentary — and has used This Is Important, the podcast he co-hosts with his old Workaholics crew, to needle his co-stars into taking the sport as seriously as he does. According to The Dink, he's actively pulling Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, and Anders Holm onto courts with him.

The Gearhead Ambassador

Newacheck doesn't just play — he's absorbed the sport's obsessively technical gear culture, the kind of world where players argue over ball hole patterns and foam-core construction. He brought that curiosity to PicklePod Episode 40, spending nearly an hour with hosts Tyson and Thomas talking through how deep the obsession runs — right down to branded pickleball merch, including a shirt that reads "I don't always play pickleball... oh wait, yes I do."

"I said on my podcast with the guys from Workaholics that I want to go pro in pickleball... I'm not gonna do it in my 30s. Maybe not even in my 40s. Probably reserving that for my 50s."

On that same episode, Newacheck — 38 at the time of taping — laid out the math with his hosts: roughly 15 years of development before he'd consider himself tour-ready, putting a serious pro run somewhere in his late 40s to 50s. It's a plan built on the same logic that makes pickleball an outlier among sports: unlike football or basketball, competitive players can keep improving well into middle age.

The Signing

That dedication didn't go unnoticed. Newacheck is now a signed member of Selkirk's Emerging Pros team, the brand's development roster for up-and-coming players actively competing in tournament play. For a guy who spent the last decade making other people's productions look effortless, it's a very public commitment to becoming the amateur who isn't amateur anymore.

From dealing questionable substances on basic cable to directing Adam Sandler on a billionaire's yacht, and now grinding reps at the local courts, Kyle Newacheck has made a career out of going all in on whatever's in front of him. Right now, that's pickleball.