EDGE Rewind: Meet Matthew William Bishop, the Mysterious Leather Daddy on 'AHS: NYC'

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Perhaps the biggest mystery on "American Horror Story: NYC" is just who is the character known simply as Big Daddy, whose identity is masked in leather, but whose presence is imposing, to say the least.

Bare-chested in in full gear, he is suspected of numerous murders, as well as an arson, that are taking place in New York City in 1981, mostly in the city's popular West Side leather scene. But, as Ryan Murphy has shown before, the character may be red herring, or a second murderer on the loose. It has already been established that a nurse, called Mr. Whitely (Jeff Hiller), has already killed a number of victims as the "Mai Tai Killer," who drugs his victims in gay bars, then kidnaps, tortures and kills them.

But just who is playing Big Daddy? Distractify reports his identity is actor Matthew William Bishop, who is making his acting debut on the series. Acting is a second career for the avid body builder -- as his Instagram account attests -- who, according to his IMDb biography, "worked in corporate public relations for 10 years, most recently as Vice President at Edelman New York. Matthew departed Edelman in September 2021 to explore other callings, including acting, and got his big break when Ryan Murphy cast him for his hit series."

And while this season has been the most realistic of the show's eleven seasons, a supernatural element is beginning to appear, most notably in the character of Fran, played by Sandra Bernhard, who discovers her psychic powers when she takes a job as a tarot card reader. In a recent episode, Looper reports that she conjures a mysterious figure seen on a previous season, which suggests that this long-standing meme of the series is working its way into the narrative. That character, Shachath (Hannah Jane McMurray), is known as the Angel of Death and they were previously seen on "American Horror Story: Asylum." In the scene, they "explains to him that he is already dying, like his loved ones, and he has no soul for people to love him. She then offers a kiss of death to Gino to free him from his suffering, to which he recoils. This dark presence in the tarot cards that has presented itself multiple times may be the reason why Kathy's two previous employees quit, which may mean that there are far more supernatural entities at work beyond Big Daddy," wries Looper.

This has led Distractify to wonder: "Perhaps the most titillating theory is that Big Daddy could be a murder victim himself. Redditor u/mo_kj wrote on an 'AHS' message board, 'What if Big Daddy was murdered and he's a ghost trying to warn victims, not kill them.' Many users jumped on board with this theory quickly, although we might need a few more supernatural elements to really solidify it."

Check out these pics from Bishop's Instagram: