Tru Valentino, one of the newest additions to The Rookie on ABC, has officially been promoted to a series regular for the start of the show’s fifth season. Valentino appears as rookie police officer Aaron Thorsen who is assigned to protagonist John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) for training. Tru Valentino made his first appearance on The Rookie as a guest star in October 2021, and news of his promotion comes two months after the show’s latest season finale in May 2022.
The Rookie, which first premiered on ABC in 2018, follows the story of John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), a 45-year-old divorcee turned police officer-in-training after he stops a robbery in his small Pennsylvania town. Nolan decides to move to Los Angeles and join the LAPD despite the warnings of his watch commander Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones). Under the guidance of Training Officer Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson), Nolan graduates from the Police Academy with fellow rookies Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.), whose father is an LAPD officer, and Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil), who has joined the LAPD against her parents’ wishes. West and Chen will later be partnered together as police officers, while Nolan, with his chances at being a detective foiled thanks to a botched investigation, moves on to become a training officer in his own right – he receives his first rookie, Aaron Thorsen, in early season 4.
Everything We Know About Tru Valentino
In his role as Rookie Aaron Thorsen, Tru Valentino plays a man who has been wrongfully accused of murder; he ends up being acquitted and chooses to join the LAPD, but the circumstances surrounding the death of Thorsen’s roommate still garner unwanted attention from fellow officers and a reality TV crew. While Valentino is possibly best known for his role on The Rookie, he also boasts several other roles in various pieces of animated media, including voicing Cuphead in The Cuphead Show! (2022), Adam in Psychonauts 2 (2021), and Gary, Julius, and Scadan in Fast & Furious Spy Racers (2019). According to Deadline, Tru Valentino is considered a breakout star with The Groundlings, an improv troupe based out of LA, and is currently working with The Sunday Company.
The Rookie Season 5 will be executive produced by Alexi Hawley, who doubles as the show creator, alongside Mark Gordon, Nathan Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Terence Paul Winter, and Bill Norcross, who serves as the real-life inspiration for The Rookie. Entertainment One and ABC Signature will continue to produce the show.
The Rookie Season 5, starring Tru Valentino, will be available on ABC starting September 25th, 2022, and will air on Saturday nights at 10/9c.
