For Dayo Okeniyi, playing the different versions of Leighton Vance in Dark Matter Season 2 became more personal than he initially expected.
When I spoke with Okeniyi about the new season of the Apple TV series, we started with something admittedly much lighter: the opening of Episode 2 sent me straight to my phone to find “Callin’ Out” by Lyrics Born.
But Episode 2 also gives viewers a deeper look at different versions of Leighton, and as Okeniyi explained, some of what we’re seeing this season grew out of conversations that became surprisingly personal.
Toward the end of Season 1, as the possibility of another season began to emerge, Okeniyi sat down with members of the creative team for what initially seemed like a casual dinner.
Then the questions started. Where was he from? How connected was he to his Nigerian culture? What were his parents’ names?
When Okeniyi eventually began reading the new scripts, he realized why they had been asking. Leighton’s parents were named Ezekiel and Elizabeth Vance—the real names of Okeniyi’s parents.
“They would glean things from my real life to add to the show,” Okeniyi told me.
That collaboration went considerably deeper.
Okeniyi’s father is Nigerian and his mother is Kenyan, and the creative team began exploring what a version of Leighton shaped more directly by Nigerian culture might look like. One variant even views the Box through an almost religious lens, with Okeniyi explaining that the name used for the character derives from Yoruba, his own language, and means “teacher.”
For Okeniyi, that specificity mattered. Rather than simply treating Leighton as “the Black guy” in the story, he wanted the character’s background to reflect the enormous range of experiences contained within Black identity.
“There’s just so much to what it is to be a Black person,” Okeniyi said.
That becomes particularly interesting when combined with another defining element of Leighton’s identity: his wealth.
Leighton isn’t simply a Black man. He’s a Black billionaire, an only child born into extraordinary privilege who has inherited the responsibility of maintaining his family’s company and legacy.
Okeniyi sees an inherent loneliness in that.
Who can Leighton trust? Who can genuinely understand the pressure he carries? And who can he allow into his life without wondering whether that person wants something from him?
That isolation helps explain why the Box becomes so appealing. If Leighton can’t find someone in his own world who truly understands him, perhaps another version of himself can.
“It only makes sense that he would use the Box to go and find other versions of himself,” Okeniyi explained.
Okeniyi also found something personally relatable in Leighton’s isolation. He recalled coming to America and attending school in Indiana, where he was the only Black student in his graduating class and later one of only a handful of Black students in college.
Those experiences gave the Dark Matter team another piece of Okeniyi’s own life from which to build.
And according to Okeniyi, the show’s creative team followed through.
“They didn’t just talk the talk, they walked the walk,” he said of the promises made to him ahead of Season 2.
But Leighton’s search isn’t only about finding someone who understands him.
He’s also looking for something much bigger: A perfect world.
Okeniyi believes Leighton genuinely wants to create one. But his motivations aren’t entirely altruistic.
Comparing Leighton to real-world billionaire technology founders who speak about changing the world while sometimes overlooking the consequences of their creations, Okeniyi suggested that Leighton will eventually have to confront the personal motivations behind his own ambition.
Viewers will begin learning more about those motivations as the season continues.
“There is a selfish nature,” Okeniyi teased, though not one driven by financial gain. “It’s more personal than that.”
And that may ultimately be one of Leighton’s biggest challenges this season.
New episodes of Dark Matter Season 2 stream Fridays on Apple TV.
Watch my full conversation with Dayo Okeniyi above and follow The Buzz for more television and film interviews.
