meet david dunham.
— basics.
Name: David Lionel Dunham
Age / D.O.B.: 37 / February 5, 1986
Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: Male, he/him, so deep in the closet they'll need a hydraulic crane to extricate him.
Hometown: New York, NY, USA
Affiliation: Media
Job Position: Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Disruptor, an independent, online political publication.
Education: Bachelor in Political Science, Master of Business Administration
Relationship Status: Don’t fucking worry about it (single).
Children: None
Positive Traits: Calculating, ambitious, and persuasive
Negative Traits: Untrusting, untrustworthy, and unpredictable
— the long and short of it.
David Dunham is an arrogant, irritable little man whose patience is proportional to his small stature. He’ll decide how he feels about you within the first few seconds of meeting you and treat you accordingly for the foreseeable future. If he likes you, he’ll be straight with you – warts, pus and all. If he doesn’t, he’ll be the politest bastard you’ve ever met. You don’t know where you stand with him and you’re not sure you want to. But you need him. If you're in media, you need him. If you're in government, you need him. Law enforcement, white collar crime, whatever – you don’t only need him to like you, you need him to give a shit about you. You know he holds the power to make you or fuck you in his hand, and by god, does it sting.
— a (very) brief history.
Son of the infamously disgraced former U.S. Senator and convicted felon Robert “Bobby” Dunham (and if you think that’s a mouthful, wait ‘til you see what’s on his rap sheet). Something of a pariah in the political sphere. Something of a big fucking deal everywhere else.
Succeeds two older siblings who have already done the “I-am-not-my-father” song and dance for a seat at the congressional table and failed spectacularly, so. The bar for success in this family is underground. He could be a poli sci professor at NYU and still have the better-looking resume of the three, all things considered.
Got his big break in journalism for helping blow the whistle (not a euphemism, fuck you) on his old man’s many misdeeds circa the 2010 midterms, because the public eats up a good et tu, brute narrative like dinner at Le Bernardin. The family? Not so much. He’s still not invited to the annual holiday retreat in Davos.
Founded Disruptor, a sensationalist, tabloid-esque political news website, soon after he realized there was a buck to make from people that treat politics with the same reverence and precariousness as they do reality television. It’s like TMZ for people with GEDs and extra numbers to their usernames on Twitter. So, TMZ.
Considers himself “politically neutral,” which is a diplomatic way of saying he likes tax breaks more than he likes human rights. But like, fuck the police, boo systemic oppression and all that; his convictions lie at the intersection of provocative and profitable.
Has too many fucking skeletons in his closet to condense into a few bullet points or less. Buy him a drink or take him out to dinner first – he won’t be any more likely to tell you about his childhood trauma or whatever, but at the very least, it’ll give you a hell of a story to tell your friends.
— potential connections / plots.
LIE WITH DOGS, GET UP WITH FLEAS: Having no discernable moral alignments means David’s in bed with some seedy people, figuratively and literally. Corrupt politicians, media adversaries, bankers with their hands in dirty money…his network reaches far and wide, and if you do find yourself in his alliance, he gives as good as he gets – but only if the get is good. DON’T EVER TAKE SIDES AGAINST THE FAMILY: Remember his dad, Bobby Dunham? Yeah, so, it turns out that getting busted for white-collar crime really threw a wrench in the whole “American family political dynasty” thing they had going on for a while in the early aughts. Now the only two things the Dunhams have in common with the Kennedys are daddy issues and a handful of nepo-liticians who tried and failed to redeem the family name. Please, give David his failsiblings and relatives from their mother’s old money side of the family who look down their noses at them for being such national fucking embarrassments. BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL: Disruptor is notorious in the industry for its aggressive, no-holds-barred approach to political journalism, so if that sounds like something that aligns with your career goals, they’d be more than happy to have you in the ranks. Executives, editors, reporters, photographers – any and all positions are open for applications. Teamwork makes the dream work, and all. WOULDN’T IT BE FUNNY (IF YOU LOVED ME): Very few people on this earth genuinely like David. Even fewer are good people. He needs some real, sincere relationships to fuck with his head and make him question whether he actually takes joy in being a piece of shit or does it out of some disgusting, deep-seated need for human connection. whocanneverbesure.gif
















