Sunday’s episode of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” featured more than just Bran’s stares and Jon Snow’s confusion ― it also had a cameo from the former deputy director of the CIA.
An HBO spokeswoman confirmed to HuffPost that David S. Cohen, who served at the agency from 2015 to 2017, got about 15 seconds of fame as a field worker on the second episode of the show’s final season. The CIA’s Twitter account also tweeted out the news.
Cohen told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday that he managed to get an appearance on the popular fantasy drama because his brother-in-law, David Benioff, is the show’s co-creator. The former CIA official reportedly asked Benioff during Thanksgiving in 2017 if he could be an extra.
Cohen’s character did not have any lines, but he got some screen time while Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) served him soup as Winterfell braced for the Night King’s army.
“A perk of working for the CIA is world travel,” the CIA tweeted. “Apparently that sometimes extends to other realms…”
Before he was at the CIA, Cohen was the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department. He now works as an attorney at WilmerHale.