Joseph Lee Anderson: From Playing The Rock’s Dad to DEA Agent Copano
If you watched NBC’s Young Rock and later flipped over to Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects, you have probably met Joseph Lee Anderson twice without realizing it.
On one screen, he is Rocky “Soulman” Johnson, sprinting across 1980s arenas and body‑slamming opponents after bulking up 30 pounds for the job. On the other, you only hear him, as the voice of Agent Copano, a wired, conspiracy‑happy DEA agent tracking a mysterious healing mushroom.
The journey between those two characters says a lot about how Hollywood careers really grow: through years of small parts, some heavy lifting, and the occasional well‑timed connection.
From Kansas City Extra to Dwayne Johnson’s Family Story
Anderson did not start out as a wrestling historian or a voice actor. He grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, born on February 22, 1993, and later attended Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. He has described his start in acting as almost accidental.
In a local TV interview, he recalled that a movie came to town while he was in college. He signed up to be an extra. Someone handed him a line. That small moment hooked him. “Ever since then, I’ve been in love with it,” he told the station.
From there he began stacking credits the slow way. He appeared in short films like Capgras Syndrome and Flower. Guest roles followed in procedural dramas where many working actors cut their teeth. He appeared on Hawaii Five‑0 and Blue Bloods, then played Officer Campbell in the 2017 thriller Midnighters and Robert Ross in the 2019 biopic Harriet.
By his own count, he had gone through roughly 500 auditions across his early career before he landed a series regular role. That number gives some perspective to what came next.
In September 2020, NBC and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announced the main cast for Young Rock, a comedy based on Johnson’s life. Anderson had been chosen to play Johnson’s father, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson. For Anderson, it was the first time his name would sit near the top of a call sheet.
He told reporters that moment felt like a milestone every working TV actor chases. “A series regular is where you want to be at,” he said.
Bulking Up 30 Pounds to Become Rocky Johnson
Landing the part was one thing. Looking like Rocky Johnson was another.
Rocky Johnson stood about 6’2″, the same height as Anderson. The production wanted Anderson close to 250 pounds, near the wrestler’s billed weight in his prime. When he got the job, he had about two months to get there.
To bridge that gap, Anderson went into what he has described as the most intense training stretch of his life. He worked with Los Angeles trainer Tim Hamilton, lifted constantly, and ate around 5,000 calories a day. In multiple interviews he has said he focused on “a lot of chicken, a lot of rice,” and very little downtime.
By the time cameras rolled, he had put on about 30 pounds, including more than 16 pounds of muscle, and hit that 250‑pound target. This happened during COVID lockdowns, while many gyms were limited and productions followed strict safety rules.
The work did not stop when he reached the scale goal. Anderson needed to move like a wrestler, not just look like one.
He studied hours of Rocky Johnson’s old matches on YouTube, breaking down footwork, taunts, and even how Johnson held the ropes. Production brought in wrestling coordinator Chavo Guerrero Jr., who trained Anderson and the other performers in the ring. They rehearsed full matches lasting five to seven minutes, then repeated them over and over for different camera angles.
Anderson later described days where they would run the same match up to ten times. Each time included big bumps, rope runs, and slams. It was grueling work layered on top of that weight gain.
All this unfolded while Young Rock Season 1 filmed in Australia under heavy COVID protocols. Cast and crew tested several times per week and stayed inside a tight production bubble. That environment kept the show on schedule but made everything, including training, more complicated.
Playing A Complicated Father Under Dwayne Johnson’s Eye
The physical preparation only solved half the challenge. Rocky Johnson was not just a character. He was Dwayne Johnson’s real father, who had died in January 2020, only months before filming.
Dwayne Johnson called Young Rock a “love letter” to his family, and he spoke publicly about how personal the first season felt. He asked Anderson to make Rocky as big-hearted and charismatic as possible, but also honest.
Anderson has said Johnson told him to keep the performance “true.” Rocky could be the life of the party, the biggest presence in any room, and also a flawed parent. The series needed both sides.
That request pushed Anderson outside his comfort zone. He has described himself as “very shy” and “introverted” in real life. To play Rocky, he had to walk into every scene like he owned the building, whether it was framed as Madison Square Garden or a much smaller venue.
The relationship between actor and subject deepened over three seasons. In 2022, after Season 2, Johnson posted an Instagram video where he walked with Anderson between takes. Johnson explained that he had never taken a simple walk with his own father and wanted to imagine what that might have felt like. He called the moment “cathartic” and thanked Anderson by name “for everything.”
By the time Young Rock finished its third season in late 2022, Anderson had proven he could carry a physically demanding role, handle comedy and drama together, and inhabit a real person under intense scrutiny.
That combination did not go unnoticed.
Building a Career Between Cameras and Behind Them
Even while Young Rock raised his profile, Anderson kept diversifying his work.
He appeared in the Peacock series MacGruber in 2021 as Major Harold Kernst, another physically grounded role in an action‑comedy. Years earlier, he had already played Marines, officers, and drivers on shows like NCIS, S.W.A.T., Hawaii Five‑0, and Blue Bloods.
That pattern matters. Casting directors had seen that Anderson could believably play law enforcement and military characters long before a DEA badge came his way in animation.
He also developed a parallel path as a filmmaker. Anderson wrote and directed the short film The Jog, a seven‑minute drama that screened at South by Southwest and other festivals in 2019. The film won Best Heartland Narrative Short at the Kansas City FilmFest that year. Directing sharpened his sense of pacing, framing, and story rhythm, skills that often help actors once they move into voice work and depend entirely on timing and line delivery.
By 2024 he added Tyler Perry’s streaming thriller Divorce in the Black to his film credits, playing a character named Benji. His resume now mixed network dramas, feature films, a high‑profile biographical sitcom, and an award‑winning short.
It was good timing. Another project was quietly taking shape that would push him into a new medium.
From Wrestling Rings to Sound Booths: Enter Common Side Effects
In early 2025, Adult Swim premiered Common Side Effects, a half‑hour animated series created by Joe Bennett and Steve Hely. The show debuted with back‑to‑back episodes on February 2, 2025 at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, with episodes arriving on Max the next day.
The series centers on Marshall and Frances, former high‑school lab partners who stumble onto a mushroom that appears to “heal almost anything.” Their discovery quickly attracts attention from the pharmaceutical industry, international investors, and, crucially, the Drug Enforcement Administration.
That is where Joseph Lee Anderson comes back into the story.
In Common Side Effects, he voices Agent Copano, one half of a DEA duo assigned to track the mushroom and the people experimenting with it. His partner, Agent Harrington, is voiced by comedian Martha Kelly.
Multiple official listings confirm the casting. Adult Swim press, IMDb character pages, and Rotten Tomatoes all credit Anderson as Agent Copano (voice) across Season 1. He appears throughout the 10‑episode first season, including a key installment titled “Cliff’s Edge.”
The bridge between Young Rock and Common Side Effects is not just thematic. It is literal.
During a Reddit AMA about the new series, co‑creator Steve Hely explained how Anderson came into the picture. He said they wanted Copano and Harrington to feel like “two people who are in love but not in a romantic way,” colleagues who spend long stretches on stakeouts and end up talking about everything except the job.
Hely added that his wife had worked with Anderson on Young Rock. That connection put Anderson on their radar. When they thought about who could play Copano, he said they believed Anderson “would be great,” and they liked the chemistry he could bring opposite Martha Kelly.
A supporting role as Dwayne Johnson’s father had quietly led to a central part in Adult Swim’s latest conspiracy‑tinged comedy.
Giving Paranoia a Voice: What Anderson Brings to Agent Copano
If Rocky Johnson demanded physical presence, Agent Copano demands vocal energy.
Copano is a DEA agent whose suspicion level never drops. Coverage of the show on CommonSideEffects.tv has described him as having “conspiracy kingpin energy,” the sort of man who might assume there is a hidden cabal behind something as harmless as a sugar packet.
Where Martha Kelly’s Agent Harrington tends to respond with deadpan patience, Copano charges into every new theory. One performance breakdown on the site notes that he “dives headfirst into every wackadoo idea with turbo‑charged energy,” yanking scenes into a faster comedic lane.
That pace fits Anderson’s background more than it might appear at first glance. He spent years delivering exposition in procedurals and playing men under pressure. He also spent three seasons amplifying Rocky Johnson’s larger‑than‑life charisma. All of that momentum now channels through his voice, without help from lighting, costumes, or an arena crowd.
The Copano‑Harrington partnership has quickly become one of the show’s most discussed pairings. Articles on CommonSideEffects.tv refer to them as a “fan‑favorite duo” and highlight their mismatched styles as a key part of the series’ tone. They are both part of the federal response to a world‑changing discovery, yet they often feel like two coworkers killing time in a parked sedan.
That contrast is not accidental. Hely said in that AMA that he wanted something close to a non‑romantic love story between colleagues, people who rely on each other to get through long, often boring assignments. Anderson’s animated paranoia and Kelly’s dry calm supply exactly that balance.
Critics have also taken notice. Uproxx’s pre‑release guide listed Anderson among the core cast, alongside voices like Dave King, Emily Pendergast, Martha Kelly and Mike Judge. Rotten Tomatoes positions him in the top tier of billed actors for Season 1.
For Anderson, it marks a clear expansion. He is no longer just the guy who can bulk up for a wrestling drama or put on a uniform for a network cop show. He is also a recognizable voice in adult animation.
What Happens Next
As of November 2025, Joseph Lee Anderson is 32 years old, with both live‑action and animation firmly on his resume.
Young Rock wrapped its third season in 2022, leaving his portrayal of Rocky Johnson as a completed chapter. That role demanded a crash course in wrestling, a 30‑pound weight gain, and the emotional responsibility of playing Dwayne Johnson’s father during a period when the loss was still recent.
Common Side Effects represents the next phase. Adult Swim officially renewed the series on March 28, 2025, describing it as a boundary‑pushing, genre‑blending show and listing Anderson among the returning voice cast. Season 2 is in development, with Agent Copano expected to rejoin the chase for Marshall, Frances, and their world‑reshaping mushroom.
Away from those two anchors, Anderson still has other lanes open. He has feature work like Harriet and Divorce in the Black under his belt, and a festival‑winning short film as a writer‑director. He continues to follow Dwayne Johnson’s workouts “religiously,” as he put it in one interview, lifting material directly from Johnson’s Instagram posts to keep his own routine sharp.
Taken together, his path looks less like an overnight break and more like steady acceleration. A college extra slot led to 500 auditions. Those auditions led to small roles as officers and soldiers. Those roles helped him land Young Rock and gain 30 pounds in two months to become a wrestler. That performance, in turn, helped bring him into a sound booth as Agent Copano, a DEA agent whose biggest muscle is his imagination.
For viewers coming to Common Side Effects now, that history is invisible. They just hear Copano ranting about shadowy forces and watch Harrington try to keep him on task.
But behind that voice is an actor who has already carried a father’s legacy in front of millions, hit 5,000 calories a day in the name of authenticity, and now brings the same commitment to an animated surveillance van.
