Frank Grillo’s Greatest Performance Before Tulsa King: Kingdom

Before he was dishing out beatdowns in Tulsa King, Frank Grillo starred as Alvey Kulina in Kingdom, a gritty mixed martial arts drama that premiered in October 2014 and ran for three seasons on the Audience Network before ending its run in 2017. The series later appeared on Netflix in 2020, disappeared after about 10 months, and recently resurfaced in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video.

Kingdom follows retired, legendary MMA fighter‑turned‑trainer Alvey as he runs Navy St. Gym in Venice, California while trying to keep the business afloat and manage a fractured family. The main story focuses on his two troubled sons, Jay (Jonathan Tucker) and Nate (Nick Jonas); an early Season 1 scene has Jay agreeing to fight in a heavier class because, as he tells Nate, “It’s a terrible plan.

But I believe in myself.” The show’s authenticity is a throughline, visible in both the cage sequences and the quieter moments.

United States, Venice, California

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