Every star gets their start somewhere, and for Law & Order newcomer David Ajala, it was, ironically enough, a math teacher who helped spark his joy for acting and entertainment.

Long before settling in at the 27th Precinct as the passionate Detective Theo Walker, Ajala was bitten by the acting bug in secondary school after a math teacher helped him consider some extracurricular activities that would be up his alley. Now applauded far and wide for his roles in Star Trek: Discovery, Fast & Furious 6, and Jupiter Rising, Ajala still looks back on those secondary years with fondness, opening up to NBC Insider in a November 2025 interview about the man who forever changed his career.

Ajala has credited his childhood math teacher for sparking his passion for acting and entertainment, sharing with NBC Insider that his mentor has passed away. “His name is Mr. [Indro] Sen, and I tell you what, the fact that we’re having this conversation, he’s still living here in this space,” Ajala shared. “Wonderful guy.”

How a math teacher inspired David Ajala to start acting: “I’d be popular”

One might be wondering what algebraic equations have to do with audition monologues, but Ajala reveals that Mr. Sen helped Ajala see the social benefits of getting on stage. Notably, attracting some ladies.

“When I was in secondary school, my maths teacher said I had way too much energy and was too mischievous. He tried to convince me that if I did acting, I’d be popular with the girls,” Ajala told Interview Magazine in 2014. “I was more than happy to do that, because I wasn’t getting much luck with the girls.”

“I was young and impressionable then — 15 or 14 — and I decided to get involved,” Ajala continued. “Then the acting bug bit me, and I started to take it more seriously, and started to work trying to carve out a career.”

David Ajala was “touched” by a message from his mentor’s family

While Ajala is nowadays more than comfortable behind the camera as both a film and TV star, it all began with classroom hijinks and a teacher who saw his potential. It’s a sentimental memory that Ajala holds dear to his heart.

“Mr. Indro Sen: the finest, best math teacher. And I didn’t like math, but he made me like math,” Ajala told NBC Insider with a chuckle. “That’s my guy right there. Just a cool, good guy, man. Really, really nice guy.”

While his childhood hero didn’t get the chance to watch him as Detective Theo Walker on Law & Order, his son reached out to express the family’s excitement about Ajala’s meteoric rise to fame.

“There was a message that his son sent to me on Facebook a few years ago,” Ajala shared. “This is after he passed. And then I messaged him — man, really touched my spirit.”

“He said to me, ‘David, you have no idea how proud Mr. Sen was of you. Because he just kept seeing you on TV and in movies, and it just really made him proud,” Ajala recalled. “And for his son to send me that message when I reached out to him? Was everything, man.”

Ajala continues to honor Mr. Sen with each of his dynamite performances, and Law & Order fans can’t wait to see how he steals the show next. Catch more of Ajala’s Detective Theo Walker by watching Law & Order when it returns on Thursday, January 8 at 8/7c on NBC with a two-hour crossover event with SVU.