David Otunga is an American actor, lawyer, and former professional wrestler.
Otunga was born in Elgin, Illinois, to father Moses, a Kenyan, and a European American mother, Billie, both of whom are educators. He is the youngest of three children. Otunga graduated from Larkin High School and later earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Illinois. Following his graduation, he moved to New York City where he became a laboratory manager in Columbia University's Cognitive Neuroscience Center. He later graduated from Harvard Law School in 2006, passing the Illinois Bar Exam. After graduating from law school and passing his bar exams, Otunga joined Sidley Austin LLP, one of America's largest law firms where he worked from May 2005 to October 2007.
In November 2008, Otunga signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was assigned to its development territory, Florida Championship Wrestling. He made his debut on May 29, 2009, under the ring name Dawson Alexander, in a six-man tag team match. On February 16, 2010, after numerous dark matches on both WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown, it was announced that Otunga would wrestle on the first season of WWE NXT under his real name, with R-Truth as his storyline mentor. He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, quickly defeating Darren Young. During the season finale on June 1, Otunga came in second place overall in the competition, losing out to Wade Barrett. He is also an original member of The Nexus and The New Nexus, being the only member present through the entire duration of the stable in every incarnation. As part of the faction, he became a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion, having one reign each with fellow Nexus members John Cena and Michael McGillicutty.
In 2007, after his niece submitted his audition tape, Otunga was chosen to be a contestant on I Love New York 2 and given the nickname "Punk". He became one of the final three contestants in the competition, before being eliminated on the series penultimate episode. Otunga has since starred in the 2013 thriller film The Call. He made guest appearances as himself in the 13,106th & 13,107th episodes (Season 52) of General Hospital in 2014. Ortunga has also appeared in Criminal Minds (2017), The Haves and the Have Nots (2017), New Dogs, Old Tricks (2018), Last Call (2019), A Madea Family Funeral (2019), Baking Up Love (2021), and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022).
