After five seasons as a whip-smart multi-lingual assistant to David Spade’s character on the network sitcom “Rules of Engagement” and then landing the titular (and controversial) starring role as an Afghan interpreter who moves to Ohio on the primetime sitcom “United States of Al,” which is soon to premiere its sophomore season despite a tidal wave of backlash kicked up when the first season aired earlier this year, South African actor Adhir Kalyan and his actor wife Emily Wilson (she’s best known for her recurring role on “General Hospital”) have plunked down just over $2.8 million for a spacious home in L.A.’s tony Windsor Square neighborhood.
It wasn’t so long ago that Kalyan, who is of Indian descent, would not likely been able to buy a house in the historic and historically affluent neighborhood. About five miles west of downtown and just east of Hancock Park, Windsor Square was the first neighborhood in the city to have underground power lines. And, like a lot of L.A. neighborhoods developed in the early 20th century, it also had private restrictions and racial covenants in its original deeds, slipped in by developers, that forbid non-Caucasian people from owning or even occupying property unless as a domestic worker. Racial covenants are no longer legally enforceable, thankfully, and nowadays Windsor Square is highly diverse with the largest number of residents being of Asian descent.
Hidden behind dense clouds of bougainvillea that explode with spikey sprays of hot pink flowers, the spacious ochre-colored mid-1920s Spanish residence Kalyan and Wilson have picked up sits at the edge of the charming Larchmont Village shopping and dining district that anchors the neighborhood. The five-bedroom and three-and-a-half-bath property was listed with Jenna Cooper at Compass, while Kalyan and Wilson were represented by Max Shapiro at Westside Estate Agency.
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Image Credit: Redfin Updated over the years, the slightly shy of 4,000-square-foot home still retains whispers of its original architecture. A series of arched openings connect the entrance gallery to the living room where there’s a gracefully arched ceiling, polished pavers on the floor and a fireplace that’s awkwardly positioned off-center to accommodate French doors to the garden.
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Image Credit: Redfin The dining room sports a modern, symmetrical arrangement of small windows, while the light-filled eat-in kitchen, large and perfectly functional with a huge center island, is a bit worn with outdated checkerboard pattern ceramic tile countertops and simple cabinets painted navy blue.
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Image Credit: Redfin The powder room is zhuzhed up with dark wallpaper that’s dotted with some sort of big-eyed marsupial and the staircase showcases loopy wrought iron screening.
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Image Credit: Redfin But for one of them, bedrooms are nicely sized — one has a fireplace, and another has French doors to a pair of wrought-iron Juliet balconies, and bathrooms are all updated if a bit blah.
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Image Credit: Redfin The nicely private backyard isn’t particularly big but manages to comfortably pack in a built-in grilling station and bar in a small loggia just outside the kitchen, an outdoor fireplace, and a tile-accented spa that spills over into a turquoise swimming pool that runs up alongside the detached two-car garage.
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Image Credit: Redfin For the last decade or so, Kalyan and Wilson have resided along a snaking road high above L.A.’s Sunset Strip. Standing four stories with vast walls of glass, the couple’s 1960s contemporary was purchased for $1.25 million, a small fortune below the $1.64 million the sellers, then-married actors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart, had paid about five years earlier.