Who Is Dan Schrack, The Real ‘Decoy Dan’ Behind ‘Primetime’? Here’s Where He Is Now

Robert Pattinson’s new A24 thriller ‘Primetime‘ has pulled ‘To Catch a Predator’ back into the cultural conversation, and one of its most talked about characters is a young decoy named Dan Plumb. Viewers who watched the original NBC series two decades ago are now asking a very specific question, who was the real person behind that character, and what happened to him after the cameras stopped rolling.

The answer traces back to a real decoy named Dan Schrack, whose unsettling and oddly charismatic performances on ‘To Catch a Predator’ made him one of the most recognizable faces of the entire franchise. His story, and where he landed years later, gives the fictionalized version in ‘Primetime’ a much heavier weight.

The Real Decoy Dan Behind ‘Primetime’

In ‘Primetime’, Skyler Gisondo plays a decoy named Dan Plumb, a character built specifically for the film’s sting operations. Gisondo’s role is based on Dan Schrack, the decoy for the botched sting operation involving Conradt. The filmmakers changed his surname from Schrack to Plumb for the movie, which is why fans searching for details online will find two versions of essentially the same person.

Schrack is not credited on ‘Primetime’, nor is he mentioned in any press materials. Despite the similarities between the real man and the film character, there is a reason the movie gave ‘Decoy Dan’ a different last name, since the character is extrapolated into much more thematic territory than Schrack’s actual experience. That distinction matters, because it means ‘Primetime’ is using his story as a foundation rather than presenting a strict biography.

Dan Schrack, sometimes known as Decoy Dan, served as the male decoy for the Murphy, Texas, Petaluma, California, and Fort Myers, Florida stings of ‘To Catch a Predator’. When he first came in for the part, he reportedly thought he would be filming dramatic reenactments, and only learned the true nature of the work once he was brought to his first sting.

Once on camera, Dan came across as confident and flamboyant, willing to bait predators with lines that made his segments some of the most memorable in the show’s run. He is widely considered by fans of the series to be the best male decoy the show ever used.

Decoy Dan’s Role in the Louis Conradt Sting

The most consequential moment of Schrack’s time on the show involved the Murphy, Texas sting targeting Louis ‘Bill’ Conradt, an assistant district attorney. Schrack was the real decoy used in that operation, and Conradt’s death by suicide constitutes the climax of ‘Primetime’. That single sting effectively ended the franchise as it existed.

Schrack was also the decoy involved in the ill fated Conradt confrontation, which ultimately led to the cancellation of ‘To Catch a Predator’. Because of his direct involvement in Conradt’s death, Schrack was named as a defendant in the subsequent lawsuit filed by Conradt’s sister, a case that was eventually settled by NBC.

A 2007 Esquire feature by journalist Luke Dittrich mentioned Schrack throughout its reporting on the Conradt case, including small details that were later folded into Gisondo’s performance. Those details reportedly included certain intonations in Schrack’s decoy phone calls, his pay rate of five thousand dollars per shoot, and the fact that his biggest acting credit before the show had been a Toys R Us commercial.

In more recent years, Schrack has said that his involvement in Conradt’s death still weighs on him, a detail that adds real emotional context to why ‘Primetime’ leans so heavily into the psychological toll of decoy work rather than treating it as a punchline.

Where Is Decoy Dan Now After Leaving the Show?

So where did Schrack actually go after ‘To Catch a Predator’ wrapped. He appeared in a couple of commercials for Toys R Us before eventually working with Dateline. Afterward, he moved into local news, taking a reporting job in Buffalo, New York, after sending sample tapes of his on air style to stations across the region.

Dan is now working as a news anchor, and he won the Tim Russert Medal of Outstanding Performance in 2015 for his journalistic achievement. That award, named after the late ‘Meet the Press’ moderator, marked a full pivot from reality television bait to serious broadcast journalism.

Looper reports that Schrack is now working as both a news anchor and a comedian, which tracks with the theatrical, over the top energy that made his decoy segments so memorable in the first place. His IMDb page reflects that hybrid path as well, listing recent credits as a news anchor alongside newer decoy related appearances.

His IMDb credits show a 2024 turn as a self identified anchor on a special covering creativity and innovation at Imagine RIT, along with a 2025 appearance in a documentary titled ‘Predators’. Interestingly, though he is best known publicly for his work on the original show, Schrack reportedly does not reference ‘To Catch a Predator’ in any of his professional bios or resumes, even though it remains listed on his acting credits on IMDb.

Why ‘Primetime’ Brought His Story Back Into Focus

‘Primetime’ is generating buzz precisely because it refuses to treat the ‘To Catch a Predator’ era as simple nostalgia. The film follows Dan Plumb through his first acting assignment, which turns out to be far more disturbing than he was led to believe, as NBC staff dress him to mimic a thirteen year old boy right before a predator enters the room and exposes himself on camera. His reaction, a suppressed mixture of horror, disgust and shame, is treated by the film as a form of sexual assault enabled by the show itself.

Much of the film’s marketing has focused on this decoy perspective, portraying the character as anxious and unprepared for the role he has been thrust into, hinting at unspoken trauma, anxiety and depression tied to the job. That framing is clearly drawing directly from what Schrack himself has described feeling in real life.

Knowing that Dan Plumb is rooted in a real person who is still processing what happened on that Texas driveway years later changes how audiences are likely to watch ‘Primetime’. What do you think ‘Primetime’ gets right, or wrong, about what it actually cost the real Decoy Dan to do that job?