Nicholas Alexander Chavez plays Lyle Menendez and a priest on TV. He's hungry for what's next.

Nicholas Alexander Chavez has had a “very surreal” few weeks promoting and premiering his first roles in prime time, in a pair of shows debuting within one week of each other.

Chavez, 25, plays Lyle Menendez in Netflix's “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" and Father Charlie, a true-crime obsessed priest in FX's “Grotesquerie." Both shows are co-created by Ryan Murphy.

“We were working on the tail end of ‘Monsters’ when Ryan called and said he had a really, really exciting new show called ‘Grotesquerie’ that he was working on," recalled Chavez. "He was very passionate about the project, and he had a great role in it for me."

“Grotesquerie” stars Niecy Nash-Betts as an alcoholic detective who has teamed up with a nun (Micaela Diamond) to investigate a serial killer case.

To get into character for “Grotesquerie,” Chavez would listen to music. “Don't Do Anything Illegal” by Charles Manson was on his Father Charlie playlist. For “Monsters,” Chavez's prep was different because he was playing a real person and could watch old court videos.

In 1996, Lyle and his younger brother Erik (played by Cooper Koch) were sentenced to life in prison for the 1989 killing of their parents, Jose and Kitty in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers alleged they were sexually abused by both parents for years and feared for their lives. Last week, prosecutors in LA said they were reviewing new information about the case and would decide whether a resentencing is warranted.

Chavez has already achieved success in daytime on ABC’s “General Hospital ” as Spencer Cassadine, a grandson of Genie Francis' Laura (of Luke and Laura fame.) He played the role of a spoiled prince with daddy issues from 2021 until January 2024. Chavez won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding younger actor in a drama in 2022.

“Soap fans are incredibly loyal, and I’m really, really thankful that they are interested in following my journey, even though I’m not on the show anymore," said Chavez.

Now that both “Monsters” and “Grotesquerie” are out, Chavez says he's “itching” to get back to work.

“My life feels whole and complete between the words action and cut. I live for those moments. I think that is the purpose of my entire existence," said Chavez. "Nothing brings me more satisfaction and joy as a human being than the craft of acting. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

This image released by Netflix shows Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, right, and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in a scene from "Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story." (Miles Crist/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, center, and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, right, in a scene from "Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story." (Miles Crist/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, left, and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in a scene from "Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story." (Miles Crist/Netflix via AP)

FILE - Actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez poses for a portrait on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP, File)

This image released by Netflix shows Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez in a scene from "Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story." (Netflix via AP)

FILE - Actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez poses for a portrait on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.

The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1 mph (1.6 kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. The four-mile (six-kilometer) trek was expected to take until nightfall.

Throngs of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.

Weighing in at 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.

The first and only other SLS launch — which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon — took place back in November 2022.

“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.

Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyses and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won’t orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will take come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience — will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.

They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. Depending on how the demo goes, “that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday.

The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)

NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)