“I was making more money than I’d ever made in my life.” “I was very content,” she says of that time. In 2015, she started working at BuzzFeed, then a vanguard of the video-first era of the internet. Now 33, she has been in the public eye in one way or another for almost a decade, first going viral with “ Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date” Instagram skits, in which she played a woman who is impressed any time her date buys her something and shouts, “he got money” to unsuspecting passers-by. Television Quinta Brunson's brilliant Abbott Elementary lives up to the hype Read More She started to take comedy seriously after taking improv classes with the famous theatre troupe Second City in Chicago, and dropped out of university to turn her passion into a career. I remember bringing my Napoleon Dynamite DVD to school before it was a phenomenon. “I was shyer around my friends, but I loved to make them laugh in unconventional ways. “Making my brothers and sisters laugh was everything to me,” she says. It feels special that our work is being recognised and not undermined because of race or sex – it’s just considered good.”īrunson grew up in west Philadelphia and remembers finding her love for comedy at a young age. “It’s an honour that our work is not seen as less than just because it’s for a lot of people. Abbott airs on commercial broadcast network ABC in the US, and on Disney+ in the UK. “Comedies on network television are not necessarily awards bait,” she says. Quinta Brunson as Janine, Janelle James as Ava, Lisa Ann Walter as Melissa, Tyler James Williams as Gregory, Chris Perfetti as Jacob and Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara in Abbott Elementary (Photo: Gilles Mingasson/ABC)īrunson knew it was good, but its success is still something of a surprise. Nevertheless, Abbott Elementary is a funny, compassionate show that gives a glimpse into the struggles and joys of teaching in a public school (the equivalent of a state school in the UK). “But my goal is not to 100 per cent accurately portray teachers,” adds Brunson. Ava pushes children out of the way during fire drills, ignores (or loses) important paperwork, and isn’t shy about her deeply inappropriate crush on Gregory. “She’s not a great example of what a principal should be.” No kidding. “Some people are bothered by that character,” says Brunson when I tell her Ava is my favourite. Then there’s Abbott’s wildly underqualified headteacher Ava, who spends more time building her Instagram following and selling her clothes via livestream than shepherding the school to success. Her colleagues are an eccentric bunch: there’s Gregory, uptight and furious he is not headteacher Melissa, who has ties to a shady criminal underworld nerdy history teacher Jacob and Barbara, a stalwart of Abbott, who is both impressed and irked by Janine’s “hyperactive little heart”. And all thanks to the astronomical success of her perky mockumentary set in an underfunded, underestimated Philadelphia elementary (or primary) school.īrunson plays teacher Janine Teagues, a hopelessly optimistic ball of energy who will move mountains to help her students – even if that includes getting sprayed in the face trying to fix the “reversey toilet”, sourcing her own rugs for story time, or making painfully earnest TikToks begging people to donate supplies. Next weekend, she will host Saturday Night Live. She earned a spot on Time’s 100 most influential people of 2022 list. The creator, writer and star of Abbott Elementary is one of the buzziest names in American comedy. I don’t love it, but it comes with the job.” Unfortunately for her, it is a problem that is only going to get worse. “I’ve seen photos of me taken without my permission online. “I don’t go anywhere looking like a mess any more,” says Quinta Brunson.
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