Denise Petski
EXCLUSIVE: Michaela Conlin has been cast as a series regular opposite Ellie Kemper in ABC’s Drop-Off (working title), a comedy pilot based on the British series Motherland, from writer Julieanne Smolinski, Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford’s Merman Television, Paul Feig’s Feigco Entertainment, Lionsgate and ABC Signature. Judy Greer and Karan Soni also star.
Written by Smolinski, Drop-Off (wt) centers on Julia (Kemper), a working mom for whom nothing is working so she goes looking for her village. With the help of new friends Calvin (Soni) and Liz (Conlin), Julia discovers she just might succeed at balancing work and parenting from time to time. This is a comedy for anybody who’s dropped their kids at school, breathed a sigh of relief … then realized it’s Sunday.
Conlin’s Liz is another single mom at Julia’s (Kemper) kids’ school. She’s cool, doesn’t care (but she loves her kids, 7-year-old Danny and the baby). Unlike Calvin and Julia, Liz doesn’t like the inner circle of moms at their kids’ school and doesn’t want to be part of them. Liz lives a bit of an alternative lifestyle — there’s pretty much nothing in her apartment except a giant mattress on the floor — and her breezy disregard for the status quo is comforting to both Calvin and Julia.
Michael Showalter directs and executive produces alongside Smolinski, Kemper, Horgan, Mountford, Stacy Greenberg and Kira Carstensen for Merman Television, Paul Feig and Dan Magnante for Feigco Entertainment as well as Holly Walsh and Helen Serafinowicz.
Conlin will next be seen in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s adapted feature One True Loves, opposite Simu Liu. She also will be seen in the upcoming feature Junction, opposite Sophia Bush, Jamie Chung and Hill Harper. On television, she most recently appeared in Hulu’s Dollface opposite Kat Dennings, Brenda Song, and Shay Mitchell. Conlin is known for her role as Angela Montenegro in Fox’s Bones and also played a key recurring in Apple’s For All Mankind, among her other credits. Conlin is repped by Mosaic, APA and Joel McKuin.
