‘Abbott Elementary’ could make Quinta Brunson a household name

THE depth of your familiarity with Quinta Brunson’s comedy work depends on your relationship with the internet.

The average user is more likely to recognise Brunson, 32, from the videos she used to produce and star in for Buzzfeed, or from her appearances on the first season of the HBO series A Black Lady Sketch Show.

The extremely online might recall her self-produced Instagram videos, after which she became a meme.

And if you don’t know Brunson at all?

That will probably change soon, as her latest project marks a foray into what is arguably her most mainstream platform yet: network TV.

The Philadelphia native created sitcom Abbott Elementary (currently streaming on Disney Plus) in which she stars as a Grade 2 teacher at an underfunded public school in the city alongside actors Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams and Lisa Ann Walter.

The mockumentary has garnered rave reviews and already attracted tons of buzz online.

It is only a matter of time before Brunson is memed once again, but as the earnest teacher Janine Teagues.

Tell me about the origin of this story.

My mom is a teacher, so that informed a lot of it.

I went to visit her about three or four years ago, before she retired, and I was at school with her at night.

It was an open house night and they had her staying until 8pm.

I was just like, “you should not be here”. My mom’s school isn’t in a great neighbourhood.

It was 7.58pm and one parent walks in, and I’m actually upset. Like, “how dare you, you had all day”.

My mom did not care. She sat down and had the parent-teacher conference with that woman while her son played with blocks in the corner.

I was just sitting at my mom’s desk watching it, and I was like, “this is what I would like to spend my energy on”.

I just love a good workplace comedy.

My mom has had so many funny stories and so many funny characters who – you know, she doesn’t even find this stuff funny.

But she told me stuff and I was like, “mom, this is hilarious”.

The show is quite uplifting, even though the characters are dealing with heavy things. How did you navigate the kind of comedy you wanted to do here?

I wanted to make the audience

fall in love with the workplace, and I wanted the comedy to feel like you, the audience member, were working at Abbott, too.

That informed the mockumentary style – a style I’m already obsessed with, but I think the reason I love it so much is because it makes you feel as if you’re there.

Especially with subject matter like this, I think it’s important for the audience to feel like they’re in on an inside joke with our show.

Not only did you create

Abbott, but you also star in it and produce it. What was it like to take this all on?

I created and developed it along with Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, my executive producers, and wrote the pilot, which was a really great experience.

Honestly, I may be one of the few

people in the world who loved their development process.

Randall Einhorn, who is the director for the first four episodes and the finale, he joined us as an EP.

He fell in love with the show, and he wanted to be here.

One thing that’s great about Randall is that his work helped pioneer the American mockumentary style with The Office, and he kind of helped launch Parks and Recreation, too. Sometimes I wonder where we would’ve been without him.

Even in the first few episodes, your character’s relationship with the older, more experienced teacher played by Sheryl Lee Ralph is really compelling. What was it like to work with her?

Sheryl came from a lot of multi-cams. Also, she’d never seen The Office. She’d never even seen a mockumentary

show.

Her finding a balance between what makes her fantastic and now tweaking that for the more subtle reality of a mockumentary style show, she found something that I honestly find brilliant.

She’s got to stretch muscles on this show she hasn’t gotten to stretch in years.

Sometimes what happens with older actors – especially older Black actors – is people just start hiring you to come be yourself.

They’re not giving you compelling work, especially in comedy.

They’re hiring you to come be yourself and “do that thing you do”. Sheryl is pushing into new zones, and she told me that it feels so good to do at her age.

Do you feel your background of creating your own videos

online has influenced how you approach the show itself?

I’ve always really loved network comedies.

That love never went away. I love 22-minute sitcoms. I even love the commercials. And I love the idea of a TV show that is for everyone.

You would think that maybe because of my digital background and just being a millennial, maybe I would have veered toward streaming or cable, and I kind of did at first.

Network TV is clearly not dead. It’s still sitting there.

Watching people kind of revitalise the genre in recent times – like with The Good Place, it was really inspiring to me to see that take place on network TV.

Ted Lasso is not the same, but it’s almost in the vein of a network show.

I was just like, “this can be done”.