Wally Baram never started to be an actress.

She was so happy to joke, script and build a talk show career – until one day, at a writers' room meeting, for Prime Video's event Overcompensationthe producer asked her to audition. She humorously humorously, completely expecting to be ignored.

Instead, one callback results in another callback, followed by another callback. When the last call provided her with parts, Balam had little news of signing up in the middle of his fight with her boyfriend. She smiled and said, "I hung up and went back to the fight." Even her lawyer was shocked to see an agency contract and called her and asked, "How did this happen?"

Now, Baram, 28, is starring alongside series creator Benito Skinner in a show for digital natives: it was co-produced by A24, original music by Charli XCX (who is also a cameo and serves as executive music producer) and buzzes on every social feed.

She plays Carmen, a curly Jersey girl attempt and mostly fails-fitting to go to college. "She can't do the same songs and dance with everyone else, and she's overly romantic," Baram said. "That was some time in my life."

Baram's own path had already begun: growing up in New Jersey by the Mexican-Syrian family, she stood up at the age of 16 and briefly attended Barnard before dropping out of school to Chase Comedy full time. She studied professional scripts by Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling in the hope of building a life of mixing writing, acting and creation. “I think I’m part of the first generation and it’s a real career path to knowing something different,” she said.

By 2021, she has stepped onto a stand Stephen Colbert's late performance Later, the staff was equipped with a writer's room What we do in the shadows and shrink. Despite this, although she is getting older shrink Star Harrison Ford - Baram says she is battling impostor syndrome. Even join Overcompensation The writer's room feels surreal.

"I've been working with people I admire for years," she said, citing stand-up effects like Pat Regan and Mary Beth Barone. "But you have to be careful about you saying that. If you tell someone that you are in your 30s, you look up to them and they will have a crisis."

Baram admits that she always had “vague desires” action, but the cruel reality casting made it seem too unfulfilling. Now that she's on the call sheet, she's tasting the trip - marveling at the professional makeup artist ("I didn't know I could look like!") and Coachella fused together, where she watched Charli XCX perform in VIP with Kate Hudson, Hailey Bieber and Timothée Chalamet.

"Stand up gave me a good trick," she said. "When something is done, I can keep moving forward. So if I see a bad photo (from these events), it's like - well, my face does a lot of different things. It's great."

OvercompensationThe premiere on May 15 is not only a test of Baram’s ribs on camera, but also whether social media influence can be translated into old-fashioned TV ratings. She has seen the project as a victory: In order to get GreenLit, it has to clear multiple obstacles, including Amazon, A24 and Strong Baby’s eight-episode desk reading, Jonah Hill’s production banner.

If the audience takes anything from the show, Baram hopes it is the art of ridicule herself - she has been good at it over the years. What we do in the shadows Teach her absurdity; shrink Teach her heart; and Overcompensation Teach her how to build her own life for comedy, even the most disrespectful moment.

"I had a few…problems," she said, not completely shy about it. "Unfortunately, I think it's fun. Now, I can't stop telling people when I'm walking in the parade - there's also an activity."

The story appears on May 7 of Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.