EXCLUSIVE: Former Good Girls star Mae Whitman has been tapped as the female lead in Up Here, Hulu’s musical romantic comedy series from Tick, Tick… Boom! and Dear Evan Hansen writer Steven Levenson, The Carmichael Show‘s Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Hamilton director Thomas Kail; and the Frozen and WandaVision songwriting duo of Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
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Written by Levenson, Sanchez-Witzel, Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and directed by Kail, Up Here is set in New York City in the waning days of 1999. It follows the extraordinary story of one ordinary couple, Lindsay and Miguel, as they fall in love and discover that the single greatest obstacle to finding happiness together might just be themselves – and the treacherous world of memories, obsessions, fears, and fantasies that lives inside their heads.
Whitman stars as Lindsay, who has spent her entire life desperately trying to live up to the good girl persona the world seems to expect of her. But she is sick and tired of being nice, and she is about to leave her small life in small town Vermont behind to move to New York City to find out who she really is, and what she really wants.
Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez will pen original songs for Up Here. Production on the show, which has an eight-episode straight-to-series order, is set to begin this summer in New York. 20th Television is the studio, producing with and Kail’s Old 320 Sycamore Productions. Levenson, Sanchez-Witzel, Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez and Kail executive produces with Jennifer Todd.
Whitman is coming off a four-season run as one of the leads of NBC’s popular series Good Girls. Before that, she had starring roles on Parenthood, which earned her a Gracie Award and a Critics’ Choice TV Award nomination, and in Arrested Development. Whitman also is a sought-after voice actor with an extensive resume, including voicing Tinker Bell in the Disney Fairies franchise, as well as April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Amity in The Owl House.
Whitman recently signed with Gersh and is also repped by Untitled Entertainment and attorney Adam Keller.
