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The Girls on the Bus: Melissa Benoist Series Adds 8 to HBO Max Cast

Published Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:00:11 -0500

Some major casting news on both sides of the camera today for HBO Max's Melissa Benoist, Natasha Behnam & Christina Elmore-starring The Girls on the Bus. First up, Brandon Scott (Dead to Me, This Is Us) has joined the cast as a series regular. And on the recurring side, Scott Foley is being joined by Griffin Dunne (This Is Us), Leslie Fray (Reacher), PJ Sosco (Chicago Med), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Kyle Vincent Terry (Power Book II: Ghost), Tala Ashe (DC's Legends of Tomorrow) and Richard Bekins (Armageddon Time). And Abby Phillip, senior political correspondent & anchor of CNN's Inside Politics Sunday, has boarded the project as a consultant. Stemming from Julie Plec, Chozick, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. TV, the series spotlights journalist Sadie McCarthy (Benoist), who hits the campaign trail and eventually bonds with three female competitors, Grace, Lola (Behnam), and Kimberlyn (Elmore). Despite their differences, the women become a found family with a front-row seat to the greatest soap opera in town: the battle for the White House.

Written by Plec and Chozick, the character-driven comedic drama series draws its inspiration from "The Girls on the Bus" chapter of Chozick's book Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling and revolves around four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way. Benoist portrays Sadie McCarthy, a journalist who romanticizes Tim Crouse's Boys on the Bus and who scrapped her whole life for her own shot at covering a presidential campaign for the paper of record. Behnam portrays Lola Gabriel is a sharp-witted and passionately political TikTok star and well-known Gen Z influencer. Elmore's Kimberlyn Kendrick is an Ivy League-educated Reagan Republican and campaign reporter for Liberty News. Foley is set to play a little-known mayor from Kansas who joined the presidential race.

Scott is the fiercest political flack in the game, who has just been hired as press secretary to the presidential front-runner. Dunne's Bruce Turner is Sadie McCarthy's award-winning, grizzled editor and mentor at the paper of record. Fray's Nellie Carmichael is a junior correspondent at Liberty National News alongside Kimberlyn. Sosco is set to play famed gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Baker's Norah is Sadie's protective mother, who is not happy that Sadie is re-entering the political arena. Terry's Eric Jordan is Kimberlyn's adoring and supportive boyfriend. Ashe portrays an offbeat yet accessible progressive who is Lola's clear favorite in the presidential race. Bekins plays a seasoned elder statesman and politician from the bygone days (the 1990s) who has been running for president since Sadie was in diapers. (Deadline Hollywood first reported, exclusively)

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