Sam Zvibleman: Last News

In recalling stories from seventh grade, Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle and Sam Zvibleman were so entertained by their own memories that, in 2019, the close friends created PEN15, a comedy series where Erskine and Konkle, then 32, portrayed their semi-autobiographical journeys through middle school. Little did the audience know that through the eyes of two adolescents they would get a lesson in the relevance of teenage issues and emotions. “At the time we were conceiving it, we would go to these parties and feel like we were back in middle school,” Erskine says. “We were having an epiphany that the 13-year-old inside of you is always there.” Here Erskine talks about the catharsis of going back in time, and why it was time to bid farewell to her tween self.

“We knew that we wanted to write a show about the most kind of reject-y moments of our lives,” Pen15 co-creator and star Anna Konkle said of the initial inspiration she, co-star Maya Erskine and executive producer Sam Zvibleman had for Hulu’s middle school-set series.