Quinta Brunson, Head of Her Class
glamour.comQuinta Brunson has had a bewildering summer. For the first time since she was 14, she spent it not working. Brunson—who has written, starred in, and executive-produced the certified hit Abbott Elementary and simultaneously restored her entire industry’s faith in the viability of the half-hour network sitcom—went on strike with the rest of the writers in the WGA union in the spring, and remained on it through the summer when the actors joined them on the picket line.Now that the WGA has scored a new contract, is back in business (although shooting the new season of Abbott will have to wait until SAG-AFTRA settles its negotiations too).
She doesn’t cast it as a silver lining, but she does acknowledge that these past few months have given her “time to process” her whirlwind ascension from viral video creator to genuine star.The 33-year-old—as an entire generation knows—got her start as the mind behind beloved shorts like “The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date,” which nabbed her a job at BuzzFeed.
Abbott Elementary, which takes the tropes of the traditional workplace comedy and sends them up by setting it at an underfunded elementary school in Philadelphia, is her first network show and creative brainchild.
Needless to say, given its rapturous reception, there will be others. She's signed a multiyear deal with Warner Bros. Television Group to develop new series and tell fresh stories.Who better to talk to Brunson about her wild ride in Hollywood than a woman who knows very well where she came from?
Read more on glamour.com
