In 2018, Awkwafina broke out with roles in Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians. In 2019, she starred in one of the year’s best films, The Farewell, and she’ll also appear in (likely) one of its biggest hits, Jumanji: The Next Level. How’s 2020 looking? Pretty good! In the new Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, which premieres January 20, Awkwafina plays — and I cannot stress this enough — Nora from Queens.
The half-hour comedy is about “a life of a girl raised by her dad and grandma, alongside her cousin. Her character, Nora Lin, leans on her family as she navigates life and young adulthood in outer borough-NYC,” according to Deadline. (The real-life Awkwafina grew up in Forest Hills, Queens.) B.D. Wong and Lori Tan Chinn play her dad and grandma, respectively, while rent of her cousin went to SNL breakout Bowen Yang. Guest stars include Michelle Buteau, Laverne Cox, Chris Gethard, Stephanie Hsu, David Krumholtz, Natasha Lyonne, Melissa Villaseñor, Ming-Na Wen, and Jaboukie Young-White.
In the trailer above, Nora looks for a job, gets stoned, forgets her social security number, and plays a video game with her grandmother, who yells, “I love killing.” It’s the Orange Is the New Black crossover I didn’t know I wanted!
