This article was originally published at Shondaland.com
The comedic actor, writer, and performer was on “The Daily Show” and “2 Dope Queens.” Now with her new Apple TV+ series, “Shrinking,” Williams has the audience's full attention.
Actor, writer, and comedian Jessica Williams has been in the industry since she was 15, starting as a teen actor before going on to make appearances in both UCB Comedy Originals and CollegeHumor Originals, as well as Girls and Hot Tub Time Machine 2. But it was her stint as a senior correspondent on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show at the age of 22 that finally made audiences sit up and say, “Who’s that girl?” Her sharp, satirical observations and sardonic delivery made such an indelible impression on viewers that, upon Stewart’s exit from the show in 2015, there were rumors Williams might take over hosting duties for Comedy Central’s long-running satirical news show.
Instead, Williams decided to take her career as an actor to the next level, leaving The Daily Show in 2016 to lead The Incredible Jessica James, a Netflix rom-com. Before that, she made her feature-film debut in 2015’s People Places Things opposite Jemaine Clement and Regina Hall, and later, along with her friend Phoebe Robinson, Williams launched 2 Dope Queens, a hilarious podcast and live show about being 20-something women in New York.
From there, Williams entered the wizarding world as Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, the prodigious Charms professor at the American Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Williams also recently had a supporting role in the short-lived Anna Kendrick vehicle for HBO Max called Love Life, but lucky for us, Williams is back where she belongs — in the lead.
In Shrinking, a new Apple TV+ series created by Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein (who brought us Ted Lasso), Williams stars opposite heavy hitters Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Christa Miller as Gaby, a therapist who works alongside Dr. Paul Rhodes (Ford) and Jimmy (Segel), a fellow therapist who, after losing his wife, channels his grief into telling his clients whatever is on his mind, be it psychologically by the book or not.
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“I initially met with Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein, and Jason Segel on a Zoom call,” Williams says of their initial encounter. “They had this loose sketch of Gaby, and they only had a few episodes written. I just knew I was a really big fan of Jason and Brett, and I really wanted to work with them, so I just kind of trusted them.” Plus, hello, Harrison Ford: “Right after I signed on, Harrison Ford was in the picture, which was insane, so I felt like I had won the lottery. Who knew I’d get to act with Harrison Ford?”
As a colleague and comrade of Jimmy, Gaby was Williams’ part to shape. “They said that they wanted to write Gaby towards me and my skill set, and that I would be free to improvise on set, which seemed really fun,” Williams says of how she inspired the role. “Bill Lawrence’s big thing was when he makes his shows, it’s really important that the actors are the gatekeepers of the characters. He told me right before the table read, ‘Gaby is your responsibility, and so I will defer to you about the ways Gaby would respond to certain things, and the things that she would do.’ Early on, I was able to jump into the writers’ room if writers had any questions about how I thought Gaby should be shaped up, like how her water bottle would look — that was really important. It was a place where I felt free to express myself and figure out who my character was — there was wiggle room to do that.” An added bonus: Shrinking films near Williams’ home in Los Angeles. “The show filmed, like, 20 minutes from the house I just bought, so it was a no-brainer for me.”
Such a relaxed approach to TV making and the freedom to govern over her character are what made Shrinking a “dream job” for Williams. “It didn’t feel like there was this intense pressure,” she says. “It was really easygoing and laid-back in a really nice way. They let me really fly with her — as a Black woman, that doesn’t really happen a lot. It was really fun. Then when I got to set, Jason Segel is improv extraordinaire, so a lot of times we didn’t know what would happen until we got the scene on its legs, so there was the delight and joy of figuring out the scene on the day.”
On the topic of more opportunity for Black women, Williams memorably gave a powerful speech at Sundance a few years back — a call to action for white liberal feminists to walk the walk and serve as actual allies instead of just talking the talk. When asked about the progress she’d like to see, Williams explains her current position. “Everything is very circular. I don’t think that things are as linear as logic will have us feel. It’s more like a tug-of-war sometimes where you give a little bit more on this side or a little bit more on that side. It’s going to be that way until the end, is what I’ve been thinking as of late. I could talk to you a year from now and be like, I was completely wrong. But at 33, there are too many factors and too much nuance. The only thing that’s actually true is that your locus of control is really small — it’s only you. For me, the focus right now is kind of paying less attention to all the noise going on around me and zeroing in on what I think is important and what my values are, trying to hold myself true to that. And realizing, actually, that so much of it is out of my control.”
Williams, an actor and performer for more than half her life, was first tipped off to her destined profession by watching TV as a kid. “I used to really be into mystery and paranormal shows — I used to like this show called So Weird that was on Disney Channel for a while,” she recalls. “I used to watch All That, which was basically a famous baby comedy sketch show, and I wanted to do that. I grew up just watching a lot of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. My grandma really liked Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, and she watched a lot of late night, so I got to watch Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer, and Molly Shannon — just all these incredibly funny women do comedy. So, I knew I wanted to do that when I was young. I wanted to have a comedic bent.”
To realize her dreams, she studied at kids’ acting classes — abundant in L.A. — until she was cast, at 15, on a Nickelodeon show. “I did a bunch of auditions for this show Just for Kicks that was executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg. I got that job — I played a soccer player, which is really funny in retrospect because I’m more of a basketball player. I remember filming at Universal Studios on the lot, and that was a really big deal for me. We did one season, 13 episodes, and then got canceled pretty immediately. I remember just feeling devastated and feeling like, ‘I’m 16. I’m never going to work again,’ like my life was over.”
She grins as we talk about that point in her life, but Williams is ultimately grateful she didn’t peak at 16. “I’m double that age now. [The cancellation] really mattered to me then and still really matters to me now, but I feel really lucky,” she explains. “I’m able to afford a house as a millennial with a skill set that I get paid to do that’s really fun. I get to figure out work-life balance. It wasn’t the end of the world, which is nice. But I did think it was the end of the world. Looking back, all the stuff that was really sh--ty altered my experience and worldview, and at the end of the day, it just makes you a better actor. It makes you better able to talk to people too. All that sad stuff. Getting things canceled just gives you a better perspective of ‘failure’ and what that means. I’m just a more empathetic person.”
Just a few years later, Williams landed on The Daily Show, which was where she was destined to be. “I learned so much just from watching Jon Stewart and the talented writers and correspondents,” Williams recalls. “I was really the youngest there for a long time, and a lot of times what you’re supposed to do at that age is be quiet and listen. For me, I’m pretty sensitive, and I’m pretty introverted when I’m at home, so I learned a lot from watching people work, really.”
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Speaking of home, when we speak on Zoom, Williams appears to be somewhere she feels at home. After 10 years in Brooklyn, being back in her hometown and close to her family is very important to the native Angeleno. “I was just in the Dominican Republic shooting a movie for about six weeks, and you just miss being home,” she says. “Luckily, I’ve been booked and busy. So, whenever I’m home like now, I really just try and soak it in and hang out with my best friends and family. I moved home, so I’ve been taking care of my nieces and nephews. Just trying to be the cool auntie is really important to me.”
It’s all part of what Williams says is the importance of cultivating a greater understanding of work-life balance. “While I’m very lucky, I don’t want my acting career to consume my whole life. I don’t think I’ll feel fulfilled,” she explains. “What’s really important now that I’m 33 is feeling fulfilled creatively but also spending time with my parents and my friends that I grew up with, playing board games, playing video games, and watching basketball and stuff like that with my friends.”
With regard to what might be next for Williams after Shrinking, we get no spoilers — she makes it clear she can’t divulge anything. But on the lighter side, Williams is considering performing live again in L.A. with some of her improv pals, and just doing more of the kinds of things that give her joy. “Every decade, you just hang out with less and less people you don’t want to, and you do what you want to do,” Williams says. “I feel like in my 30s, every now and then I hang out with people I don’t want to or do something I don’t feel like doing, but I just know that with every passing year I’m going to be like, ‘I have no f--ks to give; I will not be doing that. I’m loving life.’”