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Synopsis Groundbreaking comedian Tig Notaro returns for Season Two of the acclaimed Amazon Studios series One Mississippi, inspired by her own life and family. Long admired for her deadpan observational comedy, Notaro plays Tig, a story-telling L.A. disc jockey who moves back to her quaint Mississippi hometown after her mother dies. Love is in the air in when we pick back up with Tig, her stepfather Bill (John Rothman) and her brother Remy (Noah Harpster), living together again in the family’s home in Mississippi. It’s a season of new beginnings and new relationships for each of them, all of which test their personal status quo...as well as family boundaries. Tig resumes her radio career in Biloxi with producer Kate (Stephanie Allynne) by her side, though her outspoken point of view proves controversial for the local market. An opportunity to take a bigger stage in New Orleans comes with more reach, and also more responsibility.
Starring: Tig Notaro Noah Harpster John Rothman Sheryl Lee Ralph Stephanie Allynne Carly Jibson
Executive Producers: Kate Robin Tig Notaro Blair Breard Diablo Cody Louis C.K. Dave Becky
Producer: Lori-Etta Taub ABOUT THE PRODUCTION SEASON 2 HIGHLIGHTS A Second Life As a character, Tig shares her creator’s low-key, laconic speaking style and tendency to sneak up on a punch line before delivering it with uncanny precision. Lanky and boyish, Tig’s view of the world is an accurate representation of the real woman. “The character in the show is essentially me,” she acknowledges. “It’s not a huge stretch. It’s how I believe I would react to the fictionalized things that happen. It’s like having a second life. It’s fun being presented with situations that I haven’t experienced.” The biggest difference between Notaro and her alter-ego, she says, is that she returned to her life in Los Angeles as soon as she was well enough to do so. Her character, on the other hand, feels compelled to reconnect with her past in order to move forward into the future. “She recognizes the need to make things right and not skip over whatever issues are lingering,” says Notaro. “Her health problems are the initial reason she stays and then she meets a woman who gives her a reason to keep staying. Because she’s there, she is forced to deal with her past in a way that is ultimately healthy.” In Season Two, the show also places more focus on the lives of Tig’s brother Remy and their stepfather Bill. Portrayed by Noah Harpster and John Rothman, respectively, the characters were originally inspired by Notaro’s real-life family members, but have taken on lives of their own, says Robin. This season, both characters have independent, largely fictionalized, storylines, as they work to reestablish a sense of normalcy. Along with Tig, they are reconnecting with the world and opening themselves to the possibility of new love. “Sometimes we refer back to the traits of the actual people, but the actors really own the parts,” says Robin. Notaro made headlines in 2012 when she decided to make a detour from her usual wry observational comedy and “There’s no way that Tig’s real brother or stepfather would watch the show and say, ‘that happened to me.’ incorporate some painful and highly personal material into her set at a Los Angeles club. Opening her act with the We’re using the truth of the emotion and not the truth of the events.” words, “Good evening. Hello. I have cancer,” Notaro mesmerized her audience with a savagely honest, touching Notaro readily admits this is the largest and most challenging acting role she has taken on and she is grateful to and often funny account of a four-month period in which she lost her mother in a freak accident, ended a long-term have experienced players around her. “Being in scenes with John and Noah is both fun and enriching,” she says. relationship and was diagnosed with cancer in both breasts, as well as a life-threatening bacterial infection. “They give me a lot to play off of. The family dynamic is like mine but heightened. My actual stepfather is way more Tig’s monologue went viral and it eventually became the inspiration for One Mississippi, the poignant, mordantly approachable and purposefully funny. The way John plays Bill, he is funny in mostly accidental ways. My stepfather funny Amazon series now beginning its second season. The pilot, created by Notaro and Juno scribe Diablo Cody, is certainly accidentally funny a lot of times, but he also has a great sense of humor.” follows a story-telling radio personality, also named Tig, who returns to the small southern town in which she grew up to be with her dying mother, while still recovering from a serious illness herself. A blend of sharply observed commentary, intensely personal revelations and absurdist flights of fancy, One Mississippi channels Notaro’s own deadpan comic style into an alter ego that both is and isn’t her. Although the pilot was about 85 percent factual, Notaro says, from that point on the story departs from reality in numerous important ways. “I had just come out of a physically and emotionally horrible time,” she explains. “This was a way I could tell my story, but tell it more creatively and take it in different directions. I needed to rake through the details and talk about it, but as time went on, I became more open to fictionalizing. That was therapeutic in a whole different way.” When the pilot, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said,Orange is the New Black), was picked up for a six-episode run on Amazon, writer and producer Kate Robin came on board as showrunner. Robin, best known for her work on Six Feet Under, says that after viewing the pilot she knew she would be at home with One Mississippi’s bold and original comic skew. “It was honest and hilarious at the same time,” she says. “That felt so right to me. Left to my own devices, that’s the tone of my own work. I had been aware of Tig as a comedian for a long time, but like many people, I was just coming to really know her in a deeper way. She went to a place of incredible vulnerability and exposed difficult, intimate truths about life.” In Season One, Tig’s settled life in Los Angeles with her longtime girlfriend implodes, and she decides to stay in her Mississippi hometown for a while. Moving in with her stepfather Bill (John Rothman) and brother Remy (Noah Harpster), she hopes to unravel a lifetime of misunderstandings and emotional misfires. With the second season, Notaro and Robin have taken the show even further into fictional territory. “It’s possible that the show has become even more honest because of that,” Notaro observes. “Much of it is based on real situations, mine or somebody else’s from the writers room. We did that in the first season as well, but it’s even more so now.” An unconventional blend of genres, One Mississippi defies simple description. “It’s a unique format, really,” says Robin. “We’re interested in psychology and nuance and expressing emotion fully and truthfully. This season, Tig is rediscovering her joy in life in a way that is more profound because of her previous losses.” A former member of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and Groundlings comedy troupes, Allynne had initially only planned on writing for the series, but as the character based on her developed, everyone involved in the show felt strongly that she should play Kate. “This season tracks the genesis of our relationship, although in a somewhat fictionalized way,” she says. “There are things in the series that aren’t true to our lives, but that serve the storyline. It’s fun to play with what we were feeling in a different context.” Kate is struggling with her sexuality, which was a big obstacle for the couple in real life. “Kate is blindsided by love,” Allynne says. “She struggles with intimacy and she struggles with labels. I always thought of myself as straight, but all of a sudden I was something else, something I didn’t totally identify as. You like to think you know yourself. Well, I didn’t think I was gay, so I felt like I didn’t really know myself at all. When we meet Kate, she seems confident and sure of herself and then she isn’t.” Remy finds acceptance and domestic stability with Desiree, a bubbly and outgoing single mom he meets at church. “It’s wonderful for him to find someone who loves him and believes in him the way he is,” says Harpster. “The writers did a great job making Desiree a well-rounded character. She brings a genuine warmth and joy to this family. She believes in family and honoring commitments and love with a capital L. But some of her beliefs shock the family. They have to accept that we all have our ways of understanding the world.” Broadway veteran Carly Jibson plays Desiree with oblivious confidence and exuberance. “Desiree just bursts into Remy’s life in very surprising, vivid, powerful ways,” says Robin. “Carly’s performance is hilarious and deep. She’s phenomenal.” Bill also finds an unexpected love interest in a woman with whom he has a long-running office-elevator acquaintance. Sheryl Lee Ralph joins the cast as Felicia, a businesswoman who has more in common with Bill than either of them suspect. “We have incredible guests and new regulars this year and Sheryl Lee is one of them,” says Robin. “She plays a colleague and ultimately a romantic interest of Bill’s, who is able to teach him to open his mind and his heart in new ways. Sheryl Lee is magnificent. She’s such a huge talent and an amazing screen presence.” Welcome to the Family As Bill, John Rothman has created a character that may be unique in television history. Emotionally distant and obsessed with orderliness, he could have been a difficult man to like, but Rothman makes him unexpectedly relatable. In fact, many viewers and critics have commented on how similar he is to someone they know. “Bill’s a repressed, unemotional guy,” the actor says. “He is described in the pilot as having a temperament somewhere between room temperature and sleet. He is the person who needs the dishwasher to be filled in a very specific way. But even with all his rules, he’s not judgmental. He’s accepting of his step children’s differences and tries to be very loving toward them. He raised these kids from a very young age and they need him to be exactly who he is.” Bill’s love of precision has served him well in his job in the frozen-food business, but recent events have forced him to confront the messiness of life. He has to step of his comfort zone in ways that often have unintentionally funny Ralph, one of Broadways’ original Dreamgirls, shares some of Bill’s unusual eccentricities. “Felicia has some quirks,” results. “Until now, his playbook has always worked well for him,” Rothman says, “but he doesn’t know how to deal according to the actress. “She probably has Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. But she functions very with Tig or the family’s new situation. Bill has a real character arc this season, however, as all of the changes in his well and very much like Bill does, which is wonderful for both of them. They have been meeting in the elevator for life begin to force him to open up.” a while, but they communicate by not saying a thing. It’s odd, but it works for them. And the next thing you know, Unlike his sister, who fled small-town life for Los Angeles, Tig’s brother Remy never left home. He lives in the a glance has turned into romance. I think the family is shocked that he has romantic feelings for anybody, really. attic of the house they grew up in, hanging on to his past as a popular high-school athlete by teaching history. He’s a man who has been so emotionally shut down. So they welcome her.” “Remy probably peaked in high school,” says Harpster. “He had a lot of potential that he hasn’t lived up to, whereas Felicia has little in common with Bill’s outgoing, vivacious wife, but Bill finds a different kind of kinship with her. Tig was an awkward outcast who became very successful.” “Bill and Felicia are very much alike,” says Rothman. They are both extremely organized and precise. Sheryl Lee told Despite whatever differences they have, Remy is absolutely devoted to his sister and this season, with her health me that when she was auditioning, she was asked to watch Season One and imitate me. When we started working issues resolved, they return to a state of loving sibling rivalry that will be familiar to many viewers. “He’s happy to have together, I felt like I was looking in a mirror.” her home,” says Harpster, who first met Notaro while working on the award-winning Amazon series Transparent, Ralph’s Felicia is completely unlike the actress in real life, he adds. “Sheryl Lee is a great big Broadway diva, playing where he has been writer, actor and producer. “As her health gets better, the sibling conflicts that we all know start a totally restrained, repressed character. It’s a magnificent performance. There’s often a kind of brilliance that to come into play. Specifically, she disapproves of the person he’s dating, and he disapproves of her love life.” comes from casting against type.” Allowing the characters to grow beyond their initial limitations has been a smart and exciting choice, says Harpster. Although she was unfamiliar with Notaro’s story, Ralph responded strongly to the script. “It was so interesting to see “When we first meet Remy, he’s running from any real responsibility. But a new relationship begins to change him people who were trying so hard to connect emotionally with themselves and the rest of the world’,” she says. “It just and it’s going to be fun to watch.” goes to show, you might think you’re all alone, but one person’s challenges easily become everybody’s challenges. In fact, all three family members explore new romantic frontiers this season, with the kinds of complications one And then to hear about Tig’s real life and see how she has come out of all of this on top, in love with her family, it just might expect. Tig has fallen for Kate, the producer of her radio program, but there’s a hitch — Kate is not gay. proves the human spirit is a hell of a thing, baby.” Stephanie Allynne, who plays Kate and is a writer on the show, is also Notaro’s real-life wife. She says their love story mirrors Tig and Kate’s on the show. The Grass of Home Bay St. Lucille, Tig’s fictional hometown, is inspired by Pass Christian, Mississippi, a former antebellum resort on the Gulf Coast. About an hour outside of New Orleans with a permanent population of less than 5,000, Pass Christian has been home to Notaro’s mother’s family for many years. “It’s a beautiful town with a lot of history,” says Robin. “Pass Christian is a very special place for Tig and it’s lit by the fondness of nostalgia.” Although Notaro was actually brought up in Texas, she has often said she considers Pass Christian to be her true home. “All the rest of my family is in the Mississippi-Louisiana area,” she says. “I set the show there for that reason.” While she never actually considered moving to Texas or Mississippi long term, after her mother’s death Notaro became too sick to travel and stayed on at home for a couple of months. “It was never a decision that I was going to live in Texas,” she says. “It was more like I didn’t know if I was going to live.” At first, Bay St. Lucille reflects Notaro’s childhood memories of an idyllic small-town retreat. In the new season, however, the show takes a more critical look at the realities of life in a conservative Southern rural community. This season has an emotional complexity that reflects Notaro’s conflicted feelings about the state she considers home. “I’m proud to be from Mississippi and I’m proud of my family there. I still go back several times a year. In the first season it was important to me to just show the beauty of it all. But there’s been quite a shift politically and socially. I didn’t want to stay in a rose-colored-glasses place, as though there are no pressing issues outside of my family. There is still love and beauty and acceptance there and I want the show to share that with the world, but I also want to show how these other factors can seep into that love and beauty and acceptance.” “After the election, we couldn’t really see the town in the same light,” adds Robin. “This takes place in the present, Tig and I got married in Mississippi and it was all great. Then we learned that Tig’s cousin, who officiated our and I couldn’t do a show set in this community, without exploring some of the painful truths that have emerged. Many wedding, was kicked out of his church for performing the ceremony. The people we thought were a minority, stuck in of us have had to reexamine places that we want to see in a positive light, because we realized our assumptions the Dark Ages, actually have a huge voice. We felt a responsibility to include that.” weren’t in line with reality.” Racial relations come into play in the romance between Felicia, who is African American, and Bill, who is white. Reactions to the 2016 election results were a hot-button topic in the writers’ room, says Allynne. “When Bill, who would be deeply troubled to think of himself as a bigot, has to acknowledge all the ways racism affects Barack Obama was still in office, there was a feeling that the country was moving in a more progressive direction. everyday life in a state that celebrates the legacies of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the same day. “There’s a scene that points out the ways in which slavery is still minimized,” says Ralph. “Bill and Felicia are in a restaurant where a painting of wealthy landowner of the 19th century is prominently displayed. They’re an interracial couple getting to know each other and he just glosses over it. Felicia points out that this woman owned other human beings, and he may think it’s only a small part of who she was, but to Felicia, it’s very important. “I felt so proud that I was able to say those words out loud,” Ralph continues. “It is about time! Why would someone want to minimize that? Why do we want to act like it didn’t happen?” The response to the show has been overwhelmingly positive, with critics praising One Mississippi’s intelligence, courage and originality. According to Robin, the acclaim is gratifying, especially since it allows them to follow their own instincts in terms of how the show develops. “External validation is flattering,” she admits. “But Tig and I are both internally driven. It’s not in our natures to be influenced by outside response. We’re doing this because we want to talk about things that interest us. Getting a second season empowered us to continue listening to our own inner voices.” Season Two will be powerful, Notaro and Robin promise, exploring personal family dynamics and the importance of love and connection, while also taking on larger social topics with fierce humor and keen personal insights. “It is essential to examine these things from a specific point of view,” says Notaro. “There is a great deal of responsibility that goes along with being the first series starring an openly gay performer as an openly gay character that is not about coming out. And this is an important moment to reflect on what it’s like to live in a diverse but divided community, from all sides.” Notaro and Robin believe that Season Two will also be lighter, more humorous and optimistic than Season One. “In Season Two, I picture all of the characters rising from the rubble,” says Notaro. “They’re dusting their pants off and rejoining life on a more concrete level, whatever that brings, whether it’s love or career or something else.” CAST BIOS
TIG NOTARO
Tig Notaro is a comedian, actor and writer originally from Mississippi, who Rolling Stone named one of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Tig writes, produces and stars in the semi-autobiographical Amazon series, One Mississippi. Season 1 yielded several nominations including - WGA, GLAAD and The Critic’s Choice Awards. Tig was also nominated for an Emmy as well as a Grammy for her 2016 HBO special Boyish Girl Interrupted, a GLAAD Award nomination for the Netflix Original Documentary Tig, and her memoir I’m Just a Person is a New York Times Bestseller. In 2013, Tig was nominated for a Grammy Award for her sophomore release, Live, which sold over 100,000 units in just six weeks. Live is a stand-up set delivered just days after Tig was diagnosed with invasive bilateral breast cancer, of which she is now in remission. Tig remains a favorite on late night talk shows, public radio, tours around the world regularly and most recently sold out Carnegie Hall. In her time off, Tig enjoys bird watching with her wife Stephanie, their twin sons and cat Fluff, at home in Los Angeles.
NOAH HARPSTER
Noah Harpster is a triple-threat writer, actor and producer known for his work in both television and film. He will next be seen in the Amazon series One Mississippi in which he stars as Tig Notaro’s brother. Additionally, Noah is a writer, actor and producer on the Emmy winning Amazon series Transparent. Recently, Noah and Micah Fitzerman-Blue’s pilot, The Legend of Master Legend, was also picked up by Amazon. In addition to his television work, Noah has two feature films in development. Jason Bateman is set to star in IPO Man, which Noah co-wrote with Micah Fitzerman-Blue. Noah and Micah’s other feature film in development,I’m Proud of You, tells the story of Fred Rogers, creator of the popular children’s program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Noah’s past film credits include Disaster Movie, The Motel Life and Dirty Love. He has also made appearances on hit shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, The Closer, Big Love, Californication and Desperate Housewives. Originally from Salinas, California, Noah now resides in Los Angeles. JOHN ROTHMAN SHERYL LEE RALPH
John Rothman has worked continuously on stage, screen, A triple threat, Sheryl Lee Ralph is an acclaimed veteran and television for forty years. A graduate of the Yale School of film, television and the stage. Sheryl started her career of Drama, he has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on Broadway in the legendary musical Dreamgirls, which in regional theaters, and in plays directed by the likes of earned her a Best Actress Tony nod. She has created lasting Mike Nichols, Michael Blakemore and Trevor Nunn. He is characters on television in Moesha, Instant Mom, and especially proud of his collaborations with playwright and Ray Donovan. On the big screen, Sheryl has starred director Richard Nelson. amongst the greats including The Mighty Quinn with Denzel Washington and Mistress with Robert De Niro. As a young actor, John wrote and starred in the Off- Broadway hit The Impossible H.L. Mencken. He went on to Currently, Sheryl is a producer on the critically acclaimed write and co-star in the Sundance-selected short Good Night musical A Might Real and has returned to Broadway for a Valentino, a movie about Mencken and Valentino’s unlikely run as ‘Madame Morrible’ in Wicked. She recently wrapped friendship. In his film career, John has worked with directors Season Two of Tig Notaro’s acclaimed series One Mississippi Paul Greengrass, Alan J. Pakula, Anthony Minghella, and for Amazon and starred alongside Morgan Freeman in the Penny Marshall among many others. His first film was Woody film Villa Capri. Allen’s Stardust Memories and he was featured in three more Sheryl founded the nonprofit, The Diva Foundation, in movies directed by Allen. He has been in over a hundred 1990 as a memorial to the many friends she had lost to films—among them, Sophie’s Choice, Ghostbusters, Picture HIV/AIDS on Broadway. The foundation utilizes music and Perfect, Prime, United 93, and The Devil Wears Prada, as well entertainment as a vehicle to inform, educate and erase as many independent films that have screened at Sundance the stigma attached to the disease. Their annual benefit and other film festivals including Laurie Simmons’My Art concert, DIVAS Simply Singing!, continues to be the longest shown at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. consecutive running musical AIDS benefit in the country. John has guest-starred on innumerable TV shows and was a Sheryl resides in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia series regular on ABC’s Birdland. with her husband, Senator Vincent Hughes. John serves on the New York board of SagAftra, on the national TV/Theatrical negotiating committee. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The Actors Center.
STEPHANIE ALLYNNE CARLY JIBSON
Stephanie recently wrapped production on the second Carly Jibson is currently starring as a series regular season of the Amazon Original Series One Mississippi, on Greg Garcia’s The Guest Book on TBS. She is also where she also serves as a writer. She was most recently recurring on season two of Tig Notaro’s hit Amazon show, seen in Punching Henry opposite J.K. Simmons, Tig Notaro, One Mississippi. She has starred on Broadway in Cry Baby Michaela Watkins and Henry Phillips, as well as Gavin (Pepper Walker), Hairspray (Tracy Turnblad), Nat’l Tour: Wiesen’s feature, All Nighter, opposite J.K. Simmons and Hairspray 1st Nat’l (Tracy Turnblad) which she originated, Emile Hirsch. Stephanie also starred in Jim Strouse’s People, Regional Theatre: World Premier of Johnny Baseball, Places, Things, opposite Jemaine Clement, which premiered World premiere of Andrew Lippa’s Asphalt Beach, and at Sundance in 2015, and had a stand-out role in Lake Bell’s the World premiere of Crash Nation. She co-starred in the Sundance hit, In A World. A former Groundling, Stephanie is Unauthorized Parody Musical of SCREAM at The Rockwell a founding member of the sketch group, Wild Horses, with with Sarah Hyland. Carly released her Debut EP Best of Me, Lauren Lapkus and Mary Holland who have a new monthly which can be found on iTunes & the Original Broadway cast show at UCB Franklin in Los Angeles. of Cry Baby soundtrack. KATE ROBIN
Kate Robin is currently Executive Producing and Showrunning One Mississippi, starring and co-created by Tig Notaro, on Amazon. She is an award-winning playwright who was a Writer/Co-Executive Producer PRIME MEMBER EXCLUSIVE on Showtime’s The Affair (for which she won a Golden Globe), a Writer/Supervising Producer on HBO’s Six Feet Under, and a Writer/Consulting Producer on Alan Ball’s new show Here, Now, coming to HBO STREAM NEW SEASON next January. She created and produced the pilot SEPTEMBER 8 Spring/Fall for HBO starring Tea Leoni, Hope Davis, Stockard Channing and Sigourney Weaver. Her plays have received numerous New York, Nationwide and International productions including I See You which premiered at The Flea; Anon at The Atlantic Theater Company; What They Have at South Coast Rep and Intrigue with Faye at Manhattan Class Company. Kate is a winner of The Princess Grace Award (twice), the IRNE best new play award and an alumnus of the New Dramatists.
201: I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND 204: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? 202: INTO THE LIGHT 205: CAN’T FIGHT THIS FEELING 203: KISS ME AND SMILE FOR ME 206: I’M ALIVE Press Contact: Tiffany Shinn | [email protected]
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