Paula Pell

Episode notes

(Photo: Emily V. Aragones and Netflix)

Paula Pell spent 18 years behind the scenes as a writer on Saturday Night Live. The sketches she’s written for SNL are classics. Ana Gasteyer and Will Ferrell’s bizarre pop music duo. The Spartan Cheerleaders. Since then, she’s written for 30 Rock and had roles on Parks and Recreation, Big Mouth, and A.P. Bio.

More recently, Paula stars alongside Busy Phillips and Sara Bareilles in Girls5Eva–a sitcom about a one-hit wonder girl group from the ’90s, reuniting to try again at pop stardom. Paula plays Gloria–the formerly-closeted, queer elder of the group making up for lost time. The show’s third season just premiered and is streaming on Netflix.

When Paula was last on Bullseye, she’d just starred in a movie called Wine Country, alongside SNL alums Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Rachel Dratch. It’s a story about a group of women reconnecting over a birthday weekend in Napa. Pell also pulled back the curtain and discussed some of her more controversial work on SNL.

This interview originally aired in May of 2019

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Guests

Paula Pell

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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