Make no mistake, the standout character of Netflix’s Atypical is Casey Gardner, the running enthusiast played by California raised, New York based Brigette Lundy-Paine. On the second season, Casey’s amplified screen-time sees her, among other things, exploring gay desires at private school – a plot arc that’s sweet and understated.
Lundy-Paine (who last year came out as queer, making her one of a new generation of actors who are refreshingly open about their sexuality) told Dazed last year that messages from “young queer people and young people who don’t feel quite like they fit in” are a regular thing. With Atypical’s popularity, too, the fan responses are presumably still rolling in.
Beyond Netflix, she can be found beatboxing for her improvisational voice band Subtle Pride, and working on the experimental arts publication Waif Magazine, which she co-founded. Her contributions to Waif (a self-described mix of Vogue and the New Yorker) include photography, interrogating musicians, and other methods of “finding untouched space” – how she sums up her driving motivation.
Next up is a third season of Atypical, a role in an upcoming Roger Ailes biopic (set for an Oscar-friendly release), and the Subtle Pride tour – a chance for Atypical die-hards to witness her beatboxing in person. “I’d like to be on stage in New York,” Lundy-Paine adds. “In the meantime, I very much look forward to the launch of Waif TV, a variety show set to premiere at the end of this year.”
Nick Chen