Tim Meadows, SNL star, has found a TV wife for his co-starring role in the upcoming Fox pilot The Gabriels , and it probably isn’t anyone you’ve heard from before.
Chicago theater actor Sara Sevigny joined the cast on Tuesday, March 5, according to a statement from Gray Talent Group , Sevigny’s representation.
Sevigny called it “a dream come true to work with such a wonderful cast on this hilarious show” in a statement.
A native of Evanston, Illinois, Sevigny has a respected theater career in Chicago, where she served as marketing director and cast member of The Factory Theater group. The pilot will be her first role in TV or film.
The Gabriels will focus on its title characters, played by Rob Riggle ( The Hangover and 21 Jump Street ) and Angela Kinsey (TV’s The Office ).
Sevigny and former Saturday Night Live star Meadows will play next door neighbors Bonnie and Tom Klabunde. Meadows’ character is a middle school principal, who has been described by TV Line as a “straight-laced man with a ‘churchy smile.’”
Tim Meadows started at SNL 22 years ago and owes much of his success to the show. He joined the cast in 1991 and scored small parts in the show’s film spinoffs Wayne’s World 2, It’s Pat, and Coneheads, shortly thereafter.
His most famous role on SNL eventually captured its own big-screen spinoff in 2000’s The Ladies Man . In the show (and film), Meadows played Leon Phelps, an afro-wearing talk radio host with a voracious sexual appetite.
The film version met with abysmal reviews, scoring just an 11 percent on the critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , and was ultimately a box office failure scoring just $13.7 million worldwide of its $24 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo .
Since that time, Meadows has stayed active on television and in the occasional film appearance.
Fox is banking on the Meadows-Riggle-Kinsey triumvirate to bring in ratings following lukewarm reviews for its The Mindy Project starring Kinsey’s former cast-mate from The Office , Mindy Kaling.
The network is also betting on Friends & Family , another comedy pilot starring Alexis Bledel and Jason Ritter as a couple, who meet online and try to maintain a real-world relationship.
What do you think about the latest casting choice of The Gabriels , and are you more looking forward to it or Friends & Family ?