Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb & Ben Rappaport To Star In ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ NBC Pilot

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read
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Brooklyn Nine-Nine alumna Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb (The Act) and Ben Rappaport (For the People) are set as leads in Grosse Pointe Garden Society, NBC’s drama pilot from Jenna Bans, Bill Krebs and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

The drama follows four members of a suburban garden club — three of them played by Fumero, Robb and Rappaport — all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom.

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Fumero plays Birdie. Entitled, rich, swathed in Chanel, a smoker, a drinker, self-destructive at times, toxic at others, but not without real pain beneath her facade, Birdie is a successful author whose memoir, “Digging for Gold: Dancing Through Divorce,” is a bestseller.

Robb plays Alice, your favorite high school English teacher, a dreamer whose best dreams are crashing down on her. She’s a longtime member of the Grosse Pointe Garden Society.

Rappaport plays Brett. Cool in a threadbare kind of way, Brett put his own dreams of starting a car restoration business on hold so his wife (now ex-wife) could finish law school. He continues his job as a manager of a garden store so he can take care of the kids.

Maggie Kiley is directing the pilot, which she is executive producing with Bans via her Minnesota Logging Co., Krebs and Casey Kyber.

This marks Fumero’s return to NBC. She is probably best known for her role as Amy Santiago in the critically acclaimed Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ended its eight-season run on NBC. She won the Imagen Foundation Award for her work on the show. Fumero recently was a voice cast member on Comedy Central’s adult animated series Digman! from Andy Samberg as well as Max’s Velma from Mindy Kaling. She also starred opposite Randall Park in Netflix’s comedy series Blockbuster and in the IFC comedy film Barfight! with Rachel Bloom. Fumero, who also has done episodic directing on multiple series, is repped by UTA and Corner Booth Entertainment.

Robb co-starred in Hulu’s limited series The Act and Little Fires Everywhere. She’s set to start production on the Netflix feature Rebel Ridge, where she will star as the female lead opposite Aaron Pierre. Robb’s series credits include Dr. Death, Mercy Street and The Carrie Diaries. She is reppd by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.

Rappaport’s credits include For the People, Mr. Robot, The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, Ozark, Younger, Inventing Anna and Outsourced. On the film side, recently wrapped the feature Albany Road opposite Renée Elise Goldsberry. Last year, he starred opposite Sean Hayes on Broadway in Good Night, Oscar and also was cast in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Rappaport is repped by Gersh, Invictus Entertainment and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

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