On the heels of celebrating the 25th anniversary of South Park, MTV Entertainment Studios is building on its adult animation slate by announcing the cast of its new animated film Jodie, a spinoff of MTV’s iconic Daria franchise.
Joining Golden Globe winning actress Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish) is Pamela Adlon (Better Things) as Jocelyn Light, Cole Escola (Search Party), Jojo T. Gibbs (Twenties), William Jackson Harper (Love Life), Zosia Mamet (The Flight Attendant), Alex Moffat (Saturday Night Live), Dermot Mulroney (Hanna), Arden Myrin (Insatiable), Kal Penn (Designated Survivor), Kofi Siriboe (Queen Sugar), Dulcé Sloan (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah) and Heléne Yorke (The Other Two).
Jodie follows Jodie Landon as she leaves college, moves to a gentrifying city, and begins a job at Firstfinity, a mysterious Google-like tech company. The film is executive produced by writer and showrunner Grace Edwards alongside Ellis Ross and Ashley Kohler of Awesome Inc.
Meet the characters:
- Tracee Ellis Ross will play Jodie, the iconic character from Daria. Fresh from college graduation and full of ambition, Jodie heads to the big city for a prestigious internship at tech behemoth, Firstfinity.
- Pamela Adlon will play Jocelyn Light, the trailblazing VP of Internet Affairs at FirstFinity who Jodie reveres.
- Cole Escola will play Ryan, Jodie’s intern friend at Firstfinity who is allergic to earnestness.
- Jojo T. Gibbs will play Tiffany, who has swag for weeks, lives in Jodie’s building and is Cas’s ex.
- William Jackson Harper will play Mack, Jodie’s witty and supportive high school sweetheart from the original Daria series.
- Zosia Mamet will play Greta, a beachy-waved, self-proclaimed empath and Jodie’s fellow intern at Firstfinity.
- Alex Moffat will play Barry, the overeager internship coordinator at Firstfinity who, despite being in his 50s, desperately tries to be Gen-Z cool.
- Dermot Mulroney will play Lionel, the powerful and charming CEO of Firstfinity.
- Arden Myrin will play Britney, the former Lawndale cheerleader from Daria turned influencer at FirstFinity.
- Kal Penn will play Sandeep, another fellow intern who is a fitness-obsessed tech bro.
- Kofi Siriboe will play Raymond, Jodie’s incredibly handsome, but not-so-friendly supervisor at Firstfinity.
- Dulcé Sloan will play Cas, Jodie’s fun-loving best friend from college and new roommate. A finance genius and social butterfly, Cas plays as hard as she grinds.
- Helene Yorke will play Nia, Jodie’s brown-nosing, fellow intern who will do whatever it takes to get ahead.
As MTV puts it, what Daria did for showing how inane high school was for Gen X, Jodie will do for exploring the trials and tribulations of that first post-college job for a new generation. The show will satirize workplace culture, Gen Z struggles, tech, social media and more. Just as Daria did for Daria Morgendorffer when it was a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead, Jodie will delve deeper into Jodie Landon as she goes from feeling like she had to be “the perfect African-American teen” at Lawndale High to headlining her own story.
