Harriet Dyer lands lead role in new US comedy DMV following Colin From Accounts success
Colin From Accounts star Harriet Dyer reveals how a surprise phone call scored her the lead role in a new comedy opposite a Mean Girls favourite.
It’s hard to believe Harriet Dyer, the award-winning actress from the global hit Colin From Accounts, found it challenging to land an acting gig in LA, but she did.
Despite the success of the Logie-winning Aussie comedy that sees her serve as co-creator, co-writer and lead actress, Dyer had trouble getting an audition in the competitive Hollywood circuit … until one day she received a call she wasn’t expecting.
On the other end of the line was Dana Klein, a Hollywood producer who worked on sitcoms such as Fresh Off the Boat, the US version of Kath & Kim, and the smash-hit sitcom Friends.
A massive Colin From Accounts fan, Klein had created and written a new workplace comedy titled DMV - and wanted Dyer in the lead role.
Stream DMV and Colin From Accounts now on BINGE, available on Hubbl.
“I still find that very humbling and it’s very sweet,” Dyer tells news.com.au of being on Klein’s radar. “I think she saw Colin From Accounts and that did something to her brain. She decided that that was who she needed in her show, which is so awesome because the job came at a time when I was doing a lot of auditions and I was having trouble landing a role.”
“This is just the nature of being actors,” adds Dyer, who has lived in LA for almost 10 years. “You never know who’s talking about you for something. So you wake up thinking, another day trying to make this all make sense. And then little do you know, you’re about to get a phone call saying, ‘Can you come and be the lead of a new sitcom and move your family to Montreal for five months?’ It’s nuts.”
DMV (short for Department of Motor Vehicles), which is streaming locally now on BINGE, follows a group of minimum wage employees at a fictional East Hollywood DMV.
Dyer plays Colette, a driving examiner with good intentions but bad boundaries who builds a bond with co-workers who are just as miserable on the job.
The script was enough to get Dyer on board, but having Mean Girls star Tim Meadows in the cast was also a big yes.
“I wanted to know the embryo of the idea, but the script was really funny and they already had Tim Meadows on board, and I thought with that calibre of actors that they’re able to attach, then we should be on tour in a year,” Dyer says.
The Townsville-born actress says working opposite Meadows, who played Principal Duvall in the 2004 cult classic, was tough because all she wanted to do was fangirl over Mean Girls.
“We are becoming more and more friends every day because he is so funny and I’m learning how to crack him up, and that is nothing short of a joy for me,” she tells us. “He’s also just a very regular person, but I have had to stop myself quoting Mean Girls around him.”
“Just the other day, I was like, ‘You go, Glen Coco. No, don’t say it …’ I just love Mean Girls. I watch it probably annually. I know every line, and maybe one day, I’ll tell him that. But at this point, it’s hard to be a fan and a friend.”
From The Office and 30 Rock to Superstore and Parks And Recreation, workplace comedies have resonated well with audiences – and DMV is following suit.
“To see a heightened, funny version of something that you have to go to nine to five every day, I think it makes it very relatable,” Dyer says. “It’s like you see yourself in those characters – you see your annoying boss, you see your flirtatious co-worker … You see all these things.
“I do think it’s a bit of a mix of those [series]. But I think DMV is also its own thing. It’s really attractive because it’s got a little bit of everything.”
Among the relatable content from the series is her “sunny” character Colette, a driving examiner who is a five-year DMV veteran.
“She is awkward, and she’s always removing her foot from her mouth,” Dyer explains. “I’m not Colette. I’m an artist. I work in a different landscape. But my friend said, ‘Colette is what I call a muggle – a non-magical person.’ She was like, ‘We are all Collette, I feel Collette, Collette is me.’”
“I’m so happy that there’s a Colette out there. I was like, ‘Awesome, I’m doing my job right.’”
And while Colette’s antics are up there – episode one sees her walking around with a sanitary pad stuck to the back of her knit sweater – she doesn’t have a wild “nipple flash” moment, à la Dyer’s character Ashley in Colin From Accounts.
“Colette does more of like a ‘verbal nipple flash,’” Dyer says. “She does everything to avoid sticky situations. She’s actually very different from Ashley. Ashley doesn’t really care and Colette really cares.”
Colin From Accounts fans will be happy to know that in between takes of DMV, Dyer is busy writing Season 3 of the Logie-winning comedy, which she co-writes with her husband, Patrick Brammall, who stars as Gordon on the show.
So what can fans expect from the highly anticipated new season when it starts shooting early next year?
“What they can expect is a very tired Harriet, who probably needs an IV and a B12 shot in the butt,” Dyer laughs. “But they can expect good stuff. Patty and are working really hard. We can deeply about Gordon and Ashley and all those amazing characters, and we care deeply about the show. It’s going to be great. We’re really proud of it.”
“We did miss them a lot,” she says of her and Brammall’s respective characters. “It’s really nice to be back in their heads and I think we’re going to really, really savour shooting season three.”
DMV is now streaming on BINGE and Foxtel On Demand. Colin From Accounts Seasons 1 and 2 are also available to stream on BINGE.
Originally published as Harriet Dyer lands lead role in new US comedy DMV following Colin From Accounts success
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