Urzila Carlson steals the show in Netflix movie debut

A Kiwi comic who’s a regular on Aussie TV absolutely steals the show in her first movie role, starring in a blockbuster Netflix comedy.

Most of the biggest laughs in Kinda Pregnant — the new Amy Schumer Netflix movie that began streaming today — are delivered courtesy not of Schumer, but of South African-born, New Zealand comedian Urzila Carlson, who’s never been in a movie before.

A very familiar face to Aussie viewers, Carlson is not yet well-known in the US, but we have a feeling international audiences will be seeing a lot more of Carlson on screen moving forward.

She’s too funny not to be in movies.

Directed by Tyler Spindel, with a screenplay written by Julia Paiva and Schumer, Kinda Pregnant stars Schumer as 40-year-old school teacher named Lainy, who’s always dreamed of having a family. But when it turns out her serious boyfriend wants to propose a threesome, rather than propose a marriage, she worries it will never happen.

Urzila Carlson (second from right) steals the show in Kinda Pregnant.

Then her BFF Kate (Jillian Bell) reveals that she’s pregnant. Lainy spirals. A misunderstanding involving a fake belly leads to Lainy pretending that she’s pregnant, too, kicking off a snowballing web of lies.

A lot of funny people grace the Kinda Pregnant cast, including Saturday Night Live star Will Forte as Lainy’s new love interest and Happy Endings star Damon Wayans Jr. as Lainy’s former love interest.

But the stand-out is Carlson, who plays an aggressive, in-your-face guidance counsellor at Lainy’s school, named Fallon.

The first time we meet Fallon in Kinda Pregnant, she’s puffing on a vape pen and accusing a student of stashing cocaine in his locker. When she hears that Lainy believes she’s getting engaged, she immediately offers to make room in her schedule for maid-of-honour duties. “I can’t do weekends, though,” she warns.

The film is an Amy Schumer vehicle …

… but Carlson scores many of the biggest laughs.

That was the first laugh of many that Carlson got out of me over the course of the film. She walks an impressive line between arrogant confidence and sweet earnestness, in a way that has you rooting for her no matter what insane thing she says. (She claims she has three restraining orders against her because she’s “a go-getter,” and I’m on her side!) She puts her whole body into her line deliveries, elevating just-OK jokes to laugh-out-loud ones.

Carlson is a stand-up comedian originally from South Africa, who has been working as a comic in New Zealand since 2008. Aussies would of course know her from her regular TV roles here, appearing on Have You Been Paying Attention? New Zealand, and s a judge on The Masked Singer Australia.

But Kinda Pregnant marks Carlson first appearance in an American Hollywood movie.

In an interview for the Kinda Pregnant press notes, Carlson said, “I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve never been in a movie. I’ve never proper acted or anything. Even with the table read, I didn’t know what to expect. My first day on set, my manager came to hold my hand for the first few days because I had no idea what I was doing.”

The supporting cast of Kinda Pregnant, L-R: Brianne Howey, Jillian Bell, Urzila Carlson and Lizze Broadway. Picture: Getty

Carlson said her very first scene was one with Schumer at a prenatal depression workshop, where Fallon shows up with her own fake pregnant belly to prove a point to Lainy.

“This movie really catches the chaos and the humour leading up to having a baby,” Carlson said in that same press notes interview. “There’s so much expectation, from the gender reveal to announcing the pregnancy. I feel like back in the day, you just got pregnant and had the kid.”

By the end of the film, Fallon is one of the gang, and thank god for that. I’d watch a whole spin-off movie just about her. Shout to Schumer, director Tyler Spindel, and casting director Gayle Keller for finding this gem. Here’s to hoping we see a lot more of Carlson in films in the future!

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Urzila Carlson steals the show in Netflix movie debut