Quinta Brunson is one to watch.
The writer, star, and creator of Abbott Elementary recently earned an Emmy for her work on the show — even though Jimmy Kimmel kind of spoiled that. Before this, she was a viral sensation , known for her Instagram videos and work on Buzzfeed.
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Now that her career is rightfully taking off, it’s only fair that we learn some things about her.
She got her start as an Instagram viral star
Everyone gets their start somewhere. For Brunson, this was done by creating comedy videos on social media apps, like Instagram. She even created the first-ever Instagram series to go viral, “The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date.”
The short 15-second clips showed her on different dates.
For someone who mainly did comedy on stage, the viral moment pivoted her career. “For something I just happened to put on my Instagram profile to get all of this attention — it was pretty nuts. It showed me like, [okay], here’s an entire stage over here,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
She became a meme
One of the most hilarious moments in her Instagram video series, “The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date,” was her catchphrase “he got money” whenever a guy paid for a date. This soon turned into her becoming a famous meme.
She was the Queen of Buzzfeed for a while
After her viral success on Instagram, Quinta decided to participate in a Buzzfeed taste test video. She kept getting invited back and eventually landed a job as a junior producer with the task of creating six videos per month.
“It was a lot of pressure, but everyone else was doing it so I had to step up,” she told ‘Cosmopolitan.’
After the creation of her first series for Buzzfeed, Broke , hit over a million views and was sold to YouTube Red, she left Buzzfeed for more opportunities.
Before fame, she worked a regular job
Even celebrities have worked jobs that they didn’t like. For Quinte, this was working at the clothing store, American Eagle. She told the AV Club that she hated the menial tasks, like folding jeans.
She’s the star, creator, and writer of ‘Abbott Elementary’
She is one talented lady. In the ABC series, she plays Jeanine Teagues, a second-grade teacher. The show focuses on “a group of dedicated, passionate teachers.” It’s filmed as a mockumentary, which is similar to The Office .
Quinta’s real-life teacher inspired the show
This was a middle-school teacher named Ms. Abbott. “Ms. Abbott has always stuck with me throughout my life,” Brunson told the Los Angeles Times . “In a way, I didn’t know why she was my favorite … I think that’s what a good teacher does. I think it’s like the Maya Angelou quote, ‘People always remember how you make them feel,’ and she always made me feel good.”
She’s working on a new show
If you can’t get enough of Quinte, you’ll be glad to know that she’s working on a new show on ABC called Harrity Elementary.
According to Variety , the series “is a workplace comedy about a group of teachers brought together in one of the worst public schools in the country, simply because they love teaching. ”
She does voice acting
If you think you’ve heard her voice over the years, your ears aren’t fooling you. She voiced Alex in Magical Girl Friendship Squad and was also in two episodes of Big Mouth . Is there anything she can’t do?!
Her goal with ‘Abbott Elementary’ is to give an accurate look at the state of public education
“I think teachers deserve that,” Brunson said, according to Deadline . She said that previous shows set in schools made teachers “seem one-dimensional and they are the least one-dimensional people there are, it’s the least one-dimensional job.”
She’s a college dropout
She may play a teacher on TV, but Quinta didn’t finish her own education . She was studying advertising and communications attending at Temple University when she became obsessed with watching Saturday Night Live and The Office .
One thing most of the actors on these shows had in common was that they studied at Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe.
When she started taking classes there, her grades started to suffer and she eventually decided to “take a semester off.”
She had to step over Jimmy Kimmel to accept her Emmy Award
Before she won the award for outstanding writing for a comedy series, presenter Will Arnett dragged Jimmy Kimmel on stage and joked that Jimmy “got into the skinny margaritas” after losing in an earlier category.
“Jimmy, wake up, I won,” Brunson joked at the beginning of her speech.
Viewers were extremely upset that Jimmy took some of the spotlight from her big moment.
But Quinta was able to get revenge when she interrupted Jimmy’s monologue on his late-night show. He also personally apologized to her.
