Category: Entertainment

Dolly Parton, the irrepressible singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur who penned chart-toppers such as “9 to 5” and turned her namesake Tennessee theme park Dollywood into one of the world’s top amusement destinations, died Tuesday. She was 80.

Parton died peacefully in Nashville, a rep announced.

She revealed in September that she was postponing a set of Las Vegas concerts to deal with “some health challenges.” THR reported days later that she would miss the Governors Awards, where she was to receive the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in November, and she canceled scheduled Las Vegas residency dates for September in May. In the past few months, she put on a brave front, telling her fans that she was OK.

Her husband of nearly 58 years, businessman Carl Dean, died at age 82 on March 3, 2025.

The country music icon rose from an impoverished childhood in a one-room mountain cabin (shared with 11 brothers and sisters) to decades of global superstardom with hit songs, movies, eye-popping costumes and a joy of living few live entertainers could match.

Among her inescapable hit singles were three self-penned blockbusters — the haunting confessional “Jolene,” the workplace protest song “9 to 5” and the gentle 1974 ballad “I Will Always Love You,” which topped Billboard’s Country chart in 1974. That last one was given new life, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking 14 weeks, after Whitney Houston recorded her own dramatic version of it for her 1992 film with Kevin Costner, The Bodyguard.

“I Will Always Love You” remains the best-selling single by a female recording artist, earning more than $10 million in pure profit for Parton.

The Bodyguard originally included a different Parton song, but just as production was wrapping, Costner phoned Parton, asking to use “I Will Always Love You” instead. Beyond granting permission, Parton knew nothing about what Costner, Houston and producer David Foster had created in the studio.

Until … one afternoon when she was driving home from her Music Row office in Nashville, she heard something on the radio she couldn’t quite place.

“I thought, ‘That sounds familiar,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. She had recognized Houston’s voice and the first few words of the song, ‘If I should stay … ‘

“It was one of this things where you think, ‘What is that?’ And then all of sudden [Houston] started singing, ‘I will always love you.’ I just about wrecked the car.”

Parton rarely missed a chance to compliment Houston’s take. “Look at what a grand song she made out of that simple, heartfelt song,” she said. “She took it worldwide and made it a household word. I will always be thankful to her for that.”

Parton too had performed “I Will Always Love You” in a movie — The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), in which she co-starred as Madame Mona opposite Burt Reynolds.

On the screen, she held her own (and more) with some of Hollywood’s finest actors. As the warm-hearted hairstylist Truvy Jones, she was the centerpiece of the ensemble dramedy Steel Magnolias (1989) alongside Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field and rising star Julia Roberts.

Parton’s biggest film was her first — 9 to 5, the 1980 workplace comedy in which she played saucy Doralee Rhodes, starring alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and, as their abusive boss, Dabney Coleman.

While developing the film, Fonda and Tomlin thought their message about workplace exploitation, wage theft and sexual harassment would be more effective in the hands of three female leads with unique perspectives from disparate worlds. They started looking for a co-star.

Fonda recounted the story many times through the years about the night she “drove in to town” to see Tomlin in a play (Appearing Nightly), then got in her car afterward “and Dolly was singing.”

“As I was driving home, by myself, I turned on the radio,” she said on an episode of Netflix’s Tudum podcast in March 2025. “I suddenly had an image of Dolly at a typewriter.”

“She can’t see her fingers, obviously,” Fonda added, an aside to Parton’s voluptuous figure, often poured into a snug, bugle-beaded, one-of-a-kind wardrobe.

“She and Lily were friends,” Fonda continued. “It took me a year to persuade them, but it worked out fine. We had such a good time. Dolly had never done a movie before. She came the first day having memorized the entire script.”

Parton wasn’t nervous about making the leap from music and TV, where she had appeared for years on the syndicated country western variety program The Porter Wagoner Show.

“Lily and Jane were very hot at the time and I thought, ‘What can I lose?’” Parton recalled on Ellen DeGeneres’ show in 2006. “If it’s a big hit, I’ll take credit for it. If it’s a flop, I’ll blame them. I was in good company. They helped me — a lot.”

She remained lifelong friends with her co-stars.

Parton wrote the movie’s infectious theme song — which earned her the first of two Oscar nominations — while on the set between shots. She created a beat that aped the rhythms of a typewriter by “strumming” her long acrylic fingernails, one hand against the other.

“I didn’t have my guitar with me because I didn’t want to get too scattered,” she said in 2020 on the Today show of her effort to stay in character while on the set. So I did it on my nails.”

“I would just kind of play my little fingers, go back to the hotel at night, write down the words, or get my guitar and start singing it. That’s kind of how it worked. I played my nails on the record just for fun.”

The musician credits for the original recording session read, “Dolly Parton: Lead vocals and typewriter.”

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on Jan. 19, 1946, in the Smoky Mountains town of Pittman Center, Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Owens and Robert Lee Parton, a sharecropper, tobacco farmer and occasional construction worker.

Parton’s mother often entertained her growing brood (she had kid No. 12 by age 35) by reciting folklore and singing ballads, some of which had made their way to Appalachia via immigrants who shared music from their home communities in the British Isles.

The family later moved to a cabin on farmland in nearby Locust Ridge.

(A replica of the home is on display at Dollywood, part of the 150-acre destination she co-founded and owned with Herschend Family Entertainment in the town of Pigeon Forge.

The grounds, which also includes a waterpark, hotels and historical attractions, was named Tripadvisor’s “No. 1 U.S. theme park” in 2022, ‘24 and ‘25. Dollywood also recently topped Traveler’s Choice “Best of the Best Awards.”)

Parton never shied away from a background she described as “dirt poor” and worked many of her childhood memories into Dollywood and her songwriting, including “In the Good Old Days (When Times Are Bad)” and “Coat of Many Colors.” In 1995, when she formed her book-gifting philanthropy Imagination Library, which has distributed millions of free books to young readers, she said she did so to honor her father, who had never learned to read or write.

By age 7, Parton had taught herself to play a homemade guitar. The next year, she was gifted a real one by her uncle Bill Owens (her mother’s younger brother), a musician, songwriter and lifelong mentor with whom she wrote many early songs.

Parton soon had a performing career, singing on local radio and TV shows. After a couple of recordings for small labels, she landed an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry when she was 13.

Parton made her way to Nashville for good in 1964, a day after graduating from Sevier County High School. She soon signed with a publisher and continued co-writing with Owens, penning hits for such artists as Hank Williams Jr. and Kitty Wells and two top 10 songs for Bill Phillips, “The Company You Keep” and “Put It Off Until Tomorrow.”

She was signed by Monument Records at 19, but the partnership was bumpy. The label saw her girlish soprano and bubbly personality as perfect for the pop charts, but Parton longed to be a country star.

Eventually, Monument gave her a shot with the Curly Putman song “Dumb Blonde” and her own composition, “Something Fishy.” She included both on her debut album, 1967’s Hello, I’m Dolly.

She was soon spotted by country elder Wagoner, who not only signed her to perform on his weekly TV show with him, but also brought her to his label, RCA — overseeing that deal, managing her career and taking a half-ownership in her publishing company with Owens, Owe-Par.

The two had hits with several of their weekly TV duets, including “The Last Thing on My Mind.” Parton’s solo songs in this era were initially not as successful, but she soon broke out with “Coat of Many Colors” and “Touch Your Woman.”

By the time she hit it big with “Jolene” — a song that went on to earn widespread admiration from generations of musicians — Parton was ready to leave Wagoner and a professional relationship she described as “oil and water.”

Though chafing under his control, Parton was determined to depart on a friendly note. She had written “I Will Always Love You” (on the same day she wrote “Jolene”) as a way to politely say goodbye to her boss.

She did eventually sing it to him during her final appearance on the show in 1974, though Wagoner continued to linger in her life for more than a year, insisting on producing her studio sessions and recording one last duet album, Say Forever You’ll Be Mine.

“I just wasn’t going to take somebody else’s idea of who I was and live under their roof,” Parton told Martha Stewart during a 2024 podcast. “I had my own identity, and I had to fight to keep it — and I’m still doing that.”

With “Jolene,” she had crafted what would become one of the most revered pieces of songwriting of her career. (Or any career). And she knew it.

Parton had drawn inspiration for the “vulnerable story” song a few years earlier as she watched a local bank teller flirt with Dean, whom she had married at age 20 in 1966.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.

“It was kinda like a running joke between us — I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money!’”

She said she could joke because she believed the situation to be harmless. But the song, she acknowledged, “sounds like it was dreadful.”

Though she had written some 3,000 songs throughout her career, the 2011 Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient never stopped performing “Jolene,” which through the years had been famously covered by The White Stripes, Miley Cyrus and Kelly Clarkson. The song re-entered the U.K. pop charts in 2014 after Parton performed it for some 180,000 fans at the annual Glastonbury Festival.

Young fans seemed to know every word, a reflection of how her popularity had shifted and soared through years — from country darling to ’80s movie star to television and film producer to one of the world’s most widely embraced pop culture icons.

“Parton offers a reprieve from the news cycle,” Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote in an analysis explaining her massive modern-day popularity, which only seemed to keep growing.

She was among the rare celebrities who transcended whatever domain first made them famous, Cottom wrote, while never disappointing their fan base: “It has become verboten to dislike her, much less critique her. By tacit consensus, Dolly Parton is the one good thing in our empire’s twilight.”

Parton’s writing prowess extended to a lifetime of self-penned one-liners, homespun homilies and self-deprecating cracks. The banter made her a favorite of talk show hosts and endeared her to generations of concert audiences.

“Everything that comes out of Dolly’s mouth seems to be a lesson,” Foster said about her.

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap” was probably her most famous wisecrack, a reference to her famously overdone hair and make-up that she said she had “modeled on the town tramp” when she was a youngster — because she thought she was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen.

“My mom called her trash — I thought that’s what I want to be! I grew up to look just like her,” she said.

Some of her other classics: “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb — and I’m not blonde either.”

And, “People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there,” a reference to her vast wig collection.

She lost roughly 40 pounds following Rhinestone co-star Sylvester Stallone’s recipes for nutrition and chiseled abs (she cut white bread and processed foods), transforming from buxom to curvy petite — a look she would maintain for the rest of her life.

“If I see somethin’ draggin’, saggin or baggin’, I’ll just go fix it,” she was fond of saying.

Parton earned some of the best reviews of her career after forging another partnership — this time with good friends Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt for 1987’s multiplatinum album Trio. The women, who had been covering one another’s work for years, earned an album of the year nomination, facing off against Prince, Michael Jackson, U2 and Houston. They took home the best country performance duo or group trophy — one of Parton’s 10 competitive Grammys off 55 career nominations — then reteamed for Trio II in 1999.

She also had a long touring and recording partnership with Kenny Rogers starting in 1976. They had a huge No. 1 hit with 1983’s “Islands in the Stream,” written by the Bee Gees.

Throughout her long career, Parton often had a behind-the-scenes hand in television. With longtime manager Sandy Gallin, she formed Sandollar Productions, producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spinoff series Angel and the redone Father of the Bride movies.

She produced a comedy special for Whoopi Goldberg; the 1989 documentary Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt and endless holiday fare, among them movie fantasies such as Dolly Parton’s A Smoky Mountain Christmas.

In 2019, she teamed with Netflix for the anthology series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, in which she turned some of her favorite songs into stand-alone TV episodes, among them “Jolene” starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley, “Sugar Hill” with Timothy Busfield and “These Old Bones” with Ginnifer Goodwin.

The following year, also for Netflix, she co-wrote and starred in the Debbie Allen-directed Christmas on the Square, a huge a hit during the pandemic for which she also wrote 14 new songs and won an Emmy.

Through the years, she was often asked how she does so much and rarely seemed to tire.

“I’ve got so many irons in the fire sometimes I’m burning my own butt,” she said on Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast in 2022. “I always wanted to be a star. I wanted my dreams to come true, and they did. So I have to keep them alive. Every day something new comes up, and I have to get in there and be with it. I can’t just leave it as long as I’m living. I can’t leave that in the hands of other people. I have to be on top of all of it to make sure that it’s being done right. The way that I want it done.”

Survivors include her siblings, Willadeene, Coy, Robert Jr., Stella, Cassie, Freida and Rachel. She and Dean never had any children.

Parton said she had few regrets, but among them was never getting the opportunity to duet with Houston on “I Will Always Love You.”

“I would’ve loved that,” Parton told Andy Cohen in 2021. “But I don’t think I could’ve come up to snuff with her though,” she said of Houston, who died in 2012. “She’d have outsung me on that one for sure.”

She was also wistful about a missed opportunity with Elvis Presley. The King was eager to record “I Will Always Love You” soon after it was released in 1974, and she was thrilled at the prospect.

But when Presley’s manager, Col. Tom Parker, demanded 50 percent ownership of the song publishing — as was customary with everything Elvis recorded — she turned him down flat.

“I said, ‘This is the most important copyright in my whole publishing company, and I can’t do that,” she told BBC Radio in 2023 of her conversation with Parker.

“Other people were saying, ‘You’re nuts. It’s Elvis Presley. I mean, hell, I’d give him all of it,’” she said in 2006. “I said, ‘I can’t do that. Something in my heart says, ‘Don’t do that.’”

Parton recounted in numerous interviews how she cried all night after turning him down.

“I always wondered what it would sound like. He would have killed it. But anyway, so he didn’t,” she said. “Then when [Houston’s version] came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.”

At her request, a small, private service will be held for immediate family. Her fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to her on social media by tagging @DollyParton or by leaving a message here.

Donations in her memory can be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

“I look like a woman, but I think like a man,” she said in 2021. “In this world of business that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think I don’t know what’s goin’ on, I then got the money and am gone.”

The 2026 Hamptons Film Festival will open with the East Coast premiere of Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, with star Anthony Ippolito set to receive a breakthrough performer award.

Other stars set to be honored at this year’s festival include Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Bob Balaban; Project Hail Mary directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who will receive the Achievement in Directing Award; Club Kid director Jordan Firstman, receiving the FLYTE Breakthrough Director Award; and Misty Green star Rosalind Eleazar, who will receive the FLYTE Breakthrough Performer Award. Both Firstman’s Club Kid and Misty Green, directed by Chris Rock, will screen at this year’s festival.

The Hamptons Film Festival will also host world premieres of Jake Silberman’s Barbizon, Anne Sundberg’s documentary The Drug in Our Pocket, Josh Thompson’s documentary Kingdom Fungi Célia Millat and Bastien Garcia’s Maman Bibi Coco and Eric and Nick Weber’s Not Dead Yet, starring Richard Kind, Paul Raci, Polly Draper, Tovah Feldshuh, Toby Huss, Seth Herzog, Ed German and Bill Smitrovich.

Other titles set to screen at this year’s Hamptons Film Festival include the U.S. premiere of Florian Zeller’s Bunker, starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz; Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, and Rebecca Hall; and the East Coast premiere of Anton Corbijn’s A Talent for Murder, starring Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke.

The festival will also feature the East Coast premiere of Andrew Morgan’s Bleeding Hearts, following Chaparelle musicians and real-life couple Zella Day and Jesse Woods.

“This year’s program brings together an exciting range of films, from highly anticipated premieres and ambitious new work to distinctive discoveries from emerging filmmakers,” HamptonsFilm chief creative officer David Nugent said in a statement. “Across our narrative, documentary and spotlight selections, we’re seeing bold storytelling, singular perspectives and films that will spark conversation long after the screenings. We’re thrilled with the breadth and depth of this year’s lineup and look forward to sharing these films with audiences throughout the Hamptons.”

HamptonsFilm executive director Bob Feinberg added, “For more than three decades, HamptonsFilm has been a place where audiences come together to discover great films and celebrate the artists who make them. This year, we’re especially proud to welcome Bob Balaban, Phil Lord and Chris Miller and Jordan Firstman, whose work has made such a lasting impact on audiences. We look forward to bringing filmmakers and film lovers together once again and creating the kind of shared experiences that make this festival so special to our community.”

The 2026 Hamptons Film Festival is set to run from Oct. 2-12.

Rhea Seehorn, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded at Chapman University, is best known for outstanding performances on two Vince Gilligan-created TV drama series: as Kim Wexler, a lawyer and love interest of Jimmy McGill, on AMC’s Better Call Saul (2015-2022), and as Carol Sturka, a bestselling romance novelist who winds up as one of just 13 people on Earth who retains free-will after some a virus melds everyone else’s minds, on Apple TV’s Pluribus (2025-).

For her performance on Better Call Saul, Seehorn was nominated twice for the best supporting actress in a drama series Emmy and three times for the best supporting actress in a drama series Critics Choice Award, and won the Television Critics Association Award for individual achievement in drama in 2023. And for her performance on the first season of Pluribus — which the New York Times described as “enormous, in quality and quantity” — she has already won the best actress in a drama series Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards, was nominated for the best actress in a drama series Actor Award, and is nominated for the best actress in a drama series Emmy Award, one of 18 noms for her show; another is for best drama series.

Gilligan recently described Seehorn — one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2026 — as follows: “I’ve been really blessed to work with a lot of great actors over the course of many shows now — going all the way back to The X-Files and forward through Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. So I don’t say what I’m about to say lightly: There is something about Rhea Seehorn that puts her in a category all her own. She can do it all. She can be as dramatic as all get out, but she’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. The full range is there, everything you’d ever want in a performer. But it’s more than skill. It’s her outlook. She has a work ethic like you can’t believe. She really wants to be the best artist she can be. She probably wouldn’t identify herself that way, but she is an artist through and through. And she takes the craft of acting seriously in the most positive possible way. It’s never annoying, never precious. She’s also one of the most generous actors I’ve ever encountered. A day player will show up on set with one scene to film, someone who’s been on the call sheet for maybe 10 minutes, and Rhea will walk right up to them, introduce herself, and say, ‘You want to run our lines together?’ She does it because she wants the work to be good — not just her work, the whole show’s work. You feel that distinction. It matters.”

Over the course of this conversation, Seehorn reflected on her beginnings in the theater in Washington, D.C., and New York; how a decade of “unsuccessful” auditions nevertheless paved the way for her casting on Better Call Saul; how she reacted upon learning that Gilligan had written Pluribus for her (after initially envisioning the protagonist as a male); why playing Carol Sturka on that hit Apple TV show is both the most challenging and rewarding job she has ever had; plus more. She closed by taking questions from film students.

Food authority Eater is bringing its annual tentpole event Off Menu to Los Angeles.

The event, taking place Sept. 19 at the conic Tam O’Shanter restaurant, aim to highlight what’s trending now and what’s coming next to the dining scene, according to organizers. It will feature dishes and drinks from local favorites such as Holbox, Pasjoli, Ji Rong, Quarter Sheets, Cafe Telegrama, Sumibiyakitori Kidori, Lawry’s, Thunderbolt and Night on Earth. 

Other chefs from across the country, including Gregory Gourdet of Kann in Portland, Oregon, and Annie Shi and Jess Shadbolt of Dean’s in New York City, also will bring a taste of their food to the event. Additional participants will be announced soon.

Launched in 2025, Off Menu brings offers event-goers the opportunity to taste “dishes inspired by the trends, restaurant, and chefs shaping how we eat right now.” It “translates Eater’s reporting into an unforgettable night of bites and experiences from the biggest names in food,” organizers said.

“Eater regularly forecasts and features the trends, chefs, restaurants, and dishes that are redefining America’s food scene,” said Stephanie Wu, Eater’s editor-in-chief. “Off Menu brings our editorial mission to life by connecting celebrated culinary institutions and standout food with a passionate community of diners.” 

In addition, ticket-holders will have special access to explore the iconic Tam O’Shanter venue. Cathay Pacific will present a gateway to Asia in the Garden and Atrium where guests will enjoy yakitori, duck and champagne. Guests also will have the opportunity to enjoy drinks from the bar team behind Thunderbolt and Night on Earth, try ricotta pancakes from Café Telegrama and sample  British pub revival dishes from New York City hotspot Dean’s.

Tickets are on sale starting Tuesday. All tickets include all food and beverage, and Eater app users will receive a discount code prior to purchase. Vox Media will contribute 100 percent of the net proceeds of all tickets sold online to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that provides fresh meals in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises. 

In addition to Off Menu, Eater also produces other events such as Eater Under Wraps, a weekend event filled with holiday treats, seasonal activities and gifts, along with Dinner Party and Bang Bang, both of which spotlight chefs and restaurants across the country. (Eater was sold to Penske Media Corporation, owner of The Hollywood Reporter, earlier this year.)

The cast of 30 Rock is reuniting for the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere — but not in front of cameras.

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer will come together for a live show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Oct. 11, 20 years to the day after 30 Rock premiered on NBC. The show is a benefit for the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem, and the announcement calls it “a never-to-be-televised event.”

So if you want to go to there, you’ll have to get a ticket to the live show. The presale starts at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, with public sales beginning at the same time Thursday.

“Listen up tens, a five is speaking!” Fey said in the release announcing the show. “Please join us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show Tom Shales once said ‘needs a better premise and funnier dialogue … and most of all a more commanding performer in the starring role.’”

Radio City’s announcement of the event says the night will feature “games, nonsense and surprises” with the five core castmembers along with appearances from other people who appeared on 30 Rock and special guests.

“We’re honored to be named the charitable partner for this celebration, says Shaba R. Keys, president and CEO of The Boys and Girls Club of Harlem. “All net proceeds go directly toward the after-school, academic, and career programs that help more than 2,000 Harlem young people each year chart a path to their own futures — and we’re grateful to be part of a night this special.” 

30 Rock ran for seven seasons on NBC, chronicling the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of a sketch comedy show run by Fey’s character, Liz Lemon, at a fictionalized NBC. The show won 16 Emmys during its run, including three straight for best comedy series from 2007-09.

Mindy Kaling and the cast of Not Suitable for Work are taking to social media to share their gratitude following the news that Hulu has decided not to renew the show for a second season.

The comedy series premiered in June and ran for nine episodes. It followed AJ (Ella Hunt), Abby (Avantika Vandanapu), Davis (Will Angus), Josh (Jack Martin) and Kel (Nicholas Duvernay), five work-obsessed 20-somethings living in the same apartment building in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood.

In what many compared to Friends, the series charted the group’s personal and professional lives as each of them attempted to figure out adulthood. Fans were particularly keen on the will-they-won’t-they relationships between AJ, Davis and Josh, as well as the romantic chemistry between Abby and Kel.

Those same fans will have been disappointed to hear Monday’s news, although The Hollywood Reporter understands that series producer Warner Bros. Television plans to shop the show around for a potential new home.

On Tuesday, Kaling — also the creator of The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls — took to Instagram to share a carousel of photos of the cast and team. “I love this show, I loved making this show, I love these people and I love all of you for all your sweet comments, messages, edits and for watching [Not Suitable for Work],” she wrote.

Martin reposted Kaling’s photo, saying he “will always love” Not Suitable for Work and “everyone who was a part of it […] thank you for watching.”

Avantika, meanwhile, shared a photo of her co-stars and wrote: “I love this cast and this team so very much!” She said the show “gave me such an opportunity of a lifetime and introduced me to people and audiences I could have never even dreamed of meeting before […] I am so grateful to Mindy, Charlie, Hulu, [and] Warner Bros for giving us this chance. We love you,” she added.

Many of the cast members caught up with THR about being in the show, including Martin, who said he felt “really lucky” after getting cast as Josh. As for Hunt, she told THR: “Being part of the Mindy-verse was exciting to me.”

Duvernay, also star of The White Lotus, embraced the Friends vibe. “That’s a giant to compare it to, but that’s initially how I felt being part of it,” he said. “A lot of the comedies put out nowadays are so angled at Gen Z to the point where it’s like scrolling on Instagram […] It has a more modern take on it. It’s work-obsessed kids trying to make their way in New York.”

THR‘s TV critic Angie Han wrote about the show in her review: “Despite being set in present-day New York, the show’s vision of love and career feels rooted somewhere in the 2000s, or even the 1990s. And while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing — a bit of escapism is crucial for a comfort watch — it means that for a show about Gen Z, Not Suitable for Work feels oddly Millennial.”

NSFW is Kaling’s first sole creator credit since The Mindy Project. She executive produced the project under her Kaling International banner with showrunner Charlie Grandy and 3 Arts Entertainment’s Howard Klein.