Patti Harrison

Harrison moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue comedy, eventually relocating to Los Angeles (Wikipedia). Her early work included appearances on The Special Without Brett Davis and her first film credit in A Simple Favor (2017) — a Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick thriller that gave her a foothold in film before she'd become a household name in comedy circles. TV roles on Broad City, High Maintenance, and Search Party followed, the kind of sharp, writer-driven shows that tend to attract performers who know what they're doing. The real breakthrough came in 2017, when her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — where she made pointed jokes about then-President Trump's ban on transgender people in the military — brought her to a wider audience (Wikipedia). Two years later, Shrill co-creator and star Aidy Bryant reached out to Harrison directly through Instagram and encouraged her to audition for the role of Ruthie, a character she'd play across the show's full run from 2019 to 2021 (Wikipedia). That same year, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson launched on Netflix, and Harrison's recurring presence in that show's gleefully unhinged sketch format became one of its most-discussed elements among fans. Variety's "10 Comics to Watch" recognition in 2019 felt less like a discovery and more like the industry catching up. Together Together (2021) marked a genuine shift — a feature-length lead role opposite Ed Helms, playing a young woman who becomes a surrogate for an older single man. The film is quieter than you'd expect from Harrison, and that's the point. She's doing something different here, holding scenes with restraint rather than chaos, and the Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead confirmed that critics noticed. That same year, she voiced Tail Chief in Raya and the Last Dragon, becoming the first transgender actor to appear in a Disney animated feature (Wikipedia). The Lost City (2022) and the upcoming The Electric State (2025) round out a filmography that's still expanding. She's also co-hosted Comedy Central's Unsend with Joel Kim Booster and co-hosts the podcast A Woman's Smile with River L. Ramirez (Wikipedia). The writing work — Big Mouth Season 4 onward — suggests she's not interested in being only a performer.