EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Zilbalodis. Actor-comedian Rory Scovel (Physical, You’re Cordially Invited) has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Rachel Bloom in ABC‘s half-hour pilot Do You Want Kids?.
The single-camera comedy, from 20th Television, is about a married couple, Rosie (Bloom) and Alex Zilbalodis (Scovel). The show delves into how their lives are dramatically altered in a Sliding Doors-style exploration of one universe where they have a child and another where they don’t.
Do You Want Kids? is a personal project for Bloom who co-wrote the pilot script with her husband, film and TV writer Dan Gregor. Its success hinges on the chemistry between the two leads, so when it was ordered to pilot in early August, ABC and the studio opted to take their time with the casting search for the male lead in order to find a good match for Bloom.
Executive producing Do You Want Kids? are Bloom, Gregor, along with Steven Levitan and Danielle Stokdyk of the 20th TV-based Levitan Productions and Jeff Morton.
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Scovel recently appeared alongside Farrell and Reese Witherspoon in the Amazon MGM Studios romantic comedy film You’re Cordially Invited, in Netflix’s dark comedy series No Good Deed and Season 2 of Peacock’s Based On a True Story. He previously starred opposite Rose Byrne in the Apple TV+ series Physical. Scovel’s most recent special, Religion, Sex and a Few Things In Between, is streaming on HBO Max. He will next be seen in Ferrell’s Amazon comedy film Judgement Day. Scovel is repped by Mosaic, UTA, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.