Amita Rao Loves Playing A Chaos Queen

“My sense of humor is f*cked right now,” Amita Rao tells me, sitting on Zoom from her apartment in Brooklyn Heights. “I was on a set recently, and they were asking for a joke. I pitched three in rapid succession, all very dark and inappropriate for the moment. I remember being like, ‘Oh, my God,’ because I realized they were the only things I found funny.” Don’t blame her — she’s simply a 26-year-old doing her best in today’s society. “Comedy is based on subversion,” she says. “So when the world becomes increasingly chaotic, what shocks and surprises you becomes increasingly f*cked up.”

Rao has every reason to embrace the frenzy these days. She’s had a whirlwind of a year, with her first major TV roles in the comedy series Deli Boys and Adults, which aired on Hulu in March and May, respectively. Hailed as a breakout star of both projects for her ability to channel a lovable chaos queen, she’s already booked her next role on the upcoming film Wishful Thinking (also starring Jake Shane). In just a few months, she’s solidified herself as a woman to watch in comedy — and she had no idea her rise would happen this soon, if at all.

“I was pretty prepared to be an improviser in Chicago for my career and not even to be noticed for at least 10 to 15 years,” Rao says. She’s enjoying this era of on-screen roles, but live comedy has always been her first love. Growing up in Virginia, she loved macabre humor and “took joy in being seen as an outsider” but never truly considered that it would lead to a career. “It was difficult for me to accept earnestly that I wanted to be a comedian. It’s a fundamentally embarrassing thing to admit when you’re young,” she says.

During Rao’s freshman year at Virginia Tech, her mother passed away, which changed her perspective on many things. “I was like, ‘Nothing matters. It doesn’t matter what I do,’” she says. She transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University and majored in theater, but she still wasn’t sure she’d actually give it her all — until one drunken night of junior year, discussing the future with her best friend and comedian Chelsea Matkins, when she realized comedy was the only way forward. “I was like, ‘That is so cool that you’re all the way in,’” Rao says. “I decided that night I was going to commit 100%.”

Committing meant moving to Chicago to train in improv and sketch comedy, which Rao did for three years before moving to New York this past spring. She lights up when I ask about that era. “I love Chicago so much. There’s a noncompetitive air and a super collaborative energy in the comedy scene there,” she says. She honed in on performing absurd humor — in one memorable sketch at the Annoyance Theatre, Rao shoved barbecue meat into her face on stage. (It was a “rom-com” about a girl who was obsessed with eating meat.) “The people there are so comedically invigorating,” she says of the friends she met touring with iconic troupe The Second City. “They are willing to do the dumbest, most stupid, gross material for just the purpose of performing.”

Issa doesn’t think about anything she says after she does it. I am plagued by neuroses constantly.

She showcased for Saturday Night Live in 2022, the first “I made it” moment of her career. While living in Chicago, Rao was sending out self-tapes for auditions, but wasn’t in a rush to book anything. Then, in early 2024, she landed her first three TV roles back-to-back. The first was a small part in the drama series Emperor of Ocean Park, which she says is “so hard to watch” now that she has more TV experience under her belt. Then there was Deli Boys, in which she plays Nandika, the give-no-f*cks daughter of a local shop owner who gets involved in the criminal enterprise. “I love what a freak she is,” Rao says of her character, who audiences seem to agree deserved more screen time. “She doesn't give a f*ck about who you are, and you are always kind of below her.” While she hasn’t heard any details about the now-confirmed Season 2, she hopes Nandika will return.

While filming Deli Boys, Rao landed her biggest moment of exposure yet: a starring role in the ensemble comedy Adults, directed by Nick Kroll and co-starring Owen Thiele, Jack Innanen, Lucy Freyer, and Malik Elassal. She plays Issa, an endlessly eager sex-positive 20-something who loves hard but lacks common sense. Rao sees the similarities between herself and Issa (“we present in rooms very similarly, with a lot of confidence”), but she wishes she had her character’s carefree attitude. “Issa doesn’t think about anything she says after she does it,” she says. “I am plagued by neuroses constantly, and fears about where I am and the nature of what’s going to happen to me. Interpersonally, Issa doesn’t really have that.”

One of Issa’s most quotable moments in the series is her announcement that she sells horoscopes on OnlyFans, so naturally, I ask Rao to give her best guess at her character’s chart. “In my head, Issa’s a Leo, but I feel like she’s always trying to convince people she’s a Scorpio,” she says. “She thinks it’s the best sign, and she has an argument for how she’s technically a Scorpio cusp, even though she’s nowhere near that.” (Rao herself is a triple earth sign.)

To have a new friend group in my 20s who are all at the same point in their careers and lives feels like such a support system, and so grounding in a time that could have been really chaotic.

The cast plays a group of besties, and their interactions off-camera prove they really are that close IRL. “[Our relationship] feels like such a privilege,” Rao says. “To have a new friend group in my 20s who are all at the same point in their careers and lives feels like such a support system, and so grounding in a time that could have been really chaotic.” She has no info on whether Season 2 will happen (“we’re kept in mystery, us actors”), but she is hopeful she’ll get to see how Issa navigates the fallout from the cliffhanger ending, when her boyfriend Paul Baker (Innanen) kisses her BFF Anton (Thiele). “I’m curious to see what they write,” Rao says. “Realistically, she’s probably going to have quite a defensive reaction and try to avoid things before she comes to honestly face the situation.”

While she waits patiently for phone calls about future seasons, Rao is adjusting to life in New York, where she moved after filming all three roles. “I was like, ‘I need to change everything in my life at the same time,’ and catapulted myself to a new location to my psychological detriment. But it’s totally all right,” she says. She’s writing a movie, hopes to direct, and plans to explore the live theater scene in her new city. She and Matkins still work together on the traveling live show Gag Reflex. If anything else is in the works, she’s not ready to spill yet. “I can barely talk about anything prior to me getting it,” she says. “I’m completely tight-lipped about it until it’s actualized.”

In the meantime, she’s active in the Adults cast group chat, though she won’t reveal its name to me — only that she suggested some “exclusively f*cked jokes” for it and got shot down. But she’s unbothered. “I accept that being a comedian is 60% failure,” she says, “and then you’re just lowering that percentage over time.”