Zoë Chao, Sam Richardson and Tiffany Haddish return for Season Two alongside an incredible new cast that includes John Cho, Anna Konkle, Poppy Liu, Zach Woods, Paul Walter Hauser, Elizabeth Perkins, Ken Jeong, Vivian Wu, and Jack Whitehall.
"I inherited another family," Zoë explains. "We thank [creator] Chris Miller all the time for all the new friends we have. And it was such a natural chemistry with Poppy [Liu], who plays my younger sister, and Vivian Wu and Ken Jeong who play my parents. It felt very organic, and I feel very connected to them to this day."
As Zoë once again returns to screens as Zoe, their shared name isn't the only similarity between the actress and character.
"In Season 1, there are a lot of eerie overlaps," she explains. "I’m also an artist. My parents are both visual artists. My sister’s an artist."
"Zoe goes to Rhode Island School of Design, and both my sister and my dad taught there," she continues. "Brett, her estranged husband, goes to Brown [University] – I actually went to Brown... So it was wild the coincidences that occurred when I signed on to the project. It was almost disturbing."
Whilst the first season followed Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) as she solved the murder at a high school reunion, the second season is taking the action to a family wedding...and another murder.
"It did sort of affirm the genres I love," Zoë said when speaking on the distinctive format of the show. "I love Hitchcock. Film noir. And it just kind of blows my mind that we get to be in 10 different little movies this season."
"Sometimes you had to rewatch a movie or yes, there was always a helpful comrade on set … and always a million ideas. But I think it’s really helpful that I came up in the theatre, where it’s championed when you make big, big choices and you go for it. So it’s nice that I found a show that kind of also allows us to take big swings and asks us to do a lot of different stuff."
Where to watch The Afterparty Season Two
Stream The Afterparty Season Two now on Apple TV+ with a 7 day FREE trial. Subscribe here.