Lauren Graham, Nico Santos, and The Z-Suite Cast Talk Generational Divide and Comedy Boot Camp

It’s a battle of the generations in Tubi’s The Z-Suite as veteran C-Suite executives collide with rising Gen-Z employees at a New York ad agency. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with the cast about the generational divide, comedy boot camp, and real life friendship.

TV veterans Lauren Graham and Nico Santos play industry titans Monica Marks and her right hand man Doug Garcia. “It came pretty easily,” said Graham about their chemistry. “I mean, you kind of can't build it. There's no time to manufacture something. I think we ended up in the show together because we have a similar sensibility I would say, just innately, for what's funny and what is real. I was just lucky.”

Santos continued: “Yeah, I think it also helps that the material is so good that we didn't have to really put a lot of work to seem like we were peas in a pod.”

When a campaign goes wrong, Monica is thrown under the bus and effectively fired and cancelled. “It was actually pretty nuanced because I wondered if it was clear enough actually what she's getting cancelled for. There was a lot of discussion of how do we do something that doesn't undercut that Monica's really good at her job. Like it shouldn't be that she's so tone deaf that she doesn't understand the culture she's working within because this is someone who is very tapped [in],” Graham shared. “I think where we landed is good. It was not wrong intentioned. It was just poorly worded. It was a miss. It's tough to do something like that where you don't also then make people think the character is dumb you know so it was a line to find.”

This leads to the Gen-Z crew in the office to take over. “I actually worked in digital marketing before the show and […] the generational divide is real, especially around technology. Like let's just do this on Zoom, we don't need to walk five minutes to each other's offices,” said Anna Bezahler. “They're very different, but very similar in a lot of ways. At the end of the day, we want to laugh, cry, and hug.”

With the industry titans out and Gen-Z in, it brings young, diverse characters into leadership positions — including Black women and queer people. “I feel like what we did was just a reflection of what our generation has grown up with. What the world looks like right now is what we were doing on our show so it feels very natural and normal for me,” said Madison Shamoun who plays new CEO Kriska Thompson. “I feel lucky to be able to say that, but that's been my experience.”

But the generational divide is real. “It's something that everybody goes through generationally, but I think we're in an industrial revolution in terms of the speed at which progress is progressing. I've played characters who have younger kids and the way they're experiencing show business and exposure to the Internet is just really different than how I came up,” explained Graham. “Almost perhaps different and more extreme than between me and my dad or something. They're growing up exposed to completely different and more stimuli so you draw from real life because it's happening.”

When it came to working with Graham and Santos, Spencer Stevenson called it “scary.” “I was like, do I even know how to act?” he laughed. “Amazing. Perfect people to look up to, to be honest, and to carry a show. Role models. And they give. They’re legends and they're very good at what they do. It's inspiring to watch at all times.” Meanwhile, Bezahler called it a “boot camp in comedy.”

“I love anything where we get to play around. I loved in episode one where we're pitching our ideas [to Gen-Z]. Nico comes up with such great improv, said Graham, with Santos adding: “The creative team trusted us to play around with our characters. They were like have fun with it and we're like okay I'm just going to say the most ridiculous thing. If you use it, great, if not, don’t.”

Meanwhile, the Gen-Z crew shared their newfound friendship in real life translated onto the screen. They teased a scene in episode 7 where they couldn’t keep it together and were laughing non stop.

Graham and Santos even shared which past characters they’ve played that they would enlist to help them deal with their Gen-Z rivals. “I want to say Oliver from Crazy Rich Asians because he'll keep them in check, but maybe Recorder Theel from Guardians of the Galaxy [Vol. 3] because he would do genetic experiments and [turn] them into super beings,” said Santos about controlling the Z squad, while Graham shared: “Both of my major characters from Gilmore Girls and from Parenthood had an arrested development and fancied themselves a friend to the younger kids.”

She continued: “Neither of them have office experience so I'm not sure they'd be helpful. They wouldn't help. They would not know how to help Monica.”

The Z-Suite premieres February 6 on Tubi.