'Overcompensating' cast raves about Benito Skinner as 'relentless,' 'charged,' 'electric' and trusting leader

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Benito Skinner, also known as Benny Drama, has given us the most fulfilling version of college humour with the release of the show Overcompensating on Prime Video. From coming-of-age awkwardness to booze-fueled parties, diarrhea comedy and the oddities of college secret societies, Overcompensating is laughs from start to finish.
While Skinner has infectious energy as the show's lead, the full cast, which includes Wally Baram, Mary Beth Barone, Adam DiMarco, Rish Shah, Homles, Corteon Moore, Owen Thiele and Nell Verlaque, is magical. It has that great ensemble chemistry we crave on TV shows.
For Canadian viewers of Overcompensating, take a close look and you'll likely notice that the show was filmed in Toronto.
A semi-autobiographical story for Skinner, in the show be plays Benny who is navigating his first year at Yates University, while also trying to hide that he's gay. But that gets complicated when he instantly develops a crush on his classmate Miles (Rish Shah).
"Him and I, from the jump, when I first met him, we just clicked instantly," Shah told Yahoo Canada. "And he's so easy to get on with."
"He's, like ... the Duracell bunny. He's relentless. He's charged. He's electric. So he can have chemistry with with a brick wall. ... I feel honoured to have been opposite him and hopefully bring some sparks and some heat."
While the focus is largely on Benny's story, a significant element of Overcompensating is the relationship Benny develops with Carmen (Wally Baram), after a failed attempt at hooking up turns into an important friendship.
"She's not very good at being anything but herself, which is, I think, why Benny's drawn to her, and they kind of have this symbiotic relationship that I really love how it played out in the show," Baram said.
While the scripts for each episode were incredibly well crafted and tight, Baram, who is also a producer on the show, highlighted that there was a lot of space for people to bring their ideas to the table.
"I feel so fortunate that [Daniel Gray Longino] our director, and Benny, and Desiree [Akhavan] our other director, really let me bring as much as I wanted to the character," Baram said. "If I had ideas for lines, there was definitely a lot of room to improv."
"One thing I really admired about [Benny] as a leader on the set is that he was really willing to delegate and trust the people around him, and I felt like they trusted me as both a writer and an actor, and a creative being on set in those moments."
That sentiment was echoed by other actors in Overcompensating as well, including Homles who plays Hailee, Carmen's roommate and easily the most outrageously funny characters in the show.
"Honestly, the scripts were so incredible that a lot of the funny things you hear are from the script," Holmes shared. "And then at the same time, I was really, really lucky to be on a set that let me improvise. So I won't lie, I did improvise a lot."
"What's cool is sometimes you improvise a lot on a set and it doesn't stay in. ... It is fun to be able to watch it back and be like, I didn't remember saying that, and it made it in. ... For example, ... when I come out of the bar really drunk with Nell [Verlaque], that was really, really fun and a lot of that I did improvise. ... She comes out of the bar and vomits, but because I had a really fun scene partner, Nell would play with anything I gave, I was able to add more improv."
But the improv was so good, sometimes it even fooled the crew, specifically in a moment where Hailee takes a tumble in the bar scene in Episode 2.
"Our first AD [Assistant Director], who's so sweet, ... she almost stopped the scene," Holmes said.
"But it was really just a blast. ... There's sometimes people you work with or play with who don't feel comfortable with improvising, who are still incredible actors. So I felt really lucky that this cast has not only amazing actors, but most of them are incredible comedians too."
Celebrating the show's exceptional physical comedy, there's no better example than Carmen.
The character start the season getting pink eye and then, in one of the most brilliant moments in the show, the lactose intolerant character gets diarrhea at a Charli XCX show after eating dairy, while Benny is in nearby bathroom stall barfing after eating live beta fish, part of a secret society initiation, so his crush Miles, who's vegetarian, didn't have to eat them.
"I loved the physical comedy element. I love the gross element," Baram said. "I love a poop your pants story."
"Especially that scene, the bathroom scene, was so fun to play. And even with the eye, ... it was challenging when I had to deliver more somber emotions, because I didn't have much function over that eye, but it was really a hoot and a holler. I was so down for it."
In addition to an appearance from Charli XCX, Overcompensating has the most incredibly list of stars who make shorter appearances on the show, including Kaia Gerber, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, James Van Der Beek. But Didi Conn, who famously played Frenchy in the 1978 movie Grease, was really a highlight.
Benny's older sister Grace, played by Mary Beth Barone, is also a student at Yates, and she's part of the "adopt a grandparent" club at the school. One of those grandparents is Janet, played by Conn, and Janet and Grace the same sarcastic, sometimes a little mean, energy.
"I loved the character of Janet, because it feels like she and Grace really have this synergy and they speak the same, and they can give each other shit and just be so honest with each other," Barone highlighted. "I was just excited for those scenes before we even knew who was playing the role, and then when I found out it was Didi, I was like, 'Oh my god a living legend!'"
"And she just showed up to set and she was so professional, so lovely, and so not the same vibe as the character. So when she's calling her family a bunch of like f—king idiots, it was like, 'Oh my god Didi!' But it was a dream come true. ... It was a really fun way for Grace to have a relationship that felt like they were peers, which she doesn't have a lot of at Yates."
As we're all begging for a Season 2 of the show, some of the cast members of Overcompensating have some ideas for where they want their characters to go in future episodes.
"I want to do a scene with Mary Beth and Rish," Corteon Moore, who plays Gabe, said. "I just want to go with whatever Benny and ... the writers want to do."
"I wasn't anticipating anything when I signed on. So the things that I did get to take part in were just such a pleasant surprise, and wherever it goes in Season 2, I'm down for the ride."
"I want [Benny and George] to be thick as thieves," Owen Thiele added in a separate interview. "I think George, honestly, can learn a lot from Benny too. And I think that actually isn't explored in this. ... But I think that in the next season, knock on wood we get one, I think that George should learn some things from Benny."
"I'd love to see her exploring female friendships more," Baram highlighted. "And I love the kind of gross physical comedy of it. I love that because she's also this character that's sexualized, so maybe more of that. Let's get gnarly with it."