Meet Wally Baram, who plays Carmen Neil in Overcompensating: she was too short to be a cowgirl so tried stand-up and read books by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – now she's in the Charli XCX-produced show
Wally Baram never intended to become an actress. The comic and screenwriter – best known for her work on the TV shows Shrinking, What We Do in the Shadows and Betty – had her heart set on becoming a cowgirl as a child. She even took equestrian classes as a teenager, but as luck would have it, her 155cm (5ft 1in) stature prevented her from taking her dreams further.
Wally Baram originally wanted to be a cowgirl but gave up on her childhood dream due to her short stature. Photo: @wallybaram/Instagram
'My feet don't even curve around a horse,' the 27-year-old said in an interview this month in Vanity Fair. 'The horse looks like it's wearing me as a hat.'
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Baram turned to comedy in her gap year before university, before dropping out to pursue stand-up and writing full time. When she was hired as a screenwriter on Amazon Prime's new TV dramedy co-produced
by Charli XCX , Overcompensating, she had no idea she would be making her acting debut on the show.
The campus comedy revolves around the show's creator, Benito Skinner's character Benny, a closeted college freshman, who tries to date Carmen, played by Baram, to keep his sexuality hidden.
'I related to her so much that when I had my meeting with Benny over writing, he was like, 'You are kind of this girl,'' Baram said in an interview this month in Marie Claire. 'When Benny told me, 'I want it to be you,' my mind was tremendously blown. Even now, I'm still like, What the heck?'
So what do we know about Wally Baram and her apparent overnight success as an actress?
She's Mexican-Syrian
Wally Baram is Mexican-Syrian and grew up in the US state of New Jersey. Photo: @wallybaram/Instagram
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