Quinta Brunson explains how she’s inspired by Jordan Peele’s career

Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson is blowing up, and has been for quite some time, but she’s not just going to sit back and be content with her Emmy win and her hit TV show—unless she wants to do that, which would be fine. But, in a recent profile from The Hollywood Reporter, she specifically said that she’s inspired by Jordan Peele’s career and the way he was able to jump from sketch comedy to horror movies.

“I really admire Jordan Peele’s career,” she told THR. “Just for making the leap to a whole other genre and killing that shit.” She noted that she doesn’t necessarily think she’d want to do the same thing, but “it’s inspiring that he did,” especially since both of them have a background in sketch comedy. “I love people who inspire me to feel that if I ever want to change my mind, I can.” (Her reluctance to wholeheartedly say “someday I will do something different” is probably reassuring to Abbott Elementary fans, at least.)

Weirdly, the THR chat diverged into specific celebrity discussions a few times, with Brunson also saying that she’d like to work with Mindy Kaling (“she has a little renaissance happening” as a producer, and Brunson thinks “people are sleeping on her”) and that randomly meeting Paul Rudd once inspired her to pursue a career in comedy. She doesn’t remember the specifics, and she said that he doesn’t either, but they met once at a comedy club and he must’ve been very encouraging. “It was just him being nice to someone,” she explained. “And that makes a difference. You never know who you’re going to affect, just being chill and talking to them about the craft when they have a genuine interest.” Nice people being nice to each other!