Chelsea Frei Is a Comedy Legend in the Making

Chelsea Frei isn't one to sit and wait for success. She's pursuing it with humor, passion, and a penchant for cold-emailing industry elites. The 32-year-old actor has an impressive résumé so far, securing internships at Saturday Night Live and Late Night With Seth Meyers, creating more than one viral internet comedy sketch, and, most recently, starring opposite Domhnall Gleeson on The Paper, NBC's The Office spin-off. In it, she plays Mare Pritti, a no-nonsense army veteran who's working for a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio.

It's an impressive role to land, and Frei knows it. Over the course of our conversation, she frequently tells me how lucky she feels to be acting in a sitcom that has such a stellar cast and was created by two of The Office's original showrunners, Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. However, I suspect luck had little to do with it. She has a bright-eyed focus on the future, and she's forging her own path to get there.

Frei always knew she'd be in show business, but she wasn't born into it. She grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, right outside of Boston, and her parents worked in construction. As she puts it, acting "is so not something in [her] family." She entered onto the stage the same way most other actors do: in school plays. "I just loved being onstage," she says. "I loved making people laugh. I loved going to rehearsal after school. It was a running joke with my friends that I could never hang out because I was always in rehearsal. It was my entire life."

After graduating from high school, Frei was accepted into NYU, where she studied classical acting, and she even studied Shakespeare in London. Her instinct for comedy didn't quiet, so she went back to New York and secured internships at Late Night With Seth Meyers and—wait for it—SNL. Awash in the hallowed halls of comedy legends, Frei listened, observed, and learned, savoring every second of the experience. "The thrill of being there was so insane. I was obsessed with it," she says. "To see them make SNL on one night… You're just like, 'Oh, I don't care what I'm doing here. I just need to be a part of this world.'" She had found her calling. "Okay, I love TV," she remembers thinking.

Impressive internships aside, Frei struggled to find work after graduation. She dreamed of working at NBC, but it wasn't time (yet). Unwilling to wait for opportunity to knock, she decided to seek it out. She began making sketch comedy videos with friends. "None of us could get agents. We didn't know how to break into the industry, so we were like, 'Let's just make funny videos on one of our shitty digital cameras, edit them, and put them online.' I did that for a couple of years. Elizabeth Banks had this comedy platform called WhoHaha," she says. "I would post all my videos there and hope that they'd make the homepage."

She was also sending out emails to any industry contact she could find. "I'm a big fan of cold-emailing. I didn't have anybody's number, so I was like, 'I'm just going to cold-email everyone,'" she says. Frei used a certain online email aggregator to source the contacts she needed. "I found the president of Funny or Die's email and was just like, 'You've been posting my videos. I want to break into this industry. Could you ever sit down with me?' And he was like, 'Yeah, I've seen your videos. Come into the office tomorrow,'" she recalls. The only problem was that his office was in L.A., and Frei lived in New York. Frei hopped a cross-country flight that night. "I left my suitcase outside, so he thought I lived in L.A. He told me to write something long-form, so I wrote this web series called Hostess about my time as a hostess in New York at different restaurants. I raised like $10,000 on Kickstarter, and Funny or Die promoted it, and from there, I got my agents," she says.

Even after becoming a professional actor and landing big roles, Frei was (and is) often recognized by producers and casting directors for these personal internet projects. She sees it as a lesson in agency and ambition. "Always have one foot on being in charge of your own creative world. You just have to go for it yourself and try to get as many eyes on your stuff as possible," she says. "I kind of knew that if I was going to be an actor, I was never going to be the one waiting for an audition and being like, 'Okay, I did my audition, and we'll see what happens!' I don't have that type of brain. I need to be doing something to feel like I'm moving toward something. The grind never stops. I think that's been my biggest takeaway. I always try to keep going, keep within my own work. No matter if I have an acting job, it's like, 'Well, what am I doing to further my career in a way I'm in control of and I'm creating?' I think that's what the people at SNL are best at, and I think that's why they all go on to have these incredible careers."

Things took a turn when she submitted a self-tape for an untitled project with Daniels and Koman—a project that would become The Paper. "I was just like, 'I'm never gonna get this, so I'm just gonna have fun.' I put something on tape, and then I found out two weeks later that I was going in," she says. She was scheduled to audition with Daniels, Koman, and a few other producers at 30 Rock in New York City. Frei was convinced it was too good to be true. "I think my saving grace was that I genuinely thought I'd never get it, so I was nervous but not that nervous," she says. "I just thought, 'I'm getting to improvise in front of Greg Daniels, so I'd better have fucking fun.'"

Two hours and many improv scenes later, Frei became hopeful. "I remember looking at my phone and seeing how long it had been, and I was like, 'Maybe I am being considered for this! I don't think they'd waste their time with me for two hours. I'm not that funny,'" she says. As it turns out, she is—she landed the role.

For the self-professed biggest fan of The Office, joining a show like The Paper was intimidating, to say the least. Frei stopped rewatching her favorite episodes when filming started because she found them "a little too close to comfort." To her, as well as the rest of the cast and show creators, The Paper is more than a spin-off. It's a stand-alone sitcom worthy of viewing with fresh eyes. "People are always trying to find the comparisons between them, like who is who. The way we succeed is if people start to see it as its own thing," she says.

Frei researched her role by watching reality TV, namely The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Love on the Spectrum, and Love Is Blind. She calls the latter two her "comfort shows," but it was about more than a Netflix binge. "This is the first thing I've ever done where my character is aware of a camera on her," she says. "Usually, you spend most of your career with a character who doesn't know there's a camera on them, but in this, they do. At certain times, Mare wants the camera to know something, or she doesn't want the camera to know something, and that adds a fun element. When I was prepping for it, I found reality TV to be really helpful because you can see how people react and respond differently."

Even though she put a pause on rewatching The Office, Frei maintains a deep appreciation and admiration for the iconic series. "The performances on that show were incredible, and I learned so much from them. I mean, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski… I think the way that they grounded that show was always something special. I was definitely inspired by watching that through the years," she says.

Still, inspiration isn't imitation. Frei insists that Mare isn't a new version of an old character. She's individualistic, through and through. "She was in the army. She was a tank driver. I did a lot of research into tank drivers, for which there are not many women, barely any. They're in these super-tight, claustrophobic settings usually with like five other guys, and it's really hot, and they're on top of each other," she says. "That really did help inform Mare for me because I think she's somebody who can really adapt to her surroundings and doesn't need much."

Adaptable, resourceful, and practical, Mare's personality is both influenced by and reflected in her hair, makeup, and costume. "Kathleen [Felix-Hager], our Emmy-winning costume designer who is truly just one of the most talented people I've ever gotten to work with, did such a good job," she says. "I loved Mare's muted colors. I think she's somebody who likes to blend in. She doesn't like to be the star and center of attention like Esmeralda. It's a very big foil between us, and hair- and makeup-wise, it was the same thing. She wants to get to work and do her job. … She wants functional clothes, functional shoes, functional hair and makeup. I found that the clothes Kathleen put me in informed that she's just very grounded with herself and how she walks through life."

I can't help but notice that Frei shares more than a few of these personality traits with her character. She exudes humility and has a good-natured ability to poke fun at herself. She admits the similarities are there, but she's not afraid to point out the differences, either. "I think Mare cares less about what people think than I do," she says. "It's something I really admire about her. This is what I'm so proud of in terms of her arc in season 1. I think she really stands up for what she believes in, even if it means people don't like her in the process. She doesn't really care. I feel like that's something I'm constantly struggling with. Something I've learned a lot about from playing her is being able to be confident in what you feel, even if it's not the most popular opinion."

Aesthetically, though, Frei relates to Mare's casualness. "I think we are similar. I live in a T-shirt, jeans, or overalls most days," she says. Frei blames it on the fact that she's currently based in Venice Beach, California. "It's a very casual culture over here. It's very beachy," she says. "You're near the beach, so it should be easy to take off your shoes and go walking through the sand. You know what I mean?" Style-wise, Frei's daily essentials include Converse ("I love a fresh pair of white Converse"), baggy vintage Levi's jeans, and a threadbare T-shirt. "Those three things and I'm good to go," she adds.

Frei's innate instinct for comedy is clear, even via video. She seems to be a person who loves silliness for the sake of it, as so many great comedians do. I ask her if she'll ever return to dramatic acting, and she says she'd rather make her trade out of laughter than tears. "I love doing a dramatic role, but that is a different work experience," she says. "You're leaving heavier than normal. I think it's almost a selfish thing. … If I do comedy all day, I go home, and I'm laughing at something Domhnall said. I get to go home and be like, 'Well, that was the most fun day.' I'd rather be laughing all day than crying all day."

That's not to say she won't be flexing that muscle again. After all, her costar Gleeson is proof that performers contain multitudes. "He's the perfect example of someone who has done so much incredible dramatic work. He's truly one of the most special actors I've ever gotten to work with and ever witnessed work," she says. "During our chemistry read, before I got the part, we were doing a scene where he messes up a speech. In character, he started hysterically sobbing, and it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. I just couldn't stop laughing because he was so committed. I think comedy is always best when it's fully from a place of what a character would actually do and an actor's willingness to commit to that circumstance."

As for what's next, Frei is focused on The Paper, which was renewed for a second season. "I'm so thrilled that we get to do the show again," she says. "I can't even believe it. I'm so excited to get to work with everybody from this cast. I think everybody's so talented, and I love the writers. I can't wait to see what they come up with."

True to form, she's also working on a few personal projects. "I would love to make something that I've written," she says wistfully. "I think that's a big goal and dream of mine. I have a couple of features I wrote that are out in various places on different parts of their journey. I just want to learn and get to control something from start to finish and see it through. I'm hoping that can happen." Switching back to her animated elocution, she continues, "Besides that, I've gotten so much great family time through this. I'm the person who asks for like 10 tickets to the premiere. I was like, 'My parents need to come. My sister needs to come. Her fiancé needs to come.' I want everyone everywhere. These moments are only as important as they get to be for everybody in my family."

See Frei's performance in the NBC series The Paper, now streaming.

Photographer: Bryan Carr
Stylist: Lauren Eggertsen
Creative Direction: Amy Armani
Entertainment Director: Jessica Baker
Hairstylist: Holly Mills
Makeup Artist: Kate Lee using Chanel Beauty
Manicurist: Queenie Nguyen
Set Designer: Cecilio Ramirez
Producer: Erin Corbett
Designer: Jamie Brown