Adrienne Rose White is a distinguished actress, writer, and producer celebrated for her unique ability to blend humor, warmth, and insightful storytelling. Currently, she stars in the upcoming Searchlight Pictures feature Nightbitch alongside Amy Adams, set for release on December 6, 2024. Throughout her career, Adrienne has consistently demonstrated her versatility and dedication to her craft, captivating audiences with her compelling performances.
Adrienne not only produced Quirky Female Protagonist but also brought the role of the Straight-Laced Bestie to life. The comedy series received critical acclaim from outlets such as HuffPost and IndieWire. She then went on to option the hour-long dramedy Safe Space to Lakeshore Entertainment in 2017, before the pilot was sold to CBS in 2019. Building on her creative momentum, Adrienne and her writing partners secured a deal with CBS Network for their comedy pilot, Untitled White/Chan/Case. The project produced in collaboration with Cedric the Entertainer and Eric Rhone’s A Bird and A Bear Productions generated buzz in the industry, which was covered by Deadline and Variety.
Recognized as a rising talent in comedy, she was named a Comedienne to Watch by Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaha in their 2020 Comedy Call-Out. Demonstrating her versatility, Adrienne seamlessly shifted gears in 2021 to co-create and sell the drama series Barrister’s Ball to CBS Studios, with Ted Humphrey on board as executive producer.
Adrienne, it’s a pleasure to get to chat with you here at OLC! Now Nightbitch marks your latest project alongside Amy Adams, a major release with Searchlight Pictures. Can you share what drew you to this film and what audiences can expect from this film and your role?
My friends who are moms were raving to me about the book before I even got the audition. I didn’t know much about Nightbitch, but I knew I wanted to work with Amy and Mari (Marielle Heller, the writer/director). So when I was asked to put the role of Sally on tape, I was excited. I read the script and got swept up in this dark, funny, visceral side of motherhood that I had never seen on screen. When I was done, I was shaking. I was completely hooked.
For what to expect… I like to say that it’s a comedy for women and a horror film for men, haha.
With a background in both acting and writing, how do you balance these roles, and do you find one helps inform or enhance the other in your projects?
Acting is my first love. I got into writing because when I started out, I wasn’t getting auditions for the roles I really wanted. So I thought, I’ll write them! Writing makes me a better actor – I pick up the clues the writer puts in the script, because I put clues in my scripts! And acting makes me a better writer because so much of acting is about relationships and timing. I can write relationships between characters, feel the timing of the dialogue, and feel how the language rolls off the tongue while I’m writing.
Your comedy series, Quirky Female Protagonist, received acclaim from HuffPost and IndieWire. What was the inspiration behind the show, and what do you think resonated most with audiences?
I produced QFP, and my creative partner at the time Aliee Chan wrote it. Aliee showed me the pilot script she’d written, and after we read it aloud I was like, we HAVE to make that. I think it resonated because there were so many shows at the time with quirky female protagonists! We loved them, and so many people loved them, so it was fun all around to dig in and poke fun at why those shows worked so well.
As a producer, you’ve taken on significant roles behind the camera. What aspect of producing appeals to you most, and do you see it influencing your future projects?
I love bringing together the right people for the right roles. It’s like putting puzzle pieces together – when they click, it’s so satisfying. Even though I’m more focused on acting and writing, I’ll always find the right people to fill in the gaps and make some magic.
Safe Space and Barrister’s Ball are examples of your versatility across genres. How do you approach transitioning between comedy and drama, and what excites you about each genre?
To me, the divide between comedy and drama is for the audience, not for the actors. Like, I get it – when you’re at home scrolling through a list of movies and you want to laugh, you pick a comedy. But sometimes I’ve laughed the hardest at a funny moment in a drama or horror film. As an actor, it’s all just feelings. I get such a buzz when I make people laugh, and there’s nothing more cathartic than crying or expressing rage. The emotions are like colors, and I like to paint with all of them.
In 2020, you were named a “Comedienne to Watch” by WhoHaha. What has been the most rewarding or challenging aspect of working in comedy, and how has this recognition impacted your career?
The most rewarding part about comedy is the laughs! It is so satisfying to trigger an involuntary bodily reaction of joy in another person. I live for the “HA!” and the recognition opened up doors for me to work with other funny, incredibly talented people.
Can you tell us about your experience working with Cedric the Entertainer and Eric Rhone on the CBS pilot Untitled White/Chan/Case? What did you learn from collaborating with them?
Ced is the G.O.A.T. of network comedy, and Eric is such a brilliant producer – crafting the project with their guidance was such a gift. Unfortunately, the show was at CBS in 2020, which was an incredibly difficult year all around. But I put together that team – our showrunner Chris Case, my creative partner Aliee Chan, Ced, and Eric – and that proved to me that truly anything is possible in this industry if you follow your own path. I had no TV credits at the time and got the advice multiple times I needed to start at the bottom as a writer’s assistant. Instead, I put together a team to sell a show I could star in, write, and co-executive produce. Don’t tell me magic isn’t possible.
Mira Mira marked your screen debut as a writer and actress. Looking back, what was it like creating your first project, and how has your approach evolved since then?
It was hard! I didn’t know what I was doing, so I made it up as I went. I was afraid of messing up or ruining the project, and that fear really slowed me down. Now I have a lot more confidence in my storytelling abilities, and I’m not so afraid of ‘what if I mess up?’ because I know I’m going to mess up! And usually, something even better, something I couldn’t have anticipated, comes out of the mistakes. Now I make space for the fortuitous accidents, and I trust that I’ll know what to do with them.
Your lead role in After We’re Over earned audience and narrative feature awards. How did you prepare for such an emotionally charged role, and what was the most memorable feedback you received?
I got to rehearse with the director Nate Myers and my co-star Chris Mollica, and that’s rare when filming. Usually, you’re thrown right into filming. It was such a gift to discover our characters and their relationship together. It was intense, and such a strange feeling to mourn the end of a romantic relationship that had never really happened, and that’s a credit to Nate’s writing and Chris’s presence and vulnerability. The most memorable feedback I got… one journalist who wrote a review where he called me a “force of nature.” That felt pretty great.
Having attended both Harvard College and the Atlantic Theater Company Conservatory, how did these experiences shape your approach to acting and storytelling?
Harvard taught me how to juggle a lot of different projects, and Atlantic taught me how to dive deep into one character. Oh, and how to show up on time. They take the 15-minute rule very seriously – if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late. If you’re late, you’re not booking the job. Now I’m not always 15 minutes early, but I do give myself some buffer time so I can relax and be easy at an audition.
In addition to your screen work, are there any other areas in the industry you’re passionate about exploring, like directing or perhaps creating a new genre-blending series?
Haha, thanks for planting the idea in my head! I directed in college and a few digital projects in LA, and I really enjoyed it. It’s on the back burner for now, but I’ll definitely dig back into it at some point. Probably to tell a story about magic and manifesting, because I haven’t seen anything so far that really captures manifesting in the way that I experience it.
With the rise of platforms like WhoHaha celebrating diverse voices in comedy, how do you see the role of women in comedy evolving, and what are your hopes for more representation in the field?
There are so many fantastic female voices in comedy – right now Natasha Rothwell, Yvonne Orji, and Taylor Tomlinson come to mind – I see higher demand for female comics and female-driven shows. Over half of TV audiences are women, and it’s honestly just good business to speak to what that audience wants to see. I see the talent pool and the demand continuing to grow. And when the haters hate, it just makes me laugh.
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