Chelsea Peretti Is Officially a ‘First Time Female Director’

If there’s one thing I need before hopping on a morning Zoom call with Chelsea Peretti, it’s coffee. But not just because it’s early in the day; the comedian, writer, and now director—of the appropriately titled First Time Female Director, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this month—has not made any secret about her love of a little java. Before viral iced coffee memes and TikTok’s obsession with cafe culture, there was Peretti’s “Coffee Crankin’ Through My Sys,” an anthem that played on her podcast for years. She’s even written several songs about the beverage, which appeared across her two 2020 EPs.

“I’m weaning on mine, I’m trying to get on your level,” Peretti responds after I tell her that I’ve had my coffee and I’m fully energized. “But as soon as I do, you’re going to feel it.”

Peretti might be a bit groggy, but neither she nor First Time Female Director could possibly be described as “low-energy.” Her film, which will stream on Roku next year, is a chaotic romp from start to finish. It follows the titular amateur director, Sam (played by Peretti), as she mounts a play at a community theater in Glendale, California. Sam is determined to make her play, Rain’s Comin’ In—a rural, Southern drama in the vein of Tennessee Williams—a success. But in order to do so, she must wrangle the theater’s loyal troupe of performers, whose gigantic egos and pernicious personalities keep getting in her way.

Read more at The Daily Beast.