’24’ star cast in Ellen DeGeneres’s gay-themed sitcom
By Nick Levine
Elisha Cuthbert has joined the cast of the new gay-themed sitcom that Ellen DeGeneres is helping to develop.
Titled One Big Happy, the comedy will follow a lesbian who decides to have a baby with her straight male friend – then gets pregnant just as he meets and settles down with the love of his life.
Cuthbert, known for her roles in 24 and Happy Endings, will play Lizzy, the lesbian lead character, Deadline has revealed. Nick Zano, who also appeared in Happy Endings, will play Luke, the straight male friend with whom she decides to have a baby.
Ellen DeGeneres is serving as an executive producer on the project alongside 2 Broke Girls writer Liz Feldman, who is also openly gay, and Jeff Kleenan, the president of DeGeneres’s TV company A Very Good Production.
US network NBC – whose current sitcom roster includes Parks and Recreation and Community – has ordered a pilot episode of the show. Another NBC sitcom revolving around gay parenting, The New Normal, was axed last year (2013).
Meanwhile, DeGeneres is set to host this year’s Oscars – her second time as presenter – on Sunday, March 2.