Maya Ishii-Peters

It's the year 2000, and thirteen-year-old Maya is starting seventh grade desperate to be liked, convinced her frizzy hair, braces, and general awkwardness mark her as unlovable. She's loyal to a fault with her best friend Anna, painfully earnest, prone to embarrassing overshares, and hungry for any sign that a boy might notice her.

The premise sounds like a gimmick — an adult actress playing a seventh grader alongside real teenagers — but Erskine erases the joke within minutes by refusing to wink at the audience. She plays humiliation completely straight, which makes the show's cringe comedy cut so much deeper: you're not laughing at Maya, you're wincing because you remember being exactly that unguarded once yourself.