With the second season premiere of Hulu comedy Difficult People having its second season premiere on July 12, viewers may have noticed a bunch of well-known faces in the first two episodes that were released on the streaming service. Julie Klausner, who stars on the show as Julie Kessler and is the show’s creator, spoke to USA Today about five of the guest stars that pop up during the season.
Tina Fey reunites with her BFF and on screen sister Amy Poehler, who’s an executive producer of the show, in the first episode, where Fey plays herself as a director of an upcoming episode of NBC’s The Blacklist. Fey knocks on Marilyn Kessler’s (Andrea Martin) door, asking if they can use her front steps in a scene of the show. Klausner said it was fun to see Fey on set and that “it’s really exciting, as a comedy nerd, to watch Tina and Andrea go at it.”
Another familiar face popping up in the new season is former Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays himself. He appears in an episode where Julie and Billy (Billy Eichner) make their own musical about a historical figure, instead choosing to focus on President Jimmy Carter in their musical. Miranda appears when he storms into their performance space, demanding to know who gave a fake quote attributed to him to a newspaper. Klausner said it was a blast working with Miranda and her and Eichner were both surprised that Miranda was able to come in and shoot part of the episode with them.
Joel McHale, who is a fan of the show, appears in some of the episodes as Billy’s new trainer at the gym he joined. McHale’s role was even written specifically for him since he’s such a fan.
Nathan Lane is in the second episode of the season, where he plays himself. As a way to get famous quickly, Julie and Billy try to come up with the next Ice Bucket Challenge and decide it’s going to be celebrities sticking their hands in toilets and nominating other celebrities to do the same. Lane is the first celebrity they get to do it, and things go very wrong for the Broadway actor, leading to his fictional death.
Last but not least, Julianne Moore appears in the season finale as a producer who becomes interested in Julie’s writing and wants the options to it so it can become a movie. On Moore’s character, Klausner said “Her character is one of those Hollywood monsters that acts like a girl’s girl and your best friend, and then will stab you in the back while still smiling. She pulled off the BFF-ness of it so artfully.”
Other guest stars who appear throughout the first season is John Mulaney’s character of Cecil Jellford, a man from Brooklyn that dresses up and talks like an old timer, who Billy meets and hooks up with at the gym.
Megan Hilty guest stars as a patient of Marilyn’s, who is in the middle of a therapy session and ends up cleaning Marilyn’s apartment because of her OCD, which makes Marilyn happy as her maid had just quit.
Shakina Nayfack, a transgender actress, has been cast as Lola, a new waitress at the cafe where Billy works and is a conspiracy theorist.
Nyle DiMarco, fresh off his win on Dancing With The Stars, is in the second episode of the season and is a love interest of Billy’s for one episode.
This isn’t the first time that Difficult People has had familiar faces as guest stars, as the first season had Seth Meyers, Kate McKinnon, Fred Armisen and Ana Gasteyer as guest stars for various episodes during the first season.
New episodes of Difficult People are released every Tuesday on Hulu.