Aubrey Plaza‘s most personal project yet channels her signature deadpan comedy into a highly neurotic feline. Meet Kevin, Prime Video’s adult animated comedy about an eccentric cat (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), who decides to leave his bickering human owners and strike out on his own at an animal rescue in Astoria, Queens.
But the hilarious premise isn’t purely a work of fiction. Plaza co-created the series alongside Emmy-nominated writer and showrunner Joe Wengert (Big Mouth), drawing direct inspiration from their own real-life relationship nearly 20 years ago — and the actual cat named Kevin they once shared. While the actual Kevin didn’t exactly pack his bags for a Queens shelter, his animated counterpart perfectly captures the chaotic post-breakup life of pet owners. The series features a stacked voice ensemble that includes Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters, and Amy Sedaris.
Gold Derby sat down with Plaza to discuss diving into the world of adult animation, co-writing with an ex, and the real-life inspiration behind the show.
Gold Derby: How did the idea for the show first come to you?
Aubrey Plaza: Joe Wengert, the other creator of the show, and I were in a relationship almost 20 years ago. Joe and I lived in Astoria, which is where the show is set, and we adopted two cats — brother cats, Kevin and Howard. We broke up, and then there was that kind of thing that happens when a couple that has a pet breaks up and you must negotiate, “Well, who takes the cat?” Then he started doing a lot of comedy about being a single guy with cats, and it became kind of the whole thing.
Years later, we separately had ideas about doing an animated show about a cat, and he pitched me this idea where he was like, “I kind of want to do a show about a breakup, but where the animal gets to decide what to do.” And I was like, “I love it. Let’s do it.”
Why did you name your cat Kevin?
We named Kevin after our friend Kevin. We were very much in the UCB comedy community, and Kevin Hines was the brother of Will Hines. Both of them are very funny performers, but we didn’t know Kevin Hines that well — we were friends with Will. It was kind of a bit where we thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny to name our cat after someone that we kind of know?”
Then the real Kevin Hines found out and approached us at a party at one point and was like, “Did you guys name your cat after me?” And we’re like, “What? No, why would we do that? That’s insane.”
How did you assemble this great voice cast?
We needed to figure out who our Kevin was, and I have been friends with Jason [Schwartzman] a long time. I think he’s so funny. We’ve been in so many movies together, but our characters in those movies are never interacting. I thought he was perfect because he’s so great at playing a neurotic, quirky guy, and we wanted Kevin to have that kind of neurotic energy. Jason read the script and he thought it was great. Once we got Jason on board, people were even more interested because he’s so beloved.
We had dream cast ideas like Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters, Amy Sedaris, and we just kind of one by one had our journeys of trying to lock them down. Somehow, we got them all.
What was it like voicing characters yourself?
I’m still learning. I feel like I’m not that great of a voice actor, and I’m self-conscious about it because when I watch the show, I’m like, “You can tell that I’m the spider.” But the thing about these kinds of shows is you don’t have the budget to have every single character be a different actor. So I played Dana primarily, but a lot of times we would just have too many characters in the episodes, so we would all have to be like, “All right, I guess I’m going to play the drunk spider, too. I got to come up with a voice for that.” But it was fun.
What surprised you most about making an animated show?
First of all, it takes so long to do anything. The process is so long because you’re building every single frame from scratch. And so it’s just the amount of people involved and the amount of decisions that have to be made are a lot. It’s just very meticulous and time-consuming, a fun challenge, but it’s no joke.
Which past collaborator would make a great animal character on the show?
We’ve written Season 2, and so we have some dream ideas. Owen Wilson is someone — I love his voice. I love the way he talks. I have ideas for him. We got a lot of things cooking.
