'Glee' Vet, 'Newsroom' Actor Join Bill Lawrence's TBS Comedy Pilot

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James Earl

Two actors have been cast in Bill Lawrence's TBS pilot.

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Glee alum James Earl and Rene Gube (The Office, The Newsroom) have joined the half-hour comedy Ground Floor, also from Greg Malins, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Ground Floor centers on a 29-year-old successful alpha male who crosses paths with his company's support staff -- a tight-knit group of happy, carefree people -- prompting him to realize that he's not nearly as happy as he thought he was.

Earl, who also starred in TBS' short-lived comedy Glory Daze, will play Derrick, a laid-back guy who works with Jennifer (Cougar Town's Briga Heelan) on the ground floor. "Up for anything, Derrick is a cheerful liar whose fabrications are always getting him into hot water."

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Gube is set for Threepeat (aka Mike Wen), a money manager with "super-gelled hair." Threepeat is always out for a wild time, but he is nonetheless astounded when his co-worker and best friend, "master of the universe"-type trust manager Brody (Pitch Perfect's Skylar Astin), hooks up with a "ground floor" woman, a romance he thinks crosses the line of appropriateness.

Scrubs vet John C. McGinley co-stars.

From Warner Horizon Television, Lawrence and Malins will pen the script for the multicamera comedy, and Lawrence will executive produce alongside Doozer's Jeff Ingold with Randall Winston on board as a producer. Gail Mancuso will direct the pilot. 

Earl, who has appeared on Austin & Ally, Psych, Necessary Roughness and ER, is repped by Allegory Creative and Untitled. Gube, who served as a writer on TBS' Men at Work and NBC's Up All Night, is repped by CAA and Principato-Young.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
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