'MadTV' Star to Play Ellie Kemper's Mother in NBC's 'Brenda Forever'

Courtesy of Meghan Schumacher Management

Stephnie Weir

NBC has found Ellie Kemper's mother.

our editor recommends

'The Office's' Ellie Kemper To Star in NBC's Peter Tolan Comedy Pilot

TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide to What Lives, Dies and Still Has a Pulse

MadTV alum Stephnie Weir has joined the single-camera comedy pilot Brenda Forever, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Stories from Brenda Miller's past and present are interwoven to give a unique portrait of how a chubby, awkward, but incredibly confident 13-year-old grew up to be a 31-year-old woman (Kemper) who still marches to the beat of her own drum.

PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013

Weir will play Brenda's mother Shelley Miller, described as jovial and easygoing. She is a good mom who doesn't take things too seriously but speaks up when she has to, and tends to be unreadable at times. Da'vine Joy Randolph co-stars.

David Lampson and Andrew Leeds, who co-wrote NBC’s Rex is Not Your Lawyer pilot in 2010, are set to write and executive produce, the pilot, which is based on a spec script that the network nabbed following a bidding war with Fox. Rescue Me’s Peter Tolan and Michael Wimer (2012) will join them as EPs on the single-camera effort from Sony Pictures TV and Tolan and Wimer’s Fedora Entertainment.

Weir is repped by UTA and Meghan Schumacher Management. She was a consulting producer on Fox's Raising Hope and appeared in Fun With Dick and Jane.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
Twitter: @insidethetube