Ana Gasteyer Boards NBC Comedy ‘American Auto’

Former Saturday Night Live regular Ana Gasteyer is returning to NBC.

Gasteyer has joined the network’s comedy pilot American Auto from Superstore creator Jusitn Spitzer, Universal TV and Kapital Entertainment. 

The potential series is set at the Detroit headquarters of Payne Motors, a major American car company where a group of floundering executives try to rediscover the company’s identity amid a rapidly changing industry. Gasteyer will play Katherine Hastings, the CEO of Payne Motors.

The cast for the single-camera project also includes Harriet Dyer (The InBetween) as the company’s head of communications.

Gasteyer is coming off a run on The Masked Singer‘s fall 2019 season, where she was among the final six contestants. She previously was an SNL castmember for six seasons from 1996-2002. Her other credits include ABC’s Suburgatory; recurring parts on The Goldbergs and its spinoff Schooled; TBS’ People of Earth; and Netflix’s Lady Dynamite.

Spitzer, who has an overall deal at Universal TV, wrote American Auto and executive produces with Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan. 

NBC has given straight-to-series orders to a pair of comedies for 2020-21: Young Rock, based on the early life of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and an as-yet untitled show from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock that will star Ted Danson as the newly elected mayor of Los Angeles. The network also has a series take on the feature film Night School from Kevin Hart and pilots from Jim Jefferies and Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator Dan Goor, among others. The Kenan Show, picked up to series for this season, was rolled to 2020-21 and will undergo some reshoots.

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