What the ‘Abbott Elementary’ Ensemble Can Teach You About Great Sitcom Chemistry

As we prepare for the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble nominees for your consideration. 

Main cast: Quinta Brunson, William Stanford Davis, Janelle James, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, Tyler James Williams
Casting by: Wendy O’Brien and Chris Gehrt
Created By: Quinta Brunson
Distributed by: ABC

Picking up where classic workplace sitcoms like “The Office” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” left off, “Abbott Elementary” makes sharing a breakroom with found family look surprisingly fun. Each week, creator-star Quinta Brunson and the cast bring the series’ dedicated educators to life with love, idiosyncratic charm, and just a hint of trauma bonding.

Season 4 finds the teachers at the titular Philadelphia elementary school fielding crisis after crisis while still making time to shape young minds. Last season, Janine Teagues (Brunson) left Abbott for a job with the school district, then returned to her classroom, finally getting together with her longtime love interest Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) on the finale. Now, the new couple is navigating the weirdness of workplace romance as the school deals with an encroaching golf-course development and a health-care scare tied to an apple-bobbing contest, among other hiccups. 

For three seasons, Janine and Gregory shared a classic will-they-won’t-they vibe. Taking the plunge has allowed the actors to stretch their characters in new ways. For Brunson, this means leaning into the twitchy, hesitant side of Janine, whose overeager idealism often drives the show’s plots. Wary of jinxing a good thing, she desperately tries to keep their relationship under wraps (even though the rest of the staff already knows). She nails the energy of a type A woman who isn’t fooling anyone but herself.

Williams, on the other hand, finally gets the chance to exhale. His portrayal of Gregory usually hinges on trying to make a stick-in-the-mud look carefree; but now that he knows his feelings for Janine are reciprocated, he’s chiller than ever. You can see it in the way Williams relaxes his posture and glows with warmth in scenes opposite Brunson. But he still retains some of the old Gregory, as evidenced by his reaction to a ringworm outbreak on Episode 2. When he goes into panic mode, the actor’s spine becomes as rigid as steel rebar. 

Sheryl Lee Ralph, whose portrayal of veteran educator (and good Christian) Barbara Howard nabbed her an Emmy in 2022, also finds the funny in contrast. Since she’s the picture of workplace competence, it’s a hoot whenever she’s blissfully ignorant about a given issue. Ralph lands a particularly satisfying punchline when Barbara expresses unwavering faith in her own immune system.

Janelle James has a ball as Principal Ava Coleman—the epitome of the “me first” mentality—who’s the most outrageous personality on the series. The actor cranks Ava’s zaniness up to 11 on the season opener when her character sees a white child standing outside her office (a rarity for the school’s mostly Black student body) and runs shrieking through the halls like a horror-movie scream queen.

The rest of the cast delivers, too. Lisa Ann Walter comes alive as tough cookie Melissa Schemmenti, particularly when she acts more like a mob enforcer than a teacher. She sparkles when she extorts classroom resources from a lawyer who’s trying to keep the faculty quiet about the new golf-course development. As the well-meaning, guileless Jacob Hill, Chris Perfetti is extraordinary at playing off the show’s child actors. And as enigmatic janitor Mr. Johnson, William Stanford Davis reliably inserts non sequiturs whenever an episode needs a quirky boost.

The “Abbott Elementary” ensemble knows how to stay true to their characters in the way each reacts to the dilemma du jour. Group projects can be messy, but this cast always earns an A+.