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GLOW

GLOW star Betty Gilpin is summer TV’s “it girl.” With breakthrough roles in both American Gods and Netflix’s GLOW, Gilpin is on the rise like never before. So who is she? Where have you seen her before? Why is she suddenly breaking out? Here’s the lowdown on the lovely Betty Gilpin.

So, who is Betty Gilpin?

Betty Gilpin is a 30-year-old American actress best-known for her work on Netflix’s comedy series GLOW. She comes from an acting family — her father is actor Jack Gilpin and her mother is actress Ann McDonough. The hysterically funny actress has been steadily making a name for herself in both comedy and drama. She’s appeared on Nurse Jackie, Elementary, and Masters of Sex, but 2017 truly is her year. Both American Gods and GLOW capitalize off of Gilpin’s ability to marry vast depths of emotional trauma with spot on comedic timing.

Who was she on American Gods?

Betty Gilpin played Audrey on American Gods. Note that Audrey was not one of the many “gods” on that show. Audrey was just an everyday, ordinary person. She was best friends with Laura Moon and married to Shadow Moon’s best friend, Robbie. She gets to break the news to Shadow that Laura and Robbie were not only having an affair, but they died together while Laura was performing oral sex on him in a car. Audrey gets not one, but two hilariously heartbreaking scenes. (My favorite scene, though, is when she has to deal with the sheer horror and gross hilarity of Laura Moon’s living corpse in her HGTV-perfect bathroom.)

Wait. Her husband was having an affair with her best friend on American Gods? Didn’t that also happen to her on GLOW?

Yes, indeed. On GLOW, Gilpin plays Debbie, a former soap star who is aghast to discover her best friend has been having an affair with her husband. However, in GLOW, Gilpin gets to get in on way more of the literal action. Not only is she one of the main characters, she is the star “Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling.” Her moniker? Liberty Belle, an all-American brawler who will stand up for our nation’s values.

She’s also really, really pretty, isn’t she?

Well, I think so and it seems you think so, too! Ironically, even though the actress has often played “gorgeous” characters who trade in on their looks (like Nurse Jackie’s Dr. Roman and GLOW’s Debbie), Gilpin herself has struggled with insecurity. She wrote a beautiful essay about growing up with “pea-sized confidence with watermelon-sized boobs” for Glamour that details how working on GLOW helped her unlock her confidence. “I hadn’t winced at the mirror in months. I stood taller. I took up space. I was in an American flag unitard,” she writes. The piece is really, really good and is worth checking out.