Ellie Kemper

She joined The Office in Season 5 for what was supposed to be four episodes, and the producers couldn't send her home. Erin Hannon's near-aggressive optimism worked because Kemper played it completely straight, and the character became a main cast member by Season 6. After Bridesmaids (2011) built her film profile, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock handed her the lead of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in 2015. Playing a doomsday cult survivor relearning normal life suited her specific skill: performing cheerfulness as a survival mechanism, not just a personality trait.

A 2021 Twitter controversy surfaced photos of her being named 'queen of love and beauty' at the 1999 Veiled Prophet Ball in St. Louis, an organization founded by white elites in 1878 that historically barred Black and Jewish members. She issued a public apology acknowledging its 'unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past,' saying she hadn't known the history at the time. Since Kimmy Schmidt ended in 2019, her work has been lower-profile: she co-hosted The Great American Baking Show in 2023. The Veiled Prophet moment hit harder than any role she's taken in years.

Princeton-to-UCB-to-eternal-TV-optimist is a specific arc. She graduated in 2002, wrote for The Onion and McSweeney's, and built a career on playing the least intimidating person in any given room. Her family has been in Missouri banking since the 19th century. The gap between that background and the cheerfully clueless characters she built her name on is either a deliberate creative choice or the best-executed irony in network comedy.