Deborah Vance Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

UPDATED: Hacks star Jean Smart has taken to social media to reveal she’s recovering from a recent successful heart procedure.

My guest this week is the SAG-nominated ‘Hacks’ co-creator, showrunner, director and star, Paul W. Downs.

making the show, which has now won four Emmys including two Best Actress in a Comedy Series trophies for series star Jean Smart.Smart, who plays legendary comedy diva Deborah Vance in the show, was the first person cast, and Downs says she set the tone for the rest of the ensemble.“We had Jean Smart first and she really has the embodiment of the tone we wanted,” Downs said. “Because she’s smart, funny and also can be really dramatic and heartfelt at the same time.

Jean Smart tonight won her second straight Critics Choice Award for her starring role in HBO Max’s Hacks. She was not on hand to accept the trophy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series because the five-time Emmy winner had tested positive for Covid, a rep for Smart confirmed to Deadline.

Jean Smart has won her second consecutive Emmy for lead actress in a comedy series for her role as legendary Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance in HBO Max’s Hacks.

Season 3 of HBO comedy series Hacks will have a surprising pause in the action, the shows’ creators revealed on the Emmys red carpet Monday.

Jean Smart is adding another feather to her cap. For the second consecutive year, the 70-year-old actress took home Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance on . Smart beat out Rachel Brosnahan (), Kaley Cuoco (), Elle Fanning (), Issa Rae () and Quinta Brunson ()«Thank you for a second time honoring this show,» the now five-time winner said while accepting her award onstage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles during the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards. Smart won last year's Lead Actress Emmy for her performance on the HBO Max series. «As we all know season two of a show is kind of a litmus test,» Smart continued on Monday night, adding that the cast and crew had passed with flying colors. «The crew went above, above, above and beyond,» she said.Smart's win last year came in the wake of the death of her late husband, Richard Gilliland.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large When Emmy-nominated “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder first read the Season 2 finale of her hit HBO Max comedy, she was concerned. After a season of plenty of animosity between aging comedy legend Deborah Vance (played by Jean Smart), and Einbinder’s character, the young writer Ava, it seemed like the season ended with everything wrapped up neatly. A little too neatly, at first, for Einbinder. “I was very scared. I thought that I was going to be fired,” she tells Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “I was going through all of the panicky fear things. It’s kind of insane in retrospect, but I think I was a little too close to the case. Like, it really, really, really upset me. I was crying for a couple hours.”

Scott Huver In earlier sitcom eras, the stage personas of seasoned real-world stand-up comics made for reliable main characters, but rarely were they actually performing jokes professionally onstage. Only later would supporting characters dip into the standup arena — think “Full House’s” Dave Coulier or “Facts of Life’s” Geri Jewell — until finally Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling took their funnymen and, to varying degrees, their craft, center stage on “Seinfeld” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”Today, however, two widely admired, multi-Emmy-nominated comedies — “Hacks,” set in contemporary times, and “The Marvelous Mrs.

Hacks was first born on a road trip to a Monster Jam rally back in 2015. It was during the drive that couple Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello and their close friend Jen Statsky discussed the relative invisibility of female comedians compared to their male counterparts. Having bonded as co-writers, producers, and in the case of Aniello and Downs, directors and actors on the Comedy Central series Broad City, together the trio cooked up HBO Max’s Hacks. In its first season, which also stars Downs as agent Jimmy LuSaque, the show’s depiction of female comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her protégé Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) won Emmys for writing and directing, and acting for Smart. Now, its second season boasts 17 nominations, among them, Outstanding Comedy Series. It has also been renewed for a third season.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorEmmy-nominated re-recording mixers John W. Cook II and Ben Wilkins layered in 16 different tracks of recording for a key courtroom moment in Starz’s “Gaslit.”The political thriller takes a different look at the Watergate scandal.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor“Hacks” season two saw a shift in costumes for both Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava. Costume designer Kathleen Felix-Hager made use of the season’s storyline that saw Deborah Vance on tour.From a lesbian cruise to a state fair, Felix-Hager worked with Smart and the team to play up the wardrobe. Producer and writer Jen Statsky says, “We knew it was a fun opportunity seeing Deborah as a bit of a fish out of water.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has a pair of exclusive tracks from composer Carlos Rafael Rivera’s Season 1 soundtrack for HBO Max’s Peabody and multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy series Hacks, which is set for digital release tomorrow via Lakeshore Records.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticAs the final minutes of “Hacks” Season 2 ticked by, it was hard to shake the feeling that they just might mark the final minutes of “Hacks,” period. With Deborah (the incomparable Jean Smart) finally tapping in to a more personal and rewarding vein of her comedy to huge success, before pushing Ava (the underrated Hannah Einbinder) out of the nest to forge her own path in Hollywood, the series easily could’ve ended there. Even Deborah’s CEO Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) and agent Jimmy (Paul W.

“Hacks.” HBO Max has renewed the award-winning comedy for Season 3 following the side-splitting yet tear-jerking season 2 finale earlier this month. “We congratulate ‘Hacks’ extraordinarily gifted executive producers and cast, and our partners at Universal Television,” Sarah Aubrey, HBO Max’s head of original content, said.

Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels will be back for more stand-up stories after HBO Max renewed Hacks for a third season.

Jean Smart and Martin Short don’t just have names that might make them a perfect comedy-cabaret double act — they’re also both excelling in cross-generational comedy stories. On HBO Max’s “Hacks,” Emmy defending champion Smart returned for a second season as stand-up queen Deborah Vance, who’s still in a rivalrous partnership with her writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder); on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” Short and longtime creative collaborator Steve Martin teamed with Selena Gomez to solve sweetly melancholy mysteries in their Manhattan apartment complex. JEAN SMART: I just binge-watched your show, and I cannot tell you how much I love it.

Katcy Stephan The sophomore slump is, as history has shown, a real thing. The first season of “Hacks” earned an Emmy for Jean Smart and a nom for Hannah Einbinder — so the new season had to step it up. And that’s exactly what the writers did, kicking things into high gear — literally — as Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels hit the road on a larger-than-life tour bus.“Season 1 was a tough act to follow.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeHBO Max’s “Hacks” is the latest entertainment series to be honored by the Peabody Awards, which announced the win on Tuesday morning.“When they’re together taking on all things comedy and feminism, ‘Hacks’ crackles with wit and truly sings,” Melissa McCarthy said in her presentation to the show.Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Paulilu, First Thought Productions, Fremulon Productions and 3 Arts Entertainment, are behind the show.“HBO Max’s Hacks became a word-of-mouth hit thanks to the brilliantly funny intergenerational pairing of Jean Smart as standup legend Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels, the desperate young comedy writer sent to freshen up Deborah’s act,” the org said in its statement honoring the show. “Created by ‘Broad City’ writers Lucia Aniello, Paul W.

A version of this story appeared in Pop Life Chronicles, CNN's weekly entertainment newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. (CNN)Is it just me or is this year flying by?How are we almost halfway through 2022 already?I need things to slow down a little bit.

Variety takes a closer look at some of this summer’s most anticipated new and returning premieres. Mark your calendars! “Hacks” (HBO Max)Following an Emmy-winning first season, Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava leave Las Vegas, hitting the road in a tour bus — with new material in the works — when Season 2 kicks off. New additions to the season include guest stars Laurie Metcalf, Ming-Na Wen, Martha Kelly, Margaret Cho, Susie Essman and Devon Sawa.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorJean Smart and her “Hacks” co-stars are under pressure. A lot of pressure.After an award-winning first season of the HBO Max series, they’re back for their sophomore outing.“Season 2 for any show means you have to prove yourself,” Smart told me at the second season premiere earlier this week at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. “It’s like, ‘You gotta now show us that wasn’t just a fluke.’”It wasn’t long after “Hacks” became a critical darling that Smart learned the streamer was green lighting another season.“As soon as I started getting the scripts for Season 2, I was said, ‘Oh, my god.

“Hacks,” the divine comedy from creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky.

Jean Smart rocks a red hot outfit for the season two premiere of Hacks held at DGA Theater Complex on Monday night (May 9) in Los Angeles.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticIf you’re already a fan of “Hacks,” chances are you’re one of two kinds of viewers. Either you’re in it for the prickly dynamic between Gen Z writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and legendary stand-up comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), or you try to ignore Ava and instead focus on TV veteran Smart, playing the woman writing Ava’s checks with perfectly acidic disdain.

HBO series, which follows her dynamic with young comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder).In the second season, Deborah and Ava embark on a cross-country tour to test out their new stand-up material – joined by a roster of new guest stars, including Laurie Metcalf (The Big Bang Theory) as tour manager Alice who, as mentioned in the trailer, is nicknamed ‘Weed’ by Pete Wentz.Other new guest stars for the second season include Martha Kelly (Baskets), Ming-Na Wen (The Mandalorian) and Susie Essman (Curb Your Enthusiasm), while Margaret Cho and Devon Sawa will also make appearances.They’ll join returning cast members Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Christopher McDonald, Kaitlin Olson, Paul W. Downs, Poppy Liu, Rose Abdoo, Mark Indelicato, Meg Stalter, Angela E.

Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are hitting the road!

The second season of “Hacks” is right around the corner, and HBO Max has just dropped a wild new trailer.

Hacks,” which premieres on the streamer May 12 with two episodes, followed by two more each week until June 2. Picking up after stand-up legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) lost her Vegas residency, she and young comedian Ava (Hannah Einbinder) travel across the country to workshop her new act.Additional cast includes Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Jane Adams, Christopher McDonald, Kaitlin Olson, Paul W. Downs, Poppy Liu, Rose Abdoo, Mark Indelicato, Meg Stalter, Angela E.