IMDb TV Announces Casting and Start-of-Production Date for Coming-of-Age Series High School Based on the New York Times Best-Selling Memoir by Tegan and Sara Quin

CULVER CITY, California—March 17, 2022—IMDb TV today announced the cast and March 21 start-of-production date for its coming-of-age series High School, a new Original show co-created by platinum recording artists Tegan and Sara Quin and executive producer Clea DuVall. TikTok creators and TV newcomers Railey and Seazynn Gilliland have been cast as series leads, portraying the high school versions of Tegan and Sara. Special guest stars Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer will also join the cast, playing the twins’ parents. The series will start filming on March 21 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
 
Railey Gilliland will portray Tegan, a gregarious, confident, and extroverted teenager, who turns to music to explore her vulnerabilities. Seazynn Gilliland will portray Sara, a reserved, observant, and sensitive 15-year-old who, for the first time, starts to access her own self-confidence through playing music. Cobie Smulders will portray Simone, Tegan and Sara’s funny, sharp, and supportive mother, who strives to define herself outside of her family, and Kyle Bornheimer will portray Patrick, Simone’s boyfriend and Tegan and Sara’s pseudo-stepdad, who is a gentle everyman.
 
“It felt kismet when I saw Railey and Seazynn for the first time on TikTok,” said Tegan Quin. “There was something undeniably intriguing about them: They were sweet and original, impossible not to watch. I felt compelled to send Sara the video. ‘Too bad they don’t act,’ I texted her. Sara wasn’t deterred. They were performers, musical and dynamic. ‘You can’t teach charisma,’ Sara said, which they had in spades. Sara was relentless—these were the twins that had to play us. We were overjoyed when they were cast, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that it all worked out.”
 
Produced by Amazon Studios and Emmy and Academy Award-winning Plan B Entertainment, High School is a story about finding your own identity—a journey made even more complicated when you have a twin whose own struggle and self-discovery so closely mimics your own. Told through a backdrop of ‘90s grunge and rave culture, the series weaves between parallel and discordant memories of twin sisters growing up down the hall from one another.
 
Tegan and Sara Quin, Clea DuVall, and Laura Kittrell will serve as executive producers alongside Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner from Plan B Entertainment. Plan B’s Carina Sposato is a co-executive producer. DuVall will also write and direct multiple episodes, including the pilot. Amazon Studios in association with Plan B Entertainment will produce the series.
 
IMDb TV uniquely offers premium Originals on a free streaming service, including the upcoming May 6 release of Bosch: Legacy, the spinoff of the Prime Video series Bosch; the April 22 premiere of the second season of the buddy-cop drama Pretty Hard Cases; and the newly released zany true-crime docuseries Bug Out. Spanning drama and comedy, scripted and unscripted, additional IMDb TV Originals currently available include the court program Judy Justice, sports docuseries UNINTERRUPTED’s Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers; the spy thriller Alex Rider; the music docuseries Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary; and the heist drama Leverage: Redemption. Upcoming IMDb TV Originals include Australian crime drama Troppo; Greg Garcia’s comedy series Sprung; a new home design series from Jeff Lewis; and On Call, a half-hour drama from executive producer Dick Wolf.