One of 2019's most delightful surprises has been the first season of Pen15, a hilariously insightful and refreshingly heartfelt look at adolescence in the early 2000s. Created by stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, and director Sam Zvibleman, the AwesomenessTV-produced comedy seemingly came out of nowhere when it dropped on Hulu this past February, but it was greeted with a groundswell of critical acclaim and fan adoration. And, this summer, it rode that wave of praise all the way to the Emmys when its episode “Anna Ishii-Peters”—the season’s emotional apex—was nominated for Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series. Nominated alongside Erskine and Konkle is Stacy Osei-Kuffour, a playwright and TV writer who’s been racking up a number of exciting credits like Watchmen, The Morning Show, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s upcoming HBO show. We recently sat down with Osei-Kuffour in Los Angeles to discuss how college friends Erskine and Konkle brought her into the world of Pen15, what it was like to mine her own teen memories for the script, and how she found out about her Emmy nomination.
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