Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne set star-studded cast for Prime Video animated series
Keke Palmer, Greta Lee, Kieran Culkin, and Sam Smith join the cast of the animated alien comedy
Former roomies Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne have scored a two-season order for their animated comedy on Prime Video, and they’ve got an all-star cast on board. Produced by Rudolph and Lyonne’s production company Animal Pictures, The Hospital features the talents of Keke Palmer, Greta Lee, Kieran Culkin, and Sam Smith (yes, that Sam Smith).
According to Variety, The Hospital follows “best friends and intergalactically renowned surgeons” Sleech (Lee) and Klack (Palmer) whose caseload includes “anxiety-eating parasites, illegal time loops, and deep-space STIs.” When the pair “[risk] their careers to take on a remarkable case, they put existence itself in jeopardy.”
Klak is “a brilliant, multi-eyed surgeon who spends her down time feeding her sentient plants, obsessively reviewing past failures, and watching hit show My Lover, My Clone.” Her bestie Dr. Sleech is “a reckless, cocky surgeon whose main saving graces are her genius, her well-oiled lizard tail, and her unconditional love for her best friend Dr. Klak.”
Rudolph and Lyonne will also lend their voice talents to the series as Nurse Tup (Lyonne), “a playful nihilist with chameleon flesh who thrives in the chaos of the hospital,” and Dr. Vlam, “a robot intern who has been alive for at least 20,000 years,” per Variety.
Meanwhile, Culkin’s Dr. Plowp is “a surgeon, an empath and an adult experiencing puberty” and Grammy winner Smith portrays Dr. Azel, “a galactically renowned surgeon with ambiguous morals and six well-manicured feet.”
If those descriptions aren’t tempting enough, the series will reunite Lyonne and Lee with Russian Doll writer Cirocco Dunlap, who serves as showrunner and executive producer. Shauna McGarry, Renfrew Behrens, and the Amazon-based animation studio Titmouse are also on board as EPs. Artist Robin Eisenberg serves as production designer and co-producer.
“Cirocco is a total original,” said Rudolph, Lyonne, and Behrens in a statement. “Brilliant and wildly talented with an utterly singular voice and boundless imagination. She’s also ridiculously funny and finds the most unexpected ways to make you laugh while exploring complex existential questions! It has been a thrill to watch her nurture the seed of an idea and grow it into two seasons so beautifully.”
For her part, Dunlap said that developing a series “that prominently features unsexy alien sex has been one of the best experiences of my life.”