IN CONVERSATION WITH EMILY OSMENT

interview by JANA LETONJA

Emily Osment stars in CBS’s hit comedy Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, returning this fall for its highly anticipated second season. A spin-off of the beloved Young Sheldon, the series marks Emily’s fifth collaboration with TV powerhouse Chuck Lorre, following standout turns on Mom and The Kominsky Method. From her breakout as Lilly Truscott on Hannah Montana to leading fan-favorite comedies, voicing beloved animated characters, and seamlessly shifting between heartfelt drama and laugh-out-loud sitcoms, Emily has built a career defined by versatility.

Season 2 of ‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’ is almost here. Where do we find Georgie and Mandy at the start of the new season?

Georgie and Mandy are still living at home with her family and prioritizing being parents. Georgie and Ruben are doing their best to keep their heads above water as the new owners of McAllister Tire and with Jim now retired, he’s around much more. Everyone is still under one roof and lovingly driving each other nuts. 

jacket LAPOINTE

This show started as a spin-off from ‘Young Sheldon’. What’s it been like stepping into a lead role in your own series?

I don’t know if I’ll ever stop being grateful for this opportunity to keep the story going for Georgie and Mandy. I love working with this cast and crew so much, they’ve become like family over the last several years. Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro and Steve Holland have truly changed my life with this show and I get to come to work everyday and laugh and play with my friends. It’s a dream. 

You’ve now been part of this franchise for several years. How has your connection to Mandy evolved over time?

Mandy is a feminist in a slowly progressing town and time. She’s a working mom in a relationship with a much younger man in east Texas in 1995. It’s a unique situation and with every year that passes, we get to know her a little better, watch her relationship grow and shift, and see her learn what’s most important to her. She has big dreams and many pieces on the board to still sort out while she tries to achieve them. 

Chuck Lorre has been a big creative partner for you. What do you think makes your collaborations work so well?

My first time working with Chuck was in 2011 for a one off episode of ‘Two and a Half Men’. I was a huge fan of his and I was so nervous and got through the week counting my lucky stars and never assuming we would cross paths again. That’s how you have to look at most things in life. Hope for the best, but never assume. Our casting director Ken Miller kept putting me in front of Chuck in various rooms for different shows and things kept sticking. I tested for Anna Faris’s daughter on ‘Mom’, but I was a little too old, so they brought me back to play Jodi in season three, one of my favorite roles of all time. He’s a very loyal guy. If he likes you, he keeps you around. After ‘Kominsky Method’, ‘Young Sheldon’, and now ‘Georgie and Mandy’, I can officially say I think we’re friends. It’s been fifteen years now I’ve been working with Chuck and I still have no idea what I’m doing right. I tend to keep my head down and do the work, and as long as I’m laughing and having fun, I know I’m on the right track. I also make delicious chocolate treats every year during the holidays, so he could just be out for those, who knows. He calls, I’m there. 

You’ve had major roles in multi-season shows like ‘Young & Hungry’ and ‘Hannah Montana’. What have those experiences taught you about sustaining a long-running series?

Sleep. Our schedule on ‘Georgie and Mandy’ is much more relaxed than any other sitcom I’ve worked on. When I was working on ‘Hannah Montana’, I was a full time high school student in a real school, managing being sixteen and also on the biggest kids show in the world. I would work a ten hour day, then do four hours of homework, and then do a live audience show and drive forty five minutes to and from work. I have no idea how I did it. My parents and friends were so supportive, but that’s definitely the most tired I’ve ever been in my life. I worked on ‘Young & Hungry’ for five years during my early twenties, where I was really figuring out who I wanted to be, and now as a full blown adult back on a sitcom, I just get to enjoy the work as much as possible. My personal life is solid now, I don’t have to worry about anything other than getting to work before Montana so I can claim that he was late. 

Many fans remember your dramatic turn as Jodi on ‘Mom’. Do you find switching between comedy and drama challenging or refreshing?

That’s what Chuck does best. The comedy is never forced, it sits in such a real place that getting there as an actor is easy. It’s amplified real life. I love working in comedy, but getting to play a tragic character on a sitcom is a rarity and something I’m so grateful I got to do next to Allison Janney. I learned more in the few weeks I was on that show than the last twenty five years I’ve been doing this. I just got to sit and watch her be a superstar. It was hard to call it work. She’s incredible. 

coat MARRISA WILSON
dress HOUGHTON
boots STUART WEITZMAN

Your voice work on ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’ shows another side of your talent. How does voice acting compare to on-camera work for you?

Voice acting was my first love and my first job. I love the challenge of rounding out a character, using only your voice and while wearing your PJs. I worked on ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’ during covid, when the world was so bleak, and I still got to drive to Burbank and sit in an isolated sound booth and play a little demon from the underworld. It was massively therapeutic. 

With more than two decades in the industry, how has your approach to choosing roles changed?

It has a lot to do with the people I get to surround myself with. I’m so grateful to have been doing this long enough to know who I would like to work with and the type of environment I want to immerse myself in. Hours are long and you never want to lose the excitement of going to work every day, so I tend to choose carefully. I’m always looking for something new or in this case, a medium of television I already love and trust. 

You have over 2.2 million Instagram followers. How do you balance fan engagement with keeping parts of your life private?

I love to connect with fans of the show, but I also know how to keep my life private. I tend to use my platform for all kinds of things, updates on my life, representing causes I believe in and your basic signs of life. I like to keep the representation of myself as real and authentic as possible. No point in pretending to be an Instagram model as I’m usually covered in dirt and dog hair from prioritizing being outside in nature. 

Is there anything else you are working on in addition to ‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’?  

Right now, I’m focusing on our wonderful show. It takes up about nine months of my year and besides that, I’m working closely with my friends at American Rivers to try and do my part spreading the word about how to keep our rivers clean, healthy and protected. 

top HARBISON STUDIO

TEAM CREDITS:

talent EMILY OSMENT
photography PERAZNA
styling AMANDA LIM at The Only Agency
makeup ROBERT BRYAN at The Wall Group
hair CHERILYN FARRIS at Highlight Artists
editor TIMI LETONJA
editorial director and interview JANA LETONJA