EXCLUSIVE: Kayo Martin (The Plague), Jeremy Ray Taylor (It, Big Sky) and Laila Pruitt (BMF, Will Trent) have landed the leads in I Suck At Girls. With the trio on board, Netflix has given a formal series order to the comedy from Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, Bill Lawrence’s Doozer and Warner Bros. TV where all are under overall deals.
As Deadline reported exclusively, Netflix had handed a cast-contingent pickup to the show in late 2025, with a casting search for the leads launched in early January.
Abbott Elementary co-showrunners Halpern and Schumacker wrote the project based on Halpern’s autobipography I Suck At Girls. The series revolves around three awkward high school sophomores — Steven (Martin), Garrett (Taylor) and Anna (Pruitt) — who stumble through the messy world of teenage romance and identity, learning that sucking at girls is just part of growing up.
Halpern and Schumacker, who will serve as showrunners, are executive producing through their Delicious Non-Sequitur Productions alongside former 20th TV head of comedy Chet Dave, now Head of Development for Delicious Non-Sequitur, and Doozer’s Lawrence, Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer. WBTV is the studio.
Filming is targeting a summer start, likely in Los Angeles, I hear.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Bill Lawrence to bring Justin’s hilariously relatable autobiography, I Suck at Girls, to the screen,” said Tracey Pakosta, Netflix’s VP of Comedy Series, US. “They have a rare ability to turn deeply personal, unconventional ideas into culture-defining series that are sharp, funny, and deeply human. This show captures universal truths about life and relationships with authentic heart and humor, we believe it’s a story audiences will genuinely love and connect with.”
Published in May 2012, I Suck At Girls was Halpern’s follow-up to his bestseller Sh*t My Dad Says, based on his popular Twitter feed, which he and Schumacker adapted into the CBS/WBTV comedy series $h*! My Dad Says that starred William Shatner.
Warner Bros TV and Lawrence originally optioned I Suck At Girls three months before it was published by HarperCollins. A single-camera comedy adaptation by Halpern and Schumacker, with Lawrence executive producing, triggered a bidding situation later that year, landing at Fox with a pilot production commitment. It went to series, Surviving Jack, starring Christopher Meloni, which ran for one season.
Halpern and Schumacker last year re-teamed with Lawrence for another stab at the book with a new premise, resulting in I Suck At Girls, which was taken in by Netflix.
“I’m incredibly excited to make a show that can hopefully capture the funny, emotional and oftentimes humiliating experience of growing up,” Halpern said. “As opposed to just the emotional and humiliating experience of my life as an adult.”
Halpern and Schumacker serve as executive producers/co-showrunners alongside creator/star Quinta Brunson on the hit ABC/WBTV comedy series Abbott Elementary, which was just renewed for a sixth season with them set to continue in their role. The duo also were co-developers and executive producers on WBTV’s animated HBO Max series Harley Quinn. They are managed by Adventure Media and repped by attorney Allison Binder at Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson + Christopher.
This marks Doozer’s sixth current series. It joins Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, Shrinking and Bad Monkey, ABC’s Scrubs revival and the upcoming HBO comedy series Rooster, starring Steve Carell — all created or co-created by Lawrence. He is repped by CAA and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman.
At Netflix, I Suck At Girls joins two other upcoming live-action comedy series, Dan Levy’s Big Mistakes and Nick Kroll’s A Hundred Percent.
Martin, who most recently portrayed Jake in Charlie Polinger’s The Plague, is repped by UTA and OneWonder.
Taylor’s credits include the role of Ben Hanscom in It and in the sequel It: Chapter Two, and he also portrayed Bridger Ryan in Big Sky, among others. He’s repped by Paradigm and HJTH.
Pruitt recurred on both Starz’s BMF and ABC’s Will Trent. She’s repped by CESD, Vault Entertainment & Perry Law Group.
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