With 'Overcompensating,' Wally Baram Is Top of the Comedy Class

Wally Baram learned the hard way not to use a bathroom on set.

“It was like a cartoon,” the Overcompensating star tells Marie Claire over Zoom in early May. “I closed the door, and someone was like, ‘Wouldn't it be funny if someone used that?’”

In a moment that could easily have come from a scene in the Prime Video show that has since catapulted Baram to stardom, she realized the toilet didn’t flush, used toilet paper to “cocoon the situation,” shoved it in her purse, and then trashed the bag. “We live and we learn and we poop in a set toilet,” Baram says with a laugh, noting that, in the moment, she irrationally feared that she might get fired from the show for the mistake.

Baram quite literally had to go to school on Overcompensating, the co-ed comedy that dropped on May 15. The show was her first-ever acting experience, but she’s quickly proven to be among its breakout stars for how deftly she balances cringe comedy with heart.

Originally, the 27-year-old was set only to write for the show, created by cult-loved comedian Benito Skinner, about college kids figuring it out. She first cut her teeth doing standup and on series like Betty, Shrinking, and What We Do in the Shadows. (Baram briefly studied economics at Barnard College in N.Y.C., later dropping out to focus on comedy.) But joining the Overcompensating writer’s room and reading early scripts, she was struck by how much she related to freshman Carmen, an outsider who bonds with Skinner’s character, especially after he comes out to her.

“I related to her so much that when I had my meeting with Benny over writing, he was like, ‘You are kind of this girl,’” Baram recalls. She says it “never occurred” to her to submit a self-tape for the role until Skinner insisted. “When Benny told me, ‘I want it to be you,’ my mind was tremendously blown. Even now, I'm still like, What the heck?”

This may only be the start of Baram’s disbelief over her well-deserved moment. Overcompensating feels poised to become the next generation-defining coming-of-age comedy—what with its incredible ensemble of rising names opposite TV legends (Kyle MacLachlan, Connie Britton), spry humor, and spot-on early 2010s references (not to mention the Charli xcx-curated score/soundtrack).

Here, Baram shares what she was like at 18, how much she wrote herself into Carmen, and the scene that nearly made her pee her pants.

MC: Overcompensating is about figuring out who you want to be and trying to be that person. Who did you want to be when you arrived at Barnard, and is it very different from the person you are now?

WB: Oh gosh, absolutely…[Imitates the sound of a rewinding tape] No, maybe they're very similar. It's hard because if me-then saw me-now, we'd be like, What magic genie did we find? And then, How did we luck out so hard?

I worked very hard, which is a big part of the equation. I often felt like I needed to overcompensate for the fact that I didn't have a college degree, but I think that me at the time was interested in the concept of ‘the artist.’ I loved filmmakers. I loved comedian hyphenates. At that time, Mindy Kaling had recently written her book. Tina Fey had a book, Amy Poehler. Women in particular were telling their stories of how they came up as comedians and actors and writers, and I was really inspired by them and knew that that was what I wanted the end goal to be. I had a delineated vision board where I had those, and then I was like, Every decision we make has to lead me to get to there. And if it doesn't lead me to get to that specific vision, if it leads to money or general hooligans and shenanigan-erie, then we're not going to do it.

What was your tight five when you first started doing standup?

WB: My first goal was, I need a taped television set. So everything around standup was, How do we get the very best tight five? Everything was towards, What are the best jokes towards a tight five? It was a lot about my experiences with being a 19-year-old and feeling disappointed and confused with adulthood and trying to figure out who I wanted to be. I even had this joke about college, talking about, ‘How am I supposed to go and reinvent myself? Aren't I supposed to be exploring what I want to be versus immediately knowing what you want to be?’ It’s a lot of what we have in the show. I was just thinking about that last night, like, Whoa, there was definitely an element of my standup that spoke about that.

MC: Overcompensating is a platonic love story between Benny and Carmen, so it’s really special that Benito pushed you to audition. Do you think he saw something in you that you didn’t see in yourself?

WB: 100 percent. I feel like Benny sees Carmen for who she is, when a lot of people don't. I had never acted before and had been auditioning for many, many years, and I felt very seen by [Benito] that he would even want me to be a part of this project in the way that it is. As a friend, I feel comfortable and seen by him, even though we are so different as people. I’m really tickled by our friendship and our chemistry because I can be weird and I have weird hobbies—and I'm still very, very accepted by him and celebrated.

MC: In writing Carmen, did you want to put as much of yourself into her as possible, or did you want to protect parts of Wally?

WB: She was already a really complex character, and in the room, we built her out. In the room, I feel like I contributed a lot of my own personal experiences. There are some things that happen to her in the show that happened to me. So, it's almost like I started with Carmen as Wally, and then I'd be like, Okay, wait a minute. This is getting too nebulous. Now I need to separate these things. It was really helpful to try to do my best to be as omniscient as I could be and say, ’This is Wally. This is Carmen. This is what I want Carmen to have. This is what should stay with Wally because Carmen shouldn't have that.’ And then, ‘This is what I want to make up for Carmen,’ and use my tools as an actor to totally be imaginative and contribute.’

MC: What coming-of-age shows or movies spoke to you when you were growing up?

WB: When you figure out that you want to pursue this path, it’s usually when you’re coming of age. Everyone’s path is so different, but for a lot of people, it’s usually [around that time], and they’re so attached to the coming-of-age media that they see. I loved Skins. I loved Superbad. I loved Freaks and Geeks. Lady Bird was enormous for me.

MC: There are so many fun pop culture notes with the show set seemingly in the early 2010s. What was it like filming Benny’s short film assignment, set to “Ribs” by Lorde?

WB: That was definitely one of my favorite scenes to film. That director, [Daniel Gray Longino], I have such a great relationship with. We have similar sensibilities and are really silly.

[The “Ribs” scene] was pretty much him, our wonderful DP, Robert Scarborough, in the bathroom, just like, ‘Try this, try this.’ I'm in the milk, and then I come out of the milk, and I'm eating the cereal. It was bananas. I laughed so hard. It was our very last [shoot that] night. We were like, ‘Can we fit this in? I don't know.’ So we did it in a speed round type of way. I was having such a hard time not breaking. I do think, unfortunately, a big part of the footage we got, I would just fall apart into tears laughing.

MC: I’m sure you were cracking up on set every day. Did you have any other favorite scenes?

WB: One of my favorite scenes to film was the scene where I am lactose intolerant, and I've had lactose, and there's a bathroom explosion. I got to play the physical comedy of it really, really deep. I have so much fun with physical comedy and making crazy faces. And then also because there was nothing more satisfying than hearing Benny and [writer/producer] Scott [King] break on set. That's the standup comedian in me that wants the audience response, and they were laughing pretty hard.

Also, Benny vomiting was making me pee my pants. Oh, my God, it was so funny. We had so much fun at 3:00 a.m. shooting those scenes.

MC: Given this was your first major acting experience, it was all probably a big learning experience for you, but what did you learn that you didn’t expect to?

WB: I learned so much that I could probably every day isolate a new favorite lesson. But one thing in regards to acting—I worked with this amazing coach, Rebecca Kitt—I learned, in order to play another character, I really need to know myself. As I was saying, to know what I want to give to her, what I don’t want to give to her, what my proclivities are. There are so many things that even now watching, where I'm like, Oh, I didn't know that I do that. I wasn't consciously trying to give this character that. I learned so much about myself, truly, in a way that I’m frankly proud of.