Comic-Con 2016: People of Earth stars on new show

Prepping for series made the cast less skeptical: 'What if we're not alone?'

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Published on July 22, 2016 08:17PM EDT

How does People of Earth star Ana Gasteyer see the new TBS comedy full of cussing aliens, abductions, and paranormal investigation? “It’s kind of in between this sort of grounded, reality comedy that we know from The Office and then a sci-fi, J.J. Abrams, ‘out there’ [show],” she tells EW during an interview at San Diego Comic-Con.

That’s not just because The Office‘s Greg Daniels is producing.

People of Earth features Gasteyer as a therapist named Gina, who runs a support group for survivors of alien abductions, while Wyatt Cenac plays a New York reporter named Ozzie, who travels to the town of Beacon to interview “these weirdos.”

“When we got to Toronto when we shot the pilot, we actually sat with — a journalist came and sat with us as a group and he had done some work spending time with alien experiencers,” Cenac says. “So he talked to us about his experience with experiencers.” Cenac also says he stumbled into a bookshop with all sorts of texts on aliens, mysticism, and various non-traditional beliefs to research for the part.

“Beacon actually has this history in upstate Hudson Valley, New York, of enormous experiencing stories,” Gasteyer explains. “So we watched a lot of YouTube videos, and you end up sort of starting exactly like cynically and then there are crossover areas that are odd.”

People of Earth was created by David Jenkins, and he produces the series with Daniels, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross, David Kissinger, and Larry Sullivan.

Watch EW’s interview with the stars in the video above.

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