The latest season of Abbott Elementary is filled with guest appearances from internet stars. Since it premiered in 2021, the Emmy-winning workplace sitcom, set at an underfunded Philadelphia public school, has consistently woven internet culture into its plots—and the show’s lightning-fast, blink-or-you’ll-miss-it jokes routinely go viral online. It makes sense given that Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson got her start in comedy making videos online, producing series for BuzzFeed and other platforms that are now cemented in internet culture lexicon.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Now, familiar faces from TikTok and YouTube videos are getting their moment to shine on a traditional sitcom. See the viral stars who have made appearances on Abbott Elementary below.
Quinta Brunson
Quinta Brunson was regularly featured in videos across BuzzFeed’s different channels before breaking off to work on her own projects that she pitched to digital networks.
In 2019, after a few of her videos went viral, Brunson broke into the mainstream as a cast member and writer on HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show in the show’s first season—her only season because she ended up selling her show to ABC. She got Abbott Elementary picked up and currently serves as the show’s creator, writer, and executive producer. She also stars as the bubbly, optimistic teacher Janine Teagues.
Zack Fox
Zack Fox made a name for himself on social media as a professional troll on X and rapper. Both of those talents came to use when he made an appearance on producer Kenny Beats’ YouTube series “The Cave.” In the show, he invites well-known rappers to his studio where he makes them a beat and they freestyle over his new creation. Rappers like Vince Staples, Doja Cat, Lil Yatchy, and Rico Nasty have all stopped by his studio for an episode of “The Cave.”
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Fox joined Kenny and did what he does best: cause a ruckus. He got in the booth and they made “Jesus is The One (I Got Depression),” a deeply unserious song that took off on social media, giving way for the song to reach No. 1 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral charts, became Kenny’s most popular video with over 9 million views and they made a Genius “Verified” video where they broke down the lyrics.
On Abbott, he plays Janine’s deadbeat ex-boyfriend and burgeoning rapper in the drug prevention space, Tariq. After they break up, Tariq goes from being a starving artist, mooching off of Janine to a grade school touring rapper with F.A.D.E. (this show’s version of the D.A.R.E. program). He pops in throughout the series, mostly recently moderating a panel as the president of the PTA.
Sabrina Brier
Most people have a friend like Sabrina Brier—or all the characters she plays in her painfully honest skits about friendships and relationships. Many of her skits have a moment where she’s speaking to someone and they say something either a little too real or a little too honest and it catches her off guard, to which she says “OH!” It’s become ubiquitous on TikTok.
Brier made an appearance in episode four of season three as Jessca, a substitute teacher for Janine’s class. She took her pseudo Valley girl accent and vocal fry to the halls of Abbott Elementary in just one episode.
Casey Frey
Casey Frey’s appearance in Abbott is a welcome surprise. He got his start on the now-defunct short form video platform, Vine, with a few viral moments—most notably, his “Get TF Out of My Way Type Way” video. Since his Vine days, he’s moved over to TikTok, where he’s amassed a following of over one million people, with many of his videos getting over a million views. In Abbott, audiences seem him play a F.A.D.E. rapper in the same vein as Tariq—a nonsensical rhymer warning elementary school students about the dangers of drugs. He fully embodies the character and quite honestly, his character needs a larger arc.
JaBria McCullum
Abbott’s child actors, who make up the titular school’s students, are highly regarded excellent comedic timing. As the show grew in popularity, so did calls for seven-year-old TikTok star JaBria McCullum to join the cast. She’s one of the many characters on her godbrother’s TikTok series, “Are You Smarter Than a Preschooler?” where he asks children questions like “Who fought in World War 2?” and “Spell Mississippi,” the results of which are utterly adorable.
The internet’s calls were finally answered in episode nine this season where she played one of Gregory’s students asking what she should do if one of her teeth falls out. Just like the other young actors on the show, she knows how to steal a scene.
