Tegan and Sara have found their Tegan and Sara! On Thursday, the indie pop duo announced the stars of their upcoming comedy series High School.
The sisters will be played by fellow twins and TikTok stars Railey and Seazynn Gilliland. Railey is set to portray the 15-year-old version of Tegan, who’s described in a press release as “gregarious, confident, and extroverted,” while Seazynn will step into the shoes of the “reserved, observant, and sensitive” Sara.
Meanwhile, How I Met Your Mother alum Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer will play the twins’ TV mom, Simone, and her boyfriend, Patrick, respectively.
“It felt kismet when I saw Railey and Seazynn for the first time on TikTok,” said Tegan Quin in a statement. “There was something undeniably intriguing about them: They were sweet and original, impossible not to watch. I felt compelled to send Sara the video.”
The singer continued, “‘Too bad they don’t act,’ I texted her. Sara wasn’t deterred. They were performers, musical and dynamic. ‘You can’t teach charisma,’ Sara said, which they had in spades. Sara was relentless — these were the twins that had to play us. We were overjoyed when they were cast, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that it all worked out.”
Based on the Canadian pop duo’s joint 2019 memoir of the same name, High School is scheduled to begin shooting on March 21st in Calgary. It’s expected to premiere sometime later this year on IMDb TV.
Tegan and Sara will executive produce the coming-of-age series along with Clea DuVall, Laura Kittrell, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner. DuVall will also write and direct multiple episodes, including the pilot.
Last month, the twins released Still Jealous, an acoustic reimagining of their 2004 breakout album So Jealous featuring Tegan singing songs written by Sara and vice versa.