Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 20:30

Comedy comes easy for Chelsea Peretti, who fans of sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-current) know as the impossibly sarcastic-yet-helpful civil administrator Gina Linetti. After all, Chelsea’s been besties with the show’s lead star Andy Samberg (Jake) since primary school…

And the 38-year-old isn’t just on 1

point when it comes to delivering her lines – she’s a pretty funny writer too, having helped pen scripts for Amy Poehler’s political-themed sitcom Parks And Recreation (2009-2013).

Besides having classes with Andy 2

at elementary school in Berkeley, California, Chelsea also carpooled with the 37-year-old comedian. That’s where her crush on him developed and Chelsea jokes, “He won’t acknowledge it but I used to phone him at home and when he answered, I’d hang up.”

Like a lot of actors, she loves using 3

social media like Twitter (@chelseaperetti) to interact with fans. And the digital world has given her more than just an outlet for between-takes snaps of her co-stars; it’s also where she met fiancé Jordan Peele from sketch show Key & Peele (2012-2015). They took their online flirting offline when things got hot and heavy, returning in November 2015 with a diamond emoji post to announce their engagement.

And loving technology runs in 4

the family. Her brother Jonah (42) founded internet media company Buzzfeed in 2006 and he co-founded online news site The Huffington Post in 2005.

Despite knowing lead star Andy, 5

Chelsea almost never got onto the show. “Should I drop a bomb? I auditioned for the part of Rosa. I didn’t get it but they called and were like, ‘We’re going to write a different part for you.’ So my part wasn’t even in the script!”