MOM, DAUGHTER COMPETE, CREATE ON ‘PLAY-DOH’ SHOW
Cardiff’s Anjuli Arora Dow and her daughter Divya took on the ultimate creative challenge, testing their artistic skills and stretching their imaginations on the kids’ competition show “Play-Doh Squished” on Amazon Prime.
Hosted by actress Sarah Hyland, the season started airing in November with new episodes launching every Friday. Dow and Divya, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Ada Harris School, competed as a team with their close friends Emily and Dylan Chapman. Their episode will air Friday — they have to keep their lips zipped about what happens on the show but can reveal that their episode was pirate themed.
On “Play-Doh Squished,” three teams of kids and adults take on silly physical challenges and an obstacle course, collecting Play-Doh lid tokens that earn the team more time or extras to help take their Play-Doh creations to the next level. Dow describes the obstacles almost like the “Double Dare” show from when she was growing up: “It’s making my childhood dreams come true with the obstacles and slime,” she said.
Each game is capped with a final test of the contestants’ imaginations: a three-hour building challenge to make a Play-Doh world on the theme, using the Play-Doh emporium on set: “It’s like a humongous store full of Play-Doh,” said Divya. It’s filled with all of the colors, tools, cutters and accessory pieces that the who built the best Play-Doh masterpiece — the winning team wins a grand prize of $5,000 while the other teams’ creations get squished.
Each show has surprise guest stars like Hyland’s “Modern Family” TV mom, Julie Bowen, Alyssa Milano, Rob Riggle and Marshawn Lynch. The Dows can’t reveal who their guest was, except to say it was an actor they both liked and was very funny: “We were pretty excited about who it was,” Dow said.
Dow grew up in Rancho Santa Fe and moved back to Cardiff from the Bay Area a year and a half ago with her husband and three children.
“We’ve always had PlayDoh in our house and Divya is an extremely talented artist, she creates a lot,” Dow said.
Divya makes artwork in clay and paint and she also loves to bake. She started baking during the pandemic lockdowns and makes elaborate cakes, cupcakes, pies, cookies and boba. “I think this practice in patience and precision helped us in the challenges as well,” Dow said.
To get on the show, the Dows went through an audition process that included interviews and being filmed doing a three-hour PlayDoh build on a prompt. They filmed at a Burbank studio back in June and Dow said everyone on set was so friendly to the children, making it an extremely fun and supportive environment. The set was filled with a high amount of energy and creativity: “Seeing all of the art being done there was such a fun experience to do with a child,” Dow said, adding she won’t soon forget the look on the girls’ faces. “The kids’ eyes were just wide open.”
“It was indescribable,” Divya confirms.
Divya most loved being on set: “I liked talking to Sarah Hyland and all of the cameras on us,” she said. “Getting interviewed is fun!”
Being on camera has helped form a new idea for what she would like to be when she grows up: Divya now says she would like to be a movie star or appear on stage on Broadway. And Dow can’t wait to see what her daughter can build next.
Check out the Dows and all episodes of “Play-Doh Squished” at amzn.to/3wqCulh.