Empirical Press
Staff
Liza Miller
Liza Miller
Portrayed by: Sutton Foster
Newly divorced and jobless, single mother Liza Miller gets mistaken for being much younger than she really is while at a bar, which gives her a crazy idea: make a whole new life herself in New York by pretending to be twenty-six years old.
- 10-Minute Retirement: When Liza thinks she's going to be exposed, she quits her job at Empirical and takes another job back in New Jersey: sales clerk at the Paramus Mall.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Downplayed; she's shown to be very respectful and kind towards Diana, even if the latter's behavior doesn't always merit it.
- Classic Anti Hero: Liza is genuinely a sweet, caring and fundamentally good person, however her entire career, and her new identity is built upon and maintaining a massive lie against her bosses, co-workers, friends and people she cares for, something she absolutely detest about herself.Liza: (warning Caitlin about her life choices) If you lie... (inhaling deeply with regret) If you lie, you become a liar.
- Foil: To Diana. While Liza is a wide-eyed upstart beginning a successful new career, Diana is a cold and cynical professional who's been in the same field for a while, despite being roughly the same age.
- Good Parents: Everything she does, her entire lie and new life, is to support her daughter Caitlin.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Liza becomes this when she moves from a New Jersey suburb to Brooklyn.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Kelsey and Lauren, even if they don't realize it.
- May–December Romance: Played with, towards Josh and Charles. Josh thinks he's younger than her at the start, while Charles believes he's older.
- The Muse: To the show's take on George R. R. Martin.
- Nice Girl: Liza is kind, loyal, caring, honest and sweet-natured.
- Rom Com Job: She works as an assistant at a publishing house in Manhattan.
- Older Than They Look: The premise of the show hinges on Liza passing herself off as twenty-six years old, which everybody believes.
- The Pollyanna: How Diana sees her, not realizing they're much closer in age than she believes.
Kelsey Peters
Kelsey Peters
Portrayed by: Hilary Duff
An editor at Empirical Press who takes new hire Liza under her wing, with whom she develops a close friendship. She later becomes the head of a young adult imprint called Millenial.
- Extreme Doormat: To Thad, which Liza shares her concern about, having been that person in her own marriage.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: As is standard for a character played by Hilary Duff. Kelsey is blonde and very sweet-natured.
- Hypocrite: Kelsey claims in the pilot that a woman should support another woman, but makes a contemptuous remark about Diana who "has hit the glass ceiling so many times she has dementia" in the same episode. While she can dislike Diana personally, this kind of remarks aren't soaked in female solidarity.
- Improbable Age: Discussed. For someone in her mid-twenties, Kelsey has a lot of clout in her career, which she attributes to working constantly since college.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Liza, even though she doesn't realize it. Until the end of season three.
- The Mistress: To Anton. It doesn't last very long.
- Nice Girl: Kelsey is generally a very likable and sweet-natured person who becomes friends with Liza and then Maggie almost instantly.
- Office Romance: She gets involved with not one, but two authors who have projects in development at Empirical.
- Pretty in Mink: Kelsey makes enough at her job to afford a fur coat
◊ or two. - Secret-Keeper: Becomes this to Liza at the end of the third season.
- True Companions: Liza outright tells her while reveling her secret, that after her daughter, and Maggie, Kelsey is the most precious person in her life.
Diana Trout
Diana Trout
Portrayed by: Miriam Shor
Also known as "Trout Pout" among her coworkers, Diana is the head of marketing at Empirical, and Liza's boss.
- Benevolent Boss: Despite her reputation in the office, Diana is shown to be generous and thoughtful, in her own way.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Over the course of the series (and because of Liza's influence), Diana softens up a bit and even warms to her.
- Foil: To Liza. While Diana is a cold and cynical professional who's been in the field for a while, Liza is a wide-eyed upstart beginning a successful new career, despite being roughly the same age.
- Hopeless Suitor: Diana to Charles, who acts perfectly gentlemanly, but feels obviously a little uneasy because of her advances.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: She's has a crush on her Charles, her boss.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Diana is introduced as an intimidating figure, but shows hidden depths and has enough Pet the Dog Moments to reveal herself as a Benevolent Boss, in her own way.
- Put on a Bus: Isn't present during Season 7, choosing to take an extended honeymoon with Enzo in Italy, making only a brief appearance in a video conference with Charles and Liza. As she explains to Charles she has banked over 220 vacation days, which he gladly permits.
- Shy Bladder: Diana is a shy bathroom user. This is explained in a deleted scene from Post Truth where Diana is reluctant to poop in her home due to Richard's presence nor on the top floor of the main office she is based in due to others knowing her, forcing her to go the lower levels where she is unknown to people and thus has her privacy. She also reluctantly pees in the street when out with Kelsey in ''Stiff Competition" and is able to go, albeit with Kelsey turned around.
Charles Brooks
Charles Brooks
Portrayed by: Peter Hermann
The head of Empirical, who takes a quick liking to Liza, as an employee, and maybe something more...- Benevolent Boss: Despite his lofty position at the company, he's rarely ever seen to be unkind or cruel. However...
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If Charles snaps at one of his employees, you know they messed up. When Kelsey loses L.L. Moore to a rival publisher, he's enraged.
Writers
Anton Bjornberg
Anton Bjornberg
Portrayed by: Thorbjørn Harr
- Funny Foreigner: Anton. Not from the beginning, but his comment about the "walrus vagina" really put him in this category.
- Jerkass: Anton seems nice at first but is incredibly selfish cuts himself as an attempt guilt Kelsey out of wanting to end their affair.
L.L. Moore
L.L. Moore
Portrayed by: Richard Masur
- Kavorka Man: Despite his unattractiveness to Liza, that doesn't stop him from wooing women and convincingly writing as a woman under his pseudonym.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's an obvious take on George R. R. Martin.
- Pen Name: Liza and Kelsey figure out he's Aubrey Alexis, the writer of a steamy romance novel that Empirical wants to publish.
Colin Mc Nicol
Friends and Family
Miller Family
Caitlin Miller
Caitlin Miller
Portrayed by: Tessa Albertson
David Miller
Caitlin Miller
Portrayed by: Paul Fitzgerald
Brooklyn
Maggie Amato
Portrayed by: Debi Mazar
- Cool Aunt / Honorary Aunt: To Caitlin and kids in general, as while she doesn't want kids herself "I love spoiling them."
- Lipstick Lesbian: Artsy, glam Maggie.
- Really Gets Around: She has no shortage of romantic interests over the course of the series.
- Secret-Keeper: Maggie is Liza's only confidant in the first season.
Josh
Josh
Portrayed by: Nico Tortorella
- Likes Older Women: Though he doesn't know it. Until the end of the first season.
- Secret-Keeper: Becomes this to Liza at the end of the first season.
- Sexy Mentor: To Liza. Or at least, he believes himself to be this.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Josh, complete with messy hair, deadpan sarcasm, and plenty of tattoos.
Gabe
Manhattan
Lauren Heller
Lauren Heller
Portrayed by: Molly Bernard
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Lauren's parents are a Jewish mother and a dirty old man. While the former is nice and gets along with Lauren's friend, the latter tends to make everyone uncomfortable.
- Basement-Dweller: She still lives with her parents and Kelsey lives with them as well. Justified as Kelsey explains there is no simply way two young women on their salaries would be able to reasonably afford an apartment in Manhattan.
- Brutal Honesty: Lauren doesn't have much of a filter and tends to say whatever comes into her head, regardless of how questionable or inappropriate.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Lauren tends to live in her own world much of the time.
- Fiery Redhead: She has red hair and is very emotional and expressive.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Lauren parties hard.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In contrast to relatively well balance, mature and empathetic Kelsey, Lauren can be the epitome of the stereotypically crass, tactless and rather selfish millennial, but in the end she never acts out of true ill intention, and does care about her friends immensely and is always willing to help them out.
- Large Ham: She tends to be very theatrical and expressive and never does anything simply.
- Likes Older Women: Maggie is the only woman she's shown to be involved with.
- Naked People Are Funny: The second episode of Season 2 shows that Lauren has no issue whatsoever walking around Liza's apartment completely naked after sex with Maggie. She also has no issue exposing her breasts in public to take a selfie.
- No Social Skills: Downplayed as it's not that she lacks social skills so much as she also doesn't see an issue with behavior most people find completely inappropriate such as bearing her breasts in public without the slightest sign of shame.
- Satellite Character: At first. Lauren is best friends with Kelsey, but barely knows Liza... and lists her, Josh (whom she knows even less) and Maggie among her closest friends. Although that move it's justified if she planned to hit on Maggie from the beginning. She eventually becomes better ingrained with the group as the series progresses, however.
- She Is All Grown Up: Lauren's "Hot Mitzvah" is about her being this trope, and not thirteen and pimply as she was at the time of her Bar Mitzvah.
- Twofer Token Minority: She's Jewish and pansexual, same as Molly Bernard in real life.
Thad Weber
Thad Weber
Portrayed by: Dan Amboyer
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Thad is just standing there, in the middle of the city, in a conflict with Liza, when a load of steel falls on his head.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Thad is selfish and aloof, while Chad is sensitive and thoughtful.
Chad Weber
Chad Weber
Portrayed by: Dan Amboyer
- Polar Opposite Twins: Thad is selfish and aloof, while Chad is sensitive and thoughtful.
