Annie Murphy Teases ‘Hilarious’ New Show ‘Praise Petey’ & Its ‘Similarities’ To ‘Schitt’s Creek’ (Exclusive)

Annie Murphy tells HollywoodLife her new animated series is filled with jokes ‘that would have never seen the light of day’ on ‘Schitt’s Creek.’

Schitt’s Creek alum Annie Murphy is playing another “It Girl” on television in her new Freeform animated series Praise Petey. Well, sorta. Praise Petey begins with Annie as an NYC girl who has it all until her life comes crashing down, so she has to take over her dead father’s small-town cult. Annie knows what it’s like to play a character who starts at the top, and falls to the bottom, from her six-season run on Schitt’s Creek. The 36-year-old actress compared Praise Petey to Schitt’s Creek in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife that took place prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

“There are certainly some similarities in those two shows,” Annie said. “But there are jokes made in Praise Petey that would have never seen the light of day on network television in Schitt’s Creek.”

The Emmy Award winner confirmed that she sings in Praise Petey. Sounds like a perfect callback to her iconic “A Little Bit Alexis” performance in Schitt’s Creek! “I also got to pull out my vocal fry that I kept in the closet for a few years,” Annie told HL. “So I got to bring that [out],” she added.

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While Annie sees similarities between her two comedy shows, she’s not so sure how Petey would get along with Alexis Rose if they ever came face-to-face. “Alexis and Petey would either be best friends or mortal enemies,” she said.

Praise Petey is not Annie’s first animated project, but it’s definitely one of her favorites thus far in her career. “It was such a bizarrely, strange, and hilarious experience,” the Canadian actress said about the show which also features Barry‘s Stephen Root and The Good Fight‘s Christine Baranski. “Anna Drezen, who created the show, her mind is a deeply bizarre and wonderful place,” Annie added. “It really pulls out all the stops. The fact that it’s animated means anything is possible and they’ve really leaned into that. And it’s fun cause it’s adult humor. It’s very adult humor and I haven’t been able to do that before. So it was very freeing.”

Annie also confirmed to HL that she’d love to continue doing voice acting. “It’s so much fun and so different from film and TV acting,” she said. “When you shoot a season of TV, it’s three or four of five months of your life. So to be apart of a project I’m super proud of and having only done a handful of hours to make it is really cool.”

Praise Petey premieres Friday, July 21st at 10:00 pm ET with two back-to-back episodes. Episodes are available next day on Hulu.