‘High School’: Teen Versions of Tegan & Sara Quin Cast for IMDb TV Series
The cast of IMDb TV’s new coming-of-age series High School is coming together.
Co-created by platinum recording artists Tegan and Sara Quin and executive producer Clea DuVall, the series has cast TikTok creators and TV newcomers Railey and Seazynn Gilliland as the high school versions of Tegan and Sara. Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer will be special guest stars and play the twins’ parents. Filming begins on March 21 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Railey Gilliland’s Tegan is a gregarious, confident, and extroverted teenager, who turns to music to explore her vulnerabilities. Seazynn Gilliland’s Sara is reserved, observant, and sensitive and for the first time, starts to access her own self-confidence through playing music. Smulders’ Simone is funny, sharp, and supportive and strives to define herself outside of her family, while Bornheimer’s gentle everyman Patrick is Simone’s boyfriend and Tegan and Sara’s pseudo-stepdad.
“It felt kismet when I saw Railey and Seazynn for the first time on TikTok,” Tegan Quin said 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. ‘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.”
High School is about finding your own identity, which is more complicated with a twin whose own struggle and self-discovery so closely mimics your own. It is told through a backdrop of ’90s grunge and rave culture and weaves between parallel and discordant memories of twin sisters growing up down the hall from one another.
The series is produced by Amazon Studios and Plan B Entertainment. Joining Tegan and Sara Quin and DuVall as executive producers are Laura Kittrell, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner. Carina Sposato is a co-executive producer. DuVall will also write and direct multiple episodes, including the pilot. It’s based on the New York Times best-selling memoir by Tegan and Sara Quin.
