‘Animal Control’: Joel McHale to Star in New Fox Workplace Comedy

Meaghan Darwish October 14, 2022, 2:27 pm

Fox has cast Joel McHale in the leading role of its new workplace comedy Animal Control, which was given a straight-to-series order in July. The actor is also attached as an executive producer on the project, which was announced by Fox Entertainment’s President of Entertainment, Michael Thorn.

Animal Control will be Fox Entertainment’s first wholly-owned live-action comedy and is a single-camera series following a group of local Animal Control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not. McHale has been cast in the role of Frank, who is described as an opinionated, eccentric Animal Control officer who may not have gone to college, but is still the most well-read person in the room.

Joel McHale in Community (Credit: ©Yahoo/courtesy Everett Collection)

Before getting into Animal Control, Frank was a cop who tried to expose corruption in his department, but his efforts got him fired, which may explain why he’s so “cynical and curmudgeonly.” Despite the career shift, Frank has an innate ability to understand animals, but not humans so much.

Animal Control is produced by Fox Entertainment Studios and executive produced by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, Dan Sterling, and Tad Quill. Meanwhile, McHale is slated to represent the series at MIPCOM CANNES, where it will be introduced to international buyers by Fox Entertainment Global.

“Dan, Rob, Tad, and Bob had envisioned Joel as the lead of Animal Control from the very moment we began development, and we are all ecstatic to have him on board. Joel’s acerbic wit and ability to bring a comedic lens to everything he’s involved with make him the perfect person to bring Frank to life,” said Thorn.

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McHale currently features in The CW‘s Stargirl as Starman and hosts the Fox culinary game show Crime Scene Kitchen. The actor is best known for his role as Jeff Winger in the cult comedy Community. He’ll reprise his role as Jeff in Peacock‘s forthcoming Community movie alongside former costars Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and The Masked Singer‘s Ken Jeong.