![Emmys 2025: Lena Hall on Ali’s Surprising Relatability In ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ [VIDEO]](https://thecontending.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/lenabest-scaled.jpg)
Daring, dynamic and unpredictable. Those three words could easily describe both Lena Hall’s career as well as the character she is currently playing on Apple TV+’s new dark comedy Your Friends & Neighbors.
The Jonathan Tropper created series centers on Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm in his best role since Mad Men), an affluent hedge fund manager who is forced out of his job and must deal with how to get by with very little money—not easy for a man with two children and an ex to support, who are all accustomed to living a certain way. Coop’s life has gone a bit to shit with his wife Mel (Amanda Peet) leaving him for his best friend. He also takes financial care of his sister Ali (Hall) but can no longer afford the apartment he’s set her up in—so he takes her in. Coop and Ali have a symbiotic sibling bond.
Coop decides to give the criminal life a try and begins stealing from his wealthy neighbors. It doesn’t go so well.
The heart of the series is the truly loving relationship between Hamm’s Coop and Hall’s Ali. The scenes they share together are authentic and palpable. And Hall etches a truly remarkable portrait of a complicated, affectionate and deeply empathetic character that is so relatable to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider–sometimes even in their own skin.
Your Friends & Neighbors, already renewed for a second season, is one of the best, most underrated new shows of 2025 (along with Étoile). It’s genre-blending and tonal shifts are part of its charm because that’s the way real life is! Much like Ali, we are sad and angry one moment and elated and joyous the next.
Hall began her young career as a ballet dancer. Theatre followed and she made her Broadway debut in Cats in 1999, then took over the role of Anytime Annie in the most recent revival of 42nd Street. She won a Tony Award for portraying Yitzhak, opposite Neil Patrick Harris, in the 2014 Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her other theater credits include Radiant Baby at the Public Theater (2003), Dracula, the musical on Broadway (2004), The Toxic Avenger at New World Stages (2009), the original cast of Kinky Boots on Broadway (2013), How to Transcend a Happy Marriage at Lincoln Center Theater (2017) and the recent off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors (2022) as Audrey.
Her film work includes, Sex and the City (2008), The Big Gay Musical (2009) and the fab indie film, Becks (2017), where she played the titular character.
On TV she’s appeared in episodes of Good Girls Revolt, Girls and Evil as well as a main role in the TNT series, Snowpiercer from 2020 to 2024.
Hall is also an accomplished singer/songwriter and has put out two studio albums and a live album.
Your Friends & Neighbors is currently streaming on Apple TV+. The last episode of the season drops on May 30, 2025.
The Contending had an absolute blast chatting with Hall.
