Photo credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival
Amita Rao (B.A. ’20) discovered her voice on VCUarts stages. Now, playing Issa on FX’s Adults, she’s bringing that same fearless energy to TV— and the industry is taking notice.
Long before she was performing as the scene-stealing Issa on FX’s breakout comedy Adults, Amita Rao was doing improv in a Richmond living room with her longtime collaborator, Chelsea Matkins (B.F.A.’21), polishing the instincts she developed on VCUarts Theatre stages and with the VCU improv team Running AMok.
Most recently, that instinct for big and unapologetic comedy has taken her all the way to New York’s Tribeca Festival, where Adults was recognized this year. On the show, Rao plays Issa, a loud and passionate character who “wants you to ask about” her armpit hair, according to the FX website. Quite a change from just a few years ago when Rao performed in Sense and Sensibility on VCU’s stage with its emotional depth balanced with playful, madcap, 19th-century English theatricality.
Adults was created by former Tonight Show writers and follows a group of twenty-somethings navigating the wins, losses and humiliations of early adulthood in New York. Rao’s character, Issa, hops between jobs, partners and causes.
This is exactly the kind of big swing Rao has been taking since her days at VCUarts. After graduation, she headed to Chicago to sharpen her craft, training in long-form improv at The Second City and joining a house team at The Annoyance Theatre, the stage that also launched Jason Sudeikis and Aidy Bryant, as reported on media platform DESIbltiz.
In 2022, the Centreville. Virginia, native’s hard work paid off when Rao was selected for the NBC Universal/The Second City Bob Curry Fellowship and showcased for Saturday Night Live—twice.
From there, her momentum kept building. In 2024, Rao landed recurring roles in two comedy series—Nandika in Hulu’s Deli Boys and Issa in FX’s Adults. This year she joined the cast of the upcoming film Wishful Thinking, with Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke.
Rao has been candid about how much of herself she brings to the screen. Speaking openly about playing Issa in a DESIblitz story, she said, “I think Issa and I engage with the world and our relationships with a similar childlike joy. In that way, we both bring play, in the pure sense, to the forefront of whatever we’re doing.”
This reflects Rao during her time at VCUarts, where she and Matkins were nearly inseparable—performing in Running AMok, sketch group Blue Collard Greens and co-founding the comedy duo Gag Reflex.
She credits the mentorship of Elizabeth Byland (affectionately known as “EB”), who is Head of Improv in VCUarts’ Department of Theatre, with shaping their careers. “The amount of people who have asked where we trained in Chicago… I mean, people think we went to Second City or something, but no, we just had EB for years, and she’s the best improv coach you could ever have,” Rao said.
Byland has fond memories of her protegé.
“Teaching Amita Rao was such a joy for me. She just understood the assignment from day one and showed up with a ferocious work ethic, genuine curiosity, a craving for deep collaboration, and humility to keep learning and doing the damn thing.”
“She brought that same ferocious, hungry spirit to everything she did. She led with kindness, and still does, treating her scene partners, classmates, faculty and crew with respect and generosity,” recalls Byland. “In an industry that can feel so competitive and cold, Amita never forgot that you can be ambitious without sacrificing your humanity.”
Rao’s grounding in ensemble work, in saying yes to the bit and in trusting your scene partner—comes across in every chaotic, generous, big-hearted beat of Issa.
Now that same energy has reached one of the nation’s most important storytelling stages.
“My improv education continues to be the foundation of my art, the place I return to any time I am unsure and where my joy seems to spring from,” said Rao. “I feel so deeply blessed to have had the privilege of Elizabeth Byland’s mentorship.”
Byland calls Amita’s story a beautiful reminder of what can happen when you show up for yourself and for other people. “It’s when you keep saying YES to the work, YES to the opportunities that scare you, YES to collaboration, and YES to trusting yourself and following the joyful calling that’s been inside you all along.
“I’m so proud of Amita, and I’m beyond thrilled the rest of the world is finally getting to see what I’ve known all along—just how extraordinary she is, inside and out,” said Byland. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Yep, this girl just gets it and she’s gonna make it!’ ”
That pride was on full display last month, when Adults‘ recognition at the Tribeca Festival put Rao’s work in front of one of the industry’s biggest audiences — a long way from a Richmond living room, but built on the very same foundation.
Amita Rao’s success is a testament to what a VCUarts education makes possible: the freedom to be fully, fearlessly yourself.
Watch season two of FX’s Adults, premiering August 27 on Hulu and Disney+.
Note: Story based on original reporting in a 2024 VCU alumni profile about Amita Rao.
