Veteran character actress Becky Ann Baker, who is perhaps best for her ‘Mom’ roles on two of the best comedies in recent memory — Freaks and Geeks and Girls — has found what could be her next great maternal role, as she is set to play Jason Sudeikis‘ mother in Season 3 of the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, Above the Line has exclusively learned.
Baker, herself a past Emmy nominee for Girls, joins an award-winning ensemble that includes Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster, and Nick Mohammed.
Sudeikis stars as the title character, a former football coach who is hired to lead a professional soccer team in England, despite having no coaching experience within the sport. We haven’t met Coach Lasso’s mother yet, but seeing as Season 2 found him in therapy, it makes sense that she’d come into the picture in Season 3.
Ted Lasso hails from executive producers Bill Lawrence, Jeff Ingold, and Sudeikis, and it is Apple’s highest-rated comedy in every country that its streaming service is available. The series’ viewership has grown more than 600 percent since it first debuted and it has won a number of Emmys, including the top prize for Best Comedy Series.
The show is based on a character that Sudeikis played in NBC Sports videos several years ago, and he developed the idea for television with Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and co-star Hunt, who plays Coach Beard. Liza Katzer serves as a co-executive producer on Ted Lasso, which is produced by Lawrence’s Doozer Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television.
Baker has guest starred on scores of TV shows, including Season 2 of HBO’s Big Little Lies, on which she played a judge. Her recent credits include Billions, The Good Fight, The Resort, and Hunters, and she’s no stranger to Apple, either, having appeared in both Little Voice and Little America. She’s represented by BRS/Gage Talent Agency.
Representatives for Apple TV+ and Baker did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Above the Line will update this story if they do.
