If you poked your head into a certain London dance studio for a period in 2024, you would’ve found Emmy-winning actress Julianne Nicholson preparing for a role of a lifetime: Dance Mom. She plays the suburbanite with a proclivity for sharing TikTok videos with upbeat choreography, known only by her social handle, on Hacks season 4. In the HBO Max comedy packed to the brim with guest stars, the influencer who gets a slot on the fictional Late Night with Deborah Vance is undeniably this installment’s standout new character—and the last role you would expect Nicholson to play.
“I feel like most people want to see me doing the heavier lifting,” Nicholson, age 53, tells Marie Claire over Zoom, two days before her Hacks debut in episode 5, “Clickable Face.” Since breaking out in 2013 with her scene-stealing turns in August: Osage County and Masters of Sex, the Massachusetts-born actress has become best known for dramatic roles, often playing complicated mothers (like in Janet Planet and Mare of Easttown). Just three months before Hacks, Nicholson wowed fans and critics as Sinatra, the billionaire villain viewers loved to hate in Hulu’s dystopian thriller Paradise.
