Entertainment

Welcome Another Poehler Into Your Life

by Alanna Bennett

We've all fallen head over heels for Amy Poehler over the past decade, from Saturday Night Live to Parks and Recreation to the Golden Globes, but another Poehler's been at the sidelines waiting for his time to shine. That'd be Greg Poehler, whose sitcom Welcome To Sweden has now officially been picked up.

Like his sister, Poehler seems to be of the overachieving comedy sort: He created, executive produced, wrote, and starred in the Swedish version of Welcome To Sweden, and will continue to do so with the American version, which is scheduled to come to NBC this July. The other Poehler will also be executive producing, certainly making them one of the coolest sibling pairs in the biz.

As for the show itself — as we previously reported:

The show is loosely based on Greg’s real life — he plays New York accountant Bruce who falls in love with a Swedish woman named Emma and moves to her home country. The series was Sweden’s first to run in the English language and had illustrious guest stars like Amy’s Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza, and the inimitable Will Ferrell.

Despite the specific locale, it sounds like a pretty universal concept: Who hasn't felt out of place when experiencing somewhere new?

As for how the show came to be, Poehler (the male one) told Hitfix about the first steps in getting it up and running:

It was something I always thought that I could do, but I thought it was too late, that it was something you had to do early on in life, so for me to be able to do this in my middle age is amazing. I sent Amy the script just so she could check the font. I wanted to make sure it looked like a script. I'd Googled how to write a script, then sent it to her to make sure it looked right, and she really liked the script and said she wanted to produce it. I knew she wouldn't want to be involved in something if it wasn't good. We've had several family members pitch her unsuccessfully.

The world can always use more Poehlers. Can't wait for July.