Why Lucy Albright From Tell Me Lies Looks So Familiar

Hulu's original series "Tell Me Lies" became a huge and somewhat unexpected hit after its first season released in 2022, and that's probably because its story of a deeply toxic college relationship is just so universal. Based on Carola Lovering's book of the same name and adapted by Meaghan Oppenheimer (who previously worked on "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Queen America"), "Tell Me Lies" splits its timeline in two, telling the twisted "love" story of Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White), who meet at Baird College in upstate New York and carry on an on-again, off-again relationship that ends up creating plenty of collateral damage. In 2008, Stephen and Lucy are carefree students at Baird, but in 2015, they're trapped together at a wedding ... and it's clear that things aren't quite finished between them.

Van Patten, like her co-star White, comes from a Hollywood family (White is the son of small-screen legend Katey Sagal). Dick Van Patten is the "Tell Me Lies" star's uncle, and her father, Tim Van Patten, is a TV director known for high-profile projects like "Sex and the City," "The Sopranos," "Game of Thrones," "Black Mirror," and HBO's "Perry Mason" reboot. (The young Van Patten's cousin also happens to be actress Talia Balsam.) "Nepo baby" qualifications aside, Van Patten has worked on a bunch of movies and TV shows before she joined the main cast of "Tell Me Lies," so where have you seen her before?

A romantic comedy with a strange (and sort of dark) twist, Netflix's 2016 original movie "Tramps" casts Grace Van Patten as Ellie, a girl desperately in need of money who offers to work as a getaway driver for a young guy named Danny (Callum Turner) in New York City. Why? Well, Danny's brother Darren (Michal Vondel) asked Danny to deliver a mysterious suitcase — Darren, who was recently incarcerated, can't do it himself — and when Danny messes up the drop by leaving the briefcase with the wrong person, Ellie is forced to stick around, realizing that she won't get paid unless Danny makes a successful delivery. From that point on, Ellie and Danny are stuck together ... so naturally, they form a surprising connection as they travel outside of the city to get the briefcase back.

"Tramps" is one of those Netflix movies that came and went in the blink of an eye, but to Turner and Van Patten's credit, they carry the movie quite well — and they've got a decent supporting cast surrounding them that includes Mike Birbiglia, Louis Cancelmi, and Margaret Colin. "Tramps" was a great start for Van Patten, and as an added bonus, it proved that she could successfully lead a project — especially a romantic one.

In 2017, writer-director Noah Baumbach assembled an all-star cast for his sardonic comedy "The Meyerowitz Stories," including Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Adam Driver, Candice Bergen, Elizabeth Marvel, and Grace Van Patten. The story of the sprawling and delightfully dysfunctional Meyerowitz clan, Baumbach's movie first introduces us to Danny Meyerowitz (Sandler), who, while struggling with unemployment and a recent separation from his wife, moves back in with his dad Harold (Hoffman) in New York. Alongside his brother Matthew (Stiller), sister Jean (Marvel), and Harold's fourth wife Maureen (Thompson), Danny navigates his father's health problems and family strife, and along the way, he discovers that his daughter Eliza (Van Patten) has started making sexually explicit art films starring herself. (This goes over about as well as you'd expect.)

Van Patten more than holds her own alongside some serious Hollywood heavyweights, and frankly, Eliza plays a seriously pivotal role in the movie (at the very ending, she uncovers a sculpture crafted by her grandfather Harold that everyone previously believed was lost). "The Meyerowitz Stories" is a phenomenal entry in Baumbach's filmography, and it's a fantastic showcase for Van Patten.

David Robert Michell's 2018 surrealist neo-noir "Under the Silver Lake" is a truly weird movie in all the best ways, and if you look at Grace Van Patten's acting resumé, you'll gather as much based on the fact that her role in the movie is simply called "Balloon Girl." The story of "Under the Silver Lake" begins with a disaffected Millennial named Sam (Andrew Garfield) who's obsessed with conspiracy theories and "hidden" messages and takes a special interest when a billionaire named Jefferson Sevence (Chris Gann) mysteriously disappears. From there, Sam finds himself on a bizarre journey, kickstarted when his neighbor Sarah (Riley Keough) also vanishes, and he encounters a whole host of outlandish people, including Van Patten's so-called Balloon Girl.

Balloon Girl typically appears while Sam is under some sort of influence — he spends a big part of the movie eating a drugged cookie — and Van Patten plays her breezily and perfectly, toting a balloon, dressed in bright colors, and rocking space buns and wild makeup as she coolly interacts with an increasingly frantic Sam. "Under the Silver Lake" is a fun albeit wild ride, and the best thing about Van Patten's performance is that she completely understands the tone of the movie — as the kids would say, she "understood the assignment."

After Liane Moriarty's book "Big Little Lies" was adapted for HBO and won a truckload of Emmys, other networks and streamers tried to recapture lightning in a bottle — although Hulu's original series "Nine Perfect Strangers" maybe took things further than most. Not only did David E. Kelley create the show, who also worked on "Big Little Lies," but Emmy winner Nicole Kidman returned to the Moriarty Cinematic Universe for the series, which centers around a mysterious wellness retreat called Tranquillum House where things start to go awry very quickly. Kidman plays the founder of the retreat, Masha Dmitrichenko, and the supporting cast includes all-stars like Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Manny Jacinto, Samara Weaving, Regina Hall, and Bobby Cannavale — and Grace Van Patten.

Van Patten plays Zoe Marconi, a girl who comes to the retreat with her father Napoleon (Shannon) and her mother Heather (Asher Keddie) as they all mourn the loss of Zoe's twin brother, Zach (who passed away before the family's time at Tranquillum). Along with the other guests, the Marconis try to unpack their trauma and heal, only to discover that Masha is involved in some shady dealings as the resort's proprietor — and Van Patten plays against Shannon, Keddie, and the rest of the cast perfectly.

"Tell Me Lies" is available to stream on Hulu now.