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Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen Star in Christmas Series for HBO Max

Silverman will play Candy, the highest-ranking female elf at the North Pole, and Rogen, the successor to Santa Claus.
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May 8, 2020
Sarah Silverman speaks onstage at the 2019 New Yorker Festival in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for The New Yorker)

Two of Hollywood’s best-known Jewish actors are teaming up…for a Christmas series. Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen, who starred together in “Take This Waltz” in 2011, are joining forces in a half-hour animated series for HBO Max called “Santa Inc.” The service kicks off May 27, but the series is expected to launch for the holiday season.

In the eight-episode series, Silverman will play Candy, the highest-ranking female elf at the North Pole, and Rogen, the successor to Santa Claus. When Amazon poaches him on Christmas Eve, Candy sets her sights on the top job.

“I have long dreamed of a taking a beloved holiday tradition and adding a feminist agenda and some R-rated comedy and when I read this script from Ali, with Seth and Sarah attached to voice, I knew that it was a perfect fit for us at Max,” said Suzanna Makkos, EVP Original Comedy and Animation.

Seth Rogen in “An American Pickle.”

Silverman is also set to star with Jennifer Lopez in the movie “Marry Me,” and Rogen has the dual lead role in “An American Pickle,” also for HBO Max. He plays both the Jewish immigrant worker at a Brooklyn pickle factory who is preserved in brine for 100 years and the computer coder great-grandson he encounters when he emerges from his salty nap. The movie will premiere Aug. 6.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be partnering with HBO Max to release this film,” Rogen said. “We worked very hard and put as much of ourselves in this story as possible. We’re very proud of the end result and we can’t wait for people to get to see it.”

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