{Photo via}

Nickelodeon and Paramount announced the full cast of School of Rock today! (Cool post in Variety, too.) Breanna Yde is set as Tomika, Jade Pettyjohn as Summer, Ricardo Hurtado as Freddy, Lance Lim as Zack, and Aidan Miner as Lawrence. And they are awesome. I actually met Jade a few years ago, when she starred in Prodigal, a short film my roommate and friend Ben Grayson co-wrote and directed and I executive produced. (She was as talented, sweet and professional then as she is now.) All of the kids are talented, sweet and professional; Tony lucked out big time, landing this group for his co-stars. Every day he comes home from work, he’s bubbling about how great they are and how fun his job is. He loves working with them. I wrote about Tony booking the role of Dewey Finn a few months ago, and can happily report that it’s even better than he ever imagined it would be.

{Hanging in Tony’s trailer}

I can’t imagine what it would be like, being on television at that age. (Well, actually I can imagine it. As a kid, I was desperate to be a famous actress. I sent fan letters to Peter Jackson asking if I could play Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones, and to Baz Luhrmann asking if he’d write a movie for me to star in because he thinks “pale women like Nicole Kidman and myself are beautiful, and you encourage sunscreen, which saves lives.” I included pictures of myself posing in front of the rose bush in our backyard. My mom curled my hair. Neither panned out. Two decades later, and I’m auditioning for dog food commercials! But I digress…)

{Cast bowling night}

I sound like an old person saying this (now that I’m 29, does that mean I’m an old person??), but every one of those kids has such a good head on their shoulders. Tony and I recently had all of them over to our place for a pizza party… And Every. Single. One. Of. Them. offered to wash the dishes. (I never offered to wash the dishes at that age. I still don’t.) Well done, parents!

{My contribution to the pizza party. Tony and I don’t have kids yet, but I’m already pretty sure we’re giving them diabetes.}

Because I happen to be marrying the other star of the show, I was able to snag this exclusive quote from Tony Cavalero himself: “They are each so awesome and uniquely talented. They teach me so much about enjoying life to the fullest. Their kid-like wonder and playfulness is so evident in the show and that’s what makes working with them so dang special. I want to be them when I grow up.” Congratulations, you guys! I’m so excited for more pizza parties to come!