
Sabrina Brier's 'That Friend' Expands Her Cinematic Universe
By Matt Wille
Jan 29, 2025Sabrina Brier is starting a podcast. No, not that Sabrina — her character, Sabrina, is starting a podcast. Not the real Sabrina.
Brier’s long-running social media character (who she shares a name with) is finally featured in something longer than a 30-second TikTok. The comedian and social media star just released her first audiobook, That Friend, wherein her eponymous character — the self-proclaimed queen of the West Village — starts an advice podcast while navigating the pressures of living (and thriving) as a twenty-something in New York City.
The audiobook allows Brier to really expand the “cinematic universe” her character lives in, revealing for listeners Sabrina’s friends, aspirations and character flaws. It allows the audience a chance to see what goes on in Sabrina’s life “off-camera,” so to speak. “She’s still silly, there’s still the self-involvement, but there’s a realness there now,” Brier tells PAPER.
For Brier, the release of That Friend is a significant step towards achieving her sizable dreams in the entertainment industry. But she’s also sincere in her thankfulness for the dreams she’s already realized. “I’ve already had that feeling of being recognized, of realizing I’m performing and someone’s watching,” she says. “That’s the dream, right? To make something and someone’s watching?”
Below, PAPER caught up with Brier to talk about writing and directing her first audio project, the pressures of creating space for your dreams and working on Abbott ElementaryThanks for taking the time to chat. How’s your 2025 been so far?
My 2025 is off to a very busy start, because post-holidays we all just dove right into press for That Friend. We’ve had some shoots this week. A cover I’m excited about. It’s very New York.
Congrats on That Friend! Tell me a bit about the project.
The way I think about the project is — there’s the source material of my online videos, which have evolved and grown. Everything looked very different in 2020... I started on Instagram in 2020 before Reels. Remember those days? So nothing viral was going on there. It was more of a confidence-building exercise. I don’t even like watching those old videos, but they’re still there if you scroll all the way down, I don’t delete them. I was so self-conscious, so self-aware.
Since then, it’s been about honing in on the character, honing in on what kind of cinematic universe she lives in. She’s become more grounded, though she’s still a broad and annoying in a lot of ways, which we must keep, of course. [Laughs] I feel so lucky that when it felt like the character had enough life, this opportunity came up, where I was approached by my editor at Simon and Schuster who was like, “Have you considered long-form?” And I said sure, as long as we can get a full voice cast, because no one needs hours of just Sabrina.
I think a lot of people are thinking like, Oh, so you wrote a book and you’re recording it. But no, this exists entirely on its own. It’s a beautiful connection to the TikTok stuff. She’s more complex, she’s grounded, we’re getting to know her friends. It really feels like this upward build. It’s a culmination of things — a place for all of this work I’ve done and for this character to live and have a life after that.
It’s a pretty stellar voice cast. What was it like putting that cast together?
That really does connect to the evolution of this world. When you’re on the internet, it’s such a playscape for making friends. Along the way, there were so many people I was a fan of who were then being exposed to me — which is the most exciting thing. This project really became and opportunity to reach out to some of those people. I had a lot of them in mind as I was writing.
Or like Anthony Ramos and Danielle Brooks — my first job when I graduated college was as an assistant to a talent manager, and they were some of the people I worked with. It’s extremely surreal. I used to edit these people’s self-tapes, keep their schedules, get their coffees, and now I’m directing them in scenes.
What was the process like? You star in it, but you were directing, too?
I really tag-teamed with my producer, who focused on the audio aspect of it. The inflection, that sort of thing. I don’t think of myself as a vocally strong person... from my trauma of trying to become Mrs. Lovett in high school theater…
Wait, are you a theater girl? Because me, too.
Oh, 100%. My mom is a playwright, I didn’t have a choice. But yes, I love the theater, it all comes back to the theater. And I had flashbacks to that audition process during this — I mean, I was in full makeup, like full—
You were in drag.
I was in drag! But I’ve always thought of myself as being in the ensemble. I can’t carry a tune. I’m deeply aware of that, because I probably would’ve pursued musical theater if I could sing. I can dance — girl can dance — but she cannot sing.
Dress: Mirror Palais, Jewelry: Jennifer Behr
So you sort of co-directed.
Yes, I learned a lot from her. And it was really exciting to see what I was capable of, vocally. She paid attention to things like...oh, you’re coming into this scene in the middle of a conversation, so this is where your voice would go up. Where I’m directing from an emotional standpoint, with character insight, she’s going, “Oh, it doesn’t sound like you were in the middle of a conversation.” She’s got the ear.
Sorry, I feel like all of my answers are so long-winded. Every answer is going to be long-winded. You’re gonna be like, The girl cannot stop talking. That’s the headline, “Sabrina Brier Can’t Stop Talking.”
Let’s talk about the character of Sabrina. Would you say she’s the exact same character you play in your social videos?
I like to think of her as the grounded version of that character. The audiobook is the next step, where she has more life. She lives in a world that has more color, so she’s more colored. In the character’s most hysterical moments, she’s most like the TikTok character. But then we’re also seeing the things that go on off-camera. She’s still silly, there’s still the self-involement, but there’s a realness there now.
And is the Sabrina of That Friend at all similar to you?
There are moments of the audiobook that definitely feel vulnerable to me. Like what it takes to be an artist these days — you have to be so aggressive and shameless in ways that definitely go against my nature. It’s not like I behave like that interpersonally.
Like the character Alice, she’s my actual roommate, she’s my OG videographer. We’ve been friends since we were four. That relationship, for example, there’s real draw from the anxieties of what it feels like to be in one of those yin-yang friendships, where you’re the loud, obnoxious one who won’t stop talking and they’re the quiet, stable one who is listening. But of course that’s not the entirety of my relationship with her. It’s easy to feel self-critical in our relationships. I’m very internal to the point of difficulty, especially in my own head. There’s some self-consciousness there.
In the context of the story, Sabrina is trying to build a brand, that’s something I pulled from my own experience in many ways. In the building of my brand, I was asking a lot of my friends. There’s a lot of reality in what it feels like to be in the arts, how it feels like you’re absolutely just treading water when you have these big dreams to create something.
Sabrina the character gets into podcasting in the story. Is that a career path you’ve considered for yourself?
Early on, in my path of the internet, people would be like, Expand your brand, make a podcast! But no, I want to make fiction. I’m not someone who wants to put my life on display in any real way. I’m happy to be out there and revealing and unashamed when it comes to art, and standing behind that.
I love to pop on a podcast. Maybe I’ll do something with my sister in like 20 years or something. But I’d say that’s a huge difference between the Sabrina character and me — she’s what I could be if I wanted to go more towards the personality side of things.
To move outside the project a bit — 2024 was a big year for you, and a standout moment was your guest spot on Abbott Elementary. What was that like to you?
It really feels like a piece of this whole puzzle. Because what are the chances that the person who recognized me, Quinta [Brunson], is someone on the exact path I want to be on, which is internet to showrunner. It couldn’t have been more serendipitous. When she followed me on Instagram, I reached out, like, “Queen, queen queen!” Thinking it would be a little kiki moment, you know. And she goes, “Oh my god, girl, I’m such a fan. It’s so funny, we were just discussing you in the writer’s room.” And I’m like, “What? Me?” I felt so aligned being recognized by being recognized by someone I look up to so much. She’s the type of leader I want to be.
I didn’t really believe it was happening until the offer was firm, I kept it secret. They didn’t even want to announce it or anything, they wanted it to be an on-screen surprise. But then it was in the preview. And nothing gets past these Twitter and TikTok girls, suddenly it was everywhere, they were like, That’s Sabrina! I mean, absolute shout out to Pop Crave and Film Updates. It went so viral.
And it was so fun to be on set and not be a PA. I love Abbott. Amazing experience, everyone there is incredible.
So what are you looking forward to in 2025?
I’ve got some things in the works that I, you know, can’t talk about yet. Basically — I’ve already had that feeling of being recognized, of realizing I’m performing and someone’s watching. That’s the dream, right? To make something and someone’s watching? Then you get hungrier and hungrier. You get deeper into the dream. Now the hope is it gets bigger again past the audiobook, diving even deeper into these characters.
The goal is to have a show, to be back in the theater at some point, to direct. And to be an actress more, to take all my other hats off, and to be in more things that are unexpected. I’m excited to just keep working towards those dreams.
"That’s the dream, right? To make something and someone’s watching?"
Photography: Lara Callahan
Makeup: Amanda Thesen
Hair: Corey Tuttle
Styling: Morgan Bienvenue
Dress: Diesel
Gloves: Cornelia James
Jewelry: Jennifer Behr
Shoes: Stuart Weitzman
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