Olivia and Isabella Cohen Are Defining Gen Z Comedy

PHOTOGRAPHY: Riley Taylor 

STYLED BY: Giselle Carrillo

Olivia and Isabella Cohen have moved past TikTok. After gaining a signifcant following for their comedy videos amid the pandemic in 2020—when the app reached its peak—the twin sisters have cemented themselves in the comedy scene while making a departure from TikTok. Last year, they appeared on the long-running FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as the erratic Gen Z sisters to Charlie Day's Charlie in season 16. Their appearance made quite an impact with the audience, and clips circulated across TikTok. 

The identical twins, who say thier collaboration started in the womb, are putting themselves out there and in a more serious realm with a short film Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch , which is deep into the festival circuit. In the film, the duo play sisters who embark on a hike. It's a story about the unique bond between sisters, loss, plus it has a surprise twist characterisitc of Olivia and Isabella's comedic style. The film is slated to be screened at the LA Shorts Fest in July. 

The Cohens spoke to L'OFFICEL about their bond, how they balance out each others strengths (and weaknesses), their evolving personal style, and their surprising influences, which come from the dramatic realm rather than comedy.

L’O: How did you start working together in this capacity?

OLIVIA COHEN: I would say it started in the womb. I felt like if we could spend nine months in that small of a space together, we could probably do a lot of things together. We grew up as actors and we still are actors, but it was around 16 where our parents didn't want us to go to theater school. We were thinking, Okay, what's a back door in the industry? So we thought about writing a script together and we wrote our first screenplay. It was a really tumultuous process, as you can imagine, two angsty girls trying to figure out their voice and then trying to combine their voices into one script. We found that we actually have different strengths as storytellers and as actors.  I'm very good with plot, organization, visuals, and she's amazing with dialogue. So we just complement each other in a really lovely way.

L’O: What is your working relationship dynamic?

IC: I would say it's definitely Olivia in charge of the scheduling, the planning, the organizing. I'm total ADHD so without her I don't think these things would even exist. Then she's incredibly talented on the creative side as well. I bring my creative intuition and dialogue. I love characters. I love relationships between characters, so together we can create a well-rounded product because what I lack in, she excels at and vice versa. It's kind of like we're hitting every angle. 

OC: I'm very type A, she's very type B. I am the one that's like, "We're meeting at this hour, we're doing these things." When I'm a little too type A to write such free flowing dialogue that feels human, that just comes from her brain without any prep. I feel like it's very indicative of our personalities too.

L’O: You've talked about how you work together as writers. How do you work together as actors? Is it a similar dynamic?

OC: It was actually interesting with this film because we wrote both characters without having one of us in mind for either of them. So we originally went into it thinking I was going to play Kinley and she [Isabella] was going to play Willow because Willow was kind of written in her sense of humor and Kinley was written very type A, like me. So we auditioned for our director and she ended up casting it the other way around. She was like, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

IC: As actors, we work better together and that's why we got cast in It's Always Sunny [in Philadelphia] as siblings. That sibling dynamic, you can't fabricate. It's been developing over years. It has that organic quality, so it's really fun to riff off each other. And there's an ease of being around your twin sister.

L’O: I don't have a twin, but I have three sisters so I understand that. Between sisters, there's just this inherent connection. I wouldn't be able to work with them the way that you two do, though.

OC: It took us time. There's something unnatural about being in front of a camera. Obviously you get used to it as an actor, but when you have your sister there, inherently your guard is down.

L’O: Who are your influences?

OC: When we were in middle school, we were obsessed with the show Lost. Beyond obsessed. We knew every theory, every actor, everything. Not that we only write sci-fi or Trippy stuff like that, but the way that they handled characters and they had the flashbacks and the character dynamics, character relationships. That has made its way into our writing so full force, randomly Lost has made such a big impact on our writing.

IC: Even with our short, there's a plot twist. Lost was the show of plot twists. Almost every episode has major plot twists in it.

L’O: I love that. That's not what I was expecting, but it makes so much sense.

OC: Yeah, especially with the outdoors.

L’O: Tell me about your photoshoot with [photographer] Riley Tyler.

IC: When we started posting and doing photo shoots on social media, it was like circa 2020 around the pandemic. TikTok was really big. We had a bit of a TikTok following at the time, so a lot of our photos were a bit more Gen Z. I don't want to say juvenile, but very youthful. We decided that we're older now, we're not on TikTok anymore, we're getting a little more traction in the acting and writing world. And we were like, "We kind of want to not be taken more seriously, but we don't want to be viewed as these tiny little TikTok girls. We want to be viewed as serious artists," as pretentious as that sounds. We want the photos to reflect that… reflect our age and reflect where we are in life right now. So the shoot was a little more elegant, a little more upscale, a little more mature, and I didn't know how it'd turn out, so I was like, "I feel like I'm going to hate these," but I actually love them.

OC: Yeah, the crew was great. We had a good stylist, good photographer, good hair and makeup. Sometimes in meetings if you dress really cute, people don't really take you seriously. Unfortunately, that's just the world we live. How we want to approach our career is just dressing in maybe more of a neutral way or more of a business way so people take us seriously. In meetings sometimes when we just dress how we normally dress, we get asked, "Oh, do you have boyfriends and stuff?" It's inappropriate things that should not be asked in professional meetings. We're just trying to take ourselves in a bit of a more serious direction. We look a lot younger than we are, so we just want to be taken a little more seriously. 

L’O: There's definitely a gender bias, but how you present yourself to the world communicates so much. What was it like working with your stylist?

OC: We worked with Giselle Carrillo, and she is the best. I met her on a short film set last January and she gave me the best outfit ever. So then we actually brought her onto our short, and we just love her so much we've been using her ever since.

IC: She's very much attuned to our separate personalities and she wants us to be comfortable and feel good.