All hail the new snark queen! Stitchers’ Anna Akana is sharp in mind and in tongue as medical examiner Amanda Weston

Freeform’s science fiction geek-a-thon Stitchers premiered a new season on June 5th at new time 9/8PM CST. Following the fantasy phenomenon Shadowhunters, season three heralds new hookups, stitches, and mysteries. The show picks up three days after Kirsten’s stitch is hijacked by Daniel Stinger’s signal, trapping her in a childhood memory of her mother. After a failed attempt to reboot the system, the team finally breaks the entanglement through Ivy’s suggestion of hijacking the memory of her mother directly. A determined Kirsten took on Blair and the NSA when he threatened to disband the team, leading to Maggie being offered his job and the squad fully reinstated. Cameron and Kirsten finally made things official, and it was back to business as usual.

While Camsten fans rejoiced, this is not the only blossoming romance coming this season. Freeform previously announced the casting of Youtube sensation Anna Akana in the recurring role of Amanda Weston, the Stitchers program’s newest medical examiner. Akana is a multi-talented American filmmaker, producer, actress, comedian, and model with 1.8 million subscribers to her Youtube vlog channel. She created, wrote, produced and starred in Miss 2059 for Verizon’s go90 streaming service, stars in a Netflix movie alongside Bella Thorne and Halston Sage called “You Get Me,” and is set to release non-fiction book entitled So Much I Want to Tell You, releasing on June 13th.

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Anna phoned into TV After Dark to talk about stepping into the role of the confident medical examiner, and to discuss the chemistry she will share with fellow snark queen Camille Engelson. She also shares some tidbits about her upcoming projects, and if she will join the rest of the cast for live tweets with the fans! Want to know more? Listen to the audio of our interview with the prolific Anna Akana below:

AUDIO

So, can you give your fans a little insight into what they can expect of your character? We know that you will have a connection – romantic interest with Camille, right?

Oh yes, my character is a medical examiner, she’s a really cool, confident chick. She also DJs outside of work and is kind of into the rockabilly scene and has that whole aesthetic going for her. Camille and I meet when she is seeking me out for more information about a case. It’s just like we’re immediately super into each other and we’re all about the relationship. Over the course of the season, we do have a little bit of, um, bumping heads mostly because of her character Camille and how she has her guard up and she doesn’t like being vulnerable and doesn’t like being the one who cares more. So over the course of the season, we have to navigate all of Camille’s defenses initially and I kind of have to deal with all of that.

Is there anything in the upcoming season with your character that may surprise fans?

Um, I think so. Camille’s never had a female love interest even though her character is bisexual, she’s mostly hooked up with guys. I think it’s really interesting and special to watch her be vulnerable and put herself out there and fall in love and not really understand how to do love.

With the connection between both of you chemistry-wise, is it easy to get through some of these scenes between you and Allison?

Yeah, actually we both have very good chemistry off screen as well. She’s super chill, she’s very easy to talk to, she’s very easy going, and it was oddly easy for us to slide into our characters and make those love scenes really pop.

Will we see something between you and Camille over the season that will be more dating or relationship? Is this just an exploration of this character or is it coming from a different point of view?

I think it’s definitely getting more of a relationship aspect in terms of two characters falling in love and dealing with their own issues and how to overcome them. I’m not so much, even though we met through work and even though I have a couple of scenes where we are working together with the team our whole deal is mostly about our relationship.

How has it been this year working with your colleagues as far as any scenes, any cool stories – on set stories – you’d like to share?

It’s been really fun. We just goof around and have a good time and when we’re waiting for lighting and get on set and do our jobs. There wasn’t anything too exciting…I mean there was one day where there were chocolate covered strawberries and everyone lost their shit because of those giant ass strawberries.

We’ve seen your Youtube vlog and you’re definitely very eclectic and outgoing and so, we were expecting for there to be a little bit of pranking on set. You’re not a prankster?

Oh no, I hate pranks!

Well, you might hate pranks but you sure have a lot going on. I see you have a film coming out on Netflix, “You Get Me” and a book. Tell me a little bit about your upcoming film. Do we get you in the film?

Oh, do you get me? (laughs) Yes, you get me. It’s a great thriller, it’s kind of like very Fatal Attraction. Bella Thorne hooks up with Taylor’s, he’s the main guy, she hooks up with his character when he’s on a break with his girlfriend and just cannot let go of the idea of them being together. So, she switches schools and kind of infiltrates our friend group, and it’s really this fun like, weird, modern thriller and it was a blast to work with all of them. I mean, Halston Sage is so talented and so great and Nash Grier is so funny. So that was a fun one and I’m really excited to see it.

How easy is it to to transition from being a Youtube celebrity into the TV/film aspect? Was it hard for you to transition into that? Maybe you can explain to fans who might be interested in pursuing something like this.

Yeah! I actually started in acting and stand up years before I decided to go and try Youtube. I mostly did it because I was frustrated with waiting around for auditions and the constant rejections you get in the film industry and I felt like sometimes I was just waiting around for opportunities. So I was like well I’m just going to start making my own stuff so I have things to do with my time and I don’t feel so insane and desperate when I walk into an audition room because I just want to act. It was never really a transition, I just kind of doing them all at the same time but Youtube was essentially what took off and helped my acting career. Um, so it’s been fun, it’s been a blast. And if anyone wants to get into the Youtube space you can, there’s no barriers, there’s no gatekeepers.

I think it’s harder now for regular Youtubers to get their numbers up or there’s limitations now as Youtube has gotten bigger.

I think it’s definitely harder because there’s an oversaturation of content, but in the beginning when a lot of us started there weren’t as many people watching, so it is a give and take in that regard. I think it’s a lot more difficult to get exposure, but if you’re making stuff for the sake of being an artist and trying to make it really good eventually people will gravitate towards what’s good online.

So tell me about So Much I Want to Tell You. Give me a little quick rundown on what this is about and why we should pick this up for the summer and get reading.

Yeah, Ballantine approached me because someone there watched my videos and they’re like “Hey, we think you have something to say and would you like to do a book, and if so what would it look like?” And I have kind of always approached a lot of the fun that I make like a love letter to my little sister who died in back in 2007. And I thought about it and I would wanted to write like an essay collection targeted at young women and teen girls to kind of give them practical advice that I have learned over the course of many years and the advice that I would have essentially passed onto my sister if she were still alive. The book is divided into four sections like identity, career, love, etc and has essays that are story-based that all have some kind of takeaway value that I’ve learned in those areas. So I’m really excited for it to come out on the thirteenth and I really hope people like it and gain something from it since I’m a really big fan of reading nonfiction and gaining knowledge so it’s all I can really hope for. So yeah, I’m really excited.

Back to Stitchers, are you going to be live tweeting the show or during the times that you’re on? We saw you take over the Stitchers account.

Yeah, I’m definitely going to try. I don’t know, but I definitely will try!

CATCH ANNA AKANA IN STITCHERS 3X02 “FOR LOVE OR MONEY” MONDAY, JUNE 12TH, 2017 AT 9/8C ON FREEFORM