Mr. Mouth

Big Mouth creator Nick Kroll is bringing emotions into the workplace. And the rest? It's history.

- KC IFEANYI

PUBERTY, IN NICK KROLL'S HIT Netflix series Big Mouth, is a bawdy animated universe where feelings and hormones have minds of their own, guiding characters through complex social situations with hilarious and often revelatory results. Kroll's recent spin-off, Human Resources, demonstrates that the workplace is remarkably similar. The comedian who voices more than 30 characters across the two shows-knows that we bring our full selves to the office, for better or worse, because he oversees one of his own, a year-and-a-half-old production company called Good at Business. Here, Kroll talks about writing comedy over Zoom, translating Slack to the screen, and teaming up with Mel Brooks for the upcoming Hulu series History of the World, Part II.

When did you realize that Big Mouth could yield a spin-off, which focuses on the professional lives of the Hormone Monsters?

(For] the finale of season 2, we thought it would be fun to go up and see where Maury [one of the main Hormone Monsters, who guides kids through puberty] worked. It proved to be so fun to see that world. As the seasons progressed, we kept introducing new creatures: a Shame Wizard, Anxiety Mosquitoes, Depression Kitties, Lovebugs, and Hate Worms. We realized we had a workplace full of characters.

NICK KROLL

BORN

June 1978

HOMETOWN

Rye, New York

EARLY JOB

Sprinkler installer

BIG BREAK

The 2011 Comedy Central Special Thank You Very Cool

What did you want to examine about today's workplace culture through that Big Mouth lens?