THE FUNNY GIRL

Keyla Monterroso Mejia had always thought of herself as a Hollywood outsider. But with a handful of big-deal projects that debut this year, she's realizing the joke may be on her.

- BY QUINCI LEGARDYE

Keyla Monterroso Mejia whispers when she says her co-stars' names: Larry David. Katt Williams. Reese Witherspoon. Seth Rogen.

When she describes sharing the screen with these comedy legends, the 27-year-old actress can't help but lower her voice, partly out of lingering shock, but also out of continued deference.

“All of these things are like, What is my life? What’s going on?” Monterroso Mejia tells me over Zoom on a January afternoon, referencing her rapid rise to comedic fame. She feels so removed from the radius of Hollywood’s sparkle. In some ways, quite literally. For our interview, Monterroso Mejia—wearing a nondescript sweatshirt; her hair in a bun—appears on screen from her home deep in the Inland Empire, which for the California neophyte is “with traffic, nearly three-and-a-half-hours from L.A.,” Monterroso Mejia says. There’s always traffic.

I’m an L.A. local myself, and we trade SoCal native notes on cities like Irvine, Riverside, Pomona, West Covina. The actress lights up when I recognize the name of her hometown (IMDb inaccurately lists the wrong city). “I never meet people who really know what I’m talking about when I mention these areas,” she says.

We quickly slip into a common shorthand, shared between Cali girls who watch way too much TV. She’s currently in her rom-com era after bingeing Nobody Wants This, and we happily trade anime (her) and Korean variety show (me) recommendations. Monterroso Mejia speaks with her entire body, leaning into the frame when she gets excited, putting a hand on her chest when she reveals something personal. Several times she catches herself, rolling her eyes with an “ugh” when she’s about to use clichéd, pretentious language about her “journey.” Speaking to her feels like chatting with a friend who also just happens to have Quinta Brunson in her Instagram comments.