Julia DiCesare steals the show in Netflix's 'Minimum Wage'
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From Easton, Connecticut, to Netflix: Julia DiCesare stars in 'Minimum Wage' and wrote and directed five of the comedy's 14 episodes now streaming.
Stand-up comedian Julia DiCesare, from Easton, Connecticut, is one of the leads of “Minimum Wage,” Netflix’s comedy about teenagers trying to keep a pizzeria afloat. She plays Julia, a home-schooled student who treats every shift like an adventure, and she also wrote and directed five of the 14 episodes now streaming. The show premiered on October 26, 2026, turning a batch of viral sketches into a workplace sitcom.
DiCesare’s case distills a shift the entertainment industry keeps testing with growing frequency: creators raised on short-form video moving into prominent roles in big-budget productions without abandoning the humor that made them known. The difference this time is that the comedian did not arrive only as a performer. She is part of the show’s creative team, writes and directs episodes, and appears on camera in the role that American critics singled out as one of the cast’s strongest.
Who is Julia DiCesare
Born and raised in Easton, a small town in Fairfield County, DiCesare built her career in stand-up and sketch comedy before reaching Netflix. In “Minimum Wage,” she plays Julia, a character who shares the counter at Slice Club with coworkers equally unprepared to run a restaurant. Netflix’s official synopsis sums up the premise: an overwhelmed group of teenagers tries to operate the pizzeria while balancing school, a manic boss and minimum wage.
The character carries a trait the performer herself helped shape in the videos that gave rise to the show: the exaggerated enthusiasm of someone who was home-schooled and sees the working world as unknown territory. It is not a gratuitous caricature. The humor comes from the contrast between the young woman’s eagerness and the bureaucratic routine of a pizza franchise, complete with targets, health rules and an owner who shows up without warning.
Three days before the premiere, on October 23, 2026, DiCesare visited the Empire State Building observatory in New York in a visit documented by photographers. The image distributed to the media shows the comedian against the Manhattan skyline — a curious contrast with the suburban pizzeria that serves as the show’s setting.
From college to the American High set
DiCesare’s path began before streaming. In her senior year of college, she was hired full-time by American High, a production company based in Liverpool, New York, to write, act in and edit comedy sketches. A graduate in Television, Radio and Film from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, she balanced her degree with a content production routine.
The group that introduced her, American High Shorts, grew fast: according to her official biography, it built a following of more than 4 million people across platforms and was named the People’s Voice winner at the 2025 Webby Awards in the comedy category. Netflix credits the collective with more than 7 billion views since its October 2022 launch — a figure that helps explain the platform’s interest in turning the format into a series.
After leaving the company, DiCesare invested in her own projects. She brought an audience of more than 440,000 YouTube subscribers to a parody series called “Fornication and the Metropolitan Area,” inspired by “Sex and the City,” along with low-budget shorts she wrote, directed, edited and starred in. She is represented by Tovah Silbermann at Mosaic Media Group and Jay Gassner at UTA.
A character born in short videos
“Minimum Wage” did not start as an original television script. The series derives from a run of sketches of the same name published by American High Shorts, which drew more than 30 million views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram since May 2024, according to Netflix. The platform said the TV version would keep “the original’s signature rapid-fire, short-form rhythm and comedy style.”
In practice, the adaptation kept the cast and the tone but gained a season structure. Jeremy Garelick and Will Phelps created the show and share showrunning, writing and executive producing duties with Axelle Azoulay. American High, which produces it, is the same company that developed the sketches and has specialized in comedies set in the teenage world.
“Julia DiCesare, as she did in the YouTube version, turns in the show’s standout performance as a painfully earnest home-schooler who approaches every day like an alien who’s only heard great things about planet Earth.”
The review captures the kind of humor the series pursues: estrangement, good intentions and embarrassment in equal doses. It also confirms that the transition from the short videos to the streaming season preserved what had made the character work online, rather than flattening it into a generic teenage role.
Behind the camera: five episodes of her own
DiCesare’s work on the series goes beyond acting. According to the show’s episode listing, she receives writing and directing credits on five of the 14 available chapters, some of them alongside co-star Luke Burke. That is an unusual share for a television newcomer and helps explain why American outlets treat the comedian as one of the season’s discoveries.
- “Drama Club” (episode 2) — written and directed by DiCesare;
- “Breakup” (episode 3) — written and directed by DiCesare;
- “Sleepover” (episode 9) — written and directed with Luke Burke;
- “Prank Call” (episode 10) — written and directed by DiCesare;
- “New Girl” (episode 11) — written and directed by DiCesare.
The cast brings together names from the same sketch laboratory. Aidan Micho, Grace Reiter, Hyde Healy, Luke Burke, Ryan Micho and Tommy Armstrong share scenes with DiCesare, while Randall Park plays Terry Sylvester, the founder and CEO of the pizza chain threatening to close the group’s location. The mix of young creators and a well-known Hollywood name is part of the production’s strategy to widen the show’s reach.
| Show facts | Detail |
|---|---|
| Title | Minimum Wage |
| Premiere | October 26, 2026, on Netflix |
| Episodes | 14 available out of 28 ordered, 12 to 20 minutes each |
| Created by | Jeremy Garelick and Will Phelps |
| Production | American High (Liverpool, New York) |
| DiCesare’s character | Julia, a home-schooled teenager |
| DiCesare’s credits | Writer and director of 5 of the 14 episodes |
Reception and what remains unconfirmed
Early reception has been kind to the comedian’s name. Beyond the New York Times review, the series entered Netflix’s US top five two days after its premiere, according to audience tracking cited by CBR — a result Revista Pixel covered in its launch analysis. The platform, however, has not released its own viewing figures.
It is also worth separating what is confirmed from what circulates as expectation. Netflix ordered 28 episodes and released the first 14; as of publication, no date had been announced for the remaining half. Nor is there confirmation of a second season. The project’s future depends on commercial decisions the platform has not made public.
For anyone following digital content production, DiCesare’s path offers a legible blueprint: study communications, join a short-video specialist early, build an audience of your own and eventually move into television without giving up creative control. The fact that she writes and directs episodes of her own series is the clearest sign that this transition is not limited to hiring familiar faces for supporting parts.
How to watch and what to look for
The 14 episodes are available on the official “Minimum Wage” page on Netflix, with the original English audio and dubbing and subtitle options that vary by territory. The short running time, between 12 and 20 minutes, allows viewers to watch a full block in a single sitting. The official trailer, released on Netflix’s YouTube channel, sets up the mockumentary tone the production adopts.
The trailer was published by the Netflix channel on YouTube and previews the Slice Club pizzeria, the teenage cast and the faux-documentary approach. (Video: Courtesy of Netflix)
The episodes signed by DiCesare deserve particular attention. “Drama Club” and “Breakup,” the first two under her name, concentrate the kind of humor she developed in the sketches: social embarrassment that escalates at full speed until it turns into generalized chaos. That is where the series finds its identity, and where the actor-director shows what she can do with creative autonomy.
DiCesare’s trajectory also helps explain why American High has become a recurring supplier of talent for Netflix. The company bets on young ensembles that arrive with an audience and a repertoire, and the platform turns that digital capital into original programming. Whether the partnership will yield more seasons or spin-offs is still too early to say — but the first chapter of that story is already available to watch.
For more premieres and productions in the genre, the full coverage is in Revista Pixel’s series section. DiCesare’s biography and portfolio are on her official website, and production details are in Netflix’s announcement and in the CT Insider report on the comedian from Easton.
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