‘Severance’: Who Is Britt Lower, aka Helly?
Severance recently wrapped up its first season. Already fans can’t wait for the second season to drop. The Apple TV+ show follows a prison-like office where employees undergo a procedure that severs their work memories from their personal lives.
One of the Severance stars is Britt Lower. Lower is a familiar face in the acting industry. But many still wonder why she look so familiar.
Here’s where you’ve seen Britt Lower before
Before appearing on Severance, Lower had an already successful acting career. The actor’s first notable role was in the 2011 police procedural show Unforgettable. She starred alongside Poppy Montgomery, playing Tanya Sitkowsky, a technology expert in the New York Police Department.
Lower’s breakout role came in 2015 when she played Liz Greenberg in Man Seeking Woman. The FXX comedy follows a naïve young man named Josh Greenberg who tries to navigate love and his personal life and always finds himself in awkward circumstances in his quest for love.
Lower played the protagonist’s sister Liz Greenberg for the three seasons that the show was on air. The star landed a recurring role in Casual season 2 in 2016, playing Alex’s ex Sarah Finn. Lower has also appeared in several commercials for Verizon and guest starred on the Big Lake marathon fundraiser episode of The George Lucas Talk Show.
She has appeared in Ghosted, Future Man, Mr. Roosevelt, Wrecked, Future Man, Pillow Talk, High Maintenance, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
In 2020, she joined the cast of the Apple TV+ show Severance starring alongside Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman, and Patricia Arquette. Lower is also set to appear in the second season of American Horror Stories.
Fans believe Britt Lower should have received an Emmy nomination for her role in Severance
Lower plays Helly R. in the Ben Stiller show Severance. Helly is the first person viewers meet when Severance starts. The series begins with her in business attire, unconscious on a table. She is completely unaware of who she is or her surroundings when she wakes up.
Helly is hired to replace Petey, who abruptly left Lumon Industries for reasons viewers later learn. Scott’s character Mark, who is newly promoted, takes Helly under his wing. Helly is depicted as a rebel who gets everyone to start questioning the heavily sterile workplace and what they do in it.
Lower tapped into Helly’s brazen and undisciplined personality to portray the character. Her ‘innie’ (workplace memory) is constantly trying to outsmart the higher echelons and tries to escape the claustrophobic Lumon workplace and, in turn, forces the actor to try on different personas to bring the character to life.
Lower’s performance of Helly R. was so good that many fans thought she would be among those nominated for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards. However, like several others, Lower was completely snubbed despite Severance receiving 14 nominations.
The Emmy snub was also disrespectful to her fans, who felt she should have at least landed a nom, given her involvement in the film Circus Person. Lower starred in her first directorial film Circus Person, which has a 6.3 rating on IMDb.
Britt Lower is a multifaceted artist
Lower grew up watching her face painting mother, Mickey Lower, hard at work. She naturally followed in her mother’s footsteps and began face painting in high school with her mom. Lower grew up around carnivals as her mother’s work took them around festivals in the Midwest.
According to her official website, Lower studied art at Northwestern University and started combining performance art and face painting. Judging by her Instagram, the star has an adventurous spirit and loves to go on camping adventures on her van, which she fondly refers to as “the egg.”
