Brendan Hunt Reveals Childhood Connection to Ted Lasso Co-Star Jason Sudeikis (Exclusive)

By Liam Crowley

What began as a series of NBC Sports digital shorts has blossomed into one of the most popular streaming shows today. Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso began streaming its third and possible final season earlier this week, successfully reaching the third act that co-creators Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt always envisioned for it. This latest Ted Lasso season marks just the latest in a long-running list of creative collaborations between Sudeikis and Hunt, as the two previously joined forces for 2013's We're The Millers and 2014's Horrible Bosses 2.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Hunt revealed that his relationship with Sudeikis dates much further back than their first big screen project together.

"We actually met doing improv in the late 1990s in Chicago, only in passing, but enough to make an impression," Hunt said. "Then we would work together more on other things over the years, and we were like, 'Oh, that dude's good.'"

That 1990s meeting might have happened much earlier if Hunt and Sudeikis realized their childhood connection.

"It turns out that his mom's family is from the south side of Chicago. My mom's family and my dad's family are from the south side of Chicago, and these families knew each other!" Hunt continued. "Jason and I didn't realize this till three years ago. They weren't like tight or anything, but I had aunts who were in class with his aunts. It maybe just comes from the fact that we have the same chunks of cultural DNA, but we never knew about it for a very long time, so we never ruined it by commenting on it."

Hunt and Sudeikis share significant screen time together in Ted Lasso as two-thirds of AFC Richmond's coaching staff. Those days together may be numbered, as Hunt admitted the final day on the Season 3 set did feel "like graduation."

Related:

"Part of not knowing means it's possible that it is the end," Hunt said regarding this season potentially concluding the Ted Lasso story. "We at the very least know we're going to be taking some time off from this thing before we figure out what happens next. That last day definitely felt like graduation and everyone getting ready to leave campus and will we see each other again and such. But I mean that in the most wonderful way. It was very sentimental. And them Brits, they're not that sentimental, but ours were."

New episodes of Ted Lasso stream on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.

Trending Now: