Jameela Jamil Says She Had '$17 in My Bank Account' When She Got Cast onThe Good Place

Mar. 15, 2025

Jameela Jamil attends Fashion Trust Arabia 2024 at El Badi Palace on October 24, 2024 in Marrakech, Morocco.Photo:Dave Benett/Getty

Dave Benett/Getty

Jameela Jamilis opening up about her path to becoming an actress.

Jamil, 39, joined David Tennant for the Tuesday, March 4 episode of his podcast,David Tennant Does a Podcast With…,and spoke about her career and life before landing a role on the hit NBC sitcom,The Good Place.

“The Good Place” cast: (L-R) Jameela Jamil as Tehani, Manny Jacinto as Jianyu, Kristen Bell as Eleanor, D’Arcy Carden as Janet, William Jackson Harper as Chidi, Ted Danson as Michael.Robert Trachtenberg/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Robert Trachtenberg/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

The actress explained that she then decided to join her then-musician-boyfriend while he was on tour. “And then I ran out of money and so I said, ‘Please can I have a job, any job, I will do anything,’” she said.

“I was so desperate for money at that point. I had $17 left in my bank account,” she said. “I was real keen.”

“But instead I was handed a bunch of auditions,” she said, revealing that one was to host a Las Vegas magic show and another was for her inevitable role inThe Good Place. But she originally didn’t want to audition for the role because she had “never acted before and just thought that was a sacrilege.”

She and Tennant acknowledged that type of career pivot doesn’t typically happen. She explained, “It’s like, ‘Stay in your lane,’ and the reason I left is partially because I wanted to be able to write.”

Jamil noted that she had a show that she pitched and that script is what prompted executives to tell her to audition forThe Good Place. She recalled, “They were the ones who said, ‘We want you to go to this audition for Mike Schur. You’ll have more power as a writer if you have a name for yourself, or you can just meet him and maybe he’ll put you in the writer’s room.’”

Jameela Jamil in “The Good Place”.NBC

NBC

“So I went to the audition, just very much so not thinking anything was going to come of it,” she said. “I got both the magic show and Mike Schur and I had to make a choice. You weren’t allowed to do both.” Concluding, that she “got pushed towards doingThe Good Place.”

She confessed that throughout her career, she’s “been in exactly the right time at the right place.” Adding, “It’s ridiculous and it’s good because it means I’ve never disappeared out my arsehole because I’m well aware that I don’t belong here.”

“But I’m having a lovely time and I’m working very hard because I care deeply about not letting down the people who’ve taken a stupid chance on me," she said.

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The Good Placeis available to stream in full on Netflix.

source: people.com