With its work-based comedy approach, which normalised the gaming world for a wider audience, Mythic Quest went on to become one of the coolest TV shows of the 2020s. After a four-season run and an accompanying show perfectly called Side Quest, the story came to an exciting end in March.

Now setting her sights on the future, Mythic Quest actress Ashly Burch is here to tell STARBURST all about her passion project show, I’m Happy You’re Here. With its crucial focus on mental health, balanced with puppets and the appropriate amount of comedy, it’s a show that supports adults who feel like they’ve been left in the wilderness to deal with everything life has to throw at them.

Ashly reflects on the finale and impressive immediate legacy of Mythic Quest, whilst revealing everything you need to know about I’m Happy You’re Here…

STARBURST: Jumping straight in, you both acted in and directed Heaven and Hell, the finale of Mythic Quest. What was that like, and without giving away too many spoilers, was there anything that you really wanted to see, or bring to the finale?

Ashly Burch: It was a really good experience. I didn’t know that I was going to be directing the finale. Originally, one of the other EPs [executive producers] was going to do it, and then they just got bogged down while they were trying to finish the show. So they asked me if I would. It was a nice feeling that they trusted me with what ended up being the series finale. So, it was a really cool experience. I had directed one other episode that season [Second Skeleton], which I had also acted in. It was interesting because, within that episode, all of my scenes were with David Hornsby, and they were extremely fun. Both of us were kind of loopy, in a way that was very fun. With the finale, I really had to lock in. It was a little bit of putting stuff together and trying to figure things out, like “How are we going to emulate the front of an airport without actually going to an airport?” It was a really cool challenge. I mostly wanted to make sure that we did right by the Ian and Poppy storyline. Obviously, the whole episode was my focus, but that was a big part of it.

It’s also amazing that you got to give the whole show the ending you wanted; that rarely happens. How was an update like that even possible?

We’d done it once before in the show. Fans will know that we have standalone episodes. In the second season, there’s a standalone episode about C.W. Longbottom, who was played by F. Murray Abraham. It’s called Backstory!. The actor who plays young C.W., Josh Brener, obviously does not look like Abraham; he does, but he doesn’t. So, in the very first episode of Mythic Quest, where you see C.W. holding up a Nebula Award – and obviously originally we used Abraham for that, because it was the very first episode – after Backstory!, the EPs thought it would be cool to go back to that episode and replace that picture with a picture of Josh holding the Nebula. Since we had established in that episode, that he wins the Nebula, and that Josh plays him. So we had done it once before.

It’s the cool thing about being on a streaming service: all of the episodes are accessible, and you can do that. It’s almost like patching a game. So, that had been discussed a little bit, like, “We’ll have this one ending, and if it ends up being that this is the last season of the show, then we have this other option that we filmed.” It seems like the EPs decided that that’s how they wanted to end the show. We filmed both options on the day, and it’s an interesting thing to be able to do, and I haven’t heard of many other shows doing something like that. So, it’s kind of cool. Like I said, it’s like patching a game in a way, so it’s an appropriate thing for our show to do.

Looking back on the show, why do you think it went on to become such a huge hit, and what do you think it’s done for the representation of the gaming community in general?

I think people really responded to the show, mostly because of the characters. It’s a unique workplace. Ultimately, any workplace comedy lives and dies on the characters and the character dynamics. People really loved and connected to our characters and our cast. It’s a really funny show. There’s not a ton of shows, at least there weren’t when Mythic Quest was coming up, that were like hard comedies. There were more dramedies, or perhaps shows that had comedic elements that were mostly about the narrative through-line. And Mythic Quest had some of that, we had the more dramatic or more emotional episodes, but we still had all the same characteristics of a cosy workplace comedy. In the same way that people love Parks and Recreation or The Office, it was a similar experience of getting to be with these people in a space that you like and want to return to. For me, I think it helped to legitimise the games industry, making it not a thing that’s just this niche interest, that only a few people engage in, but rather this very relevant, cultural pastime. Because I think that a lot of people still view games that way, even though they’re a multi-billion-dollar industry.

How did the idea for Side Quest come about, and what did you want it to bring or add to the world of Mythic Quest?

Side Quest came about because, with every season of Mythic Quest, we would have a standalone episode that would focus on some of our characters, or maybe focus on people that you’ve never met before, but the story would be thematically relevant to that season. For the third season, we were trying to figure out what the standalone episode would be, and we just filled up an entire whiteboard with all of these ideas, and we were like “I guess this could just be its own show.” When we were making Mythic Quest, we talked about how our main cast were almost like gods, creating this universe. They saw themselves that way, especially Ian and Poppy, they’re like the gods that have created the world of Mythic Quest. So we talked about what it would be like to focus on the mortals that the gods impact in Side Quest.

You can see that a lot in the different episodes that we made. In the last episode, The Last Raid, which takes place almost entirely in-game, the game is glitching a ton, because Mythic Quest has just neglected to update the servers for the original game. We wrote it, at the time that we knew in the main storyline, all of our devs would be focused on playpen or battle royale, and that original World of Warcraft-style version of Mythic Quest was being neglected. So, we thought that was an interesting way in. The eye of Sauron has turned away from this particular version of the game, now there’s all of this glitching that’s happening. This affects this group of friends who are trying to finish this raid, and it’s bringing up all of this interpersonal stuff that they have been burying. So, we really liked the idea of focusing on that sort of story. What is it like to talk about the fans, and the people that helped make this thing a reality, but they don’t necessarily have the same sort of power that our main cast in Mythic Quest did.

With Season Two of The Last of Us just finished, it seems like a good time to ask about the character you play in Part II, Mel. You have one of the most brutal parts in one of the most brutal games, so what was that like to take on, and what do you remember the most from that script?

I was really excited to be a part of that game, because obviously, The Last of Us changed our industry in so many ways. It’s such a monumental game. It changed the way we thought about narrative, about characters, and player characters, in the games industry. So, I felt really honoured to be a part of the second game and to continue that story. It was so cool. And yeah, poor Mel! She has a rough go of it. I remember a lot of the story. After you find out what happens to Joel, basically midway through the game, you switch to Abby’s point of view, and I’m one of Abby’s companions. And so, you’re with these people that have killed this character, that, if you’re a fan of the first game, which you loved, and now, all of these people are being humanised, it’s a very complicated experience for the player, obviously. It’s like switching to the viewpoint of the ‘villain’, when the game is showing us that everything is a shade of grey, not just black and white.

Mel occupies an interesting space where she’s probably the closest to occupying how the player feels about Abby at the beginning. Like the player ends up feeling, Mel has a complicated relationship with Abby as well, where I think she both respects and appreciates her, and also deeply resents her. So I think she complicates Abby’s storyline and Abby’s morality, and it creates this feeling of complexity between all of the relationships. Their crew is a very muddy, relational crew. So I think a lot about the storyline, with Abby and Mel, where they go on a mission together, and you see that they have a repartee, before everything goes wrong… It’s an interesting and very clever way of getting the player to relate to and to humanise Abby, Mel, and the rest of that crew, and then to complicate it as things continue.

You said you’ve been working on I’m Happy You’re Here for what feels like a thousand years, so when did the idea first come about, and how did it evolve over time?

I think I first came up with the idea over ten years ago now. I’ve always struggled with different mental health stuff. I have an anxiety disorder. When I was young, I had really bad OCD, and I didn’t understand what was happening to me for a long time. I just thought I was going cuckoo. It wasn’t until I went online and found forums of people talking about OCD and anxiety disorders that I realised that these are conditions that people have. As difficult as they can be, or as painful as they can be, I’m not crazy, it’s just the way that my brain is structured, it does these certain types of things. I found that so comforting, because before that, I had no framework and no understanding of how this stuff worked or why it was happening to me. So I found that the more I learned, and the more I understood, then the more I could accept it and the calmer I felt about it.

That process of dealing with different difficulties, and having to go through that process, it didn’t stop in my childhood; it continued. The older you get, the more complicated your life gets. More things come up that you don’t know how to navigate. I had this thought of, I really wish there was some sort of show that helped to support adults, in the same way that I got that support when I was younger from going online and seeing other people that were dealing with the same thing as me. Culturally, I feel like at a certain point, adults get pushed out of the nest, it’s just like “You’ve got this! You’ve got it all figured out.” And I feel like all of us are like “No, I don’t know what I’m doing!” I know so many people who just got diagnosed with ADHD, and they’re in their late 30s or early 40s. Or, they’re going through a divorce, experiencing postpartum depression, or just got diagnosed with bipolar disorder. There’s no playbook when it comes to how you deal with that, and there’s also the added pressure of “Well, you’re an adult, so figure it out!” And so, I’ve had this idea for over ten years, and it’s just stayed with me, because unfortunately, it continues to feel like a thing that people need. So, what if we had a show that was funny, cosy, and calm, that also helps with adult issues and stuff that adults need support around?

The first episode that we made is about anxiety. We take you through what’s happening in your brain. What chemicals are being fired, and why is it happening? Then all the way to, “Where does anxiety come from, and what can you do to help it?” I’m biased, obviously, but I think it turned out really great. I just think that it would be awesome to continue to make something like this, because we could focus on all sorts of different topics, like ADHD or addiction. Adult stuff like divorce, postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, and grief. Because I think we all need some help. So, that’s really the purpose of the show, to be that help for people, who maybe don’t know where to get it otherwise.

Mental health is such a huge discussion with so many types and categories to it. How did you know which parts of it you wanted to focus on first? 

I knew I wanted to start with anxiety because I’m the most familiar with it, because I have an anxiety disorder. I have a lot of knowledge about it, I’ve talked to a lot of experts about it, for the course of my own life, and trying to manage it. So that was where I wanted to start. And in episodes that we’ll hopefully be able to make in the future, honestly, it’s just what’s coming up, what I notice in the zeitgeist, what people feel like they need help with managing.

ADHD is a really big one for people. Executive dysfunction is a huge thing for people. My husband, for example, has ADHD, and he only, in the last couple of years, started to accept it, and talk about it, as a thing that really impacts his life. Before, I didn’t understand it really, I’d be like “Why can he not keep a schedule, why is he forgetting this stuff? I’ve asked him to do this thing”, you know. So it wasn’t until he started really embracing that he has this thing, and he started educating me about it, and then I started educating myself, and I was like, “Oh, his brain works completely differently than mine.” It was this really huge thing for both of us, I think. To realise that this was a thing.

I think this is a problem that people with ADHD struggle with, because their brains operate differently than neurotypical people, or with the way that our culture is set up, that they can feel like they’re lazy. I’ve heard a couple of friends with ADHD say they feel like everyone else got a handbook on how to be an adult, and they just didn’t get the handbook. So, there’s a lot of shame with it as well. So I think demystifying it, and being like “No, you’re not messed up, your brain just functions and operates differently” than quote-unquote neurotypical people. Unfortunately, we live in a society that only supports neurotypical people. So, “What is it like to have ADHD, what does it mean, what are the effects of it? How can we help you with it?” – I think it’s a thing that a lot of people have been talking about or thinking about recently. So that was definitely one that I would want to talk about.

And yeah, I just think, unfortunately, there’s no end to the topics of episodes that we can make. In an ideal world, we’d be able to tackle all sorts of stuff. Because the other point of the show is not just to help people that are going through something feel seen, it’s also like, if you have an anxiety disorder or OCD, you can send the episode to one of your loved ones, being like “I don’t know how to talk about this” or “This is too hard for me to explain, just watch this”. It’s a digestible and funny educational thing, to be like “Oh, this is what it’s like to have ADHD” or to be depressed. So, to just help facilitate that communication.

It sounds like you’re working with some really interesting people, Matt Arnold and Freddie Wong to name a few. Can you elaborate on some of the team that you’ve assembled for this project, and why they’re the perfect choice?

With Matthew and Freddie, I approached them to ask if they’d direct. I’ve known them for a really long time; I worked with them at RocketJump. They recently made their first feature film, We’re All Gonna Die, and I was the lead in it. First of all, they’re extremely funny, and I really want this project to be funny. It gets emotional at times, but to me, the biggest thing for this kind of subject is for it not to feel heavy, because the experience of any of these conditions is heavy enough as it is. So it’s like, “Let’s talk about it, but let’s also laugh about it” and that’s also a big reason as to why the show is filled with puppets, because puppets are funny. It’s easier to talk about more difficult subjects when you’re seeing a puppet go through them than when you’re seeing a person go through them. So, Matthew and Freddie are really funny, and that was part of the reason, and they’re great directors.

Also, when we were trying to figure out how to do the show, there was a lot of workshopping at the beginning, of like, “Do we want one of those crazy LED walls?” It turns out those are very expensive, so we didn’t end up doing that. It was like “What would be the best way to do this?” I wanted it to feel reminiscent of something like Blue’s Clues, but I didn’t want it to look like Blue’s Clues. Matt and Freddie are known for being VFX savants. Freddie, in particular, when he first started on YouTube, all of his shorts were VFX-heavy comedy shorts. So that kind of made them the perfect fit. I just knew that they would have a clever, interesting take on it. They did a test with one of the backgrounds that we had.

The art is done by Hans Tseng, who worked on Bee and PuppyCat, Steven Universe, and all of these other amazing animated shows. Matt and Freddie had this really great idea of, if we have a physical element in front of this 2D art, but we match the lighting, then everything looks really cohesive and part of the whole. They showed us the test, and we were like, “This is awesome!” It was like, “These are the perfect people to be doing this!” So yeah, I’m so happy that they were on board with it.

Is there something that you really want the viewer to take away with them after watching I’m Happy You’re Here?

My goal with it is really for people to feel seen, and also feel like they have something to take away that could help them in a difficult moment. Which, anecdotally, I have found that different members of our crew have told me that that has been the case. So, Brina Palencia, who is the EP on it, and also a voice actor in it – I call her the queen of anime, she’s been in every anime that you’ve ever loved – she’s also a musician, and she wrote a couple of songs that are in the episode. The second song is all about tips for anxiety. I’ve had a couple of people who worked on the production reach out to me and be like “I started feeling anxious, or my friends started feeling anxious. I remembered the song, and I remembered the breathing exercises that are in the song, and I used it, and it helped.” Or it was like “My partner was getting kind of panicky”. There’s a tip in the song that says if you chew something, you can help activate a nerve in your brain that calms you down. So she was like “My partner was feeling really anxious, and so I gave him a piece of gum, and he started chewing it, and he felt better.” That kind of thing to me is so validating, because it is sticking with people and it’s helping them in their day-to-day lives, which is really the whole point.

Mythic Quest and Side Quest are available to stream on Apple TV. Here’s the first episode:

You can follow Ashly on Instagram for more updates about I’m Happy You’re Here.