Aparna Brielle says her own high school experiences in Beaverton were nothing like the wacky goings-on in "A.P. Bio," the high school-set comedy in which Brielle plays one of the brainy students.

"I can tell you my biology teacher loved biology," Brielle says. "So, we didn't have that problem."

Brielle is calling from Los Angeles, where she now lives, to talk about "A.P. Bio," a sitcom in its first season on NBC.

The show stars Glenn Howerton ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") as Jack Griffin, who left his position as a philosophy scholar at Harvard in disgrace. Now, Jack's reduced to teaching Advanced Placement Biology in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

Jack couldn't be less interested in teaching biology, so he tries to use his high school students to help him out in various schemes.

While Jack is in the running for the title of World's Worst Teacher, "A.P. Bio" has impressive credentials. The executive producers include Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers and "Saturday Night Live" veteran Mike O'Brien, who created the series. Patton Oswalt costars, as Principal Durbin.

Jack's A.P. bio students are one of the show's prime assets, as funny as they are endearing. Brielle, in particular, is a bright spot as Sarika Sarkar, a preppy outfit-sporting smartypants who sees right through Jack and his foolishness.

When she auditioned for "A.P. Bio," Brielle already had a clear idea of who Sarika is.

"I remember reading the script," she says, "and it was kind of a blank canvas for Sarika."

Brielle thought Sarika should have something in common with Reese Witherspoon's ambitious, bossy, high school overachiever character in the movie, "Election."

After auditioning, Brielle recalls, "I got a call from my manager saying, 'You got another callback,'" adding the show's creative team wanted the character "to be kind of like Reese Witherspoon in 'Election.'"

Brielle won the role, and went to work.

"I think on the surface level, a lot of people might see Sarika as the Indian girl who wants to do well in school," Brielle says. "I feel like it has more to do the fact that she sees herself as a leader."

Sarika, Brielle says, "Wants to be on top, and she doesn't want to be an underdog, like so many of her classmates. She'll do anything to get ahead. Which makes her more than just a biology nerd."

Brielle, 24, was born in Clackamas, because, as she says, "they were out of hospital beds in St. Vincent (hospital, in Southwest Portland)".

She was raised in Portland, in the Cedar Mill area, and attended Valley Catholic High School, transferring to the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton for her junior and senior year.

From an early age, Brielle knew she wanted to perform. "My parents, being as wonderful as they are, had me do all kinds of classes," she says. "I actually started with dance and music."

"I wanted to be a character on TV, or in one of the Disney movies I watched," Brielle says, which led her to participate in theater, with Northwest Childrens Theater and others.

"It wasn't until I did 'Grimm' on NBC that I really started to work as a professional," Brielle says. She played a character named Jenny in the Portland-filmed "Grimm" episode, "My Fair Wesen," in Season 3.

Brielle also got experience playing a "flirty waitress" in the Portland-filmed TNT series, "The Librarians," in that show's Season 1 episode, "And the Fables of Doom."

After earning a marketing degree from Linfield College in 2015 - she graduated in three years - Brielle moved to Los Angeles.

Working on "A.P. Bio" has helped the actors playing classmates form a bond, Brielle says.

"We very quickly became family," she says, "and we have each others' backs."

Even the self-centered teacher, Jack, has his good side, Brielle says. "You can tell he actually does care about the students."

But it's easy to think the class would learn a lot more if Sarika were the teacher.

"I feel like she would probably love that," Brielle says.

"A.P. Bio" airs at 8:30 p.m. Thursday nights on NBC/8.

-- Kristi Turnquist