Specs

Who Anna Chlumsky

Age 34

Claim to fame Stars as Amy on HBO's Veep (Season 4 premieres April 12 at 10:30 p.m.); currently appearing on Broadway in the play Living on Love (through Aug. 2)

Base New York

Twitter @AnnaChlumsky

What's the first information you consume in the morning?

I check for texts and emails to see if anything's happening that morning, and then I look at the weather. I use whatever app is on my iPhone. I guess iSomething [laughs].

How do you get your news?

The Yahoo News Digest is the quickest way for me to see what's important. Then, if I'm really interested in one of their headlines, I'll go on The New York Times. Also, because I like to practice my languages when I can, I have the Le Monde app and I have Veja magazine, which is like Time magazine in Brazil.

What's your favorite app?

I'm not the most, how would you say, tech-geeky about it. But I like the Shopstyle.com app. When I'm bored, I'll go through my "favorites" and get rid of everything that's sold out and organize them based on whether they're in my budget or not [laughs]. I like Zulily as well for kids' stuff. They're dangerous, though, because they don't give you a second to think before you make a purchase.

Who are your favorite people to follow on Twitter?

Patton Oswalt is pretty great. Tim Simons, who plays Jonah [on Veep], is a favorite. Chris Addison, one of our showrunners, is also great. And I follow RuPaul because I'm a Drag Race fan. That show is heaven.

What other shows do you watch?

I watch Game of Thrones and Girls and Getting On, and I'm not just saying that to plug HBO. I like New Girl. I'm a huge Orphan Black fan. I've been catching up on Masters of Sex because my friend Annaleigh [Ashford] is on that, and I'm really enjoying it.

What's the last thing you binge-watched?

That would be Orphan Black. I was binge-watching it while I was filming Veep, so I could only do two episodes a night. But it was that classic thing where you're watching another episode against your better judgment. It was like, "I need to go to sleep because I'm getting up at 5 o'clock, but I also need to find out if this girl's going to be OK."

Do you watch any political shows as research for Veep?

C-Span is great for that, especially when we were learning all that stuff in the beginning of the series. And YouTube is an insanely wonderful resource for any actor. That's definitely part of my prep regimen now, no matter what role I'm playing.

How about podcasts?

I loved Serial—who didn't? I really enjoyed Invisibilia. And also I listen to Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio. It's a tradition they've had in the U.K. for a long time where they interview someone very illustrious about their life, but it's all about this conceit of them choosing eight tracks that they would want if they were stranded on a desert island.

What's on your reading list?

It's taking me so long to get through it, but I do have The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle [by Haruki Murakami] on my nightstand. I usually have some kind of a raising-children book around. Some of my favorites I've read in the recent past are Bringing Up Bébé and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. And I've always got my nose in the Atlantic Monthly. I think that's why it's taken me so long to get through my Murakami.