Aidy Bryant and I are at the Rainbow Room, a historic New York City landmark in the heart of Rockefeller Center, drinking ice water and staring at our menus like they're written in hieroglyphics. The clientele is straight out of Gossip Girl: sharp-looking men in expensive suits and women holding even more expensive handbags. One woman, Bryant points out, has a small dog perched on her lap. "This is the kind of New York lifestyle I can't handle," she says, laughing. "Today we're fancy business boys."

It's a joke that's funnier because Bryant has more than earned her seat in the Rainbow Room. You know her best as one of the regular cast members on Saturday Night Live, where she's impersonated Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Adele, and even Elton John. Now she's about to enter what she calls "fancy business" territory: starring in her own series, Shrill. Based on the best-selling book by Lindy West, the drama-comedy premieres on Hulu on March 15 and follows Annie, a self-proclaimed fat woman who's on a mission to love her body exactly as it is. In addition to appearing in all six episodes as the lead, Bryant is also credited as a writer and a producer. In short, she made this moment happen.

"I feel wholly changed by the entire experience," Bryant says about the series. "We made this thing top to bottom. It truly is my baby, and I'm incredibly proud of it." Being so heavily involved in all aspects of Shrill's production made Bryant realize how she likes to work. "As much as I enjoy occasionally popping in and doing a part in a friend's movie, I really like to write my own stuff," she says. "I like to be in there with it and make aesthetic choices. To find my own tone. I'm realizing, 'Oh, you've got to do it yourself if you want to have it a certain way.' And I like that."

Shrill's coproducer Ali Rushfield embraced Bryant's do-it-yourself approach. "She's a serious producer," Rushfield says. "She has a very definite point of view. I was surprised—and very into—just how much of a businesswoman she is."