Overcompensating (TV series)

Overcompensating is an American comedy drama television series created by Benito Skinner for Amazon Prime Video. Skinner stars as Benny, a former high-school jock and closeted college student navigating freshman year. The show is loosely based on Skinner's own college experience. The show premiered on May 15, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video.^[1]

Overcompensating
Promotional release poster
Genre	Comedy drama
Created by	Benito Skinner
Written by	Benito Skinner Scott King Mitra Jouhari Jordan Mendoza
Starring	Benito Skinner Wally Baram Mary Beth Barone Adam DiMarco Rish Shah
Composer	Alex Somers
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Benito Skinner Jonah Hill Matt Dines Ali Goodwin Scott King Joshua Bachove Alli Reich Daniel Gray Longino Charli XCX
Producers	Jordan Mendoza Pat Regan Natalie Teter
Running time	33-37 minutes
Production companies	The Ladies Auxiliary Benny Drama Strong Baby Productions A24 Amazon MGM Studios
Original release
Network	Amazon Prime Video
Release	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15) – present

Premise

Benny, a former high school football star and valedictorian from Idaho, begins his freshman year of college at the fictional Yates University, where his sister Grace is a junior. He is closeted and masks his true identity by aping the machismo of his male peers, particularly that of Peter, Grace's jock boyfriend. On his first day on campus, Benny befriends Carmen, a freshman from New Jersey who was an outsider in high school. Together, Benny and Carmen navigate their first year of college, which includes new relationships, pledging the college's secret society, and figuring out their true selves.

Cast and characters

Main

• Benito Skinner as Benny Scanlon
• Wally Baram as Carmen Neil, Benny's best friend.
• Mary Beth Barone as Grace Scanlon, Benny's sister
• Adam DiMarco as Peter Whitney, Grace's boyfriend and part of the Flesh & Gold secret society.
• Rish Shah as Miles Hari, Benny's frat brother and love interest.

Recurring

• Holmes as Hailee Matthews, Carmen's "wild child" roommate.
• Corteon Moore as Gabe, a close friend of Peter's and fellow Flesh & Gold member.
• Owen Thiele as George
• Nell Verlaque as Emily
• Elias Azimi as Chris
• Tomaso Sanelli as Trent
• Alexandra Beaton as Bridget
• Kaia Gerber as Esther
• Carolyn Scott as Carol
• Austin Lindsay as Trey, Benny's roommate.
• Julia Shiplett as Mimi
• David Klein as Adam
• Lukas Gage as Sammy
• Charlie Henry Larsen as Dean

Guest

• Connie Britton as Kathryn Scanlon, Benny and Grace's mother.
• Kyle MacLachlan as John Scanlon, Benny and Grace's father.
• Megan Fox as a poster of herself
• Rachel Matthews as a Yates student
• Maddie Phillips as Gigi
• Didi Conn as Janet
• Danielle Perez as Michelle
• Yasmine Sahid as Courtney
• Tommy Do as Kevin
• Claire Qute as Sloan
• Boman Martinez-Reid as Paulie
• James Van Der Beek as Charlie
• Charli XCX as herself
• Caleb Hearon as CJ
• Bowen Yang as Davis
• Matt Rogers as Jared
• Andrea Martin as Yates Dean^[2]

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by [3]	Original release date
1	"Lucky"	Daniel Gray Longino	Benito Skinner	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
Two freshmen students from the opposite tracks of life form an unlikely friendship on their first day of college.
2	"Who's That Girl"	Daniel Gray Longino	Benito Skinner	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
Feeling that he's lacking in college, Benny decides to have an impromptu dorm-room party in order to establish his friend group. Meanwhile, Carmen tries to score a fake ID.
3	"Black and Yellow"	Daniel Gray Longino	Benito Skinner & Scott King	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
To avoid his feelings for Miles, Benny begins to spend extra time with Carmen. Carmen begins to struggle as the anniversary of her brother's death arrives. Grace tries to find her own identity outside of Peter.
4	"Boom Clap"	Desiree Akhavan	Mitra Jouhari	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
On the outs with each other, Benny and Carmen decide to focus their energy on getting into the university's exclusive group, Flesh and Gold, where they are subjected to extreme challenges in order to get in. Grace gets a chance to prove herself at a Charli XCX concert, but doesn't get the support she needs from Peter. Elsewhere, Peter gets a realization that his time as the big shot on campus is up.
5	"Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"	Desiree Akhavan	Benito Skinner	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
After the disastrous concert, Peter and Carmen begin to grow closer. As Halloween arrives, Benny thinks Miles is ready to be a couple, but hits a major setback. Grace tries to reconnect with a former friend.
6	"The Edge of Glory"	Desiree Akhavan	Jordan Mendoza & Benito Skinner & Scott King	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
After Benny comes out to Carmen, she decides to help him ease into gay life by setting him up on his first Grindr date. After his self-image takes a hit, Peter begins to spiral and decides to sabotage the only thing dear to him. Grace makes a discovery of her own.
7	"Welcome to the Black Parade"	Desiree Akhavan	Benito Skinner & Scott King	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
With no plans of her own, Carmen decides to tag along with Benny and Grace for an Idaho Thanksgiving that's filled with bar fights, karaoke, and facing old demons. Meanwhile, Carmen struggles with a secret she is keeping from Grace.
8	"Crown on the Ground"	Daniel Gray Longino	Benito Skinner & Scott King	May 15, 2025 (2025-05-15)
It's finals week, but the only test these students are facing is relationships. Carmen forces Benny to explain his web of lies, Peter goes to get what's his, Hailee wants to know where her performance enhancing meds are, and Miles wonders what he did wrong. Answers lead to more questions at the final Bader House party of the semester, where many shocking reveals occur.

Production

Development

In November 2022, it was announced Amazon Prime Video had put the project in development, with Benito Skinner writing and executive producing alongside Jonah Hill under his Strong Baby banner, and A24 producing.^[4] In February 2024, the series was greenlit.^[5]

Casting

Upon the initial announcement, Skinner was set to star.^[4] In July 2024, Wally Baram, Mary Beth Barone, Adam DiMarco and Rish Shah joined the cast in series regular capacity, while Holmes, Corteon Moore, Owen Thiele, and Nell Verlaque were set to recur.^[6] In September, Connie Britton, Kyle MacLachlan, Kaia Gerber, Julia Shiplett, Tommy Do, Alexandra Beaton, Claire Qute, Elias Azimi and Maddie Phillips joined the cast in undisclosed capacity.^[7] In October, Charli XCX and Tomaso Sanelli joined the cast in guest and recurring capacity, respectively.^[8][9]

Filming

Principal photography began on July 8, 2024, and wrapped on October 16, 2024.^[10] The primary filming location was Toronto, with the University of Toronto standing in for the series' Yates University.^[11]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Overcompensating has an approval rating of 93% based on 45 critics' reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "As ribald as any self-respecting campus comedy but with a disarmingly sweet core, Overcompensating has nothing to make up for as it proves creator-star Benito Skinner to be the real deal".^[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[13]

Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "It's a confident and generally funny series-creating debut for well-regarded content creator Skinner, and the cast is packed with breakout performances from lesser-known co-stars, amusing turns from more familiar stars and cameos aplenty".^[14] Emma Kiely of Collider gave the series an eight of ten, writing: "A hilarious, warm, and honest show from one of comedy's most exciting voices".^[15]

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
2025	2nd Gotham TV Awards	Breakthrough Comedy Series	Benito Skinner, Josh Bachove, Matt Dines, Sam French, Alison Goodwin, Jonah Hill, Scott King, Daniel Gray Longino, Alli Reich and Charli XCX	Nominated	[16][17]
		Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Series	Benito Skinner	Nominated