Zoë Chao Had a Blast Poisoning Nazis on ‘Party Down’

There has never been a Shania Twain-themed Western event on Party Down, but Zoë Chao would like to change that. If the actress were allowed to host her own party in the cult TV show, it would be Twain-themed for her sister Maia, who occasionally goes by “Sha-Maia.” Ken Marino would wear a cowboy hat. Adam Scott would wear bright pink cowgirl boots. You get the gist.

Chao has already been given a lofty task by joining the revival of Party Down: replace Lizzy Caplan, effectively, who was too busy shooting other series to return for a new season of the 2009 Starz comedy. Though she’s not Henry (Scott)’s love interest, and her role is certainly goofier than Caplan’s sardonic Casey (who’s made it in acting when the story picks up in this new edition), she more than fills the void of the younger woman in the main cast of caterers.

Again, these are tough non-slip shoes to fill. Chao proves herself as the perfect fit not only on the show, but also in our interview—in which she can plan her dream Party Down festivities in 30 seconds flat, list out her own party etiquette, and explain why she’s in so many TV shows with the word “party” in the title. Chao even spent a handful of years working in the service industry, just like the caterers in this show. She was born to be in the Party Down cast.

“I watched the first two seasons a couple years after it came out, while I was working in the service industry. I felt a lot less alone, watching the show,” Chao says on a Zoom with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “My partner has actually watched both seasons six times. It was a big day when I got the part. I quickly went from very excited to very nervous, because I have a very intimate relationship with a dedicated fan—I did not want to mess anything up with this third season.”

In Season 3, we’re reunited with the Party Down team (sans Casey) right before the pandemic. Ron (Marino) is still leading the pink-tie forces. Everyone else is almost the exact same, except Kyle (Ryan Hansen), who’s made it big in an Avengers-esque franchise. By the end of the first episode, the pandemic strikes Los Angeles; by the start of the second, we’re in the present day, where parties have resumed; thus, Party Down is back in full force.

Now that they’re up and running again, Ron has taken it upon himself to hire a snobbish cook named Lucy Dang (Chao). When I ask Chao how she prepared to play this chef (Did she watch The Menu? No, but she wants to), she quickly cuts me off.

“She’s a food artist,” Chao corrects me, so I apologize for using the word “chef.” “It’s OK. Just don’t make the mistake again,” she says with a laugh.

Lucy is far from your average party catering chef—food artist—though she does her job in full earnest, a set of tweezers tucked between her fingers to position artful our d’oeuvres for patrons. When you hire Party Down, you’re not going to get pigs in a blanket. You’re going to get camembert cake bites, as seen in Lucy’s first episode, a birthday event hosted for bigshot actor Jack Botty (James Marsden).

Another example: In this week’s episode, Lucy makes swine butter with shaved granite and grass for a Nazi convention, but she later poisons the bite-sized snacks with laxatives. While Ron doesn’t appreciate these high-concept dishes, he admits to hiring Lucy specifically because she’s “cutting-edge.”

“I did watch a bunch of Chef’s Table to prepare for this,” Chao says. “I took notes on the utensils that were used, and how plating was done, and the different kinds of bottles, and the tweezers, and the wiping, and the way people would wear their napkins, and how they would modify their uniforms. It was really fun to play with the physicality.”

Before Party Down, Chao worked a few years as a waitress at the Chateau Marmont’s now-defunct Bar Marmont. No, she wasn’t a food artist like she is in the show. But the actress does attribute part of why she’s a good new player in the Party Down story to her days bussing tables and living the service industry life.

“Those four-and-a-half years were hard. But [they] led to every moment after,” she says. “It really informed my audition—being in a restaurant and being in the back, understanding the culture. The food industry really attracts intense people.”

And, as aforementioned, Chao is also a party expert. Before she starred in Party Down, she was in the Apple TV+ murder mystery The Afterparty, which returns for a second season on April 28. Considering she’s starring in two shows about big events, Chao has some party etiquette she’s picked up from her tenure in the genre:

• Respect a “shoes on” vs “shoes off” household.
• Bring layers to adjust to the temperature.
• Bring the host a gift.
• If you’re hosting, pick good music—and make sure the volume of those tunes fit the vibe (dancing or talking) of the soirée.

She tells me these rules with such conviction—even though I’m already taking notes, I feel the need to pin these specific words onto my wall to remember them forever.

As for all the partying, it’s a weird phenomenon to be in two similarly titled shows back-to-back, Chao agrees: “I’ve been in shows that have ‘party’ in [the title] and three things that have ‘love’ in it,” she says. “I don’t know—I’m about parties and love!”

The “love” references another trio of titles in which she’s appeared, including Almost Love, Modern Love, and HBO Max’s prematurely canceled Love Life. HBO Max canceled and removed from its catalog several original titles last year, like Minx, FBoy Island, and Genera+ion;, Love Life was a casualty as well. Luckily, both seasons are available to stream on Tubi now, after hanging in limbo.

“As long as it’s available to people, I’m cool with it,” Chao says of the show’s move. “That show and [my character] Sara Yang are very meaningful to me. It came out in the beginning of the pandemic. It was something to hold onto during a tough time. It was also a calling card that floated me during the time that we were all not working, and led to some other jobs.”

Those “other jobs” Chao is talking about are all, seemingly, premiering right now. Alongside Party Down and the new season of The Afterparty, the actress has starred in recent romantic comedies Your Place or Mine and Somebody I Used to Know. And Chao has a new sci-fi comedy premiering at SXSW in a few days, If You Were the Last, where she stars as a stranded astronaut opposite Marvel star Anthony Mackie.

People recognize Chao in public now, she says, but she’s not exactly the celebrity DeuxMoi is posting “spotted” sightings about. Still, just the other day, someone screamed on an airplane after they saw Chao’s face. (That fan later asked for Chao’s number to hang out in New York City; while she’s friendly, she doesn’t recommend committing that violation of privacy.) Out of her bevy of supporting roles, what do fans usually recognize Chao from?

“That’s a good question—because I actually never know what people know me from,” she says. “Sometimes I can guess. They don’t necessarily articulate.” (That’s better than the irritating “Are we having fun yet?” that Adam Scott’s Henry immediately meets at every turn in Party Down.)

But thanks to her witty turn as a chef—sorry, food artist—on Party Down, maybe fans will start recognizing Chao from there. That’s what she hopes for, at least. For Chao, working on Party Down crossed off a big dream on her bucket list.

“I was more nervous going into this project than any other project I’ve been lucky enough to participate in. This show is in the canon of best comedic TV shows of all time, one could argue,” Chao says. “These actors are the titans of comedy. They’ve gone on to have these really impressive careers.”

It’s true. After the show, Scott and Megan Mullally starred in Parks and Recreation, Jane Lynch moved over to Glee, and Martin Starr worked on Silicon Valley. The list goes on. Chao’s already rising in fame, thanks to a plethora of shows and movies releasing in 2023. It seems like there’s only a matter of time before she skyrockets in fame—just like her OG Party Down team did over a decade ago.