Tyrel Jackson Williams doesn’t fault your Disney fandom, but maybe watch Party Down
When you’re 25, but have been acting since you were 8 years old, you can be both a film-industry veteran and the breakout star of a new comedy. Tyrel Jackson Williams is that unicorn in the new incarnation of Party Down.
Though he’s known to Internet Kids of the early 2010s as Leo from Disney XD’s Lab Rats, the last decade has seen the actor bounce around from Disney-adjacent movies to indie hip-hop projects, and the occasional adult-centric comedy. On Party Down, he plays Sackson, a wannabe TikTok star slinging appetizers with a crew of caterers who, once upon a time, had their own Hollywood dreams. The cast of the revival remains stacked: Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Ryan Hansen, and Martin Starr from the sitcom’s original 2009-2010 run are all back, joined in the long-awaited season 3 by heavy-hitters like Jennifer Garner, James Marsden, and The Afterparty’s Zoe Chao. Williams squeezes in, but noticeably never misses a beat, and makes what could be an eyeroll-worthy gag about superficial “kids today” into a grounded, giddy riff on the modern quest for fame.
“Sackson is not cringe,” Williams tells Polygon with a laugh. “That was a goal of mine. I feel like a lot of critique of Gen Z or modern culture is just, like, ‘It’s weird!’ But [Party Down creator John Enbom] was very much of the idea that he didn’t want the joke to just be ‘young people are strange.’ So Sackson has very clear motivations. Even if they’re not clear to the audience, they’re clear to him.”
Williams compares Sackson to Hansen’s character Kyle from the first two seasons. Twelve years ago, Kyle was, in his mind, the full package: actor, model, musician, heartthrob. He was a dolt, but he could genuinely work the screen. Sackson is sharper and
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