Amy Poehler’s NBC comedy pilot has added another Oscar winner.
Ellen Burstyn has been cast in a lead role in “Old Soul,” joining fellow Academy Award winner Rita Moreno in the comedy co-starring Natasha Lyonne (“Orange Is the New Black”) as Nadia, a reformed wild child who cares for the elderly.
Burstyn will play Nadia’s Aunt Eileen, “an earthy lesbian with a New Age bent” who has recently survived cancer and helps take care of her.
She joins the previously cast Moreno and Fred Willard, who will play two of Eileen’s friends in the pilot written and executive-produced by Poehler (“Parks and Recreation”).
Burstyn most recently starred in the Lifetime movie “Flowers in the Attic.”