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Variety and PBS SoCal Announce New Season and Talent Lineup of Emmy®-Award Winning Series VARIETY STUDIO: ACTORS ON ACTORS

Fifteenth season of virtual conversations with Hollywood’s top Oscar® contenders premieres on PBS SoCal on February 18 followed by PBS stations nationwide.
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Images of some of the actors participating in the 15th Season of VARIETY STUDIO: ACTORS ON ACTORS (clockwise from upper left) include Benedict Cumberbatch. Nicole Kidman, Oscar Isaac, Regina King, Daniel Craig and Rachel Zegler. Courtesy of PBS SoCal and Variety. Download

Select programming will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the free PBS App. Members of PBS SoCal | KCET get extended access through PBS Passport.

Los Angeles, Calif. – Feb. 2, 2022 – PBS SoCal, the home of the entire PBS schedule and flagship PBS station for Southern California, announced today the episode lineup for the fifteenth season of the Emmy® Award-winning series VARIETY STUDIO: ACTORS ON ACTORS highlighting the 2021-2022 potential Academy Awards® acting categories frontrunners. Co-produced by Variety, the newest season of half-hour specials will offer audiences exclusive, one-on-one virtual conversations between some of today's most acclaimed feature film actors. All four 30-minute episodes of the new season will premiere locally in Southern California back-to-back on Fri., February 18 starting at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal. All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org following their premieres and will also be available to watch on the free PBS Video app.

VARIETY STUDIO: ACTORS ON ACTORS will be airing on PBS stations across the nation following the premiere on PBS SoCal in February, including KCET and on the WORLD Channel (check local listings). Additionally, an episode archive of past pairings dating back to the first season (2014-2015) has been published at pbssocal.org/varietyarchive. Variety’s Actors on Actors issue hit newsstands on January 26 with clips appearing on Variety.com.

The new season of the series features portions of the full conversations featured on Variety’s website here. Pairings are listed below and will air as follows (subject to change):

Fri., Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal (encores on Fri., Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. on KCET)

This episode features Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) with Jake Gyllenhaal (“The Guilty”), Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) with Rita Moreno (“West Side Story”) and Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”) with Daniel Craig (“No Time to Die”).

Fri., Feb. 18 at 8:30 p.m. on PBS SoCal (encores on Fri., Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. on KCET)

This episode features Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”) with Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) with Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) and Oscar Isaac (“The Card Counter”) with Jared Leto (“House of Gucci”).

Fri., Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. on PBS SoCal (encores on Fri., Feb. 25 at 10 p.m. on KCET)

This episode features Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick… BOOM!”) with Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”), Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”) with Regina King (“The Harder They Fall”) and Jamie Dornan (“Belfast”) with Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”).

Fri., Feb. 18 at 9:30 p.m. on PBS SoCal (encores on Fri., Feb. 25 at 10:30 p.m. on KCET)

This episode features Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos“) with Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”), Marlee Matlin (“CODA”) with Bradley Whitford (“Tick, Tick… BOOM!”) and Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”) with Bradley Cooper (“Nightmare Alley,” “Licorice Pizza”).

Join the conversation on social media by tagging @pbssocal as well as #ActorsOnActors

About Variety

Now in its 117th year, Variety is the seminal voice of the entertainment industry. Featuring award-winning breaking news reporting, insightful award-season coverage, must-read feature spotlights and intelligent analysis of the industry’s most prominent players, Variety is the trusted source for the business of global entertainment. Read by a highly engaged audience of industry insiders, Variety’s multi-platform content coverage expands across digital, mobile, social, print and branded content, events and summits. In May 2019, Variety’s “Actors on Actors” on PBS took home a Daytime Creative Arts Emmy award and has been awarded the Emmy for best entertainment programming at the 67th and 68th Los Angeles area Emmy Awards. “Actors on Actors,” an interview special that features pairings of prominent actors discussing their craft, was produced by PBS SoCal in partnership with Variety Media, LLC. Follow Variety on Facebook facebook.com/variety; Twitter, @variety; Instagram, @Variety The Variety Group – Variety, Variety.com, Variety Insight, Indiewire,– is owned by Variety Media, LLC, a division of Penske Media Corporation.

About PBS SoCal

PBS SoCal is a donor-supported community institution that is a part of Public Media Group of Southern California, the flagship PBS station formed by the merger of PBS SoCal and KCETLink Media Group. PBS SoCal delivers content and experiences that inspire, inform and entertain – over the air, online, in the community and in the classroom. We offer the full slate of beloved PBS programs including MASTERPIECE, NOVA, PBS NewsHour, FRONTLINE, Independent Lens, a broad library of documentary films including works from Ken Burns; and educational PBS KIDS programs including Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Curious George. PBS programming is available to stream on the FREE PBS App on iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Chromecast.

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